Cinderella Story

Ilene Woods, the Voice of Cinderella (1950)

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FIRST ONLINE Oct 4, 2005

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With all the fanfare that a classic animated film deserves, Disney has released a significantly restored "Cinderella" with a whole shoe-store full of extras. And to celebrate this DVD celebration, the studio created a teleconference so that members of the entertainment media could ask questions of Ilene Woods, the acting and singing voice of Cinderella, and producer Don Hahn ("The Little Mermaid," "The Lion King," "Beauty and the Beast"), who has emerged as an authority on the history of Disney animation.

Asking the questions were Steven Bryan (Suburban Journals SL), Karen Dinkins (CBS Radio), DVD Talk, Jennifer Fickley (Disney's Eyes and Ears), Shelly Gabert (FilmStew), Tim Lammers (Internet Broadcasting), Mike Mayo (Max & Mike on the Mo), Philip Morgan (Tampa Tribute), James Plath (DVD Town), Diana Sanger (Sanger Syndicate), Jennifer Smart (Family Tech Shell), and UltimateDisney.com.

Will studios ever return to hand-drawn animation? "Cinderella" was a gamble for Disney that paid off.

Hahn It's a great example. The studio was in tremendous financial straits and hadn't really made a feature in years, because of the war and a number of factors. And if you kind of take that ahead to today, of course, the animation industry is huge today, and several studios are making films. Hand-drawn animation, though, has a special place certainly in my heart, and I think in the hearts of audiences too, and when you see these things and realize they're such a hand-done art form, I think you have the same appreciation for hand-drawn animation as you do for any kind of artwork that is so human--when you actually realize that people sat down and drew these things or painted these things, it has a special feeling to it that only hand-drawn animation does. We've been through a five- to 10-year love-affair with computer graphics, and it is a brilliant tool for the artist, but I am sure that some day soon we'll come back and start seeing some beautiful hand-drawn animation--hopefully from Disney--again.

What did Woods think after coming back to "Cinderella" all these years later?

Woods: Seeing it in its new form was breathtaking for me. It really was. It's so beautiful. I mean, the color is magnificent, and it just took my breath away, it was so wonderful. I sort of forget, when I'm watching the movie, that I had anything to do with it--I really do--and yet it brings back so many beautiful memories of working with wonderful artists, and working with Walt, mostly. He came in every single day we recorded. He came in at the end of the day to check everything out. He rarely made changes, but once in a while when he did they were just major, beautiful changes. And he always had such an imagination going on. He could see pictures that we weren't seeing. He was the only true visionary I ever worked with. It was wonderful, and people were interested in knowing about him, mostly."

Hahn once said he grew up revering the old hand-drawn pre-1950 Disney films, but had added they were a product of the times. Does a film like "Cinderella" still feel dated?

Hahn: The great thing about animation is that it ages really well. You can enjoy an animated film years later, like "Cinderella," and I feel in a sense that it hasn't really aged at all. You look at the story and the characters and the mice and the cat and this beautiful girl who wants to go to the ball, and it's kind of a timeless story. Yes, there are things--some of the musical references, and some of the costumes and make-up and the way the characters may look--that may reference the Fifties when the film was made, but that's part of the romance of it as well. I think that fairy-tale Fifties is a very nostalgic, wonderful time for the audience, and there's always a place for "Cinderella," it's such a classic story" with a Fifties feel to it. "Part of that is Mary Blair, the amazing color stylist that worked with the Disney animators to create the colors and the look of the film, and of course Walt's nine old men--his animators, Marc Davis and Eric Larson and the guys that animated the characters--were just at the top of their game at that point. And since they hadn't made a feature for a while, I think they were hungry (laughs) and they were hungry to do something very, very special, and "Cinderella" was the result.

