99 Fun Facts About Mary Poppins

Mary Poppins (1964) was the feature-film debut of which actress?

Julie Andrews was pregnant when Walt Disney offered her the part, so he promised to wait for her; she arrived in Hollywood with a three-month-old daughter to start rehearsals.

Who wrote the songs for the 1964 film Mary Poppins?

The Sherman Brothers' 'Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious' drew a lawsuit from the writers of a 1949 song with a near-identical title; Disney won by showing that versions of the word were far older.

Mary Poppins director Robert Stevenson reunited with its songwriters for which 1971 Disney musical?

Bedknobs and Broomsticks again mixed live actors with cartoon animals, and one of its songs, 'The Beautiful Briny', had been written for Mary Poppins and cut.

The 1964 film was based mainly on which of the Mary Poppins books?

The first novel gives Bert only a small part as a match seller; the film merged him with the books' chimney sweep and built him into a leading role.

When P. L. Travers sold Disney the Mary Poppins rights, what could she still approve?

Script approval: Travers had her meetings with the writers taped and objected to much of what they wrote, but Walt Disney held final cut and overruled her.

At the premiere party, P. L. Travers told Walt Disney which part of Mary Poppins had to go?

The animated sequence: Travers found Disney at the after-party and announced that it had to go, and he answered, 'Pamela, the ship has sailed.'

Mary Poppins lost Best Picture to which musical?

My Fair Lady took Best Picture, but its Eliza Doolittle was not even nominated, and the Best Actress Oscar went to Mary Poppins herself.

Which Mary Poppins song, sung by Bert, won the Best Original Song Oscar?

'Chim Chim Cher-ee' says a sweep's handshake brings luck, so when every sweep shakes Mr. Banks's hand the children tell him he'll be lucky, just before the bank rings to summon him.

Mrs. Banks campaigns for which cause in Mary Poppins?

Women's votes: she comes home thrilled that a fellow campaigner chained herself to the prime minister's carriage, yet she defers meekly to Mr. Banks.

In Mary Poppins, where does Mr. Banks throw the children's advertisement for a nanny after tearing it up?

Into the fireplace: the scraps drift up the chimney, and next morning Mary Poppins reads the mended letter back to him while he protests that he tore it up.

In Mary Poppins, what is Mr. Banks's first name?

George Banks is played by David Tomlinson, who also voices Mary's parrot-headed umbrella, so it is his voice that grumbles at the end that the children think more of their father than of her.

What is Mrs. Banks's first name in the 1964 film Mary Poppins?

Winifred Banks is played by Glynis Johns, for whom Stephen Sondheim later wrote 'Send In the Clowns', a song she called the best gift she was ever given.

What do Mary Poppins, Bert and the children jump into?

A chalk pavement picture: Bert has drawn it as that day's job, and the outing ends when a rainstorm washes the chalk away and drops them back on the London pavement.

Which second role does Dick Van Dyke play in Mary Poppins, under an anagram credit?

Mr. Dawes Sr.: Van Dyke begged for the extra part and won it with a screen test in old-age make-up, and the end credits bill 'Navckid Keyd' before the letters unscramble into his name.

Which accent did Dick Van Dyke attempt as Bert in Mary Poppins, to decades of teasing from British audiences?

Cockney: Van Dyke says the coach he was given 'didn't do an accent any better than I did', and in 2017 he apologised to Bafta's members for 'the most atrocious cockney accent in the history of cinema'.

In Mary Poppins, why does Uncle Albert float up to the ceiling?

He cannot stop laughing, and soon Bert and the children are giggling their way up to take tea on the ceiling with him; the only way down is to think of something sad.

In Mary Poppins, what does the Banks family's neighbour Admiral Boom fire from his roof twice a day?

A cannon: he fires it to mark the hour, since 'Greenwich takes its time from Admiral Boom', and next door the cry of 'Posts, everyone!' goes up before each blast.

In Mary Poppins, where does the Bird Woman sell her breadcrumbs?

On the steps of St Paul's: her song, 'Feed the Birds', was Walt Disney's favourite, and its writers recalled him asking on Friday afternoons to hear it played just for him.

In Mary Poppins, which sum does Michael refuse to hand over at the bank, sparking a run?

Tuppence: the bank's ancient chairman snatches the coins, Michael shouts for his money back, and customers who overhear take fright and demand theirs too.

In Mary Poppins, what does the magic tape measure read when Mary measures herself?

