I can’t remember the first time I saw the movie, but it definitely was not the year it premiered. This is still one of my “old-time” favorite movies and first appeared on this date, August 27, 1964 — Walt Disney’s “Mary Poppins.”
Directed by Robert Stevenson, the stars of the show were Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke, and they played their roles of Mary and Bert perfectly, I think.
The story almost didn’t happen. It took more than 20 years to convince the author of Mary Poppins book to sell the movie rights. So all of this started in the early 1940s. That is when Walt Disney told his daughter that he would make a movie from her favorite book.
The author, P.L. Travers, was not an easy woman. Most people would have jumped on the chance to have their book made into a movie — especially a Disney movie. But she refused to deal with Walt. Finally, 20 years later, in 1961, P.L. Travers needed the money. That is when she agreed to sell him the rights.
Her real name was Helen Lyndon Goff, born in 1899 in Maryborough, Queensland, Australia. She started out in an acting career down there in Australia. She appeared in a few plays and decided to go by the stage name of “Pamela Lyndon Travers.” She took Travers from her father’s name and Pamela because she thought it a “pretty” name that “flowed” with Travers. And that became her pen name, P.L. Travers.
Anyway, once the book was written and Disney approached her, she was adamant about not letting him near it. But as mentioned, over time, she fell broke and needed the income. During production, she balked at his choices, complaining about nearly every part of the film. Even after it was done — a hit — she was filled with contempt and dislike for the Mary Poppins flick.
She cried when she saw the final result at the movie’s premiere. Travers hated the animation scene. She hated the house of the Jane and Michael Banks family. She hated that Mary Poppins was pretty. She hated the songs. And maybe more than anything, she hated Dick Van Dyke. I mean, who could hate Dick Van Dyke? Anyway, Travers vowed that she would never work with Disney again.
But it didn’t matter. She didn’t have any other books that Disney was interested in.
I’ve never read P.L.Traver’s book, but I am glad for the movie. It sprang forth with one good message after another. “It is perfectly delightful in every way,” as Mary Poppins would say.
I’m also glad they cast it the way they did. I can’t imagine anyone else in those roles, but it almost happened. Instead of Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke, others were first considered. Angela Lansbury and Bette Davis were also up for the role of Mary. And Cary Grant was Walt’s favorite for Bert.
But for all its trouble, Disney won five of the 13 Academy Awards for which Mary Poppins was nominated. And in the Disney Company history? It had never experienced such a successful night at the Oscars— and hasn’t ever since. I should add that Mary Poppins didn’t win Best Picture. That went to My Fair Lady, another great movie. Tough competition that year.
It just goes to show how different we all are. The author hated it. Millions of others loved it, myself included. What one person scorns, another person loves. And that remains to be a big problem here on Earth.
“Even though the sound of it is something quite atrocious.”
=============
Goodness is the only investment that never fails.
— Henry David Thoreau
===========
Confidence in the goodness of another is good proof of one’s own goodness.
— Michel de Montaigne
=============
Sometimes, magic is just someone spending more time on something than anyone else might reasonably expect.
— Teller
============