Woods: I wanted to say that Marc was in the control booth when we were recording, every single day. And even though I didn't do the actual dancing part in the filming of it for the artist, he would sit there every day and watch expressions and hand movements. And my father, when he first saw the movie, said, "I knew I was watching an animated character up there, but it was like looking at my daughter," because of the facial expressions and hand movements from Marc having sat in the control booth so many, many days.

Hahn: He was amazing.

Woods has an interesting story about how she became Cinderella. Could she share that?

Woods: I was actually doing a favor for two friends. The songwriters were in town to present songs to Walt for a movie--I didn't know which one. And I had known them in New York when I had worked in radio there as a youngster, and they came and asked me if I would record some songs for a movie, and I went into a studio with them and we did "Bibbidi, Bobbidi Boo," "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes," and "So This is Love." And I said goodbye to them, "Hope I see you in New York, let's have lunch together," and went home. Two days later I received a call saying Mr. Disney would like an audience with me (laughs) at Disney Studios, and I went over and he said, "I've listened to the songs, now we've met and we've talked, how would you like to be Cinderella?" And that's really the way I got the part. I didn't even know they were auditioning, and by that time I understand--or I was told--that they had auditioned over 300 girls. Needless to say, it was one of the biggest thrills of my life, and when I started working on the movie, and with Walt, I knew I would never meet anybody like him again.

Films like "Cinderella" really resonate with people, don't they?

Hahn: Yeah, it's a great thing about animation and why I've always wanted to work in animation since I was a kid growing up with these movies. You know, from the first time I saw "Cinderella," which was probably in the backseat of my parents' station wagon at a drive-in theater, backed-up (laughs), it does capture your heart. And that's the only way to put it. Some movies have a good story, some have interesting characters or music, but when you look at a movie like "Cinderella," it grabs your heart. And I have to say later on when we made movies like "Beauty and the Beast," we really stood on the shoulders of the guys and girls that came before us and made movies like "Cinderella" and "Snow White," because telling a fairy tale is not always easy. There's a lot of pitfalls, and people have something in their mind about what that fairy tale is. But certainly "Cinderella" is the master of them all.

What was Woods' favorite song from the film?

Woods: I loved them all . . . but I think "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes" may be my favorite. But because "Sing Sweet Nightingale" worked out so beautifully with my doing harmony with myself, I loved the sound of that!

Could she talk more about hooking up with her songwriter friends?

Woods: Yes. When I was 15 I had had a show of my own in New York three nights a week, for fifteen minutes, and I met a lot of the songwriters because they would come and present their music to myself and the conductor to be done on the air. So I met Jerry Livingston and Mac Davis there, and so when they came to California where I had moved and was working at that time to present their songs to Walt for a movie, they called me and asked me if I would go into a studio and make some recordings for them to present to Walt, and I did.

Was she nervous talking to Mr. Disney?

Woods: No, not really. I knew he was a wonderful person and I had admired him so much. "Snow White" was one of my favorite movies, and I admired him so much that I was looking forward to meeting him. But I didn't have any idea it was for the part of Cinderella (laughs).

Is she a romantic at heart and a believer of fairy tales, so that it wasn't a stretch to project herself in the role? If not, then that's another explanation, isn't it?

Woods: (Laughs) Yes, I do believe dreams come true. I really do. And I think the making of "Cinderella" was a dream come true for me. It was just fun, it was enlightening, it was wonderful, and I loved all of the songs. Magic happened. I saw magic happen before me, even though, in the song "Sing Sweet Nightingale," that was Walt's idea to sing harmony with myself, and it had never been done on film at the time, and he never took credit for it. To see his visions happen was all that was important to him. He didn't want a lot of praise, and he didn't even want the publicity that he had been the first to do that. The fact that he had done it was enough to satisfy him, and it was a beautiful scene when the soap bubbles came up and one voice sang the second-part harmony, and the next voice sang the third-part harmony and so on and so on, until we had five- or six-part harmony. And Walt turned around, when we first heard the playback, and he said, "You know, all these years I've been paying The Andrews Sisters three salaries when I could have had you for one." So that was a magic time, when that happened, because I had never heard one voice singing harmony with herself.

