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Disneyland Diary

Sue Kruse

Jolly Holiday - Dedicating the Julie Andrews Soundstage

ONE | TWO

Dick Cook smartly kept the next guest’s introduction to a minimum and to the delight of everyone, Mickey Mouse popped out from within the soundstage to escort her to the podium, "Ladies and gentlemen, the queen of the Walt Disney Studios, Julie Andrews."

"Julie, before we get on with the rededication of Stage 2," Mr. Cook continued, "I’d like to read you a proclamation from the city of Los Angeles, As Mayor of the city of Los Angeles, on behalf of its residents, I hereby proclaim August 2nd, 2001, as Julie Andrews Day in the city of Los Angeles. Signed James A. Hahn, Mayor"

Mickey Mouse held up a plaque for Julie to see, "And now Julie, this plaque will be mounted on the building and it reads, Julie Andrews, Stage 2, Mary Poppins filmed here June to September 1963, Princess Diaries filmed here October to December 2000."

"Congratulations," Mr. Cook wished her, as Mickey handed Julie the plaque. "Now ladies and Gentlemen, Julie Andrews."

"Good morning everybody. Thank you all for being here. What a spoiling. What a treat. I hope you know how really honored I feel," she began. "Can you imagine how many memories this brings back for me? Just so many, that I’d love to mention just a few with out everyone getting sunstroke."

By then, the morning shade had dissolved, leaving the entire proceedings in full sun.

"Where’s an umbrella when you really need one," she joked.

"I first met Walt when he came to see me in a show called Camelot on Broadway, and he asked if I would like to come back to Hollywood to see the wonderful outlines of the drawings for the film, storyboarding as they call it, and to hear the wonderful songs by the Sherman Brothers. I said to him at the time, I said, ‘Oh, Mr. Disney, I have to tell you, I’m pregnant.’ He said, ‘That’s okay, we’ll wait.’ He turned to my then-husband, Tony Walton, and he said, ‘What do you do young man?’ Tony said, ‘Well, I’m a designer, pretty unknown. I’ve done a little work in England. And Walt said, ‘Well, when you come, you better bring your portfolio with you."

"Well, we came to Hollywood. I instantly fell in love a) with Walt, b) with all the wonderful people that worked for him, loved the music. I instantly recognized that wonderful quality that I could identify with, that wonderful slightly vaudeville musical essence that the songs have at times, which is part of my background. I was very happy to gasp an enthusiastic yes to his request to be in the film."

"Let me just add one thing," she continued, "he demonstrated his tremendous flair for spotting talent by signing my then- husband Tony on the spot to design Cherry Tree Lane, which was on this very set, this very studio, and the costumes for Mary Poppins, for which he was given an Academy Award nomination. I think that’s an astounding award to have spotted the talent and it launched Tony Walton and his career, not to mention me."

"This soundstage was the scene of many activities, as you can imagine. I remember Walt coming down and posing, we set up a really formal English tea and took photos for the press and he was absolutely adorable. I’ve (still) got those photos today."

"I’m not sure where the flying sequences were shot. Some of them might have been on this stage, but they saved all the difficult flying sequences for the last couple of days of the movie. Most of it was in the can, so presumably, if I had an accident, it was all okay by then. There was one, at the very last day of shooting. I was hanging in the wings, way up in the flies, in my harness, which was excruciatingly painful. I felt myself drop by about a foot and I suddenly became terribly anxious and thought, ‘Oh God, my luck was running out.’ I’d been doing this for months now. So I yelled down to the crew after about 15 minutes of hanging around up there. I said, ‘When I come down, could you let me down easily please, fellows? I felt myself drop a little bit and I’m feeling a little nervous."

"I could hear the command going all the way down the soundstage, ‘When she comes down Joe, let her down easy. When she’s coming down Joe, let her down really easy.’ There was a gentleman at the very end of the stage with all the sandbags, which was my counter-balancing equipment, and so, at that point... I fell like a ton of bricks to the stage below. I have to admit, that I let fly with some Anglo-Saxon four-letter words, that I don’t think Walt or Uncle Roy has heard before or since. Anyway, there was a long, long, pause and then Joe’s voice from the other end of the studio was heard to yell, ‘Is she down yet?’

There was a perfect-timing pause, "And, I never saw him again."

Julie continued, "Memories just come flooding back, things that Dick spoke about, rehearsing on the back lot in that excruciating heat. It firmed us up and got us healthy." Julie looked at Dick Van Dyke, "Didn’t it?" She continued reminiscing, "Just all the wonderful things, the chimney sweep sequence, the Cherry Tree Lane stuff, wonderful memories."

"And now, I have a whole bunch of new memories, The Princess Diaries. Working with Garry Marshall and the thrill of watching a brand-new young star-in-the-making. And, I do think she is going to make a tremendous star, our lovely Annie Hathaway. The fun we had making that movie. I’m just going to have a whole host of new memories."

"Thank God, some lovely things don’t change and this studio really hasn’t changed that much in terms of its people, the lovely people that run it. For that, I have to thank you Bob (Iger) and also you Roy (Disney) for making that possible. Thank you very, very, much for this lovely honor. I am so flattered; I’m almost embarrassed by it. Maybe it will perhaps, start a whole new tradition. Maybe we’ll have a Fred McMurray Stage or a Haley Mills Stage, or even an Anne Hathaway Stage one of these days. And a Dick Van Dyke Stage, wouldn’t that be nice? I’m very pleased to be the first, I can tell you."

Not without a sense of humor, she added, "I’m just wondering what having a soundstage named after you gives me in terms of perks other than the fact that it’s named after you? I thought maybe I could get a discount on the stage when my youngest daughter gets married and use it, you know, for a reception. It’d be nice if I could work my way in there."

She ended with, "I won’t keep you any longer because you must be sweltering and I’m a little hot too. Thank you so much for this honor. I hope you can tell how flattered I am and how thrilled. Thank you all for making it possible for all the lovely things you’ve done throughout the years. Thank you."

There was one last matter was left to attend. Accompanied by a drum roll from the Disneyland band, Dick Cook began, "Julie, in recognition of your great achievements and memorable performances here at the Walt Disney Studios, from Mary Poppins to Princess Diaries, we hereby rededicate Soundstage 2 as the Julie Andrews Stage."

As Mickey Mouse-shaped confetti dropped from the sky and the Disneyland Band played When You Wish Upon A Star, the stage’s new sign was revealed. Julie, Mickey, and everyone else beamed with approval.

It was quite a special moment.

When Ms. Andrews expressed her thanks for all the lovely things the studio has done for her over the years, I think she got it a little wrong though, Dear Readers. You’d probably all agree with me that she is the one who deserves thanks. The renaming of a soundstage is a small token of expression for all the lovely things she has done over the years. A world without Mary Poppins, The Sound of Music, Thoroughly Modern Millie? (Among so many other special movie moments?) No.

Thank you Julie Andrews.

August 2, 2001, Julie Andrews Day, was indeed, a Jolly Holiday.

Here are a few photos taken after the ceremony, as the participants posed for the press photographers: