"Turn the Page"

04.09.09 - For generations, a lady with a warm, friendly voice read Disney stories to millions of kids. They never saw her face, but they knew the familiar drill:

As the "Disneyland Story Reader," Robie Lester read along with millions of kids on more than 40 book and record sets.

"This is a Walt Disney original little long-playing record and I am your Story Reader. I am going to begin now to read the story of [insert your favorite]. You will know it is time to turn the page when Tinker Bell rings her little bells like this…"

If you didn't hear her on dozens of Disney read-along records and tapes, you may recall her singing the theme in the movie The Three Lives of Thomasina or as the singing voice of Duchess in The Aristocats or Miss Bianca in The Rescuers. Her name was Robie Lester.

"She was a wonderful gal," said multiple Oscar®-winning songwriter and Disney Legend Richard M. Sherman. "She did some gorgeous stuff for The Aristocats, singing for Eva Gabor."

Richard revealed Robie's vocal contributions when he appeared in the recent Special Edition DVD release of The Aristocats, in a bonus feature that reconstructed the song, "She Never Felt Alone," as it was originally intended for the classic film. Though that complete song was deleted, you can still hear her singing as a harp-playing Duchess during "Ev'rybody Wants to Be a Cat."

The deleted song found life elsewhere. In addition to soundtrack albums, it was common practice for Disneyland Records (today known as Walt Disney Records) to create what they called "second cast" versions that might or might not feature the original film casts. The recording industry calls these "studio casts" or "cover versions." These were marketed so the record company would have a budget-priced item to offer or because the soundtrack was not available.

The Aristocats fell somewhere in between. When it was first released to theaters in 1970, the soundtrack music was not available for records in the U.S. (though it did become available internationally). Disneyland Artists and Repertoire Director (and Disney Legend) Tutti Camarata brought back Phil Harris and Sterling Holloway to the recording studio for vocal work especially for records. This time, Robie was brought in to do both the singing and the speaking for Duchess. This resulted in an album of the songs by themselves and a "Storyteller" album (with an illustrated book) that was nominated for a Grammy® award.

Robie is the singing and speaking voice of Duchess in The Aristocats (1970), a Grammy-nominated record. Autographed original album cover from Greg's personal collection.

It was on these records that Robie sang the deleted song completely. "It was gorgeous stuff," Richard Sherman recalled. "In the picture, Eva just talked a few lines, but this was the whole song. It sounds so pretty." Robie's version eventually turned up on a CD in 1996, when portions of the soundtrack score finally became available in the U.S.

The more you get to know the tone and timbre of a vocal actor's range, the better you can discern some of their other work. For example, though it is fairly clear that Robie sings the theme song over the opening titles of The Three Lives of Thomasina, it is less obvious that she also provides Karen Dotrice's line, "Thomasina!", just before the song. Or that she is the speeded-up voice of Dale (of Chip 'n Dale) and one (or more) of Donald Duck's nephews on many a Wonderful World of Color episode. Born in Megargle, Texas and raised in northern Ontario, Canada, and Detroit, Michigan, Robie often sought refuge from a less-than-idyllic youth by frequenting the movie theaters to escape into Hollywood musicals. After a stint in the U.S. Air Corps and graduation from UCLA with a music degree, she developed a talent for singing in character that made her highly sought after for commercials and cartoons.

Robie also sang on one of the biggest hit songs of the 1960's, "Guantanamera" by The Sandpipers on A&M Records. During the song's bridge, as lead singer Tommy LiPuma explained what the words meant, you can hear Robie singing in Spanish. When the group performed the hit on The Ed Sullivan Show, Robie was on stage, but obscured in the background. She was afforded much better TV exposure when she played the Blue Fairy in a musical version of Pinocchio with Paul Winchell and Jerry Mahoney.

Robie also often recorded demo records to enable songwriters to sell their tunes to prospective publishers, record companies and stars. It was through this work that she met Richard and Robert Sherman, who in turn introduced her to Tutti Camarata.

Robie plays Karen, a teenaged girlfriend of Mike — played by Ron Howard! — on the Disneyland Records version of The Haunted Mansion. Autographed original album cover from Greg's personal collection.

"She could do anything I threw at her," Tutti remarked in a 2004 interview. "It was such a pleasure to work with Robie." This blend of pluck and pleasantry led to one of the most prolific recording careers in the music business.

In 1965, Disneyland Records began creating read-along book and record sets, a series that continues today on CDs and iTunes downloads. But while today's read-alongs feature full casts, music, sound effects and sometimes soundtrack material, back in 1965 they were much simpler. Each set contained a 24-page book with a 7-inch, 33 1/3 rpm record. On most of them, side one of the record contained the story with a single "Disneyland Story Reader" narration and no music. Side two featured one or two songs. Each set sold for 69 cents, which was a bargain even back then, so you can see why they were so modestly produced.

In interviews, Robie recalled being given a handful of stories in script form, all at once for a single recording session, with little or no rehearsal time — and no handy videotapes or DVDs of each Disney classic to research in order to hear each voice. It was "wing it" all the way, coming up with a recollection of a character voice, or just a wild guess. For this reason, though her dynamic range as a singer may have seemed to outshine her acting on these discs, the circumstances did not allow her to truly realize her trained acting skills.

Nevertheless, the effect was that of a warm caregiver reading to beloved children, and that is likely what Tutti was looking for anyway. Robie was the Disneyland Story Reader on more than 40 read-along sets from Sleeping Beauty in 1965 to Pecos Bill in 1970. Add to that her narration, characterizations and/or singing on more than 30 LP albums and dozens of single records, and you'll discover that Robie recorded more Disney records in total than any other performer in history, before or since, many of them amounting to many millions in sales. The Gold Record for her read along of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was among the many on the walls of Walt Disney Records' headquarters.

Beyond her Disney work, Robie's most well-known other vocal performance is that of Jessica, the schoolteacher who marries Kris Kringle in Santa Claus is Comin' to Town. Robie recalled that, although she did not work directly with Mickey Rooney, who played Kris, she was thrilled to meet Fred Astaire, who narrated the classic animated Rankin/Bass TV special.

Robie was a delicate lady whose powerful voice came from a small package. After undergoing open heart surgery in 1972, she only emerged from semi-retirement on rare occasion, like for The Rescuers (1977). She and her longtime husband, the very courtly English producer Geoff Eccleston, moved to a orange orchard in the hills of Northern California, where she started writing and getting involved with many charitable and animal rights causes.

In the last few years of her life, when she had convinced herself that her work was forgotten, suddenly fans discovered Robie's whereabouts and began letting her know how much she meant to them. Between gamma globulin treatments for cancer, she managed to return to the Walt Disney Studios to attend the Disney Legends ceremony for her dear friend Tutti Camarata, not long before his passing in early 2005. To accomplish her last acting role, as Marge on the radio series Adventures in Odyssey, Geoff held her steady as she gave the small part her all.

The original Disneyland Story Reader finally joined Tutti and Walt on Tuesday, June 14, leaving her fans behind at the same hospital where we lost Walt, at St. Joseph's Hospital across the street from the Studio.

"That is the end of the story of [insert your favorite]. And now we will hear another song from Walt Disney's motion picture…"

End of side one.