Did she identify with Cinderella in any way?

Woods: Yes, I think I did. I think all girls identify with her in a certain way. She was kind of spunky. She accepted life as it was and went after things she wanted. I think she was a spirited girl, and I don't think she needed the prince. She wanted to go to the ball, and that was it at the moment. The prince wanted her, not vice versa.

Did Hahn rework any of the scenes from "Cinderella," either consciously or unconsciously, for one of his own animated productions?

Hahn: A lot of the Disney animated films are about transformations and about characters that are either physically or emotionally transformed. One that comes to mind is in the garden when Cinderella runs out and is weeping. All is lost, and the fairy godmother appears and transforms her with that beautiful ball gown, which was one of Walt Disney's favorite animated scenes, I think, of all-time. And those kinds of moments certainly show up in later in movies like "Beauty and the Beast" and some of the fairy tales we've done. And the other thing, too, is just that classic romantic prince and princess dancing in the ballroom, and (laughs) we literally stole that for "Beauty and the Beast." It's such an iconic thing, and it's something that might be difficult to do in a live-action movie. In animation you can stylize it, and it was done so beautifully in "Cinderella" that we wanted to have that same emotion and that same kind of music and emotion and that same kind of music in "Beauty and the Beast," and so we really borrowed heavily from those emotions in "Cinderella" and "Snow White" and some of the Disney fairy tales.

If Ms. Woods has grandchildren, how did she let them know she was Cinderella?

Woods: Well, they're very proud of me, of course, and that makes me feel 10-feet tall. They've seen the film so many times, and they never seem to tire of it--which makes me very happy. But they're proud of me, and that means everything in the world to me, because I love children, and I love the fact that after I'm long gone, children are still going to be hearing my voice, and that's the biggest thrill to come out of the picture of all.

Could she share what she's been doing since "Cinderella"?

Woods: Well, I left the business I would say 30-some years ago because I married a wonderful man and I raised two wonderful boys, and that was my life. And I loved every minute of it. I was very happy, though, when Disney found me again and wanted me to go on tour for the release of the video, first. And so that was when I kind of came back to them. Before I did "Cinderella" and shortly after, I worked a lot in radio and television. During the war I did many many tours for the servicemen and sang in Army camps and Army hospitals and Navy affairs, and I did a lot for soldiers and sailors during the war by performing for them in hospitals and at their . . . . Isn't that funny? It really gets to me, because it was a time when I felt very important doing those things, because it meant everything to me. But mostly my work has been in radio and television many years ago, and (laughs) you probably are too young to remember any of the things I did. But this was the only voiceover I ever did, and I certainly picked a good one, I think.

The DVD is a treasure. What does it mean to you to have it preserved like this?

Hahn: It may be an overused word to say it's a treasure or a classic, but they really are. These are films--"Cinderella" in particular--that have stood the test of time. You can put it in today and really enjoy it with your family as much as any time. I think to look at "Cinderella" and the artistic accomplishment, there's a great paradox in animation where you spend millions of dollars and employ hundreds of people and your goal is to have the audience not see the hand of the artist. And it's ironic, because they work so hard to get the characters to be alive and to have you believe in the flesh and blood of the characters--whether it's a stepmother or a mouse or a cat or whoever--and all that effort is meant to be transparent. It's like a magician who doesn't want you to see the trick. And I think that kind of artistic treasure is wonderful, and it's a little bit of what a disc like this shows you: a little peek behind the curtain so you can see some of the magician's tricks. You can hear some of the stories and get a sense of what it must have been like to work on such an artistic achievement.

It's interesting, because Walt had an ear for music. Ilene and I were talking briefly before the call about what a great, pitch-perfect voice she has, because on the disc you can hear some of her radio performances and some of her television performances with Perry Como and that kind of thing. And in an era where there were only live performances and you couldn't go in and do multi-track edits that you can do today, her pitch was so beautiful and so right-on it was a real testament--not only to Ilene, but to Walt and his artists--that they really appreciated and knew that it was something that was rare.

