The 1964 Disney movie Mary Poppins was released 50 years ago this week. What better way to celebrate its anniversary than by learning some movie trivia? For example:
10. That’s Julie Andrews whistling the robin’s part during “A Spoonful of Sugar.”
An accomplished whistler (who knew?), Andrews recorded the robin's sweet tune. In order for the bird to move and nod during the scene, by the way, Andrews had to wear a ring that connected to it. Yards of cable ran from the ring, up her arm, and out to engineers who could control the bird’s movements.
11. Disney was sued over “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.”
Though the Sherman Brothers claimed they made the word up themselves, a 1949 song called “Supercalafajaistickespeealadojus” would seem to say otherwise. The writers of the song, Barney Young and Gloria Parker, sued for $12 million. They lost because lawyers were able to present evidence showing that the nonsense word had been around, in some form or another, for decades. Indeed, the Sherman Brothers later claimed that their made-up word was a variation on a similar word they had heard at summer camp back in the 1930s: “super-cadja-flawjalistic-espealedojus.”
There are videos from the film and about the film accompanying the 18 facts about Mary Poppins at mental_floss.
I think that Angela Lansbury would have done a fine job in the lead role.