Because this guy is just 89?
No shit but I actually had a genuine Chitty Chitty Bang Bang pedal car as a kid in the early 70’s. There are some pics somewhere in my grandmother’s photo book of me riding around in it.
I’ve never seen that pedal car. Oh boy!
I highly recommend his autobiography “My Lucky Life In and Out of Show Business.” I read it recently and enjoyed it very much.
Also, that pedal car is awesome! I would have loved to own one when I was a kid!
Apparently one of Dick Van Dyke’s conditions for taking on the part was “I’ll play the English inventor, but I’m not even going to attempt an English accent this time because I got so much flak about the way I talked in Mary Poppins.”
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang collector:
It’s from a few years ago so he wasn’t 90 at the time but Dick Van Dyke playing “Not My Job” on Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me is a real gem, especially when he sings the words to the Dick Van Dyke Show theme.
Bonus: he explains that his voice coach for Mary Poppins was Irish. Not that I ever cared about his accent.
Now that I think about it that car was probably my brother’s as he would’ve been around 2 when the movie came out - and it’s the kind of thing our grandma used to buy for us for Christmas. But I do remember that I used it more than he did so I always considered it mine.
I also had one of those portable 45 rpm record players and would play the CCBB song over and over driving my mom nuts. I’ll have to ask her about it.
Too bad we didn’t hang on to that pedal car - I guess these are incredibly rare now.
Here’s a music video with Dick Van Dyke dancing and having fun as a young 89 year old:
I saw him on Broadway with Chita Rivera in “Bye Bye Birdie” when I was a kid. (What a gift my parents gave me when they took me to all those Broadway shows.) He is a remarkable and talented performer who obviously loves what he’s doing. It’s infectious in the best possible way.
Same story in our house. My brother got a “Close 'n Play” record player for Christmas (1971 or 72) and walked around the house all day playing Burl Ives’ recording of “Eating Goober Peas”. Drove my dad crazy.
I loved that movie so intensely when I was five, but I saw a stage version recently and… not so much.
I still have my Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Corgi car just like the one in the photograph (along with 3 other similar fun Corgis)
Cool, yes, but also known as one of the nicest guys in Hollywood.
This photo is not from “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” but a behind-the-scenes still from his TV show. It makes me happy just looking at it, and I’m certain that he was one of the main reasons it looks like such a great workplace. As he put it, they were all “like otters at play.”
Yeah, flak, but affectionate flak. I’ve never heard anyone say that it got in the way of their enjoyment of the film which a bad accent often can. Still, it was special, and the more so as a one off, so it was probably the right decision not to attempt it again.
So has anyone tracked down the supposed porn film Shitty Titty Gang Bang?
I can’t remember where I’d read it, but I also think DVD supports Bernie Sanders, too.
He is an unapologetic lefty, and 90 years old!
Thanks for that link - how great is he! He has 31 years on me, but I aspire to be that fabulous. I loved CCBB as a kid, and I had the Corgi car. I’m almost afraid to see it again, because I might not like it! So few movies wear well.
I like to hear when a star is a good bloke to have around; like James Garner, Dave Grohl or Keanu Reeves
I really enjoyed CCBB as a kiddy; though the book seemed better to me. Best villain in a movie, ever? I certainly found his terrifying as a kid… The nose… The legs… The eyes like raw eggs…
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