Woods: Well, I loved live television in those days, because I made a boo-boo in the song, as you probably heard, with Perry, and we made a fun thing out of it. (Laughs) I was embarrassed when it happened, but I was happy it had happened after, because Perry made such a fun thing out of it. And of course Perry Como held my hand for the rest of the show (laughs), which was just lovely.

Hahn: (Laughs) You can't beat that.

Could they talk about how "Cinderella" influeced other Disney films and other Disney princesses?

Hahn: Well, it's certainly a movie we all grew up with and looked at a lot. It's funny. We're working on a movie right now called "Rapunzel," and Glen Keane, one of our top animators who animated the Beast in "Beauty and the Beast" and Tarzan and Ariel in "The Little Mermaid" . . . . There's only been six movies that have been Disney fairy tales with a character in the title--"Snow White," "Cinderella," "Sleeping Beauty"--so we obviously go back and look at those, and look at how those characters tell their stories. They're very precious stories, so we don't want to mess them up too much. And yet the key characters and the influences that a movie like "Cinderella" has on us, they're pretty profound. They're not only great stories, which is important to us, but they're great pieces of art. And the technique that those guys used, under tremendous financial pressures at the time, is still pretty lasting, and so that's the kind of thing that can be really inspiring to us when we're making movies right now.

Woods: I love the fact that so many women will come up to me and say, "I had a Cinderella wedding," or "Oh, I just love Cinderella, I love her spirit and I love her so very much." Other girls will come up to me and say, "I had my whole bedroom decorated in Cinderella colors," and it just thrills me that the women, mostly, will come up to me and say how much they loved the character.

Could Ms. Woods talk about laying down voice tracks? Were there other actors she could react to?

Woods: No, there were no other actors. I think I'm going to let Don answer this, because I'm not quite sure what you're asking. We worked with discs in those days.

Hahn: Yeah, it's not unusual to record actors and actresses alone, because then the animators and director can really focus on that individual performance. It's very rare, in fact, that we get two people on stage together opposite each other, so it's likely we record alone. Back then, the technique would be to run two pieces of film. We ran a piece of magnetic film that would capture the audio performance on tape, and we also ran what looked like a big LP album that had a needle on it. They actually cut the album live while you were running the take. And the only reason I know this is that when I started in 1976, that machine was still in the studio in the very same room that Ilene recorded in. And then the director, or Walt Disney, could take that disc, that LP album, into his office and play drop-the-needle and listen to different takes, different approaches, and different cues of the recording session to select the ones that would finally go on the reel.

So Disney made the final selection?

Hahn: Yeah. There were three directors on the film, and they certainly would have gone through and worked with the talent and the animators to make a preliminary pick, but you can believe that Walt Disney was all over this film. It was not only a comeback film after the war years for the studio, but it also represents something that Walt really loved, which was fairy tales and fantasy. It was a very important movie, and I would be sure he'd be all over the voices recording.

Woods: You know, Don, when he came in the end of recording every day, the other three directors would be arguing it should be this way, it should be that way, I like it that way better, and Walt would come in and sit down and he would play the take. And he would make one suggestion (laughs) and we would do it his way. And it would always be right. Always. It was so funny, because I said to him one day, "You should come in at the beginning of the day, Mr. Disney, and you'd save the studio a lot of money."

Hahn: (Laughs) You know, he never wanted to, and a lot of times, I understand, he didn't even want to look at the voice talent, because he just wanted to hear the voice. And so he would come in consciously at the end of the day, because if you're there all day your ear gets worn down, and you've heard a lot of the session. But if you come in fresh at the end of the day you have a better instinct, and of course his instincts were amazing.

Woods: You're right, because he never looked up when he was listening. He always sat with his head in his hands, looking down.

