Merchandising an American Icon

Oh, American merchandising! 

In the classic 1950 Disney movie, Cinderella's faery godmother gives her a silver ball gown and bibbity boppity boos her strawberry blond hair into an updo.

 

 

The ball gown is silvery and shimmery and white and sparkly - and perfect to set off those all-important glass slippers (which we never are to learn exactly how she is able to walk in). He hair is still that lovely shade of strawberry blonde, which keeps her from looking too much like a California surfer chick...but like a - well - prototype for decades of Disney princesses!

 

However - to mix faery tale metaphors - there is a poison apple in the mix here.

 

When the designers for the merchandising for the film went to the drawing boards, they thought that the dress looked too bridal, so they changed it to blue - and also lightened her hair, because the solid buttery shade of yellow was an easier color to manufacture!

Not to mention, with so many Cinderella dolls to sell, they had to make sure that the ball gown was easily distinguished from her wedding gown - because selling two gowns for a doll was much better for the cash drawer than selling only one!
 

Was this merchandising tweak successful?

Well, now, today, everybody thinks that Cinderella wore blue to the ball - even people who have never seen the classic film! Does it matter that it's not true? Not a bit. After all - impossible things keep happ'ning every day!

 

Even when Disney remade Cinderella as a live-action film, they changed the color of the ball-gown from silver to blue to strengthen the merchandising image, not the original film!

This fascinating piece of useless trivia brought to you by ... Enchanted Revelries and me!

Now, go make something beautiful!

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(¸.•´ (¸.•´) Tristan

 and I leave you with the enchanting stage magic of the 2013 Broadway revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical Cinderella, starring Laura Osnes and Victoria Clark singing the transformation song Impossible