Trivia
- Not only was "Feed the Birds" Walt Disney's favorite song in the film, but it is said that anytime he visited the Sherman brothers during the rest of his life, all he would have to do was say, "Play it," and they knew he wanted to hear "Feed the Birds".
- Lyricist Robert B. Sherman had searched for nearly two weeks for a catchy phrase that could be Mary Poppins' anthem. He came across the perfect title when his seven-year-old daughter Laurie came home from school one day and announced that she had just received a polio vaccine. Thinking that the vaccine had been administered as a shot, Sherman asked, "Did it hurt?" She replied, "No. They just gave it to me on a cube of sugar and I swallowed it down." Sherman tried the idea on his brother the following morning, Richard put the phrase to music and "A Spoonful of Sugar" was born.
- The song, "Let's Go Fly A Kite" was inspired by the Sherman Brothers' father, Al Sherman who made kites for neighborhood kids as a weekend hobby. In the film, the broken kite represents the broken family. When the kite is mended by the father and the four pieces are taped back together, the four members of the family are also reunited. By transforming her "suffragette ribbon" into the kite's tail, Mrs. Banks also commits herself to being there more for her family.
- P.L. Travers was a stickler about details in the script, driving many of the Disney writers to distraction about Poppins minutiae. After seeing the final film, she devised a list of changes she wanted. Her requests went unheeded after Walt himself pointed out that although she had SCRIPT approval, she didn't have FINAL DRAFT approval. Among the things that she disliked was the Sherman Bros. score. She wanted the only music in the movie to be period pieces such as "Ta Ra Ra Boom De Ay" or "Greensleeves".
- P.L. Travers wanted the animated chalk-drawing sequence removed from the film, but Walt Disney refused.
- Julie Andrews was left hanging in mid-air during one particularly long camera setup. The stagehands unwittingly lowered her wire harness rather rapidly. "Is she down yet?" called a grip. "You bloody well better believe she is!" fumed Andrews.
- The opening shot of Mary Poppins sitting on a cloud contains a gag originally used in Dumbo (1941). While Poppins checks her make-up, her carpetbag slides "through" the cloud. She catches it repeatedly just before it falls to oblivion. The stork delivering Dumbo does the same thing with his bundle.
- The film was shot entirely indoors.
- Dick Van Dyke had his heart set on playing Mr. Dawes, Sr., and said they didn't have to pay him, he just really wanted to do it for the fun. Although Walt Disney had offered him the part of Bert right out, he made him audition for the part of Mr. Dawes, Sr.
- Mary Poppins and Mrs. Banks never speak to each other in the film.
- P.L. Travers so detested this film adaptation of her novel, she left the premiere in tears. Reportedly, she most objected to the altering of Mary Poppins' character from cold and intimidating in the novel to warm and cheery in the film. She also took issue with the film's perceived anti-feminist ending, in which Mrs. Banks gives up her campaigning for women's rights to stay at home as a housewife.
- David Tomlinson (Mr. Banks) also voices several of the animated characters that Bert and Mary Poppins encounter in the chalk drawing, including a penguin waiter and the jockey who allows Mary Poppins to pass on her carousel horse. He also voices the Parrot Umbrella Handle at the end of the movie. Original choices for George Banks included Richard Harris, Terry-Thomas, George Sanders, James Mason and Donald Sutherland.
- Stanley Holloway was originally cast as Admiral Boom, but because he was working on My Fair Lady (1964), he turned it down.
- In addition to Bette Davis, Angela Lansbury was also considered for Mary Poppins, while Danny Kaye, Fred Astaire and even Cary Grant were briefly considered for the role of Bert.
- During the "barnyard singalong" segment of "Jolly Holiday", the woman who provides the voice of the singing geese is Marni Nixon.
- Julie Andrews was determined to nail the lullaby "Stay Awake". She took nearly 50 takes (most reports suggest 47) in the Disney recording studio to create the perfect "soft" voice quality for the song. Dick Van Dyke, on the other hand, took only one take to record his verses as Mr. Dawes, Sr. on "Fidelity, Fiduciary Bank".
- Mrs. Banks's first name was originally Cynthia. It was changed to the "more British-sounding" Winifred at P.L. Travers's request.
- Ed Wynn's character, Uncle Albert, was originally written as having a Viennese accent. Wynn, however, didn't attempt the accent - or even an English accent, for that matter. He was just himself, ad-libbing many of the lines he says while laughing on the ceiling in the "I Love to Laugh" scene.
