If you’ve ever been to Disneyland
or Disneyworld, you’ve encountered several of the songs of Robert Sherman, not
least being the happy and hopeful It’s A
Small World (After All).
That was just one of the many, many
successful songs he and his brother Richard wrote while working for Walt Disney
and Disney Studios as staff songwriters – a title created for them by Walt in
order to keep them working for him and on behalf of the many successful films
they helped score.
Among their most notable – and part
of the subject of this past year’s successful movie Saving Mister Banks – was the score for Mary Poppins, for which they won two Academy Awards and more
importantly convinced Mary’s creator, the cantankerous P.L. Travers, that
having a song with a nonsensical title was okay, despite her misgivings. Thus, both the word and the song Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious came
to be.
Sherman was born on this day in
1925 and began his writing career as a teenager. At age 16, he wrote Armistice and
Dedication Day, a stage play that showed how Americans’ lives were changed
following the Dec. 7 attack on Pearl Harbor.
The play yielded thousands of dollars for War Bonds and earned a special
citation from the War Department. He
also fought in the war – joining at age 17 – was wounded and won citations for
his bravery.
After the war he went
to Bard College, was editor-in-chief of the newspaper, and authored two novels
– all before graduating. Then he
switched to writing music lyrics and eventually formed the partnership with his
brother.
In 2007 the Shermans
were awarded the National Medal in the Arts by President George W. Bush,
recognizing their contribution to our nation’s culture through their words and
music. He was recognized with dozens of
major awards for his work, but probably the best of them was a vote by
children. In 2003, four Sherman
Brothers' musicals ranked in the "Top 10 Favorite Children's Films of All
Time" -- The Jungle Book (1967)_ranked at #7, Mary Poppins
(1964) ranked at #8, The Aristocats (1970) ranked at #9 and Chitty
Chitty Bang Bang (1968) which topped the list at #1. High praise indeed.
Here’s a link to “Small World.” Enjoy.
Robert Sherman
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