When I was young, my grandmother would have all of us cousins over to her house on Thanksgiving night for a weekend-long sleepover. Those weekends were some of the highlights of my childhood—putting up the Christmas tree and decorations, enjoying candlelit pizza parties, adventuring to the zoo and parks, and so on. But that very first night, Thanksgiving night, we always congregated in the living room, usually all laid out side-by-side on the floor, and watched whichever classic movie was the special presentation on one of the main networks. And every year it seemed like the feature film was one of three: The Sound of Music, Mary Poppins, or this week’s Best Picture winner, My Fair Lady (1964, Warner Bros.). I fell in love with all three. So for the next two weeks, I am in my glory with My Fair Lady and The Sound of Music, the only back-to-back musical winners of the Academy’s highest honor—and it’s pretty swell that these films happen to fall during these holiday weeks. It’s like coming home to my childhood.

At the 1965 Academy Awards, My Fair Lady and Mary Poppins dueled it out, with My Fair Lady coming out on top, for the most part (despite additional stiff competition from Zorba the Greek). Nominated for 12 Oscars, My Fair Lady took home 8: Music (Scoring of Music—adaptation or treatment), Art Direction (Color), Costume Design (Color), Cinematography (Color), Sound, Directing for George Cukor, Best Actor for Rex Harrison as Professor Henry Higgins, and Best Picture. Mary Poppins, although accomplishing the seemingly impossible feat of snagging nominations in both the Music (Music Score—substantially original) and Music (Scoring of Music—adaptation or treatment) categories (winning the former and losing the latter to My Fair Lady), was only awarded 5 Oscars for its 13 nominations.

Audrey Hepburn and Julie Andrews at the 1965 Academy Awards. Image by © Bettmann/CORBIS

Ironically, what was arguably Mary Poppins’ biggest win—Julie Andrews’ victory in the Best Actress category—might never had happened without some good old Hollywood off-screen drama. Impossible as it is now to fathom Andrews being passed over for anyone, back in the early 1960s, Audrey Hepburn possessed the more recognizable name of the two actresses. So, although Andrews had played Eliza Doolittle to perfection in the Broadway production of My Fair Lady, Jack Warner, the head of Warner Bros., went with Hepburn for the motion picture. He later explained his decision in his autobiography, saying, “With all her charm and ability, Julie Andrews was just a Broadway name known primarily to those who saw the play…I knew Audrey Hepburn had never made a financial flop.” Money, money, money. Well, I hope Warner got a good seat at the Oscars to see Andrews win for Mary Poppins—oh, and I also hope he was able to catch The Sound of Music the following year!

Audrey Hepburn herself is said to have thought that Andrews should have had the lead in the film version of My Fair Lady. Hepburn even considered walking away from the film, but was told that Andrews would not be asked to replace her if she did. Apparently, Elizabeth Taylor was next in line to play Eliza if Hepburn declined. I just can’t picture that at all! But that Taylor-as-Eliza scenario almost became a reality because when Hepburn was told she wouldn’t be doing the singing in the film, she walked off the set. Of course, she returned the following day and gave a very suave apology to everyone about her prior behavior.

Audrey Hepburn and Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady

Hepburn seems to have always been polished and sophisticated. Born in Belgium to an English banker father and a Dutch baroness mother, Hepburn appeared to be on the path to a career as a dancer. She was in school in England at the outset of World War II when her mother decided to take her to the Netherlands, believing (wrongly) that they would be safer there with relatives. After the German take-over of neutral Holland, several members of the family were imprisoned or executed, and Hepburn and her mother nearly starved to death, subsisting at times on tulip bulbs. Many accounts claim that Hepburn still danced to raise money for the Dutch resistance despite her poor health. After the war, Hepburn returned to England to pursue dancing, dabbling in acting as well. While in Monaco, she was discovered by Colette, the French novelist, who determined that Hepburn would be the star of her play Gigi on Broadway. Hollywood soon came calling; and with her Oscar-winning role in Roman Holiday (1953), Hepburn had arrived at stardom. She became one of only a handful of people to have won the “grand slam” of American show business: an Oscar, an Emmy, a Tony, and a Grammy (albeit, she completed this feat posthumously).

And I am just fine with her playing Eliza; for every time she swallows that marble during her “speech therapy” or tells Dover to “move his bloomin’…,” I’m back in Grandma’s living room, dying of laughter with all my siblings and cousins. Happy Holidays, Everyone! May you as well enjoy rehashing former family memories and making new ones this year!

For more thoughts on My Fair Lady and its significance, please check out the full post this weekend!