Okay. I know. You’re feeling kind of blue because members of the Academy didn’t show “Saving Mr. Banks” all that much love last week. There’s also a number of you out there who are really, really angry at Meryl Streep right now. Mostly because you believe that her ill-considered remarks at the National Board of Review awards gala is what wound up costing Emma Thompson a Best Actress nomination.
Well, look. As I already proved with last week’s “Wizard of Oz” article, I wasn’t all that thrilled with Meryl calling Walt “a hideous anti-Semite,” a “gender bigot” as well as a person who “didn’t trust women or cats.” But that said, I also don’t think that Streep’s comments at this awards dinner wound up costing Emma an Oscar nomination.
“And why is that?,” you ask. Because the dates don’t line up. To explain: Members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences could start voting on their choices for Oscar nominees on Friday, December 27th. Meryl gave her ill-conceived speech on the night of Tuesday, January 7th. And then voting closed for this year’s Oscar nominees on Wednesday, January 8th at 5 p.m. PT.
You get what I’m saying here? Given that there were less than 20 hours between when Ms. Streep spoke at that awards gala and when voting for this year’s Oscar nominees officially closed, it’s doubtful that Meryl’s comments about Walt could have had all that big an impact on the vote. After all, the nearly 6000 members of the Academy had already had 12 days to cast their ballots prior to this point. So it stands to reason that most members had already made up their mind about “Saving Mr. Banks” prior to the social media firestorm that erupted in the wake of Streep’s speech. Or — for that matter — the second wave of online outrage that followed when Abigail Disney jumped on Facebook & then insisted that Meryl Streep was right about her grand uncle.
Still, all of this talk of one actress possibly costing another an Oscar nomination reminds me of what happened back in February 1965. When the Los Angeles Times actually ran a banner headline on its front page which read “”JULIE ANDREWS CHOSEN, AUDREY HEPBURN OMITTED” on the day when the Academy Award nominations for “Mary Poppins ” & “My Fair Lady ” were announced.
Nearly a half century later, few film fans can recall the outrage that ensued when Jack L. Warner announced that — rather than Julie Andrews — he had cast Audrey Hepburn to play Eliza Doolittle in his studio’s $12 million production of “My Fair Lady” (which — at that time — made this movie musical the most expensive motion picture ever produced).
Mind you, back in June of 1961 when Warner initially snatched the screen rights for this Tony Award-winning musical away from MGM for $5.5 million, Jack was still open to the idea of hiring Julie. In “Audrey Hepburn” (Putnum Adult, October 1996) ” — Barry Paris talks about how Warner & Andrews initially spoke on the phone about this project.
“I’d love to do it,” she reportedly told him. “When do we start?” Warner asked when she could come out for a screen test, to which Andrews replied, “Screen test? You’ve seen me do the part and you know I can do a good job.” He said, “Miss Andrews, you’re only known in London and New York. I have to be sure you photograph and project well. Film is a different medium.”
So sometime in 1962, Julie supposedly flew out to LA and screen-tested for the role of Eliza Doolittle. And according to Hollywood legend, this test did not go well. What exactly went wrong? Well, to be blunt, even back when she was playing this part on Broadway, Julie found portraying Eliza tremendously challenging. As Matthew Kennedy revealed in “Roadshow! The Fall of Film Musicals in the 1960s ” (Oxford University Press, January 2014), Ms. Andrews felt that …
“I never quite got that part under control.”
Which is why Julie …
… was never costar Rex Harrison’s first choice on stage or screen. He found her wooden, and (“My Fair Lady” stage director) Moss Hart shouted insults to that effect in rehearsals.
Which is why — when Walt Disney went backstage after a performance of “Camelot ” to offer Andrews the role of “Mary Poppins” — Leonard Mosley, in “Disney’s World ” (Scarborough House, October 1990) reported that …
… Julie hesitated. Though (Walt) did not realize it at the time, she had lost her nerve, particularly about starring in the movies. After her triumph on the stage opposite Rex Harrison in “My Fair Lady,” she had done a test for Warner Brothers, who proposed to make a film version of the musical, and it had turned out badly. Someone told her that she was unphotogenic. As a result, there was a strong rumor around that Warner would give the Eliza Doolittle role to Audrey Hepburn instead, and a depressed Julie had become convinced that she was not the cinematic type.
