All language subtitles for The.Boys.The.Sherman.Brothers.Story.2009.NTSC.DVDR-SADP.mkv.stream2-en

[piano music playing]

[applause]

[man] For the best song,
the winner is...

The winners are Richard M. Sherman
and Robert B. Sherman

- for Chim Chim Cher-ee.
- [audience cheering]

[orchestra plays Chim Chim Cheree]

All you can say is,
Supercalifragilistic...

- EXpia/idocious!
- [crowd laughing]

J‘ Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

J‘ Even though the sound of it
is something quite atrocious

J‘ If you say it loud enough
you'll always sound precocious

J‘ Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

So many people know their songs,

but not many people
really know the boys.

J‘ Chim chiminy, chim chiminy
Chim chim cheree

J‘ When you're with a sweep
you're in glad company

Mary Poppins has to be one of
the most beloved movies ever made.

It would not have been half the picture
it is without the music in it.

J‘ Let's get together
Yeah, yeah, yeah

J‘ Why don't you and I combine

J‘ Let's get together
What do you say?

J‘ We could have a swingin' time

You cannot forget a Sherman Brothers
song for your entire life.

J‘ I wanna be like you

J‘ I wanna walk like you
Talk like you

I remember the songs more
than I remember the movie itself.

J‘ The wonderful thing about Tiggers
ls Tiggers are wonderful things

J‘ Their tops are made out of rubber
Their bottoms are made out of springs

J‘ They're bouncy, trouncy
flouncy, pouncy

J‘ Fun, fun, fun, fun, fun!

J‘ But the most wonderful thing
about Tiggers is I'm the only one!

So many memorable tunes and songs

and moments that touch your heart.

J‘ I'm just a little black rain cloud

J‘ Hovering under the honey tree

[woman] These are the people
who wrote every song

that every child has grown up with.

J‘ In the tiki, tiki
tiki, tiki, tiki room

J‘ In the tiki, tiki
tiki, tiki, tiki room

J‘ All the birds sing words
And the flowers croon

J‘ In the tiki, tiki
tiki, tiki, tiki room

With modern media,
television, movies and Disneyland,

they just were in this extraordinary
position to have a gigantic impact.

J‘ You walked out of my dreams
and into my arms

J‘ Now you're my angel divine

J‘ You're sixteen
So beautiful

J‘ And you're mine

J‘ Toot Sweets

J‘ Toot Sweets

J‘ A bon-bon to blow on
at last has been found

Can you believe the output
of those two gentlemen?

[chuckling] All these great,
great songs.

J‘ Bang bang chitty chitty bang bang

J‘ Our fine four fendered friend

J‘ Chitty chitty bang bang
Chitty chitty bang bang

J‘ Fine four fendered
Chitty chitty friend J‘

[man] I'd never be
the success that I am

if he wasn't the success that he is.
Because we did it together.

[man 2] We had no sibling rivalry
when it came to writing.

I didn't pull away from him.
He pulled away from me.

The hardest part was...

I don't want...

- l'm Gregg Sherman. l'm Dick's son.
- l'm Bob Sherman's son, Jeff.

I met my cousin, Gregg, four years ago
at a Sherman Brothers event.

It was the opening of
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, 2002.

His family is sitting all the way
to one side of the theater,

and my family was sitting all the way
to the other side of the theater.

[G. Sherman] After the performance,
Jeff and I spoke all night.

It was the first time we'd talked
in almost 40 years.

[J. Sherman] I never saw him,
I never talked to him,

and we lived seven blocks apart.

Here were two men
that devoted their careers

to writing family entertainment music,

and yet, neither one of them
could get their families together.

[J. Sherman] My father and his brother,
Dick, worked closely for over 50 years,

yet there was a lot of
animosity between the two brothers.

[G. Sherman] l was told,
"When you're older, you'll understand.

It's better this way."

And I got older
and I still had no idea why.

[J. Sherman]
So we tried to figure it out.

[J‘ Chim Chim Cheree plays]

Bob and l are two and a half years

and about five eons apart.

[chuckling] We are different people.

[J. Sherman] Dad, since you moved
to London, do you miss Los Angeles?

I don't miss it at all. [chuckles]

I really don't.

[Richard] Funny thing about brothers,

you don't forget that relationship,
no matter how old you get.

I'm still the kid brother.

[J‘ A Spoonful of Sugar plays]

[J. Sherman] I'm gonna ask
basic questions to start, OK?

How's the sound? Can you hear him?

- OK, good. Hi, Dad.
- Howdy.

Good to see you.

- Good morning.
- Good morning.

- Hi.
- Ready to take a journey backwards?

[Richard] This is gonna be wonderful.

I've never set foot inside the house
since 1940.

We had a company
called Alley Productions.

That was when we were little boys.

We got bawled out by the folks

because we had taken
this newly-painted garage...

[Robert] We had a pot full of blue
paint, and we wrote "Alley Productions"

and it dripped.

We had two sawhorses and planks.

And we used to put on plays.

[Richard] Bob was
the director/producer/writer,

and l was the performer.
I would be the star.

One thing I wrote was Avaron. He was
this strange guy from outer space.

I am Avaron, the soul searcher,
looking for an honest soul.

Bob did not approve
when I did my own variations.

He did whatever he wanted to do.

The kids'd just sit on the ground here?

No, we had stools for them.
This was a high-class operation.

[J. Sherman] Was there any business
aspect to the Alley Playhouse?

We used to charge one or two cents.
Dick let all his friends in.

If they didn't have pennies,
he'd let them in anyway.

[Richard] Bob didn't like that. He said,
"No, they gotta pay to see the show."

And Mom and Dad'd always stand
in the back, like this, watching us.

And they never made us
un-paint the door.

We were a very close-knit family.

We used to have a slogan:
"Always together, always one."

They loved me. They loved him.

l was Bobby-boy. He was Dicky-boy.

[Robert] Dad was a
tremendous kite-maker.

And he used to take us out on weekends
and buy string and buy paper

and mucilage, and he'd make these
marvelous kites that would fly forever.

Kids would gather around
and he'd give them kites.

- He mended it!
- It's wonderful!

However did you manage it?

J‘ With tuppence for paper and strings

J‘ You can have your own set of wings

J‘ With your feet on the ground
you're a bird in flight

J‘ With your fist holding tight
to the string of your kite

J‘ Ohh... Ohh... Ohh...

J‘ Let's go fly a kite

On Sundays, Grampa Al
would come to the house

and he'd give me a piano lesson.

When the wind would start blowing,
he'd just sort of point to the door

and land my whole family
would run across the street

to this little round park,
and we'd make and fly kites.

I remember, in the early days,
Gregg's family and my family would

do this all together.
And those were great times.

[Richard] My father was born
in a little town outside of Kiev.

And in the year 1909, the Sherman family
immigrated from the old country

to America.

[J. Sherman] As a young man, Grandpa Al
got a job as a mood music pianist

for silent motion pictures
at Biograph Studios in the Bronx.

That's where he met Rose Dancis.

[J‘ Needle in a Haystack plays]

My mother, she was an actress.
She was in silent films.

She was a lovely lady.

[man] Music and the entire show business
was really centered in New York City.

The Brill Building at Tin Pan Alley,

that's where all the songwriters
gathered and plugged their records

and got record deals.

Al Sherman was
a Tin Pan Alley songwriter.

[up-tempo music playing]

[Osborne] You had to be
at the top of your game,

because if you didn't get the job,
somebody else'd win it.

Well, sorry, I've gotta
have something with snap.

[J. Sherman] Al had his first big hits,
composing bright, optimistic songs

during the Great Depression.

Many were recorded by Vaudeville stars
who were moving into the talkies.

Al Jolson, Helen Kane, Rudy Vallee
and Eddie Cantor.

My Dad, Jerry Stiller,
would go around doing:

J‘ Potatoes are cheaper, tomatoes...

I don't even know what this means,
but apparently, Eddie Cantor did this.

[Stiller laughing]

J‘ Now's the time to fall in love

J‘ Now's the time to fall in love

What we recognize
as the American sound...

...so much of it came from
people like Aaron Copland

or George Gershwin.

Similarly, Al Sherman.
Interestingly enough, all three of them,

were first generation children
of immigrant Russian Jews.

Probably the least likely
people you could imagine

that were able to
manufacture what we all recognize

as being quintessentially American.

It's kind of a... In the history
of music, it's a miracle.

[I Save Your Sorrow plays]

[Richard] During the 30s, there was a
tremendous migration of pop songwriters

that were coming out to Hollywood.

And Dad was hired.
Somebody wanted him.

We drove to California in an old Chevy.

[Richard] It was a long,
tedious trip out to California.

I remember we had no air conditioning
at the time, so it was blistering hot.

Just about the day
he arrived in California,

the executive that had hired him died.

So here he was with his children
and his wife and no job.

