Mary Costa: Disney Princess

On this day in 1959, Sleeping Beauty was released to theatres. It was something of a sleeper hit—nobody could argue how visually stunning it was, but it didn’t gain critical acclaim until well after its release.

Today, we’re talking about Mary Costa, the voice of Princess Aurora. 

gif by me

As soon as Cinderella became a box office hit, Walt Disney began plans for the studio’s follow-up: Sleeping Beauty. This was 1950…Sleeping Beauty didn’t premiere until 1959. A whole post could be written just about that aspect of making the film, but suffice it to say, for our purposes today, that Walt rejected the completed storyboard in 1952, the film was rewritten and then delayed, then delayed again because of Disneyland, then finally just…made.

By the time Mary Costa was cast in 1952, Walt had been looking for an ethereal voice for Princess Aurora for three years. And it was pure luck and timing that led to her auditioning: she was at a dinner party, singing at the piano when Walter Schumann, the film’s composer at the time, heard her and asked her to audition the following day.

via dailyflicks

“He said ‘I don’t want to shock you, but could you audition tomorrow at 10 o’clock for Walt Disney Studios?’, and I said ‘Could I?!’” Mary recalled in 2008 on The Paul O’Grady Show.

In another 2008 interview with DVD Izzy, Mary revealed that her audition included bird calling. She said, “When I went into my audition and met [composer] George Burns, he was trying to relax me before we started recording. He said, ‘Do you do bird calls?’ And I said, ‘Well, if you have another bird here, maybe I do.’”

She did the bird calling and Burns loved it so much, they recorded it then and there. “It gives me chills down my back.”

But despite her beautiful singing voice, Mary almost didn’t book the role: she had a strong Southern accent and had to prove that she could mimic a British accent before she was cast. Walt Disney himself called her up hours after her audition to formally offer her the role.

And once she was cast, she took a hands-on approach to recording, at Walt Disney’s request. In an interview with Addicted to TV in 2008, she said that Walt made a request of her. “I want you to know that character so well, I want you to have so many pictures in your head, I want you to know how she feels about the animals, how she feels about living in the forest.” In short, he wanted Mary so familiar with Aurora that when it came time to record her vocals, “I want you to paint with your voice.”

This included working closely with Bill Shirley, the voice and partial live action model for Prince Philip. The two recorded a second audition together to ensure that their vocals sounded good together; and once they were cast, would continue to record lines together so the animators could gain inspiration—they even kissed like their characters would, so animators could hear it in their voices.

via movie-gifs

It took Mary three years to record her lines for Aurora, which is…something…when you consider that Aurora only has 18 lines and two songs in the film.

Like Adriana Caselotti and Ilene Woods before her, Mary Costa only provided the vocal recordings for her character. Marge Champion was the live action reference model for Snow White; and Helene Stanley was Aurora’s and Cinderella’s model. But that didn’t stop Marc Davis—Aurora’s animator—from borrowing from Mary.

Mary told DVDizzy that Davis would come in and sketch while she recorded her lines, and that she was known for talking with her hands. She explained, “I never could sing or do a line without using my hands so I see a lot of myself in that film. I truly do.”

When she took her mother to a screening of the film when she was in her late 80s, and watching Aurora on screen led her mother to yell out: “Oh, Mary! That looks just like you!”

via movie-gifs

Sleeping Beauty ends with Aurora and Philip dancing on a cloud into their happily ever after while the colour of her gown changes—pink, blue, pink, blue—due to the fairy godmothers fighting over its colour (which mimicked the animators arguing over what colour the dress should be). Mary had an opinion on which dress she preferred, telling DVDizzy that “I lean towards the pink. But when I say that, I get sorrowful because I love the blue too!”

For what it’s worth, when Disney markets Aurora as part of the Disney Princess line, her dress is pink, with the reason being that as the film ends and the book closes, pink is the final colour of the dress we see.

To help market the film, Sleeping Beauty had the fortune of Disneyland having recently opened and its castle being Sleeping Beauty’s Castle. Mary and Bill also performed at a special Disney-themed night at the Hollywood Bowl in 1958 to promote the film.

But despite the promotion and the decade of work perfecting the film, when Sleeping Beauty premiered, it wasn’t a hit. And its poor reception led to animation taking the backburner at Walt Disney Studios. The next Disney Princess film wouldn’t arrive for 30 more years, with The Little Mermaid in 1989, which is now credited as the first film of the Disney Renaissance.

To the critics who believed Aurora to be a passive princess, Mary said: “I feel that she is a very, very strong character. She has been put with godmothers who are very colorful and you know they have talked to her about many things. She plays with all the animals and has a vivid imagination, dreaming of a prince.

“I think she is a beautiful personification of femininity. She's very strong—she absolutely wanted to come back into the cottage and tell them that she had found the love of her life and that she was going to go with him. So it's a very layered character. I love all of the princesses, I think they're all different, and if I had to choose, I would choose her.”

via mrbrookedavis

After Sleeping Beauty, Mary transitioned to a career in opera, performing soprano in 44 operatic productions through the rest of her career. She was personally selected by Jacqueline Kennedy to perform at a memorial service for the late President John F. Kennedy in 1963. Mary said that her work ethic came from her time recording for Sleeping Beauty, noting that Walt had taught her ‘dedication, determination and discipline’ to achieve her goals.

In her retirement, Mary worked with children, touring schools to give lectures and working with survivors of abuse.

In 1989, Mary sued Walt Disney Studios due to home videos being produced of Sleeping Beauty. At the time, Peggy Lee, who voiced multiple characters in Lady and the Tramp had sued Disney for the same issue; Ilene Woods, the voice of Cinderella, would do so in 1990.

After Peggy Lee’s suit was a success, Mary’s also resulted in financial compensation, although the amount has never been publicly revealed. Ten years later, in 1999, she would be named a Disney Legend—a hall of fame honour—for her contributions to the legacy of animated film through Princess Aurora.

via stydixa

Mary only voiced Aurora in the film, and there have seen been two voice actresses playing the role: Jennifer Hale from 2001 to 2010; and Kate Higgins, who’s voiced Aurora since 2010. Sleeping Beauty was the first Disney Princess to get the live action remake, in 2014’s Maleficent. The story is told from the point of view of Maleficent (played by Angelina Jolie), with Aurora played by Elle Fanning as a young woman and Janet McTeer narrating the film as an older Aurora.

Mary is still alive, still glamorous at the age of 94, all but retired. In 2020, she released an open letter saying that she would no longer be responding to fan mail; but one thing has been a constant since 1959: she’s still grateful for Sleeping Beauty and the opportunity to have voiced its heroine.

Reflecting on Sleeping Beauty decades later, Mary said: “For me, Sleeping Beauty is like a beautiful glass time capsule where the joyest part of my youth has been kept preserved and eternally sealed. I’ve always felt that it was just a blessing. It was such an honor for me to do that.”