Fifty-five years ago, there were just two Disney princesses. Snow White and Cinderella had each captured audience's hearts and asserted the animated feature as a significant art form. Then came Sleeping Beauty, which Disney and his studio had been considering for film treatment for many years.
What helped move the project from development to production was the discovery of Mary Costa singing around the piano at a dinner party.
Mary Costa appears in front of a bank of colorful concept art. Costa voiced Princess Aurora in Disney's 1959 animated classic "Sleeping Beauty."
Singing had already brought Costa success at the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music, on Edgar Bergen's radio show with Charlie McCarthy, in commercials, and in UCLA concerts with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. But being picked by Walt Disney himself to play Princess Aurora would secure the 22-year-old Costa a place in cinema history. Though Costa would go on to a long and successful career as an opera singer of international renown, perhaps her biggest claim to fame has remained her vocal performance as the radiant songstress friendly to forest creatures.
[...]
