Sherman Brothers documentary to be one of the highlights of this year’s Newport Beach Film Festival

Jim Hill

16 years ago

Robert B. & Richard M. Sherman. Just ask any Disneyana
fan to explain who these Academy Award-winners are and then prepare to get an
earful.

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.

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.”

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.

“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.

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.

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.

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.