Cinderella has made her grand entrance as a DVDebutante, but it's not the overworked, tired-looking Cinderella we know. With the magic words "Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo," and lots of restoration work, Disney's movie magicians (and perhaps some of her mouse and bird friends) have polished the studio's 1950 gem to a shine for its recent DVD release, which also comes with a coach-full of lovely accessories. Participating in the bonus materials, and also helping beat the drum for its digital debut, is the then-teenage girl who furnished the speaking and singing voice of the classic fairy tale character, Ilene Woods.
Woods was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the daughter of "a backstage mom" who was responsible for Ilene getting her show biz start on the stage — at age two! At 14, during a vacation in New York City, she received an offer to topline her own radio show once she became available at the end of that school year The Ilene Woods Show, a three-nights-a-week, 15-minute musical series, soon started its run on the NBC Blue Network with the teenager as its star Radio work in Chicago preceded a move to California, her first and only on-screen movie role (On Stage Everybody with Jack Oakie, 1945) and a stint on the Jack Carson-starring radio series Sealtest Village Store — the latter proving a doorway of opportunity for the future Disney voice artist (now also known as Ilene Woods-Shaughnessy).
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