The Boys (2009) - full transcript

(PIANO PLAYING)

(PEOPLE APPLAUDING)

FRED ASTAIRE:
For the best song,
the winner is...

The winners are
Richard M. Sherman
and Robert B. Sherman

for Chim Chim Cher-ee.

To say,
all you can say is...

♪ Supercalifragilistic...

♪ ...expialidocious ♪

(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)

♪ Supercalifragilistic-
expialidocious!

♪ Even though the sound of it
is something quite atrocious



♪ If you say it loud enough,
you'll always sound precocious

♪ Supercalifragilistic-
expialidocious! ♪

So many people
know their songs,

but not many people
really know The Boys.

♪ Chim chiminey,
chim chiminey,
chim chim cher-ee!

♪ When you're with a sweep
you're in glad company ♪

Mary Poppins has to be
one of the most beloved
movies ever made,

and it would not have been
half the picture it is
without the music it has.

♪ Let's get together,
yeah, yeah, yeah

♪ Why don't you and I combine?

♪ Let's get together

♪ What do you say?

♪ We can have
a swinging time ♪

You cannot forget
a Sherman Brothers song
for your entire life.



♪ Oobee doo,
I wanna be like you

♪ I wanna walk like you,
talk like you, too ♪

I remember the songs
more than I remember
the movie itself.

♪ The wonderful thing
about Tiggers

♪ Is Tiggers are
wonderful things

♪ Their tops are
made out of rubber

♪ Their bottoms are
made out of springs

♪ They're bouncy
trouncy, flouncy, pouncy

♪ Fun, fun, fun, fun, fun

♪ But the most wonderful
thing about Tiggers
is I'm the only one ♪

So many memorable tunes
and songs

and moments
that touch your heart.

♪ I'm just a little
black rain cloud

♪ Hovering under
the honey tree ♪

These are the people who wrote
every song that every child
has grown up with.

♪ In the Tiki Tiki
Tiki Tiki Tiki Room

♪ In the Tiki Tiki
Tiki Tiki Tiki Room

♪ All the birds sing the words

♪ And the flowers croon

♪ In the Tiki Tiki Tiki
Tiki Tiki Room ♪

With modern media,
television, movies
and Disneyland,

they just were in

this extraordinary position
to have a gigantic impact.

♪ You walked out of my dreams
and into my arms

♪ Now you're my angel divine

♪ You're sixteen,
so beautiful
and you're mine ♪

♪ Toot sweets!
Toot sweets!

♪ A bon-bon to blow on
at last has been found ♪

Can you believe the output
of those two gentlemen

and all these
great, great songs!

♪ Bang Bang
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

♪ Our fine four
fendered friend

♪ Chitty Chitty Bang Bang,
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

♪ Fine four fendered
Chitty Chitty friend! ♪

RICHARD: I'd never be
the success that I am

if he wasn't the success
that he is,

'cause we did it together.

ROBERT: We had no
sibling rivalry when
it came to writing.

I didn't pull away from him,
he pulled away from me.

The hardest part was...

I don't want, I...
I don't know...

We've perpetrated a facade
for 50 years.

I'm Gregg Sherman.
I'm Dick's son.

I'm Bob Sherman's son, Jeff.

JEFF: I met my cousin,
Gregg, four years ago
at a Sherman Brothers' event.

It was the opening
of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
in 2002.

His family was
sitting all the way to
one side of the theater,

and my family was sitting
all the way to the other side
of the theater.

GREGG: After the performance,
Jeff and I spoke all night.

It was the first time we'd
talked in almost 40 years.

JEFF: I never saw him.
I never talked to him,

and we live
seven blocks apart.

Here were two men
that devoted their careers

to writing family
entertainment music,

and yet neither one of them
could get their families
together.

JEFF: My father
and his brother Dick

worked closely together
for over 50 years,

yet there was a lot
of animosity between
the two brothers.

GREGG: And I was told,
"When you're older,
you'll understand.

"It's better this way."

And I got older,
and I still had
no idea why.

JEFF: So we tried
to figure it out.

Bob and I are
two and a half years,

and about 5 eons apart.

(CHUCKLING)
We are different people.

JEFF: Dad, since you
moved to London,
do you miss Los Angeles?

I don't miss it at all.

(LAUGHING)

I really don't.

RICHARD: The funny thing
about brothers...

You don't
forget that relationship
no matter how old you get.

I'm still the kid brother.

JEFF: I'm gonna
ask basic questions
to start, okay?

How's the sound?
Can you hear him?
Okay, good. Hi, Dad.

Howdy.

Good to see you.

Good morning.

Good morning.

You ready to tak.

How you doing?

...journey backwards?

This is gonna be wonderful.

RICHARD: I've never set foot
inside the house since 1940.

We had a company called
The Alley Productions.

That was when
we were little boys.

We got bawled out by the folks
because we had taken
this newly painted garage.

ROBERT: We had a pot
full of blue paint,

and we wrote
"Alley Productions,"
and it dripped.

We had two sawhorses,

planks,
and we used to put up plays.

RICHARD: Bob was the director,
producer, writer,

and I was the performer.

I would be the star.

One thing I wrote was Avaron.

He was a strange guy
from outer space.

"I am Avaron,
the soul searcher,

"looking for an honest soul."

Bob did not approve
when I did my own variations.

He did whatever
he wanted to do.

The kids would just sit
on the ground here or...

No, no, no.
We had stools for them.

This was
a high class operation.

JEFF: Was there any
business aspect
to The Alley Playhouse?

We used to charge
one or two cents.

Dick let all his friends in,
and they didn't have pennies.

He'd let them in anyway.

RICHARD: Bob didn't like that.
He said, "No, they gotta pay
to see the show."

And Mom and Dad
would always stand at the back
like this, watching us.

And they never made us
un-paint the door.

We were a very
close-knit family, though.

We used to have a slogan,
"Always together, always one."

They loved me.
They loved him.

I was Bobby-boy,
he was Dicky-boy.

ROBERT: Dad was
a tremendous kite maker,

and he used to take us out
on weekends and buy string
and buy paper and mucilage,

and he'd make
these marvelous kites
that'd fly forever.

Kids would gather around,
and he'd give them kites.

He mended it!
It's wonderful!

How ever
did you manage it?

♪ With tuppence
for paper and strings

♪ You can have
your own set of wings

♪ With your feet on the ground

♪ You're a bird in flight

♪ With your fist holding tight

♪ To the string of your kite

♪ Oh!

♪ Let's go fly a kite ♪

On Sundays, Grandpa Al
would come to the house,

and he'd give me
a piano lesson.

When the wind would
start blowing, he'd sort of
point to the door,

and I and my whole family
would run across the street
to this little round park,

and we'd make and fly kites.

And I remember
in the early days,

Gregg's family and my family
would do this all together,
and those were great times.

RICHARD: My father
was born in a little town
outside of Kiev,

and in the year 1909,

the Sherman family
immigrated from
the old country to America.

JEFF: As a young man,
Grandpa Al got a job
as a mood music pianist

for silent motion pictures
at Biograph Studios
in the Bronx.

That's where he met
Rose Dancis.

♪ It's hard to see a needle
in a haystack

My mother, she was an actress,
and she was in silent films.

She was a lovely lady.

♪ That I'm crazy over you ♪

OSBORNE:
Music and the entire
show business

was really centered
in New York City.

The Brill Building
and Tin Pan Alley,

that's where all
the songwriters gathered

and plugged their records
and got record deals.

Al Sherman was
the Tin Pan Alley songwriter.

(UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING)

You had to be at the top
of your game because
if you didn't get the job,

somebody else would win it.

Well, sorry.
I've gotta have
something with snap.

JEFF: Al had his
first big hits composing
bright, optimistic songs

during the Great Depression.

Many were recorded
by vaudeville stars

who were moving
into the talkies.

Al Jolson, Helen Kane,
Rudy Vallee and Eddie Cantor.

And my dad, Jerry Stiller,
would go around doing...

♪ Potatoes are cheaper,
tomatoes are... ♪

I don't even know what
this means, but apparently
Eddie Cantor did this.

(STILLER LAUGHING)

♪ Now's the time
to fall in love

♪ Now's the time
to fall in love ♪

What we recognize
as the American sound,

so much of it
came from people
like Aaron Copland

or George Gershwin.
Similarly, Al Sherman.

Who interestingly enough,
all three of them

were first generation
children of immigrant
Russian Jews.

Probably the
least likely people
you could imagine

that were able to manufacture
what we all recognize as being

quintessentially American.

It's kind of a...
In the history of music,
it's a miracle.

♪ Save your sorrow ♪

RICHARD: During the '30s,
there was
a tremendous migration

of pop songwriters
that were coming out
to Hollywood.

And Dad was hired.
Somebody wanted him.

We drove to California
in an old Chevy.

RICHARD: It was a long,
tedious trip
out to California.

I remember the...
We had no air conditioning
at the time,

so it was blistering hot.

Just about the day
he arrived in California,

the executive
that had hired him died,

so here he was with his
children and his wife
and no job.

But even though
we were going
through tough times,

Dad always wrote
optimistic songs.

♪ I'm so happy!
Happy-go-lucky me!

♪ I just go my way,
living every day!

The fortunes
of a songwriter
was such that

we had to move often
and I had to change friends,

go to different schools.

Terrible thing.

There's no paycheck
at the end of the week.

It was just...
Maybe you'll have some song
that makes some money or not.

