It's a Jolly Holiday!

1964 Lobby Card

It's been 50 years since the premiere of Walt Disney's beloved classic, Mary Poppins. The film premiered on Thursday, August 27, 1964 at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. The premiere, which was broadcast on television and radio, attracted thousands of fans who lined Hollywood Boulevard to catch a glimpse of the stars of the film, Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke, and perhaps Walt Disney himself!! Also in attendance were famed Disney characters Mickey Mouse, Chip & Dale, and even Captain Hook, among others. What a fun premiere that would be to attend!!

The novel Mary Poppins was published in 1934 by author P.L. Travers. Reportedly, Walt Disney read the book to his daughters, Diane and Sharon, and wanted to attain the rights to make a film in 1938 but Travers resisted until 1961, when she gave Disney the film rights, though she retained script approval. 

Winds in the east, mist coming in...

Disney put brothers Richard and Robert Sherman in charge of the musical score. Prior to Mary Poppins, they began their own music publishing company called Music World Corporation, where they wrote a top ten hit called Tall Paul for Mousketeer Judy Harriet which was later covered by Annette Funicello, also a Mousketeer. It garnered the attention of Walt Disney, and he hired the Shermans as songwriters. Richard and Robert won two Academy Awards for their work on Mary Poppins. Dick Van Dyke was cast as Bert after Disney read an interview where Van Dyke mentioned he wanted to make films that he could see with his children. Disney cast Julie Andrews in her first motion picture as the lovable, yet stern, Mary Poppins after he heard her records and saw her act in a New York performance of Camelot. Together, Disney, the Sherman Brothers, Van Dyke, and Andrews created one of the most classic musical films of all time. The film also featured long time performer, ex-vaudevillian, and comedian Ed Wynn as Uncle Albert. Wynn was in his late 70s and not well, according to Dick Van Dyke, but when the camera was rolling, he acted professionally and to his best ability, which just so happened to be a near perfect performance, if you ask me. 

In every job that must be done, there is an element of fun. 

You find the fun, and - SNAP - the job's a game!

Behind the scenes, putting together Bert's one-man-band

It's a Jolly Holiday with Mary.

Mary makes the sun shine bright.

"She was a lady first and foremost, but she also had a great,

whimsical sense of humor... Only one thing surpassed

Julie's spot-on instincts, and that was her voice." 

-Dick Van Dyke on Julie Andrews

"Just as I suspected..."

-Mary Poppins

"We haven't retired yet. You never know what's coming."

-Walt Disney

Brothers Richard and Robert Sherman with Julie and Dick

Walt Disney with Julie Andrews and author P.L. Travers

A whole cast of characters!

"He impressed me as a nice man, really an old shoe. I later heard that he

was a tough taskmaster, nut I only saw his easygoing side, the side

that led others to refer to him as Uncle Walt." 

-Dick Van Dyke

"I would describe Walt Disney as a twinkly person. He had a kind

of cheerful merriment in his eyes. He didn't roar with laughter or anything

like that, but there was a kind of bubbliness about him."

-Julie Andrews

The film Mary Poppins is relatively new to my life. I had of course heard about it my whole life, knew some of the songs, but it wasn't until Walt Disney Studios announced 2013's Saving Mr. Banks that I got excited. I'm a fairly big Tom Hanks fan, and I also adore Emma Thompson, and pair those two actors with my love of Disney and Disneyland (I mean, we got to see Disneyland in almost all of it's vintage glory!), and of course I was in the theatre the weekend the film came out. My son and I also attended Disneyland's annual Mickey's Halloween Party dressed as Mary and Bert. In December 2013, I purchased Mary Poppins on bluray, and my son's love for the singing nanny was infectious! We've had many, many happy hours, days, weeks watching the movie! I kick myself for not enjoying Mary Poppins sooner! 

Happy 50th, Mary Poppins!!

