In the summer of 1963, a wave of magic and excitement swept across the world. It was a time of possibility and change, where anything seemed possible. People were drawn to the warmth of the sun and the freedom that came with the summer months. During this time, the civil rights movement was gaining steam in the United States. African Americans were fighting for their rights and demanding equality. It was a pivotal moment in history, as people came together to march, protest, and speak out against injustice.

Summer Magic (1963)

The 16 Jul 1962 LAT announced the arrival of English actress Hayley Mills in the U.S. to begin work on the film. Principal photography began 6 Aug 1962, according to 31 Aug 1962 DV production charts. A news item in the 13 Sep 1962 DV stated that actor Tod Windsor was too young for his assigned role, and was replaced by Peter Brown, on loan from Warner Bros. Pictures.
Summer Magic opened 14 Aug 1963 in Los Angeles, CA, on a double bill with Drums of Africa (1963, see entry). Critical and public responses were generally positive, evidenced by the film earning nearly $200,000 from twenty-six theaters in its opening week. Hayley Mills received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress – Comedy or Musical. The title song, “Summer Magic,” was under consideration for an Academy Award nomination, according to the 13 Jan 1964 DV.
Remake of Mother Carey's Chickens , filmed by RKO in 1938. .

The 16 Jul 1962 LAT announced the arrival of English actress Hayley Mills in the U.S. to begin work on the film. Principal photography began 6 Aug 1962, according to 31 Aug 1962 DV production charts. A news item in the 13 Sep 1962 DV stated that actor Tod Windsor was too young for his assigned role, and was replaced by Peter Brown, on loan from Warner Bros. Pictures.
Summer Magic opened 14 Aug 1963 in Los Angeles, CA, on a double bill with Drums of Africa (1963, see entry). Critical and public responses were generally positive, evidenced by the film earning nearly $200,000 from twenty-six theaters in its opening week. Hayley Mills received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress – Comedy or Musical. The title song, “Summer Magic,” was under consideration for an Academy Award nomination, according to the 13 Jan 1964 DV.
Remake of Mother Carey's Chickens , filmed by RKO in 1938.

"Flitterin'," words and music by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman, sung by Hayley Mills, Eddie Hodges, and Marilyn Hooven (voicing for Dorothy McGuire); "Beautiful Beulah," words and music by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman, sung by Hayley Mills and Eddie Hodges; "The Pink of Perfection," words and music by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman, sung by Hayley Mills and Eddie Hodges; "Summer Magic," words and music by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman, sung by Marilyn Hooven (for Dorothy McGuire); "The Ugly Bug Ball," words and music by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman, sung by Burl Ives; "On the Front Porch," words and music by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman, sung by Burl Ives and cast; and "Femininity," words and music by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman, sung by Hayley Mills, Deborah Walley, and Wendy Turner.

Chicago opening: mid-Jul 1963; Los Angeles opening: 14 Aug 1963; New York opening: 21 Aug 1963: Jul 1963

Recently widowed Margaret Carey must move her family from their large house in Boston in order to economize. Osh Popham, the Beulah, Maine, postmaster, constable, and representative of an absentee landlord, receives a letter from Nancy, Margaret's teenage daughter, explaining the family's plight and asking about the availability of a large, yellow house in Beulah. Touched by the letter, in which Nancy describes her rickets-ridden brothers' need for country life, Osh allows them to move into the house practically rent-free, unbeknownst to the owner of the house, Tom Hamilton, who is abroad and is not expected to return. Osh's one condition is that the Careys enshrine a portrait of Tom's allegedly dead mother in the living room. Osh searches for the picture while the Careys set out to clean and paint the house, assisted by Osh's teenage children, Lallie Joy and Digby. Just as things begin to roll smoothly, Julia, the Careys' orphaned but haughty cousin, reluctantly comes to live with them, and friction arises between her and Nancy. Osh finds Mrs. Hamilton's picture, and a great celebration is planned. All the preparations are made when on the day of the party Nancy realizes that she does not have an escort. Tom Hamilton suddenly returns, and he and Nancy are immediately attracted to each other. Without realizing who he is, Nancy reveals her fear that the owner of the house, "Old Tom Hamilton," will return and evict her family. Nancy later discovers Tom's identity, and it becomes clear that he does not intend to take the house from them and that he is seriously interested in Nancy. Songs .

