Frances Marion wrote parts for Marie Dressler after she discovered Ms. Dressler down on her luck and ready to accept a housekeeping job. The novel, "Molly, Bless Her", the basis of this film, was Marion's view of what might have happened if Dressler had accepted a job as housemaid.
In the English dub of Pokémon (1997), the voices of James and his father were partially inspired by this movie. Here, a kid named James is the sensitive son of a moody rich guy played by Monty Woolley who also stars in a movie called Holy Matrimony (1943). In the dub of Pokémon, the first appearance of James's father is in an episode called Holy Matrimony (Gardie and Kojiro (1998)). James's father's dubbed voice sounds like Monty Woolley, and both James and his father have the mid-Atlantic accent that you hear in old movies.
The trope of entertainers becoming domestic staff was seen as recently as the character "Charles Carson" the butler, played by Jim Carter, in Downton Abbey. Carson had been a music hall performer.