- Matthew Garber was paid 10 cents for every time they filmed the tea party scene. He was afraid of heights, so somebody offered to pay him a "bonus" 10 cents for every take.
- The chorus performing as the animated Pearly Band during "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" was comprised of songwriter Richard M. Sherman, vocal coach J. Pat O'Malley and Julie Andrews.
- With five wins out of 13 nominations in total, this film marked Walt Disney's single most successful night at the Academy Awards. Never before or since, as of 2006, has a single Disney film won as many Oscars in one evening.
- Bert's jobs in the film are a one-man band, a chalk artist, a chimney sweep, and a kite salesman.
- A song about Admiral Boom was written for the film. Although the song does not appear in the film, the music can be heard in the score.
- The word "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" seems to pre-date the movie, but language experts have yet to pin down by how much, or what, exactly, it originally meant. An urban myth is growing that it had something to do with Irish (or Scottish) prostitutes. Its use in the movie may have been inspired by a nonsense word the Sherman Brothers learned at summer camp. They remembered having a word that the adults didn't know, and thought the Banks children should have one too.
- This film was a low priority at the studio until the Sherman Brothers brought some early demo recordings of songs they had written to Walt Disney's attention.
- Walt Disney cast Julie Andrews for the lead after seeing her in "Camelot" on Broadway. When she mentioned she was pregnant, he offered to wait until she had her baby to start filming and offered her then-husband, 'Tony Walton' , the job of designing costumes and some sets for the film. Disney also gave the couple a personally escorted tour of Disneyland and the studio to help them make up their minds.
- This was the final film for Jane Darwell (who appears here as the bird lady). She had retired in 1959 and was living at the Motion Picture Country Home in Woodland Hills, California, when she was approached by Walt Disney Pictures to play the Bird Woman. She at first refused, but Walt Disney was so set on having her in the film that he personally visited her at the MPCH and eventually persuaded her to take the part.
- The character of Bert is actually an amalgam of several of Mary Poppins' friends from the books. Among them, the minor character of a chimney sweep. It was a drawing of that sweep by one of the animators that inspired the song "Chim Chim Cheree."
- There are 19 distinguishable names in "Jolly Holiday" when Bert and the penguins are discussing how no one is better than Mary Poppins. The names are as follows: Mavis, Prudence, Gwendolyn, Phoebe, Maude, Janis, Felicia, Lydia, Cynthia, Vivian, Stephanie, Priscilla, Veronica, Millicent, Agnes, Jane, Doris, Phyllis, Gwyneth.
- A sequence known as "The Magic Compass", consisting of four songs, was dropped from the film in preproduction. One of those songs, "The Beautiful Briny", later resurfaced in Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971).
- His role as Constable Jones became the last on-screen role for Arthur Treacher.
- This Disney film, as of 2006, holds the record of having the longest in-print status on video. The film was released on video in 1981, and has been re-released several times, managing to stay in video stores since then. Not once has the film been out of print on video.
- Voted number three in Channel 4's (UK) "Greatest Family Films".
- This was the only film personally produced by Walt Disney to be nominated for a Best Picture Oscar (Beauty and the Beast (1991) was also nominated for Best Picture, but that film was made in 1991, and Disney died in 1966).
- The film makers didn't inform Karen Dotrice or Matthew Garber about some "surprises" that were going to show up in the movie. Karen's dumbfounded look when Mary Poppins takes out item after item from the carpet bag and her little scream when Mary Poppins gave them medicines of different colors were genuine. They also didn't tell the children who was acting as Mr. Dawes Sr., and were worried that the horrible old man was going to fall down and die at any moment.
- Mr. Banks (David Tomlinson) readies his pipe and pours a sherry multiple times in the movie, but he never drinks from his glass or smokes his pipe.
- The scene where Mr. Dawes, Sr. (Dick Van Dyke) has trouble negotiating the step in the bank's meeting room was not originally in the script. While viewing a make-up test for Dick Van Dyke in the projection room, Walt Disney saw Van Dyke entertaining crew members on the test film between between takes with some comic routines, among them the "stepping down" routine of an old man trying to step off a curb without hurting himself. The test film not only convinced Disney to cast Dick Van Dyke as Mr. Dawes, Sr., but Walt specifically requested that crew members "build a six-inch riser on the board room set so Dick can do that stepping-down routine".
© 2007 Shannon Lewis
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