Hahn: Interesting, interesting.

The DVD includes a feature that shows false starts. How often do Disney films end up going a different direction during production?

Hahn: All the time. I think sometimes people feel, Oh, it's Disney Studios and they must have this wonderful gift for putting things down perfectly on a piece of paper, and it's just not true (laughs). I think we work at it harder than anybody, and there's a lot of failures along the way. What's interesting about the "Cinderella" disc is you can see some of those--some song moments or story ideas that didn't make it to the screen--and there's a lot of songs that were written, all of which are on the disc that never made it into the movie. That was certainly the case with "Beauty and the Beast." Howard Ashman, Alan Mencken wrote some songs that didn't make it to the screen. "Aladdin" probably had five songs that never made it to the screen, and Aladdin had a mother and a whole other subplot that never made it. I think part of the challenge of animation and part of the legacy of Walt Disney is he never settled. He never settled for an idea that wasn't quite right or didn't quite connect. He would always push to get the best possible solution, and sometimes that meant throwing things overboard, and sometimes that meant not using songs even though they were great. And so that is kind of a legacy, if not a tradition at the Disney studios, of having songs and moments and sequences that didn't quite make it into the movie.

And we can see evidence of that in Disney films thus far?

Hahn: Absolutely. Literally every one. "The Lion King" . . . "Mary Poppins" had dozens of songs that the Sherman brothers wrote that didn't make it into the movie, and a couple of them even made it into "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" a few years later, so you see that as part of the process. And I think that's something that's very Disney, and makes the movies as good as they are.

How much time did Ms. Woods spend recording the voice of Cinderella. Did it take as long as it does to record voices today?

Woods: Oh, it took a lot longer. I worked off and on on the movie for two and a half years, so they make movies much faster today. But we spent a lot of time working on "Cinderella."

What are some of the challenges bringing a classic film to DVD?

Hahn: I think we wanted to do justice to the original movie, so that the first challenge was to go back to the film itself and clean it up and make it as beautiful as we could, and then the other challenge is we want to make sure that once you put the DVD in your player at home that you get not only the movie, but you get all the great history and back story to it all in the most interesting way possible. We have producers and people at the studio who really go into depth and try to find things in our archives--sketches and drawings and songs and stories--that probably have never seen the light of day since the movie originally was made, and to find old interviews with some of the animators like Frank Thomas and Eric Larson and Woolie Reitherman that worked on the movie and try to get them on the screen. So when you see the movie, you also get the back story and get to hear the voices and the accounts of really some of the amazing artists to work on it. Some of the most amazing artists of the 20th century were animators, I believe, and I really feel like you get to see their best work in "Cinderella."

Mr. Hahn and Glen Keane and John Musker are the torchbearers from the nine old men. Are they working with a new group of animators in order to pass on the traditions?

Hahn: Yeah, you'd be surprised. Animation is alive and well, and you can see it not only in the animation industry, but you see it in live-action movies--whether it be "Lord of the Rings," or "Star Wars," or "King Kong"--there's so much animation in movies now. Or great movies like "Corpse Bride" that just came out last week. So there's a really big surge in the animation industry now, and I think part of what I want to do and certainly Glen and John and Andreas and a lot of the people you mentioned and you actually see on the "Cinderella" disc is to kind of share some of our influences and point back to these men and women who created "Cinderella." We were fortunate to have really great films under our belt in our generation, but you must believe in every way that we learned that from Walt Disney's generation.

One of my first jobs at the studio was working with Eric Larson, who was one of the lead animators on Cinderella's character, and, with Woolie Reitherman, who animated that great sequence of the mice sneaking the key up that tall, tall stairway up to Cinderella's room until Lucifer the cat puts the bowl on top of itâ€"and I was Woolie's assistant director. And I felt like, Oh my god, I'm just this kid out of school and I have this chance to work with these really great guys, and they certainly taught me a lot about animation and the passion for the art of animation, and that's something we definitely want to pass on, and are trying to pass on. That's why discs like "Beauty and the Beast" become not only entertainment, but also a great study for people interested in animation.