But even though we were
going through tough times,

Dad always wrote optimistic songs.

J‘ I'm so happy

J‘ Happy go-lucky me

J‘ [just go my way

J‘ Living every day

The fortunes of songwriting
was such that we had to move often

and I had to change friends,
go to different schools. Terrible thing.

There's no paycheck
at the end of the week.

It was just, maybe you'll have
some song that makes some money or not.

J‘ Kissing in the sunlight
Loving in the moonlight

- J‘ Having a wonderful time J‘
- [people cheering]

I met Bobby at El Rodeo School.

He was extremely observant.
Gives an impression of shy.

Very interesting eyes that
always were very alert, watching.

[Robert] Sam, he used to come to my
house. We spent a lot of time together.

He's my best friend.

[Goldwyn] I remember my father
once saying, "Friends, friends.

You're very lucky
if you've got one friend,

and you happen to be very fortunate
with that Sherman boy." [chuckles]

I remember Bob
was very proud of his father.

And the first thing he did was
to explain, "Well, he wrote a song."

And I said, "What was the song?"

And he said:
J‘ You gotta be a football hero!

J‘ To get along with the beautiful girls

J‘ You've got to be a football hero

J‘ To get along with the
beautiful girls J‘

[J. Sherman] Now,
you and Dick as kids...

...were you close?

Not really.
We were never close as kids.

Didn't know him that well.

We adored each other. I mean,
I looked up to Bob. He was my hero.

[Robert] When I grew up,
I wanted to be a writer.

Novels and plays.
I used to write poetry.

About everything. Mother's Day,
Father's Day, birthdays, weekdays...

Bob could recite a poem and everybody'd
say, "Oh, isn't Bobby wonderful?

He's wonderful." And Dicky
was sitting there, being a dweeb.

This was a very large cedar closet
that was Bob's darkroom.

And heads would roll if you went
in there when he was working,

- because it destroyed his...
- He'd go in here with Sam Goldwyn?

Yeah. Bob and Sammy
used to work in there all the time.

- [G. Sherman] And who was in this?
- Well, let me see...

- [knob hits floor]
- [laughing]

I'm up to my old tricks!

- You see that roof?
- [G. Sherman] Yeah.

There was, like, an open area here.

- I would jump off the roof...
- [G. Sherman laughing]

...just to create the illusion
that I could fly.

I certainly did weird things like that.
| used to jump out of trees a lot.

[J. Sherman] You got your accolades
through your achievements.

- How did he get attention?
- He had asthma.

[J. Sherman] He ended up in military
school. How did that come about?

Well, there's various versions...

I think he tried to
burn the school down.

- I didn't burn down the school!
- [men laughing]

lwas playing with matches, I mean...
That's not the same thing.

[J. Sherman] Did it change him?

He had a nice uniform.

[J‘ Follow Me, Boys! plays]

[Robert] We were in the war,

and I wanted to go
and kill the Germans.

l prevailed upon my parents.
They finally signed the permission.

So, at 17, l enlisted in the Army.

[J. Sherman] So you went overseas.
Where did you go?

[Robert] From France to Belgium
to Holland

to Luxemburg. And finally to Germany.

We were taking a little town
called Bredenbeck.

The captain says, "Fix bayonets.
And we'll charge."

We were shooting...

...and as l was crossing a field,
I got hung up on some barbed wire.

By the time | untangled myself,

a machine pellet hit me in the knee.

And that's the last
I remembered for a while.

He was really in bad shape
when I saw him after the war.

Really, it was very upsetting.

I couldn't believe it.
I couldn't believe the shape he was in.

And l was worried
he wasn't going to live very long.

The pain was just killing him.
And look what a survivor he is.

I had just graduated from high school
and Bob had gotten out of the Army.

[Robert] And I wrote some short stories,
typed them up.

Sent them out to about
12 different magazines.

One day, on the hospital ward,
they said,

"There's a telephone call for you."

"This is Grace Fischler
of Coronet magazine."

She said,
"We're gonna publish your stories.

One every month."

She said, "Henceforth, anything else
you write, I'd like to see first."

I said I'd never met a person
who used the word "henceforth."

We were both gonna go to
Bard College, New York State.

And I had to declare a major for myself.

Bob wanted to go into literature.
He knew that.

l was all of 17, in a terrible,
terrible depression.

And I decided to take a walk,
and as I walked, l was hearing music

and l was wondering,
"Where is this music coming from?"

And I realized it was
coming from my own head.

So I darted back to the apartment,
where we had a little piano,

and started picking it out
on the piano, this feeling I had.

I'd never done that before. Never.

And my father said, "What are
you doing here? What is this?"

I said, "This is something I felt.
I had to say it. This is what I feel."

He said, "You're gonna be a
music major." That's when it happened.

[playing piano]

[Richard] Because of the war,

Bob and I both entered
Bard College at the same time.

He was a war veteran, and l was
just a wet-behind-the-ears kid.

The two and a half years we were
separated by years became 10 years

because he had lived
so much more than I had.

[Robert] I looked at things
a lot differently.

So he went with his friends,
I went with mine.

We didn't speak much to each other.
That's the way it went.

[J. Sherman] Would you go home
for Christmas break or anything?

[Robert] I stayed at school and it was
boring because nobody was there.

Dick had a girlfriend.
He went to their home.

[Richard] It was kind of a
childhood romance, that type of thing.

We sort of got married. That's one
of those things that we did.

It was a mistake,
but a beautiful thing happened.

We had a little girl named Lynda.

Whom we both adored.

After school, the reality hit us.
We came back to California.

And, all of a sudden,
I had to make a living.

My grandfather had a very
well-established dry cleaning business.

He wanted Dad to go into the business

because he knew it could
support his wife and child.

[Richard] It was kind of terrifying,
because I wanted to be a songwriter

more than anything in the world.
I'd rather do that than breathe.

It would be a very unhappy marriage
to keep going like this.

And, uh, it had to end.

And I had my clothing
and a few articles that I owned

at the little apartment
that I shared with my first wife.

I needed help to get
the stuff out of there.

And I said, "Bob, you gotta help me.
| just can't do this by myself."

[J. Sherman] You remember having
to go to his then-wife's place

and getting his stuff
and helping him move out?

I don't remember.

[Richard] It was a very embarrassing
thing for him to go through this,

but he said, "OK, I'll do it.
I'll do it for you."

He said, "You owe me, kid."
I said, "I know, Bob. I owe you."

And he collected one day on that one.

J‘ Just when you're sure
of a dream that you planned

J‘ That's when the scenery changes

J‘ It changes

We both didn't necessarily
want to be songwriters.

What I wanted to be was a great
symphonic composer. And Bob...

I wanted to write
the great American novel.

- He was determined.
- Or at least a Californian novel.

After graduation from college,
we both set about to do that.

l was writing my
great symphonic sketches,

and Bob was writing
chapter after chapter

of the most boring drivel
you've ever read in your life.

And I'd say that about
the music l was writing, too.

Because I don't want to just
single you out for achievement.

[people laughing]

- But one day our dad...
- It was good punctuation, though.

[J. Sherman] There's something
I never completely understood.

You guys were very different, lived
different lives, had different friends,

but you still chose to live together.
Why was that?

It was economically good because
our folks were giving us the money.

[Richard] Bob and I took a little
apartment over a cleaning store.

[man] Dick always all his papers
and everything all set up

on the ironing board. I don't think
they could afford a desk at that point.

And the lady next door,
who was upstairs, was deaf.

So I could play the piano all I wanted,
and Bob could pound on his typewriter

as much as he wanted. One day,
our dad came up to our little apartment.

He said, "I'll bet you two guys
couldn't pool your talents

and come up with a song that some kid
would give up his lunch money to buy."

Bob and I both kind of looked at each
other and said, "We could do something."

So we tried it. And it wasn't easy.
It was very difficult.

[Richard] Dad used to say,
"The three S's.

Keep it singable, simple and sincere."

- And original.
- [Robert] He was the greatest teacher.

Finally, after about three
or four months, he said,

"You got a hook here in this one idea."

And it was called,
Gold Can Buy Anything But Love.

[Robert] He pointed us in the direction
of Hollywood and Vine.

He said, "There are
a lot of publishers out there.

Now you go play 'em for them."

[Richard] Finally, one publisher said,
"I think it's a pretty good song."

We were overjoyed because
Gene Autry had recorded it,

and he was the number one
country western singer of the day.

[man on radio] Now, here's our
newest Columbia recording

that we think is gonna be a big hit.

[Robert] People on Vine Street
were congratulating us.

They heard it on the radio and said,

"How does it feel having a hit
for your first time out?"

And we said, "We don't know yet."

One day we heard an announcer
on the station saying,

"And now we're gonna hear Gene Autry's
smashing hit, breaking all records..."