Recently widowed Margaret Carey must move her family from their large house in Boston in order to economize. Osh Popham, the Beulah, Maine, postmaster, constable, and representative of an absentee landlord, receives a letter from Nancy, Margaret's teenage daughter, explaining the family's plight and asking about the availability of a large, yellow house in Beulah. Touched by the letter, in which Nancy describes her rickets-ridden brothers' need for country life, Osh allows them to move into the house practically rent-free, unbeknownst to the owner of the house, Tom Hamilton, who is abroad and is not expected to return. Osh's one condition is that the Careys enshrine a portrait of Tom's allegedly dead mother in the living room. Osh searches for the picture while the Careys set out to clean and paint the house, assisted by Osh's teenage children, Lallie Joy and Digby. Just as things begin to roll smoothly, Julia, the Careys' orphaned but haughty cousin, reluctantly comes to live with them, and friction arises between her and Nancy. Osh finds Mrs. Hamilton's picture, and a great celebration is planned. All the preparations are made when on the day of the party Nancy realizes that she does not have an escort. Tom Hamilton suddenly returns, and he and Nancy are immediately attracted to each other. Without realizing who he is, Nancy reveals her fear that the owner of the house, "Old Tom Hamilton," will return and evict her family. Nancy later discovers Tom's identity, and it becomes clear that he does not intend to take the house from them and that he is seriously interested in Nancy. Songs : "Flitterin'," "Beautiful Beulah," "The Pink of Perfection" (Nancy & Gary); "Summer Magic" (Margaret); "The Ugly Bug Ball" (Osh); "On the Front Porch" (Osh & entire cast); "Femininity" (Nancy, Cousin Julia & Lallie Joy).

Summer Magic (1963)

Directed by James Neilson, Summer Magic is a Sherman Brothers musical set in early 20th Century Maine. I hadn’t seen it before, but heard good things from many of my Disney friends. Did I agree with them? Read on for my review of Summer Magic.

And remember, SPOILERS AHEAD!

The film opens in Boston in the early 20th century wherein we’re introduced to the Carey family. Mrs. Carey, played by Dorothy McGuire, is a widow and has three children, Nancy, Gilly, and Peter, played by Hayley Mills, Eddie Hodges, and Jimmy Mathers, respectively.

Their father probably died due to an inability to sing!

Their finances are not in great shape so they’re currently packing their bags in order to move to a new house. Unfortunately, they can’t even afford the new house they were planning to move into, much to Nancy’s delight. You see, when her father was still alive, he took the entire family to Beulah, Maine once on a trip wherein they admired a beautiful yellow house. Now Nancy has gone behind her mother’s back and written to the owner of the yellow house seeking to live there. She falsified a few things in her letter including that her youngest brother is sick with rickets to gain sympathy and apparently it’s paid off. The caretaker of the house has written back saying that the Carey family is welcome to move into the yellow house.

Mrs. Carey isn’t proud of Nancy lying in her letter, but this house offer is more affordable, so they decide to go to Beulah to close the deal. When they arrive in Beulah, they’re picked up by the caretaker’s son, Digby, played by Michael J. Pollard and taken to the yellow house. There they meet the caretaker himself, Ossian Popham, played by Burl Ives.

If anyone was named “Ossian Popham” in this film, my money was on Burl Ives!

He quickly realizes that much of what Nancy told him was a bunch of lies, but he finds it amusing enough and allows the family to live there. He even offers to help renovate the house, but Mrs. Carey declines as they don’t have the money for that at the moment. Nevertheless, he insists and says they can worry about the money later.

The small town life of Beulah is different than the city life of Boston, but the Careys fall in love with it and get used to the relaxed pace.

It even comes with what’s most likely unused True-Life Adventures footage!

We’re soon introduced to Mrs. Popham, played by Una Merkel, and discover that Mr. Popham hasn’t been entirely truthful himself. You see, he never got permission from the owner of the house to rent it to the Careys. He’s not worried about it though as the owner has been overseas for a long time and what he and the Careys don’t know won’t hurt them.

Not long after, the Careys get word that their cousin, Julia, played by Deborah Walley, will be staying with them for a bit. She’s an orphan and her adoptive parents are in a bit of financial strife so they’ve sent her to stay with the Careys for a while. Nancy and Gilly don’t really like Julia as they demonstrate via the hilariously full-of-shade song, Pink of Perfection.

When we see Julia, we see that she’s been raised a bit more high class with an affinity for more exquisite things in life and less desire for what a town like Beulah can off her. This annoys Nancy and Gilly who try to scare her into thinking that there are critters about. And totally by accident, Julia is frightened to death when the family dog enters her bedroom one night via the window.

The poor girl is totally fear-stricken and needs Mrs. Carey to comfort her and calm her down. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Disney character display such a level of fright like her! Even Nancy feels a level of sorrow for Julia and apologizes for trying to scare her. This doesn’t lead anywhere though as the next day, the kids are all back to how they were before.

It’s not long before Mrs. Carey realizes that they’re simply out of money and tells Mr. Popham so as they won’t be able to pay him for his work and must face facts.

I can make fun of both liberals and conservatives with this!

