The Republican argument that cheap public health care was attracting impoverished illegal immigrants into the country has since been called into question: In 2000, a study from Health Affairs found that less than 1 percent of undocumented immigrants cited obtaining social services as the most important reason for immigrating.
Author P. L. Travers resisted selling the stage rights to the Mary Poppins stories for many years, as a result of her dislike of the 1964 film version, and her perception of being treated discourteously by Walt Disney at the film's premiere.
Only recently, thanks to the research of Valerie Lawson, Travers biographer and author of Mary Poppins, She Wrote, has Australia finally been alerted to the accolade, and potential tourism dollar, of claiming a link to the nanny and her parrot-headed umbrella.