Does he have any advice for young people wanting a career in animation?

Hahn: Maybe two things. One would be versatility. Drawing is always going to be the most important thing, but also learn your computer graphics and other tools. Computers don't do anything. They're dumb machines on a disk. An artist actually moves them around and makes things with them, so the versatility of using a pencil or paintbrush or a computer is really important. And secondly, I would encourage people to bring their life experiences to their work. A lot of times students copy other people's cartoons. They don't really bring their life experiences in. When you look at Eric Larson or Marc Davis or John Lounsbery or some of these animators that worked on "Cinderella," they were architects, and Woolie was a fighter pilot in the war, and Frank [Thomas] played piano, and Ollie [Johnston] had a locomotive in his backyard, and they had these bigger-than-life interests. And they brought all that into the studio every day, and that's what made the movie so alive and so real, and that's something that's really important for somebody starting out.

A new generation may be seeing "Cinderella for the first time. How does Ms. Woods think generations have perceived the film?

Woods: I think it's always along the same line. I think children, particularly, they believe what they saw. They believe in Cinderella. They believe in the little characters. And the questions they ask me are hilarious. And they're looking at an older person, talking to me like I'm still Cinderella to them. It's the biggest thrill in the world. They ask me about Bruno and they tell me how much they hate Lucifer, and I've heard these stories so many times, and I still sit in wonder at these little faces looking at me that I'm Cinderella and that I'm going to answer the question for them.

What's most amazing is that animators can consistently turn out such a quality product.

Hahn: It's interesting because it's a medium of caricatures, so you're not dealing with reality, you're dealing with a caricature of reality. In the same movie, for example, you can have a character like Cinderella which is the classic princess, but you can also have Lucifer and the mice, which are very cartoony characters, and they kind of coexist. And I always feel that in animation you can go somewhere emotionally that maybe you can't in live-action. It might feel a little Saccharine or sweet in live-action, whereas in animation there's a sincerity to it that is kind of germane to the art-form. Eric Larson used to say the secret of Disney animation was all in the word "sincerity." (Laughs) It reminds me of the old Groucho Marx quote: If you can fake that, you've got it made. It's really about getting the sincerity in the movie and trying to make it plausible and real and understandable to the audience. And because it's a medium of caricature you can do that in broader strokes. You can have an evil stepmother, and a handsome prince, and they're more primary colors--broader emotional strokes.

I think the other interesting thing is that the animators do go to great lengths to caricature like Ilene in the recording booth and draw her gestures, and those even make it into characters like the cat. Or I always think of Mrs. Potts, the teapot in "Beauty and the Beast." It's Angela Lansbury's voice, but she was just a hopping head, if you think about it. She had no arms or legs. It was just a face, and she had a teapot spout for a nose. I've had people come up to me and say, "Oh, that was exactly Angela Lansbury." Well, it wasn't, but the ability to caricature that voice, or in the case of the characters in "Cinderella," to caricature those voices into a footman, coachman, a horse and a dog--whatever--is really the secret behind animation, and the best animators know how to do that really well.

Could he discuss the split in Disney over computers versus hand-drawn animation?

Hahn: Sure. I think in the arts in general, and certainly in animation, the rule is you can use any tool you need to use to get an effect on the screen. So in the case of "Cinderella," they did shoot a lot of live-action to help get that movie to life. But the truth is, we shot a lot of it on "Beauty and the Beast," and we shot a ton of it on "Pocahontas," and we shot a lot of it on "Atlantis," and Walt Disney shot live-action for "Snow White." Most of the reason for doing that is plausibility. You want the audience to completely believe that the character of Cinderella, in particular, is flesh and blood, so you want to really capture the movement. It also helps the animators study things like fabric and the skirt spinning around and the way the costume works, and helps them sketch and get that.

