120 Fun Facts About The Sound of Music

Who produced and directed the 1965 film?

He was busy prepping The Sand Pebbles when first asked, and only came aboard in October 1963 after that film was postponed.

Who played Maria in the 1965 film?

She admitted she thought the stage show 'rather saccharine' before she was cast, and signed for the film before Mary Poppins was even released.

Which film did the movie overtake in November 1966 to become the highest-grossing ever?

The record it broke had stood for twenty-four years, and it kept the crown for five more before losing it in turn.

How many Academy Awards did the film win?

It shared the night's tally with Doctor Zhivago, which also went ten-for-five, and it took Best Picture without even a screenwriting nomination.

Which unreleased film did the director watch a few minutes of before deciding to sign his Maria?

Wise reportedly turned to Lehman and said, 'Let's go sign this girl before somebody else sees this film and grabs her!'

Who wrote the screenplay, moving 'Do-Re-Mi' out of the living room and into a tour of Salzburg?

He had already adapted West Side Story for Wise, and he found the Felsenreitschule on a scouting trip and wrote it in as the festival venue.

Whose voice is actually heard when the Captain sings in the film?

The actor recorded the songs himself, and his original vocals finally surfaced on the 2023 Super Deluxe soundtrack.

What nickname did the film's Captain later use for the movie he found so 'gooey'?

He skipped the 40th anniversary reunion but still recorded a commentary for the 2005 DVD, and said the only pleasant part was working with his co-star.

Which veteran director agreed to helm the film first, despite saying he hated the stage show?

He was eased out when his agent asked to delay production so he could shoot The Collector instead, and Fox simply moved on without him.

Which stage song did 'Something Good' replace in the film?

Rodgers admitted he and Hammerstein had already talked about swapping it out, but Hammerstein was too ill to write a replacement.

During which song does the real Maria von Trapp make her uncredited cameo?

She walks past an archway with her daughter Rosmarie and a granddaughter, at the line 'I must stop these doubts, all these worries'.

Which famous dubbing singer was cast on screen as Sister Sophia?

It was her first on-screen appearance after years of ghost-singing for stars, and Wise noted audiences could finally see the woman whose voice they knew.

Where were the film's wedding scenes shot?

It was the first Salzburg-area location shot, on April 23, 1964, right after the company flew in from Los Angeles.

Where is the gazebo from the film now located?

It was moved twice, and the interior scenes for the two gazebo songs were actually shot on a larger set at Fox in Hollywood.

How did the director get Salzburg's leaders to permit swastika banners in the streets?

The film's Nazi content stayed a sore point in the region, and it ran only three days in Salzburg cinemas.

The closing hike over the mountains was filmed near which German town?

The real family would never have walked to Switzerland, which is over two hundred miles from Salzburg; the shot is within sight of Hitler's Eagle's Nest.

Which future star was among the child actors auditioned but not chosen?

The Osmonds, Mia Farrow and Patty Duke were also seen during more than two hundred interviews across the US and England.

How old was the actress playing Liesl when 'Sixteen Going on Seventeen' was filmed?

She was a part-time model with no acting ambitions when a friend mailed her photo to the director's office.

Which cast member pulled Gretl's actress from the water when the rowboat capsized?

The rescuer, who played Louisa, was then vomited on by the five-year-old, who had swallowed a lot of lake.

Which was the last role cast for the film?

The actor married Liesl's understudy two years later, then joined the Marine Corps during the Vietnam War.

Whose singing voice was dubbed by Margery MacKay?

The Mother Abbess's actress felt the lyrics of her big number were 'pretentious' and could no longer reach its high notes.

How many minutes long was the theatrical release of the film?

NBC's annual broadcasts hacked about half an hour out of it to fit a three-hour slot; the BBC, with no adverts, ran it whole.

Which network paid $15 million for the film's first US television broadcast in 1976?

It drew a 49% audience share, one of the twenty highest-rated films ever shown on television at that point.

The BBC has identified the film as part of its programming for which scenario?

The corporation paid a then-record $4.1 million for the rights and first showed it on Christmas Day 1978.

What did a Fox branch manager in Munich cut from the film without authorization?

Everything after the wedding vanished, including the Anschluss; Wise and the studio restored the film and the manager was fired.

Which was the promotional tagline chosen for the film?

Publicist Mike Kaplan picked it after reading the script, and the poster art was a Howard Terpning painting of Maria on an alpine meadow.

