Mary Poppins 50th Anniversary Blu-ray December 10th, 2013 (1 Viewer)

[Andrew Budgell]

Great memorabilia, everyone! While I don't have anything in my collection near as cool as what's been posted here, I do have a fond memory of seeing Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer (I know, wrong movie!) host an evening called 'A Royal Christmas' about 11 years ago in Toronto. I remember getting chills when Julie walked out onstage--she's been a favourite for so long! She even spoke-sang a Christmas song at the end of the evening, which was something I'll never forget. Even if the voice was all but gone, it was still incredible to hear that familiar instrument. She's magical.

 

[Escapay]

Same here. My Mary Poppins memorabilia is sadly limited to the movie in different formats (the VHS I posted earlier, pretty much every DVD release, and the Exclusive Archive Collection laserdisc), and my parrot head umbrella (from the Broadway musical). I named him Percival, which is quite silly, but it's not often one has a parrot head umbrella.

 

[classicmovieguy]

Percival sounds "practically perfect" to me.

 

[Doug Bull]

Anybody remember the Vinyl Picture disc?

 

[BBbrowd]

I sure do remember that vinyl picture disc, Doug. I remember seeing it in stores in the early 80's. Wish I would have bought one. The other side is a picture from Jolly Holiday, right? Those were really nice.

Here is one of the many rehearsal press photos released in 1964.

 

[Mark B]

Anybody remember the Vinyl Picture disc?

mppic2.jpg

I still have the picture disc.

 

[rich_d]

Thanks to everyone that posted personal memories and thoughts about Mary Poppins.

1964 certainly was a magical year to be a kid. For me it brings back memories of Beatlemania, Goldfinger, Going to the New York World's Fair and Mary Poppins. Now, in 2013, much of my memories around those things were around the music. With Goldfinger, it was Shirley Bassey belting out the title song, with the New York World's Fair it was "It's a Small World" and the G.E. Carousel of Progress with its catchy "There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow." As the Sherman Brothers wrote both these songs as well as the score to Mary Poppins, it was the Sherman Brothers that are at the forefront of much of my fondest memories of 1964.

It's so great to hear how the film resonated with so many film fans here on this forum much like I remember it resonating with my classmates. Girls would have contests as to who could say Supercali .... the fastest 10 times. The library had a waiting list for those wanting to read the books. Kids would come over my house to listen to the LP in true "stereophonic" sound.

While many homes had a turntable in those days, often in a large wood console, many of them only had one speaker. And those with two speakers were still just mono sound. But, an odd purchase, particularly for my Mother, she bought a stereo console - the first in the neighborhood (actually for many years). So, as a special treat, we were allowed to get one album each and my sister got something and I got Mary Poppins (which I still have). The Sherman Brothers' music was great then and it's great now.

 

[Charles Smith]

Great observations, Rich, about the Sherman Brothers and all of those events around 1964. What a time!

I remember our first stereo. It seems everything in the house came from Sears then, and the console stereo was also a Sears. Oy! But at least it was true stereo, with one big speaker at each end. For a while, till I discovered record stores, and record departments in department stores, most of what we bought to play on it was from the Columbia Record Club. But that Mary Poppins album was special. I don't even remember having other Disney albums then. But boy, did that get played to death.

 

[Rob_Ray]

I would have been one of those kids going over to Rich's house! In my case, it was a friend of my parents who had a stereo and had stereophonic versions of all the soundtrack albums that I had in monaural. I would sit up close to their console, which was a rich piece of living room furniture, not merely a record player, and marvel at the sound separation.

Many record labels, such as MGM and RCA Victor, would use the same cover label for both mono and stereo, and merely fold them over differently depending on which version you bought. I would see MGM's tagline, "Sounds great in STEREO!" folded over the top backside and covered over by the backside jacket art of my monaural copies and be so envious of those with stereo players. "Stereophonic" was such a buzzword in those days, just as "High Fidelity" was a few years earlier.

 

[Matt Hough]

Thanks to everyone that posted personal memories and thoughts about Mary Poppins.

1964 certainly was a magical year to be a kid. For me it brings back memories of Beatlemania, Goldfinger, Going to the New York World's Fair and Mary Poppins. Now, in 2013, much of my memories around those things were around the music. With Goldfinger, it was Shirley Bassey belting out the title song, with the New York World's Fair it was "It's a Small World" and the G.E. Carousel of Progress with its catchy "There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow." As the Sherman Brothers wrote both these songs as well as the score to Mary Poppins, it was the Sherman Brothers that are at the forefront of much of my fondest memories of 1964.

It's so great to hear how the film resonated with so many film fans here on this forum much like I remember it resonating with my classmates. Girls would have contests as to who could say Supercali .... the fastest 10 times. The library had a waiting list for those wanting to read the books. Kids would come over my house to listen to the LP in true "stereophonic" sound.

