Paulette Rollin, Sweet Nightingale

Today is Paulette Rollin's birthday.  She was the French singing voice voice of Walt Disney's Cinderella when it was first released in 1950. Since 1991, Paulette's voice has been replaced by that of a new actress and singer called Dominique Poulain who, among other things, sang the French songs of The Rescuers.

Paulette Rollin in 1947

When she did Cinderella, Paulette was a young blond woman with chesnut eyes and a great smile who, with her conductor husband Hubert Rostaing, raised their daughter Chantal. Born in Marseille on March 23, 1920, she is the daughter of Louis Rollin, who was himself a comedian : he performed at the concert Mayol, at la Cigale and the Alcazar in Marseille. He wanted his daughter to have a classical training and chose Madeleine Lalande who had sung 29 years at the Opera, as her singing professor.

At the Ranelagh, she met her husband who, after he heard her singing a few tunes in English (she's bilingual), hired her in her band where she stayed for seven years. A few years after that, she was hired to sing for Cendrillon (Cinderella).

She also was the voice of Mickey's magic harp in Fun and Fancy Free. The soundtrack of the film was also rerecorded rather recently with the voice of Bénédicte Lecroart, who also did Belle in Beauty and the Beast's French version.

She also released many children's records in the 1950s, most notably with Disney songs. There is a Snow White And The Sven Dwarfs (Blanche Neige et les sept nains) mini album, and a medley of re-orchestrated songs from Cinderella, Three Little Pigs, Alice in Wonderland and other versions of Snow White.

But Paulette Rollin's career is not limited to Walt Disney. She appears in a few French films like Jean Gourget's short : A Ray of Sunshine. She is also Françoise Arnoul's voice in Nous irons à Paris. She even has a cameo in an American color and Cinemascope movie : The Daughter of the Ambassador where she sings le printemps des poètes to Olivia de Havilland.


She is hired at Mercury records where she releases Djimbo l'éléphant for which she is awarded the "grand prix du disque" in 1951, and Dansons mon amour for which she wins the André Claveau award in Deauville in 1952. She then signs at Barclay records where she sings with Eddie Constantine.

Her songs are available on CD.

A December 1953 article about the singer reveals that her motto is "Do well and let them talk", which explains "her sometimes rather brutal frankness which makes Paulette Rollin a straight girl... with no hypocrisy which makes her quite sympathetic".

That same year, I even found this picture in a Turkish magazine under which you can read this text (thank you Sayim for the translation) :
"Unknown in our country, the person in the above photo is that of the beautiful singer that sings Minouche et Dansons mon amour. With these two songs, she became famous in France. Paris-Inter and Monte-Carlo compete to air her concerts live."



I was lucky enough to chat with her on occasion and I am taking this opportunity to pay hommage to this great lady and wish her a happy birthday.

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That's all for today folks!