Once Walt realized why she was holding back, he called in (“Mary Poppins” producer Bill) Walsh and (the film’s director Robert) Stevenson and told them to offer the part to Julie Andrews without giving her a test. “To hell with screen tests,” he said. “I just know she’ll be good. She bubbles away inside like a stockpot. She has just the presence we need for the role.”
And over the next six months, Walt, Bill & Robert were eventually able to convince her that she could in fact be a movie star. Even so, when Andrews did finally agree to play Poppins, she did have …
… one stipulation (in her contract). If Warner Brothers did change their minds and consent to star her in “My Fair Lady,” she would be allowed to drop out of “Mary Poppins.” Walt was so sure Audrey Hepburn has already been signed for the role that he agreed.
Now what Julie didn’t understand is that … Well, if Jack Warner had gotten his way, she wouldn’t have been the only member of the Broadway cast of “My Fair Lady” who had been replaced once the cameras finally began rolling on the big screen version of this acclaimed stage musical.
You see, the movie version of “My Fair Lady” was initially supposed to have been Jack Warner’s swan song to the studio that he & his brothers had formed back in 1910. Which is why — when it came to the big screen version of this acclaimed stage musical — Jack wanted to load this project up with as many movie stars as possible.
So for the role of Professor Henry Higgins, Warner’s first choice was Cary Grant. Likewise for Alfred P. Doolittle (i.e., Eliza’s father), Jack wanted to cast screen legend James Cagney. And as for the guttersnipe that Higgins transformed into a duchess … Well, Warner did want Audrey Hepburn. But if she wasn’t available, Jack was ready to move to his second choice. Which was Academy Award-winner Elizabeth Taylor.
There was only one problem with Jack Warner’s plan for a star-studded version of “My Fair Lady.” The stars that he wanted to cast kept saying “No.” Take — for instance — Cary Grant. As Nancy Nelson recounts in “Evenings with Cary Grant: Recollections in His Own Words and Those Who Knew Him Best ” (Citadel Press, December 2002) :
When Jack Warner asked Cary to do “My Fair Lady,” he said, “You don’t understand. My accent is cockney! I sound the way ‘Liza does at the beginning of the film. How could I play Henry Higgins?” Cary said, “Not only won’t I play Professor Higgins, but if Rex doesn’t, I won’t even see it.”
To be fair here, in the latter part of his film career, Cary Grant turned an awful lot of great roles down. He was Jack Warner’s first choice to play Professor Harold Hill in Warner’s 1962 version of “The Music Man .” And United Artists offered Cary a million dollars to play Don Quixote in their 1972 big screen version of “Man of La Mancha .” Then in 1978, Warren Beatty did everything he come think of to try & persuade Grant to end his retirement from film-making so that he could then play Mr. Jordan in “Heaven Can Wait .” But Cary said “No” to Warren as well.
And here’s a neat bit of trivia for all you Disney fans out there: When The Walt Disney Company was getting ready to launch “The Disney Sunday Night Movie” on ABC in February of 1986, Michael Eisner felt that this TV show needed a host. So who did Disney ask? Well, as you probably guessed by now, Cary Grant was on their short list. And he — of course — said “No.” But Walter Cronkite, Julie Andrews, Dick Van Dyke and even Roy E. Disney were also approached about this part. And they all said “No” as well.
But you want to know who else was asked about whether he’d be interested in playing the exact same role that Walt Disney did on “Disneyland,” “Walt Disney Presents” and “The Wonderful World of Color” ? Tom Hanks. Seriously. 26 years before he’d actually shoot a scene for “Saving Mr. Banks” where he’d then recreate a moment where Walt Disney was introducing an episode of his Sunday night television show, Hanks was actually asked to host the 1980s version of this very same anthology series. And why did Tom turn the part? At the time, Hanks thought that he was just too young to play this role.
Getting back to the casting of Warner Brothers’ version of “My Fair Lady” now … James Cagney turned down the part of Alfred P Doolittle for a variety of reasons. Chief among these was that Cagney had said he was officially retiring from film-making after working on “One, Two, Three ” with Billy Wilder back in 1961. But the other reason is that — having worked at Warner Brothers for the bulk of his career — James had had one too many run-ins with Jack. So as tempting as it might have been for this Academy Award-winning hoofer to get the chance to perform such boffo Broadway numbers as “With A Little Bit of Luck” & “Get Me to the Church on Time,” Cagney till said “No.”
