from 2009
JEFFREY  SHERMAN
talks about his songwriter father Robert B. Sherman, and Walt Disney

by Scott Wolf

From as far back as I can remember, I was a fan of Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman. Shortly after meeting them, they both took me out to lunch at the Smokehouse restaurant in Burbank, a day I'll never forget.

In time, I became friends with Bob's son and subsequently spent a lot of time at Bob's house and always looked forward to those times Bob would come in the room and we'd talk about all kinds of things, but Bob never minded talking about his Disney days. What always struck me about Bob is how fatherly he seems. He is kind, warm, caring and generous.

The new film, the boys: the sherman brothers' story, is produced and directed by Bob & Dick's sons, Jeff and Gregg respectively.

Recently, Jeff took the time to talk with me about the boys and some memories of growing up with a "Disney dad." It gives me great pleasure to share with you my conversation with Jeff Sherman.

SW: Do you have any memory that stands out about being Bob's son?

JS: Well, he was the greatest dad. People always go, "What was it like growing up in a Hollywood family?" and I couldn't tell you. My parents had some celebrity friends and I recognized Karl Malden or I'd recognize Louis Nye or whoever would come over to the house, but it wasn't like Hollywood.

When my dad would get home he would wear raggedy close and he'd paint and he'd go around and work in his rose gardens and weed and do all these other things. They didn't really like the Hollywood scene, they didn't really travel that way.

SW: "They," being your parents?

JS: Yes, my mom and my dad. Everyday my dad would come home from work at about 5:30 and it was still light outside and he'd throw me my baseball glove and we'd go out and play catch. That's who he was, my dad... (chuckles) and he knew the guy who owned Disneyland. Amazing.

One of my favorite memories was when they were doing Mary Poppins, my dad wanted to show off a little bit I think and he took me down to the sound studio to show me all the sound stages, and every sound stage was Mary Poppins. On stage 2, on the big stage it was Cherry Tree Lane. I ended up doing (the Disney television series) Boy Meets World on that stage for the first two years and I'd go there, "This is the coolest thing in the world! I'm a Disney guy from way back."

Then he took me around to all these things, and I always loved the commissary because they had the best tuna sandwiches anywhere. He took me to the commissary, it was the Coral Room they called it at the time, and it was the executive room.

I was standing with my dad and Walt Disney walked up and he knew my name. I don't really know how. My dad said he had an amazing memory for names, and he remembered everybody's kids names.

He walked up and said, "So Jeffrey, I understand you took the tour of the studio and looked at all of our sets from Mary Poppins. What did you think?" I said, "(blasé) I don't know. I don't know." He said, "What do you mean?" I said, "They're okay I guess." He took my hand and I felt my dad's hand go limp. I went, "Uh oh." You know when you're a little kid like, "I've said something wrong." Walt Disney took me back over to the rooftops of London stage and he said, "What's the matter?" I said, "I just don't think anybody's going to believe it." He said, "Why?" I said, "Because it's like three feet off the ground."

So he said, "That's right, it's three feet off the ground, but see this is what the camera's going to see," and he went down and he put his hands in a square like a camera lens for me and he knelt down next to me and showed me that the camera was going to be here. He said, "That's all people are going to see. That's called movie magic.. and never tell your friends."

SW: Did that have any impact on your future career?

JS: Oh, yeah. There were many things that had an impact. My grandfather certainly, my Grandpa Al. I talked about it in the movie but he would always give me piano lessons and he inspired me and I wanted to that, and I wanted to be a composer for a long time. It was a little daunting to go into that following in the Sherman brothers footsteps, so I ended up going into screenwriting. I was an English major at Berkeley and then transferred to UCLA film school and just fell in love with writing for film and I've done a lot of that and television.

But, yes, I would say my mentors would have been in a way, even though he didn't know, was Walt Disney... that I could make magic like that, and A.J. Carothers who read my first script and said, "You've got talent, keep up with with!" And certainly my dad who looked to me one time, he saw me writing something really late at night and he walked to me and watched me." I was like, "What are you doing?" I was writing this script, I was in film school and he said, "I just want you to know that I will support you in this. I think you're really talented and I will support you in all of that. I think you have to be a writer." He inspired me, too.

More from Jeff:
His movie, the boys: the story of the sherman brothers

See other interviews