- Charlotte Henry, Alice In Wonderland, 1932. Mary Pickford had earlier planned to be Alice with animation items made in Disney! Now it was Paramount trying to save its sinking ship with as most of its contracted stars. (Cary Grant as Mock Turtle!). Didn’t work. Their costuming hid who they were! Apart from the nine Alice possibilities (from 7,000 hopefuls). Marge Champion, 16; Betty Gable, 23; Anne Shirley, 15; and two real kiddiwinks: Sue Kellog and the stunning six-year-old Marilyn Knowlden. London offered Paulette Goddard, 23; Ida Lupino, 15, Pearl Hay, 12. And the winner was Charlotte Henry, 19, from New York and eventually 31 other movies. But at 14 , Marge was the model for Snow White, two days a month (for $10 a day) for two years Her British father, a top Hollywood dance and ballet teacher Ernest , was a great friend of Walt Disney, and her first husband was Disney animator Art Babbit. Little wonder then that she danced again for toon team as the dwarf Dopey, Pinocchio”s Blue Fairy, Hyacinth Hippo in Fantasiaa and Dumbo’s Mr. Stock. “Hey, got you another Disney gig, honey!” “What do I play this time?” “A hippo!” (Did I mention they divorced?).
- Leslie Caron, An American In Paris, 1950. After various MGMusicals with her husband, Gower, it was time, said producer Arthur Freed, for Marge to go solo. Except she had no wish to spoil a good thing (they divorced in 1973). She told Freed: Get a French girl! “ She died in 2020 at age 101.
Birth year: 1919Death year: 2020Other name: Casting Calls: 2