![]() ![]() Stricken by grief and sudden poverty, Travers’ mother left her children and attempted to drown herself. The year was 1913, and Pamela Travers’ alcoholic father, who had lost his job as a bank manager, had just died of influenza. And Disney couldn’t have known the sad beginnings of Travers’ writing career how Mary Poppins was born in the imagination of a destitute young girl living in a small town in Australia. Instead, as Travers’ biographer puts it, Mary Poppins was “tart and sharp, rude, plain and vain.”ĭisney couldn’t have known that Travers was so protective of the character because she identified with her: “Mary Poppins is the story of my life,” she later told an interviewer. In contrast, the character in Travers books was definitely not cheerful. In the movie, the magical nanny played by Julie Andrews is a sweet, gentle, and cheerful lady. Travers’ biggest objection to the film was the way Disney portrayed Mary Poppins. Disney didn’t even invite her to the premier for fear she would make a scene. Her objections continued all through the production. Nor did she approve of the casting she suggested the male lead should not go to Dick Van Dyke, but to a British actor like Laurence Olivier or Richard Burton. She raised countless objections to the script, and even protested the use of the color red in the film. She heartily disliked the animated penguins. ![]()
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