But it's only a tool. It's the research that goes into the performance. So whether it's live-action, or whether it's a computer, or whether it's pencil and paintbrush, they're all tools for the animator. And we have great animators now who use computers to create their craft, and they are as proficient and as great as some of the animators from Walt Disney's era, but it all goes back to are they great actors, can they move you with their drawings or with their images on the screen. There's a great old saying, "Great animators don't just move drawings. They move people." Meaning their job is to move you emotionally, and not just move the character around the screen.

It's no different really than a word processor. You have people who write their novel on legal pads, and the book still comes out as well as if they'd written it on a G-5 or something. It's really your comfort level in how you express yourself. Some people paint in watercolors, some in oils. It doesn't matter. It's what your form of expression is. That's why I can really appreciate a movie like "Corpse Bride" that's all puppet animation, or there's a Nick Park movie coming out that's all clay animation. Hand-drawn animation, computer graphics, they're all forms of expression, and certainly when you look at "Cinderella" it's got to be at the apex of traditional hand-drawn animation, in terms of the tools that those guys used to make that movie.

Does he really believe the studio will return to hand-drawn animation?

Hahn: Yeah, I honestly do. In fact, I'm working on one right now.

What sets "Cinderella" apart from other fairy tales that Disney has brought to the big screen?

Hahn: Well, there were only so many really classic fairy tale stories--certainly Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast. I think for some reason, everyone appreciates that underdog story of Cinderella. Snow White wasn't exactly an underdog. Belle wasn't an underdog, she was bookish and she fell in love with the beast through a really unusual circumstance. But Cinderella was really kept down and kept in a cellar and kept on her hands and knees scrubbing the floor. And I think as an audience, we really relate to that, because we've all been in that place--we've all been in a place where we saw no way out, and no possibility that our dreams would come true. In fact, there's a whole segment on the disc of Cinderella stories--whether it's sports teams, Lance Armstrong, or whoever--characters who've had these great Cinderella stories in their lives, and I think that's why it is really one of the greatest fairy tale stories, and why it's existed so long.

Woods: I think that I have to correct you on one thing, though. Cinderella never lost her spirit, and she always knew, I think, deep down inside--this is the way I played her--that there was always a chance. There was always something wonderful that was going to happen. That's what kept her spirit up . . . .

Hahn: Yeah, good point.

Woods: And I think that's what the young women loved about her so much. In the face of all that tragedy, she was a happy, spirited girl (laughs).

Ms. Woods got emotional when she was talking about the war. Entertainment gives people an escape from their troubles. Did that influence how she played Cinderella?

Woods: That's a tough one to answer. I think you take things from life. I had a very stern mother, and I think at times there was a comparison. I lived most of my young life her way, and actually I was interested in being a teacher. I was not interested in going into show business. But I'm very happy because of all the wonderful things I did. I sang for President Roosevelt at his Hyde Park home, I sang for President Truman at the White House because of the work I had done for the soldiers and sailors during the war. I had a wonderful life in the business, but it was not difficult for me to leave it when I was married and had my two boys, because that was a very happy time of my life. And I had had a wonderful career. I started at 15 years old in New York with my own show three nights a week on ABC, and so I had been in the business for a long time. I was ready to leave it, I think.

And she taught school in the Florida Keys? What grade?

Woods: Third grade. (Laughs) And I learned with them. It was a wonderful time. I was only down there for two years, and then I came back to do The Arthur Godfrey Show on radio. It was a wonderful two years. My dream had finally come true in that area.

Finally, what was Ms. Woods favorite part of "Cinderella"?

Woods: Oh, I think maybe like Mr. Disney. His favorite part of all the movies he had ever done was Cinderella getting her dress. And I think that was my favorite scene too, because it was a happy time. Cinderella had finally come through all of her troubles, and she was going to the ball in a beautiful gown. And I think that was the happiest time in the movie, and I think that scene would be my favorite.

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