BMI: About Music & Writers, October 1964 Cover Story
MARY POPPINS This autumn Americans are renewing acquaintance with, or meeting for the first time, one of the most delightful literary creations of all time, as that English nanny, Mary Poppins, brightens the motion picture screen. The Walt Disney production, with Julie Andrews, as Mary, in such illustrious acting company as Dick Van Dyke, Ed Wynn, Glynis Johns and many others, is already being hailed as one of the all time great films.
Hollis Alpert, writing in Saturday Review, says: "...a 2 1/2 hour burst of sheer frolicsome delight, one of the most magnificent pieces of entertainment ever to come from Hollywood... It has bright, catchy songs, clever ballet, fine comic acting, and whimsical animation effects that add to the film's charm... Credit must first of all be given to the enduring charm of the little books written by Miss [P. L.] Travers... to the lyrics and tunes of RICHARD and ROBERT SHERMAN... Put simply, Mary Poppins is a wonderful show."
As creators of the film's score, the Sherman brothers have added another to an already imposing list of credits. Among them are the music for Summer Magic, in Search of the Castaways, The Parent Trap, the theme music for NBC TV's Wonderful World of Color, The Absent Minded Professor and others.
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| Cover of BMI: About Music & Writers, October 1964 | Dick Van Dyke, Julie Andrews, & Friends in Mary Poppins |
Images © 1964 Walt Disney Productions | |
The sons of a famous songwriter, Al Sherman, the Shermans were born in New York, educated in California, and are both graduates of Bard College. They had their first song hit in 1952, "Things I Might Have Been," and their songs "Midnight Oil" and 'Tall Paul" both won BMI awards. In 1960 they joined Disney Productions and have been working there since.
As a token of the esteem in which they are held by their Hollywood associates, Robert Sherman was this year elected to the executive music committee of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Currently the team is at work on a score for Winnie the Pooh, a new Disney production based on the A. A. Milne classic. This feature cartoon will be released Christmas, 1965.
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