In second grade, a schoolmate lent me a copy of "The Arabian Nights" -we both thought it was a book for children-and told me I had three days to read it.

Cities like New York, Boston, Pittsburgh and Chicago listened and heard, if sometimes indistinctly, the notes of universal appeal, and children saw the Arabian Nights come true.

He received top billing in 1951 in the Technicolor Arabian Nights adventure "the Prince Who Was a Thief."