Disney’s beloved “Mary Poppins” turns 60: Dive into the untold story of the classic film

For 60 years, generations of families have had spoonfuls of sugar, dancing penguins and supercalifragilisticexpialidocious delightfully woven into their lives, thanks to Walt Disney’s “Mary Poppins.”

The 1964 film, starring Julie Andrews in her feature film debut, sees the titular nanny bring young Jane and Michael Banks, children of her uptight new employers, on a series of magical adventures to add a little more joy to the family dynamic.

“It’s entertaining on so many levels, and I think adults can enjoy it as much as kids,” Andrews, 89, told ABC News.

Watch the “20/20” special “The Untold Story of Mary Poppins,” airing at 9 p.m. Wednesday, November 27 on ABC and will stream the next day on Disney+ and Hulu.

As Poppins takes his young wards on a journey through early 20th century London, they are joined by Bert, a charming master played by Dick Van Dyke.

“Every minute of that movie was a joy,” Van Dyke, 98, told “20/20.” Everyone had fun, everyone got along. It was just wonderful. I knew it was going to be a good movie, but it really became a classic.”

However, the road to getting the film made was long for Walt Disney. His studio achieved legendary status with the release of the animated classic “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” in 1937, but Disney was determined to create a live-action hit.

Disney first became interested in author PL Travers’ Mary Poppins through his daughters, Diane and Sharon, who were captivated by the books. The studio made its initial inquiry into the film rights in 1938 and followed up in 1944, but Travers was resistant to many of Disney’s ideas for the film.

“Walt Disney wanted to put animation into Mary Poppins. And Ms. Travers wasn’t ready for that,” Becky Cline, director of the Walt Disney Archives, told “20/20.” “She thought it should be a much more serious job.”

She also demanded the right to approve the script, which the practical Disney was opposed to allowing. This saga inspired its own movie – “Saving Mr. Banks” – in 2013, starring Tom Hanks as Disney and Emma Thompson as Travers.

“She was painted as an old dragon. And she could be an old dragon—and very scary and quite scary at times,” Brian Sibley, a writer and friend of Travers, told “20/20.” “I always thought there was this conflict in her because she was quite steely in her own way.”

According to Sibley, Travers – raised in the Australian outback – was deeply affected by her father’s alcoholism and early death, and her mother’s attempted suicide.

“The trauma of her mother’s suicide attempt is, I think, a pretty defining turning point in Travers’ life,” Sibley said. “She comforted her sisters by telling them stories about a magical horse.”

Travers’ aunt Ellie helped out during this time, and Sibley noted that she was “very much a Mary Poppins character.”

Despite being turned down by Travers twice, Disney wasn’t about to give up on bringing his character to the screen. He again inquired about the rights in 1959 and ultimately agreed to pay Travers’ price of US$750,000. She also acted as a consultant, got a share of the film’s profits and the script approval Disney had previously opposed.

Disney hired songwriting siblings Richard and Robert Sherman (who also wrote “It’s a Small World” for the 1964 World’s Fair) to define the film’s tone. They changed the time period from 1930s London to the 1910s—a more colorful era to match the music they had in mind.

The Shermans wrote and pitched Disney early versions of four songs, including “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.” However, another iconic tune resonated with the studio boss.

“‘Feed the Birds’ was always a signature tune for Walt because it spoke to (how) small acts of kindness can accomplish great things,” Sibley said.

This song was also key to winning over Travers, who met the Shermans at story meetings at Disney’s Burbank studios. Hours of recorded conversations, many of which were previously unheard, reveal the tension of these meetings as Travers wrestled with the reinterpretation of her character.

However, the footage also reveals that she sang along to “Feed the Birds” — the same tune that turned out to be the key to Disney himself.

“She kind of understood that they were onto something special,” Gregg Sherman, Richard’s son, told “20/20.”

With Travers convinced, Disney needed a leading lady to play Mary Poppins. With some subtle nudging from the Sherman brothers and Disney secretary Tommie Wilck, Disney cast Julie Andews in a Broadway production of “Camelot.” He asked for a meeting with her after the show and offered her the role.

“And I said, ‘Oh, Mr. Disney, I’d—I’d be thrilled.’ I had never done a movie, and he was so sweet and charming and brilliant and lovely,” Andrews told ABC News. “I said, ‘But I can’t do that. I’m pregnant.’ And he said, ‘Oh, it’s okay, we’ll wait.’ He seemed to have this amazing instinct for spotting talent.”

When Travers learned of the casting, she called Andrews shortly after the actress gave birth.

“She said, ‘Well, talk to me, I know you’re going to do Mary Poppins,'” Andrews recalled. “And I said, ‘Well, I just had a baby and I’m feeling a little groggy right now , Mrs. Travers.’ And she said: ‘Well, of course you are too beautiful, but you have the nose for it'”.

