Walt Disney, Ms. Goff and Mr. Banks And a Review of Sorts of a Book by Ian M. Cron

A few days before seeing the movie, “Saving Mr. Banks” I had finished reading “Jesus, My Father, the CIA and Me” by Ian Morgan Cron, who had an alcoholic father. The book was about his struggle to know who his father was and understand his relationship with him. The book was a self-described “memoir of sorts” and like the movie’s flashbacks, there were many memories that the author revisited in the book. I believe that those who have survived an upbringing in a family with an alcoholic might relate to many of the issues Ian Cron struggled with for many years. Ms. P.L. Travers (Ms. Goff) might have benefited from reading Cron, but if she had there may have never been a movie called “Saving Mr. Banks.”

Now let me say, “Saving Mr. Banks” is a wonderful movie about the making of Disney’s “Mary Poppins” which was released in 1964. “Saving Mr. Banks” the movie, although it is about the movie “Mary Poppins” is not a movie for children. It is an account of the struggle Walt Disney had with the Ms. P. L. Travers (Ms. Goff), author of “Mary Poppins” over the making of “Mary Poppins” the movie. As long as Travers was financial stable, she did not need to concern herself with Disney’s promise to his daughters and his own desire to make a movie about Mary Poppins.

The struggle between Disney and Travers became more earnest if not necessary when her book agent told Travers she was about out of money and that she needed to sell the movie rights. It isn’t clear from the movie to what extent she maintained some control over the making of the movie, because ultimately she was financially dependent on it being done.

The issues between Walt Disney and P.L. Travers center primarily on each other’s rights to have creative control of the end product. According to the movie, Travers believed children should not have everything sugar-coated, that they needed to be confronted with reality so that they might be better prepared for the hard things of life. She believed Disney’s work did little to prepare children to face the realities of pain, struggle and loss. She thought Disney would only trivialize her story and make it syrupy sweet with music and animated characters.

  

Disney, on the other hand, wanted to make Mary Poppins a musical, with animated characters. He believed in giving children happy, sentimental endings. He wanted to inspire and give children hope.

As movie goers will discover, the book "Mary Poppins" is not totally fiction, but based in large measure on the experiences of Ms. Travers (aka Ms. Goff) and her father, who turns out to be the fictionalized Mr. Banks in the movie. Disney discovers this about Travers’ after holding to her expectation that the details of the movie adhere to the circumstances of her fiction. But when he portrays Mr. Banks as “too cruel” she explodes and he realizes that not only is Banks real but other characters are similarly real also. The irony is that in the book, the no-nonsense nanny, Mary Poppins has magical powers.

The writers change the story, realizing now that Mary Poppins came, not to save two children, but to save Mr. Banks from himself. Needless to say, this does not change her mind about the direction of the movie. And again, the writers are exasperated time and again. Disney himself is in search of what motivates her. He takes her to Disneyland to no avail.

Many of the movie reviewers of “Saving Mr. Banks” I read focused on the different perspectives held by Disney and Ms. Travers. In the end, Mary Poppins was a better movie because of their different perspectives. The movie, “Saving Mr. Banks” is a story of that collaboration, if I may call it that, chronicling the dilemma of an author in need of funds, but who wants desperately to preserve with integrity the experience she had with her father, and the creative force embodied by Disney who needed the movie rights of that story to fulfill a promise to his daughters and inspire a generation of children.

The movie resolves the conflict with Disney visiting Ms. Travers in England with the appeal to her that this movie is another storytelling of "Mary Poppins." Disney tells her his story of growing up poor in Missouri. And so the movie was made. It is a movie based on the story of Mary Poppins.

From the reviews I read after seeing the movie many made note of the innumerable flashbacks to Ms. Traver's childhood memories of her father, home life and childhood were shown through the use of flashbacks. However, there were at least two occasions that to me confirmed a struggle of memory and just how she chose to interpret them.

