Posted on 08/28/2014 9:17:31 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Earlier this year, an event happened that did not receive wide notice. The last of the Von Trapp Family Singers, the last of the children---the real ones---died.
Her name was Maria---not to be confused with the lady played by Julie Andrews, Maria Augusta Trapp, who died in 1987. Maria Von Trapp’s death in February 2014 marks the end of an era.
The Sound of Music deserves its accolades as the Movie of the Year (1965) and one of the finest films ever made. Even my one-year-old granddaughter is mesmerized by the puppet scene.
As a film it is an icon. One time the great anti-gambling crusader, Rev. Tom Grey was asked on 60 Minutes to respond to those who say gambling is just entertainment. Noting the tragic toll the “entertainment” of gambling often takes on its victims, Grey asked, “Who watches The Sound of Music and then shoots himself in the parking lot?”
What's fascinating about the real Von Trapp Family is just how Christian the true story is.
The religious elements come out to some degree in the movie. Yet when the movie was marketed for Brazil, instead of the title we know the movie by, they decided to call it (in Portuguese) "The Rebellious Nun." But Maria didn't really rebel per se. She just discovered that God's call on her life was to serve God as a wife and mother, not in a cloister.
In her 1949 book, The Story of the Trapp Family Singers, Maria Augusta Trapp said of her marriage to the Captain, Georg Von Trapp, "I greeted it with a heart full of happiness and readiness to serve God where He needed me most---wholeheartedly and cheerfully."
Although her role expanded later, Maria the nun was initially assigned just to tutor Maria, the daughter of Captain Von Trapp. Ironically, Maria the little girl was “of delicate health.” She is the one who died earlier this year, after living to be 99, outlasting them all.
Maria didn't mind the assignment to help the children (even though there had been 25 tutors and governesses before her) because she viewed it as temporary: "After all---I don't belong here; I am just loaned." But soon she came to be appreciated by the whole family, including the Captain.
Maria was shocked when she asked Maria Von Trapp, "Don't you have an Advent wreath every year?" The child replied, "No, we never did. What is it?" So the nun on loan to help the children not only brought music to the von Trapp family, but a Christ-centered Christmas as well.
The Captain later confessed, "I always feared Christmas more than any other day. But this year you have made it very beautiful for us. Thank you."
Maria whispered a prayer of gratitude to Jesus, "I thank You so much for sending me there. Please help me to draw them all closer to You."
Her prayer was answered. The Captain said to Maria, “I wish my children would get thoroughly acquainted with Holy Scriptures…Let’s start them with the New Testament, and let’s read it together every evening until Easter.”
Maria said of their Bible-reading: “It proved to be the Book of Books, the only one in the whole world to which a four-year old girl would listen with enraptured interest while all the philosophers are not yet able to get to the bottom of its divine wisdom.”
Maria and the Captain got married in 1927; and the Von Trapps began performing musically as a family after a priest friend, Father Wasner, discovered what talent they had. They became a smash hit.
Meanwhile, after the Nazis took over their native land in 1938, the children told their parents: “In school we are not permitted to sing any religious songs with the name of Christ or Christmas.”
This was just the tip of the iceberg. So they had a family conference, where Captain Von Trapp said: “Children, we have the choice now.” Either keep “the material goods we still have” or “our faith and our honor. We can’t have both any more….I’d rather see us poor, but honest. If we choose this, then we have to leave. Do you agree?” They agreed and got away in time.
On a sad note, they later learned that their mansion they had fled back in Salzburg had been seized by the Nazis, who turned their chapel into a beer parlor. Heinrich Himmler himself lived there and Father Wasner’s room was turned into a guest bedroom for Hitler. One day Hitler had all the servants shot on the spot because one of them had hummed a Russian folksong.
The family came to America to tour as a music group. But initially it did not go well in this country. Their act was too oriented toward sacred classical music. They were almost reduced to getting menial jobs unrelated to music just to stay in America. Their first manager lost money on them and said, “You will never be a hit in America. Go back to Europe.”
Said Maria: “Back to Europe, with the Swastika stretching its black spider legs all over the map.”
But they got another chance from a new manager who said, “…we shall start by changing your name. Trapp Family Choir sounds too churchy. I am the manager of the Trapp Family Singers.”
Eventually, they settled down in Vermont and created the Von Trapp Family Lodge, which still operates today. So we salute the end of an era, which proved the wisdom of the statement made in the movie: “When the Lord closes a door, somewhere He opens a window.” Or as the elder Maria says in her book, “God’s will hath no why.”
The original book that the movie is based on is worth reading and has a lot that did not make it into the movie.
Captain Georg von Trapp was born in what is now Zadar, Croatia, when it belonged to Austria. After 1918 Austria no longer had a sea coast which reduced their need for a navy.
A Hungarian battleship, the Szent Izvan, was sunk by Italian torpedo boats in 1918.
Hungarian Admiral Miklos Horthy went on to become ruler of an independent Hungary until 1944.
Remember jokes about the “Swiss Navy”? Well, truth is always stranger than fiction.
Anyway, the memory of the Von Trapp family will live on.
“Now society has gone full circle; “In 1938, the children said, we can’t sing any songs in school that have ‘Christ’ in them”. Sound familiar?”
Yes, very interesting.
My friends spent Christmas at the Von Trapp Lodge about 25 years ago...said it was wonderful...especially the sleigh rides at night in snow. Once in a life time for Texans from the Gulf Coast.
A few years ago, Mark Steyn in one of his yearly Christmas podcasts (could still be on his website) interviewed Maria and they discussed the family history.
It was very fun to listen to.
She and the Captain should have used it against the Nazi’s chasing them :)
VIDEO: JULIE ANDREWS INTERVIEWS THE REAL MARIA VON TRAPP...
CLICK HERE:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Juaz5UI6gs
This one is Hammerstein.
My true favorite of theirs (I think I’m really a Hammerstein fan although many find Hart a bit more sophisticated) is Oklahoma! The movie is good, but it’s not the Sound of Music. Although I must say Shirley Jones is quite perfect as Laurie, I doubt she was ever better in anything and I doubt I’ll ever see anyone who can hold a candle to her in that part.
The Austrians beat the Italians in a naval battle in 1866 off the island of Vis (then called Lissa), during the Seven Weeks War. Despite that they had to cede territory to Italy in the peace treaty because Italy was an ally of Prussia which defeated Austria. Austria’s defeat in this war led to the transformation of the state into the “Dual Monarchy” to placate the Hungarians in 1867.
I was 15 when I seen the the movie.
I wished I could get the original German Movie but unfortunatly it is not available anymore :(
There also was a second movie that played in 1958 in the German theaters which I also saw
"Die Trapp Familie in Amerika
The Julie Andrews version did not include the second version.
“10” with Andrews and Dudley Moore is a classic, but not in the style of Poppins or TSOM.
They had written them backwards. It was Maria who was the mean, controlling parent (she locked away one of the daughters so she couldn’t meet a boyfriend). Georg was kind and fun-loving.
A-HA! Thank you for the explanation.
My sainted mother had high tea with Maria, the daughter. We all stayed at the Von Trapp Lodge. I met the son that was still alive then.
It’s ok. It was a little cultural phenom. I remember.
Made Ravel’s Bolero faddish.
Wasn’t Really a Jule Andrews film though.
Zara, Georg von Trapp’s birthplace became Italian after WWI and was absorbed by Yugoslavia after WWII.
Von Trapp was a submariner. During WWI his U-boat sank a French cruiser and an Italian submarine.
TSOM was the third film she was in. The 2nd was ‘The Americanization of Emily’
I didn’t know that until this conversation. Thanks.
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