Practically perfect in every way: the same tape has just judged Michael extremely stubborn and suspicious, which he flatly denies, and Jane rather inclined to giggle.

Which metal's yellow lamps lit the screen that let Mary Poppins's stars dance among cartoon penguins?

Sodium: the sodium vapor process cut the actors out so cleanly that even the see-through veil on Mary Poppins's hat let the cartoon background show through.

In which Mary Poppins song does Mary duet with a robin that was really an Audio-Animatronic figure?

'A Spoonful of Sugar': the robin on her finger was a machine, and the whistling it seems to do was recorded by the film's star herself.

Where did Mary Poppins premiere on August 27, 1964?

Grauman's Chinese Theatre: the books' author had not been invited and had to press a Disney executive for a ticket, and the film she saw that night came as a shock to her.

Which Disney workshop was set up in 1965 with Mary Poppins profits?

MAPO, short for MAry POppins, was the manufacturing arm of Walt's theme-park design firm, and its name survives on the safety system fitted to Disney's monorails.

Which actress took the screen role of Eliza Doolittle from Mary Poppins's star, then lost the Golden Globe to her?

Audrey Hepburn was then left off the Oscar shortlist, while her rival used her Golden Globe speech to thank Jack Warner, the studio boss who had refused to cast her.

In Mary Poppins, Mary tells the children she will stay only until what happens?

The wind changes: she says it at bedtime, and when the wind swings round to the west at the end she asks for her hat stand and packs while the family goes off to fly a kite.

According to Walt Disney, who made him promise to film the Mary Poppins books?

His daughters loved the books, but keeping the promise took Walt more than 20 years, because their author kept refusing to sell him the rights.

Which Les Misérables producer won Travers's permission for a Mary Poppins stage musical?

Cameron Mackintosh got the rights on her condition that nobody from the Disney film took part, yet after her death he teamed up with Disney so the show could use the film's songs.

Mary Poppins stage writer Julian Fellowes later created which TV drama?

Downton Abbey followed in 2010; for Mary Poppins he brought back a book character the film skipped, Mr. Banks's own fearsome childhood nanny, Miss Andrew.

In Mary Poppins, Mary first says 'Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious' after winning what?

A horse race: she wins it on a carousel horse, and when reporters crowd round and suggest she must be lost for words, she tells them she has exactly the right one.

Mary Poppins took over the New Amsterdam Theatre from which Disney hit?

The Lion King moved three blocks to the Minskoff, and Mary Poppins stayed at the New Amsterdam for more than six years and over 2,500 performances.

Who plays Walt Disney in Saving Mr. Banks?

Tom Hanks got the offer in a personal phone call from Disney's chief executive, because the studio had never before let an actor play its founder on screen.

Where did P. L. Travers grow up, as shown in Saving Mr. Banks's flashbacks?

Allora, Queensland, Australia: the brisk great-aunt who stepped in when the family fell on hard times there is thought to have partly inspired Mary Poppins herself.

In Saving Mr. Banks, the title's Mr. Banks stands for which person in Travers's life?

Her father: Travers Goff was a bank manager demoted to clerk because of his drinking, and his daughter later took his first name as her pen name.

Who plays Mary Poppins in the 2018 sequel Mary Poppins Returns?

Emily Blunt had the role to herself by her predecessor's choice: offered a cameo, the star of the 1964 film told the director, 'This is Emily's show.'

When is Mary Poppins Returns set?

The Great Depression: the sequel goes back to the hard-up 1930s London where the books were set, which the 1964 film had swapped for a grander age, and the widowed Michael is about to lose the family home.

What is Jack's job in Mary Poppins Returns?

Lamplighter: Jack greets Mary Poppins as an old friend because he first met her as a boy, when he was apprenticed to Bert the chimney sweep.

Which Mary Poppins Returns role went to screen veteran Angela Lansbury?

The Balloon Lady: she warns each customer to choose the balloon that is right for them, and the right ones lift the whole Banks family into the sky above the park.

In Mary Poppins Returns, how does Mary win the Banks family five extra minutes to reach the bank?

By turning back Big Ben: Jack and his friends climb the clock tower to push the hands back, so that midnight on Friday, the deadline for the house, arrives five minutes late.

Who plays Mary's eccentric cousin Topsy in Mary Poppins Returns?

Meryl Streep's Topsy can mend anything except on the second Wednesday of the month, when her workshop turns upside down, and that is the day the children bring her their mother's broken bowl.

Rob Marshall directed Mary Poppins Returns straight after which Disney musical?

