So last week on the podcast, we finished our series on Disney Legend Mary Blair.

All of the parts together run between 16 and 17 hours, and in it we were able to cover not only the life of Mary herself,

but also large areas of development within the Disney Company, from the early animated features to the war to Disneyland to the

World's Fair to Disney World. And as I mentioned last week, we would have a short episode this week.

This week I have something that I've wanted to post for a while, a reading of the first chapter

from my book that came out a few months ago

making Mary Poppins. And I've put together two ways to experience this. Right here on the

podcast, I have a straightforward reading that is designed to get you into the story. The first

chapter focuses on the premiere for the most part, but as I was

putting this together a couple months back, I realized that I had just about enough film and

photographs from the era to illustrate the entire chapter, with the exception of a few sequences towards the end

of the chapter.

And then I realized that I could illustrate those areas with computer developed drawings.

So over on our YouTube channel, there's a video that takes you through this chapter

with illustrations moment by moment depicting what happened on that night.

Most of that material again comes from film and photos taken on the night of the premiere.

But here right now on our podcast, I have a straightforward reading of that first chapter.

It's a little less than 15 minutes to get you situated in the story,

and also to take you to one of the biggest nights in both the history of the Disney studio

and of Walt himself.

So with that, let's jump in to that chapter. During the life of every successful

studio, there is at least one major transition, a before and after in which the old world

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