The true 'Sound of Music'
Solving a problem like the real Maria
Wolfgang Wild
1940-1998
Released in 1965,The Sound of Music is the fifth highest grossing film of all time. It was so popular that it ran on unbroken release at cinemas worldwide for four and a half years And the story it is tells is a true one — up to a point.The film was an adaptation of the 1959 Rodgers and Hammerstein II musical of the same name, which itself was based on Maria von Trapp's book The Story of the Trapp Family Singers. The film's producer, Robert Wise, expressed very clearly to the von Trapps that he was not making a documentary but rather a dramatic film of which all parties could feel a sense of pride.
This was the Hollywood version of the Broadway version of the German film version of the book that my mother wrote. - Johannes von Trapp, Georg and Maria's youngest son.
Romantic nonsense and sentiment. - Review of "The Sound of Music" film in The New York Times
Three hours of visual and vocal brilliance. - REVIEW OF "THE SOUND OF MUSIC" FILM IN THE LOS ANGELES TIMES
The core of the film was true. A 19-year-old Maria von Trapp had indeed been in training to become a nun in a Salzburg Abbey. The Abbess sent her to be a tutor to the children of widowed naval commander Georg von Trapp. The family became well-known as The Von Trapp Family Choir, and left their homeland around the time of the German annexation of Austria.But some key differences remain. Georg was 25 years older than Maria when they married in the late 1920s, rather than the late 1930s. And Maria was very clear about her feelings for Georg:
I really and truly was not in love. I liked him but didn't love him. However, I loved the children, so in a way I really married the children. - Maria Von Trapp
Between 1929 and 1939, Georg and Maria had three children together, as well as Georg's own seven children.But it was the collapse of the bank holding the family's finances that was the spur behind their success as touring singing act, to Georg's embarrassment.Anti-Nazi, the family did indeed flee Austria when the Nazi party sought to recruit Georg to the German navy. But they did not walk across the mountains to Switzerland — a journey of some 200 miles. Rather, they caught a train to Italy and then on to the United States. Their Austrian home became Heinrich Himmler's headquarters.Georg died in 1947 in Vermont. The Von Trapp Family singers continued for the next decade before finally disbanding in 1957 — though not before having been featured on an Elvis Presley record.Maria died in 1987, aged 82. But, as many of the film's fans know, she can be seen for a moment in the film. Maria and two of her daughters walk across an archway as Julie Andrews sings I must stop these doubts, all these worries / If I don't, I just know I'll turn back in the song "I Have Confidence."