While many homes had a turntable in those days, often in a large wood console, many of them only had one speaker. And those with two speakers were still just mono sound. But, an odd purchase, particularly for my Mother, she bought a stereo console - the first in the neighborhood (actually for many years). So, as a special treat, we were allowed to get one album each and my sister got something and I got Mary Poppins (which I still have). The Sherman Brothers' music was great then and it's great now.

Such a wonderful reminiscence. Thanks so much for sharing it.

 

[Dave MJ]

Great to hear so many fond memories of the soundtrack LP. I wish the LP version was available on CD because the mixes are different and unique compared to the available CD versions. Supercali has an intro not used in the film or any CD release. The instrument balance is also different on all of the songs. It always surprised me that Disney never released it considering how popular it was.

 

[usrunnr]

Here are a couple of photos of my picture disc, never played.


View attachment 3635
View attachment 3636

 

[KPmusmag]

I would have been one of those kids going over to Rich's house! In my case, it was a friend of my parents who had a stereo and had stereophonic versions of all the soundtrack albums that I had in monaural. I would sit up close to their console, which was a rich piece of living room furniture, not merely a record player, and marvel at the sound separation.

Many record labels, such as MGM and RCA Victor, would use the same cover label for both mono and stereo, and merely fold them over differently depending on which version you bought. I would see MGM's tagline, "Sounds great in STEREO!" folded over the top backside and covered over by the backside jacket art of my monaural copies and be so envious of those with stereo players. "Stereophonic" was such a buzzword in those days, just as "High Fidelity" was a few years earlier.

In my case, it was my Grandmother who had the stereo. One of my favorites was the train sequence on the "The Music Man" soundtrack LP. The train sounds seemed so real; more so, to my memory, than the actual film soundtrack.

And in other cases, there were differences between the stereo and mono versions. For example, the mono LP of "The King and I" soundtrack has the complete "Getting To Know You" sequence, while the stereo omits the dance.

"Mary Poppins", alas, I only had in mono until I was older with my own money and bought the "blue" re-issue in stereo (depicted by JohnMor in post 141).

 

[BBbrowd]

This weekend at the Disney D23 Expo in Anahiem, they are celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Mary Poppins with an Archives exhibit. There are original costumes, props, and merchandise on display. Among them are her carpet bag, St. Paul's Cathedral water globe, and some of Peter Ellenshaw's background paintings!

You can scroll through the photos posted at MouseInfo to see all the Mary Poppins archive displays: http://www.mouseinfo.com/forums/content/2508-closer-look-d23-expo-2013-treasures-walt-disney-archives.html

 

[classicmovieguy]

Some of the rare "Return to Oz" costumes and props on display too! That lighting makes them look very eerie...

 

[Escapay]

This weekend at the Disney D23 Expo in Anahiem, they are celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Mary Poppins with an Archives exhibit. There are original costumes, props, and merchandise on display. Among them are her carpet bag, St. Paul's Cathedral water globe, and some of Peter Ellenshaw's background paintings!

You can scroll through the photos posted at MouseInfo to see all the Mary Poppins archive displays: http://www.mouseinfo.com/forums/content/2508-closer-look-d23-expo-2013-treasures-walt-disney-archives.html

They used to have Mary's carousel horse in the queue line of The Great Movie Ride, but it was removed some time ago in favor of costumes from Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Glad to see it make an appearance once more!

 

[classicmovieguy]

Bert's one looks quite rough though - I hope it is able to be refurbished just like Mary's. And I wonder what happened to the red corseting detail from Mary's "Jolly Holiday" dress?

 

[BBbrowd]

I'm wondering what happened to red corset as well, Byron. When the original was on display at Disney World a few years ago, the red part was there as well. Perhaps this an alternate version? I think there was more than one. Some of the dresses had holes at the hips that would allow for the wires for flying. Some of her Jolly Holiday petticoats showed up on ebay a few years ago. Bert's Jolly Holiday striped jacket was up for sale as well at one point.

Albert, I wasn't aware that her carousel horse had been removed from The Great Movie Ride queue. I had assumed it was borrowed from WDW for this occasion. Sorry to hear it go! I always enjoyed seeing it there.

 

[classicmovieguy]

I think there was multiples of each costume, as I remember reading a few years ago that Karen Dotrice (Jane) was able to buy one of her gold-tone coats (like the one on exhibition here).

 

[lukejosephchung]

Walmart & Best Buy have pre-order pages up and running for "Mary Poppins"...list price for the BD/DVD 2-disc set is $40(!), but they're selling at their websites for $34 & $35...still waiting for Amazon's price before I pull the trigger on this one...