Wednesday here at the coast, today is day 26 of 30 poems in 30 days!

Our guest today is the Awsome Arnold Senior, a pretty short poem about the changing face of London :

Mary Poppins and The Banks

would find it hard

to feel at home

in the shadow of the Shard

instead of St. Paul's Dome.

Facts about Mary Poppins

Walt Disney first began pursuing the rights to the book in 1938, but was rejected by the book's author, P.L. Travers.

Over the years, Walt Disney continued to make offers for the book's rights. In 1959, he and Travers finally met in person in London. She agreed to option the book to him.

Before Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke landed the parts, Walt was deadset on casting Angela Landsbury and Carey Grant

Julie Andrews almost turned down the role.

She had her heart set on the lead role in the film adaptation of My Fair Lady, and thought she would get it because she had already performed the role on Broadway. However, once the role was given to Audrey Hepburn Andrews said yes.

P.L. Travers hated the film.

After fighting for so long about giving up the film rights, she totally regretted giving them up. 

 The song "A Spoonful Of Sugar" was inspired by the polio vaccine. 

Walt Disney ordered his people to create a song to help woo Julie Andrews into accepting the part. One of the songwriters' children came to tell him about the polio shot they had just received. They said that it was so easy to take because the doctor put the medicine on a sugar cube and let the children take it with a spoon.

They were sued over "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious". 

Disney songwriters The Sherman Brothers claimed they wrote the song, but they were called out by songwriters Barney Young and Gloria Parker who said they wrote a similar song years before. They were unsuccessful in court however due to lack of evidence. 

Dick Van Dyke never had any dance training before being cast in the film.

In fact most of his moves are completely spontaneous!

If you have some work you'd like to showcase, then please do via my email.

neville.raper@yahoo.co.uk