So almost by default, Warner found himself having to cast the Broadway versions of Professor Henry Higgins & Alfred P. Doolittle in his big screen version of “My Fair Lady.” Which then made it all the more galling to the fans of the original stage version of this musical (who — let’s remember — had purchased over 32 million copies of the original cast recording of “My Fair Lady.” More to the point, this very same recording sat at No. 1 for nineteen consecutive weeks and was the best-selling album for the year in 1958. So there were obviously a lot of people out there who were familiar with / fond of Julie Andrew’s work) when Jack decided to cast Audrey as Eliza.
Mind you, Warner had four million rgood easons to cast Hepburn instead of Andrews. According to an survey of would-be “My Fair Lady” moviegoers that the studio had commissioned, having Julie play the part of Eliza would have bumped this production’s box office potential up by a million dollars. Whereas casting Audrey — an already established movie star in that exact same role — would have supposedly translated into a $5 million bump at the box office. So strictly working off of those box office projections, casting Hepburn instead of Andrews in “My Fair Lady” made more sense. At least as far as Jack Warner was concerned.
So — with considerable hoopla — Warner Brothers announced that it had cast Audrey Hepburn to play Eliza Doolittle in the movie version of “My Fair Lady.” What’s more, Audrey would be paid one million dollars to play this part, while Rex Harrison would receive just $250,000 to reprise his role as Professor Henry Higgins.
But before this 15 week shoot could get underway in August of 1963, there was the matter of Audrey Hepburn’s voice to deal with. Though she had a lovely low-toned singing voice, Hepburn simply didn’t have the range that Julie Andrews did. So — in order to do justice to Alan Jay Lerner & Frederick Loewe‘s songs — it was decided that Marni Nixon would be brought in to ghost a lot of Audrey’s numbers in this movie musical.
Now these days, most Disney fans probably know Ms. Nixon for the work she did on 1998’s “Mulan ” (where Marni provided the singing voice for Grandmother Fa, the fiesty character that animation legend June Foray then did the talking for). But back in the 1950s & 1960s, Nixon was the “Ghostess with the Mostest.” She sang for Deborah Kerr in 1956 while the film version of Rodgers & Hammerstein‘s “The King and I ” was in production. And in 1961, when Robert Wise & Jerome Robbins were shooting the movie version of “West Side Story ” all over New York City, it was Marni who got behind the mike and then did the warbling for both Natalie Wood & Rita Moreno.
So as you can see, by the early 1960s, Nixon had kind of made a name for herself. She was the singer that you turned to if your star wasn’t quite up the challenge of performing all of the songs that were featured in your film. And the best part about Marni is that she was discreet. Nixob slipped in the recording studio, dubbed the necessary numbers and then stepped back into the shadows. Which guaranteed that your movie’s star would then get all sorts of accolades fore her beautiful singing voice when your film finally opened in theaters.
Mind you, if you listen close to the movie soundtrack of “My Fair Lady,” you can clearly hear some of Hepburn’s singing in this film. As André Previn (who adapted Lerner & Loewe’s score for the screen) told Barry Paris:
There’s a lot of Audrey Hepburn in “Just You Wait, ‘enry ‘Iggins,” Every time it was humanly feasible, I would cut her into the finished track. In “Loverly,” there are a couple of things, on and off in “Show Me,” we used as much as we could.
And Hepburn — being the pro that she was — was very philosophical when it came to Nixon having to cover for her on “My Fair Lady.” Marni — again talking with Barry Paris — recalled working side-by-side with Audrey at that film’s recording sessions, where the actress wouldthen turn to Nixon and say:
“I know this is not good enough, I want to keep trying myself,” but (Hepburn) had to accept that (her singing) wasn’t quite what it should be.
But given that Marni had been sworn to secrecy about all of her dubbing work on “My Fair Lady,” this shouldn’t have been an issue with moviegoers. Except that — in the weeks between “Mary Poppins” ‘s world premiere on August 1964 and “My Fair Lady” ‘s world premiere in late October of that same year — word did begin to circulate in show business circles about how little singing Audrey Hepburn actually wound up doing in this Warner Brothers production.
