(Columns often contain opinions or first-person points of view.)
Since a blue alien character in a Marvel film exclaimed “I’m Mary Poppins, ya’ll” and that actually became a popular meme, we know Mary Poppins remains a part of our culture.
Though nowhere near the pop culture phenomenon that “The Wizard of Oz” continues to be, the classic Oscar winning “Mary Poppins” umbrellas across the globe. And she will soon be making a landing at the Miller Theater on Sunday, Nov. 15 at 2 p.m. Doors open at 1 p.m., and patrons are encouraged to carry umbrellas, put on their chimney sweep best, or emulate other characters.
From a fairly modern film “Saving Mr. Banks” telling the behind-the-scenes story of the Disney film’s making to a not-long-ago sequel to the aforementioned blue alien and his adopted son Peter Quill referencing it in “Guardians of the Galaxy 2”, a Broadway musical, and more, the practically perfect in every way titular character has waxed quite ubiquitous. Why, I even remember it being referenced in the 90s “Home Alone 2” – the pigeon lady being an allusion to the bird lady Mary sings about.
And the film has appeared and reappeared many times and many ways in my life, speaking to me during different seasons.
As I am not a boomer but a Gen X’er, I never had the pleasure of seeing Mary Poppins in the cinema (perhaps I can remedy that at the Miller on the 15th). When I was a young child, I saw it on The Disney Channel via one of the satellite dishes my Dad installed. We never owned it on VHS, but I think it repeated enough on that channel that we did not feel the need to own it. Back then, I identified with the plight of the children with their father not being around much. My father tended to be a work-a-holic, putting in days at AT&T and nights and weekends installing satellite dishes. I even assisted him with this as an older child and teenager — one of the few times I could spend time with him.
Like many others, I used to pity the children more regarding their absentee father than I did when I saw it as an adult. Then, after working two or three jobs at a time and struggling to make ends meet, I could see that Mr. Banks was focused on adult responsibilities. However, I still empathized with their plight because I knew the longing they had to have him around.
It took me years to read one of the P.L. Travers books, though I have ready many children’s and other classics. I found her approach to be a little closer to “Nanny McPhee”. She definitely did not coddle the children and taught them lessons in various ways.
And from a much later viewing of “Saving Mr. Banks” and some additional readings, I realized P.L. Travers did not like what Walt Disney did with her masterpiece (though he had ground breaking work blending animation with live action and having the Sherman Brothers include wonderful music and lyrics). This worked on me a bit as an author, worrying about what might happen should my fiction ever make it to the point to be made into a film.
Yet I also thought about how I sometimes included fictionalized versions of my own father in my work and dealing with that complicated relationship (“PAGING FREUD!” as Robin Williams might joke). And I found it fascinating that the fictionalized version of Walt Disney (with a decent impression by Tom Hanks) psychoanalyzed Travers.
(Spoiler alert) At one point in “Saving Mr. Banks,” Travers, played with persnickety perfection by Emma Thompson, says, regarding Disney’s belief that Mary Poppins was created to “save the children”, “You think Mary Poppins has come to save the children? Oh, dear!”
Disney does not get it right at that point but does have a later discussions with Travers about his own workaholic father. He comes to an epiphany. Travers had a father with issues of his own, alcoholism and not being able to hold down a job. Not only that, Traver’s father was extremely ill during her childhood and she lost him when she was fairly young. In fact, Disney, toward the end of the film, comes to the epiphany that Travers did not create Poppins to save the children but to save the father, her father. And don’t we as artists also try to work out issues with parents in our own fiction? Certainly.
Travers did not like Disney’s version of the work that was very personal to her. But like with M.G.M.’s “The Wizard of Oz” being quite different from L. Frank Baum’s “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” “Mary Poppins” is its own unique creation.
If we did not have this cheerier, Disney-fied Mary, who knows if she would have been referenced as much? If we had more of a quasi-dour nanny instead of the charismatic, nightengale-voiced Julie Andrews, would the songs pop up in the back of our minds and throats from time to time?
I know that was one who sang in a church choir and chorus that “A Spoonful of Sugar” and other songs from the movie musical open popped into my mind. They still do!
Finally, though I went to Disney World quite often as a child when visiting relatives in Florida, I did not get to meet Mary Poppins there until I was a part-time travel agent for a number of years. Much like with meeting other characters (and even seeing those Muppets like I did in my), I had an emotional reaction to seeing her.
Yes, I knew she was not real. I was not delusional. But suddenly, I was that eight year old, wishing that a nanny would take me on adventures away from harsher circumstances. But as I pondered this, I also realized my late, workaholic father, the one who we did not often see, spent his hard earned money to take us to what was a wonderful place to us then. And he was actually happy and relaxed more than I ever saw him. And that place (and he) became special to me then, as special as a magical nanny was to her creator.
Ron Baxley, Jr. is a veteran journalist who has been a published author for 34 years and is working on writing a Southern-set television series. His latest satirical Southern fantasy Oz book, “O.Z. Diggs the Fifth Estate” is the third in the O.Z. Diggs VII series. For additional columns and fiction, go to https://substack.com/@ronbaxleyjr(opens in new tab) . Contact him via ronbaxleyjr.com(opens in new tab) .
