Cotton Warburton Irvine " Cotton " Warburton ( October 8 , 1911 - June 21 , 1982 ) was an American college football quarterback ( 1933 ) who became a film and television editor with sixty feature film credits . He worked for the Metro - Goldwyn - Mayer Studios and for the Walt Disney Studios , and is probably best known for his editing of " Mary Poppins " ( 1964 ) . Biography . Warburton was born in 1911 , in San Diego , California , to Margaret Warburton . His siblings were Leland S . , Los Angeles City Council member in 1945 – 53 ; Milton , Lawrence and David . Career in sports . Warburton attended San Diego High School , and won the California high school quarter mile in 1930 . He brought his speed to the USC Trojans football team , and was chosen as an All - American quarterback in 1933 . Warburton was the quarterback during a winning streak that lasted for 27 games , which remained unsurpassed at USC until 1980 . Cotton was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1975 . Warburton ' s teammate Aaron Rosenberg was also elected to the Hall of Fame , and also had a successful career in the film industry as a director and producer . Hollywood career . Following his graduation from the University of Southern California in 1934 , Warburton declined an offer to become a professional football player with the Chicago Bears . He became an assistant film editor at Metro - Goldwyn Mayer Studios , where he remained for 19 years . As was common in the studio era , his first editing credit came after about eight years with the studio , and was for the Laurel and Hardy film " Air Raid Wardens " ( 1943 ) . He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Film Editing for " Crazylegs " ( 1953 ) , a film about Elroy Hirsch ' s football career ; Robert Niemi has suggested that the nomination acknowledged Warburton ' s success in " weaving documentary footage of Hirsch on the playing field into the film proper . " Shortly after this film , Warburton left MGM . By 1956 Warburton was an editor for the Walt Disney Studios , where he remained for the rest of his career . His first Disney film credit was " Westward Ho , the Wagons ! " ( 1956 ) . About 1960 , he began a fruitful collaboration on feature films with Disney director Robert Stevenson . Their first film was " The Absent - Minded Professor " ( 1961 ) . Warburton won an Academy Award and the American Cinema Editors Eddie Award for the " spectacularly successful " " Mary Poppins " ( 1964 ) , which also earned Stevenson an Oscar nomination as best director . Critic Drew Casper particularly notes Warburton ' s editing of the film ' s " chimney pot " musical sequence ( see clip to the right ) . In total , Stevenson and Warburton collaborated on nine films in the 1960s and 1970s ; their last film together was " Herbie Rides Again " ( 1974 ) . Warburton retired from editing after " The Cat from Outer Space " ( 1978 ) , a Disney film directed by Norman Tokar . Cotton Warburton ' s grand - nephew , Bartt Warburton , likewise a college athlete who later entered the entertainment profession , was a founding member of L . A . Guns offshoot band " Black Cherry . " Bartt Warburton performs worldwide as " Ukulele Bartt . "