953 nut 59,890 #1 Posted November 16, 2016 11-16-1959 The Sound of Music premieres on Broadway Did the young Austrian nun named Maria really take to the hills surrounding Salzburg to sing spontaneously of her love of music? Did she comfort herself with thoughts of copper kettles, and did she swoon to her future husband’s song about an alpine flower while the creeping menace of Nazism spread across central Europe? No, the real-life Maria von Trapp did none of those things. She was indeed a former nun, and she did indeed marry Count Georg von Trapp and become stepmother to his large brood of children, but nearly all of the particulars she related in her 1949 book, The Story of the Trapp Family Singers, were ignored by the creators of the Broadway musical her memoir inspired. And while the liberties taken by the show’s writers, Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse, and by its composer and lyricist, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, caused some consternation to the real Maria von Trapp and to her stepchildren, according to many later reports, those liberties made The Sound of Music a smash success from the very night of its Broadway opening on this day in 1959. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SylvanLakeWH 28,377 #2 Posted November 16, 2016 My Mother's favorite movie...Thanks for the memories! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
KC9KAS 4,744 #3 Posted November 16, 2016 I bet I have watched the Sound of Music 10 times! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