♪ Living in the sunlight,
loving in the moonlight

♪ Having a wonderful time! ♪

(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING)

I met Bobby in the...
At El Rodeo School.

He was extremely observant,

this impression of shy,
kind of very interesting eyes

that always were very
alert and watching.

ROBERT: Sammy, he used
to come to my house.

We spent a lot
of time together.

He's my best friend.

SAM: I remember my father
once saying to me,

"Friends, friends.
You're very lucky
if you got one friend,

"and you happen to be
very fortunate
with that Sherman boy."

(LAUGHING)

I remember Bob was
very proud of his father,

and the first thing
he did was to explain,
well, he wrote a song.

I said, "What was the song?"
And he said...

♪ You gotta be
a football hero

♪ To get along
with the beautiful girls

♪ You've gotta be
a football hero

♪ To get along with
the beautiful girls ♪

JEFF: Now, you and Dick
as kids, um,
were you close?

Not really.
We were never close as kids.

Didn't know him that well.

We adored each other.
I mean, I looked up to Bob.
He was my hero.

ROBERT: When I grew up,
I wanted to be a writer.

Novels and plays.

I used to write poetry.

About everything.
Mother's Day, Father's Day,
birthdays, weekdays.

Bob could recite a poem,
and everybody'd say,

"Oh, isn't Bobby wonderful?
He's wonderful."

And Dicky was sitting there
being a dweeb.

This was a very large
cedar closet that was
Bob's dark room,

and heads would roll
if you went in there
when he was working

because it destroyed his...

He'd go in here
with Sam Goldwyn?

Yeah, they, Bob...
Bob and Sammy used to work
in there all the time.

GREGG: And who was in this?

Well, let me see. I don't...

(THUDDING)

(ALL LAUGHING)

I'm up to my old tricks.

You see that roof?

GREGG: Yeah.

There was like
an open area here.

I would jump
off the roof on...

Just to create the illusion
that I could fly.

I certainly did
weird things like that.

I used to jump
out of trees a lot.

JEFF: You got your accolades
through your achievements.

How did he get attention?

He had asthma.

(LAUGHING)

JEFF: He ended up
in military school.

How did that come about?

Well, there's
various versions.

I think he tried to burn
the school down.

I didn't burn
down the school!

(MEN LAUGHING)

I was playing with matches.
I mean, that's not the
same thing.

JEFF: Did it change him?

He had a nice uniform.

♪ There's a job to do,
there's a fight to win

♪ Follow me, boys, follow me ♪

We were in the war,
and I wanted to go
and kill the Germans.

I prevailed upon my parents.

They finally signed
the permission,

so at 17,
I enlisted in the Army.

JEFF: So you went overseas.
Where did you go?

Oh, from France to Belgium,
to Holland and Luxembourg,

finally to Germany.

Well, we were taking
a little town
called Bredenbeck.

The captain says,
"Six minutes
and we'll charge."

And we're shooting...

And as I was
crossing a field,

I got hung up
on some barbed wire,

and by the time
I untangled myself,

a machine pellet
hit me in the knee,

and, uh, so I shall
remember it for a while.

He was really in bad shape
when I saw him after the war.

Really, it was
very upsetting.

I couldn't believe it.
I couldn't believe
the shape he was in,

and I was worried he wasn't
gonna live very long.

The pain was just
killing him, and look
what a survivor he is.

I had just graduated
from high school,

and Bob had gotten
out of the Army.

ROBERT: And I wrote
some short stories,

typed them up,
sent them out to about
12 different magazines.

One day on
the hospital ward,

they said, "There's
a telephone call for you."

This is Grace Fischler
from Coronet magazine.

She said, "Well, we're
gonna publish your stories,
one every month."

She said, "Henceforth,
anything else you write,
I'd like to see first."

I said, "I'd never
met a person who used
the word 'henceforth.'"

(LAUGHING)

We were both gonna
go to Bard College,
New York State,

and I had to declare
a major for myself.

Bob wanted to
go into literature.
He knew that.

I was all of 17,
in a terrible,
terrible depression,

and I decided
to take a walk,

and as I walked,
I was hearing music,

and I was wondering,
"Where is this music
coming from?"

And I realized it was
coming from my own head.

So I darted back
to the apartment where
we had a little piano

and started picking it out
on the piano,
this feeling I had.

I'd never done
that before, never.

And my father said,
"What are you doing here?
What is this?"

I said, "Well, this is
something I felt."

I just... I had to say it.
This is what I feel.

He says, "You're gonna be
a music major."

That's when it happened.

(PIANO PLAYING)

RICHARD: Because of the war,
Bob and I both entered
Bard College at the same time.

He was a war veteran,
you know,

and I was just a
wet-behind-the-ears kid.

The two and a half years
that we were separated
by years

became 10 years
because he had lived
so much more than I had.

ROBERT: I looked at things
a lot differently,

so he went with his friends,
I went with mine.

We didn't speak much
to each other.
That's the way it went.

GREGG: Would you go home
for, like, Christmas break
or anything?

I stayed at school,
and it was boring
'cause nobody was there.

Dick had a girlfriend,
and he went to their home.

RICHARD: It was kind of
a childhood romance,
you know, that type of thing.

We sort of got married.
That's one of those things
that we did.

It was a mistake,
but a beautiful thing
happened.

We had a little girl
named Lynda,
whom we both adored.

After school, reality hit us.
We came back to California,

and all of a sudden
I had to make a living.

My grandfather had
a very well-established
dry cleaning business,

and he wanted Dad
to go into the business

because he knew
it could support
his wife and child.

RICHARD: It was
kind of terrifying

because I wanted to
be a songwriter more than
anything in the world.

I'd rather do that
than breathe.

It would be
a very unhappy marriage
to keep going like this,

and it had to end.

And I had my clothing
and a few articles
that I owned

at the little apartment
that I shared
with my first wife.

Uh... I needed help
to get the stuff out
of there,

and I said,
"Bob, you gotta help me.
I don't...

"I just can't do this
by myself."

JEFF: You remember having to
go to his then wife's place

and getting his stuff
and helping him move out?

I don't remember.

RICHARD: And it was
a very embarrassing thing
for him to go through this,

but he said,
"Okay, I'll do it.
I'll do it for you."

And he said,
"You owe me, kid."

I said,
"I know, Bob. I owe you."

And he collected
one day on that one.

♪ Just when you're sure

♪ Of a dream that you planned

♪ That's when
the scenery changes

♪ It changes ♪

We both really didn't
necessarily wanna
be songwriters.

What I wanted to be
was a great symphonic
composer, and Bob...

I wanted to write
the great American novel.

He was determined.

Or at least
a California novel.

And after graduation
from college, we both
set about to do that.

I was writing my
great symphonic sketches,

and Bob was writing
chapter after chapter

of the most boring drivel
you've ever read in your life.

And I would say that
about the music
I was writing, too,

because I don't wanna just,
you know, single you out

(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)

for achievement...

It's all right.

...in that department.

But one day, our dad...

There's a good
punctuation now.

JEFF: It's something
I never really
completely understood.

You guys were very different,
lived different lives,
had different friends,

but you still chose
to live together.
Why was that?

It was economically good
'cause our folks
were giving us the money.

RICHARD: Bob and I took in
a little apartment
over a cleaning store.

LARSEN: Dick always had
his papers and everything

all set up
on the ironing board.

I don't think they
could afford a desk
at that point.

And the lady next door,
who was upstairs, was deaf,

so I could play the piano
all I wanted,

and Bob could
pound on his typewriter
as much as he wanted.

One day, our dad came up
to our little apartment.

He said, "I'll bet
you two guys couldn't
pool your talents

"and come up with a song
that some kid would give up
his lunch money to buy."

Bob and I both kind of
looked at each other
and said,

"We could, you know,
do something."

So we tried it,
and it wasn't easy.
It was very difficult.

Dad used to say,
"The three S's,

"keep it singable,
simple and sincere.
And original."

ROBERT: He was
the greatest teacher.

Finally after about
3 or 4 months,

he said,
"You got a hook here,
in this one idea."

And it was called...

BOTH: Gold Can Buy Anything
But Love.

ROBERT: He pointed us
in the direction
of Hollywood and Vine,

and he said,
"There are a lot of
publishers out there.

"Now you go play 'em
for them."

RICHARD: Finally,
one publisher said,

"You know, I think
it's a pretty good song."

We were overjoyed
because Gene Autry
had recorded it,

and he was the number one
country western singer
of the day.

RADIO ANNOUNCER: And now,
here's our newest
Columbia recording

that we think
is gonna be a big hit.

♪ Love, love, love ♪

ROBERT:
Well, people on Vine Street
were congratulating us.

They heard it on the radio

and said, "How does
it feel having a hit
for your first time out?"

And we said,
"We don't know, you know,
we don't know yet."

One day we heard
an announcer on
the station saying,

"And now we're gonna hear
Gene Autry's smashing hit.
It's breaking all record..."

And we were ready
to congratulate ourselves
and...

We started spending
the money mentally.

President Truman had recalled
for General MacArthur
and had asked him to resign.

And MacArthur made a speech,
and he concluded his speech
when he said,

"I remember the old
barracks room ballad."

An old soldier never dies.

They just fade away.

RICHARD: And Mr. Autry
decided to record it
at the same day.

Our song was
called off the presses.

It never saw
the light of day again,

and that was the end
of our career
as songwriters, we felt.

By some amazing miracle,
our father seemed to know

we were gonna be
charging into Hollywood
to speak to our publisher,

and he cut us off
at the pass.

