[4] Actor Charles Ray had risen to fame in the mid to late 1910s playing young, wholesome fun country bumpkins in silent comedy films directed by Thomas H. Ince for Paramount Pictures.

[5][7] Against the advice of producers and friends, Ray chose to make a historical epic costume drama based on Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's 1858 narrative poem The Courtship of Miles Standish.

[8] After failing to secure financial backing from a major studio, Ray put up $500,000 of his own money to fund the project.

[10] On one of the studio's sound stages, Ray had a 180-ton rocking replica of the Mayflower built that cost a reported $65,000 (approximately $1,162,000 today).

"[17] The film was a box office failure, losing $1 million and effectively ruining Charles Ray's career.