Five Questions I Had Watching...The Sound of Music
In the spirit of the Oscars, and since I've turned my blog into Oscar history central this month, I'm rewatching this classic Best Picture winner and coming up with a few questions I had.
via dailyflicks
Here are Five Questions I Had Watching...The Sound of Music!
1. What happened to all the children after The Sound of Music?
So here's what happened to each actor after The Sound of Music:
Charmian Carr as Liesl von Trapp
Charmian's first and only movie was The Sound of Music, and she'd never tried out for anything prior to this film. Gotta say, she had great choosing power. She was a college student when her mother called her up and told her that she'd arranged the audition, which Charmian went to and was later chosen for. She changed her last name from Farnon for the movie, and after The Sound of Music appeared in a television pilot and a television musical, but stopped acting.
She got married in 1967 and left Hollywood behind, had two daughters, started her own interior design company, and wrote books about her experience filming The Sound of Music, which she treasured.
Nicholas Hammond as Friedrich von Trapp
Nicholas Hammond had only appeared in one film prior to The Sound of Music (The Lord of the Flies) and then didn't make another movie until 1971. He appeared on classic television shows of the era, and reunited with his 'younger sister' Heather Menzies for an episode of Logan's Run. Most recently, he appeared in Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood.
He married and divorced and lived in Australia for a spell, and frequently reunites with his 'siblings' for special presentations.
Heather Menzies as Lousia von Trapp
Like her fellow actors, Heather Menzies had very little screen experience when she was cast in The Sound of Music, and her only prior credit was on the television show The Farmer's Daughter, based on the Loretta Young film.
She appeared in many movies and television shows in the aftermath of The Sound of Music, most famously on Logan's Run in the '70s (playing Jessica 6). She appeared in Playboy and continued acting in made-for-television movies, but her last screen credit came in 1990.
She was twice married and adopted three children with her second husband, Robert Ulrich. After his death from cancer, she started a foundation in his name and spent the final years of her life devoted to cancer research.
Duane Chase as Kurt von Trapp
Duane Chase only made one movie and appeared on one television show after The Sound of Music, and instead joined the United States Forest Service after graduating high school. He has a master's degree in geology and worked for Chevron once upon a time, and also has experience as a software engineer.
Like his 'siblings' he also joins in on reunions and special presentations of the film.
Angela Cartwright as Brigitta von Trapp
Angela Cartwright appears to have had the greatest screen success out of all the 'siblings' having followed up her role in The Sound of Music with a series regular role on Lost in Space. She also had prior acting work on The Danny Thomas Show and continued acting throughout the late '50s and early '60s.
Though she turned to photography as her main career, she still acts sporadically and has appeared, in cameo performances, in various Lost in Space remakes. She has two children.
Debbie Turner as Marta von Trapp
There's not a lot about Debbie Turner to be found, considering aside from commercials, her role as Marta is the only film credit to her name. After making this movie, she returned home and went back to school, and later opened a floral business.
Perhaps the coolest fact about her is that she sold face masks with the famous curtain fabric from the 'My Favourite Things' part of the movie. I wish I could get one!
Kym Karath as Gretl von Trapp
The youngest von Trapp had more screen credits than her older 'siblings' by the time they made The Sound of Music and had starred opposite the likes of Henry Fonda, Doris Day, James Garner, and Jack Lemmon.
The Sound of Music was her final film, but she appeared on television shows for the next 15 years and did modelling in Paris, earned a degree from the University of Southern California, and had a son in 1991.
Sadly, both Charmian Carr and Heather Menzies have since passed away. Charmian passed away on September 17, 2016; Heather Menzies passed away on December 24, 2017.
2. Where was The Sound of Music filmed?
On location in Salzburg, Austria! It's been on my bucket list since I was a kid. One of my friends went on the tour, and to say we were bummed to learn that you can't go inside Liesl's gazebo anymore is a massive understatement.
Anyways, some of the filming locations you can visit today include Mirabell Palace & Mirabell Garden, featured in the 'Do Re Mi' scene; Nonnberg Abbey, where the real Maria von Trapp was a candidate for the novitiate; and Frohnburg Palace and Schloss Leopoldskron, the exteriors of which doubled as the von Trapp house (the gazebo is located on the grounds of Hellbrunn Palace).
3. What came next for Eleanor Parker?
via periodedits
Eleanor Parker had an illustrious movie career in the '40s and '50s, working for Warner Brothers, Paramount and MGM in turn, and by 1965, she'd garnered three Oscar nominations for her work (all in the lead actress category, for Caged, Detective Story and Interrupted Melody).
Perhaps best known to modern audiences as Baroness Elsa Schraeder, after The Sound of Music, she transitioned more to television roles after the movie and appeared on shows like Hawaii Five-O, Murder, She Wrote and Love Boat.
Eleanor acted steadily until 1991, when she made her last television appearance (Dead on the Money, a TV movie). She married for the fourth and final time in 1966, to Raymond Hirsch. They were married until his death from cancer complications in 2001; and when she died, she was buried with him.
Eleanor Parker died, at the age of 91, on December 9, 2013.
4. Who designed Maria's wedding dress?
That would be costume designer Dorothy Jeakins, who threw her whole being into designing the costumes for this movie. She'd say in interviews that this was her favourite movie to work on, and that director Robert Wise pretty much gave her carte blanche to design as she saw fit. You can tell from the authenticity and careworn nature of the clothes that Maria and the kids wear, and from the glamour of the Baroness and Captain von Trapp's costumes.
But that wedding dress! I love the scene of Maria walking down the aisle; it's such a dramatic and ethereal gown.
Maria's wedding dress was sold at auction in 2013, fetching $23,040. Its product description read: "An ivory slubbed silk wedding gown worn by Julie Andrews, as Maria, in The Sound of Music (20th Century, 1965) as she marries Captain Von Trapp, played by Christopher Plummer. The gown has a stand-away collar, piping trim to the neckline and waistline, slender long sleeves, a raised waistline to the front that graduates to a gathered train to the back, decorative fabric-covered buttons with loop closures running down the center back of the gown, silk organza lining to the bodice, and a graduated hemline. A 20th Century Fox label with no inscriptions is present. The gown has had post-production alterations. Costume design by Dorothy Jeakins."
It's surprising to me that Dorothy Jeakins didn't win an Oscar for this costume design, but I looked it up and I can't argue with Phyllis Dalton's win (she designed the costumes for Doctor Zhivago). Dorothy did, however, win three Oscars: for The Night of the Iguana, Samson and Delilah and Joan of Arc.
5. Did Christopher Plummer and Julie Andrews get along?
via classicfilmblr
In a joint interview with Vanity Fair decades later, Christopher said about The Sound of Music: "As cynical as I always was about The Sound of Music, I do respect that it is a bit of relief from all the gunfire and car chases you see these days. It’s sort of wonderfully, old-fashionedly universal. It’s got the bad guys and the Alps; it’s got Julie and sentiment in bucketloads."
Julie replied: “He was such a hugely great actor that when he was cast in Sound of Music all I could think was, How will I ever live up to that? But we had a very good time. We never had a cross word, nothing.”
They even joked about the chemistry between them, and how they could've had an affair on set. Plummer would say it was out of the question because her kid was with her, while Julie said that although she did have a crush on him, they never acted on it.
When Christopher Plummer died last year, Julie released a statement: "The world has lost a consummate actor today and I have lost a cherished friend. I treasure the memories of our work together and all the humor and fun we shared through the years. My heart and condolences go out to his lovely wife Elaine, and his daughter Amanda."
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