He said,
"I know what
you're thinking,

"but if you can't learn
to take a curve
in this business,

"get out of the business."

♪ Hup, two, three, four

♪ By the ranks or single file

♪ Over every jungle mile ♪

RICHARD:
I was gonna be drafted,
and I joined the Army Reserve.

GREGG: He never saw
any kind of action.

Never killed anybody.

He started
conducting the band.

RICHARD: I never fired
a shot in anger.

I shot my mouth off a lot.

(LAUGHING)

COLONEL: Wipe off
that silly grin, soldier.
This is the Army.

LARSEN: Now, I'd met
the Sherman Brothers
kind of collectively

back in the very
early '50s.

All of our friends
were struggling artistes,
if you will.

We had, practically
every week, our pals over,

and, you know,
we'd run pictures.

Bob was there and Joyce
was there but they didn't
come together.

They just met there.

ROBERT: She was
an airline stewardess.

I was stricken with her.
She was gorgeous.

Slim, suntanned.

I called her and asked her
if she'd like to go
to a movie.

I couldn't look at the movie.
I had to keep looking at her.

I was nuts about her.
I asked her to marry me.

JEFF: On your first date.

Yeah.

And she called Wisconsin,

and said, "I have met
a real great guy."

It was simple.

♪ I might have known

♪ Life alone

♪ But that's where
you came in

♪ Your lovin' arms

♪ Have saved me from

♪ The things
I might have been ♪

And then a very
similar thing happened

with a lovely lady,
who is now
Elizabeth Sherman.

I came back from a trip,
and who was there?

The girl that I wanted to
look up in the first place

that I had met
a few weeks earlier.

ELIZABETH: He asked me
if I would like to

hear a record
he had just gotten,

and I said, "Oh, sure.
What did you buy?"

And he said, "Well,
I didn't exactly buy it."

And I said,
"Uh, what did you do,
steal it?"

Because he had told me
he was in the
insurance business.

And I was
losing interest quickly
because I thought

he was too excited
to see me, and he lies.

Elizabeth taught me
how to laugh at things.

Changed my whole
perception of life.

♪ About you, about me,
about us

♪ About your love and mine

♪ Well, about time ♪

I think I'm instrumental
in being cupid
on those two things

for just having
a nice place
for people to meet.

ROBERT: I got one room
in a building in Hollywood,

and I let everybody know
that I was publishing.

JEFF: What was the name
of your publishing company?

Music World Corporation.

Bob had a determination
to publish songs on his own.

ROBERT: I wrote
with different partners.

One of them was
Bob Roberts.

RICHARD: They were having
a bit of success together,

and I was doing my own thing,
writing on my own.

ROBERT: I didn't wanna
write with him.

We were going
our own directions.

RICHARD: He did say, "Come up
if you ever have a good song.
You think you have...

"Nobody else wants it,
bring it over here.

"Maybe I can do
something with it."

One day I was driving
down Santa Monica Boulevard,

and there was a sign,
and it said,
"The Tall Girls Shop."

Tall. Ooh.
That's a good word. Tall.

Bob Roberts and I had
a start of a song called

Chalk on the Sidewalk,
Writing on the Wall.

And Dick came in,
and he joined us.

♪ Chalk on the sidewalk

♪ Writing on the wall

♪ Everybody knows it

♪ I love Paul

♪ Tall Paul

♪ Tall Paul

♪ Tall Paul

♪ He's my all ♪

The Walt Disney Company.
They were looking for a song
for Annette Funicello,

who was a big star
of the Mousketeers.

We always called her
our lucky star
because she started it.

ROBERT: It became a smash.

Bob Roberts was not
too happy about the fact

that the kid brother
was coming into the thing,

and we wrote a lot of songs,
the three of us.

At one point,
there was a big fight.

Roberts said, "I think
I should add more bass."

And Dick said, "No."

All of a sudden,
he lost his cool.

He threw a pair of scissors
at me across this sound booth.

Whap! Like that.
I pulled out of the way,
thank God.

Bob got up, grabbed him and
shoved him out of the door.

And I said, "I never wanna
see that guy again."

And from then on,
Dick and I wrote together.

♪ Ooh, you come on
like a dream,
peaches and cream

♪ Lips like strawberry wine

♪ You're sixteen,
you're beautiful

♪ And you're mine

JEFF: Dad and Dick were
occasionally landing songs
and getting some airplay,

but their families
were growing,

and it was tough
to make ends meet.

♪ Well, you're sixteen,
you're beautiful,
and you're mine ♪

ROBERT: We started writing
more songs for Annette,

and she recorded
about 15 of them.

MAN: Take 3, Baker. Hold it.
Uh, Pineapple Princess.

And you guys knew
how nervous I was,

and you were so supportive
and wonderful.

Well, you see,
the trick was, you know
what Tutti said to me.

He said, "Any time she looks
like she's a little worried
about the song,

"you go in and
sing it for her.

"She knows she can
sing it better than you."

♪ Pineapple princess

♪ He calls me
pineapple princess all day

♪ As he plays the ukulele
on the hill above the bay ♪

RICHARD: Bob had gotten
a phone call

from the musical director
of the Disney Record Company,

and he said,
"The studio wants to put
Annette into a film,

"and they need a song for her.
Would you guys like to
take a shot at writing it?"

Said, "You're kidding?
Really!"

He said, "Yes, but
they need it right away."

So, we drove to the studio,
and there was a big fence
with a guard there.

RICHARD: We thought
we'd have to pay to park

'cause we had about
35 cents between us.

ROBERT: So we parked
outside the studio,
and we walked in.

Jimmy Johnson, the head
of the music company
at Disney,

said, "Walt wants to hear it."

Walt Disney?

So, Bob and I,
terrified, walked into
Walt Disney's office.

ROBERT: And he started
talking about a picture with
two girls that were sisters.

They were twins,
but they had never met.
They meet in summer camp.

We let him go
for a while.

We said,
"But, Mr. Disney, we're..."

RICHARD: We didn't let him go.
This was Walt Disney
talking to us.

You don't interrupt
a man like that.

But at a certain point,
Bob got the courage to say,

"Mr. Disney, we came here
to play you a song
for The Horsemasters."

And we played
the first song we ever wrote
for a Disney production,

and that was
a song called
Strummin' Song.

♪ So, ho-hum,
let's sing a strummin' song

♪ Ho-hum,
let's sing a strummin' song

♪ Ho-hum,
one that we can hum along

♪ Ho-hum,
one that we can hum along ♪

He listened to the song,
and he said,
"Yeah, that'll work."

And we got kind of confused.

"What do you mean it'll work?
It's a good song."

We didn't realize
that when he said,
"It'll work,"

he meant it'll work.

ROY: Walt, of course,
was never quite satisfied
with anything,

but he would drag you
into doing something

even better than
you thought you could.

RICHARD: He said,
"Listen, I wasted
a lot of time

"on this other thing,
so why don't you
get 'em a script

"and maybe we can
come up with a song
for this picture."

♪ Let's get together,
yeah, yeah, yeah

♪ Why don't you and I combine?

♪ Let's get together,
what do you say?

♪ What do you say?

BOTH: ♪ We can have
a swingin' time

BOTH: ♪ And though
we haven't got a lot

♪ We could be sharing
all we've got

♪ Together

Bob and Dick were just
always warm and sweet
and loving,

and I can remember them now
sitting there playing
and laughing and...

(LAUGHS)

♪ Nothing could be greater,
say hey alligator

You know, I felt that
I knew them of old.

♪ Let's get together

♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah! ♪

One propitious day,
Walt took this little
red book off his shelf,

and he handed it to us.

ROBERT: The book was called
Mary Poppins.

He said,
"You know what a nanny is?"

We said, "Yeah, a goat."

He said, "No, no, no.
It's a British nurse maid."

I said, "Oh, okay."

This time he just said,
"Tell me what you think."

We knew he was interested
in us as writers, as thinkers.

We found six chapters
in her books

that we could put together
and make a story.

RICHARD: We had just
written about 16 bars
of various songs.

Two weeks later,
we brazenly ask, "Could
we have a half an hour

"of Walt's very,
very valuable time?"

And we stayed there
for about two and
a half hours,

and he was as enthusiastic
as we were with what
we were doing.

We circled the six chapters,

and he smiled
and turned around
and got his copy,

opened it to the index.

The same six chapters
were underlined.

That was a miracle.

He said, "Play me that
bird lady song again."

♪ Their young ones are hungry

♪ Their nests are so bare

♪ All it takes

♪ Is tuppence from you ♪

He looked at us
and he said,

"That's what it's all about,
isn't it?"

He said, "You guys
like to write, don't you?"

I said, "Yes, sir.
I always like to come here."

"Then will you write for me?"

We said,
"We love to work
for the studio."

And...

(SIGHING DEEPLY)

That was the day.
That was the day.

I think probably I'm the only
person who is really close
to both of them,

has ever been really close
to both of them,

either professionally
or personally

and was close
to both their wives.

A.J. Carothers, one of
Walt's favorite writers,

became one of ours.

We were very close.

RICHARD: Bob loved A.J. too,
and his wife Caryl,

and we just kind of got along.
Everybody was kind of
fond of each other then.

CAROTHERS: Working
with them in the '60s,

we were happily ensconced
at Disney.

We were all three
very happy there.

Walt Disney gave them
a home.

That was very unusual
for songwriters.

CAROTHERS: They were the only
songwriters that Walt
ever had under contract.

The Sherman Brothers
are not only very talented
but very cooperative.