And once word got out about Marni’s dubbing, many columnists in Hollywood used this as an excuse to attack Audrey’s performance in “My Fair Lady.” As Barry Paris recounted in his Hepburn bio:
“With Marni Mixon doing the singing,” wrote Hedda Hopper. “Audrey Hepburn gives only a half performance.” Others criticized not so much the dubbing itself as the fact that Nixon received no screen credit for it and the implication that Warner Brothers was trying to hide the truth. “I don’t know what all the fuss is about,” Jack Warner replied. “We’ve been doing it for years. We even dubbed Rin-Tin Tin.”
Which brings us back to February of 1965 when that year’s Academy Award nominees were announced. And when Hepburn’s name was nowhere to be found among that year’s Best Actress nominees, “Variety” was very straightforward as to why Audrey hadn’t gotten a nod:
“Hepburn did the acting, Marni Nixon subbed for her in the singing department and that’s what undoubtedly led to her (not getting a nomination).”
As you might expect, when word broke about Hepburn’s omission, the folks at Warner Bros. were livid. As Barry Paris reported:
Warner called (Audrey not being nominated) “outrageous” and took (her omission) as a personal affront. In typically quirky fashion, he thought it was due to the quality of Nixon’s singing and released a statement saying, “The next time we have some star-dubbing to do, we’ll hire Maria Callas.” Julie (Andrews), when tracked down by the press, said “I think that Audrey should have been nominated. I’m very sorry that she wasn’t.” Rex Harrison said the same.
Now comes the interesting question. Which is who exactly leaked the news that Marni Nixon had ghosted most of Audrey Hepburn’s singing in “My Fair Lady” ? For decades, Nixon was the one who got the blame for this leak. As André Previn told Barry Paris:
“Marni blabbed all over town that she was going to more or less ‘save’ the movie. George Cukor (i.e. the director of the film version of ‘My Fair Lady’), who along with all of us worshipped Audrey got very angry. He (reportedly told Nixon), ‘Listen, you’re getting a lot of money for this and you’re going to get a lot of money from the recording. Why don’t you shut up about it?’ “
But to this day, Marni Nixon insisted that she wasn’t the one who let the cat out of the bag. I mean, to hear her talk about “My Fair Lady,” you’d swear that she is still …
… upset that people thought Audrey didn’t nominated because I did the dubbing and [that] I was purposefully trying to push that knowledge out.
Truth be told, if there was anyone who leaked that Marni was doing most of Audrey’s singing in “My Fair Lady,” it was probably one or more of Julie Andrews’ show business buddies. As Bob Paris pointed out in “Audrey Hepburn” :
No one particularly cared when Nixon (had) dubbed Deborah Kerr or Natalie Wood; but they cared when she dubbed Hepburn, considering it insult to injury of depriving Andrews of her rightful role. In any case, the beneficiary of the dubbing fracas was Julie Andrews (herself), now the highly favored Oscar nominee for her performance in … Mary Poppins.
And Julie … Well, she clearly enjoyed pulling Jack Warner’s chain when it came to him not casting her as Eliza Doolittle in “My Fair Lady.” Take — for example — this story that Leonard Mosley shares in “Disney’s World” :
At a celebratory dinner (following the world premiere of “Mary Poppins,” producer) Bill Walsh introduced a happy Julie Andrews to Jack Warner. “Dear Mr. Warner!” Julie gushed. “Did you know I had a clause in my Disney contract allowing me to drop out of Mary Poppins if you chose me for Eliza Doolittle? How thoughtful of you not to allow to do it and picking dear Audrey instead! I’ll never forget you for giving me this chance!”
Andrews even made a point of bringing this casting issue up again at the 1965 Academy Award ceremony. Where backstage after she’d won that year’s Best Actress Oscar, as she was chatting with reporters, Julie supposedly held the statue aloft and — with tongue firmly in cheek — was alleged to have said: “My thanks to Mr. Jack L. Warner, who made this all possible.”