Into the Woods: Disney raised the sequel with Marshall while he was finishing it, and he cast one of its stars as Mary Poppins without holding a search.

Which member of the 1964 cast has a cameo in Mary Poppins Returns as a passer-by asking for directions?

The original Jane Banks, Karen Dotrice, stops outside the family house looking for number 19 and signs off with a line from the children's advertisement in the first film: 'Many thanks. Sincerely.'

Which pop star did a Disney executive suggest for Bert's brother in a Mary Poppins sequel planned in the 1980s?

Michael Jackson was put forward to play an ice-cream seller in an Edwardian London park; the sequel, drafted with Travers's own notes, was dropped after casting troubles and a change of bosses at Disney.

Who plays the grown-up Michael Banks in Mary Poppins Returns?

Ben Whishaw plays him as a widowed artist working part-time as a teller at his father's old bank, the same bank that is about to repossess the family home.

Which villain in Mary Poppins Returns is played by Colin Firth?

Wilkins the banker tries to cheat the Banks family out of their shares so that he can take their house, and Firth also voices the cartoon wolf who stands in for him inside the china bowl.

In Mary Poppins, why does Katie Nanna walk out on the Banks family in the opening scene?

The children ran away again, for the fourth time that week; the constable who brings them home explains that it was their kite that ran away, not them.

Which lullaby does Mary Poppins sing to children who insist they are far too excited to sleep?

'Stay Awake': she tells them to suit themselves, then sings that they must not rest their heads or close their eyes, and the reverse psychology does the rest.

In Mary Poppins Returns, where does the Banks family's missing bank share certificate finally turn up?

Patched into an old kite: young Georgie had cut the paper up to mend the kite his father flew as a boy, the same kite Mary Poppins floats down holding.

Which honour did Mary Poppins join in 2013?

National Film Registry: the Library of Congress picked it for preservation five years before the musical that beat it to Best Picture, which had to wait until 2018.

A flock of umbrella-carrying Mary Poppinses drove off a giant Lord Voldemort at which 2012 event?

The Olympic opening ceremony in London sent more than thirty Mary Poppinses down from the sky to rescue sleeping children from storybook villains. Captain Hook and Cruella de Vil were routed too.

Which animated sitcom hired a magical nanny named Shary Bobbins in a 1997 spoof of Mary Poppins?

The Simpsons wanted the real 1964 star to voice Shary Bobbins, but series regular Maggie Roswell won the part with her reading. The nanny arrives when stress makes Marge's hair fall out.

A 2003 Empire poll put Dick Van Dyke's Mary Poppins accent second worst in film, behind which Scot?

Sean Connery topped the poll for the Irish policeman he played in The Untouchables, a part that won him an Oscar. Brad Pitt came third for Seven Years in Tibet.

Walt Disney agreed to postpone filming Mary Poppins until his leading lady had done what?

She had her baby first: three months pregnant when Disney offered the part, she was promised the studio would wait. Her first child was born in London before filming began in May 1963.

Walt Disney spent his Mary Poppins profits on land for a new resort in which US state?

Florida land bought with the film's takings became Walt Disney World, which opened in 1971. The musical was reported to be the most profitable film of 1965.

Mary Shepard drew Mary Poppins after her father, too busy for the job, had illustrated which bear?

Winnie-the-Pooh's artist E. H. Shepard turned P. L. Travers down, so she hired his 23-year-old daughter after spotting her work on a Christmas card.

What shape is the handle of the umbrella Mary Poppins carries in the books and the 1964 film?

A parrot's head tops the umbrella, and in the film it speaks up, guessing how Mary really feels about the children while she denies it.

In the 1964 film Mary Poppins, what happens to the stern nannies queuing outside the Banks house?

A gust blows them away, clearing the doorstep for the one applicant who floats in holding the children's own advertisement, pieced back together.

The penguin waiters from the 1964 film Mary Poppins turn up again in which 1988 film?

Who Framed Roger Rabbit gave the penguin waiters a cameo alongside a silhouette of Mary herself. The birds later served again in Disney's TV series House of Mouse.

Who plays the prickly Mary Poppins author P. L. Travers in the 2013 film Saving Mr. Banks?

Emma Thompson called it the hardest role of her career and prepared with the real author's letters and tape recordings. She kept her own hair for the part because she dislikes wigs.

On which London street do the Banks family live at Number 17 in the Mary Poppins books and films?

Cherry Tree Lane is not only make-believe: a real London street of that name can be found in South Hornchurch.

