10 things you may not know about Mary Poppins

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 8/29/13 at 10:51am

No big revelations, really, but some cool behind-the-scenes pics.


Okay, a Hindu goddess?

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 8/29/13 at 10:56am

~ they forgot the 11th one:
she's a bitch

~ lol....just kidding!

[ErikJ972]

Posted: 8/29/13 at 11:00am

Mary Poppins Meets Dr. Who could be interesting.

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 8/29/13 at 11:01am

Carlos, have you ever read the books? She's absolutely terrifying.

[VeraCharles3]

Posted: 8/29/13 at 11:03am

Is that all PL Travers' hair in the first picture? Lol

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 8/29/13 at 11:07am

Vera, if it is, I think we've found the inspiration for Martha Raye in "The Bugaloos."

[VeraCharles3]

Posted: 8/29/13 at 11:11am

Fabulous - I think you have given me my new avatar!!

Thanks again for the Mary Poppins link - i will read fully when I get home.

Also, Reginald, you are right about the books - Mary Poppins snapping off someone's fingers to eat - scary indeed!!!!!

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 8/29/13 at 11:51am

@ reginald ~ yes, i have read the first two...she *is* terrifying.

~ my boyfriend never saw mary poppins and he sat down (albeit reluctantly) to watch it with me some time ago and the part where mary scolds the children and 'accuses' them of making up stories about the horse race, etc. and she tells them she will 'summon a policeman' if they didn't go to sleep, he turned to me and he literally said: 'yo, she's such a bitch'.



Updated On: 8/29/13 at 11:51 AM

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 8/30/13 at 2:15pm

I rewatched the movie (which I love) recently and was surprised to discover how little Mary Poppins has to do in the plot of her own movie. She does engineer the trip to the bank and inspires the kids to "feed the birds" (both important plot steps), but much of the rest of the action is moved by Bert.

[best12bars]

Posted: 8/30/13 at 2:59pm

I had no idea Mary Poppins was a lesbian Nazi botanist until I read this!

Practically perfect in ever way.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 8/30/13 at 3:01pm

I have never been a fan of the film. When the children tell their father of their adventures and Mary turns on them and calls them liars and makes them cry, she was dead to me.

[best12bars]

Posted: 8/30/13 at 3:22pm

LOL

I love this movie. Always have, always will. Love the lessons she teaches the kids. And the adults.

Bert may move the action along more, but Mary changes their lives.

[StageManager2]

Posted: 8/30/13 at 5:06pm

CarlosAlberto, I loathe the "sweet, fun-loving nanny" reputation Mary Poppins has. I've even heard people argue that Mary Poppins and Maria von Trapp are interchangeable so it wasn't much of a stretch for Julie. I tell them, "Watch both movies back to back, then get back to me." The point is, Poppins and Maria are almost polar opposites: Maria is more the sweet, fun-loving type, whereas Mary is strict, a bit of a killjoy, and (dare I say it?) somewhat bitchy. She certainly has her tender moments, but they're few and far between -- and that dichotomy is what makes her fascinating!

Still she's always referenced in popular culture as a sickly sweet individual. She's like Uncle Tom, who's wrongly remembered as excessively subservient to white people, but in the book he's more of a martyr, Christlike figure who is beaten to death by his master when he refuses to betray the whereabouts of two runaway female slaves. I read that the popular negative connotation of Uncle Tom was a result of of other works based on the novel (i.e. plays) which lampooned and distorted the character.

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 8/30/13 at 5:43pm

~ thanks for that insight stagemanager2...i agree maria von trapp and mar poppins *are* polar opposites....i havent read uncle toms cabin in *years* but i do agree with your assessment.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 8/30/13 at 9:05pm

Mary Poppins was nothing but a singing dope pusher. A spoonful of "sugar" helps the "medicine" go down indeed. Then they were followed by all those hallucinations.

Next up: marijuana use in Puff The Magic Dragon followed by LSD references in Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds

[NoName3]

Posted: 8/30/13 at 9:50pm

Travers wanted Beatrice Lillie to play the part. Lillie had approached her in 1935 to get permission for a proposed stage production she was to star in. Travers was enthusiastic but in the end the production never happened. When Disney was casting the film, Lillie was still Travers' preferred choice.

[OperaBwayLover]

Posted: 8/30/13 at 11:16pm

I tried reading the books when I was younger. I only remember a chapter about Mary Poppins having a day off, and later being a complete snot to the kids when they ask her what she did.

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 8/31/13 at 2:41am

^ ~ that's because it was none of their friggin' business.

[best12bars]

Posted: 9/2/13 at 4:54pm

Times have changed. In the Broadway show, Mary never stopped smiling like an idiot, and the kids were total snots.

If that's what you'd prefer, you can have it.

Mary was there to do a job, way beyond what she was hired to do. She taught the kids a lot, and the parents, especially the father, even more. She changed their lives.

But she wasn't there to be a friend or confidant or become the most popular or to have them rely on her so heavily that they couldn't do without her.

Practically perfect in every way.

[OperaBwayLover]

Posted: 9/2/13 at 10:23pm

Well said, best12bars.Maybe I should go back and re-read the books. I might appreciate them now that I'm older.

[daisybeetle]

Posted: 9/2/13 at 10:33pm

I love NdGT!