Looking back on this pivotal moment in her career nearly three decades later, Andrews had to admit that:
“I’ll never know to this day whether it was sentiment (over Audrey being cast as Eliza instead of me) that won (that Oscar) for me or whether the performance in ‘Poppins’ really did,” she said in 1993, adding with a smile, “I think it was sentiment, myself.”
It’s worth noting here that — when Rex Harrison won for his performance in “My Fair Lady” that same night — he was diplomatic as he could possibly be. First by saying that ” … I feel, in a way, that I should split (this statue) in half” so that he then could then share this professional recognition with Audrey Hepburn. But that said, recognizing that he had to do something to acknowledge Julie’s win as Best Actress, Rex closed out his remarks by admitting he had “… deep love for two fair ladies.” With the TV camera then cutting away to Julie Andrews in the audience, beaming & applauding as Harrison exited the stage.
Now where this gets interesting is — in the wake of all this brouhaha which erupted when Julie Andrews wasn’t cast to play Eliza Doolittle alongside Rex Harrison’s Henry Higgins — Hollywood then went into overdrive looking for projects that these performers could then co-star in. Take — for example — MGM’s musical remake of their 1939 Academy Award-winner, “Goodbye, Mr. Chips.” This production was originally envisioned as the film that would finally bring Andrews & Harrison together onscreen.
But when preproduction problems delayed the development of this MGM musical … Well, as Mark Harris revealed in his “Pictures at the Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood ” (Penguin Press, February 2008)
Julie Andrews … had been (producer) Arthur Jacobs‘s first choice for (“Doctor) Dolittle ” ‘s female lead
Now where this gets even stranger is when Andrews became unavailable to do “Dolittle,” Jacobs then turned to another veteran Disney Studios performer, the then-19 years-old Hayley Mills, and offered her the part of Harrison’s love interest. Thankfully, it was eventually decided that the nearly 40 year age difference between Hayley & Rex would be just a little hard for audiences to swallow. So Mills was replaced by the then-28 year-old Samantha Eggar. Who went on play the role of Emma Fairfax in “Doctor Dolittle.”
Which isn’t to say that Julie Andrews never had anything to do with “Doctor Dolittle.” How many of you recall the stage version of this Leslie Bricusse musical which ran in London’s West End for a year back in 1998? Jim Henson’s Creature Shop created all sorts of animatronic animals for Phillip Schofield (who played the Doctor in the stage adaptation of that 20th Century Fox film) to interact with. And who precorded dialogue for Polynesia the Parrot (i.e. that wise old bird who taught Doctor Dolittle to talk to the animals)? You guessed it. Julie Andrews.
That pretty much wraps up the “Mary Poppins” / “My Fair Lady” movie story. Except for this interesting bit of video from the debut of “The Julie Andrews Hour,” a short lived variety show that began its run on ABC back on September 13, 1972. In this footage, you actually get to see Julie Andrews AND Eliza Doolittle AND Mary Poppins all together in the exact same scene. And let me blunt here: Mary & Eliza don’t exactly get along.
Anyway … Compared to what Audrey Hepburn & Julie Andrews went through back in the late Winter / early Spring of 1965, what Meryl Streep and Emma Thompson are dealing with right now is pretty much a walk in the park.
That said, I have to admit that I find it kind of intriguing that — while Thompson didn’t get a Best Actress nomination for “Saving Mr. Banks” — both Meryl Streep & Judi Dench did.
“And what’s so intriguing about that?,” you ask. Well, back in February of 2012, when The Walt Disney Company first acquired Kelly Marcel‘s screenplay for “Saving Mr. Banks,” who were the three actresses on Disney Studio’s short list for P L Travers? Emma Thompson, Meryl Streep and Judi Dench.
Mind you, Dame Judi (because she already physically resembled Pamela) was initially thought to have the inside track. But then someone at the Studio supposedly pointed out that Dench was only 5 foot 1 whereas Tom Hanks was 6 foot even. And given these performers’ differences in height … Well, if Walt were towering over Pamela, it might then seem as though the Company’s founder was using his physical advantage over this troublesome author to bully her into signing away the screen rights to “Mary Poppins.” Which is why Walt Disney Pictures supposedly opted to go with Emma Thompson. Who — given that she’s 5 foot 7 — would then be a better physical match for Mr. Hanks.
Anyway, that’s the story as I was told by studio insiders earlier this year.
Your thoughts?