Which pop song of 2019 interpolates the melody of 'My Favorite Things'?

The winter imagery of the original also made it a Christmas staple, despite the musical having nothing to do with the holidays.

Which jazz musician turned 'My Favorite Things' into a standard with a 14-minute 1960 recording?

It became a signature piece in his concerts and appears in the Real Book, the jazz musician's fake-book bible.

In 'Do-Re-Mi', which syllable is 'a drink with jam and bread'?

The children's bell-ringer sequence was worked out in rehearsal by arranger Trude Rittmann and choreographer Joe Layton, not by Rodgers.

Which traditional Austrian dance do Maria and the Captain share at the party?

The film's choreography followed the folk dance strictly, though the stage version's is only loosely based on it.

Which song was the last lyric Oscar Hammerstein II ever wrote?

It was added during the Boston tryout as a farewell to Austria for the Captain, and many people still assume it is a genuine folk song.

Which singer recorded the title song a week before the show opened, hoping to drum up attention?

Her single debuted at No. 99 on the Hot 100 on the very day the musical opened on Broadway.

Who created the role of Maria in the original 1959 Broadway production?

The show was conceived as a vehicle for her by director Vincent Donehue, and her husband Richard Halliday co-produced it.

Which folk-singing actor originated Captain von Trapp on Broadway?

Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote him a guitar number once they realised he was a folksinger, but he still hated playing the same part night after night.

With which show did the musical tie for the 1960 Tony Award for Best Musical?

The entire children's cast was nominated for Best Featured Actress as a single nominee, even though two of them were boys.

How many performances did the original Broadway run last?

The London production at the Palace Theatre outlasted it handily, running 2,385 performances from 1961.

Which future Oscar winner played Rolf as a Broadway replacement in 1961-62?

He married his co-star Lauri Peters, the original Liesl.

The Broadway musical was directly inspired by a 1956 film about the family made in which country?

That film and its sequel remain the authoritative version of the story in German-speaking Europe, which partly explains the Hollywood version's flop there.

What surname did the stage show give Maria instead of her real one, Kutschera?

The children's names and ages were changed too, partly because the real third child was also called Maria.

Which singer starred in the 1981 West End revival that the real Maria called 'the best' Maria ever?

She worried that at 49 she was too old for the part, then extended her six-month contract to thirteen months and set a British attendance record.

Who won the TV talent search that cast the 2006 London Palladium Maria?

The show was mounted only after negotiations with Scarlett Johansson for the role fell through.

What did the real Georg von Trapp command in the First World War?

He was Austria-Hungary's most successful commander in that arm, sinking eleven merchant ships and two warships.

Why was the real Maria originally sent from the abbey to the von Trapp household?

The pupil, Maria Franziska, later described her stepmother as moody and prone to rages, and her father as a doting parent, the reverse of the film.

In which year did the real Maria and Georg marry?

She wrote that she was angry at God and at her new husband on her wedding day, because she had wanted to be a nun.

How did the real family actually leave Austria in 1938?

They were entitled to Italian citizenship because Georg had been born in a Dalmatian city annexed by Italy after the First World War.

Georg von Trapp's birthplace, Zara, lies in which present-day country?

It was then a crown land of Austria-Hungary; his father died of typhoid when he was four.

What did the Nazis do with the family's abandoned Salzburg villa?

The house at Traunstrasse 34 in Aigen was comfortable but nowhere near as grand as the mansion in the film.

What wiped out most of the family's fortune in 1935?

Georg had moved his savings from London to a bank run by a friend, and when it failed the family took in boarders and started singing for money.

In which US state did the family settle and open their lodge?

They bought a 660-acre farm in 1942 and named it Cor Unum, Latin for One Heart.

What was the singing group called before their booking agent judged the name too 'churchy'?

Frederick Schang also Americanized their repertoire, which had leaned on madrigals and sacred music.

Where did Maria and three of her children go as missionaries after the singing group disbanded in 1957?

She returned in 1965 to run the family lodge, reluctantly handing it over to her youngest son Johannes.

What happened to the family lodge on December 20, 1980?

Forty-five people including the elderly Baroness fled in their nightclothes; a 73-room Austrian-style lodge replaced it in 1983.

What did the family lodge start producing in 2010?

Von Trapp Brewing now turns out about 60,000 US gallons a year of German- and Austrian-style lagers.

What did Georg use to baptize his first seven children?

He bought seven bottles of it as a naval cadet visiting the Holy Land, decades before any of the children were born.

