Here’s the Reader’s Digest version of the Sherman Bros. career: Bob & Dick are that amazingly prolific songwriting team behind “Chim Chim Cher-ee” & “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” from “Mary Poppins,” “I Wanna Be Like You” from “The Jungle Book” as well as the most translated song ever written, “it’s a small world (after all).” For nearly 50 years now, the songs that the Shermans created for The Walt Disney Company have taught generations of moviegoers about family values & happy endings.

(L to R) Richard M. Sherman, Julie Andrews, Dick Van Dyke and Robert M. Sherman on
the set of "Mary Poppins." Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Which is kind of ironic. Given that the guys who wrote “Let’s Get Together” for the Studio’s 1961 hit, “The Parent Trap” have been estranged for years. Bob & Dick literally lived within blocks of one another in Beverly Hills. And yet the Brothers refused to let their families interact with one another.

Gregory V. Sherman, the Emmy Award-winning producer who also happens to be Richard M. Sherman’s son recalls how weird things got:

“There was a ‘keep out’ sign posted over that part of our lives,” Greg recalled. “My family would see (Uncle Bob and his kids) at a Sherman Brothers event, but we would never be seated at the same table or near them in the theater … We had no relationship with them.”

(L to R) Robert B. Sherman and Richard M. Sherman.
Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Jeffrey C. Sherman -- a writer, producer, director and composer for film & television who also happens to be Robert B. Sherman’s son – backs up Greg’s twisted tale:

“(We’d) go to a premiere and smile for the camera, and then walk to separate sides of the theater,” Jeff said. As to why the two sides of the Sherman Brothers’ family did this, Bob’s son remembers being told that “ … ‘they have their life, we have our life and they shouldn’t cross.’ “

As children, Greg & Jeff honored Dick & Bob’s wishes. But as adults, the cousins kept wondering why it was exactly that the two families had to remain apart. Finally, in 2002 (to be specific, at the London premiere of the stage version of “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”), these two finally got together and compared notes.

(L to R) Jeffrey C. Sherman, Dick Van Dyke and Gregory V. Sherman.
Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved

“We talked for hours at (the “Chitty”) after-party,” Jeff continued. “It was the first time we ever really spoke … (And) as we caught up with each other, (Greg & I) realized that most of what we had been told about our family was very different.”

And it was out of this comparing of notes that these cousins quickly realized that they were sitting on one hell of a Hollywood story. The tale of two brothers who reached the absolute heights in the entertainment world, only to then have their personal relationship destroyed in the process.

The Sherman Brothers hard at work on "it's a small world (after all)"
Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Which brings us to “the boys: the sherman brothers’ story,” that new documentary which screens at the Newport Beach Film Festival on Tuesday, April 28^th before then going out into limited release in LA, New York and San Francisco on May 1^st. Produced and directed by Greg & Jeff, “the boys” features interviews with many of the Disney Legends that Dick & Bob worked with over the years. Julie Andrews, Dick Van Dyke, Angela Lansbury, Hayley Mills and Annette Funicello all look back fondly on the days that they spent working with the Sherman Bros. Meantime, the Shermans’ contemporaries (i.e. songwriters / composers like John Williams, Alan Menken, Randy Newman, Stephen Schwartz and Kenny Loggins) comment on their musical artistry while Hollywood history buffs like Robert Osbourne, Debbie Reynolds, Samuel Goldwyn, Jr. and John Landis offer their insights on the brothers’ estrangement.

Robert B. & Richard M. Sherman. Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved

With Roy E. Disney & John Lasseter also offering their thoughts on Dick & Bob’s important contribution to Walt Disney Company history, “the boys: the sherman brothers’ story” promises to be one of the real highlights of this year’s Newport Beach Film Festival.

Mind you, there’s more than “the boys” to entertain Disneyana fans at the 2009 NBFF. On Wednesday, April 29^th, Academy Award-nominated film producer & author Don Hahn will be co-hosting An Evening of Disney Animation. Working with Creative Director for Walt Disney Animation Studios David Bossert, Hahn has selected a collection of short animated films that have had very limited distribution and/or have not been seen theatrically by a general audience in decades. These shorts run the gamut from last year’s “Glago’s Guest” to “Hell’s Bells,” a rarely seen Silly Symphony from 1929.

Marc Shaiman accompanying Better Midler on Johnny Carson's penultimate
"Tonight Show" on May 21, 1992. Copyright NBC / Universal. All Rights Reserved

And for all you musical theater fans out there, composer / lyricist Marc Shaiman will be providing the entertainment at the Newport Beach Film Festival’s gala reception on Friday, April 24^th. Best known for his work on the Tony Award-winning musical “Hairspray,” Shaiman will be performing selections from his songbook in the intimate Palm Garden at the Island Hotel. And as is entirely fitting at a film festival, Marc promises to dish on many of the movies that he’s worked on (Among them “Sleepless in Seattle,” “When Harry Met Sally,” “Sister Act,” “City Slickers” and “Beaches”) in between numbers.

And these are just three of the events that will be presented at the 10^th anniversary edition of the NBFF. Now recognized as one of the top 20 film festivals in the United States, the Newport Beach Film Festival promises all sort of entertainment & excitement over its eight day run. If you’d like to learn more about this year’s NBFF (including ticket & hotel information), please click on this link.

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