They go for the team play,
you know.

That's the way
we work here,
as a team.

They never knew
what the next assignment
was gonna be,

but there would be one
just around the corner.

♪ Color

♪ Color

♪ Color

MALE ANNOUNCER:
Walt Disney presents...

♪ The wonderful
world of color ♪

We started getting paid
by the Disney Company.

It was marvelous.

It was the second week
that we were coming out
of the studio.

We had gotten our first
$500 check each.

They're paying us money
to write songs.

Couldn't believe it.

It was exciting.
That's more money
than we ever had.

Bob's car was
in front of mine,

and he held up five like that,
and I held up five,

and I waved back at him
like that.

And that was
our hand signal.

As the weeks went on,
it was 600!

And we were just reveling
in our relationships

with the studio
and with Walt.

ROY: Walt always knew
that music was about story.

Walt was all about story.
He was a great storyteller.

And both Bob and Dick
were great storytellers, too.

The Sherman Brothers,
for more or less
the first time,

brought a musical theater
sensibility to
screen projects.

That was, I think,
very influential.

We had a very
definite philosophy.

We don't start anything
without an idea.

The idea came first,
then the music and
the lyrics followed.

And we'd both throw lines
to each other, back and forth

and we sort of Sherman-ize,
we like to call it.

And so many people
pigeonholed their songs
as children's songs.

I didn't write kiddie songs,
I wrote songs for kiddies.

(LAUGHING)

These are lyrics which have
words in them that are not
in common currency,

or they're words that
stretch the imagination.

♪ Fortuosity

♪ That's me own word ♪

♪ Higitus Figitus
migitus mum

♪ Prestidigitonium ♪

♪ A heffalump or woozle
is very confusal ♪

♪ Substitutiary locomotion
come to me ♪

♪ I'll have fun with you,
you'll have fun with me

♪ That's fundamental
friendependability ♪

We didn't wanna
write down to kids.

I wanted them
to learn new words.

Precocious and
Supercalifragilistic-
expialidocious.

CAROTHERS: We all had offices
in the animation building,

and I heard, you know,
these songs, of course,

over and over and over again
'cause I was in the
same corridor.

♪ The biggest word
you ever heard and
this is how it goes ♪

I blew it. I blew it.
I blew it right there.
I blew those words and notes.

And Dick tends to
not be very soft pedaled
when he's playing

and singing his songs.

Once in a while, Bob and I
would, like, be screaming
some lyric or something,

and then a little rustle
would come under the door.

ROBERT: A wonderful cartoonist
named Roy Williams,

he used to draw whatever
went on in our office,
write what he heard.

BOTH: ♪ If you say it
loud enough

♪ You'll always
sound precocious

♪ Supercalifragilistic-
expialidocious ♪

RICHARD: Better?

(PLAYING PIANO)

(PIANO KEYS BANGING)

Oh!

(PIANO PLAYING CONTINUES)

Oh!

(PIANO PLAYING CONTINUES)

That was the best one.

My brother, Dick,
was spontaneous.

I always was
slow and plodding.

He was in there,
and it was exciting.

It's great to work with a guy
who's a sparkplug.

RICHARD: When we come up
with a good song idea,

there were no two
happier guys in the world.

We just jumped for joy.
It was just fantastic,
and we knew it.

We'd both look
at each other and...
"Ah, yeah, we did it, yeah!"

They had the reputation,
which was largely true,
I think,

that they could write a song
over lunch hour and bring
the next song back to you.

When something is
so engrained
in the culture,

people don't even
have a connection
with the fact

that two guys sat in a room
and had to actually work
and create that.

I was in their office,
and Richard, Dick,

would sit just playing
the melody, really loud

and just shouting out lyrics,
anything that came
into his head.

(PIANO PLAYING)

♪ Put it in the album,

♪ Put it in the album,
the family album ♪

Robert was sitting
at his big desk, listening,

and every couple of minutes,
as Dick just went on
just shouting things,

Robert would raise
his hand like this.

Dick would stop mid-chord, and
Robert would say one thought.

(PIANO PLAYING)

Your friends would love it.

♪ Your friends
will love it ♪

RICHARD: Well, okay,
what can you rhyme
with love it, love it?

Put the date above it.

And Dick would go,
"Oh, my God!"

And boom, go right in
and sing the perfect line.

♪ All your friends
will love it

♪ Your family album

♪ Put the dates above it,
the family album ♪

Dick was always very easy
to goof around with.

We always thought of him
as Mr. Sunshine,

but Bob is much more retiring,
and I didn't entirely know

whether that was
because he was shy

or whether there was
a sort of dark aspect
to him

that countered
Dick's sunshine.

Clearly, one might say,
"Oh, gee, Bob's moody."

I think that is so
skimming the surface

of one of the most complex
people I've ever met.

Bob is a little more
Feed the Birds,
I think,

and Dick is a little more
Supercalifragilistic.

GORDON: The closest analogy
that I've ever been able
to come up with

is John Lennon
and Paul McCartney,

and if you think
of Paul McCartney,

bubbly, effusive,
very much like Dick.

You think of John Lennon,
a little more sardonic,
a little darker, like Bob.

They would keep the songs
from being too sugary

and giving it just that
little bit of adult twist
to it.

♪ Up where the smoke is
all billered and curled

♪ 'Tween pavement and stars
is the chimney sweep world

LASSETER: What
the Sherman Brothers
did with Walt Disney,

they made these
perfect moments

where dialogue, visuals,

animation, whatever,
cannot communicate
an emotion

as good as that
Sherman Brothers' song.

♪ On the rooftops of London

♪ Coo, what a sight! ♪

As a filmmaker now,
I don't forget those moments.

A man has dreams
of walking with giants.

To carve his niche
in the edifice of time.

ROBERT: Walt kept putting off
Mary Poppins.

Finally, I learned that
he didn't have the rights.

We had poured ourselves
for two and a half years
into this project.

Dreaming of it
and thinking about it.

There was a woman
who wrote the basic stories

called Mrs. Travers,
Pamela Travers.

I didn't know until later,
but I heard that she had
to agree

to sell him this stuff,

but he put on
with Bob and Dick,

and with Don DaGradi
and Bill Walsh,

this enormous show for her.

These are two giant boats,

titanic vessels
heading on a collision course,

and somewhere in between
is a little raft on which are
sitting Bob and Dick Sherman.

♪ When the day is gray ♪

TRAVERS: No, no, no,
come on. No, no, no, no.

No, no,
don't make it like that.

She was a very feisty,

ramrod straight old lady.

She didn't really
hit it off with children,
oddly enough,

for somebody who was
so famous in the world
of children's literature.

She was a witch.

Book freaked me out
as a kid.

She breaks her fingers off,
and it's gingerbread and...
She's kind of unpleasant.

TRAVERS: I beg of you
not to do that.

You're going to spoil
the whole thing.

She didn't like
any of the ideas we had
from her book.

None of them.

She didn't appreciate
the genius of what
they had come up with.

Walt said,
"Listen, I have
a lot of work to do,"

and he just got up
and left the room.

I'd give anything
to be there with you,

but this seems to be
one of those times

I'm tied down here
at the studio
night and day.

TRAVERS: Now, look,
I do not think this is right.

You had to say
the right thing

and try to press
the right buttons with her.

RICHARD: We wanna make this
a great picture and want to
do justice in some way

to the magic of this
wonderful pile of books here.

We love Mary Poppins,
we really do.

TRAVERS: Thank you.

ROY: She grudgingly
finally came through.

They made the movie
that they saw fit to make.

Take a look!

It's her.
It's the person.

I was very daunted
by the thought of doing
my first movie ever.

Those songs
were so compelling and
that's what made me feel,

"Yeah, I think if I was
given half a chance
I would be able to cut it."

VAN DYKE:
Bob and Dick Sherman,
they play the songs for me,

and I've never been
so impressed or enthralled
in my life,

and I said, "Oh, God,
I've got to be part of this."

♪ But through
the eyes of love
you can start ♪

WALTON: One of the songs
that Dick and Bob really loved

when they originally played
us the score was, I think,
called The Eyes of Love,

and given how
incredibly positive Julie
responded to the score,

they were really kind of
startled when she said,

"You know, I'm not sure
about The Eyes of Love."

I think she thought
it was too direct.

It was not oblique enough
for Mary Poppins' character.

This was the...
One of the most
important numbers to us,

and we were kind of
heartbroken about it.

Then Walt said,
"Try to write something
that would be more

"in keeping with the way
Mary Poppins would feel."

This one day
I came home from school,

and all the shades
were closed in this room
he was sitting in.

He was sitting in a chair.

I didn't even see him
right away, it was so dark
in the house.

He asked me,
"How was your day?"

And I said, "I had
the Salk vaccine at school."

He said, "Well, you let
somebody give you a shot?
And did it hurt?"

And I said, "No, they took up
this plastic spoon

"and put a sugar cube on
and put the medicine in it
and you just ate it."

And I saw my dad
go like this...

And with that, I said,

"A spoonful of sugar
helps the medicine go down."

And I couldn't
wait to tell Dick.

The next morning I said,
"A spoonful of sugar helps
the medicine go down."

He said, "What?"

He said, "You nuts?"

(WHISTLING)

♪ For a spoonful of sugar

♪ Helps the medicine go down

♪ The medicine go down

♪ The medicine go down

♪ Just a spoonful of sugar

♪ Helps the medicine go down

♪ In a most delightful way ♪

VAN DYKE: Both of The Boys,
Bob and Dick, were there
all the time,

because they were so
involved in it and so
in love with it.