How many children did Georg von Trapp have in total?

The last of the original seven, Maria Franziska, died in 2014 aged 99.

The Sing-a-long screenings that became a worldwide craze first appeared in 1999 at what London event?

It moved to the Prince Charles Cinema, where audiences in nun and von Trapp costumes were still turning up nearly twenty years later.

Who played Maria in NBC's live 2013 television production?

The film's original Maria personally endorsed the casting at the star's request; critics praised the singing and panned the acting.

Who played the head of Nonnberg Abbey in the 2013 NBC live broadcast?

Laura Benanti, the Elsa of that broadcast, had herself played Maria on Broadway in the 1998 revival.

Which actress did the real von Trapp family say they would have preferred as the 2013 live TV Maria?

Despite the mixed notices, 18.62 million viewers watched, NBC's biggest Thursday entertainment audience since the Frasier finale.

The film is one of a select few Western movies permitted in which country?

When Slovenian band Laibach became the first Western group to play there in 2015, they performed songs from it.

For how long did the film run in Salzburg's cinemas on its original release?

Locals sniffed that it 'wasn't authentic', yet by 2007 it was drawing 300,000 tourists a year, more than Mozart's birthplace.

Which studio bought the US rights in 1956 intending to star Audrey Hepburn as Maria?

The studio dropped its option, but one of its directors proposed the story as a Broadway vehicle instead.

At which New York venue did the film premiere on March 2, 1965?

New York's intellectual critics savaged it, with Pauline Kael calling it 'the sugar-coated lie people seem to want to eat'.

Which critic dismissed the 1965 film as 'the sugar-coated lie people seem to want to eat'?

Bosley Crowther of The New York Times was also unimpressed, calling it 'icky sticky'.

Which of these actors was considered for Captain von Trapp before Christopher Plummer accepted?

Bing Crosby, Yul Brynner and Richard Burton were also in the frame; Plummer turned the part down several times.

Julie Andrews signed with Fox for the film and one other picture for how much?

She signed only after being assured the director shared her concerns about excess sentimentality.

The 1965 soundtrack album has sold roughly how many copies worldwide?

In 2015 Billboard ranked it the second greatest album of all time.

The original stage musical opened on 16 November 1959 at which New York theatre?

Rodgers and Hammerstein had asked producers to wait until they finished Flower Drum Song; they agreed to wait as long as needed.

Cinematographer Ted McCord shot the film in which widescreen process?

Sound was recorded on 70 mm six-track; aerial shots used an MCS-70 camera.

Which 'name' actress was cast as Baroness Elsa Schraeder because the two leads were little known to film audiences?

Richard Haydn was chosen as Max Detweiler after Victor Borge, Noël Coward and Hal Holbrook were considered.

How does Captain von Trapp summon his children to line up for Maria in The Sound of Music?

A boatswain's whistle gives each child a personal signal, navy style. Maria tells him flatly that she will not answer to one herself.

In The Sound of Music, what does Maria cut up to sew play clothes for the von Trapp children?

Old drapes that were about to be replaced become outfits for all seven children. The Captain is far from pleased when he comes back and sees them.

Which animal do the von Trapp children hide in Maria's pocket in The Sound of Music?

A frog in the pocket was the kind of prank the children had used to drive away a string of earlier governesses. Maria answers with kindness instead of complaints, and it works.

Which pop star sang a medley from The Sound of Music at the 2015 Oscars to mark the film's fiftieth anniversary?

Lady Gaga set aside dance-pop to sing four of the film's numbers straight. The film's original Maria was on stage that night too, presenting the award for Best Original Score.

At the end of The Sound of Music, the von Trapps walk over the Alps into which country?

Switzerland lies more than two hundred miles from Salzburg, so the hike the film shows could never have happened that way.

Which song do Maria and the children perform as a marionette show in the film The Sound of Music?

The Lonely Goatherd comforts the children during a storm in the stage show. The film moved it to a puppet theatre worked by the leading puppeteers of the day.

Which costly 1963 epic nearly bankrupted the studio that went on to make The Sound of Music?

Cleopatra ran so far over budget that 20th Century-Fox laid off staff in droves, and the musical it had bought in 1960 was given low priority.

Charmian Carr, Liesl in The Sound of Music, later worked as interior designer to which pop star?

Michael Jackson kept her on for five years through her own California design firm. She was a college student modelling for pocket money when a friend sent her photo to the film's director.

