This year marks fifty years since the debut of one of my favorite movies The Sound Of Music in 1965. Based on the book The Story of The Trapp Family Singers by Maria Von Trapp this is an adaptation of her life story of a postulant nun who is sent to be the governess to the seven children of Captain Von Trapp in 1930s Austria. She brings music into their lives and eventually she and the Captain fall in love and get married. After the  Anschluss, because they do not agree with Nazi beliefs, and after winning first prize in a music festival, they flee across the mountains to Switzerland. It is interesting to compare the differences between the events in the book and the movie. For instance the real family was already musical long before Maria joined it and the Captain was not a martinet as he was portrayed in the movie. Maria married the Captain around a decade before they had to leave Austria and they later had two daughters and one son together who do not appear in the film. The family left Austria for Italy not Switzerland, by train not by foot. But learning these things does not take away anything from enjoying the movie. Sadly, the last surviving original von Trapp child, Maria (Louisa in the movie) died just last year. But the family’s legacy lives on in the books and movies that feature them.

One of my favorite movies is and always will be The Sound of Music. I’ve watched it many times and wondered about the real family behind the movie. Fortunately it wasn’t hard to find about them since the real Maria Von Trapp wrote quite a few books about them and it was the book The Story of The Trapp Family Singers, originally published in 1949, that the movie was based upon. The book describes their life both before and after their escape from Nazi occupied Austria and it’s very interesting to compare and contrast the book and the movie. For instance the real family didn’t escape by walking over the mountains as in the movie – they took a train into Italy. Also the family was musical before Maria ever appeared on the scene and the Captain wasn’t as strict as he was portrayed in the movie. Maria gave birth to three children and after emigrating to America their family’s singing group toured all over the world. A few years ago the eldest daughter of Captain Von Trapp and his first wife wrote a book called Memories Before And After The Sound Of Music about the childhood of her and her siblings and it’s very interesting to get her perspective about the family’s life before and after Maria arrived.