One of the inevitable effects of fatherhood is that you get to see a lot of kid-oriented movies on video over and over and over again. Sometimes, on the nth viewing of something, you notice details that you missed the first n-1 times, when you were distracted by things like dialog and plot. In the movie Mary Poppins, much of the action takes place in a house on "Cherry Tree Lane", in a world that was probably constructed inside a sound stage or on a back lot in Culver City. On the whole, whoever built the scenery did a decent and nicely detailed job of it, especially considering that, in 1964, the architecture of 1910 was regarded as vile and immoral. One detail which startled me. When George Banks tears up his childrens' plea for a sweet, rosy-cheeked nanny, and throws the pieces into the fireplace, it can be seen that the blackened firebrick (lining the back of the fireplace) is laid in Flemish Bond. (Or, I suppose, technically, the plaster they actually used to build the sets was scored to resemble Flemish Bond.) This seems just too bizarre -- almost an architectural inside joke. But maybe they were re-creating a real house, down to the brickwork details inside the fireplace. So my question -- have you ever seen the brickwork inside a fireplace done in Flemish Bond? Why would anyone do this in real life?26 responses total.
(I post this because, in earlier discussions, it turned out that quite a few Grexers have deep interest and knowledge of how brickwork is done. If you're not one of them, never mind, nothing to see here, just move along.)
The Officer Barbrady of architectural minutiae, eh? <grin>
I would not expect the interior of a real fireplace, in which fires are built, to be laid in anything but running bond, and of course with firebrick, not common clay bricks. The reason is to minimize joints and to accomodate the expansion and contraction of heating cycles, which a bond would not do as well. There is also no need for a bond as the firebrick lining is not load-supporting and is usually just backed with ordinary bricks. In addition, the firebrick is often laid on edge so as to use fewer bricks.
Flemish bond does seem like an odd choice for a fireplace. Maybe the set designer was looking at a brick wall when he did the fireplace, instead of an actual fireplace. I have seen *some* things done in a fireplace for decorative effect (curved rear corners, for example, made with partial bricks.)
Perhaps they had a big piece of brick wall from a previous project, and turned it into a fireplace for Mary Poppins.
I don't recall - was there a fire in the fireplace in the movie? That wouldn't mean much one way or another, except that the "bricks" would not have been composition (like roofing - often used as a cheap siding in a brick pattern) if there was a fire. There is, however, brick "veneer" made in large sections but only 2+ inches thick.
I wonder if the movie was filmed in a real house? My son just asked me to get this movie on DVD. He and I rented it a few years ago and watched it once, and he remembers it fondly.
There had to have been a fire - the guy expected the note to burn, no?
Mary Poppins is one of my favorite movies. Who notices bricks in fireplaces in movies?
Reread #1.
My little brother, for a while, was watching Dumbo three times a day every day. Trust me, I had time to contemplate details of the animation and plot of that movie that I never would have expected to notice. Heck, I couldn't *stop* it...after a while it insinuates itself into your brain. Even now songs from that movie pop into my head at odd moments.
I do that when the action gets boring: I look for inconsistencies in the sets, dress, landscape, weather, time, etc.
RE #11: Only three times a day. For a while STeve was considering getting t-shirts and bumper stickers made saying "Dumbo is a drug" as Staci from age 2 to about 4 had to watch it almost continuously. All day, every day. With Cinderlla and Hi Lili thrown in after every 2nd or 3rd run through of Dumbo. Soon it became the three videos in a loop. Watch Dumbo, take tape out of machine and put in tape with the other two on it, put Dumbo in re-wind machine to have ready when other tape was done, switch, repeat.
My niece Elizabeth is a Dumboholic. Nobody's happy about it (except Michael Eisner) but at least she's not freebaseing Teletubby..
<starts to wonder if he has big ears>
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The other non-obvious answer might be that the set designers and builders, at befitted Disney folks in those days, were extremely intelligent and creative, and were sufficiently funded to put into the amount of detail they felt appropriate.
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I don't believe fire was ever shown burning in that fireplace.
They never lit a fire, but it was obviously used since they were covered in soot after the scene with the chimney sweeps. :)
You can buy soot (carbon black).
I doubt they were hiring chimney sweeps for soot that was bought :P
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A vaguely sick-making scene, that.
I saw a network TV showing of _Mary Poppins_ once where, to meet a time requirement, they cut the entire animated scene.
Oh that "Mary" song? And the Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious song? Damn!
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