Hack had long dreamed of writing a rip-off of Howard Hawks’ 1934 screwball comedy Twentieth Century in which down-at-heel producer Oscar Jaffe (played by John Barrymore) must regain the affections of his estranged protégé (Carole Lombard) to tear her away from movie stardom and bring her back under his control, professional and otherwise. The plot takes place aboard the Twentieth Century Limited, the then-famous nonstop train from New York to Chicago, and it was hilarious from start to finish.
Hack’s problem was that he wanted to update the character of Lily Garland to modern times, but couldn’t think of an actress to model her after until he went through one of his frequent blackout drunks in which he had a graphically disturbing sex dream featuring Beverly Hillbillies star Nancy Kulp. When he awoke days later in a Barstow jail cell, he finally had the key to the story.