As established, though I’ve started scheduling people out well over a year in advance these days, the schedule isn’t set in stone. If there’s a compelling reason to move someone—poor health, for example—I’ll move them up the list. And, of course, there are people I’ll move down the list if there’s a person who needs moved up. Last week’s entry of Henry Winkler got moved down once because I wanted to add on someone I’d had suggested who was literally decades older than he is, and I didn’t want to risk waiting eight months or however long it was. Similarly, I just recently had it brought to my attention that Dee Dee Wood is alive at 93, and that’s someone you don’t risk waiting until the next open slot (currently November 28, 2021, for women with no connection to horror or Pride) to get to.

And, okay, she wasn’t on the list before because I wasn’t that familiar with the name. However, I am familiar with the work. I strongly suspect both her IMDb and Wikipedia pages are incomplete; that’s often the case with behind-the-scenes people. Especially in the areas that aren’t talked about as much. However, even if her page were limited to a single job, there’s one where everyone would know her. You see, paired with then-husband Marc Breaux, she choreographed Mary Poppins.

That’s not her entire career, not by a long shot. But if it were, that would be enough to make her worth mentioning. Especially because Dick Van Dyke was not a dancer. The first dancing he ever did was for Bye Bye Birdie, and it was nowhere near as complicated as the chimney sweep dance. Taking basically a non-dancer and producing that is quite the accomplishment, and I think everyone—not least Van Dyke himself—wishes his dialect coach had been half so good.

Wood’s career is also evidence that TV used to be very different. We have many, many more channels, not to mention streaming options, but you’re not going to get things like Danny Thomas Special: The Wonderful World of Burlesque, which she choreographed. Or the delightfully named Coke Time. Heck, she choreographed an episode of The Love Boat with possibly the wildest cast I’m aware of, which included both Betty White and Rue McClanahan. Would you believe Benjy’s Very Own Christmas Story?

Yes, she’s still alive. In fact, I saw her on TV—on an episode of a Disney+ series called Prop Culture, about props in Disney movies. The first episode is about Mary Poppins, of course. Though she might also appear on an episode about The Happiest Millionaire, if anyone were interested in talking about The Happiest Millionaire. Which not even I am. Or, you know, they do own The Sound of Music now, which she also choreographed. Not sure about Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, for which she’d been reunited with Dick Van Dyke. Still. She did good work.

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