The musical movie based on the Von Trapp family, The Sound of Music, is based around Baroness Maria Augusta von Trapp, she was a stepmother and matriarch of the Trapp Family Singers. The story tells of her story and that of her family’s escape from the Nazis after the Anschluss.
Her book, which was called The Story of the Trapp Family Singers, it was a best seller when it was published in 1949. It was also made into some very successful German/ Austrian movies, titled, The Trapp Family made in 1956, and The Trapp Family in America made in 1958.
The book was then later adapted to The Sound of Music, which was also very successful as a Broadway Musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein. This then launched onto the immensely popular U.S. motion picture.
Maria Von Trapp also makes a cameo appearance in the film during the musical number “I have Confidence.”
The movie starred Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer, and contains many popular songs such as “Edelweiss”, “My Favourite Things”, “Do-Re-Mi”, as well as the title song. IT was filmed on location in Salzburg, Austria, and also in Bavaria in Southern Germany, while also at the 20th Century Fox Studios in California.
It went onto win five Academy Awards including Best Picture in 1965, and is one of the most popular musicals ever produced.
The United States Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the National Film Registry, deeming it culturally, historically or aesthetically significant. Adjusted for inflation at 2009 prices it made $1.022 billion domestically, making it third on the list of all time inflation adjusted box office hits.