Until next time,

Thank you, Lucy

Dearest Lucy, 

Thank you for your crazy antics as Lucy Ricardo that bring so much laughter to my life. Thank you for your strong will which kept you going when times were tough, when the world was seemingly against you. Thank you for your hot and cold relationship with Desi. Even when it was "cold" you still loved each other like no one has ever loved before. Thank you for your sweet relationship with Lucie and Desi Jr. Thank you for always keeping that fiery spirit even as you aged. Thank you for always keeping up with your henna rinses, for that was the Lucy we adored. Thank you for Stone Pillow, no explanation needed. Thank you for introducing me to Carole Lombard, for I adore her in many of the ways I adore you. Thank you for spending your summers in Del Mar. I envision you there each time I go. Thank you for writing down your life story. It is a pleasure (and a sorrow at times) reading about your childhood and the early years in your career. 

A home movie still, 1940s

Glamorous Lucille, 1930s

Studying a script, 1960s

Trying to make Desi Jr smile after his baptism, 1950s

 Lucy, thank you for being my happy place. Thank you for being brave. Thank you for being you.

Happy Birthday, Darling.

Love,

Remembering Marilyn

"When I think of the future, I think, I'm thirty-six years old.

I'm just getting started...But as long as one is alive, one

can be vital. But you don't give up until you stop breathing."

I've been a big fan of Marilyn Monroe since I was in high school and wrote a research paper on her. At the time, I knew little about her, but by the time I finished my paper, I was enamored. The first Marilyn movie I saw was Some Like It Hot and to this day, it remains one of my favorite Old Hollywood movies. My other Marilyn favorites are The Seven Year Itch where she plays The Girl, the upstairs neighbor who Tom Ewell's character falls for while his wife and son are away for the summer, How To Marry A Millionaire, a comedy based around three women (Marilyn, Lauren Bacall, and Betty Grable) trying to land rich husbands, Niagara, a drama about jealous lovers, and Don't Bother To Knock, the first film where I believe Marilyn really got to showcase her acting abilities, playing a deranged babysitter trying to seduce a man.

The Seven Year Itch with Tom Ewell (1955)

As Sugar Cane Kowalcyzk in Some Like It Hot (1959)

The damsel in distress in Niagara (1953)

The ditzy but lovable blonde in How To Marry A

Millionaire (1953)

Alongside Richard Widmark in Don't Bother To Knock (1952) 

I love to watch old movies, of course, but I enjoy learning about the actors even more. I love a good autobiography or biography written by someone who knew the star well. Marilyn lived such a sad life, full of tragedies and downfalls, though she was also blessed in many ways. She carried the sadness with her all her life. 

I think Marilyn is terribly misunderstood by the general public. Behind the glamour and beauty was a real woman, down to earth, extremely kind and nurturing, someone who just wanted to be loved. Marilyn was intelligent and well-read with an affinity for literature. However, she was plagued by her inability to become a mother and by the lack of love in her personal life, and unfortunately, her grief far outweighed all the positives in her life in her eyes. 

"When I was a little girl I would pretend I was Alice in Wonderland

looking into a mirror, wondering what I would see. Was that really me? 

Who was that staring back at me? Could it be someone pretending to be me? 

I would dance around, make faces, just to see if that little

girl in the mirror would do the same."

"You know, children when they become adults are still at heart children.

Sometimes I watch adult men. They act like little boys who have never

grown up. I suppose it depends on the mood you are in. Our emotions play 

an important part in our lives. We cannot hide from them. My mother,

bless her, used to say, "Norma Jeane, make the most of it,

because that's all you've got."

I wish you peace, Norma Jeane. You are a truly beautiful soul.

June 1, 1926 - August 4, 1962

Until next time,

...away above the chimney tops, that's where you'll find me.

It's been 45 years since Judy Garland passed away. Instead of focusing on her tragic end, I want to celebrate the joy she brought to Old Hollywood and to millions of people throughout the decades. 

