WHEN DISNEY STAGED PERFORMANCE OF POPPINS FOR AUTHOR

In an effort to win her approval of his plans to produce a movie based on her Mary Poppins book, Walt Disney arranged to fly author P.J. Travers to California and surprise her with a performance of some of the songs by Richard Sherman and his brother Robert and a reading of the script by writer Don DaGradi. In an interview with USA Today, Richard Sherman recalled, “And her opening line to us was, ‘I don’t even know why I’m meeting you gentlemen, because in fact we’re not going to have music in this film and, in fact, we’re not going to have any prancing and dancing.’ We were completely dashed.” Interviewed by the newspaper as part of Disney’s campaign to promote the movie Saving Mr. Banks, Andrews said that while the film shows Travers ultimately being won over, “I don’t think she was as fond of the movie as we all hoped she might be. … But you know, I’m sure she cried all the way, you know, to the bank.”