Far from being practically perfect in every way, Julie Andrews once put a bumper sticker on her car which said: “Mary Poppins Is A Junkie.”
It was a jokey, failed bid to banish the sugary-sweet reputation she had been stuck with because of the role — but if she had actually told the truth behind the classic movie, she might have succeeded.
The actress shocked the children in the film with her swearing and by smoking on set — while co-star Dick Van Dyke was an alcoholic who struggled with suicidal thoughts even as he danced around singing “Chim Chim Cher-ee.”
Meanwhile, the writer of the original Poppins novels was at war with the film’s producer Walt Disney, obsessed with the occult, dogged by claims of racism and accused of ruining the life of her adoptive son.
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