On 25 January 1961 Walt Disney’s animation 101 Dalmatians was shown in cinemas across the US. The film was based on the book ‘The Hundred and One Dalmatians’ by Dodie Smith.

It was a huge box office success and when released worldwide grossed $303million.

The box-office success of One Hundred and One Dalmatians pulled the studio’s animation department out of the financial slump caused by the underperformance of Sleeping Beauty two years prior; despite this, it did nothing to rekindle Disney’s fading interest in animation, with him being more focused on working on Disneyland and producing live-action films by then. – Wikipedia