And we were ready
to congratulate ourselves...

We started spending the money, mentally.

President Truman had recalled
General MacArthur

and had asked him to resign.

And MacArthur made a speech and he
concluded his speech when he said,

"I remember the old
barracks room ballad..."

...that old soldiers never die.

They just fade away.

[Richard] And Mr. Autry decided
to record it that same day.

Our song was called off the presses.
It never saw the light of day again.

And that was the end of our careers
as songwriters, we felt.

By some amazing miracle,
our father seemed to know

we were gonna be charging into
Hollywood to speak to our publisher.

He cut us off at the pass.
He says, "I know what you're thinking.

But if you can't learn to take a curve
in this business, get out of it."

J‘ Dress it up two three four

J‘ By the ranks or single file

J‘ Over every jungle mile

[Richard] l was gonna be drafted,
and I joined the Army Reserve.

[J. Sherman]
He never saw any kind of action?

Never killed anybody.
He started conducting the band.

I never fired a shot in anger.
I shot my mouth off a lot. [laughs]

[man] Wipe off that silly grin, soldier.
This is the Army.

[man] I met the Sherman brothers,
kind of collectively,

back in the very early '50s.

All of our friends were
struggling artistes, if you will.

We had, practically every week,
our pals over and we'd run pictures.

Bob was there and Joyce was there,
but they didn't come together.

They just met there.

[Robert] She was an airline stewardess.

l was strucken with her.

She was gorgeous.

Slim, suntanned...

I called her and asked her
if she'd like to go to a movie.

I couldn't look at the movie.
I kept looking at her.

l was nuts about her.
| asked her to marry me.

- [J. Sherman] On your first date?
- Yeah.

And she called Wisconsin,
said, "I met a real great guy."

[J‘ Johnny Mathis:
Things I Might Have Been]

It was simple.

who is now Elizabeth Sherman.

I came back from a trip
and who was there?

The girl that I wanted
to look up in the first place,

that I had met a few weeks earlier.

[woman] He asked me if I'd like
to hear a record he had just gotten.

And I said,
"Oh, sure! What did you buy?"

And he said,
"Well, I didn't exactly buy it."

And I said, "What did you do, steal it?"

Because he had told me he was
in the insurance business.

And l was losing interest quickly,
because I thought

he was too excited
to see me and he lies.

Elizabeth taught me
how to laugh at things.

Changed my whole perception of life.

[J‘ Louis Armstrong: 'Bout Time]

lthink l'm instrumental in being Cupid

on those two things for just having
a nice place for people to meet.

[Robert] I got one room
in a building in Hollywood.

And I let everybody know
that l was publishing.

[J. Sherman] What was the name
of your publishing company?

Music World Corporation.

Bob had the determination
to publish songs on his own.

[Robert] I wrote with different
partners. One of them was Bob Roberts.

[Richard] They were having
a bit of success together,

and l was doing my own thing,
writing on my own.

I didn't want to write with him.
We were going in our own directions.

[Richard] He did say, "Come up
if you ever have a good song

you think you have, and
nobody else wants it. Bring it over.

Maybe I can do something with it."

One day, l was driving down Santa Monica
Boulevard and there was a sign

and it said, "The Tall Girls Shop."
"Tall." Ooh, that's a good word, tall.

Bob Roberts and I had
the start of a song called

Chalk on the Sidewalk
Writing on the Wall,

and Dick came in and he joined us.

J‘ Chalk on the sidewalk

J‘ Writing on the wall

J‘ Everybody knows it

J‘ I love Paul

J‘ Tall Paul

J‘ Tall Paul

J‘ Tall Paul

J‘ He's my all

Walt Disney company, they were looking
for a song for Annette Funicello,

who was a big star of the Mouseketeers.

We always called her our lucky star,
because she started it.

[Robert] It became a smash.

Bob Roberts was not too happy
about the fact that the kid brother

was coming into the thing. And we
wrote a lot of songs, the three of us.

At one point, there was a big fight.

Roberts said,
"I think I should add more bass."

- And Dick said, "No."
- All of a sudden, he lost his cool.

He threw a pair of scissors
at me across this sound booth.

Whap! Like that.
I pulled out of the way, thank God.

Bob got up, grabbed him
and shoved him out the door.

And I said,
"I never want to see that guy again."

And from then on,
Dick and I wrote together.

[J‘ Johnny Burnette: You're Sixteen]

[J. Sherman] Dad and Dick
were occasionally landing songs

and getting some air play,

but their families were growing
and it was tough to make ends meet.

We started writing more songs for
Annette. She recorded about 15 of them.

[man] Take three. Baker. Uh...
Pineapple Princess.

And you guys knew
how nervous I was.

And you were so supportive.

You see, the trick was...
You know what Tutti said to me?

He said, "Anytime she
looks worried about the song,

you sing it for her. She knows
she can sing it better than you."

[J‘ Annette Funicello:
Pineapple Princess]

[Richard] Bob had gotten a phone call
from the musical director

of the Disney Record company.

He said, "The studio wants
to put Annette into a film

and they need a song for her. Would you
guys like to take a shot at writing it?"

I said, "You're kidding! Really?"
He said, "Yes. They need it right away."

So we drove to the studio.
And there was a big fence.

There was a guard there.

[Richard] We thought we'd have to pay to
park. We had about 35 cents between us.

[Robert] So we parked outside
the studio. We walked in.

Jimmy Johnson, the head
of the music company at Disney,

said, "Walt wants to hear it."

"Walt Disney?"

So Bob and l, terrified,
walked into Walt Disney's office.

[Robert] And he started
talking about a picture

with two girls that were sisters.

They were twins, but they had never met.
They meet in summer camp.

We let him go for a while.
We said, "But, Mr. Disney..."

[Richard] We didn't let him go.
This was Walt Disney talking to us.

You don't interrupt a man like that.

But, at a certain point,
Bob got the courage to say,

"Mr. Disney, we came here to play
you a song for The Horsemasters. "

And we played the first song we
ever wrote for a Disney production

and that was a song
called Strummin' Song.

J‘ So ho-hum
Let's sing a strummin' song

J‘ Ho-hum
Let's sing a strummin' song

J‘ Ho-hum
One that we can hum along

J‘ Ho-hum
One that we can hum along

He listened to the song,
and he said, "Yeah, that'll work."

And we got kind of confused.
What do you mean, it'll work?

It's a good song.

We didn't realize that when
he said, "lt'll work,"

he meant, "lt'll work."

[Disney] Walt, at first, was never
quite satisfied with anything,

but he would drag you
into doing something even better

than you thought you could.

[Richard] He said, "Listen, I wasted
a lot of time on this other thing,

so why don't you get 'em a script
and maybe we can

come up with a song for this picture."

J‘ Let's get together
Yeah, yeah, yeah

J‘ Why don't you and I combine

J‘ Let's get together
What do you say?

J‘ We could have a swingin' time

J‘ And though we haven't got a lot

J‘ We could be sharing all we 've got

J‘ Together

Bob and Dick were just
always warm and sweet and loving.

I can remember them sitting there
playing and laughing.

J‘ Nothing could be greater
Say, hey alligator

You know, I felt
that I knew them of old.

J‘ Yeah, yeah, yeah J‘

One propitious day, Walt took
this little red book off his shelf

and he handed it to us.

[Robert] The book was called
Mary Poppins.

He said, "You know what a nanny is?"
We said, "Yeah, a goat."

"No, no, it's a British nursemaid."

"Oh, OK."

This time, he just said,
"Tell me what you think."

We knew he was interested
in us as writers, as thinkers.

We found six chapters in her books
that we could put together

and make a story.

[Richard] We'd just written about
16 bars of various songs.

Two weeks later, we brazenly asked,
"Could we have half an hour

of Walt's very valuable time?"

And we stayed there for about
two and a half hours.

And he was as enthusiastic
as we were with what we were doing.

We circled the six chapters.
He smiled.

He turned around and got his copy,
opened it to the index.

The same six chapters were underlined.
It was a miracle.

He said, "Play me
that bird lady song again."

J‘ Their young ones are hungry
Their nests are so bare

J‘ All it takes is tuppence from you

He looked at us, and he said,
"That's what it's all about, isn't it?"

He said, "You guys like to write,
don't you?"

And we said, "Yes, sir."

"I would like you to come here...

...and work for me."

We said, "We'd love to work
for the studio!" And...

[sighing]

...that was the day. That was the day.

I think, probably, I'm the only person
who was really close to both of them,

who has ever been really close to both
of them, professionally or personally,

and was close to both their wives.

AJ Carothers,
one of Walt's favorite writers,

became one of ours. We were very close.

Bob loved AJ, too and his wife, Caryl.
We just kind of got along.

Everybody was kind of
fond of each other then.

[bell ringing]

[Carothers] Working
with them in the 60s,

we were happily
ensconced at Disney.

