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Did You Know?

• Mary Poppins is a book series by Australian-British author P.L. Travers. Walt Disney's daughters loved these books and asked their father to turn them into a movie. They would have to wait twenty years until the author would sell Disney the film rights. Before her death in 1996, Travers allowed the creation of the "Mary Poppins" stage production produced by Sir Cameron Mackintosh. 

• Mary Poppins the movie (1964) is based largely on the first book in the series. The film was so successful that its profits helped fund Disney World’s Monorail Safety System. The park, which opened to the public in 1971, honored the film by naming it MAPO (MAry POppins).
  
  
• "Feed the Birds" was one of Walt Disney's favorite songs from their movie franchise. According to composer Robert Sherman, on Fridays after work Disney would often invite the Sherman brothers into his office and talk about things that were going on at the Studio. After a while, he'd wander to the north window, look out into the distance and just say, "Play it." And Richard Sherman would play "Feed the Birds" for him. 

• The story of Mary Poppins takes place in 1910 London, England. Known as the Edwardian era (also called the Gilded Age due to its time of peace between wars), it covered a period of time that spanned the reign of King Edward VII of Great Britain (1901-1910). During this time, and for several years after, there were rigid class distinctions: it was a time of great inequality in which the privileges of the rich were made possible by the labor of their servants. It was also a time of heightened interest in fashion, cuisine, entertainment, and travel (think R.M.S. Titanic, 1912). The Edwardian period ended at the outbreak of the First World War in 1914.

• In 1918 the House of Lords in the UK Parliament gave approval for “The Representation of the People Act,” where women over the age of thirty were given the right to vote. It would not be until 1928 that another law would be passed allowing women over the age of twenty-one to vote in accordance with male voting rights. In the USA it would take passing the 19th Amendment (1919) and ratification of it (1920) to grant women the right to vote. The “Votes for Women” sash you see on stage is a nod to the character Winifred Banks in the Mary Poppins movie. Happy Women’s History month!