In P. L. Travers's first book, Mary Poppins turns up at the Banks home with which kind of luggage?

A carpet bag was cheap 19th-century luggage made from carpet remnants, light enough to carry without a porter. Phileas Fogg took one around the world in eighty days.

In the 1964 film Mary Poppins, Bert finds the lost Banks children while working as what?

A chimney sweep by then, Bert walks the pair home from the East End. In the books the sweep is a separate character, whom the film merged with Bert.

In the 1964 film Mary Poppins, which chore does Mary turn into a game soon after she is hired?

Tidying the nursery becomes a game set to music, and Mary's own reflection in the mirror joins in the song, then shows off with a flourish after she has finished.

Which Broadway star plays Jack, Bert's former apprentice, in the 2018 sequel Mary Poppins Returns?

Lin-Manuel Miranda was cast in February 2016, and his Jack inherits Bert's place as Mary's best friend. Bert himself is said to be off travelling the world.

In Saving Mr. Banks, Walt Disney tries to win over P. L. Travers by inviting her where?

Disneyland played itself: the scenes were shot there in the early mornings with areas cordoned off, and the extras were the resort's own cast members.

In 2024 British film censors raised the 1964 film Mary Poppins from a U certificate to which rating?

PG now flags a discriminatory word that Admiral Boom uses, sixty years after the film first passed as suitable for all.

The songwriters of the 1964 film Mary Poppins had its setting moved from the 1930s to which era?

The Edwardian era let the songwriters draw on British music hall for the score, so the story now opens in 1910.

Which actress took the part of Mrs. Banks in Mary Poppins after assuming she was wanted as Mary?

Glynis Johns was won over at lunch, where Walt Disney promised her a musical number written for her. She later introduced 'Send In the Clowns' on Broadway.

Which actor played Mr. Banks in the 1964 film Mary Poppins and also voiced Mary's talking umbrella?

David Tomlinson also supplied a penguin waiter, a jockey and the admiral's first mate. He went on to play the villain of Disney's The Love Bug.

Which comedian, Disney's voice of the Mad Hatter, plays the floating Uncle Albert in Mary Poppins?

Ed Wynn had worked in vaudeville since 1903 and hosted a pioneering radio show in the 1930s. Late in his career he turned to drama and earned an Oscar nomination for The Diary of Anne Frank.

Jane Darwell, the Bird Woman of Mary Poppins, had won an Oscar as Ma Joad in which 1940 film?

The Grapes of Wrath gave her the role she is best remembered for, and she at first declined the Disney part. The Bird Woman became the last film role of a career of more than 100 pictures.

Elsa Lanchester, who storms out as the nanny in Mary Poppins, starred in which 1935 horror classic?

Bride of Frankenstein remains the role she is most identified with. She returned to films after the death of her husband, Charles Laughton, whose goddaughter played Jane.

Thurl Ravenscroft, the voice of a hog in Mary Poppins, spent five decades speaking for which mascot?

Tony the Tiger spoke in his deep bass in Frosted Flakes adverts from the 1950s until his death in 2005, mostly without credit.

Which ghost singer for the stars of The King and I and West Side Story voiced geese in Mary Poppins?

Marni Nixon sang all three geese in the cartoon countryside. A year later she made her first appearance on screen, as a nun in The Sound of Music.

Every London street in the 1964 film Mary Poppins was shot on soundstages in which California city?

Burbank's Disney lot stood in for the whole city, with London painted on backdrops. Not one scene was filmed in England.

Which jazz bandleader recorded a whole album of songs from the film Mary Poppins in 1964?

Duke Ellington arranged a dozen of the film's tunes with Billy Strayhorn and recorded them over three days in Chicago. One reviewer called the result a surprising success.

A statue of Mary Poppins landing with her umbrella raised was unveiled where in London in 2020?

Leicester Square set her on a trail of film statues beside Batman, Bugs Bunny and Laurel and Hardy, marking the square's long association with cinema.

Mary Poppins, Goodbye, a 1984 TV musical set in the 1980s, was made in which country?

The USSR's Mosfilm studio shot it in Russian, with London in the then-present day. A man, Oleg Tabakov, played the fearsome governess who had once looked after the young Mr. Banks.

In P. L. Travers's Mary Poppins books, Bert earns his nickname by selling what when it rains?

Matches give him his book name, the Match Man, and he has a third trade too, busking with a hurdy-gurdy. Mary spends some of her days off on outings with him.