The book, “Jesus, My Father, the CIA and Me” by Ian Morgan Cron, who like Ms. Travers had an alcoholic father, struggled with depression. Cron's book chronicles his progress, lapses, and doubts of self-worth. It's about his memory of his childhood and his father, who was at times employed by the CIA. Like, Ms. Travers, Cron remembers certain things which on reflection and an accumulation of facts sometimes turns memory on itself. He writes that the whole truth is sometimes more than the facts. The whole truth sometimes requires a bit or maybe a lot of faith. There were places in the movie that suggested Ms. Travers, too, struggled with her memories of growing up with a father who was mistreated at work and dependent on alcohol.

From the perspective of the movie I am not sure if Ms. Travers ever settled with the notion that another story could be told of “Mary Poppins” that was as valid as the account held in her mind. Some who knew Ms. Travers say she never liked Disney’s version, but I am convinced that the account of Mary Poppins as told by Walt is the one I prefer. So this is my summary, the movie is about memories and what we make of them.  It may even take a little conflict resolution, but the point is, it's not just getting all the facts we can, but our faith to interpret them. The memories may even struggle within us, like the struggle between Disney and Ms. Travers, but ultimately we choose the end. Let me know what you think.

 Scripture

You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish…the saving of lives - Genesis 50.19-20

Remember and don't forget – Exodus 13.3, Numbers 15.39, Deuteronomy 5.15, 6.12, and 9.7

They piled stones as a memorial after crossing the Jordan River - Joshua 4.3-7

Today you will choose who you will serve – Joshua 24.15

Samuel took a stone and named it Ebenezer to remind them that God had helped them that far – 1 Samuel 7.12

Those who wait on God have hope – Isaiah 40.31

I have hope because God is who I have – Lamentations 3.24

Ten lepers were healed but only one remembered to give God the glory – Luke 17.18

Remembering the benefits to living in his father’s house, he came to his senses - Luke 15.17

Remember the sacrifice of Christ – Luke 22.19

God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them - Romans 8:28

We look to that which is eternal – 2 Corinthians 4.8-18

We do not grieve as others who have no hope – 1 Thessalonians 4.13

We have a reason for the hope that is within us – 1 Peter 3.15

A Leiper’s Fork Christmas Parade with a Squeal

This is probably my 3^rd Leiper’s Fork Christmas Parade.  I posted on last year’s parade (Dec 25, 2012) and do so again this year. Each one was fun and a wacky.  This year’s parade had it all: Pam Tillis, antique automobiles, the elementary-middle school band, Arnold the pig, Williamson County Pageant Winners, the General Lee, horses, riders and dogs, the Grinch, and even Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus were at the end.

Everyone knows about the Dukes of Hazard. The TV series ran from 1979 through 1985. One of the most memorable props in the series was the General Lee, an orange 1969 Dodge Charger with the number “01” on the door.  Of course there were the Dukes.

Besides the General Lee, and a bit less recognizable, was “Arnold the Pig.” Arnold was featured in the TV series Green Acres that ran from 1965 through 1971. The sitcom starred Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor, who moved from New York City to a rural farm. Of course, the whole premise made for some silliness. Arnold lived indoors, watched TV and was treated as if he were human.

It brought to mind a visit my wife and I made to Florida one summer in the early seventies. We were in graduate school then and lived in East Tennessee. My Aunt “Bill” and her brother lived in Florida and had a small ranch in which they had several head of cattle and a bull. They were hopeful to make a living raising cattle. She and my father had one of those fabulous relationships in which a lot of teasing and joking went on. So of course, being in Florida and near where she lived, we went to see her. Behold, she had a pig and like the TV star pig, her pig was allowed to go in and out of the house as he wanted. And he did. We watched him. Thank goodness he was not as big as the pig in the parade. I asked her his name. She told me his name was “Arnold.” I thought at first he had been named after Arnold in Green Acres. But no, she was determined to have the last laugh with my dad. Aunt Bill, with a gleam in her eye, told us she had named him after my dad. His name, “Arnold.” On returning home and telling my dad about Aunt Bill’s pet pig, I am sure I heard her and “Arnold” squeal with laughter even though she was 700 miles away in Florida.

I have another story from this visit, but alas, it must wait. It involves the bull.

Enough of this story, take a look at parade.

