I was invited by Disney on an expense-paid trip to LA last month for the premiere of FROZEN as well as other exciting experiences, like this Pete Menefee interview. Mary Poppins 50th Anniversary edition comes to Blu-Ray and DVD on December 10, 2013. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Pete Menefee was 14 years old when he started dancing professionally, 17 when he danced in West Side Story, and 18 when he played Harvey Johnson in the film Bye Bye Birdie. Just a few years later, at 21 years old, Pete Menefee was cast as one of the chimney sweeps in Mary Poppins…and his insight into the filming of the movie and all that went into it was nothing short of fascinating.
By the time Pete was in his mid 20s, he was acting as assistant choreographer and it occurred to him that dancing was a young person’s career. he knew he wouldn’t be jumping down chimneys at 37, so he decided to look for something else he was good at to carry him through the remainder of his working years. He had been drawing from a very early age (even before he was in school), but it had never occurred to him that he could make a career out of drawing. He’d been making money for so many years as a professional dancer, buying his first car at 14 and putting himself through college with the money he earned from his dancing jobs, and he was nervous to give that up.
Luckily, his talent for drawing took him very far.
Just 10 years after shooting Mary Poppins, Pete says, “In ’73, ten years later, I was dressing Julie for the opening special at Walt Disney World in Florida. I opened Walt Disney World for Walt.” What an exciting transition! Throughout his 44 year designing career, he designed costumes for the Moscow Circus, the cabaret show Jubilee in Las Vegas, Circus of the Stars, Miss Universe, many rock and roll acts like KISS, Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, etc, and recently the How to Train Your Dragon show and, as Pete puts it, “every ice show in the world.”
“So my career has been really varied as far as design goes. I’ve won three Emmys. I’ve been nominated for five of them. And I’ve just been privileged to work all over the world with all different people. You know, it’s been, it’s been really incredible.”
Rehearsing for Mary Poppins
“The movie was rehearsed here in June and July of ’63 and I don’t know how many of you live in the valley but it’s warm here,” Pete said about his time preparing for Mary Poppins. “They built a set on the back lot for us that was special for (the rehearsals). It was very springy so no one’s legs would get messed up like you do dancing on the concrete or hard surfaces. Walt was there every day, every single day. Walt, he knew everybody’s name. We had to wear the name tags but we were allowed to rehearse in swim trunks because it was blazing (hot) back there.”
It was interesting to hear Pete Menefee talk about those days of dancing for Mary Poppins. The stunts that those men tried while they were building their routines for the movie sounded scary. These were dancers, not stunt men, and yet…
“Three guys really did do flip flops between two buildings and it’s painted in perspective but it still is (real). It means that you’re throwing yourself over and catching yourself on your hands three times with a 15 foot drop below you and it’s grim. It is grim.
He continued, “And the section jumping into the chimney puffs was done with a technical person underneath each of our chimneys and the chimney was solid with a cutout and you would do the section and jump split and do the section again and jump split and the third time you jump split and then you tuck in and pull your knees up and the guy would trip the chimney and you’d fall into it and you’d fall and hit a mattress on the floor and front roll… I used to have nightmares about it.”
I can only imagine.
Pete went on to say, “It was like eight feet…which is a long. That wasn’t the bad part. The bad part was the chimney opening wasn’t that big. And I don’t have a big chin but I used to have nightmares that I had tucked and I would clip my chin, my teeth, my nose, you know, I mean I used to literally wake up sweating about it.
The first day that we shot, the first thing that we shot was the very last thing that you see us all dancing down the street at the end and that was hard because although we had worked for almost a month and a half with the brooms and everything we’d been working on a plywood floor. And all of a sudden we get out and we’re on a cobble stone street and there’s supposed to be four of us tumbling right next to each other and, you put the broom down. Even if it had a rubber point, you’d be all over the place. That was really hard.”
It wasn’t all terrifying stunts, though. Pete told the story of searching for the right sound for the animated dancing penguins in Jolly Holiday. Pete Menefee and a few of his fellow dancers were given flippers to “dance” with to make the sound of the penguin’s feet. It didn’t sound right. They tried dancing with the flippers on a wet floor, on sawdust…but nothing was sounding right. Finally, they broke for lunch. After they were done eating, Pete and another dancer, Bruce Hoy, were standing near the microphone. Here’s what happened in Pete’s words:
“I said, (boy) their food is so terrific here and Bruce pulled his shirt up and he said, [TAPS STOMACH] ‘It’s great!’ And somebody went, ‘Who made that noise near the microphone?’ So, when you see the penguins, think of five dancers with their shirts up going [TAPS STOMACH]. That’s how all the tap dancing was done. So it was great to work on it. I had great memories of it.”
Pete Menefee and his fellow chimney sweeps may have suffered through the hot Southern California summer that year. They may have had nightmares about the stunts that they had to perform. But they knew that they were part of something special, even before they saw the finished movie in the theaters.
“For most of us it was a job. It was your gig that summer but we knew that it was special when we were doing it. You don’t get choreography that good every day or an idea that’s that good. It was terrific to do.”
We are grateful they did.
Mary Poppins is being released from the Disney vaults in just a few days (12/10/13) in honor of the movie’s 50th anniversary (Wow!). I can’t wait to see it again and listen for the penguin flippers!
© 2013, Food Fun Family. All rights reserved.
So much about these gadgets revolves around style
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With this mobile phone you will be able to program
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Please let me know where you got your theme.
Cheers