The Real Story Behind the Sound of Music
Tonight like every year at this time of the year The Sound of Music is played with Julie Andrews as Maria, the strong minded willful Governess of the Von Trapps who ends up marrieing the Baron Von Trapp and then right after their marriage escapes the Nazi's and come to the United States. Well, I think it's time for the rest of the story, or at least a more realistic one. Here it is from Wikipedia, enjoy, it's still a good story.
Early life
Maria was born on 26 January 1905 aboard a train heading from her parents' village in Tyrol to a hospital in Vienna, Austria.[4] She was an orphan by her seventh birthday and graduated from the State Teachers College for Progressive Education in Vienna at age 18, in 1923.[5] She entered Nonnberg Abbey, a Benedictine monastery in Salzburg, as a postulant intending to become a nun.[6] While still a school teacher there, she was asked to teach one of the seven children of widowed naval commander Georg Johannes von Trapp and his first wife, Agathe Whitehead von Trapp. Agathe had died from scarlet fever.
Eventually Maria began to look after the other children as well and the Captain, seeing how much she cared for the children, asked Maria to marry him. Scared, Maria fled back to Nonnberg to ask guidance from the Mother Abbess. She told Maria that it was God's will that she'd marry the Captain and since Maria was taught always to follow God's will, she returned to the family and told the Captain she would marry him. She later wrote in her autobiography that on her wedding day she was blazing mad, both at God and at her husband, because what she really wanted was to be a nun, but that she loved the children and so she thought that in a way she would marry them, too. Eventually she admitted that during their marriage she learned to love her husband more than she had ever loved anyone else.
Maria and Georg married on 26 November 1927. Their children were Rosmarie (born 1929), Eleonore (born 1931) and Johannes (born 1939).[7]
A discrepancy exists for the birth date of their oldest child Rosmarie. In 1944 Maria, under oath in her Declaration of Intention for naturalization, gave the date of the marriage as 26 November 1927 and the date of her first child's birth as 8 February 1928. This would indicate she was pregnant at the time of their marriage, and she would give birth just 2 months and 14 days after her marriage. She confirmed both the marriage and birth date in her Petition for Naturalization, signed under oath, on 26 May 1948. The Trapp family disputes the 1928 date and Maria used the year 1929 in her book. Also, in her wedding pictures Maria is very slender and doesn't look pregnant at all.
[edit] Financial problems
In 1935 Trapp found himself financially ruined. He had transferred his savings, held until then by a bank in London, to an Austrian bank run by a friend named Mrs. Lammer. Austria was at the time experiencing economic difficulties during a worldwide depression. Lammer's bank failed and the family faced a financial emergency. [1]
To survive, the Trapps sent away most of their servants, moved into the top floor of their home, and rented the empty rooms to students of the Catholic University. The Archbishop sent Father Franz Wasner to stay with them as their chaplain and they started singing.
[edit] Early musical career
Soprano Lotte Lehmann heard the family sing, and she suggested they perform at concerts. When the Austrian Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg heard them on the radio, he invited them to perform in Vienna.[8]
After performing at a festival in 1935, they became a popular touring act. They experienced life under the Nazis after the annexation of Austria by Germany in March 1938. Life became increasingly difficult as they witnessed hostility towards Jewish children by their classmates, the use of children against their parents, the advocacy of abortion by both Maria's doctor and by her son's medical school, and finally by the induction of Georg into the German Navy. They visited Munich in the summer and encountered Hitler at a restaurant. In September the family fled Austria and traveled to Italy and then to the United States. Their home was confiscated by the Nazis.[9]
Initially calling themselves the "Trapp Family Choir", the von Trapps began to perform in the United States and Canada. They performed in New York City at The Town Hall on 10 December 1938.[4][8][10][11] The New York Times wrote:
There was something unusually lovable and appealing about the modest, serious singers of this little family aggregation as they formed a close semicircle about their self-effacing director for their initial offering, the handsome Mme. von Trapp in simple black, and the youthful sisters garbed in black and white Austrian folk costumes enlivened with red ribbons. It was only natural to expect work of exceeding refinement from them, and one was not disappointed in this.[4][11]
Charles Wagner was their first booking agent, then they signed on with Frederick Christian Schang. Thinking the name "Trapp Family Choir" too churchy, Schang Americanized their repertoire and, following his suggestion, the group changed its name to the "Trapp Family Singers".[9] The family, which by then included ten children, was soon touring the world giving concert performances.[4] Alix Williamson served as the group's publicist for over two decades.
After the war, they founded the Trapp Family Austrian Relief fund, which sent food and clothing to people impoverished in Austria.
[edit] Move to the United States
In the 1940s the family moved to Stowe, Vermont, where they ran a music camp when they were not touring. In 1944, Maria and her stepdaughters Johanna, Martina, Maria, Hedwig, and Agathe applied for U.S. citizenship. Georg never applied to become a citizen. Rupert and Werner became citizens by serving during World War II. Rosmarie and Eleonore became citizens by virtue of their mother's citizenship. Johannes was born in the United States in September 1939 during a concert tour in Philadelphia.[1]
Georg von Trapp died in 1947 in Vermont from lung cancer.
The Trapp family made a series of 78 rpm discs for RCA Victor in the 1950s, some of which were later issued on RCA Camden LPs. There were also a few later recordings released on LPs, including some stereo sessions. The family also made an appearance on an Elvis Presley Christmas record. In 1957, the Trapp Family Singers disbanded and went their separate ways. Maria and three of her children became missionaries in the South Pacific.
In the mid-1960s Maria moved back to Vermont to manage the Trapp Family Lodge, which had been named Cor Unum.[12] In the 1960s, Maria began to turn over management of the Lodge to her son, Johannes von Trapp, although, at first, she was reluctant to do so.[13]
[edit] Death
Maria von Trapp died of heart failure on 28 March 1987, in Morrisville, Vermont, three days after an operation.[4] Maria, her husband Georg, Hedwig von Trapp, and Martina von Trapp are interred in the family cemetery at the Lodge.
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Understand that even though The Sound of Music is a little more sanitized than the real story, and Georg is portrayed in the film as kind of strict, in real life he was the one that incouraged the children to learn music, and Maria although contrary to the movie was a little gruff with everyone to put it mildly, she still loved the children with all her heart, and she did come to love the Baron in time. All of the Von Trapps became citizens of the United States after WWII except for the Baron, he passed away in 1947 of lung cancer.
So ... they were like the Osmonds ?
Really interesting and knowing the true version of their lives, made them seem more human, less like a fairy tale. Thanks for filling us in with this Galen.
The RCA record stuff is of particular interest to me, as my husband worked for RCA records for almost 15 years and I would like to get my hands on those 78s.
Great read Galen and thank you.
:~)
What I find interesting about Maria is that she was raised by an uncle that was a socialist, she didn't know anything about the church except what her uncle told her until she went to a Palm Sunday service by mistake thinking it was a social event of some kind and heard the sermon, after that she decided to check out the church and because of what she learned after that decided to become a Nun.
Great information and how very fascinating! Thanks so much for posting this-- I really enjoyed it!
Here is a picture of them in 1946-- Cute children!
Yep, they took a great picture, I will see if I can find an old recording of them singing and post it here as well. My computer doesn't seem to want to do that sometimes, I think it's more user error than computer though.
Mine is always screaming at me, "User Error", too... Oh well!
I found some stuff on Utube about their home in Vermont, with some of their music attached, but, I couldn't get it over to here. You might want to check it out when you get a moment.