A national treasure in Britain, Julie Andrews will forever be remembered as the
English rose who sang and danced her way through the massively successful family
entertainment movies of the 1960s, The Sound Of Music and Mary Poppins. Growing
up in wartime Britain, Andrews had a tough upbringing in London's slums, but her
precocious singing talents with a rare four-octave range were recognised early
and she was tutored by the soprano Madame Lilian Stiles-Allen. A meeting with
entrepreneur Val Parnell led to her professional stage debut at the London
Hippodrome in 1947, singing an a...