Disney's animated feature film "Sleeping Beauty" premieres at the Fox Wilshire Theater in Los Angeles. The story is based on the fairy tale "La Belle au bois dormant" by Charles Perrault, while much of the musical score is based on Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's ballet "Sleeping Beauty." (It will be nominated for an Oscar for Best Music/Scoring of a Musical Picture.) The voice cast includes Mary Costa (as Princess Aurora/Sleeping Beauty), Eleanor Audley (as Maleficent), Barbara Jo Allen (as Fauna), Verna Felton (as Flora), Bill Shirley (as Prince Phillip) and in his last role - Taylor Holmes (as Stefan). The film is directed by Les Clark, Eric Larson, and Wolfgang Reitherman, under the supervision of Clyde Geronimi. "Sleeping Beauty" is also the first animated feature to be photographed in the Technirama widescreen process (an alternative to CinemaScope) and the last Disney feature to use hand-inked cels.
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