Report: Cinderella's 50th Anniversary Royal Celebration, Discussion 3

Report: Cinderella's 50th Anniversary Royal Celebration
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Williams' thoughts then turned to the Partners statue at Disneyland, which she had viewed earlier in the day. She commented that although Walt is represented in the statue wearing a suit she never saw him wear a tie but rather a casual jacket and boat shoes. Bliss interjected that Walt made you feel like family. He knew everyone’s name even though he was the head of the studio. Bliss ended her remarks by stating that Walt had “a heart and a creative ability that no one today has ever reached.” While working with Marc Davis on the Carousel of Progress Williams asked him why the environment so was friendly at the Studio. He replied that they deal with a lot of artists who can be temperamental and if they are not happy they will just pick up their paints and go home.

Williams was also the voice of the teenage daughter and the mother in the Carousel of Progress as well as the model for the female animatronic characters.

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O'Day directed the conversation back over to John Hench who had apparently displayed a knowing expression when the topic of Walt’s raised eyebrow came up. John replied, “We saw that eyebrow quite often and you knew there was a question. He polished scenes over and over again and turned 2D into images that moved people deeply.” He added that this polishing often annoyed the financial managers as each picture became more and more expensive.

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Once again the conversation turned back to Williams as she described wearing birdcage bussels, ball gowns and feathers and prancing all about the room for the artists to study. Williams and Eleanor Audley (the voice of Lady Tremaine) were the only voice talents to also be live models. Williams explained that when it came time to recreate the scene where the stepsisters tore Cinderella’s pink dress she said they used a dressmaker’s dummy to stand in for Cinderella. They tore that dress to shreds and with such violence that the dummy was spinning and twirling.