 Iconoclastic radio personality Jean Shepherd (I) (qv) helped  John Cassavetes (qv) raise money to make the movie by having  Cassavetes on his show as one of his rare guests in February 1957.  Shepherd loaned Cassavetes his assistant Ellen Paulos to help with  the film. The thankful Cassavetes expressed his thanks in the  opening credits of the movie. A title reads: "Presented by Jean  Shepherds Night People." (The Night People were members of what the  New York Times in the late 1950s called the "cult" of Shepherd  listeners.) Shepherd also appears in a crowd sequence in the film,  smoking a cigarette. Paulos also appears in the film.