10 fun facts about ‘One Hundred and One Dalmatians’ as it turns 60

Today marks the 60th anniversary we were introduced to Pongo, Perdita and the evil queen of dotted furs – Cruella de Vil.  The film was released on Jan 25, 1961, and based on the 1956 novel “The Hundred and One Dalmatians” by Dodie Smith.

This 17th animated feature was a box office success when it was first released, which was helpful for Disney after the horrible reception the company’s previous film, “Sleeping Beauty” received at the box office.

Here are 10 fun facts about the film:

1. There are more than 6 million spots in the movie. If you want to be exact it is 6,469,952 spots over 113,760 frames. Yes, someone did count them. That’s a lot of spots. Pongo has 72 spots. Perdita has 68 spots.

2. Revolutionary technology was used in this film. In the form of Xerox. Yes, Xerox technology was sued to transfer the drawings to the cels to save some time and money. This also gave the film that sketch look, which Walt Disney said he was not very fond of in the film.

3. Not a lot of names. Only six of Perdita and Pongo’s 15 pups have names: Lucky, Rolly, Patch, Penny, Pepper, and Freckles.

4. Art imitated life. Book author Dodie Smith had Dalmatians herself and one was named Pongo. And the birth of the 15 puppies in the film, actually happened to her.

5. The fur coat. The idea for the novel, Smith said, came when one of her friends witnessed Smith’s Dalmatians and said – “Those dogs would make a lovely fur coat.”

6. The voice behind Cruella de Vil. Radio star Betty Lou Gerson, who voiced Cruella, had already appeared in a Disney movie. She was the voice of the narrator of “Cinderella.”

7. Special cameos. Take a close look at the Twilight Bark scene and you might find some familiar pooches from “Lady and the Tramp,” including, Jock, Peg, Bull Lady and if you look closely, Tramp in silhouette.

8. The dogs were not black and white. Yes, Dalmatians are black and white, but in the film the dogs are actually grey and black. The reason was that white would have made the dogs looked washed out like snow.

9. Inspiration for Cruella. Marc Davis, who was the sole animator on the Cruella De Vil character used three famous actresses of the time as inspiration: Bette Davis, Rosalind Russell, and Tallulah Bankhead.

10: Wedding woes. The scene in which Pongo and Perdita exchange wedding vows as their owners, Roger and Anita, did at the same time needed to be tweaked a bit. The censor board, according to a book by David Koenig, warned Disney that the scene might offend some religious audiences if the dogs repeated the exact words of a “solemn religious ceremony.” So it was reworked to be less religious and the couple just dressed in some formal wear.