the dress as they give her pointers on how to act around boys ("Femininity"). On the day of the party, a handsome young man (Peter Brown) appears at the yellow house and meets Nancy. She informs him that they'd been living in the house and tells him about the party for Mr. Hamilton's mother. The stranger quickly heads for Osh's store, where it is revealed that he is Tom Hamilton. Osh comes clean about renting the house to the Careys, inspired by Nancy's good-heartedness. Indignant, Tom leaves the store. Reluctant to escort Lally Joy to the party, Gilly becomes more willing as she makes her appearance in her beautiful redesigned dress. Seeing them together and Charles and Julia together, Nancy realizes that she's the only one without a partner; after talking it over with her mother, she decides to attend on her own. As she descends the stairs she runs into Tom Hamilton, who accompanies her to the party. Nancy presents the picture Osh had produced: unfortunately, it is a frighteningly ugly woman and Tom feels insulted and angry at Osh. He reveals his true identity to the thoroughly-embarrassed Nancy, and as he has taken a fancy to her, he asks her to dance. As the party gets going, Osh exclaims that things always work out in the end. Cast Hayley Mills as Nancy Carey Burl Ives as Osh Popham Dorothy McGuire as Margaret Carey Una Merkel as Mariah Popham Deborah Walley as Julia Carey James Stacy as Charles Bryant Eddie Hodges as Gilly Carey Jimmy Mathers as Peter Carey Michael J. Pollard as Digby Popham Wendy Turner as Lallie Joy Popham Peter Brown as Tom Hamilton O.Z. Whitehead as Mr. Perkins Hilda Plowright as Mary Harry Holcombe as Henry Lord Marcy McGuire as Ellen (uncredited) Songs "Flitterin'" "Beautiful Beulah" "Summer Magic" "Pink of Perfection" "The Ugly Bug Ball" "On the Front Porch" "Femininity" Production notes The screenplay was adapted by Sally Benson, author of the semi-autobiographical short stories that were the basis of M-G-M's similarly-themed early 1900s era Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), starring Judy Garland and Margaret O'Brien. At first, Walt Disney did not care for "Ugly Bug Ball", but songwriter Robert Sherman explained that to bugs, other bugs were not ugly even if they looked ugly to us, beauty being in the eye of the beholder. Disney liked the idea and the song went on to