Christmas Gifts of Red and White

This Christmas season my wife has decided this year’s Christmas theme will focus on the colors red and white. It is her way of exploring different aspects of Christmas to learn more about this rich season. I’ve come to take it as a good thing and this year I’ve decided to join her photographically, looking at the God’s gift of red and white through the lens of my camera.

It is obvious that certain colors are associated with certain holidays, seasons and events. We decorate in browns, yellows and dark red in the fall.  We use green, red and white during the Christmas season. We use red by itself to symbolize courage and the ultimate sacrifice. We cannot think of a man or woman’s love for another without seeing it. And so, we celebrate a red kind of love at Valentine’s. We see green, yellow and pink and we think of spring and Easter and orange and black at Halloween. Black by itself often accompanies the formal and serious. We see it used at death and mourning and we see white with wedding gowns, suggesting innocence and purity. In scripture, white symbolizes holiness, which is unachievable for man. In more recent years we’ve come to more strongly associate the environment with green.  There is even a green, environmental flag. If I mention red, white and blue, what does your mind do? Almost everyone visualizes the flag of our nation at the mere mention of those three colors.

Many of our associations come with the inherent colors of a season, but some do not, like the values we associate with gold and silver, emerald and jade. These colors seem to suggest things that are desirable and have value.

Many color associations are purely social, cultural and commercial. In the United States Santa Claus always comes in red and white. In other culture, Santa Claus sometimes wears red, blue and purple suggesting power, authority and royalty. Red and purple and were expensive colors to produce and are often associated with those in power. What colors do various products bring to mind? Think about Target, Southwest Airlines, The Red Cross, Pepsi, and your favorite school or sports teams? What do yellow traffic signs tell you? Some of you will remember the barber pole. You probably make other color associations too.

 

What special meanings has God spoken to you through some color or colors? Every color is a gift of God.
Ecclesiastes 3.1 says there is a time for everything.  Is there a color God has given you this year that has a new meaning for you? Remember, He has given us every good gift. Maybe, you’ve been surprised by an especially thoughtful gift? What gifts are you thankful for today? In what colors were they wrapped?

 

Scripture

God created light. Genesis 1.3

God gave green plants as food for life. Genesis 1.30

The curtain to the Tabernacle is to be made of blue, purple and scarlet thread. Exodus 26:31

The blood will be a sign on the houses where you are present. Exodus 12.13

 

After the spies had gone, Rahab hung a scarlet cord from the window. Joshua 2:21

Though your sins are like crimson they will be white like snow. Isaiah 1:18

The soldiers stripped Jesus and put a scarlet robe on him. Matthew 27:27-29

Jesus led Peter, James and John to a high mountain and was transfigured before them and his clothes became intensely white. Mark 9:2-3

There was someone dressed in a robe. His head and hair are like wool, white as snow. Revelation 1:13-14

There was one riding a white horse, and clothed in a robe dipped in blood. Revelation 19:11-13

 

 

Personal Footnote to the Assassination of John F Kennedy

 

The afternoon just seemed to be endless. I was in a study hall and a senior in high school.  It was the fall of 1963 and my family had just moved in June from Florida to Tennessee. I had transferred from Riverview High School in Sarasota, Florida to Jefferson High School in Jefferson City, Tennessee. So, it was a year of transitions and unbeknownst to me the changes would continue to come - in part because of the move, in part because of my age and stage of life and in part because of national political changes that were unfolding on this November day.

On a personal level I had met many new people in my life, school, community, and church. One, who was becoming a close friend, was John Toomey. He had given me a book of political fiction, which I had begun a month or so earlier. The book was ‘Advise and Consent’ by Alan Drury. John was a neighbor and was a couple of years older than I. It had been made into a movie but had never seen it. I read several chapters of the book daily in Mrs. Shipley’s study hall. The book was about the practice of the Senate “advising” the President concerning presidential nominations and constitutional requirement that the Senate “consent” to those nominations.

 

 

It was about 2:30 pm (East Tennessee Time) on that Friday afternoon when my reading was interrupted by a school public address system announcement. The president was in Dallas and he had been shot. At that announcement I immediately went to prayer. It was not effective.