For Poppins’ friend Bert, Disney turned to the popular actor from the comedy series “The Dick Van Dyke Show”.

“When I met Walt, we hit it off right away. We both admitted that we were just pretending to be adults and that we were still kids,” Van Dyke told “20/20.” “I went into his office and he had watercolors of all the scenes from the movie. When he came through with it, I was just so excited.”

Hearing the music of the Sherman Brothers was an important moment for Van Dyke.

“Oh, I couldn’t believe it, one tune after another. I cried,” he said. “It was just the most beautiful thing I’ve ever heard.”

Andrews also loved Sherman’s work, especially “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.”

“The songs had a kind of rumpty-tum vaudeville quality to them,” she said. “And vaudeville was my background as a kid. So I figured I could probably embrace what Walt was offering.”

Despite this, Andrews requested a more upbeat keynote number than what they had planned for her. Jeff Sherman, Robert’s son, provided inspiration when he received the polio vaccine at school.

“My dad said, ‘Do you let anyone give you a chance at school?’ And I said ‘No, Dad, they had a little plastic spoon. And you ate it,’ he told ’20/20.’ the wheels turned.”

The resulting tune, “A Spoonful of Sugar,” gave Andrews the signature song she had been hoping for.

Disney also wanted to lean into the fantastical nature of the film through the use of stop-motion animation, trick photography, and revolutionary sound animatronics.

The studio used a technique created by Ub Iwerks, the legendary Disney animator and inventor who was one of Walt’s oldest collaborators. This revolutionary new system, called the sodium vapor process, allowed animators to combine drawings seamlessly with the filmed images.

“All the animation was really shot in front of a giant screen on a soundstage, with none of the characters in the animation in front of us,” Andrews said. “So we had to pretend.”

The late Disney animator Frank Thomas, who had worked on animating the dwarfs in “Snow White,” handled the iconic Dick Van Dyke penguin dance sequence.

“Here are his feet flying around stepping on my penguins. I made them duck and jump and I made them get out of the way any way they could,” Thomas said in a 1984 interview.

Dick Van Dyke remembered seeing the scene for the first time.

“It was such a thrill for me when I finally saw it come together with the penguins,” the actor said. “Because I had done all those moves by myself. It turned out so well.”

After seeing the finished film at its premiere in August 1964, Travers was still not happy.

“Mrs. Travers quickly went to Walt and said, ‘Well, we’re going to roll up our sleeves. We’ve got a lot of work to do,'” Walt Disney Archives director Becky Cline told “20/20.” “And Walt, I think probably with a twinkle in his eye, said, ‘Pamela, the ship has sailed’.”

The film received rave reviews and generated massive profits for Disney. Andrews’ performance earned her a Golden Globe for Best Actress and was a big hit at the 1965 Academy Awards.

“The 13 Academy Award nominations that ‘Mary Poppins’ received were unprecedented at Disney,” Cline said. “Never before and never since has one production received 13 nominations at Disney.”

It won five Oscars – Best Actress, Best Special Visual Effects, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score and Best Song (for “Chim Chim Cher-ee”). The soundtrack also spent 14 weeks at no. 1 and outsold Elvis and The Beatles that year.

“The critical and personal success of ‘Mary Poppins’ was so huge for Walt Disney. It put him in the pantheon of all these producers and filmmakers who had thought of him as a cartoonist for so long,” Cline said. “And it proved to them that he really was a leading filmmaker.”

The film also spawned a musical that opened in London’s West End in 2004 (and came to Broadway in 2006), along with a sequel, “Mary Poppins Returns,” in 2018.

Walt Disney died in 1966 aged 65 and PL Travers lived until 1996. She was 96.

Robert Sherman died in 2012, aged 86.

“He saw the darkness of the world and just dedicated his life to bringing only happiness to people,” said his son Jeff.

Richard Sherman lived until May 2024 and died aged 95.

“When people find out that my father was one of the Sherman brothers, they’re extraordinarily grateful and they say, ‘Thank you. Thank you dad for writing the soundtrack to our childhood,” said his son Gregg.

Before his death, Richard Sherman made a final musical contribution to his Disney family and to the world. To mark the 60th anniversary of “Mary Poppins” and “It’s a Small World,” he wrote a new verse for the latter.

“And he personally handed it to (Disney CEO) Bob Iger and said, ‘I want to present this to you as my final contribution to the studio,'” Gregg Sherman said.

That verse, Sherman said, is a plea for peace.

“Mother Earth unites us in heart and mind / And the love we give makes us human / Through our great wonderful land / When we stand hand in hand / It’s a small world after all.”

Disney is the parent company of ABC News.