Random Behind Scenes, Making Of 'Mary Poppins' Was Not As Magical As You'd Think (16 items)

• 

  (#5) Dick Van Dyke Wanted The Mr. Dawes Role So Badly, He Paid For The Part

  Dick Van Dyke gladly signed on to play the friendly chimney sweep Bert, but after reading the script, Van Dyke decided he also wanted to play the part of the old banker, Mr. Dawes. He even offered to take the additional role without charging a fee. For reasons unknown, Walt Disney refused to give him both roles. After some persuasion, Van Dyke managed to change Disney's mind. "So he made me do a little screen test and gave me the part... And he didn't pay me - I had to donate $4,000 to his CalArts school," Van Dyke recalled to CNN. Basically, the actor had to pay off Walt Disney for the privilege of playing the part.

  Beyond the old age makeup that made him unrecognizable, Van Dyke didn't even get credit for the part at the end of the movie. Keen viewers who scour the credits can see an anagram of "Dick Van Dyke" plays Mr. Dawes. Van Dyke wasn't the only actor to play more than one role in Mary Poppins, though, as Mr. Banks actor David Tomlinson also provided several voice-overs for animated characters, as well as Mary Poppins' parrot umbrella.
• 

  (#14) Walt Disney Convinced A Veteran Actor With Heart Problems To Play The Bird Woman

  Although the part of the bird woman was small with only a single line, it was essential to the film's heart. Walt Disney asked veteran actor Jane Darwell to play it, knowing she could bring humanity and warmth to the scene. Darwell was 83 years old at the time and had retired from acting after a long career that included an Oscar for playing Ma Joad in The Grapes of Wrath. Because she suffered from heart problems, it took a lot of convincing by Disney to get her to agree.

  Disney promised her filming would only take a day and offered a limo to take her to and from the studio. To make her more comfortable, the crew cut a hole in the stairs of the set so she could sit on a pillow. Mary Poppins was Darwell's final film, and she passed a few years after its release.
• 

  (#2) Julie Andrews Fell While Filming A Mid-Air Special Effect

  Flying effects in the 1960s required the use of creative camera angles and actors hanging from wires. Since Mary Poppins featured several scenes with characters flying for one reason or another, the actors had to get used to wearing uncomfortable harnesses, acting while in the air, and risking possible injury. In 2017, Julie Andrews revealed just how dangerous the wirework could be as she described an accident that occurred on set.

  Appearing on The Late Show, Andrews told host Stephen Colbert, "I was hanging around up there for the longest time with the umbrella. I thought I felt the wire leave and drop about six inches. I was nervous and very tired." She called down to the crew to let her down slowly, but a wire broke as she was lowered, causing her to fall. Andrews remembered, "I plummeted to the stage... And there was an awful silence for a minute, and I did let fly with a few Anglo-Saxon four-letter words, I have to admit."
• 

  (#3) Julie Andrews Was Not Disney's First Choice

  Disney considered a number of actors to play Mary Poppins, including Angela Lansbury, Bette Davis, and Mary Martin. At the time, Julie Andrews had never appeared in a film and was starring in Camelot on Broadway. A few Disney employees happened to be in the audience of the Ed Sullivan Show when she appeared along with Richard Burton to perform a number from the musical and realized she would be perfect.

  Walt Disney himself flew to New York to see a performance and immediately went backstage to offer Andrews the role. He even promised her husband a job as a costume designer for the film. Andrews signed on, partly because she had been turned down for the film version of My Fair Lady; a role which she had previously played on Broadway to rave reviews. When she beat her replacement, the more famous Audrey Hepburn, for a Golden Globe that year, Andrews thanked My Fair Lady's director for freeing her up to take on Mary Poppins.

  At the time Disney offered her the part, however, Andrews was pregnant. He made an exception since he considered her a must for the role and allowed production to be delayed. Although Disney remained adamant that Andrews play Mary Poppins, P.L. Travers wasn't so sure. She called Andrews in the hospital the day after she gave birth to find out what kind of person she was.

  Andrews remembered being surprised at the phone call, explaining to Travers, "I'm feeling a bit woozy right now. I just had a baby yesterday." Although she was less than excited about the casting, Travers eventually accepted her in the role, according to Andrews, saying, "Well. You're far too pretty, of course. But you've got the nose for it."
• 

  (#11) The Special Effects Were Complicated And Uncomfortable

  Tapes recorded while P.L. Travers met with the songwriters and screenwriters at Disney Studios reveal her asking how characters will jump into a sidewalk, only to get an unsatisfying answer: "Walt Disney magic!" This brand of studio magic had a substantial role in the film, leading to many special effects that were ahead of their time.

  Along with animatronics and uncomfortable harnesses used to make actors "fly," sodium vapor compositing (the predecessor to green screen) allowed real actors to appear in cartoon worlds alongside animated characters. Unfortunately, this process was hard on the actors' eyes and felt far from magical on the set.

  "Because the special effects were filled in later, we had these large, sweaty prop guys in braces dancing about with cut-out horses and penguins to show us what was going on. They both tried hard not to cuss in front of us children," actress Karen Dotrice recalled to The Guardian. To keep things interesting for the child actors and to capture authentic reactions, the crew often didn't tell the kids about the special effects. For instance, Jane's reaction to her medicine turning another color was genuine, as was the children's surprise at the ability of Mary Poppins's bag to hold huge objects.
• 

  (#15) Disney Lied About Writing A Song For Glynis Johns

  The filmmakers behind Mary Poppins all agreed Glynis Johns would be perfect in the role of Mrs. Banks. The casting people at Disney reached out to her, inviting her to come to have lunch with the filmmakers and talk about Mary Poppins. Unfortunately, Johns thought that meant she was being offered the title role. When told the part had already been offered to and accepted by Julie Andrews, Johns told Walt Disney giving her a solo number would be a big incentive for her to sign onto the movie.

  According to the story, Disney replied that the songwriters had already written her a song that she was going to love. Johns agreed to take the Mrs. Banks part if she approved of the song and left. Disney immediately rushed over to his songwriting team and requested they write Johns a song. Luckily, they had a previously written song that they gave to Johns after changing the lyrics into what became "Sister Suffragette."

New Random Displays    Display All By Ranking