Behind-The-Scenes Secrets You Never Knew About ‘Mary Poppins’

The iconic lead role almost went to another actress. Angela Lansbury, Mary Martin, and Bette Davis were all considered before Julie Andrews ultimately landed the job.

Mary Poppins was Julie Andrews' film debut. Prior to 1964, she found success on Broadway, acting in My Fair Lady and Camelot.

In fact, Julie Andrews's performance on Broadway as Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady was so popular, she thought she was a shoo-in for the same role when Warner Bros. bought the rights to turn My Fair Lady into a film. However, the part went to Audrey Hepburn.

Jack Warner, then the president of Warner Bros., chose to go with Hepburn over Andrews because he was concerned that Andrews was too much of an unknown.

Even though Dick Van Dyke had already been cast as Burt, he really wanted to play the evil Mr. Dawes. He eventually convinced the director and his name appears in the credits using an anagram.

Julie Andrews ended up taking home a Golden Globe award for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy for Mary Poppins. During her acceptance speech, Andrews took a little dig at Jack Warner, the man who denied her the role of Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady, thanking him and saying there would have been no Mary Poppins without him.

Walt Disney was sure he wanted Julie Andrews to play the title character, but he ran into one very big problem: At the time, Andrews was pregnant. He was so determined to have her in the movie that he delayed production until she gave birth.

It took an extra incentive to get Matthew Garber, the actor who played Michael Banks, to film rooftop scenes. Garber was afraid of heights and had to be bribed with extra money to film these scenes.

David Tomlinson provided the voice for Mary Poppins' talking parrot umbrella. He also played Mr. Banks!

Ever wonder how the songwriters came up with supercalifragilisticexpialidocious? Turns out supercalifragilisticexpialidocious was actually double-talk, speech that's a mixture of real and made-up words, used by the Sherman Brothers, the movie's songwriters, in childhood.

The nannies who lined up outside the Banks' home weren't all ladies! Some of the women were actually stuntmen in drag. It's OK, though. When we rewatch the film, even we have a hard time telling the difference.

Even though Julie Andrew's hair has been varying shades of brown and blonde during her career, she wore a wig during filming. No wonder Mary Poppins' hair stayed perfectly in place even during the dance scenes.

Remember the iconic final scene where Mary Poppins flies off? Julie Andrews almost died while filming this! Andrews revealed to Stephen Colbert that a support wire broke and she "plummeted to the stage."

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