When founder and (now former) chief archivist at the Walt Disney Archives Dave Smith went on a search for the snowglobe from this movie, which featured birds flying around Saint Paul's Cathedral, he finally found it on a shelf in a janitor's office. The janitor explained that he saw the snowglobe sitting in a trash can, but found it too pretty to throw away and kept it himself.
Walt Disney cast Dame Julie Andrews for the lead after seeing her in "Camelot" on Broadway. When she mentioned she was pregnant, he offered to wait until she had her baby to start filming and offered her then-husband, Tony Walton, the job of designing costumes and some sets for this movie. Disney also gave the couple a personally escorted tour of Disneyland and the studio to help them make up their minds. Disney liked Andrews in "Camelot" so much that after he saw her performance, he had the animators of "One Hundred and One Dalmatians" draw the character of Anita to resemble her.
The "Step in Time" sequence had to be filmed twice because of a scratch on the film from the first take. The entire sequence took a week to film.
Lyricist Robert B. Sherman had searched for nearly two weeks for a catchy phrase that could be Mary Poppins' anthem. He came across the perfect title when his young son Jeff came home from school one day and announced that he had just received a polio vaccine. Thinking that the vaccine had been administered as a shot, Sherman asked, "Did it hurt?" He replied, "No. They just gave it to me on a cube of sugar and I swallowed it down." Sherman tried the idea on his brother the following morning, Richard M. Sherman put the phrase to music and "A Spoonful of Sugar" was born.
Betty Lou Gerson: The Old Crone who promises to hide the Banks children after they run from the Dawes, Tomes, Mousely, Grubbs Fidelity Fiduciary Bank.