Saving Mr. Banks

Chosen answer: It seems P. L. Travers was, in fact, right-handed. With just a bit of research, I found this YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeiEumLxTcM. At time reference 4:05, archive video shows Ms. Travers in her garden, holding a basket hooked on her left arm, and making clippings with a scissors in her right hand. Feeling convinced, I stopped, though I suspect further research (it's a six part biography) would yield other examples of P. L. Travers engaged in right-handed activities.

Michael Albert

Only problem with the assumption that travers was right-handed because she trimmed plants with her right hand is that there were no (to my knowledge) scissors for lefties. I was born in 1955 and I am a lefty who cuts right-handed, wear my watch on my left wrist, and made other adaptations due to the fact that left-handers were ignored, and travers was born over 50 years earlier.

Answer: I do not know the actual answer to your question. However, I would like to point out as a lefty myself that we often have to use our right hand for certain activities just due to the fact that left handed options are not readily available. Scissors and shears are a great example of this. Very often you cannot just switch them to your left hand and have them work. They actually have to be put together to be left handed to work properly. Also, many left handed writers are also ambidextrous. For example I golf right handed but bat left handed so the two swings don't negatively affect each other.

Question: When Mrs. Travers arrives at her hotel there are two pieces of luggage that she picks up and takes in the room herself, when she leaves she has those two pieces plus a large suitcase. Where did it come from?

Answer: The large suitcase was most likely carrying the large Mickey mouse doll that she decided to keep. The size alone would require an extra case.

Gavin Jackson

Question: Why was there blood on Travers Goff's shirt when he died? I thought he died of tuberculosis. And what was the knife for?

MikeH

Chosen answer: The bloody shirt is from him continually coughing up much blood from the infected lungs, which is typical in people who had the disease. The knife isn't explained.

raywest

Answer: The dog is either a Skye terrier or a French Briard. Since it is white and has a long tail it is most likely a mixed breed, since the scene is supposed to be in Australia, it may be a mixed terrier and Australian sheep dog mix.

Question: Why use a 1965 Lincoln with a 1963 front clip? No limo like that was made in 1963.

Answer: The front clip is from a 1961 Lincoln presumably to make the car more correct for when the story takes place. However, the limousine was made by Lehmann-Peterson which did not begin production of the cars until 1963.

Chosen answer: The name refers to George Banks, the father in the Mary Poppins story. P.L. Travers, the author, based the character on her own alcoholic father.

raywest

Factual error: In the scene where the young Helen Goff is traveling by train with her family, it's obvious that an American engine and coaches have been used, instead of a Queensland Rail locomotive of the era. None of the QR locomotives had flared smokestacks like on the one seen in the movie. The coaches are also incorrect - as far as I know, none of the Queensland Rail wood coaches had clerestory roofs with a set of windows in them like seen in the movie. When Helen looks out the back of the train, it's also obvious that the tracks are spaced at 'standard gauge' (4' 8.5"). They should be closer together, as railways in Queensland are built to 3'6" gauge instead. There is also no such company as the 'Queensland Victoria Railway Co', as marked on the coaches, as all railways in Australia are state owned.

Tbdanny

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