We were all three very happy there.

Walt Disney gave them a home.

That was very unusual for songwriters.

[Carothers] They were the only
songwriters Walt had under contract.

[Disney] The Sherman brothers
are not only very talented,

but very cooperative.

They go for the team play.

That's the way we work here,
it's a team.

They never knew what
the next assignment was gonna be,

but there would be one
just around the corner.

J‘ Color

J‘ Color

J‘ Color

[man] Walt Disney presents...

J‘ The Wonderful World of Color J‘

We started getting paid
by the Disney company.

It was marvelous.

It was the second week that
we were coming out of the studio.

We had gotten
our first $500 check, each.

They're paying us money to write songs.
Couldn't believe it.

It was exciting.
Best moment that we ever had.

Bob's car was in front of mine,
and he held up five like that.

And I held up five
and l waved back at him, like that.

And that was our hand signal.

As the weeks went on, it was 600.

And we were just reveling
in our relationships

with the studio and with Walt.

[Disney] Walt always knew
that music was about story.

Walt was all about story.
He was a great storyteller.

And both Bob and Dick
were great storytellers, too.

The Sherman brothers,
for more or less the first time,

brought a musical theater sensibility
to screen projects.

That was, I think, very influential.

We had a very definite philosophy.

We don't start anything without an idea.

The idea came first.
Then the music and the lyrics followed.

And we'd both throw lines
to each other, back and forth.

We sort of "Shermanized,"
we liked to call it.

So many people pigeon-holed
their songs as children's songs.

I didn't write kiddy songs,
I wrote songs for kiddies.

These are lyrics which have words in
them that are not in common currency

or they're words
that stretch the imagination.

J‘ Fortuosity

J‘ That's me own word

J‘ Higitus figitus
Migitus mum

J‘ Prestidigitonium

J‘ A Heffalump a woozle
is very confusal

J‘ Substitutiary locomotion come to me

J‘ I'll have fun with you
You'll have fun with me

J‘ Fundamental
Friendependability

We didn't want to write down to kids.
We wanted them to learn new words.

"Precocious" and
"supercalifragilisticexpialidocious".

[Carothers] We all had offices
in the animation building

and I heard these songs over and over
again 'cause I was in the same corridor.

[Richard] J‘ The biggest word you
ever heard, and this is how it goes

I blew it. I blew it right there.
I blew those words, the notes.

Dick tends to
not be very soft-pedaled

when he's singing his songs.

Once in a while, Bob and I would be
screaming some lyric or something,

and then a little rustle
would come under the door.

[Robert] A wonderful cartoonist
named Roy Williams

and he used to, whatever went on
in our office, write what he heard.

J‘ If you say it loud enough
you'll always sound precocious

J‘ Supercalifragilisticexpialidociousl J‘

- [Richard] That better?
- [piano playing, faltering]

- [banging keys]
- Oh!

- [piano playing, faltering]
- Oh!

[piano playing]

- [Richard] That was the best one.
- My brother Dick was spontaneous.

| always was slow and plodding.

He was in there.
And it was exciting.

It's great to work
with a guy who's a spark plug.

[Richard] When we'd come up
with a good song idea,

there were no two
happier guys in the world.

We just jumped for joy. It was
just fantastic. And we knew it.

We'd both look at each other and say,
"Yeah, we did it!"

They had the reputation,
which was largely true, I think,

that they could
write a song over lunch hour

and bring the next song back to you.

When something is
so ingrained in the culture,

people don't even have
a connection with the fact

that two guys sat in a room and
had to actually work and create that.

l was in their office,
and Richard, Dick,

would sitjust playing the melody,

really loud,
and just shouting out lyrics.

Anything that came into his head.

J‘ Put it in the album
The family album

J‘ Put it in the album
The family album

[Gordon] Robert was sitting
at his big desk, listening.

And every couple of minutes, as Dick
just went on, just shouting things,

Robert would raise his hand, like this.

Dick would stop, mid-chord,
and Robert would say one thought.

Our friends will love it.

J‘ Your friends will love it

- What can you rhyme with "love it"?
- "Put the date above it."

And Dick would go, "Oh, my God!"

And boom, go right in
and sing the perfect line.

J‘ All your friends 'll love it
Your family album

J‘ Put the dates above it
The family album

Dick was always very easy
to goof around with.

We always thought of him
as Mr. Sunshine.

Bob was much more retiring,
and I didn't entirely know

whether that was because he was shy

or whether there was
a sort of dark aspect to him

that countered Dick's sunshine.

Clearly, one might say,
"Oh, gee, Bob's moody."

I think that is so skimming the surface

of one of the most
complex people I've ever met.

Bob is a little more
Feed the Birds, I think.

And Dick is a little more
Supercalifragilistic.

[Gordon] The closest analogy that
I've ever been able to come up with

is John Lennon and Paul McCartney.

And if you think of Paul McCartney,
bubbly, effusive, very much like Dick.

You think of John Lennon, a little more
sardonic, a little darker, like Bob.

They would keep the songs
from being too sugary

and giving itjust that
little bit of adult twist to it.

J‘ Up where the smoke is all
billered and curled

J‘ Between pavement and stars
is the chimney sweep world

[Lasseter] What the Sherman brothers
did with Walt Disney...

They made these perfect moments

where dialogue, visuals,
animation, whatever

cannot communicate an emotion as
good as that Sherman Brothers song.

J‘ On the rooftops of London

J‘ Coo, whata sightJ‘

As a filmmaker now,
I don't forget those moments.

A man has dreams
of walking with giants.

To carve his niche
in the edifice of time.

[Robert] Walt kept
putting off Mary Poppins.

Finally, I learned
that he didn't have the rights.

We had poured ourselves for
two and a half years into this project,

dreaming of it and thinking about it.

There was a woman who wrote
the basic stories, called Mrs. Travers.

Pamela Travers.

I didn't know until later, but I heard
she had to agree to selling the stuff

that he put on with Bob and Dick
and Don DaGradi and Bill Walsh.

This enormous show for her.

These are two giant boats,
titanic vessels,

heading on a collision course.

And somewhere
in between, is a little raft

on which are sitting
Bob and Dick Sherman.

[audio recording plays]

[Travers] No, no, no.
No, no, don 't make it like that.

She was a very feisty...

...ramrod-straight old lady.

She didn't really hit it off
with children, oddly enough,

for somebody who was so famous
in the world of children's literature.

She was a witch.

Book freaked me out as a kid.

She breaks her fingers off,
and it's gingerbread...

She's kind of unpleasant.

[Travers]l beg of you not to do that.
You're going to spoil the whole thing.

[Robert] She didn't like any
of the ideas we had from her book.

None of them.

She didn't appreciate the genius
of what they had come up with.

Walt said,
"Listen, l have a lot of work to do."

He just got up and left the room.

I'd give anything to be there with you,
but this seems to be one of those times

l'm tied down here
at the studio night and day.

[Travers] Now look,
I do not think this is right.

You had to say the right thing and try
to press the right buttons with her.

[Richard] ...we want
to make this a great picture,

we want to do justice
in some way to the magic

of this wonderful pile of books here.
We love Mary Poppins, we really do.

[Travers] Thank you.

[Disney] She grudgingly,
finally, came through.

They made the movie
that they saw fit to make.

Michael, look!

It's her. It's the person.

l was very daunted by the thought
of doing my first movie ever.

Those songs were so compelling
and that's what made me feel,

"Yeah, if I was given half a chance,
I would be able to cut it."

[Van Dyke] Bob and Dick Sherman,
they played the songs for me.

I've never been so impressed
or enthralled in my life.

I said, "Oh, God,
I've got to be part of this."

J‘ But through the eyes of love

J‘ You can start

[\Nalton] One of the songs
that Dick and Bob really loved

when they originally played us the score

was, I think, called The Eyes ofLove.

Given how incredibly positive
Julie responded to the score,

they were really
kind of startled when she said,

She thought it was too direct.

It was not oblique enough
for Mary Poppins's character.

This was one of the
most important numbers to us,

and we were kind of heartbroken.

Walt said, "Try to write something
that would be more in keeping

with the way Mary Poppins would feel."

This one day, I came home from school

and all the shades were closed
in this room he was sitting in.

He was sitting in a chair.
I didn't see him right away,

it was so dark in the house.
He asked me, "How was your day?"

And I said I had
the Salk vaccine at school.

He said, "You let somebody give you
a shot? Did it hurt?"

I said, "No, they took out this plastic
spoon and put a sugar cube on it

and put the medicine in it
and you just ate it."

And I saw my dad go like this.

And with that, I said, "A spoonful
of sugar helps the medicine go down."

And I couldn't wait to tell Dick.

The next morning, I said, "A spoonful
of sugar helps the medicine go down!"

He said, "What?"

