DVD at 100
Okay, we have to put off the Holiday Fest for a moment and celebrate Dick Van Dyke on this 100th birthday. Have could you even think of letting that moment pass.
I remember when I was a kidling, I sent my first "fan" letter to Disney Studios for the movie Mary Poppins. I got a sort of disappointing postcard back, that was pretty much the cover art for the soundtrack album (and yes, I had the soundtrack album), so the card basically looked like this --
Still, I happily kept it for a long while.
Among all the many things I've seen Dick Van Dyke on film, I was pleased to see him perform in two shows on stage. One was the two-person comedy, Same Time, Next Year, which he did with Carol Burnett. Which isn't shabby. It was wonderful and a joy. The other was The Music Man, where he of course played 'Prof. Harold Hill'. He was a total joy in that, as well, and the 1980 production was fun, and I'm so glad to have seen it -- although his interpretation of the role was as a good-old boy, just one of you all wheedling his way into the hearts of the townsfolk (which others actors have done, as well, including Matthew Broderick in a made-for-TV production), though my preference is when 'Harold Hill' is played as a slick-talking outsider con man. That aside, I saw the show in Beverly Hills , and the production did so well that it toured and eventually went to Broadway. Here's a 7-minute clip of that. The quality isn't great, but how lucky it exists at all.
I never met the good fellow in person, though when I was working at Universal Studios and handling screenings for one of our Oscars Awards Night, he came. He was sitting in the lobby and seemed to want to be left to himself, so I stayed away.
But for our celebration, here are three other videos. This first is the very first episode, Season 1 from The Dick Van Dyke Show.
Next, here is Dick Van Dyke in Bye Bye Birdie, the Broadway musical that brought him to fame and won him a Tony Award as Best Actor. He, of course, recreated the role of 'Albert Peterson' in the movie, but this is the original theater staging of the famous song, "Put on a Happy Face," which he performed here on The Ed Sullivan Show.
And finally, we'll go out with the Oscar-winning Best Song he sang in Mary Poppins. "Chim Chim Cher-ee."
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