Richard and Bob
were right down
at eye level with me

and we were all
in this team together.

♪ Never be cross or cruel

♪ Never give us
castor oil or gruel ♪

Richard's always reminded me
of that little errant penguin,

runs onto the screen,
madly in love with Mary
and bumping into everything.

That's Richard Sherman.

Robert Sherman,
devastatingly handsome,
very sartorial.

Trying to describe to we kids
what the scene was about.

I was at a party
the other night,
and a 22-month-old girl,

I mean, that tall,

walked up and she said,
"Hi, Bert!"

And I said,
"Hi, what's your name?"

She said, "Mary Poppins."

She stepped on my lap,
and we sang
the entire song of...

♪ It's a jolly holiday
with Mary ♪

♪ Mary makes your heart
so light ♪

You haven't changed a bit,
have you?

♪ When the day is gray
and ordinary

♪ Mary makes the sun
shine bright ♪

Oh, honestly!

That's the third,
maybe the fourth generation

of children that are
charmed by that movie.

It's a great tribute
to the Sherman Brothers.

We kind of stepped
into the big time

in a real serious way
with Mary Poppins.

MALE ANNOUNCER:
Hollywood goes to
a world premiere.

It was a real
live action movie,
my goodness!

And look at Disney
doing this sort of thing.

MALE ANNOUNCER:
Here in the forecourt

of the renowned
Grauman's Chinese Theatre,

all of Hollywood awaits
the world premiere of
Walt Disney's Mary Poppins.

(BLOWING WHISTLE)

It appears that
Walt Disney is arriving.

(CROWD CHEERING)

Walt's last premiere
was in 1937

for Snow White
and the Seven Dwarfs.

ROY: Bob and Dick
and wives were in
a limo together

and creeping up to the
front of the Chinese Theatre
with their window down,

and some little girl poked
her head in the window
and looked at them,

looking for celebrities,
and said,

"They're not anybody."
And Joyce Sherman goes,
"We are too somebody!"

(LAUGHING)

I always love that story,
you know. And, of course,
you know,

by the time the evening
was over, they indeed,
they were somebody.

ROBERT: Well, they had
the parking lot tented
with parties,

and we're coming out of the
theater, and Mrs. Travers
was coming out with Walt.

She didn't look too happy.
She really was not
too pleased.

She said, "Well, I guess
we'll have to roll our sleeves
up and get it straight."

And he looked at
her and said,
"Pamela, the ship has sailed."

The period,
1963 to '69 basically,

Walt brought songs
and music into the parks
for the first time.

The first one was
Tiki Room,
which Bob and Dick wrote.

LASSETER: The Sherman
Brothers' music within
the amusement park rides,

it takes you
to those places.

You forget
about the long line
you just stood in.

You are taken away.

♪ Welcome to our
tropical hideaway,
you lucky people, you

♪ If we weren't in the
show starting right away,
we'd be in the audience, too ♪

RICHARD: We were given
the assignment to do a song

for the UNICEF pavilion
at the World's Fair,

which was called
"UNICEF Salutes the Children
of the World."

The first time
I met Dick and Bob,
we had set up

a, uh, test of how
we were going to do

the music from
different countries,
and it was a mess.

It sounded like a million kids
all singing different things.

It was a cacophony.

Walt says,
"Can you write one song
that'll cover everything?"

I said, "Well, we'll try."

♪ It's a world of laughter,
a world of tears

♪ It's a world of hope

People think it's
a little novelty.
It's a prayer for peace.

♪ ...that we share,
and it's time we're aware

♪ It's a small world
after all ♪

We have to learn
to live together and
respect each other,

or we're gonna
blow each other up.

I get so moved in the boat,
going through that and seeing
all the children.

There is something
that is just so
wonderfully moving,

and the song
always gets to me.

It's like this life changing
experience as a child
when you go on it

'cause it's, sort of,
kind of scary, but not.

You do spend about
five minutes in there

where that thing
just goes cycling around
endlessly in your ear.

Once it's in your head,
it's just there forever,
in a good way.

It's a lovely song,
the first

four or five
thousand times
you hear it,

and then it just like
drills into your brain.

You wake up in
the middle of the night
and it's still going.

♪ It's a small world
after all ♪

No! No!
Anything but that.

I have this image
of both your fathers
sitting there like...

(LAUGHING)

It's probably the most
important thing
that's in any of the parks.

Wouldn't it be wonderful
if people acted like that,
to the words of that song?

In 1964, we all flew together
on Walt's private plane
to the World's Fair

where they were introducing
It's a Small World,

and when the ride
was about a third
of the way through,

the tape broke,
and the four of us
stood up

and sang
It's a Small World through
the rest of the ride.

Which was really fun.
We had a good time together.

♪ It's a small world
after all ♪

OSBORNE: Jerry Lewis
said that when he and Dean
Martin started out as a team

that Lou Costello
gave them advice

that he had gotten
from Stan Laurel,
and that was

never let your wives
socialize with each other.

Where you get four people
involved in it,

then personalities
take over, and it
doesn't work.

CAROTHERS: The wives
were very different,
one from the other,

as were their husbands.

So I think had they
not been brothers,

they are two couples
that never would have
had a relationship

because I don't think
they had enough in common.

Dick has never changed
from the day they were
above that cleaning shop.

Very careful about
where his money is spent.

He probably has
a big coffee can in his
backyard full of gold.

Dad is probably
the most generous

human being
on the planet.

I liked Laurie Partridge,
I wanted a keyboard.

So he got me
this entire huge
like church organ,

and I think I played it
eight times on total.

Bob would be more
the businessman,

and I would be more
the other guy.

I would do
things for nothing,
just for the fun of it.

Dick thought that Bob was,
you know, extravagant

and threw money around

and Bob thought that Dick was,
you know, close fisted
and uptight,

and so their lifestyles
were different,

and so they didn't
enjoy being together.

♪ So there's a great,
big, beautiful tomorrow

♪ Shining at the end
of every day

♪ There's a great, big,
beautiful tomorrow

♪ Just a dream away ♪

Well, it sounds
pretty good.

In fact, that's just
the right spirit.

Our songwriters
Dick and Bob Sherman
of the Walt Disney Studio.

Bob and Dick wrote that
as a tribute to Walt,
about Walt's optimism.

Thanks, boys.

Thanks, Walt.

Say goodbye
to the folks.

Bye-bye.

♪ There's a great, big,
beautiful tomorrow... ♪

(CHUCKLES)
As they said,
that's the spirit.

ROBERT: Walt was a marvelous,
creative person

with a lot
of imagination,
like our dad.

(PLAYING
A SPOONFUL OF SUGAR)

RICHARD: We were amazed
to be nominated

because it was
our very first time out
with a major picture.

ROBERT: It was like
we were walking on air.

GREGG: What do you remember
about the 1965 Oscars?

Well, I just remember
that we were all gorgeous.

REYNOLDS:
For Best Music Score...

(WOMAN SNEEZES)

Oh, God bless you.

The winners are

Richard M. Sherman
and Robert B. Sherman
for Mary Poppins!

(ALL APPLAUDING)

We're so touched.
We want to thank

the inspiring
Mr. Walt Disney,
Mr. Bill Walsh.

Mr. Don DaG.

And...

Irwin Kostal,
Bob Stevenson...

Julie Andrews.

...our wonderful cast,
Dick Van Dyke.

Dick Van Dyke.

There are so many
people connected
with Mary Poppins,

I'm sure we left
quite a lot of them out.

We'll stay up all night
thinking of them, too.

Thank you. ,
Academy, ve.

Thank you.

RICHARD: We had both won
two Academy Awards,

so we took pictures
with Julie.

We posed with one of
them behind our backs

so that it
wouldn't look like we
were overpowering her.

ROBERT: Overnight,
every doorman,
every maitre d',

every waiter
knew our names.

The next day,
we went to Walt's
office to thank him.

So we marched in
with our four Oscars
and we put 'em on his desk,

and he's working
away on a script,

and he looks up
and he said,
"Well, boys..."

"Congratulations.
You hit a home run."

"But remember,
you had the bases loaded."

ROBERT: "Now just
try to get on base."

JEFF: Mary Poppins
was the breakout hit all
songwriters dreamed to have.

The question always is
what's next?

♪ Uh-huh,
she loves the monkey's uncle

♪ Yeah, yeah

♪ She loves the monkey's uncle

♪ Whoa, whoa

♪ She loves the monkey's uncle

♪ And the monkey's uncle's
ape for me!

♪ Love all his monkey shines

♪ Every day is Valentine's

♪ I love the monkey's uncle
and the monkey's uncle's
ape for me

♪ Ape for me ♪

♪ Nose like a Geiger

♪ Oh, what a tiger is

♪ That darn cat ♪

RICHARD:
When we were given
this book, to begin with,

we couldn't
get with it at all.

Kiddy stuff.
We weren't very impressed.

I was their sort of
resident Brit,

and as a kid,
a fanatical Pooh fan.

I think they're exaggerating,
but they used to say

my enthusiasm for it
had triggered a kind of
creative release for them.

But with Winnie the Pooh,
he saved my life.
I was a tubby little kid.

Winnie the Pooh was tubby
but he was wonderful.

♪ When I up, down,
touch the ground

♪ It puts me in the mood

♪ Up, down,
touch the ground

♪ In the mood for food ♪

Bob, I remember, looked
at me and he said,

"Deep in
the 100 Acre Wood,

"where
Christopher Robin plays."