Mr. Popham says not to worry because the owner of the house has decided not to charge the Careys rent. Wow, what a guy! Mrs. Carey can’t accept this, but Mr. Popham says it’s in exchange of finding a place to hang a picture of the owner’s dearly departed mother. Mrs. Carey accepts this and it’s now up to Mr. Popham to find a random picture of an old lady to deem the owner’s dead mother.

“That’ll do, Burl, that’ll do.”

Meanwhile, Nancy and Julia meet the new handsome, young schoolteacher named Charles Bryant, played by James Stacy. They both immediately develop a crush on him and invite him over to the house for a housewarming party. This means Mrs. Carey has to now have a housewarming party and invite others too. Both the girls vie for Charles’ affections at the party, but in the end it seems that he likes Julia more.

That night, Nancy and Julia get into an argument over Charles and each others’ ways. During the argument, Nancy reveals that Julia’s adoptive parents dumped her with them and that they only raised Julia because they felt guilty due to Julia’s father losing a lot of money because of them. Julia never knew this, so this fact hurts her. Mrs. Carey comforts her saying that her adoptive parents are doing better financially and are willing to take Julia back if she wants or she could stay with the Careys. Nancy realizes that she actually loves Julia and asks her to stay with them. Julia enthusiastically accepts saying she has been truly happy in Beulah and she and Nancy embrace like sisters with all their bickering behind them.

Well, that was sudden!

The next big event the Careys are planning is a party to celebrate the hanging of the owner’s mother’s portrait. While preparing for it, Nancy bumps into a man at the house who’s a little surprised to see the Careys there. Nancy explains everything to the man and invites him over for the party later that night.

The man is actually Tom Hamilton, played by Peter Brown, aka the owner of the house! So of course, he’s confused and shocked to find tenants in his house and renovations going on. He doesn’t say anything to Nancy, but heads to Mr. Popham who is just as shocked to see him. Mr. Popham explains the whole situation.

We take it that it wasn’t a very satisfactory explanation.

Mr. Hamilton isn’t sure what he’s gonna do to Mr. Popham, but he does attend the party later on. He’s doubly shocked to find a portrait of his supposed dead mother even though she’s very much alive! Mr. Hamilton later introduces himself to Nancy, who is of course embarrassed to find out who he is. Again he isn’t sure what exactly he’s gonna do, but he’ll deal with that later and dances with Nancy. Mr. Popham is relieved by this and everyone seems to be having a good time.

And that was Summer Magic! My first reaction and main takeaway from this film was, “THAT’S IT?! THAT’S HOW IT ENDS. ”. I was expecting a whole firing scene of Mr. Popham and eviction of the Careys with both sides defending the other. And then Mr. Hamilton would show some graciousness and rehire Mr. Popham and allow the Careys to stay and everyone lives happily ever after! But nope, this movie just decided to end before wrapping up those loose ends!

“Happy Halloween, folks! Now go home!”

To me, this is like ending Mary Poppins right after the Step in Time sequence with the chimney sweeps dancing in the street! Like, it’s a happy scene, but what was the consequence of the bank run? What will happen to Mr. Banks or Mary Poppins? There’s just GOTTA be more to the story; there’s just gotta!

Anyway besides that, did I think of the film? I think the first half of the film is okay focusing on city folk in a country town. But, the second half of the film just doesn’t seem focused or strong enough. I feel Julia needed to be the main character in this film and it focus more about her getting used to life in Beulah and with the Careys. Even the book that this film is based on (Mother Carey’s Chickens), if I’m not mistaken, showcases Julia as more of the main character than this film does.

The Sherman Brothers’ songs aren’t an example of their best work here, even though ironically this has what was apparently Robert B. Sherman’s favorite song of theirs, On the Front Porch.

The songs I enjoyed were Pink of Perfection, Femininity, and The Ugly Bug Ball.

The acting was overall good. Burl Ives gave the best performance and Deborah Walley was impressive. Hayley Mills was Hayley Mills which isn’t necessarily a bad thing and Michael J. Pollard was Michael J. Pollard, which also isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I wasn’t particularly fond of Eddie Hodges’ performance.

All in all, I was disappointed by this movie. I expected a lot more based on everyone’s recommendation for it, but I think that frustrating ending just ruined everything for me! I’m sorry to say that I didn’t find the summer magic in this film.

So, my final score for this film is 21/35 = 60% (D-) !

The next review will be posted on April 14, 2023.

Summer magic 1963

Kate Douglas Wiggin's popular 1911 novel "Mother Carey's Chickens" was an ideal bit of literary property for Walt Disney Studios. It featured genteel characters, old-fashioned humor, a sweet story line, and a healthy dose of gaps in the plot ideal for musical intervals.

