The True Story Of The Sound Of Music

The Maria Von Trapp Story

The Sound of Music" is the most successful American musical film ever made. The story of Maria, the Baron, and their singing children are as intimate to most of us as our own family history. "The Sound of Music" was based on Maria von Trapp's first book, "The Trapp Family Singers." However, there is much about the woman and the family that has been left untold.

Maria

Maria Agusta Kutschera was born on a train enroute to Vienna just before midnight on January 26, 1905. Her anxious entrance into the world set in motion a life full of remarkable and challenging events that would be immortalized by the silver screen.

Maria's mother died when she was two years old. Her father left her with an elderly cousin so that he could be free to travel. She experienced a lonely and very strict upbringing without any siblings or other children in the household. The movie strongly portrays Maria as the epitome of religious devotion in and out of convent life. Most people are unaware that she was raised as a socialist and atheist and became actively cynical towards all religions. Those beliefs quickly and dramatically changed by the chance meeting of a visiting Jesuit priest to Maria's college.

Maria had entered a crowded church assuming she was about to enjoy a concert by Bach. Instead, a well known priest, Father Kronseder has just began preaching. Caught in the middle of a standing-room-only crowd, Maria soon found herself caught up in the words of this preacher.

In Maria's words, "Now I had heard from my uncle that all of these bible stories were inventions and old legends, and that there wasn't a word of truth in them. But the way this man talked just swept me off my feet. I was completely overwhelmed by it..." When he finished his sermon and came down the pulpit stairs Maria grabbed his elbow and loudly asked, "Do you believe all this?"

A meeting between the priest and Maria changed her beliefs and the course of her life.

Though Maria was intensely devoted to her convent, she was taken away from the outdoor activities she once thrived on. Her doctor was concerned her health was failing due to a lack of fresh air and exercise. This was when the decision was made to send Maria to the home of retired naval captain Georg von Trapp. Her position was not governess to all the children, as the movie portrayed, but specifically to the captain's daughter who was bedridden with rheumatic fever. The rest is truly history. Maria never returned to the convent and married the Captain on November 26, 1927. This is the story that has been made immortalized by "The Sound of Music."

The Hollywood version of the story only hinted at the terrifying struggle that lay ahead of the Trapp Family. In 1938 The Trapp family left their belongings, friends and home to escape Hitler's reign. Maria was pregnant with their tenth child, Johannes, now president of the Trapp Family Lodge. In order to avoid suspicion, the family appeared to be going on one of their frequent mountain hikes, and left only with the packs on their backs. Accompanied by the family priest, Monsignor Franz Wagner, they climbed over the Austrian Alps into a tiny mountain village in Italy and never turned back

Leaving the family fortune behind, the Trapp family had to find a way to survive. In her book Maria, Maria von Trapp describes those early days. "Overnight we had become really poor; we had become refugees. A refugee not only has no country, he also has no rights. He is a displaced person. At times he feels like a parcel which has been mailed and is moved from place to place." But there were nine children and the tenth on the way. According to Maria, "The only thing we could do well together was sing, so we had to turn a hobby into a way of living."

Settling In Stowe, Vermont

What began as singing engagements at weddings and birthday parties evolved to European tours to concert halls and palaces. Soon the Trapp Family Singers were on tour in the United States. In 1939 they discovered Stowe, Vermont. This tiny mountain hamlet reminded them of the home they left behind in Austria. They took their one thousand dollars in savings and purchased an old farmhouse on 600 acres, Maria named it Cor Unum meaning "One Heart". The now famous family continued to tour the world for another 15 years but their home and hearts remained in Stowe. The family delighted in farm living. From cooking, gardening and maple sugaring to beekeeping and cross-country skiing, each found a fulfilling life on the farm.

Maria desire's to introduce music to American families led to the creation of the Trapp Family Music Camp - founded in Stowe in 1947. With the camp's growing popularity, overnight lodging was necessary and a few years later the first addition was made to the Lodge to accommodate the increasing number of guests. Thus began the Trapp Family Lodge.

