An Interview with the Sherman Brothers
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Q: In the book you go on for pages about how wonderful it was to work with Walt, and I’m sure it was. Was there anything especially difficult about working with him?

A: You know it’s a funny thing but if you were on his wave lengths - and thank God we were - it wasn’t that difficult. I mean he respected a good idea. He wasn’t afraid of being disagreed with. He might sharply put you down. He never discouraged you from saying what you thought and he’d always say if you don’t like something give me an alternative, don’t just say I don’t like it, say what you would do that would be different or how you would handle it differently. He was very democratic about that. He was the most inspiring man I ever met in my life and my brother, I’m sure, concurs with me on this. It was an inspiration to be around him. He’d make a good idea great. He’d constantly plus things. It was always a challenge. When you went in there, boy you were nervous because you wanted to please the guy and of course the greatest praise you’d ever get out of Walt Disney in person was "that’ll work." That was a great, great compliment.

I don’t think it was anything but a joy working for Walt Disney. It was a golden time for us and I think a golden time for the Disney Studio because every single picture they turned out happened to be a hit. They all made money. They all quadrupled and more their cost, and of course they didn’t cost like they do today. A few million dollars would make a great number one picture. We were involved in such wonderful, wonderful joyful pictures aside from Poppins and Jungle Book and all the big tremendous hits. The Parent Trap was a fantastic picture and so many others that were just wonderful pictures. We were very lucky to be connected with them.

Q: A lot of people talk about Walt, and obviously you and Robert are two of the most famous people of that era that worked for Disney. But who were some of the other people that don’t necessarily get as much recognition as they deserve?

A: Absolutely, very important man in our lives was a fellow by the name of Bill Walsh. Bill Walsh was the writer and the co-producer of Mary Poppins and Bill Walsh was responsible for such pictures, writing and producing, as The Absent Minded Professor and such pictures as Son of Flubber, the second hit through there. And he did The Love Bug, the original Love Bug. He was a great, great comedy writer. He wrote comedy and he was great on dialogue.

(l-r) Robert, Walt Disney, Don DeGradi, Richard, Bill Walsh

Another person who was absolutely fantastic was Don DeGradi. Don DeGradi was an artist-writer. He used to write with his sketch pad and you would see incredible scenes come to life right before your eyes with just sketches, and that’s how he created great scenes. All the wonderful things like the nannies flying away in Poppins and the great basketball game in The Absent Minded Professor when the flubber flies the guys up in the air. All these visuals were Don DeGradi’s genius. He was incredible. He worked on Poppins with us and Bedknobs and Broomsticks with us along with Bill Walsh.

So these are two great great men of Disney, and also, not any less than them was the incredible artist named Peter Ellenshaw. Peter Ellenshaw was the matte artist who could take a painting and draw the painting in such a way that they would fuse a piece of live action into that painting and you’d be in another world, wherever it might be. He could do that visually and it was incredible. We shot, like for example, Mary Poppins totally on the lot at the studio and yet you felt you were in London because it matched matte works done by Peter Ellenshaw. He was a genius.

We worked with some of the greatest geniuses I ever met in my life and it was all the team of Disney. Nobody singled themselves out as big shots or anything, it was just Walt Disney's team. We were very proud of being part of his organization and it was a joy. I don’t think there was anybody that worked there that was a long time worker that didn’t have that same feeling.

Q: That’s the impression I get with everything I've read. What was it like working at Disney in those few years after Walt’s death?

A: That was a different story. You see, Walt was like the champion of all his people and when he okayed a sequence or a scene it was in the picture. Nobody could cut it, nobody could screw around with it, nobody messed with it. But then a great void happened. There was no leader anymore and there were a bunch of sergeants scrambling around wondering where the general was. They had a board of directors that was seven people that were all trying very hard to do the right thing and never quite coming together. So decisions were made to shorten pictures and to drop sequences and it was actually not very pleasant.

I must say that Bob and I endured it for a while but then it felt better to become independent and leave the Studio, so we did about two years after Walt’s demise. Then we came back to complete Bedknobs and Broomsticks and we came back to complete some work on Aristocats but we had actually - pretty much by ‘68 - pretty much decided without Walt it wasn’t the same studio. It wasn’t, nobody could say it was. Pretty much most of the long time people, particularly the writers and songwriters like Bob and myself, we just felt it was better to not - it wasn’t a bitter ending - it’s better to be away and not be hurt too much.