I said, "Oh, my God,
oh, my God, don't stop!"

And he stopped,
and I said...

♪ Deep in
the 100 Acre Wood

♪ Where
Christopher Robin plays

♪ You will find
the enchanted neighborhood

♪ Of Christopher's
childhood days

♪ Winnie the Pooh,
Winnie the Pooh

♪ Tubby little cubby
All stuffed with fluff

♪ He's Winnie the Pooh,
Winnie the Pooh

♪ Willy, nilly,
silly old bear ♪

Just before I came
to Disney, the AIDS
crisis hit in New York,

and unbeknownst to me,
Howard was ill.

In fact, most of the people
I was working with
were sick and dying,

and all we could watch
were these Disney
animated features

and I would just
escape into them with
my daughter on my lap.

I remember that
the balm for my heart was
actually Winnie the Pooh.

I'd be sitting, going...

♪ Winnie the Pooh,
Winnie the Pooh ♪

Walt, he would talk
to them about a song
that he thought might be

good for an
upcoming project,

and Dick would go run
to the piano and start
playing something

and say,
"How about this?"

RICHARD:
Bob, he was always
very thorough.

He called me "fast
and wrong Dick."

That was his nickname for me,
and sometimes I was wrong,
I will admit.

Sometimes I was right.

CAROTHERS:
Bob really got annoyed

with the I-can-have-it-
for-you-in-10-minutes thing.

At times when he...
He just lost it.

JEFF:
How'd you work
with Uncle Dick?

Like brothers.

What would you do
if you didn't like
his ideas?

I'd tell him so.

What would you say?

"It stinks."

And he'd say
the same to me.

LINDSAY:
My father, Mike Conner,

was the Shermans' manager
for 30 years.

He was also, sort of,
their agent and lawyer,

and given
the relationship,

he was also the referee
and the mediator.

We argue quite a bit.

I'm gonna disagree
with you on film.

They could argue
about almost anything.

It's akin to poetry...

But it has to be sung,
so it really, truly
isn't poetry in itself.

And almost
at the drop of a hat.

We're the telescopes
in the space of time.

Okay. And you just sort
of completely threw me

'cause I didn't know
if you were disagreeing
with me.

Chris's question.

I don't know...

His question was...

This shouldn't be
on the film.

A lot of my choice
of lyricists is based

actually on
who I wanna be
in the room with.

If I had to collaborate
with one of my siblings,
it's sort of unthinkable.

And smile.

KURTTI: The public perception
of their happy partnership

and jovial sibling
relationship was not true.

The crucible of creativity
for these guys is conflict.

♪ If you study,
you won't muddy...

(CHUCKLES)

♪ If you study,
you won't muddy... ♪

I'm the proudest
daughter.

It gives me the biggest
thrill to see my father
make the world so happy,

but if my father
loses his temper,
the roof might come off.

He can be quite
explosive and loud.

That's just an artist
being an artist.

RICHARD: I got angry
about something,

and I remember once
I pushed the piano
away and it came...

Because I said,
"Oh, damn it,"

and the piano went
clunk on the floor.

That's it.
I didn't kill anybody.

You know,
but these are things,
you know...

We're brothers.
Listen, we're human beings

and break a piano
or break a typewriter.

You know,
now you have computers.

You can't hurt a guy
too much with a computer.

GREGG: How did you deal
with my dad's temper?

I dodged it
as much as I could.

I didn't really
acknowledge it.

Often, he would
come home from work

frustrated and angry with
something Dick had done
or said that day,

and he'd wanna
leave the team.

And my mother
would instantly pull out
this typewriting table,

put it in the middle
of the room and say,
"Go ahead, write your novel."

He'd write a poem
or a short story

and those frustrations
would subside.

Privately, Mom did
more to keep the
Sherman Brothers together

than anyone ever knew.

As time went on
and their relationship

became more
and more strained,

it was more difficult,
of course,
to work together.

RICHARD: Walt was not happy
with the first version
of The Jungle Book,

the way it was going,

and he decided to scrap
practically everything.

He said
one wonderful song
by Terry Gilkyson

called The Bare Necessities,
which everybody knows
and loves.

ROBERT:
Walt called us in.

"I'd like you to Disney-fy it.
Have fun with the apes."

So we wrote
I Wanna Be Like You.

♪ Now, I'm the king
of the swingers

♪ Oh, the jungle VIP

♪ I've reached the top
and had to stop

♪ And that's
what's bothering me ♪

ROBERT: We figured Louis Prima
would be the ideal character,

and so we went
to Las Vegas,

played the song
for Louis and the boys.
They loved it.

(MIMICKING TROMBONE)

We had Louis's band filmed

so the animators could
pick up their movements.

It was ridiculous,
but it was funny.

(BOTH SCATTING)

SCHUMACHER:
We could have Elton John
come in here right now,

I promise 'cause
he's done it for me,

and sing
the entire song score
to Jungle Book.

These songs are known
by everybody.

♪ Trust in me

♪ Just in me

♪ Shut your eyes

♪ And trust in me ♪

RICHARD:
Sometimes he would
actually not come in,

and I said, "Well,
he's just not feeling well
or something."

And, uh, I don't know,
it started happening
like that.

Bob came to my office

and told me
that he was leaving,

that he wouldn't
be around for a while.

He was worn out
with everything,

and he was very depressed,
profoundly depressed.

He didn't know
where he was gonna go,
but he was gonna be gone.

Bob said,
"You gotta do this for me.
I can't do this.

"I have to have some clothes.
I gotta get out of here,

"and you're gonna
have to help me.

"You're the only one
who can do it for me."

And I was reluctant.
I didn't wanna do it,

but I did 'cause
he's my brother.

JEFF: Tensions had
been mounting between
Dick's family and ours.

For my mom, Dick showing up
at our house to get Dad's
clothes was the last straw.

A lot of
misunderstandings
took place

because I was trying
to be kind to my brother
and help him.

Jeff, as a little boy,
used to sit on my lap,
and I loved him.

He was a beautiful little boy
and we just had a simpatico.

It was fantastic,
and I didn't
see him after that.

JEFF:
A couple of days later,
Dad was back,

and no one ever
talked about it.

Bang, we just went...
We'd see each other
at events,

and we'd always
keep a nice front
in front of everybody.

Nobody ever suspected
that Bob and I didn't
see each other socially.

This is painful stuff.
I don't know. That's enough.
I don't wanna talk about that.

JEFF:
Do you have a favorite
Sherman Brothers song?

Yeah.

Which one?

Called On the Front Porch.

Beautiful little
old-fashioned song.

♪ Three creaky wooden chairs

♪ Those squeaky rocking chairs

♪ The well worn welcome mat

♪ The lattice vines

♪ The happy times

♪ All I wanna do

♪ When the day is through

♪ Is linger here

♪ On the front porch with you

♪ Oh, how I love
to linger here like this

♪ Hold your hand
and steal a kiss or two

♪ On the front porch
with you ♪

OSBORNE:
In the '60s was a time

when the movie musical
was starting to fade out
of it, in Hollywood.

I always thought of
the Sherman Brothers
as these really great heroes

as long as there
were musicals there.

But they were kind of
the flag bearers alone.

The Happiest Millionaire
was my first film.

It was an amazing, amazing
entrance into movies

with the Sherman Brothers.

The song is a scene
in and of itself.

♪ And I'll know that I

♪ I'll know that I

♪ Reached into the sky

♪ Reached to the sky

♪ I reached into the sky

♪ And touched a star ♪

And the Shermans had that
ability to write singable
songs that had the simplicity

that let the
performer shine.

JEFF: What did Walt say to you
when you walked out

of The Happiest Millionaire
screening?

"Keep up the good work, boys."

And it was kind of strange,
'cause he never said
something like that,

and then he walked
down the hall again.

That's the last time
I ever saw him.

He had cancer.
He was saying goodbye.

Walt dying happened
pretty suddenly
to most people.

I loved him very much.

SKLAR: Privately
with Dick and Bob,
he didn't mind

showing that
he was emotional,
and that was rare.

We didn't see it.

ROBERT: This was
Walt Disney's office,

and often on Fridays
he'd ask us to come down

and talk with him.

Then he'd say...
He'd look to me
and say, "Play it."

And, uh, I pretty much
knew what he wanted.

He wanted to hear
his favorite song.

After he was gone,
I'd still come down
on a Friday afternoon

and play it for him.

♪ Feed the birds

♪ Tuppence a bag

♪ Tuppence, tuppence

♪ Tuppence a bag ♪

There was that feeling
that the daddy genius
was gone.

And a lot of people
were wondering

what we're gonna do
now without Daddy
there, you know.

Walt was, I'd call him uncle,
but he was Daddy to
an awful lot of people.

RICHARD: Markedly,
from the time Walt died,
the phone stopped ringing.

Nothing came to us.
We had no good assignments.

There was some hostility
towards the Shermans from
other folks at the studio.

Some thought that
they were, you know,
Walt's special boys.

It was like, um,
we weren't needed anymore.

We felt like
unnecessary cogs
in the wheel.

Which was kind of
about the time I decided

it wasn't a lot of fun
working there anymore,
and I left.

The phone rang one day
and I thought it
was gonna be an assignment.

It wasn't that at all.
It was somebody saying,

"Have you turned in
your time card, sir,
this week?"

And that was kind of strange
because that was something

that never was done
in Walt's time.

After a while, we just decided
we wouldn't wanna stay there
anymore and we left.

