Still “practically perfect in every way,” nanny Mary Poppins returns to the screen at Sag Harbor Cinema followed by a Q&A with Julie Andrews.
The special program on Sunday, October 2 is part of the yearlong retrospective honoring Andrews, who lives in Sag Harbor.
SHC will show “Mary Poppins” at 4 PM and the nonprofit’s founding artistic director, Giulia D’Agnolo Vallan, will moderate the Q&A that follows.
The film is also playing on Saturday, October 1 at 1 PM. Purchase tickets at sagharborcinema.org.
‘Julie and Tony’ exhibit
The retrospective features an exhibit entitled “Julie and Tony,” which includes personal correspondence, rare sketches, and objects related to the artistic collaboration between Julie and her first husband, production designer Tony Walton.
It’s open weekdays from 5 PM and Saturday and Sunday from noon.
Many of the items on display in the exhibit relate to “Mary Poppins,” which was the couple’s first professional collaboration and her film debut.
Andrews was 13 and Walton was 14 when they met in 1949 when she was playing the title role in Emile Littler’s All-Star Pantomime of “Humpty Dumpty” in London. Tony attended the performance with his brother. After the show, the Waltons found themselves on the same train as Julie. Turns out, they were from the same town — Walton-on-Thames in Surrey. They introduced themselves and asked for her autograph.
The next day, the boys looked up every Andrews family “on the other side of the railroad tracks” (where Julie told them she lived) and paid her a visit. Soon after, Tony wrote to Julie from boarding school and a correspondence began, followed by courtship. They married in 1959; their daughter, Emma, was born in 1962.
A Walt Disney collaboration
In 1962, Walt Disney visited Andrews backstage during the Broadway run of “Camelot” and offered her the role of Mary Poppins. Tony was pursuing a career as a scenic and costume designer. Disney hired him to design the film’s costumes and interiors.
“Walt had purchased the rights to the book, but not to Mary Shepard’s illustrations, so Tony’s costumes had to be completely original, yet still evoke the spirit of the characters that P. L. Travers had created,” Andrews recalled in an autobiography.
Disney felt that late Edwardian England would provide richer visual opportunities and changed the time period from the 1930s to the 1910s; Tony agreed.
“I was awed by my husband’s attention to detail: his choice of materials, colors, and accessories, like Mary’s loosely hand-knitted scarf, or her iconic hat with the sprightly daisy on top. While supervising my fittings, Tony pointed out hidden touches like the primrose or coral linings of Mary’s jackets or her brightly colored petticoats.”
She recalled him saying, “I fancy that Mary has a secret inner life, and when you kick up your heels, you’ll catch a glimpse of who she is beneath her prim exterior.”
Although the couple divorced in 1968, and both remarried — Julie to director Blake Edwards and Tony to author Gen LeRoy — they remained close until Tony’s death in 2002.
Storytelling to preserve a connection
With her parents living on opposite coasts, Emma traveled back and forth between them. Determined to preserve their family connection, Julie suggested she and Emma write stories together that Tony could illustrate. The first was “Charlie the Englishman” (it later became the inspiration for their children’s book “Simeon’s Gift”).
Their first published children’s book was “Dumpy the Dump Truck,” inspired by Emma’s son, who loved trucks. The “Dumpy” books are set in the fictitious town of Apple Harbor, an amalgam of Sag Harbor and the U.K. Channel Island of Alderney where Julie and Tony had a holiday home.
Tony illustrated the series of five picture books, four leveled readers, and two board books.
Directorial debut at Bay Street
In 2003, Julie made her directorial debut at Bay Street Theater — which Emma and her husband, Stephen Hamilton, co-founded with Sybil Christopher — with a production of Sandy Wilson’s “The Boy Friend.”
She’d made her Broadway debut in the show at 19. Julie asked Tony to design the Bay Street production, which subsequently transferred to the Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam, CT, and then went on National Tour.
In 2006, Andrews and Emma published “The Great American Mousical,” a middle-grade novel about a troupe of theater mice, and Tony once again illustrated. The book was adapted into a stage musical with music by Zina Goldrich, lyrics by Marcy Heisler, and book by Hunter Bell. It premiered in 2012 at Goodspeed, directed by Julie and designed by Tony.
About Sag Harbor Cinema
As a community-based organization, Sag Harbor Cinema is dedicated to presenting the past, present, and future of the movies and to preserving the film-going experience in its three state-of-the-art theaters.
SHC engages its audiences year-round through dialogue, discovery, and appreciation of the moving image — from blockbusters to student shorts and everything in between.
The cinema itself was revitalized and reimagined through unprecedented community efforts after a 2016 fire nearly destroyed the iconic Main Street structure.
SHC members enjoy discounts on tickets and merchandise, and special access to the cinema’s rooftop lounge, The Green Room.” Learn more at sagharborcinema.org.