From The Green Mountains To The South Pacific

While the Trapp Family Singers were on tour in Australia they visited the home of Archbishop Carboni who oversaw the mission station in the South Pacific. He shared slides and stories of the missions located throughout the islands of the South Pacific to a captive Trapp Family. He asked the family to consider missionary work when they were no longer involved with concert touring.

One year later in 1957, the Music Camp was closed and Trapp Family Singers twenty years of performing and touring came to an end. The children were getting married and following their own professional interests. While Maria and three of her children, Maria, Rosemarie and Johannes along with Father Wasner traveled to the South Pacific to begin missionary work. They first went together to New Guinea. Maria and Rosemarie became teachers and Johannes helped build two new schoolhouses and a church. Maria and Father Wasner were asked by the Archbishop to travel for a year throughout the islands to observe and report the needs of the people. The interesting details of their lives in the South Pacific can be found in Maria's book, Maria, My Own Story

Returning to the Trapp Family Lodge

When Maria returned home to Stowe, she and family members turned their attention to running and expanding the Lodge. She continued to be very active in the day to day operation of the Lodge until her death in 1987. She is buried along side her husband in the family cemetery next to the Lodge.

Johannes von Trapp, the youngest of the Trapp children, is the current president of the Lodge and lives nearby with his wife Lynne and two children.

The Making of "The Sound of Music"

"The Sound of Music" is based upon Maria von Trapp's book, The Story of the Trapp Family Singers. The book was published in 1949 and shortly after Hollywood approached Maria with an offer to buy the book title. They wanted to buy the title but create their own story. Maria refused to sell the title without the whole story.

The German Film

It wasn't until 1956 that Maria was made another offer for the rights to the book but this time by a German producer, Wolfgang Reinhardt. Reinhardt, son of the famous film director Max Reinhardt, was interested in using the whole story and made an offer of $10,000. After consulting with her lawyer Maria was advised to ask for royalties. When Maria made this request to the producer's agent she was told that it was against the law for the German film company to pay royalties to a foreigner (Maria had become an American citizen). Maria accepted this response and unknowingly signed away all film rights, including all profit participation, to her story. Later she would discover that no such law existed. The agent called her two weeks later and said he would pay in full and cash if she accepted the sum of $9,000. It was more money than Maria had seen in all their years of singing and she quickly agreed, once again being taken advantage of by the greedy agent.

This first film version, "Die Trapp Familie" became a big hit in Germany. It was followed by a sequel, "Die Trapp Familie in Amerika". Both films became the most successful films in Germany since World War II and went on to become hits in Europe and South America.

The Broadway Play

Paramount Pictures bought the U.S. film rights in 1956. Newly hired Broadway and television director, Vincent Donahue screened the film and immediately thought that it would be a great story for Broadway star, Mary Martin. Donehue had worked with Martin on several projects including "Annie Get Your Gun" and was looking for a new collaborative project with Martin and husband, producer Richard Halliday.

They loved the story but when they finally decided to purchase the rights Paramount had dropped its option and no longer owned the rights to the German film. Halliday believed he need to secure the rights to the film through Maria and tracked her to New Guinea where she was doing missionary work. His letters to Maria went unanswered because she had no interest in the notion of her book becoming a Broadway play. Halliday did not give up and when Maria returned to the U.S. he was in San Francisco to meet her ship.

He invited Maria to be a special guest at his wife's performance of "Annie Get Your Gun". She was so impressed with Martin's performance that she supported the project whole heartedly. However that did not change the fact that she had no say in the rights to the book. They eventually made a deal with the German producers and even though they had no obligation to Maria they awarded her three-eights of 1 percent of the royalties.

Rodgers and Hammerstein were contracted to write the music score and act as co-producers. It would become their biggest success. The show ran on Broadway for 1,443 performances, won six Tony Awards, including Best Musical, and sold more than 3 million albums.