He said, "You nuts?"

J‘ For a spoonful of sugar

J‘ Helps the medicine go down

J‘ The medicine go down
Medicine go down

J‘ Just a spoonful of sugar
helps the medicine go down

J‘ In a most delightful way J‘

[Disney] Both of the boys, Bob and Dick,
were there all the time

because they were so involved in it
and so in love with it.

Richard and Bob were right down
at eye level with me

and we were all in this team together.

[Jane] J‘ Never be cross or cruel

J‘ Never give us castor oil or gruel J‘

Richard's always reminded me
of the little errant penguin,

runs onto the screen, madly in love
with Mary and bumping into everything.

That's Richard Sherman.

Robert Sherman,
devastatingly handsome, very sartorial,

trying to describe to we kids
what the scene was about.

l was at a party the other night
and a 22-month-old girl,

that tall, walked up,
and she said, "Hi, Burt!"

And I said, "Hi, what's your name?"
She said, "Mary Poppins."

She stepped on my lap
and we sang the entire song...

J‘ It's a jolly holiday with Mary...

J‘ Mary makes your heart so light

You haven't changed a bit, have you?

J‘ When the day is gray and ordinary

J‘ Mary makes the sun shine bright

Oh, honestly.

That's the third, maybe the fourth
generation of children

that are charmed by that movie.

It's a great tribute
to the Sherman brothers.

We kind of stepped into the big time
in a real serious way with Mary Poppins.

[man] Hollywood
goes to a World Premiere!

It was a real live-action movie.
My goodness.

Look at Disney doing this sort of thing.

[man] Here in the fon/I/ard court of the
renowned Grauman's Chinese Theatre,

all of Hollywood awaits the
world premiere of Walt Disney's

- Mary Poppins!
- [blows whistle]

[man] It appears that
Walt Disney is arriving!

Walt's last premiere was in 1937
for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

[Disney] Bob and Dick and wives
were in a limo together,

creeping up to the front of the
Chinese Theatre with the window down.

Some little girl poked her head
in the window and looked at them,

looking for celebrities, and said,
"They're not anybody."

And Joyce Sherman goes,
"We are too somebody!" [laughing]

| always loved that story.

Of course, by the time the evening
was over, indeed they were somebody.

[Robert] They had the parking lot
tented with parties

and we're coming out of the theater
and Mrs. Travers was coming out.

She didn't look too happy.
She really was not too pleased.

Said, "Well, I guess we'll have to roll
our sleeves up and get it straight."

He looked at her and said,
"Pamela, the ship has sailed."

The period, 1963 to '69, basically,

Walt brought songs and music
into the parks for the first time.

The first one was Tiki Room
which Bob and Dick wrote.

[Lasseter] The Sherman Brothers' music,

within the amusement park rides,
it takes you to those places.

You forget about the
long line you just stood in.

You are taken away.

J‘ Welcome to our tropical hide-a-wa y

J‘ You lucky people, you

J‘ If we weren't in the show
starting right away

J‘ We'd be in the audience, too

[Richard] We were given
the assignment to do a song

for the UNICEF pavilion
at the World's Fair.

Which was called "UNICEF Salutes
the Children of the World."

The first time I met Dick and Bob,
we had set up a test

of how we were going to do
the music from different countries.

And it was a mess.

It sounded like a million kids
all singing different things.

It was a cacophony.

Walt says, "Can you write one song
that'll cover everything?"

We said, "Well, we'll try."

J‘ It's a world of laughter
A world of tears

J‘ It's a world of hopes...

People think it's a little novelty.
It's a prayer for peace.

J‘ That it's time we're aware

J‘ It's a small world after all

We have to learn to live together
and respect each other.

Or we're gonna blow each other up.

| get so moved in the boat,

going through that
and seeing all the children.

There is something that
is so wonderfully moving,

and the song always gets to me.

It's like this life-changing
experience as a child,

when you go on it,
because it's sort of scary but not.

You do spend about
five minutes in there

where that thing is cycling
around endlessly in your ear.

Once it's in your head,
it's just there forever.

In a good way.

It's a lovely song,

the first... four or five thousand
times you hear it.

And then itjust,
like, drills into your brain.

You wake up in the middle of the night
and it's still going.

- J‘ It's a small world after all...
- No, no! Anything but that.

l have this image of both
your fathers sitting there, like...

[cackling]

It's probably the most important thing
that's in any of the parks.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if people
acted like the words of that song?

In 1964, we all flew together on Walt's
private plane to the World's Fair,

where they were introducing
It's a Small World.

And when the ride was about
a third of the way through,

the tape broke. And the four of us
stood up and sang It's a Small World

through the rest of the ride. Which was
really fun. We had a good time together.

[Osborne] Jerry Lewis said that when he
and Dean Martin started out as a team,

that Lou Costello gave them advice
that he had gotten from Stan Laurel.

And that was: Never let your wives
socialize with each other.

Where you get four people involved
in it, then personalities take over

and it doesn't work.

[Carothers] The wives were
very different, one from the other.

As were their husbands.

So, I think had they not been brothers,
they are two couples

that never would have
had a relationship.

Because I don't think
they had enough in common.

Dick has never changed from the day
they were above the cleaning shop.

Very careful about
where his money is spent.

Probably has a big coffee can
in his backyard full of gold.

Dad is probably the most generous...

...human being on the planet.

I liked Laurie Partridge.
I wanted a keyboard

so he got me this
entire huge church organ

and I think I played it
eight times, total.

Bob would be more the businessman,
and I would be more the other guy.

I would do things for nothing.
Just for the fun of it.

Dick thought that Bob was extravagant
and threw money around,

and Bob thought that Dick was...

...close-fisted and uptight.

So they were...
Their lifestyles were different.

And so they didn't enjoy being together.

J‘ So there's a great
big beautiful tomorrow

J‘ Shining at the end of every day

J‘ There's a great
big beautiful tomorrow

J‘ Just a dream away J‘

Well, it sounds pretty good.
In fact, that's just the right spirit.

Songwriters Dick and Bob Sherman
of the Walt Disney Studio.

Bob and Dick wrote that as a tribute
to Walt, about Walt's optimism.

Thanks, boys. Say goodbye to the folks.

Bye-bye.

[both] J‘ There's a great
big beautiful tomorrow...

As I said, that's the spirit.

[Robert] Walt was a marvelous,
creative person,

with a lot of imagination.

Like our dad.

[Richard] We were amazed
to be nominated

because it was our first time out
with a major picture.

[Robert] It was like
we were walking on air.

[G. Sherman] What do you remember
about the 1965 Oscars?

Well, ljust remember
that we were all gorgeous.

- For best music score...
- [woman sneezes]

Oh, God bless you.

The winners are Richard M. Sherman
and Robert B. Sherman

for Mary Poppins!

- [audience applauding]
- [orchestra plays Chim Chim Cheree]

We're so touched. We want to thank
the inspiring Mr. Walt Disney,

- Mr. Bill Walsh...
- Mr. Don DaGradi...

- lrwin Kostal, Bob Stevenson...
- Julie Andrews.

- Dick Van Dyke.
- Dick Van Dyke.

There are so many people
connected with Mary Poppins,

I'm sure we left
quite a lot of them out.

We'll stay up all night thinking...

Thank you, thank you, Academy,
very much.

[Richard] We both won two Academy
Awards, so we took pictures with Julie.

We posed with one
of them behind our backs

so it wouldn't look like
we were over-powering her.

[Robert] Overnight, every doorman,
every maitre d',

every waiter knew our names.

The next day, we went
to Walt's office to thank him.

We marched in with our four Oscars
and we put 'em on his desk.

And he's working away on a script
and he looks up and he said,

- "Well, boys..."
- "...Congratulations.

You hit a home run."

"But remember,
you had the bases loaded."

[Robert] "Now just try to get on base."

[J. Sherman] Mary Poppins
was the breakout hit

all songwriters dreamed to have.
The question always is: What's next?

J‘ Uh-huh, she loves a monkey's uncle
Yeah, yeah

J‘ She loves a monkey's uncle
Whoa, whoa

J‘ She loves a monkey's uncle

J‘ And the monkey's uncle 's ape for me

J‘ Love all his monkey shines
Every day is Valentine 's

J‘ I love the monkey's uncle and
the monkey's uncle 's ape for me

J‘ Ape for me J‘

J‘ Nose like a Geiger
Oh, whata tiger

J‘ He's that darn cat

[Richard] When we were given this book,
we couldn't get with it at all.

Kiddy stuff.
We weren't very impressed.

l was their sort of resident Brit.

And, as a kid, a fanatical Pooh fan.

I think they're exaggerating,
but they used to say my enthusiasm

for it had triggered a kind of
creative release for them.

"Winnie the Pooh. He saved my life.

l was a tubby little kid. Winnie the
Pooh was tubby, but he was wonderful."

