In the spring of 1962, I had just finished a long run on Broadway as Queen Guenevere in Camelot and CBS decided to take a gamble and produce an evening of music and comedy at Carnegie Hall featuring my good chum, Carol Burnett and myself. One of the sketches in our show was called “The Swiss Family Pratt”— about an impossibly large family of Tyrolean folk singers. It was a spoof, of course, on The Sound of Music. The musical had opened in 1959 and was still running on Broadway, to great success. But it had a reputation for being somewhat saccharine, so it was ripe for being spoofed. And, oh, we had fun! We thought we were being so clever—but, of course, I had no idea at the time that one day I would be in the film production of The Sound of Music! That CBS television show has come back to haunt me many times since.
When I was first asked if I would consider the role of Maria von Trapp, I was thrilled. But just for a moment I questioned, after having played one nanny in Mary Poppins, whether playing another nanny would be a good idea. Yet it was such a delicious role. And the score, written by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, who had created Cinderella on television for me, had such beautiful music. I happily accepted—and thus began an adventure, an education and an experience for me that I will always hold dear to my heart.
Mary Rodgers, Richard Rodgers’ daughter, once said to me that The Sound of Music was one of her father’s shows that turned out to be better on the screen than it was on the stage. Sometimes when musicals from Broadway are adapted to film, they become slightly “glossy” or manufactured. In the case of The Sound of Music, it did indeed transcend the original production. However, I don’t think any of us who were involved in the film could have anticipated its phenomenal success.
I’m often asked why this film has remained so astonishingly popular after all these years. I’m not sure there is any one answer. Ultimately, I think the audience comes away with a sense of joy. First and last, it is about family...and there is the glorious scenery. It was a huge undertaking to move cast and crew to various locations in Salzburg, where the real von Trapp story began. There’s no doubt that it gave an indescribable look to the film. Oddly, no one mentioned at the time that Salzburg has Europe’s seventh highest annual rainfall! It certainly rained a lot that summer and many of those beautiful outdoor scenes were shot during a light drizzle, or we sat and waited endless hours under tarpaulins for the sun to come out. The weather delayed our schedule by roughly three weeks, but as Robert Wise, our director, said, those huge cumulus clouds captured on film gave a subliminal sense of strength and wonder.
One essential aspect of the film’s success was that everyone involved was at the peak of their craft—from screenwriter Ernest Lehman to cinematographer Ted McCord, our associate producer Saul Chaplin (who did so much to preserve the quality of music and sound), to costumer Dorothy Jeakins, designer Boris Leven, choreographers Mark and Dee Dee Breaux, and the thrilling orchestrations by Irwin Kostal. Robert Wise’s firm yet gentle direction gave us a vision that was unfailing and true. What a lovely legacy we have of the subtle craft that is Hollywood at its best.
I haven’t even mentioned the delight of working with Christopher Plummer and those SEVEN children! Yes, I adored them all and we remain friends to this day. Christopher brought such strength to the film—and an astringent quality that helped so much to dissipate that potential saccharine I mentioned earlier. He and I remain great friends and, in fact, have worked twice more together over the years.
Surely the film’s success has a lot to do with the glorious music and words of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein. Anyone singing those beautiful songs can’t help but soar and be transported.
The Sound of Music is about youth and children and singing and music and mountains and the real joy that all of us felt while making it.
How lucky can a girl get to have been a part of it all.
Julie Andrews
June, 2014