The story centered around a widowed mother ( Dorothy McGuire ) from Boston who moves her brood out of the city and into a long-vacant farmhouse in Maine. With the generous help of the local general store owner/postman/justice-of-the-peace Osh Popham ( Burl Ives ), they renovate the house unbeknownst to its owner, Tom Hamilton ( Peter Brown ), who is away in China. When Mr. Hamilton returns, he certainly is surprised to find his house being occupied by a family ( and rent free, at that! ). but he soon comes to be smitten with the eldest daughter and everything turns out honky-dory.

When Walt Disney decided to film the story in 1963 as Summer Magic, he gathered together some of his favorite leading players ( Hayley Mills, Dorothy McGuire, and Deborah Walley ) and a crackerjack pair of homespun character actors ( Burl Ives and Una Merkel ), dressed them up in colorful Bill Thomas period costumes, and surrounded them with bright and cheerful Carroll Clark sets. But he felt the story still needed some extra pizzazz, and so he asked the Sherman Brothers to pen some nostalgic-sounding tunes. they came up with seven songs ( you could always trust the Sherman brothers to give more than what was needed ). What resulted was a pleasing, albeit fluffy, version of "Mother Carey's Chickens".

Summer Magic is a leisurely paced film that meanders along like sleepy folk heading home from an evening picnic. It captures that gentle lazy spirit of summer but not in so entertaining a way as Disney's own Pollyanna ( 1960 ) or MGM's Two Weeks with Love ( 1950 ).

While the songs are fabulous ( especially noteworthy are "On the Front Porch", "The Ugly-Bug Ball", and "Femininity" ), the clever little touches of humor that are present in most Disney films was lacking, and both Hayley Mills and Deborah Walley's talents were wasted in parts that could have had more punch. The few scenes they played together were fun - especially the summer party croquet sequence - but there simply weren't enough of them. Screenwriter Sally Benson is at fault here, which is unusual considering she was the talented writer behind Meet Me in St. Louis ( 1944 ), Junior Miss ( 1946 ), and Come to the Stable ( 1949 ).

Still, Hayley is a delight to watch and, even with the absence of the traditional Disney sparkle, sitting back with Summer Magic makes a pleasant way to spend a hot summer evening. Also cast in the film were Eddie Hodges, Michael J. Pollard, James Stacey, Peter Brown, and Jimmy Mathers ( younger brother to Jerry "Beaver" Mathers ).

It was a pivotal moment in history, as people came together to march, protest, and speak out against injustice. At the same time, music was undergoing a revolution. The Beatles had just released their debut album, "Please Please Me," and were on the verge of becoming international sensations.

They brought a new sound and energy to the industry, and their impact can still be felt today. Beyond the political and cultural landscape, there was a palpable sense of joy and wonder in the air. Children played outside until the streetlights came on, families packed up their cars for road trips, and the beach was a place of shared experiences and laughter. It was a time when life seemed simpler, and the future held endless possibilities. The world was changing, and summer magic was in the air. People embraced the warmth and beauty of the season, holding onto it like a precious memory. Looking back, the summer of 1963 represents a turning point in history. It was a moment of awakening and transformation, where the seeds of progress were planted. Summer magic in 1963 reminds us of the power of unity, the importance of standing up for what is right, and the enduring joy that can be found in simple moments..

Reviews for "Retracing the Steps of the Summer Magic: Exploring '63's Historic Events"

1. Jane - 2 stars - "I was really disappointed with 'Summer Magic 1963'. The plot was predictable and cliché, and I found it hard to connect with any of the characters. The acting was also subpar, with awkward dialogue and forced emotions. Overall, I just couldn't find anything redeeming about this film. It lacked originality and failed to hold my interest throughout."

2. Mark - 1 star - "I regret watching 'Summer Magic 1963'. The storyline was weak and unexciting, making it difficult to stay engaged. The pacing was slow and dragged on, with unnecessary scenes that added nothing to the overall plot. The film also seemed to rely heavily on tired tropes and stereotypes, which was frustrating to watch. I would not recommend wasting your time on this forgettable movie."

3. Amanda - 2 stars - "I had high hopes for 'Summer Magic 1963', but it fell flat for me. The plot was predictable and lacked any surprises or twists. The characters felt one-dimensional and lacked depth, making it hard to care about their stories. The cinematography and soundtrack were also unremarkable, failing to create a visually or audibly pleasing experience. Overall, the movie failed to deliver any meaningful impact or leave a lasting impression."

4. Mike - 2.5 stars - "While 'Summer Magic 1963' had its moments, it ultimately didn't live up to my expectations. The film relied too heavily on nostalgia and sentimentalism, which felt forced and artificial. The pacing was inconsistent, with some scenes feeling rushed while others dragged on. I also found the ending to be unsatisfying and abrupt, leaving me with more questions than answers. Overall, I can see why some people may enjoy this movie, but it simply didn't resonate with me."

1963: A Summer of Hope, Freedom, and Change