Born Free Born Free Born Free is a 1966 British drama film starring Virginia McKenna and Bill Travers as Joy and George Adamson, a real-life couple who raised Elsa the Lioness, an orphaned lion cub, to adulthood, and released her into the wilderness of Kenya. The film was produced by Open Road Films Ltd. and Columbia Pictures. The screenplay, written by blacklisted Hollywood writer Lester Cole (under the pseudonym "Gerald L.C. Copley"), was based upon Joy Adamson's 1960 non-fiction book "Born Free". The film was directed by James Hill and produced by Sam Jaffe and Paul Radin. "Born Free", and its musical
P. L. Travers the name Pamela Lyndon Travers and adopted the pen name P. L. Travers in 1933, while writing the first of eight "Mary Poppins" books. Travers travelled to New York City during World War II while working for the British Ministry of Information. At that time, Walt Disney contacted her about selling to Disney Studios the rights for a film adaptation of "Mary Poppins", whose sequel "Mary Poppins Comes Back" was also in print. After years of contact, which included visits to Travers at her home in London, Walt Disney did obtain the rights and the Disney film "Mary Poppins" premiered