J‘ When I up, down
Touch the ground

J‘ It puts me in the mood

J‘ Up, down
Touch the ground

J‘ In the mood

J‘ For food

Bob, I remember,
looked at me and he said,

"Deep in the Hundred Acre Wood,
where Christopher Robin plays..."

I said, "Oh, my God!
Don't stop!" And I said...

J‘ Deep in the Hundred Acre Wood

J‘ Where Christopher Robin plays

J‘ You'll find the enchanted neighborhood

J‘ Of Christopher's childhood days

- J‘ Winnie the Pooh
- Pooh.

- J‘ Winnie the Pooh
- Pooh.

J‘ Tubby little cubby
all stuffed with fluff

J‘ He's Winnie the Pooh
Winnie the Pooh

J‘ Willy, nil/y, silly, old bear

[man] Just before I came to Disney,
the AIDS crisis hit in New York.

And unbeknownst to me,
Howard was ill.

In fact, most of the people l was
working with were sick and dying.

All we could watch were
these Disney animated features.

And I would just escape into them
with my daughter on my lap.

I remember that the balm for my heart
was actually Winnie the Pooh.

I'd be sitting, going,
J‘ Winnie the Pooh

J‘ Winnie the Pooh

[Carothers] Walt would talk
to them about a song

that he thought might
be good for an upcoming project,

and Dick would go run to
the piano and start playing something.

- And say, "How about this?"
- [Richard] Bob was always thorough.

He called me "Fast and Wrong Dick."
That was his nickname for me.

And sometimes I was wrong, I will admit.

- Sometimes I was right.
- [Carothers] Bob really got annoyed

with the "I can have it for you
in 10 minutes" thing.

At times, he just lost it.

[J. Sherman] How did you
work with Uncle Dick?

Like brothers.

[J. Sherman] What would you do
if you didn't like his ideas?

- I'd tell him so.
- What would you say?

"lt stinks." [chuckles]
And he'd say the same to me.

[man] My father, Mike Conner, was
the Shermans' manager for 30 years.

He was also sort of
their agent and lawyer,

and given the relationship, he was also
the referee and the mediator.

- We argue quite a bit.
- I'm gonna disagree with you on film.

They could argue
about almost anything.

lt's akin to poetry.

But it has to be sung, so it really,
truly isn't poetry in itself.

And almost at the drop of a hat...

But it telescopes
in the space of time.

OK. You just sort of
completely threw me,

because I didn't know
if you were disagreeing with me.

- His question was...
- This shouldn't be on the film.

A lot of my choice of lyricists is based
on who I want to be in the room with.

lfl had to collaborate
with one of my siblings... [chuckles]

It's sort of unthinkable.

And smile.

[man] The public perception
of their happy partnership

and jovial sibling relationship
was not true.

The crucible of creativity
for these guys is conflict.

J‘ If you study
you won't muddy...

J‘ If you study
you won't muddy up...

I'm the proudest daughter.

It gives me the biggest thrill to see
my father make the world so happy.

If my father loses his temper,
the roof might come off.

He can be quite explosive and loud.

That's just an artist being an artist.

[Richard] I got angry about something,

and I remember
once I pushed the piano away

and it came...
Because I was like, "Oh, damn it."

And the piano went
"clunk" on the floor.

That's it. I didn't kill anybody.

But these are things...
We're brothers, we're human beings.

We break a piano or break a typewriter,
and now you have computers.

You can't hurt a guy
too much with a computer.

[G. Sherman] How did you deal
with my dad's temper?

l dodged it as much as I could.

I didn't really acknowledge it.

Often, he would come home from work
frustrated and angry with something

Dick had done or said that day.
And he'd want to leave the team.

And my mother would instantly
pull out this typewriting table,

put it in the middle of the room and
say, "Go ahead, write your novel."

He'd write a poem or short story
and those frustrations would subside.

Privately, Mom did more to keep
the Sherman brothers together

than anyone ever knew.

As time went on,

and their relationship
became more and more strained,

it was more difficult,
of course, to work together.

[Richard] Walt was not happy
with the first version of Jungle Book,

the way it was going.

And he decided
to scrap practically everything

except one wonderful song by Terry
Gilkyson, called The Bear Necessities,

- which everybody knows and loves.
- [Robert] Walt called us in,

"I'd like you to Disnify it,
have fun with the apes."

So we wrote I Wan'na Be Like You.

J‘ Now I'm the king of the swingers
Oh, the jungle VIP

J‘ I've reached the top and had to stop
and that's what's been botherin' me

[Robert] We figured Louis Prima
would be the ideal character,

and so we went to Las Vegas

and played the song for Louis
and the boys. They loved it.

We had Louis's band filmed

so the animators
could pick up their movements.

It was ridiculous, but it was funny.

[both scatting]

[man] We could have Elton John
come in here right now,

I promise, because he's done it for me,

and sing the entire
song score to Jungle Book.

These songs are known by everybody.

J‘ Trust in me

J‘ Just in me

J‘ Shut your eyes

J‘ And trust in me

[Richard] Sometimes he'd
actually not come in.

And I said he's not
feeling well or something.

And, I don't know,
it started happening like that.

Bob came to my office
and told me that he was leaving.

That he wouldn't be around for a while.

He was worn out with everything.

And he was very depressed.

Profoundly depressed.

He didn't know where he was gonna go,
but he was gonna be gone.

Bob said, "You gotta do this for me.
I can't do this.

l have to have some clothes.
I've gotta get out of here.

You're gonna have to help me. You're
the only one who can do it for me."

And l was reluctant.
I didn't want to do it.

But, I did. Because he's my brother.

[J. Sherman] Tensions had been mounting
between Dick's family and ours.

For my mom, Dick showing up
at our house to get Dad's clothes

was the last straw.

A lot of misunderstandings took place

because I was trying to be kind
to my brother and help him.

Jeff, as a little boy, used to sit
on my lap and I loved him.

He was a beautiful little boy.
And we just had a simpatico.

It was fantastic.
And I didn't see him after that.

[J. Sherman] A couple of days later,
Dad was back,

and no one ever talked about it.

Bang, we just went...
We'd see each other at events,

and we'd always keep a nice front
in front of everybody.

Nobody ever suspected that Bob
and I didn't see each other socially.

This is painful stuff. I don't know.

That's enough.
I don't want to talk about that.

[J. Sherman] Do you have a favorite
Sherman Brothers song?

- Yeah.
- [J. Sherman] Which one?

Called On the Front Porch.

Beautiful little old-fashioned song.

J‘ Three creaky wooden chairs...

J‘ Those squeaky rocking chairs

J‘ The well-worn welcome mat

J‘ The lattice vines

J‘ The happy times

J‘ A!!! wanna do

J‘ When the day is through

J‘ ls linger here on the front porch

J‘ With you

J‘ Oh, how I love
to linger here like this

J‘ Hold your hand
and steal a kiss or two

J‘ On the front porch with you J‘

[Osborne] In the 60s was a time
when the movie musical

was starting to fade out
a bit in Hollywood.

| always thought of the Sherman brothers
as these really great heroes

as long as there were musicals there.

But they were kind of
the flag bearers alone.

The Happiest Millionaire
was my first film.

It was an amazing,
amazing entrance into movies,

with the Sherman brothers.
The song is a scene in and of itself.

J‘ Then I'll know that l...

J‘ I'll know that l...

J‘ Reached into the sky

J‘ Reached to the sky

[both] J‘ I reached into the sky

J‘ And touched a star

[man] And the Shermans had that ability
to write singable songs

that had this simplicity
that let the performer shine.

[J. Sherman] What did Walt say to you

when you walked out of
The Happiest Millionaire screening?

"Keep up the good work, boys."

And it was kind of strange, because
he never said something like that.

And then he walked down the hall again.

[choking up] That's the last time
lever saw him.

He had cancer.
He was saying goodbye.

Walt dying happened
pretty suddenly to most people.

I loved him very much.

[Sklar] Privately, with Dick and Bob,

he didn't mind showing
that he was emotional.

And that was rare. We didn't see it.

[Robert] This was Walt Disney's office.

And often, on Fridays, he'd ask us
to come down and talk with him.

Then he'd say...
He'd look to me, and say, "Play it."

And I pretty much
knew what he wanted.

He wanted to hear his favorite song.

After he was gone, I'd still
come down on Friday afternoon

and play it for him.

J‘ Feed the birds

J‘ Tuppence a bag

J‘ Tuppence, tuppence

J‘ Tuppence a bag J‘

There was that feeling that
the Daddy-genius was gone.

And a lot of people wondering what
we're gonna do now without Daddy there.

Walt was, I call him uncle, but he
was Daddy to an awful lot of people.

[Richard] Markedly, from the time
Walt died, the phone stopped ringing.

Nothing came to us.
We had no good assignments.

