Dick Van Dyke’s Greatest Mary Poppins Performances [VIDEO]

Dick Van Dyke was one of the 2021 Kennedy Center Awards honorees. The film and television legend's career was showcased as he accepted the award alongside fellow honorees Debbie Allen, Joan Baez, Garth Brooks and Midori.

At age 95, Van Dyke has a long resume in the entertainment industry dating back to the late 1950s, according to IMDB. One of his most popular roles was in the 1964 film “Mary Poppins,” in which he played both the role of jack-of-all-trades Bert the chimney sweep and the role of bank boss Mr. Dawes.

In an interview with CNN, Van Dyke once said “Mary Poppins” was his favorite role in his six-decade career. “I probably enjoyed the role in Mary Poppins the most,” he said. “It was so much fun. That's my favorite movie too.”

The Oscar-winning classic film was a great example of Van Dyke's singing and dancing skills.

Here's a look back at some of Van Dyke's most famous appearances in Mary Poppins.

“Pavement Artist/Chim Chim Cher-ee”

One of the most famous songs from “Mary Poppins” is “Chim Chim Cher-ee,” the famous duet by Van Dyke and Julie Andrews. But Van Dyke also performed a solo version of the song while his character did his chalk drawings on the streets of London.

The character Bert didn't exist until composers Robert and Richard Sherman wrote the song. They were inspired by a sketch of a whistling chimney sweep and initially thought Mary Poppins would sing the song to the children, but Walt Disney intervened and suggested that it would be better to create a new character.

“Walt said, 'You know, we've got this guy who paints pictures on the sidewalk, and we've got a one-man band, and we've got a guy who flies kites – why don't we make them all one guy and call him Bert? and he will also be the chimney sweep?” Robert Sherman once said, according to SongFacts.

“Step in Time” with the chimney sweep cast

Who can forget “Step in Time,” Van Dyke’s famous number featuring Bert and the other chimney sweeps dancing and singing on London rooftops? It was one of the liveliest routines in the film.

More than 55 years later, Van Dyke's legendary “Mary Poppins” performance was also remembered when professional dancer Derek Hough performed a version of “Step in Time” in his honor.

“Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” with Julie Andrews

One of the hardest song titles to pronounce – let alone spell – “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” made its debut in the Mary Poppins story when the Sherman brothers adapted PL Travers' book into a feature film, according to BBC News. The magical nanny Mary and her chimney sweep buddy recited the tongue twister word several times in one of the film's most famous sequences.

Richard Sherman once said the word came about the same way he and his brother invented words as children.

“We used to come up with the big double-speak words, we could think of a big offensive word for the kids and that's where it started,” he said. “We started with 'hideous,' and then you can sound smart and be precocious at the same time. We had “precocious” and “hideous” and we wanted something super colossal and that's cheesy, so we took “super” and doubled over to go “califragilistic,” which means nothing, it just came out that way. That’s what we did for two weeks in a nutshell.”

“I Love to Laugh” with Ed Wynn and Julie Andrews

Van Dyke showed off his Cockney accent more than his singing skills in the “I Love to Laugh” sequence. He told CNN that he focused primarily on dancing for the film, and the filmmakers gave him a vocal coach, who turned out to be Irish.

“And his Cockney wasn’t much better than mine,” Van Dyke said.

“While I was taking the picture, no one was making fun of me about the accent, but I definitely took it in afterwards,” he added.

Of the flights he took in the film – and particularly during this song – Van Dyke told the New York Times: “We had to fly all the time. Once [on the original movie] We were all up there playing “I Love to Laugh” and they were on their lunch break and everyone left and forgot we were DJing there. It must have taken 15 minutes for someone to notice and come and abandon us.”

CONTINUE READING: Kennedy Center Honors 2021 Artists and Presenters