Where in the abbey do the nuns hide the von Trapp family from Nazi searchers in The Sound of Music?

The cemetery crypt was not in Salzburg at all: the abbey graveyard was a studio set, filmed before the company flew to Austria.

Nicholas Hammond, Friedrich in The Sound of Music, later played which superhero on 1970s television?

Spider-Man gave Hammond his best-known adult role, in the series The Amazing Spider-Man and in feature films that began with a 1977 pilot.

What do the children leave on Maria's chair at her first family dinner in The Sound of Music?

A pine cone makes Maria leap up mid-meal. Rather than complain, she thanks the children so warmly for their welcome that they squirm with guilt.

In The Sound of Music, what does the teenage messenger courting Liesl bring to the von Trapp villa?

Telegrams give the boy his excuse to see Liesl. A later one carries the order for the Captain to join the German navy, which forces the family to flee.

How do two nuns stop the Nazis chasing the von Trapps in The Sound of Music?

They sabotage the engines by lifting out vital parts, which they then produce from under their habits as they own up to the sin.

At which German naval base is Captain von Trapp ordered to report in The Sound of Music?

Bremerhaven is where the new regime wants him the very next day. Refusing would endanger his family and serving is unthinkable to him, so he decides to leave that night.

Which song does the head of the abbey sing to send Maria back to the Captain in The Sound of Music?

Climb Ev'ry Mountain closes the first act on stage, but the film moved the scene so that it became the first big song after the intermission.

Angela Cartwright, Brigitta in The Sound of Music, went on to play Penny Robinson in which 1960s series?

Lost in Space launched in 1965, the same year as the film, so audiences met Cartwright as a von Trapp and as a castaway among the stars within months.

For which film did Christopher Plummer, the Captain in The Sound of Music, win his only Oscar at the age of 82?

Beginners cast him as a widower who comes out as gay at 75, and the win made him the oldest acting winner the Academy had honoured up to then.

Which David Lean film matched The Sound of Music for the most nominations at the 1966 Academy Awards?

Doctor Zhivago drew exactly as many nominations as the musical and finished level on wins too, though Best Picture went to the von Trapps.

Which Gwen Stefani single of 2006 is built around a yodelling song from The Sound of Music?

Wind It Up was written for a fashion show, then mashed up with the film's yodelling number at Stefani's request. She called The Sound of Music her favourite film.

Which composer wrote words and music for two new songs in the film The Sound of Music after his lyricist died?

Richard Rodgers was without his partner Oscar Hammerstein II, who died in 1960, so he wrote his own lyrics for Maria's new solo and for the love duet in the gazebo.

Who enters the children in the Salzburg Festival against the Captain's wishes in The Sound of Music?

Max Detweiler is treated by the children as an honorary uncle, and he signs them up while their father is away.

To which city does the Baroness return after ending her engagement to the Captain in The Sound of Music?

Vienna is where the Baroness belongs, and she goes back gracefully, even urging the Captain to tell Maria how he feels.

In which country did the soundtrack of The Sound of Music spend a total of 70 weeks at number one?

United Kingdom buyers made it the country's best-selling album of 1965, 1966 and 1968, and the second-biggest seller of the whole decade.

Which German word names the 1938 annexation of Austria that drives the plot of The Sound of Music?

Anschluss came in March 1938, and the real family lived under Nazi rule for months before leaving, while the film has them flee the night they get back.

Which entertainment giant came to own The Sound of Music in 2019 after buying the Fox film studio?

Disney closed its purchase of 21st Century Fox in 2019 and had the film on its new streaming service from launch day that November.

On which holiday in 1978 did the BBC give The Sound of Music its first British television showing?

Christmas Day 1978 began a long festive tradition. The BBC paid a corporation record for the rights and, having no adverts, could show every minute uncut.

What are the von Trapp children wearing when they first march in to meet Maria in The Sound of Music?

Sailor uniforms suit a father who raises his children with strict military discipline. Maria's answer is to sew them something they can actually play in.

Where are Maria and the Captain when the Nazis take over Austria in The Sound of Music?

On their honeymoon, the newlyweds are away for a month and miss the takeover. The Captain comes home to find the new regime's banner hanging on his villa and rips it in two.

Where in America did The Sound of Music sell more tickets in forty weeks than there were residents?

Salt Lake City had 199,300 residents yet bought 309,000 tickets, a sign of how many people went back to see the film again and again.

Which American body selected The Sound of Music for preservation in its National Film Registry in 2001?