There was some hostility towards the
Shermans from other folks at the studio.

Some thought that
they were Walt's special boys.

It was like, um,
we weren't needed anymore.

We felt like unnecessary
cogs in the wheel.

Which was about the time I decided

it wasn't fun working there
anymore and I left.

The phone rang one day and I thought
it was gonna be an assignment.

It wasn't that at all.
It was somebody saying,

"Have you turned in
your timecards for this week?"

That was strange because that
was something that never was done

in Walt's time.

After a while, we just decided
we didn't want to stay there anymore.

And we left.

[Broccoli] My father had been
producing the James Bond films.

He really wanted to make a film for us.

For us kids.

He used to say it was the happiest
experience he ever had on a film.

Because he had a wonderful working
relationship with the Shermans.

lt's ironic that
so many times people say

it's another one of Disney's
great pictures and it wasn't.

- It's actually Cubby Broccoli.
- There was a prince of a man.

Whenever we'd write a song,
we'd play it for him. He loved it.

[Broccoli] We lived in London and up on
the kids' area there was a piano.

And I remember the two of them playing
songs for my father on that piano.

They were like uncles.

They were really
a major part of our growing up.

J‘ Me ol' bam-boo
Me ol' bam-boo

J‘ You'd better never bother
with me ol' bam-boo

J‘ You can have me hat
or me bum-ber-shoo

J‘ But you'd better never bother
with me ol' bam-boo

J‘ You'd better never bother
with me ol' bam-boo! J‘

J‘ Someone to care for
To be there for

J‘ [have you too...

That song is my favorite
from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

That and Hushabye Mountain.

J‘ A gentle breeze

J‘ From Hushabye Mountain

J‘ Softly blows o'er lullaby bay

When we were doing the show
of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang,

I would look around the audience

and I would see grown men crying.

J‘ So close your eyes

J‘ On Hushabye Mountain

J‘ Wave goodbye to cares of the day

[Van Dyke] They wrote something
that is in a category by itself,

and will never been repeated by anyone.

Unless they do it.

J‘ Sail far away

J‘ From lullaby bay J‘

Goodnight.

I want every house on the square
to be searched from top to bottom!

[Broccoli] When you look at the story
of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang,

it's a very dark story
and a lot of it has the overtones

of the second World War.

And particularly the Nazis and having
the extermination of children.

There are children here somewhere!

I can smell them.

[J. Sherman] How do you think
my dad's war experiences affected him?

Well, it has cast
a shadow over his life.

I think that anyone
that you hear of or speak to

who had visited any of the camps,
they can never forget it.

l was the first American
into the Dachau prison camp.

My squad and I walked in...

...and we saw the poor, faded prisoners.

And I had terrible experiences

looking at corpses and ovens.

It was enough nightmares
for the rest of my life.

l relaxed.
Had a nervous breakdown.

In 1943, l was 17.

I didn't know anything about anything.

But I learned.

He never talked too much about it.

He didn't talk about it.
I don't think he wanted to.

[Robert] I've been painting
for many years.

Even before I was a songwriter.
I love painting.

I had to get rid
of the thoughts of Dachau,

and the thoughts of explosions
and pain and hospitals.

Beautiful things helped clean my soul...

...of the horror.

But the horror lasted a long time.

At that time, I didn't realize,
and I don't think any of us did,

what his personal experience
had been in World War II.

Sound the advance!

Just in time for the kickoff.

For Bob to have seen that,
and then have to reconstruct

this ridiculous little tableau
of these phony German soldiers

landing on the coast of Britain,

must have seemed like a play-acting
of the lowest order for him.

J‘ Which pets get to
sleep on velvet mats?

J‘ Nature/lement

J‘ The Aristocats!

[Richard] In the early 70s,
Bob and I came back to Disney

to complete work on two films,

The Aristocats and
Bedknobs and Broomsticks.

But, without Walt there,
it just wasn't the same.

[Ms. Price] J‘ You must face the age
of not believing

J‘ Doubting everything you ever knew

J‘ Until at last you start believing

J‘ There's something wonderful in you

Dad was our great catalyst.
He kept us together.

And he said on many occasions,

"As a team, you're gonna make it.
As a team, you'll be strong.

If you start dividing it up
and saying I did this, you did that...

you're not gonna have a team very long.
So just get used to it."

J‘ Oh, we've got lots in common
where it really counts

J‘ Where it really counts
we 've got large amounts

| travel all over America

and | go to England and Australia,

and what am | asked to autograph most
of all is the album of Charlotte's Web.

- How was that?
- Great. Right on the nose.

[J. Sherman] So Charlotte's Web
was your favorite score?

Yeah. My Dad liked that, too.

Great little pure songs.

J‘ How very special are we

J‘ For just a moment to be

J‘ Part of life 's eternal rhyme

It meant a lot to me, also,
because I loved my parents

and, obviously, they must
have loved theirs a great deal.

J‘ Mother Earth and Father Time

[Richard] Mom and Dad both lived
to see us win the Academy Awards.

They both lived through
a lot of our later successes.

Up until the early '70s.
They both were gone by then.

J‘ Mother Earth and Father Time J‘

After a funeral, the family
receives fellow mourners at a home.

Not this one. There were two.

They didn't attend
each others' receptions,

and everybody else
had to attend one or the other.

Ever since I was a little girl,
l was told,

"Well, if we meet at family events,
you can wave hello

and be polite, and that's best."

The first time that I
met Richard Sherman

and his wife, Elizabeth,
was at an event.

And they all went to
another side of the theater.

And I thought, "This is kind of odd."

Another person's weird is our normal.
That's just the way it was, growing up.

[J. Sherman] Dad got to the point of
exhaustion with the sibling rivalry

on a number of occasions.
But he always found a way

to get back up
the next day and have a plan

to bring his boys back together again.

J‘ He just knew that I'm soft-hearted
I'm just barely gettin' started

J‘ Now I'm taking all my...

- Try "Now I'm giving all my..."
- OK.

I actually can remember going up
to the Sherman brothers' office

where they were writing phrases

and trying to link into script scenes.

One of the beacons of
American 19th Century literature

was translated by the Shermans into
something wonderfully viable, musically.

J‘ That deep-down inside gratifaction

J‘ Oh, how good you feel
when your shoulder's to the wheel!

[Sibley] Everything in their career
has pushed them

into being two halves of a whole.

They are, by fate and fame,
shackled together.

How can that not,
at some point or other,

have caused as many problems
for them as individuals

as it has caused joy and delight to
all of us who have heard their music?

[J‘ Charley Pride: River Song]

J‘ Only once in his life

J‘ Is he free J‘

Bob was not as enthusiastic anymore.

He would say, "This is not exactly
doing Slipper and the Rose, is it?"

"It's not really doing
Charlotte's Web, is it?"

Or maybe it was me,
maybe I grated on him or something.

Bob would retreat to his own thoughts.

He'd love to paint. He'd sit at home
and paint and things like that.

Take trips up the coast. He would do
all kinds of stuff that | just didn't...

"Why aren't you writing? This is
the fun of life, is to write new songs."

It wasn't necessary.

We didn't just
write songs to write songs.

If there was a requirement
for a picture, we'd do it. That's all.

[Richard] He became more Bob Sherman
and I stayed being Dick Sherman.

[Menken] Howard and l,
we were in this conference room

and we were presenting
The Little Mermaid.

At a certain point, we were
told by one of the people at Disney,

"You know, next door,
the Sherman brothers are over there."

"Really?"

He said, "Yeah, yeah, yeah.
We gotta listen to them..."

But the implication being,

you're the hip, new guys. You're
coming in and you're gonna be, um...

We're gonna be in business together.
It was a surprising moment.

On the one hand, I felt this pride that
we were now entering this tradition.

On the other hand,
you feel the fleeting nature

of our importance
in Hollywood or in show business.

I knew they wrote Small World.

And I'm making a comedy

that deals with
this kind of fantasy land.

I said, "Write a real song that
you would write for a theme park

called Wonder World."

You're talking to Bob and Dick.
They're both here.

But you're talking to them
as individuals, not as a team.

| asked Bob and Dick
if they would be in the movie.

l was surprised
how thrilled they were.

Bob was in a bar with
Arthur Hiller and Ray Harryhausen.

And he was good.

Did you hear?
Somebody shot Dave Thornton.

- Somebody shot Uncle Dave?
- Is there a TV here?

Dick's cameo was just in the parade.
It's just a moment they trimmed.

He blew the whistle to lead the parade.

[whistle blowing]

I saw Bob. I said, "Hey, did you
like yourself in the movie?"

And he said, "Yeah."

But with the glee which he said,
"I enjoyed more that you cut Dick out."

Dad died January 7th of 1993.

He used to be the one that
filled in where Walt wasn't there

and where Dad wasn't there.
It would be Mike.

