According to Hope biographer Raymond Strait, the project which became "Road to Singapore" was first offered to Fred MacMurray and Jack Oakie (under the working title of "Road to Mandalay"), and after they declined, to George Burns and Gracie Allen (as "Beach of Dreams"), with a second male lead to be determined. They also declined. (Burns is quoted as saying that Gracie "thought the whole thing was silly.") At this point, Paramount decided to pair Crosby with Hope, taking advantage of their friendly feud on their radio shows, and to take advantage of the screen popularity of Lamour, who had already made several lucrative pictures with a "South Seas" theme. Crosby and Hope had recently appeared live together at Del Mar (Crosby's racetrack) beforehand, amazing onlookers with how smoothly they worked together, but their audience didn't realize that they'd briefly performed together on the vaudeville stage years earlier, getting a few routines down pat.