Library of Congress selectors admit only films judged culturally, historically or aesthetically significant. The Academy's own archive preserved the film as well in 2003.

What kept knocking the star flat as she filmed the opening hilltop spin of The Sound of Music?

A helicopter's downdraft flattened her on about half her takes as the camera aircraft circled back past her. Her signals to the pilot to swing wider were ignored.

The opening meadow of The Sound of Music lies not in Austria but in which German state?

Bavaria supplied the hill, at Mehlweg near Marktschellenberg, just over the border from Salzburg. The crew planted birch trees for the shot and then took them away.

Which Salzburg palace has the garden steps that serve as a musical scale in 'Do-Re-Mi' in The Sound of Music?

Mirabell lends its Pegasus fountain to the number as well: Maria and the children dance around it before they reach the steps.

What had the costumers forgotten when Liesl's actress slid through a gazebo window filming The Sound of Music?

Non-slip shoe pads were missing, so she skidded through a pane in the middle of her dance and had to complete the scene in agony.

The director of The Sound of Music feared its aerial opening copied which earlier musical he had made?

West Side Story also opens by swooping down from the sky onto its setting. He looked for a different start, could not think of a better one and kept the flight over the Alps.

What kept delaying the Austrian location shoot of The Sound of Music until it ran weeks behind schedule?

Constant rain caught the producers out: nobody had told them that Salzburg is one of the wettest places in Europe, and the mounting costs alarmed the studio bosses in Hollywood.

Above which Austrian town was the Alpine picnic that opens 'Do-Re-Mi' filmed for The Sound of Music?

Werfen is better known for its medieval castle and for the largest ice cave on Earth. The hillside lesson was filmed above it in late June 1964.

In which city did filming of The Sound of Music start and finish, with the Salzburg shoot in between?

Los Angeles soundstages held the ballroom, the dining room and Maria's bedroom. The company was on location in Europe only from late April to early July 1964.

Which instrument did the star of The Sound of Music have to learn from scratch to play Maria on camera?

Guitar was new to her, and the camera sat close enough to show whether her fingering was right while she lip-synced to her own recordings.

Schloss Leopoldskron was the filming location for which part of the von Trapp villa in The Sound of Music?

The lakeside terrace and gardens were shot at Leopoldskron and the property next door. The house front was another palace, and every interior was a studio set.

Where were the real von Trapps held in 1939 after Maria told an official she never wanted to leave America?

Ellis Island held the family briefly because their visitors' visas allowed only six months, and Maria's outburst sounded like a plan to stay for good.

Agathe Whitehead, first wife of the real Captain von Trapp, was granddaughter of the man who invented what?

The torpedo made her grandfather's fortune, and Agathe's inheritance supported the young family. She also launched a boat that Georg went on to command in the war.

Which disease killed the real Captain von Trapp's first wife in 1922, leaving him a widower with seven children?

Scarlet fever reached her through her own children, who caught it in a school epidemic. The grieving Georg then moved the whole family to Salzburg.

Why did the makers of The Sound of Music rename the real third von Trapp child Louisa?

She was also called Maria, and two Marias in one film seemed too confusing. Maria Franziska outlived all six of her full siblings, dying in 2014 at the age of 99.

In the real von Trapp family the eldest child was not a girl like Liesl but a boy with which name?

Rupert had trained in medicine, and the Nazis dangled a doctor's post in front of him. The family said no, just as his father refused a naval command.

The real Captain von Trapp held the Austrian title Ritter, a German word meaning what?

Knight is the meaning of Ritter, a hereditary rank. Austria abolished its nobility in 1919, but people went on using such titles out of social courtesy.

Besides a naval command, which Nazi invitation did the real Georg von Trapp turn down in 1938?

Singing at Hitler's birthday was asked of the whole family, and Georg said no. He also refused to fly the Nazi flag from the house.

Franz Wasner, the real von Trapp family's musical director for over twenty years, had which other calling?

Catholic priest Franz Wasner was also the family chaplain and left Austria with them. The musical replaced him with a worldly promoter who discovers the children.

The von Trapps first called their American farm 'Cor Unum', a Latin phrase meaning what?

One Heart was the name the family gave the farm they bought in 1942, where they ran a music camp whenever they were not on tour.

As a teenager the future Maria von Trapp earned college money by umpiring which sport she had never played?

Tennis was a mystery to her, and she did not even know what an umpire was when a hotel manager offered her the job. The pay got her into a teachers' college.