And then Mike passed away.

And so there was nobody
putting us together anymore.

[Carothers] Bob is a romantic.

And Dick is a sentimentalist.

And a lot of people think
that's the same thing, but it's not.

F. Scott Fitzgerald
had a wonderful definition.

He said, "A sentimental person
thinks things will last,

and a romantic hopes
against hope they will not."

And then one day, Bob just said,

"I don't think
we need the office anymore."

We weren't getting
these big assignments.

And so, I said,
"Well, OK. We will then."

I thought it was an end of an era.

Yes.

lronically, we got busy after that.

[man] When we sat down
to write the Tigger song,

Richard said, "Well, l was thinking
of something like this..."

[mouthing bass notes]

And I kind of went, "Well... Um...

I don't see me singing that."

And he turns to me and goes,
"Well, what did you have in mind?"

J‘ Sunny days and starry nights
and lazy afternoons

J‘ You're countin' castles in the clouds

J‘ And hummin' little tunes

I saw things happening that were
so fast between the two of them

that I didn't pay much attention to it.

| just accepted it as the shorthand
of two people

who've worked together all their lives.

They mentioned to me
that they'd been

away from the Disney camp
for quite a while.

But I didn't realize how emotional
it would be for them

to have another shot at writing

for a Disney movie,
let alone a Winnie the Pooh movie.

And how appropriate it should be called
Your Heart Will Lead You Home.

J‘ Just think of your friends
The ones who care

J‘ They all will be waiting there

J‘ With love to share

J‘ And your heart will lead you

J‘ Where you belong
lknow

J‘ Your heart will lead you

J‘ Home J‘

[Liebman] Joyce Sherman
was this stunning woman

with an amazing sense of humor.

She threw the most beautiful parties.
She loved to celebrate.

I think Joyce knew that she was not well

and she planned this huge trip
to Hawaii for the Bob Shermans.

- It was just beautiful.
- [J. Sherman] She had liver cancer.

She was in the hospital for
quite a while, and he never left.

Bob stood by her side in the hospital.
He would not leave.

He was devoted to her
until the very end.

[J‘ Gemma Craven:
I Can't Forget the Melody]

[J. Sherman] Did you always think
that, at some point in your life,

- you'd move to London?
- No.

But it so happened
at a point in my life,

when I became a widower,

I decided to change my whole...

...background.

Bob found that everywhere
he went was a reminder,

and he couldn't bear it.

So he had to get to someplace
where there were no memories.

[Carothers] Dick and l were at
Bob's house and Bob said to me,

"I'm moving to England."

And Dick said, "What?!"

I didn't know, but he'd leased out
his house and taken an apartment

and lives in London now.

I donated these two paintings
of mine to the temple.

My wife's name is up there.

l dedicated it to her.

[Broccoli] He always loved London.

It was kind of fortuitous
that the show went into rehearsal

at a time when he
wanted to make a change

and needed to make
a change in his life.

J‘ Bang bang chitty chitty bang bang

J‘ Our fine four fendered friend

J‘ Bang bang chitty chitty bang bang

J‘ Our fine four fendered friend

J‘ Chitty bang bang
Chitty chitty bang bang

J‘ Chitty bang bang
Chitty chitty bang bang

J‘ Chitty bang bang
Chitty chitty bang bang

Barbara Broccoli putting
on the play there

really kind of
saved his life, I think.

I'm grateful for that.

J‘ It's a small world after all

Come on, everybody!

J‘ It's a small world after all...

[Richard] I really enjoy my life.

I spend my time doing
all the things I love to do.

J‘ It's a small world after all

I think he keeps regretting the fact
that he didn't write that big novel.

[Robert] This is my book.

A lot of stories
about the people I've known.

A lot of sad stuff.
A lot of funny stuff.

[Richard] On my 50th birthday,
Bob surprised me and gave me this...

...personally cut it out and fixed
it up and put it into this frame

with a little note.

And the note is something
I'll treasure forever.

"The sun reflects upon our smiles.

Now we awaken and the mirror lies.
Time and place is transient.

Only love and memory abide,

for within our hearts
the major music hides.

On this, the celebration of your birth,

your worth to me is more than I can say.

[voice breaking]
It is rooted in the suns...

...in the suns of yesterday."
[crying softly]

[J. Sherman] You ask him how long
it takes to write a song.

Their old saying is "Your entire life
and the time it takes to jot it down."

And when you get
to know them and understand

what they've been through
with each other,

it's almost like a
Greek tragedy in a way.

They were put together
to do these things.

And that friction is what makes
these beautiful things come to life.

[J‘ Let's Go Fly a Kite plays]

Mary Poppins was
truly the culmination

of everything they've
had in their careers.

It was an incredibly perfect score.

Here it was, gonna premiere on Broadway,
and they were gonna be together.

Does it go under the collar
or stay over it?

- l have no idea.
- I don't either.

These things are the things
that drive me crazy.

Doing the right tie.

l'm nervous. I can't help it.
Just twitchy today.

- You got it there?
- I hope so.

So Dad, you ready for your big night?

Yeah, I'm ready.

[G. Sherman] Jeff and I had hoped,
in doing this movie,

it would give our dads
an opportunity to reconnect.

Hey, bro.

How you doing, kid?

[G. Sherman] In life,
not everything turns out

like a Sherman Brothers musical.

But, somewhere in their songs,
they do meet.

[playing piano]

[Robert] I didn't want to wallow
in the sadness of the world,

I want to bring happiness to people.

[Richard] Well, we've
had a good career together.

[Robert] We're different people.
We have different interests.

[Richard] Bob goes his way, I go my way.

I'd just like him to say,
"Hey, I'm glad I did what I did."

[Robert] When I look back
at what I've done,

I don't have any regrets.

[J‘ Louis Armstrong:
Ten Feet Off the Ground]

J‘ Lindbergh
Oh, what a flying fool was he

J‘ Lindbergh
His name will live in history

J‘ Over the ocean
He flew all alone

J‘ Gambling with fate
and with dangers unknown

J‘ Lindbergh...

J‘ Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

J‘ Even though the sound of it
is something quite atrocious

J‘ If you say it loud enough
you will always sound precocious

J‘ Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

Supercalifragilisticexpi...

Yeah, an hour ago,
I could have said it.

...expialidocious.

Or dociousaliexpisticfragicalirupus
backwards.

Are you impressed? I am.

And I said, "Mary Poppins
is a great movie and would make

a great stage musical." And l was right.

It's A Small World, it was invented
by the red Chinese as a torture thing.

They brought
so many people so much joy.

And if angst produces it,
maybe they should keep it up.

Although, I would like to see them
hug and kiss each otherjust once.

[J‘ Chitty Chitty Bang Bang plays]

[woman] Good morning, Discovery.

And good morning, Pam, and thank you
so much for that great wake-up music,

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

[woman 2] Thanks, that's one of my
favorite Sherman Brothers' songs.

The shuttle may not have
"fine four fenders "

but it's got two beautiful wings

and we 're looking fon/I/ard
to a smooth touchdown later today.

J‘ Teamwork can make a dream work

J‘ If you're not afraid to fight

J‘ Teamwork can make a dream work

J‘ If you fight for what is right

J‘ Though it seems a dream's
impossible to do

J‘ Great teams make
its possibilities come true

J‘ So when you start out
let all your heart out

J‘ And we won 't stop what we begin

J‘ 'Cause teamwork
can make a dream work

J‘ If we have got the will to win

Come on!

J‘ Yes, teamwork can make a dream work

J‘ If we have got the will to win! J‘

[Mary Poppins] J‘ Some people
laugh through their noses

J‘ Sounding something like this

[laughing through nose] Dreadful.

J‘ Some people laugh
through their teeth, goodness sakes

J‘ Hissing and fizzing like snakes
[hissing]

Not at all attractive
to my way of thinking.

[Bert] J‘ Some laugh too fast
[giggling]

J‘ Some only blast

Ha!

J‘ Others, they twitter like birds

[laughing rapidly]

[Mary Poppins]
You know, you're as bad as he is?

J‘ Then there's the kind
what can't make up their mind

Mmm, mmm, mmm.
Ha, ha, ha, ha.

Hee, hee, hee, hee. Oh, oh, oh, oh.
Yee-hee-ha. Huh?

[Uncle Albert]
J‘ When things strike me as funny

J‘ I can't hide it inside and squeak

Heh!

J‘ As the squeakelers do

J‘ I've got to let go
with a ho-ho-ho-ho

J‘ And a... [guffawing]

J‘ ...too!

J‘ We love to laugh

[laughter]

J‘ Loud and long and clear

J‘ We love to laugh

J‘ So everybody can hear

J‘ The more you laugh

J‘ The more you fill with glee

J‘ The more the glee

J‘ The more we 're a merrier we J‘

[laughter]