Jean Arthur, Stewart's co-star in "You Can't Take It With You" and "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," was first offered the role of Mary, but had recently dropped out of the Broadway show "Born Yesterday" from exhaustion. Capra next considered Olivia de Havilland, Martha Scott, Ann Dvorak, and Ginger Rogers before borrowing Donna Reed from MGM. Rogers turned it down because she considered it "too bland". In chapter 26 of her autobiography "Ginger: My Story", she questioned her decision by asking her readers: "Foolish, you say?"