Editing Bringing Up Baby (section)

===Development and writing===
[[File:Hawks portrait crop.png|thumb|upright=0.7|left|Director [[Howard Hawks]] began working on the film after plans to adapt ''[[Gunga Din]]'' were delayed.]]
In March 1937, Howard Hawks signed a contract at RKO for an adaptation of [[Rudyard Kipling]]'s ''[[Gunga Din]]'', which had been in pre-production since the previous fall. When RKO was unable to borrow [[Clark Gable]], [[Spencer Tracy]] and [[Franchot Tone]] from [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer]] for the film and the adaptation of ''Gunga Din'' was delayed, Hawks began looking for a new project. In April 1937, he read a short story by [[Hagar Wilde]] in ''Collier's'' magazine called "Bringing Up Baby" and immediately wanted to make a film from it,{{sfn|Mast|1988|p=4}} remembering that it made him laugh out loud.{{sfn|Eliot|2004|p=175}} RKO bought the screen rights in June{{sfn|Mast|1988|p=5}} for $1,004, and Hawks worked briefly with Wilde on the film's treatment.{{sfn|McCarthy|1997|p=246}} Wilde's short story differed significantly from the film: David and Susan are engaged, he is not a scientist and there is no dinosaur, intercostal clavicle or museum. However, Susan gets a pet panther from her brother Mark to give to their Aunt Elizabeth; David and Susan must capture the panther in the Connecticut wilderness with the help of Baby's favorite song, "I Can't Give You Anything but Love, Baby".{{sfn|Mast|1988|p=5}}

Hawks then hired screenwriter [[Dudley Nichols]], best known for his work with director [[John Ford]], for the script. Wilde would develop the characters and comedic elements of the script, while Nichols would take care of the story and structure. Hawks worked with the two writers during summer 1937, and they came up with a 202-page script.{{sfn|McCarthy|1997|p=247}} Wilde and Nichols wrote several drafts together, beginning a romantic relationship and co-authoring the [[Fred Astaire]] and [[Ginger Rogers]] film ''[[Carefree (film)|Carefree]]'' a few months later.{{sfn|Mast|1988|p=5}} The ''Bringing Up Baby'' script underwent several changes, and at one point there was an elaborate pie fight, inspired by [[Mack Sennett]] films. Major Applegate had an assistant and food taster named Ali (which was intended to be played by [[Mischa Auer]]), but this character was replaced with Aloysius Gogarty. The script's final draft had several scenes in the middle of the film in which David and Susan declare their love for each other which Hawks cut  during production.{{sfn|Mast|1988|p=6}}

Nichols was instructed to write the film for Hepburn, with whom he had worked on John Ford's ''[[Mary of Scotland (film)|Mary of Scotland]]'' (1936).{{sfn|Leaming|1995|p=348}} Barbara Leaming alleged that Ford had an affair with Hepburn, and claims that many of the characteristics of Susan and David were based on Hepburn and Ford.{{sfn|Leaming|1995|pp=348–349}} Nichols was in touch with Ford during the screenwriting, and the film included such members of the [[John Ford Stock Company]] as [[Ward Bond]], [[Barry Fitzgerald]], [[D'Arcy Corrigan]] and associate producer [[Cliff Reid]].{{sfn|Leaming|1995|pp=348–9}} John Ford was a friend of Hawks, and visited the set. The round glasses Grant wears in the film are reminiscent of Harold Lloyd and of Ford.{{sfn|Leaming|1995|p=349}}

Filming was scheduled to begin on September 1, 1937 and wrap on October 31, but was delayed for several reasons. Production had to wait until mid-September to clear the rights for "I Can't Give You Anything but Love, Baby" for $1,000. In August, Hawks hired gag writers [[Robert A. McGowan|Robert McGowan]] and [[Gertrude Purcell]]{{sfn|Mast|1988|p=29}} for uncredited script rewrites, and McGowan added a scene inspired by the comic strip ''[[Harold Knerr#Dinglehoofer und His Dog Adolph|Professor Dinglehoofer and his Dog]]'' in which a dog buries a rare dinosaur bone.{{sfn|Mast|1988|p=6}} RKO paid [[King Features]] $1,000 to use the idea for the film on September 21.{{sfn|Mast|1988|p=7}}

====Unscripted ad-lib by Grant====
It has been debated whether ''Bringing Up Baby'' is the first fictional work (apart from [[pornography]]) to use the word ''[[gay]]'' in a [[homosexual]] context.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www2.lib.virginia.edu/exhibits/censored/film.html |title=Censored Films and Television at University of Virginia online |publisher=University of Virginia Library |access-date=March 9, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111003143835/http://www2.lib.virginia.edu/exhibits/censored/film.html |archive-date=October 3, 2011 |url-status=dead |df=mdy-all }}</ref>{{sfn|Boswell|2009|p=43}} In one scene, Cary Grant's character is wearing a woman's [[Marabou (fashion)|marabou]]-trimmed [[négligée]]; when asked why, he replies exasperatedly "Because I just went gay all of a sudden!" (leaping into the air at the word ''gay''). As the term ''gay'' was not widely familiar to the general public until the [[Stonewall riots]] in 1969,{{sfn|Russo|1987|p=47}} it is questioned whether the word is used by Grant in its original sense (meaning "happy")<ref name="Gay">{{cite web |url=http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=gay |last=Harper |first=Douglas |author-link=Douglas Harper |title=Gay |work=Online Etymology dictionary |date=2001–2013 }}</ref> or is an intentional, joking reference to homosexuality.<ref name="Gay"/>

The line in the film was an [[Ad libitum|ad-lib]] by Grant, and was not in the script.{{sfn|Mast|1988|p=8}} According to [[Vito Russo]] in ''[[The Celluloid Closet (book)|The Celluloid Closet]]'' (1981, revised 1987), the script originally had Grant's character say "I...I suppose you think it's odd, my wearing this. I realize it looks odd...I don't usually...I mean, I don't own one of these". Russo suggests that this indicates that people in [[Hollywood (film industry)|Hollywood]] (at least in Grant's circles) were familiar with the slang connotations of the word; however, there is no record that Grant or anyone involved with the film ever discussed the matter publicly.{{sfn|Russo|1987|p=47}}

The 1933 film ''[[My Weakness (film)|My Weakness]]'' had previously used the word "gay" as an overt descriptor of homosexuality; one of two men pining away for the same woman suddenly suggests a solution to their mutual problem: "Let's be gay!"  However, the [[Studio Relations Committee]] censors decreed that the line was too risqué and had to be muffled.<ref>Vieira, Mark A., Sin in Soft Focus: Pre-Code Hollywood, Abrams, 1999, pg. 133</ref>  The film ''[[This Side of Heaven]]'' (1934) included a scene in which a fussy, gossipy interior decorator tries to sell a floral fabric pattern to a customer, who knowingly replies, "It strikes me as a bit too gay."<ref>Vieira, Mark A., Sin in Soft Focus: Pre-Code Hollywood, Abrams, 1999, pg. 168</ref>