HISTORYCinderella Nearly Bankrupted Walt Disney and Other Surprising Truths About the Fairy Tale3 min read

The Film That Saved His Company

By 1950, Disney wasn’t just making a movie. He was making a bet. World War II had nearly killed his studio — production slowed, debts piled up, and by the time Cinderella went into development, Disney owed close to $4 million. The film itself cost around $2 million to produce. A flop would have ended everything.

It didn’t flop. Cinderella grossed more than $4 million at the box office and earned three Oscar nominations for its soundtrack. The studio climbed out of debt, and Disney entered a new era. One glass slipper, more or less, kept the whole enterprise alive.

One Hundred Million People, One Night

Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II wrote eleven musicals together. Exactly one was made for television. Their 1957 Cinderella, starring a 21-year-old Julie Andrews, aired on March 31 and drew more than 100 million viewers — over 60 percent of American households watching a single broadcast.

The reviews were glowing. Andrews, still years away from the film work that would cement her global stardom, owned the role completely. Rodgers and Hammerstein’s TV Cinderella has been remade for both screen and stage multiple times since. The audience that showed up the first night never really left.