"The Sound of Music" Broadway Revival

New generations of theater-goers enjoyed one of the jewels of the American musical stage. The new staging of "The Sound of Music" at Broadway's Martin Beck Theater gathered raves from all over. A "stunning and sumptuous production," says Fox 5 TV. "All seems right with the world," says Jeffrey Lyons on NBC. "You will almost certainly love..." this new production, says Clive Barnes. The cast of 38 performers was led by Rebecca Luker, who starred as Maria, and Michael Siberry as the Captain

The Hollywood Movie

On opening night of the musical, motion picture agent Irving "Swifty" Lazar, who represented the show's writers, was in the audience with Twentieth Century Fox president, Spyros Skouras.

Skouras had the "right of first refusal" for any Rodgers and Hammerstein's musicals - and he loved the play. In June 1960, seven months after the premier of the Broadway show, Twentieth Century Fox bought the rights to"The Sound of Music" for $1.25 million, against 10 percent of the gross. The contract stipulated that the studio would not be able to release the film version until 1964 or until the Broadway show closed.

While the project was put on hold Fox financial experienced increasing financial difficulties. Just when Hollywood expected Fox to declare bankruptcy in 1962, the studio announced they hired Ernest Lehman to write the screenplay for "The Sound of Music". Lehman, who scripted "The King and I" and "West Side Story," had been interested in working on the film version since he first saw the play two weeks after it opened on Broadway.

It was not as easy to find a talented and willing director for the movie. Though the play had an enormous public following, Hollywood considered the story too "sappy" and believed Fox didn't have the finances to see it through production. Robert Wise (West Side Story), Stanley Donen (Singin' in the Rain, Damn Yankees), and Gene Kelly all turned down the director position. After weeks of persuasion from Lehman and Fox studio chief, Richard Zanuck, one of the best directors in the world, William Wyler (Ben Hur, Wuthering Heights, Roman Holiday) reluctantly agreed to direct and produce the picture.

Lehman completed the first draft of the screenplay on September 10, 1963. William Wyler envisioned the movie much differently. He wanted to kill the sweetness of the story by emphasizing the Nazi invasion. According to Zanuck, "He wanted tanks. He wanted a real invasion, blowing up the town and everything. I didn't see any need for all this right in the middle of a musical."

The script remained in tact and Wyler progressively lost interest and turned his attention to another screenplay, "The Collector". He had his agent tell Zanuck he wanted to postpone work on "The Sound of Music" until he completed The Collector. Meanwhile Lehman has discovered Wyler's intentions and began once again to woo Robert Wise, his first choice in directors. Even though Wise did not like the play he was impressed with the screenplay and the musical score. After seeking advice from Saul Chaplin, his associate producer on "West Side Story," he agreed to take on the picture.

In May of 1963 location scouting began in Salzburg, Austria. The end of that same year Maria von Trapp contacted Lehman to tell him she had been very unhappy with the way the play had characterized her husband. The two met to discuss the script on January 24, 1962 at the St. Regis Hotel in New York City. Though Lehman gained insight into her story, he was determined not to deviate from his fictional vision. Lehman completed the final script on March 20, 1964.

Since Maria had a strong role in assisting in the direction of the play she assumed she would be consulted by Hollywood for the movie. But Hollywood wanted no part of Maria. On a visit to Salzburg she discovered by chance where the crew was filming and was allowed briefly to meet the cast. That was the only time Maria and Julie Andrews would meet.

The movie premiered in New York City on March 2, 1965 at the Rivoli Theatre. When Maria didn't receive an invitation to attend the premier she called the studio and was informed that they were sorry but there were no available seats. However she did succeed in requesting to see a preview of the film. Even though Hollywood paid no attention to Maria's appeals for the story to follow a more realistic portrayal of her family, she was happy with the outcome. "I was so relieved by what I saw that everytime when I am asked (and that's many times a year), 'And how do you like the film "The Sound of Music?" ' I still answer with the same old relief of that first viewing, I really like it very much, especially the beginning from the helicopter. The pictures were taken from the air around Salzburg, and I could see this view every morning at breakfast."