Snow White (Disney character)
Originally, Disney could not find what they thought was a suitable voice for Snow White. Around 150 girls auditioned for the role of Snow White, including well-known actresses such as Deanna Durbin, whose voice seemed too old to Disney. One assistant to Disney called music teacher Guido Caselotti, complaining that Hollywood had no singing girls. Caselotti wanted to offer to send their best to listen to the students, but it turned out that his 20-year-old daughter Adriana overheard a conversation on another phone in the house, and she began to sing in a young girl's voice. Her father was confused and told his daughter to get away from the phone, but the casting director liked her voice and invited her to audition. After Walt Disney heard her, he immediately gave her the role. The studio signed a multi-page contract with Adriana Caselotti: she was forbidden to sing in a movie or on the radio before or after the movie premiered because Walt Disney did not want the voice of Snow White to be heard anywhere else. Instead, she received $970 (now worth approximately $).
JoAnn Dean Killingsworth
Dean performed long-term with her professional dance partner, actor and dancer Gene Nelson. Nelson's then-wife, film and theater choreographer Miriam Nelson, was casting performers for an ABC television special in preparation for the 1955 opening of the company's first theme park, Disneyland, to be located in Anaheim, California. It was Miriam Nelson who cast Dean as Disneyland's first Snow White. Nelson recalled her impressions of Dean in a 2014 interview with "Orange Coast Magazine", "I thought JoAnn looked like Disney's Snow White, with her dark bangs...She was very enthusiastic, bubbly and always in good spirits. I knew she'd do a good job." Killingsworth, a 5-foot-3 dancer with dark brunette hair, was described as a bearing a strong resemblance to Disney's animated Snow White.