No more than 30 minutes later we were told to go to the school’s auditorium and were informed of Kennedy’s death. It seems like there was a prayer, but I don’t remember any details beyond the fact that school was being dismissed immediately. We gathered our belongings and boarded buses that took us home. I did not own a car, so I had to ride the bus. Our bus driver’s name was “Lightening.” That’s what everyone called him. Yes, he was black and everyone liked him because a noisy, rowdy bus didn’t bother him. That afternoon it was eerily quite.  

 

 

On reaching home we immediately turned on the television. News was dominated by the events of the afternoon. The president’s visit to Dallas, the motorcade, the Dallas Book Depository building where the shots were fired, the rush of the President’s limousine to the hospital, the President’s death, and the swearing-in of Lyndon B. Johnson (referred to as LBJ) shortly before leaving Dallas on Air Force One.

 

The next several days were consumed with ever-growing details of Kennedy’s death, his war service, his presidency, his family and simply speculation. I don’t recall whether it was news coverage that brought things back to my mind or my memory of the events of the three previous years, but I thought back on the controversy that as “candidate” he was Catholic and that many thought he would implement Vatican policies, but since he had been sworn in on January 20, 1961 I had not seen any evidence of that suspicion.

 

 

I also recall that President Kennedy had established the Peace Corps shortly after taking office. I wondered about the volunteers who were serving in Africa, Asia and South America. I wondered because when I was a sophomore in high school we had been assigned by my teacher, Paul Susce to read ‘The Ugly American’ by William Lederer and Eugene Burdick (my copy was printed in Dec 1961). Susie was the grandson of an immigrant who had told him that even during World War II his grandfather warned him that the Soviets, one of our allies in the war, were as big threat to the world as were the Germans. The book was about Americans working in developing countries and how we are sometimes perceived and why.

 

My thoughts also went to the Bay of Pigs (April 17-20, 1961) and the Cuban Missile Crisis (October 14-24, 1962). The Cuban Missile Crisis involved U2 Spy planes documenting the construction of missile silos in Cuba, a pretty intense time if you lived in Florida.

At the time of the Bay of Pigs Invasion I was a paperboy in Florida and I recalled seeing the headline on the papers I delivered and how disappointed I was of its failure. Castro had lead a guerrilla war in Cuba against a dictator and in January 1960 became the country’s leader. Unfortunately, he became a Communist and allied with the Soviets. The Cuban Missile Crisis, which followed was notable because of Florida’s proximity to Cuba and the interest by many in Florida in building bomb shelters. The immediate nuclear war crisis ended when the US informed the world it would stop and inspect all Soviet ships off the coast of Cuba and Khrushchev agreeing to dismantle the missile sites.

Then there was the erection of the Berlin Wall between East and West Berlin. At least one TV documentary and a movie followed the construction of the wall in August of 1961 depicting East Berliners escaping by climbing the wall and digging tunnels from the East to West Berlin. And then who can forget the words of Kennedy, “I am a Berliner” in German when he visited West Berlin on June 26, 1963. Our hearts went out to the Berliners who were trapped in East Berlin.

So, during this period of political tension Kennedy had captured the hearts and attention of many of my peers. I suppose it was because he appeared to be a vigorous leader, who, as presidents go, was young. He was also following President Eisenhower, a retired general. Though Kennedy was older than my father and fought in World War II, he was so often pictured doing things that seemed youthful. He could be seen on yachts, playing football with family members and swimming. He also had young children. It was referred to as “Camelot.”

So on Saturday, November 23 the media focused on Kennedy’s body lying in the East Room of the White House, the Mass that was given that morning, movements of family members, and the friends and government officials that came and went. I recall too that enormous crowds were gathering outside the White House and other Washington sites as everyone prepared to observe his funeral. It was a gloomy, foggy drizzly day in East Tennessee.

Unfortunately, November 23 was also my mother’s 37^th birthday. There was no celebration. She didn’t even have a cake, but I guess she didn’t feel in the mood for one either.  I suppose no one was ‘up’ for any kind of party. I am not even sure it was mentioned by anyone, least of all her. It was unfortunate because we didn’t give her the attention she really deserved. Her day was lost in the tragedy that overwhelmed us all.

