Why Julie Andrews is a legend

Okay, so this is more Tune than Toon, but I have to give a shout-out to one of the greatest song-and-dance actors of the past century: Julie (Mary Poppins) Andrews.

(Source: jimhillmedia.com)

Yeah, I hate to be one of those cranks who talks about how "things ain't as good as they used to be," but I kinda have no choice this time. Everybody's been raving about Christina Aguilera's video for "Candyman," which you can check out over here. Essentially, Christina is performing with two other versions of herself in a modern-day takeoff of The Andrews Sisters' WWII-era hit "Boogie-Woogie Bugle Boy."

That's all well and good, but the vid pales in comparison to one Julie Andrews (The Princess Diaries, Shrek 2), who not only did the same trick in the first episode of her 1972 TV show, but did it better.

Here's the run-down: Julie is giving a nod to her first Broadway hit, My Fair Lady, when Eliza Doolittle (Andrews' character in the show) appears. They duet until Mary Poppins (Andrews' character from the 1964 flick) shows up. The running gag is that Eliza and Mary hate each other's guts, with Julie reduced to saying, "Can't we all just get along?" In between the scrapping, Julie and her alter-egos sing a few of the songs that made her famous.

You can check out the first and second half of the skit by clicking the links.

Granted, the special effects in this 1970's-era skit are pretty laughable (notice that somebody forgot to draw in Eliza and Mary's shadows) but Andrews has the singing and acting chops to help you ignore all that. Definitely check out the sequence when Eliza and Mary start dancing with one another; that really sells the illusion.

In closing, you may have the nicer body, Christina, but when it comes to singing and acting, old Julie still has you beat.

Fun Fact: Julie Andrews originated the role of Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady in 1956, when she was still a teenager. Despite getting rave reviews on Broadway for her work, W.B. studio head Jack Warner passed on her when adapting the musical to film, opting to go with established star Audrey Hepburn. The decision was particularly galling to theatre fans because Hepburn didn't have Andrews' four-octave vocal range (Marni Nixon overdubbed Hepburn's songs for the film).

As a consolation prize, Walt Disney cast Andrews as the title character in Mary Poppins, which gave her the stardom Warner's decision had denied her.

When Andrews won the Golden Globe Best Actress Award for Mary Poppins (she would go on to win the Best Actress Oscar as well), she closed her acceptance speech with: "And, finally, my thanks to a man who made a wonderful movie, and who made all this possible in the first place, Mr. Jack Warner."