BARBARA:
My father had been producing
the James Bond films.

He really wanted to
make a film for us,
for us kids.

He used to say it was
the happiest experience
he ever had on a film

because he had a wonderful
working relationship
with the Shermans.

It's ironic that
so many times
people say that

it's another one of
Disney's great pictures,
and it wasn't.

It was actually
Cubby Broccoli.

Oh, there was
a prince of a man.

Whenever we'd write a song,
we'd play it for him.
He loved it.

BARBARA: We lived in London,
and up on the sort of
kids area there was a piano,

and I remember the two of them
playing songs for my father
on that piano.

They were like uncles.
You know, they were

really a major part
of our growing up.

♪ Me ol' bamboo,
me ol' bamboo

♪ You'd better never bother
with me ol' bamboo

♪ You can have me hat
or me bum-ber-shoo

♪ But you'd better never
bother with me ol' bamboo

♪ You'd better never bother
with me ol' bamboo ♪

♪ Someone to care for,
to be there for

♪ I have you two ♪

That song is my favorite
from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

That and Hushabye Mountain.

♪ A gentle breeze
from Hushabye Mountain

♪ Softly blows
o'er Lullaby Bay ♪

When we were doing the show
of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang,

you know,
I would look around
the audience,

and I would see
grown men crying.

♪ So close your eyes

♪ On Hushabye Mountain

♪ Wave goodbye
to cares of the day

VAN DYKE:
They wrote something that
is in a category by itself,

and it'll never be
repeated by anyone.
Unless they do it.

♪ Sail far away

♪ From Lullaby Bay ♪

Good night.

I want every house
in the square

to be searched
from top to bottom!

Your will, Captain.

When you look at the story
of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang,
it's a very, very dark story,

and a lot of it
has the overtones of
the Second World War

and particularly the Nazis
and having, you know,
the extermination of children.

There are children
here somewhere!

I can smell them.

JEFF: How do you think
my dad's war experiences
affected him?

Well, it did,
it has cast a shadow
over his life.

I think that, that...

Anyone that you hear of
or speak to

who had visited
any of the camps,
they can never forget it.

I was the first American
into the Dachau prison camp.

My squad and I walked in

and we saw the poor
bated prisoners

and had terrible experiences

looking at corpses and ovens,

and it was enough nightmares
for the rest of my life.

JEFF: What did you do
when you came home
from the war?

I relaxed,
had a nervous breakdown.

ROBERT:
In 1943, I was 17.

I didn't know anything
about anything.

But I learned.

He never talked
too much about it.
He didn't talk about it.

I don't think
he wanted to.

ROBERT: I've been painting
many years,

even before
I was a songwriter.
I love painting.

I get rid of the thoughts
of Dachau

and the thoughts of explosions
and pain and hospitals.

Beautiful things
helped clean my soul
from the horror,

but the horror
lasted a long time.

At that time,
I didn't realize,

and I don't think
any of us did,

what his personal
experience had been
in World War II.

Sound the advance!

(TRUMPETS SOUNDING)

Just in time
for the kickoff.

For Bob to have seen
that and then have to

reconstruct this
ridiculous kind of
little tableau of these

phony German soldiers
landing on
the coast of Britain

must've seemed
like a play acting of
the lowest order for him.

♪ Which pets get to
sleep on velvet mats?

♪ Naturellement,
the aristocats ♪

RICHARD: In the early '70s,
Bob and I came back to Disney

to complete work
on two films,

The AristoCats and
Bedknobs and Broomsticks.

But without Walt there,
it just wasn't the same.

♪ You must face the age
of not believing

♪ Doubting everything
you ever knew

♪ Until at last
you start believing

♪ There's something
wonderful in you ♪

Dad was our great catalyst.
He kept us together,

and he said on
many occasions,

"As a team
you're gonna make it,
as a team you'll be strong.

"If you start
dividing it up
and saying,

"'I did this, you did that,
I did this,' you aren't gonna
have a team very long.

"So just get used to it."

♪ Oh, we've got lots in common
where it really counts

♪ Where it really counts,
we've got large amounts ♪

I travel all over America

and I go to
England and Australia,
and what am I asked to

autograph most of all
is the album of
Charlotte's Web.

How was that?

Great.
Right on the nose.

JEFF: So, Charlotte's Web
was your favorite score?

Yeah. My dad
liked that, too.

Great, little pure songs.

♪ How very special are we

♪ For just a moment to be

♪ Part of life's eternal rhyme

It meant a lot to me also
because I loved my parents,

and obviously
they must've loved theirs
a great deal.

♪ Mother Earth and Father Time

RICHARD: Mom and Dad
both lived to see us win
the Academy Awards.

They both lived through
a lot of our later successes.

Up until their early 70s,
they both were gone by then.

♪ Mother Earth
and Father Time ♪

After a funeral,
the family receives
fellow mourners at a home.

Not this one. There were two.
They didn't attend
each other's receptions,

and everybody else
had to attend
one or the other.

Ever since
I was a little girl,
I was told,

"Well, if we meet
at family events

"you can wave hello
and be polite,
and that's best."

The first time
that I met Richard Sherman
and his wife Elizabeth

was at an event,
and they all went to
another side of the theater,

and I thought,
"This is kind of odd."

Another person's weird
is our normal,

so that's just the way
it was growing up.

LINDSAY: Dad got to
the point of exhaustion
with the sibling rivalry

on a number of occasions,
but he always found a way

to get back up
the next day
and have a plan

to bring his boys
back together again.

♪ He just knew that
I was softhearted

♪ I was barely
getting started

♪ Now I'm taking
all of my fun... ♪

Why don't you try, uh,
"Now I'm giving all my time."

Okay.

WILLIAMS: I actually
can remember going up to
the Sherman Brothers' office

where they were writing
phrases and trying to
link into script scenes.

(PLAYING UPBEAT TUNE)

You know,
the beacons of American
19th century literature

translated by the Shermans
into something wonderfully
vibrant musically.

♪ Well, I mean that
deep-down inside gratifaction

♪ Oh, how good you feel
when your shoulder's
to the wheel ♪

SIBLEY:
Everything in their career
has pushed them

into being two halves
of a whole.

They are by fate and fame
shackled together.

How can that not
have at some point
or other have caused

as many problems for them
as individuals

as it has caused joy
and delight to all of us
who've heard their music.

♪ Oh, a river's gonna flow

♪ 'Cross the land,
'cross the land

♪ Oh, a river's gonna flow
to the sea

♪ And a boy is gonna grow

♪ To a man, to a man

♪ Only once in his life

♪ Is he free ♪

Bob was not as
enthusiastic anymore.

He would say, "Well,
this is not exactly doing
Slipper and the Rose, is it?

"It's not really doing
Charlotte's Web, is it?"

Or maybe it was me.
I guess maybe I grated
on him or something.

Bob would retreat to
his own thoughts
and he would love to paint.

He'd sit at home and paint
and do all kinds of things
like that

and take trips
up the coast.

He would do all kinds of
stuff that I just didn't.

"Why aren't you writing?
I mean, this is the fun of
life, is to write new songs."

It wasn't necessary.

We didn't
just write songs
to write songs.

If there was a requirement
for a picture, we'd do it.
That's all.

RICHARD: He became more
Bob Sherman, and I stayed
being Dick Sherman.

MENKEN: Howard and I are...
We're in this conference room,

and we're presenting
The Little Mermaid,

and at a certain point
we're told by one of
the people at Disney,

"You know,
next door over there,

"the Sherman Brothers
are over there."

I go, "Really?"
He said, "Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

"I mean,
we gotta listen to them."

But, you know,
the implication being,

"You're our guys,
you're the hip, new guys.

"You're coming in,
and you're gonna be,

"you know, we're gonna be
in business together."

It was a surprising moment.
I mean, on the one hand
I felt this pride

that we were now
entering this tradition.

On the other hand,
you feel sort of
the fleeting nature

of our importance
in Hollywood
or in show business.

I knew they wrote
Small World,

and I'm making a comedy
that deals with this
kind of fantasy land.

I said, "Write a real song
that you would write

"for a theme park
called Wonder World."

You know, you're talking
to Bob and Dick,
they're both here,

but you're talking
to them as individuals,
not as a team.

I asked Bob and Dick
if they would be
in the movie.

I was surprised
how thrilled they were!

Bob was in a bar
with Arthur Hiller
and Ray Harryhausen.

You know,
and he was good.

Did you hear?
Somebody shot
Dave Thornton.

Somebody shot Uncle Dave?

Is there a TV here?

Dick's cameo was
just in the parade.

It's just a moment
they trimmed.

He blew the whistle
to lead the parade.

(BLOWS)

I saw Bob, I said,
"Hey, did you like
yourself in the movie?"

And he said, "Yeah."
But with the glee
with which he said,

"I enjoyed more
that you cut Dick out."

(LAUGHING)

Dad died
January 7th of 1993.

He used to be the one
that filled in
where Walt wasn't there

and where Dad wasn't there,
it would be Mike,
and then Mike passed away.

And so there was nobody
putting us together anymore.

Bob is a romantic,

and Dick is
a sentimentalist.

And a lot of people
think that's the same
thing, but it's not.

F. Scott Fitzgerald
had a wonderful definition.

He said,
"A sentimental person
thinks things will last,

"and a romantic
hopes against hope
they will not."

And then one day
Bob just said,

"I don't think we need
the office anymore."

We weren't getting
these big assignments,

and so I said,
"Well, okay. We will then."