 

On Sunday morning, November 24, 1963 I went to church.  I don’t recall anything about the service. I suppose it too focused on the tragedy but nothing seems special about it now. I only recall that by the time I had returned home, Lee Harvey Oswald had already been killed by Jack Ruby. I had missed the live coverage of that event at 11:30 am CST in Dallas, but saw one of many re-runs of that event later that afternoon.

Later that day, John F. Kennedy’s body was taken by horse-drawn caisson from the White House to the US Capitol Rotunda, and throughout the remainder of the day and night hundreds of thousands of people lined up to view the closed casket. It seemed TV coverage covered the over 250,000 people that filed by Kennedy’s casket. The line of people continued to file by the bier until mid-morning on Monday.

At mid-morning on Monday, November 25 another caisson carried Kennedy’s body from the Capitol to St Matthew’s Cathedral.  The procession behind it was led by Jacqueline Kennedy, Robert and Edward Kennedy, Lyndon B. and Lady Bird Johnson. It seemed to take forever. As I recall it was a cold day in Washington. At the Cathedral of St Matthew the Apostle, Cardinal Cushing held a Requiem Mass. The most memorable event afterward was when John-John saluted his father coffin upon its leaving the church. Everyone was moved.

Again the casket was carried by caisson to Arlington National Cemetery for burial and at the end of burial services, Jacqueline lit an eternal flame.

The events from Friday through Monday seemed endless and exhausting. I suppose too much of us were in shock. How could it be possible for anyone to murder a president in the 20^th Century? We had Secret Service Agents. We were a civilized county. This wasn’t the 1860’s. Our hearts had been ripped out and yet there was so much yet to be done. Parallels to Lincoln were made and speculations as to who else might be involved were being asked. Conspiracy theories were already being formed. It seemed to many that no one man could do this. It was obvious Investigations into Kennedy’s death would consume the news for months to come.

Indeed, in the months and years to follow, Kennedy’s assassination was tied to the Cuban and Soviet Union connections of Lee Harvey Oswald and to organized crime and mafia connections attributed to Jack Ruby. Because of the events leading up Friday, November 22, it seemed to all, any one of these factors may have been the agent to his death. Months and years were devoted to uncovering the truth. I’m not sure there is total agreement by expects to this day.

During the events of that tragedy, one thing never crossed my mind and that was the issue of Vietnam. Southeast Asia was really not on my radar. It may have been an emerging issue in Kennedy’s last days, and it may have been in the news, but it wasn’t the national preoccupation that it would become under President Lyndon B. Johnson months later.

The assassination of John F. Kennedy was (to that point in my life) the first of six gripping national tragedies I have experienced. For my mother is was her second or maybe third tragedy. What was her first? It was the bombing of Pearl Harbor. She was a teenager at an afternoon Church Christmas Performance Rehearsal. On hearing of it their hearts were no longer in it and the rehearsal ended. I understand her heart. I understand it fully.

Do you know someone who filed by Kennedy’s casket or was alive then? What were their memories of those days? Maybe you were alive; what do you recall from that time? How old was your mother or grandmother on Friday, November 22, 1963? If she was alive, she would be 87 on November 23. I wish I could tell her, “Happy Birthday Mom.”

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Scripture

There is a time to live and a time to die. Ecclesiastes 3.1-8
We were created from dust and to dust we will return. Genesis 3.19
Everyone is appointed to die once and face judgment. Hebrews 9.27
Moses on Mt. Nebo saw the ‘promised land’ but was prohibited from entering it and then dies. Deuteronomy 34.1-7
King David dies. 1 Kings 2.1-4 and 10
Elijah taken up into heaven on a chariot. 2 Kings 2.9-12
Stephen being stoned to death. Acts 7.59-60
Sarah (Abraham’s wife) dies in the land of Canaan. Genesis 23.1
Jesus said to the Apostle John, “Behold your mother.” John 19.26-27
Jacob was gathered to his people. Genesis 49.33
John proclaimed that Jesus was the ‘Lamb of God.’ John 1.29
Jesus’ saying, “It is finished” on his death. John 19.30
Because Jesus rose from the dead, Paul wrote, “O’ death, where is your sting?” 1 Corinthians 15.55