My
city of residence has, unfortunately become a punch line when I’m abroad. “Beijing? Ah. Breathe
much?” And someday, though I doubt
it will be soon, this will pass and it will be regarded as a lovely city where pollution is a problem that will be confined to history. Why do I feel so confident that this
will one day come to pass? Because
I have been to London with my kids and none of us found it the least bit
polluted. And last night we all
had a look at Disney’s version Mary Poppins with Julie Andrews and Dick Van
Dyke and London, was a mess.
Flying down on our umbrellas above Westminster and St.
Paul’s you descend into the Victorian city which Walt has cast as the one and
only “Big Black Smoke.”
“Chim-chimeny, chim-chimeny, chim chim, cherooo”, cast in a minor key,
the tune I probably still have the fondest affinity for, is the appropriate
theme. Every where in the city,
people are heating their homes with coal, everywhere in the distance pipes are
belching smoke and soot and dust are everywhere. Why it’s just like Beijing, at this stage of industrial
development, when people don’t have much choice about heating their homes with
something nasty like coal. I
especially liked the scene in the number where Julie takes out her make up kit and
applies soot, to her face.
Watching it as a period piece, it is fascinating to consider
what it must have been like view this from England and watch Hollywood try to
render what Victorian England might have been in 1964. It feels like America has permeated the
story, with Dick’s mediocre cockney, the happy guttersnipes, and all the rough
bits softened and, as we say, Disney-fied.
There is the fascinating scene when the Banks boy Michael
and his sister visit the father’s, Fidelity, Fiduciary, Bank, after Mary has
effectively planted the notion in the old man’s head. Upon arriving the crotchety old Chairman of the Board, of
this bank suggests, with a song, that the lad invest his “tuppence” that he’d
otherwise wanted to use to buy bread from the old lady and feed the birds. He takes the coin and sings about all
the marvels of investment:
Mr. Dawes Sr, Mr. Banks and
Bankers:
If you invest your tuppence
Wisely in the bank
Safe and sound
Soon that tuppence,
Safely invested in the bank,
Will compound
And you'll achieve that sense of
conquest
As your affluence expands
In the hands of the directors
Who invest as propriety demands
You see, Michael, you'll be part
of
Railways through Africa
Dams across the Nile
Fleets of ocean greyhounds
Majestic, self-amortizing canals
Plantations of ripening tea
All from tuppence, prudently
Fruitfully, frugally invested
In the, to be specific,
In the Dawes, Tomes
Mousely, Grubbs
Fidelity Fiduciary Bank!
Composed by Richard and Robert Sherman in 1964 it apparently
has its origin in an essay written by by C. C. Turner titled 'Money London' in
the book edited by G. R. Sims called Living London.
There is more to the tune, but I’ll pause there to remind
you of what transpires after: The
father wants Michael learn about saving a little, to earn a lot but the
opposite is unfolds, rather more like: 因小失大[1]
Michael demands his tuppence back, and effectively causes a
run on the bank, when others within earshot hear him all begin to demand their money
back as well. Bankers are cast as
boring, greedy, essentially rapacious.
It brings to mind the run on the bank from “It’s a Wonderful Life” from
1946 when such things were certainly rather immediate memories in American minds, and “communists” had just helped us to win
the war. Mary Poppins though was 1964,
not long after the Red Scare and immediately after the Cuban Missile Crisis. It almost feels risqué for Hollywood to
be casting bankers as such loathsome, evil boars.
My wife and older daughter all peeled off before the end. I started out assuming I wouldn’t watch much of it at all, but I was drawn in and stuck it out till nearly the end when my little one fell asleep. As Freud might say, it’s all my mother’s fault, of course. She was a good grandma and took my daughter to see the Broadway production last summer and, I think it has been there in her little head, ever sense. She was the driver for sourcing and getting everyone to watch the movie together, so glad she was, to finally see it again.
My wife and older daughter all peeled off before the end. I started out assuming I wouldn’t watch much of it at all, but I was drawn in and stuck it out till nearly the end when my little one fell asleep. As Freud might say, it’s all my mother’s fault, of course. She was a good grandma and took my daughter to see the Broadway production last summer and, I think it has been there in her little head, ever sense. She was the driver for sourcing and getting everyone to watch the movie together, so glad she was, to finally see it again.
We had tried to look for it on line, but Disney has it blocked
from Youtube and any other easy online medium I could find. We don’t do “netflicks” over here so we needed another means forward. Walt’s dead, but Julie and Dick and one
of the Sherman brother’s are still alive.
I suspect they may find me a bit greedy and rapacious for not paying them
proper royalties to enjoy the viewing we did last night. This being China we were able to secure
a knock-off copy at the local market for a buck fifty.
We still have the final twenty eight minutes to consume and I must say I want to confirm what happens to the hapless Mr. Banks, after his son caused such a kerfuffle and lost the bank so many, many pounds . . . I fear it may involve him buying bread to feed the birds and smiling while he sings. Certainly I rested well last night knowing that whatever happened in the end, would certainly be happy.
We still have the final twenty eight minutes to consume and I must say I want to confirm what happens to the hapless Mr. Banks, after his son caused such a kerfuffle and lost the bank so many, many pounds . . . I fear it may involve him buying bread to feed the birds and smiling while he sings. Certainly I rested well last night knowing that whatever happened in the end, would certainly be happy.
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