Before writing Mary Poppins, P. L. Travers toured as an actress performing which playwright's works?

William Shakespeare gave her Titania and Anne Page with Allan Wilkie's touring troupe, and it was for the stage that she first called herself Pamela Travers.

A crater on which planet was named in 2018 after Mary Poppins author P. L. Travers?

Mercury names its craters after writers, artists and composers who have been dead at least three years. Hers is 164 km across and lies in a region named for Debussy.

The first published Mary Poppins story appeared in 1926 in a newspaper in which country?

New Zealand readers of the Christchurch Sun met the nanny and Bert eight years before the first book. Travers had fallen for one of the paper's journalists while touring there.

P. L. Travers and her illustrator based Mary Poppins's looks in the books on which kind of toy?

A Dutch doll gave her the tall, bony frame, black hair and snub nose of the drawings. Travers is said to have found the film's star too pretty, before granting that she had the right nose.

In the Mary Poppins chapter 'Bad Tuesday', which object whisks the children around the world?

A compass sends them to its four points in minutes. Travers rewrote the chapter twice, and since 1981 they meet a polar bear, a macaw, a panda and a dolphin instead of people.

In P. L. Travers's first Mary Poppins book, where is Mary's full-moon birthday party held?

At the zoo, the party's host is a wise king cobra called the Hamadryad, who turns out to be Mary's first cousin once removed.

In P. L. Travers's Mary Poppins, the ancient Mrs Corry keeps a shop selling which starry treat?

Gingerbread is her trade, and she is said to have been in her teens when the world was made. Her snapped-off fingers turn into sweets and grow straight back.

What finally pushed P. L. Travers to sell Walt Disney the Mary Poppins film rights in 1961?

Money troubles did it: after more than twenty years of refusals she flew to Los Angeles first class, at Disney's expense, and agreed to the deal.

In Mary Poppins Opens the Door, the nanny comes back to the Banks family during which celebration?

Guy Fawkes Night suits her entrance: she arrives in the wake of the family's last firework, and promises to remain only until the door opens.

In Mary Poppins Returns, the children enter a cartoon world painted on which household object?

A bowl by Royal Doulton, damaged in a squabble, holds a whole music hall inside. Its world was drawn by hand with pencil and paper, in the spirit of the 1964 film.

Which Mamma Mia! and Harry Potter actress plays Ellen the housekeeper in Mary Poppins Returns?

Julie Walters inherits the maid first played by Hermione Baddeley, and Ellen is the only member of the old household staff to appear in the sequel.

In Mary Poppins Returns, Mary sends the children on an undersea adventure from where?

A bathtub is the doorway: she draws a bath for Michael's three children on the day she arrives, and the adventure begins beneath the water.

In Mary Poppins Returns, the grown-up Jane Banks spends her days working as what?

A union organiser is how the sequel finds Jane, while her brother Michael is a part-time bank teller and struggling artist raising three children alone.

In Mary Poppins Returns, Colin Firth also voices which cartoon animal standing in for his villain?

A wolf leads the cartoon gang that kidnaps young Georgie, flanked by a badger and a weasel voiced by the actors who play the villain's two lawyers.

Mary Poppins Returns built its London streets on eight soundstages at which English film studio?

Shepperton hosted the shoot from February to July 2017. Unlike the first film, the crew also went outdoors, filming outside the Bank of England and Buckingham Palace.

In Saving Mr. Banks, Paul Giamatti's Ralph is an invented friend for P. L. Travers with which job?

Her chauffeur never existed as one man: the real author was assigned a limousine and driver, and Ralph blends several of the studio's drivers.

In the book Mary Poppins Comes Back, the nanny vows to remain until the chain of what breaks?

Her locket goes at the end, flung to the children as she vanishes on an enchanted merry-go-round. This time she has taken a return ticket, just in case.

Mrs. Banks in the film Mary Poppins was originally given which name, dropped as not English enough?

Cynthia was swapped for a name with a more English ring before filming. In the books Mrs. Banks is never given a first name at all.

Karen Dotrice and Matthew Garber, Mary Poppins's Banks children, reunited in which 1967 Disney film?

The Gnome-Mobile was the pair's third and last film together, after The Three Lives of Thomasina and their turn as Jane and Michael.

Arthur Treacher, the constable in Mary Poppins, later lent his name to a US chain selling what?

Fish and chips traded on his fame as Hollywood's English butler, the type he had played since the 1930s. He also put his name to a household-help agency.