The kazoo music heard during the penguins' routine is played by Richard M. Sherman.
The New York stage version of "Mary Poppins" opened at the New Amsterdam Theater on November 16, 2006, has run for 1500 performances as of June 2010 and was nominated for the 2007 Tony Award (New York City) for the Best Musical.
The old woman in the park Bert talks to in the beginning of the film (with the two tall daughters) is Mrs. Corry. In the book she ran the sweet shop in the park and in the Broadway show this is where they buy the letters to make the word "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious". The shop is mentioned once by Mary Poppins in the film before she and the children make a detour to Uncle Albert's house.
The planning and composing of the songs took about two-and-a-half years.
The scene where Mr. Dawes, Sr. (Dick Van Dyke) has trouble negotiating the step in the bank's meeting room was not originally in the script. While viewing a make-up test for Dick Van Dyke in the projection room, Walt Disney saw Van Dyke entertaining crew members on the test film between between takes with some comic routines, among them the "stepping down" routine of an old man trying to step off a curb without hurting himself. The test film not only convinced Disney to cast Dick Van Dyke as Mr. Dawes, Sr., but Walt specifically requested that crew members "build a six-inch riser on the board room set so Dick can do that stepping-down routine".
The setting was changed from the 1930s to the Edwardian era at the suggestion of the Sherman Brothers (Robert B. Sherman and Richard M. Sherman).
The Sherman Brothers (Robert B. Sherman and Richard M. Sherman) came up with the idea of Mrs Banks being involved in the suffragette cause to explain why she should be so neglectful of her children.
The Sherman Brothers (Robert B. Sherman and Richard M. Sherman)wrote over 30 songs during the various stages of the film's development.
The song, "Let's Go Fly A Kite" was inspired by the Sherman Brothers' (Robert B. Sherman and Richard M. Sherman) father, Al Sherman who made kites for neighborhood kids as a weekend hobby. In the film, the broken kite represents the broken family. When the kite is mended by the father and the four pieces are taped back together, the four members of the family are also reunited. By transforming her "suffragette ribbon" into the kite's tail, Mrs. Banks also commits herself to being there more for her family.
The top grossing film of 1965, and the top grossing Disney film for 20 years.
The wires holding up the flying Mary Poppins were darkened with shoe polish to reduce the risk of reflection from the studio lights.
The women that Bert recites his comical poems to are all characters from the Mary Poppins' books including the short woman with the very tall daughters.
The word "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" seems to pre-date the movie, but language experts have yet to pin down by how much, or what, exactly, it originally meant. An urban myth is growing that it had something to do with Irish (or Scottish) prostitutes. Its use in the movie may have been inspired by a nonsense word the Sherman Brothers (Robert B. Sherman and Richard M. Sherman) learned at summer camp. They remembered having a word that the adults didn't know, and thought the Banks children should have one too.
There are 19 distinguishable names in "Jolly Holiday" when Bert and the penguins are discussing how no one is better than Mary Poppins. The names are as follows: Mavis and Sybil have ways that are winning, Prudence and Gwendolyn set your heart spinning, Phoebe delightful, Maude is disarming, Janis, Felicia, Lydia charming, Cynthia dashing, Vivian 's sweet, Stephanie smashing, Priscilla a treat, Veronica, Millicent, Agnes, Jane convivial company time and again, Doris, Phyllis, Glynis of sorts, I'll agree are three jolly good sports. But, cream of the crop, tip of the top, it's Mary Poppins and there we stop.
This Disney film, as of 2006, holds the record of having the longest in-print status on video. The film was released on video in 1981, and has been re-released several times, managing to stay in video stores since then. Not once has the film been out of print on video.
This film was in slow development at Walt Disney Studios because the studio still had not obtained the rights to film the property from author P.L. Travers. This did not happen until sometime in 1961 or 1962.
This was the final film for Jane Darwell (who appears here as the bird lady). She had retired in 1959 and was living at the Motion Picture Country Home in Woodland Hills, California, when she was approached by Walt Disney Pictures to play the Bird Woman. She at first refused, but Walt Disney was so set on having her in the film that he personally visited her at the MPCH and eventually persuaded her to take the part. He even sent a limo to fetch and return her during her one day of shooting.
This was the only film personally produced by Walt Disney to be nominated for a Best Picture Oscar. (Beauty and the Beast was also nominated for Best Picture, but that film was made in 1991, and Disney died in 1966).
Voted number three in Channel 4's (UK) "Greatest Family Films".
When Dave Smith went on a search for the snowglobe from this movie, which featured birds flying around Saint Paul's Cathedral, he finally found it on a shelf in a janitor's office. The janitor explained that he saw the snowglobe sitting in a trash can, but found it too pretty to throw away and kept it himself.