Poppins’ child star recalls fun on set
Classic musical hits 50th anniversary
TORONTO Mary Poppins has enchanted audiences for some 50 years, but the former child star who played Jane Banks didn’t watch the entire movie about the magical nanny until just recently.
“The amazing thing is I’ve never actually seen Mary Poppins all the way through until last week at this 50th anniversary premiere,” Karen Dotrice, who played one of Mary Poppins’ two young charges, said from Los Angeles.
“And it’s absolutely a corker. ... I took my kids. They’ve never seen the film either.”
Dotrice, who eventually left show business to focus on her family — her children are now 17, 18 and 23 — said she never saw the full 140-minute film at the 1964 premiere because she had to get home to bed.
“I was a little girl and I had to go to school the next morning,” she recalled. “My parents were very good at keeping (my) feet on the ground. I think I got away with not doing homework that night, but I had to go back to school so I only stayed for about a half an hour.”
Dotrice calls it “batty” that it’s been a half-century since she shot the classic musical, which features Julie Andrews in the title role and Dick Van Dyke as her chimney-sweep pal. Matthew Garber, who played Jane’s brother Michael Banks in the Oscarwinning film, died in 1977.
Dotrice, 58, says she still has vivid memories of her time filming Poppins, recalling what a pistol Van Dyke could be on set.
“He’s a naughty boy because, you know, he’s a consummate professional so he can kind of straighten it up for when the red light comes on the camera, but the rest of us were sort of peeing our pants laughing because he’s just such a looney-tune, goofy guy doing pratfalls all over the place,” Dotrice said.
“He’d stick his fingers up his nose or whatever to make you laugh.”
Dotrice also lauded Andrews, noting that the Sound of Music actress provided some voice lessons to her young co-star, who’d been taught to sing in a very operatic way.
“She was a godsend,” Dotrice said. “When we did go into the recording studio in front of a live orchestra of the most seasoned talented musicians, like 100 of them, I wasn’t terrified. Julie stood by me, literally, and encouraged me to sing it in a very simple way.”
Disney is celebrating the golden anniversary by releasing Poppins on Blu-ray next month. The new edition includes onscreen features that invite the viewer to sing along with the film’s classic tunes, which include A Spoonful of Sugar, Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious and Chim Chim Cher-ee.
It also boasts a conversation between Jason Schwartzman and Poppins composer Richard Sherman.