I thought it was
an end of an era. Yes.

Ironically,
we got busy after that.

LOGGINS: When we sat down
to write the Tigger song,

Richard said, "Well,
I was thinking of
something like this."

(VOCALIZING)

♪ That Tigger ♪

And I kind of went,
"Well, you know, um,

"I don't see me
singing that."

You know,
and he turns to me
and goes,

"Well, what did you
have in mind?"

♪ Sunny days and starry nights
and lazy afternoons

♪ You count the castles
in the clouds

♪ And humming little tunes ♪

I saw things happening
that were so fast
between the two of them

that I didn't pay
much attention to it.

I just accepted it
as the shorthand

of two people
who've worked together
all their lives.

They hadn't mentioned to me
that they'd been away from the
Disney camp for quite a while.

But I didn't realize
how emotional it would
be for them to have

another shot
at writing for,
you know,

a Disney movie
and let alone
a Winnie the Pooh movie

and how appropriate that
it should be called

Your Heart Will
Lead You Home.

♪ Just think of your friends

♪ The ones who care

♪ They all will be
waiting there

♪ With love to share

♪ And your heart will lead you
where you belong

♪ I know your heart
will lead you

♪ Home ♪

LIEBMAN: Joyce Sherman
was this stunning woman

with an amazing
sense of humor,

and she threw
the most beautiful parties.
She loved to celebrate.

I think Joyce knew
that she was not well,

and she planned this
huge trip to Hawaii
for the Bob Shermans.

It was just beautiful.

She had liver cancer.

She was in the hospital
for quite a while, you know,
and he never left.

Bob stood by her side
in the hospital.
He would not leave.

He was devoted to her
till the very end.

♪ Although our song is through

♪ I can't stop loving you

♪ For I can't forget

♪ The melody ♪

JEFF:
Did you always think

that at some point
in your life you'd move
to London or...

No. But it so happened

at a point in my life
when I became a widower,

I decided to change
my whole background.

Bob found that
everywhere he went
was a reminder,

and he couldn't bear it,
so that he had to
get to someplace

where there were
no memories.

Dick and I were at Bob's
house, and Bob said to me,
"I'm moving to England."

And Dick said, "What?"

I didn't know, but he had
leased out his house

and taken an apartment
and lives in London now.

I donated these two paintings
of mine to the temple.

My wife's name is up there.
They dedicated it to her.

BARBARA: You know,
he always loved London,

and, it was kind of
fortuitous that the show
went into rehearsal

at a time when he wanted
to make a change,

needed to make a change
in his life.

♪ Bang Bang
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

♪ Our fine four
fendered friend

♪ Bang Bang
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

♪ Our fine four
fendered friend

♪ Chitty Bang Bang,
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

♪ Chitty Bang Bang,
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

♪ Chitty Bang Bang,
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang ♪

Barbara Broccoli
putting on the play there

really kind of
saved his life,
I think.

I'm grateful for that.

♪ It's a small world after all

Come on, everybody.

♪ It's a small world
after all

RICHARD:
I really enjoy my life.

I spend my time
doing all the things
I love to do.

♪ It's a small world after all

♪ It's a small... ♪

RICHARD:
I think he keeps regretting
the fact that he didn't write

that big novel.

ROBERT:
This is my book.

A lot of stories
about people I've known.

A lot of sad stuff,
a lot of funny stuff.

RICHARD: On my 50th birthday,
Bob surprised me
and gave me this.

Personally cut it out
and fixed it up
and put it into this frame

with a little note,
and the note is something
I'll treasure forever.

"The sun reflects upon
our smiles. Now we awaken
and the mirror lies.

"Time and place is transient.

"Only love and memory abide,

"for within our hearts
the major music hides.

"On this, the celebration
of your birth,

"your worth to me
is more than I can say.

"It is rooted in the suns...

(STIFLED SOBBING)

"In the suns of yesterday."

JEFF: If you ask them how long
it takes to write a song,

their old saying is,
"Your entire life and the
time it takes to jot it down."

And when you
get to know them

and understand what
they've been through
and with each other,

it's almost like
a Greek tragedy in a way.

You know,
they were put together
to do these things,

and in that friction
is what makes these
beautiful things come to life.

♪ Let's go fly a kite

♪ Up to the highest height ♪

Mary Poppins was truly
the culmination

of everything they'd
had in their careers.

It was an incredibly
perfect score.

Here it was gonna
premiere on Broadway,

and they were
gonna be together.

JEFF:
Does it go under the collar
or stay over it?

I have no idea.

I don't either.

These things
are the things
that drive me crazy.

Doing the right tie.

Oh, I'm nervous.
I can't help it.
It's just twitchy today.

You got it the?

I hope so.

JEFF: So, Dad,
you ready for
your big night?

Yeah, I'm ready.

GREGG:
Jeff and I had hoped
in doing this movie

it would give our dads
an opportunity to reconnect.

I want a picture
with Gregg.

(CHATTERING)

Hey, bro.
How you doing, kid?

JEFF: In life,
not everything turns out

like a Sherman Brothers'
musical.

But somewhere in their songs
they do meet.

ROBERT: I didn't want
to wallow in the sadness
of the world.

I wanted to bring
happiness to people.

(PLAYING SLOW TUNE)

RICHARD: Well, we've had
a good career together.

ROBERT:
They're different people.
They have different interests.

RICHARD:
Bob goes his way,
I go my way.

I'd just like him to say,

"Hey, I'm glad
I did what I did."

ROBERT:
When I look back
at what I've done,

I don't have any regrets.

(TEN FEET
OFF THE GROUND PLAYING)

♪ Who invented music?

♪ I'd like to shake his hand

♪ 'Cause music casts
a spell on me

♪ That I can't understand

♪ Must be some magician

♪ Designed a magic plan

♪ He changed
his wand to a baton

♪ And that's how it all began

♪ When the rhythm pounds

♪ And the harmony sounds

♪ And the melody rolls around

♪ Presto, change-o

♪ You're 10 feet
off the ground

♪ When the rhythm pounds

♪ And the harmony sounds

♪ And the melody rolls around

♪ Out of this world
and upward bound

♪ Ten feet off the ground

♪ Oh, yes ♪

♪ Lindbergh,
oh, what a blind fool was he

♪ Lindbergh,
his name will live in history

♪ Over the oceans
he flew all alone

♪ Gambling with fate
and with dangers unknown

♪ Lindbergh,
oh, what a blind fool was he ♪

♪ Supercalifragilistic-
expialidocious

♪ Even though the sound of it
they say is something
quite atrocious

♪ If you say it loud enough

♪ Then you will always
sound precocious

♪ Supercalifragilistic-
expialidocious ♪

Supercalifragilisticexpial...

Well, an hour ago
I could've said it.

JEFF: Close enough.

...expialidocious.

Or dociousaliexpistic-
fragicalirepus backwards.

Are you impressed?
I am.

And I said,
"Mary Poppins
is a great movie

"and would make a great
stage musical."
And I was right!

You know,
It's a Small World,

it was invented
by the Red Chinese
as a torture thing.

They brought
so many people
so much joy.

And if angst produces it,
they should keep it up,

although I would like
to see 'em hug and kiss
each other just once.

HARRIET:
Good morning, Discovery!

And good morning, Pam,
and thank you so much

for that great wake-up music,
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

PAM: Thanks, Harriet.
That's one of my favorite
Sherman Brothers' songs.

The shuttle might not have,
uh, fine four fenders,

but it's got
two beautiful wings
and we're looking forward

to a smooth touchdown
later today.

(TEAMWORK PLAYING)

♪ Teamwork
can make a dream work

♪ If you're not afraid
to fight

♪ Teamwork
can make a dream work

♪ If you fight
for what is right

♪ Though it seems a dream's
impossible to do

♪ Great teams make
impossibilities come true

♪ So when we start out,
let all your heart out

♪ And never stop what we begin

♪ 'Cause teamwork
can make a dream work

♪ If we have got
the will to win

MAN: Come on!

♪ Yes, teamwork
can make a dream work

♪ If we have got the will

♪ To win! ♪

(I LOVE TO LAUGH PLAYING)

MARY POPPINS:
♪ Some people laugh
through their noses

♪ Sounding something
like this

(STIFLED LAUGHTER)

Dreadful.

♪ Some people laugh
through their teeth,
Goodness sakes

♪ Hissing and fizzing
like snakes

(HISSING)

Not at all attractive
to my way of thinking.

BERT: ♪ Some laugh too fast

(BERT GIGGLING)

♪ Some only blast

(SHOUTS)

♪ Others,
they twitter like birds

(TWITTERING)

MARY POPPINS:
You know you're
as bad as he is.

BERT: ♪ Then there's that kind
what can't make up their mind

(CHUCKLING)

(LAUGHING HEARTILY)

UNCLE ALBERT:
♪ When things
strike me as funny

♪ I can't hide it
inside and squeak

(SQUEAKS)

♪ As the squeakelers do

♪ I got to let go
with a ho-ho-ho-ho

♪ And a...

(LAUGHING)

BERT AND UNCLE ALBERT:
♪ We love to laugh

(BOTH LAUGHING)

♪ Loud and long and clear

♪ We love to laugh

♪ So everybody can hear

♪ The more you laugh

UNCLE ALBERT: (LAUGHING)
Oh, my goodness!

♪ The more
you fill with glee

♪ And the more the glee

♪ The more
we're a merrier we! ♪

(BOTH LAUGHING HYSTERICALLY)