The bookshelf about ageing has gained a new name in none other than Dick Van Dyke.
The master of song, dance and physical humour, who turns 90 in December, has a simple central message about growing old.
“Just keep moving, don’t stop,” he says. That’s the title of his book too: “Keep Moving and other Tips and Truths About Ageing.”
It’s being described as a kind of sequel to his 2012 memoir, My Lucky Life In and Out of Show Business, but the focus is very much on ageing well, staying resilient, and embracing happiness.
The star who is best known for his leading roles in two award winning musicals – the multi-Oscar winning Disney musical of Mary Poppins (1964) and the British musical, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968) – and the Dick Van Dyke Show (1961-1966), seems eminently well qualified to be dishing out advice.
At 89, he is still brimming with warmth, modesty and charm, and an infectious enthusiasm for life. But the real thrill is that he still moves with the energy and physical grace that has always been his trademark.
Whether it was dancing with animated penguins in Mary Poppins or falling lavishly down the stairs in the Dick Van Dyke Show, he has always instinctively known how to move his body in space and make the most complicated movement seem effortless [see little known pieces of trivia below].
A commitment to move
In an interview with CBC Radio this week, Van Dyke told the interviewer that when the publisher approached him with the concept of writing a book about ageing well, he told her, “keep moving, that’s pretty much the whole thing”.
On reflection, he said, of course there are so many other things, including attitude and “a certain spirituality”.
But he is at pains to reiterate that keeping moving is the most important thing you can do.
“Never start going down the stairs sideways, you know, because it feels better on your knees,” he says. “Because then the hip goes, and that throws the back out and the next thing you know you have fallen down the stairs and broken your hip,” he says.
“No matter how hard it hurts, keep going down the stairs frontways,” he said.
All very well for him, you might be thinking… if you had knees like mine… Or, I’d be flat on my face if I tried most of the things he talks about.
Well, that would be missing his point, which is that you can start moving at any time, at any age; and you just have to keep at it, even if it isn’t easy.
“As far as I know, there is no manual for old age. There is no test you have to pass. There is no way you have to behave. There is no such thing as ‘age appropriate.’
Bad news for a dancer
While he can still move his body in spectacular ways, it hasn’t all been plain sailing for Van Dyke either. He tells the story of pulling a muscle during the filming of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang because he hadn’t warmed up sufficiently.
“They did some x-rays and they told me I was riddled with arthritis. The doctors predicted I’d be off my feet in 5-7 years,” he said.
“Well, I took that as a challenge and started exercising. I couldn’t see my future without moving. So I decided to just keep moving.
“To the age of 80 it was fine, but there is a bit of a downward slide around 80-90. My tennis is not so good any more,” he says with a hint of regret.
“But I do what I can and for as long as I can. The thing is to get in the habit of doing it. Do it for 12 minutes and go home. But keep doing it and you will improve.
“I still have afflictions commensurate with my age and I still have the arthritis,” he says. “But the arthritis has not worsened.”
Accentuate the positive
He is clearly doing a lot of things right. His relentless optimism and positivity is clearly a factor (“I’m one of those people who always wakes up on the right side of the bed in the morning”) and marrying a woman 46 years his junior in 2012 has probably been a good incentive too.
But he is also a big fan of living in the moment and finding the joy in small things.
“Stay curious and excited about new ideas and try new things,” he says.
“Attitudes towards being older altogether has changed so much over the years.
“The Who did a song [My Generation] where they sang, ‘I hope I die before I get old’.
“I’d like to change that; to say that it can be the best part of your life. I’m having a third life now and I am having more fun than I ever did.”
Dick Van Dyke….in his own words
On why I exercise:
In my 30s I exercised to look good,
In my 40s, I exercised to stay fit
Then in my 70s I exercised to stay ambulatory
In my 80s I exercised to stay out of assisted living
In my 90s, I’m exercising out of pure defiance!
On ‘acting your age’
“You don’t have to act your age. You don’t even have to feel it. And if it does attempt to elbow its way into your life, you do not have to pay attention.
“If I am out shopping and hear music playing in a store, I start to dance. If I want to sing, I sing. I read books and get excited about new ideas. I enjoy myself. I don’t think about the way I am supposed to act at my age – or at any age.
“As far as I know, there is no manual for old age. There is no test you have to pass. There is no way you have to behave. There is no such thing as ‘age appropriate.’
On lifelong learning
Yes I have become a bit of 3D computer animator. It’s the greatest hobby. You lose yourself and become so involved; the hours go by and you don’t notice the time.
You’ll never learn everything – but its always changing to try new things. I’m always learning.
On the hardest part of growing old:
Definitely losing friends. So many of my contemporaries are gone now and you have fewer people to talk to. Anyone who has lived for 90 years and looked back over that span of life… you look back and see the mistakes made, the roads taken… and I have nobody to talk to about it.
On the world today
It has become almost Orwellian, compared to the way life was. It’s so much more controlled. I think George Orwell was right but it’s not government that is big brother, but big corporations.
On death and dying
I don’t think about death. I know at this time of life, you could cork off at any time but I really don’t think about it. I don’t fear death. People fear dying but not death itself. Most of us want to go in our sleep or dancing.
On sex
Well, there is nothing wrong with that! For 90 year olds there is all sorts of help these days. After my last partner died, I thought I would be, along with my contemporaries… that I would be alone. But I met a beautiful young woman and we’ve been married four years now. We sing, we dance, we laugh every day.
I think…. attitudes towards sex seem to have changed. Some of the magic, mystery, eroticism seems to be gone with kids today. It’s meet up, hang out, hook up, go home. The romance has gone out of it.
On career highlights
I have had lots of good luck. But the best fun? The happiest, most creative time was working with Carl Reiner and that group with the Dick Van Dyke show. It was SO much fun. So creative. We loved it!
On his 90th birthday celebrations
I’m going to go to Disneyland. Yeah, I’m a positive guy, so for my 90th birthday, I’m going to celebrate at Disneyland.
And some advice for young people
Most of the things you worry about never happen. There is this idea of ‘the wisdom of insecurity’. You can have ‘feelings’ of security but there is nothing really that can keep you secure. So you need to be open to surprises. Life might take you places you hadn’t planned on.
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Little known piece of trivia 1: Van Dyke had no formal training as a dancer.
Little known piece of trivia 2: Van Dyke, who grew up in Danville, south of Chicago in Illinois, was a high school classmate of singer and dancer, Donald O’Connor who everyone remembers for his role as Cosmo, and singing ‘Make ‘em laugh’, in the MGM musical, Singing in the Rain.
Some fun links for fans:
Click here to watch the clip of ‘The Penguin Dance’ from Mary Poppins.
Click here to see a four minute montage of some of the most hilarious moments from the Dick Van Dyke Show.
There is a fabulous online series in short 10 minute episodes called The Dick Van Dyke Show Revisited where the actors from the original program (with one exception due to death) have come together as they are today (or 2010) in a fictional story set 45-odd years after the end of the series. They are all playing their original characters, fast-forwarded, and it is really worth taking a look if you are a fan. This link is to the first episode:
Check out Dick Van Dyke at home with his wife, Arlene this year (May 2015), in the film clip for ‘American roots orchestra’ band, The Dustbowl Revival. According to the website, Dick Van Dyke and his wife Arlene invited the band to come to their home and do a video for their song, ‘Never had to go’. “What a dreamy guy. At 89, he really can still dance like he’s in Mary Poppins!,” they said.
And finally….