Judy was born Frances Ethel Gumm on June 10, 1922 in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. She was the youngest of three girls, and her family nicknamed her "Baby". The three Gumm sisters started performing song and dance routines as young girls in their Episcopal Church and in their father's movie theater. In 1926, the Gumm family moved to California, where it didn't take long for the girls to get started in motion pictures. In 1934, the sisters changed their name to Garland, and they appeared together until 1935 when oldest sister Mary Jane was married.

Mary Jane, Dorothy Virginia, and Frances Ethel, 

1920s

The Gumm Sisters

Judy eventually signed a contract at age 13 with Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Judy would soon garner attention by singing her rendition of You Made Me Love You (I Didn't Want To Do It) to Clark Gable at his birthday party. It would lead to a part in Broadway Melody of 1938 where she would sing the same song to a photo of Gable. 

Judy, age 13. Judy always felt out of place & not as beautiful

as the girls she went to school with at MGM, including Ava Gardner, Elizabeth

Taylor, and Lana Turner. 

Judy c. 1935 

Judy would soon start her series of musicals with fellow MGM star and lifelong friend, Mickey Rooney, in 1937, starting with Love Finds Andy Hardy. The pair would go on to appear in 13 films together. However popular the Andy Hardy series was, Judy's life would change when she was cast as the lead character, Dorothy, in 1939's The Wizard of Oz. It's one of the all time greats, a film every child has seen. I was born and raised in Kansas, just like Dorothy, so The Wizard of Oz means a great deal to me. 

Mickey and Judy in Love Finds Andy Hardy.

"I'm not a witch at all! I'm Dorothy Gale, from Kansas."

The 1940s were a plethora of musicals for Judy Garland. Standing under 5 feet tall, the little girl with the big voice delighted audiences in musical films such as For Me and My Gal (with Gene Kelly), Babes on Broadway (with Rooney), Meet Me In St Louis, and Easter Parade (with Fred Astaire), among many others. 

"I was born at the age of twelve on the MGM lot."

-Judy Garland

Judy was so gorgeous in the 1940s.

"I made all these great musicals with Judy Garland. It was all

about me going into a barn and saying, 'Let's put

on a show.' That's what me and Judy did."

-Mickey Rooney

Gene Kelly and Judy in For Me and My Gal, 1942

Presenting Lily Mars, 1943

  

Publicity still as Esther Smith in Meet Me In St. Louis, 1944

With Meet Me In St. Louis co-star Tom Drake

Judy and friend Frank Sinatra. Frank would be Judy's 

daughter Lorna Luft's godfather.

With Easter Parade (1948) co-star, Fred Astaire

Judy met her first husband, Vincente Minnelli, on the set of her 1944 picture Meet Me In St. Louis. Vincente was the director, and they began a romantic relationship during filming. The couple married on June 15, 1945. Their only daughter, Liza, was born in March 1946. The pair divorced in 1951.

Vincente and Judy married in her mother's backyard.

Judy and baby Liza.

“It was no great tragedy being Judy Garland's daughter.

 I had tremendously interesting childhood 

years -- except they had little to do with being a child.”

-Liza Minnelli

Judy and Vincente divorced in 1951. Soon after, Judy employed Sid Luft as her manager, and would soon begin a relationship. They were married in 1952. Sid and Judy had two children together, Lorna and Joey. They divorced in 1963 after a seemingly rocky relationship. Judy would marry three more times in her life.

"When we got married in the early '50s, Judy was still very beautiful. 

She was only 5-foot tall -- just a shrimp of a girl, really -- but she 

had a very sensuous body, and up close, her skin was 

like porcelain, pure white. I was crazy about her. 

She had incredibly kissable lips."

-Sid Luft

Judy and Sid with Liza, Joey, and Lorna, 1960s

Unfortunately, Judy succumbed to pill addiction while living in London in 1969. She died in the early morning hours of June 22. It is said that there was a tornado around the same time she died near Salina, Kansas (which is right near my hometown) late at night on June 21. Maybe it's true, maybe it isn't, but I like to believe it is. Judy was a tornado of a woman, in a good way, and her presence and voice are missed terribly.