1.
First, Julie Andrews was always at the top of the list for the role of Maria von Trapp. According to The Sound of Music: The Making of America’s Favorite Musical, writer Ernest Lehman said, “As far as I’m concerned, there’s only one person to play this role, and that’s Julie Andrews.” At the time, Julie had filmed only two movies, and they had not been released yet. Also, after Warner Bros. executive Jack Warner passed on her for My Fair Lady, there was also a reported rumor that she was “not photogenic” enough for Hollywood. After seeing early footage of Mary Poppins, director Robert Wise said, “Let’s go sign this girl before somebody else sees this film and grabs her!”
2.
Julie Andrews reportedly signed on to The Sound of Music (and a second picture for 20th Century Fox) for only $225,000, with no share in either film’s profits. At the time, Julie was a relatively unknown star, and her leading this movie was a gamble. After the stage version of My Fair Lady and Mary Poppins were met with critical acclaim, Julie was then being offered a reported $1 million per film.
3.
Christopher Plummer repeatedly turned down the role of Captain von Trapp because of the initial way the character was written. Since Christopher kept turning down the role, the creative team auditioned numerous other actors, including Sean Connery, Richard Burton, Bing Crosby, and Yul Brynner. The only reason Christopher signed onto the project was because director Robert Wise and writer Ernest Lehman agreed to work with him to improve the character.
4.
As for the von Trapp children, some of the young actors who reportedly auditioned for roles included Mia Farrow, Teri Garr, Patty Duke, Kurt Russell, and more.
5.
Julie Andrews’s natural hair color is brown, but for The Sound of Music, they wanted to add some blonde highlights. However, when they initially went to dye her hair, it turned out more orange, and everyone was “mortified.” Ultimately, they dyed her hair completely blonde. Daniel Truhitte, who played Rolfe, also had to have his hair bleached and dyed blonde. He said, “My hair never grew back right after that. I lost half my hair, and it thinned out a lot.”
6.
Pre-production on The Sound of Music nearly came to a halt after Christopher Plummer reportedly threatened to quit after he found out that his singing voice would be mixed with a professional singer’s voice. Christopher took singing lessons and tried to strengthen his voice enough, but ultimately, the Captain’s final singing voice is a mix of the two.
7.
One of the first scenes they filmed for The Sound of Music was when Liesl climbs into Maria’s bedroom window soaking wet after she meets Rolf. It took 15 takes to get the scene just right with all of the different angles required. In order to make it look like Charmian Carr was just caught in a torrential rainstorm, they used a sprayer they affectionately called “Mr. Rainstorm,” which doused Charmian with cold water in between takes.
8.
It rained for the majority of the film’s shoot in Salzburg and Bavaria. When they filmed “Do-Re-Mi” and “The Sound of Music,” it was pouring so much that the cast and crew often had to spend hours waiting out the rain in tents and a nearby barn. The ground was so wet that when they had to transport the camera equipment, cast, and crew up the mountain for the opening scene, the road had washed away, so instead of taking a Jeep, they had to be transported by carts pulled by oxen.
9.
To achieve the iconic moment when Maria spins on the mountain singing “The Sound of Music,” a cameraman was strapped to the side of a helicopter and flown towards Julie Andrews, who met it in the middle of the field. Due to the helicopter being so loud, choreographer Marc Breaux was hidden in a bush and used a megaphone to tell Julie when to start running and singing.
10.
The field where “The Sound of Music” was filmed was owned by a local farmer that director Robert Wise paid. When they scouted the location, the crew was reportedly “impressed by the high hay and grass,” and they asked the farmer “not to mow the hay.” However, when they got to the top of the mountain to film, he had trimmed everything. The crew also created the brook, where Maria skips stones by digging a ditch. The farmer was not pleased.
11.
The real Maria von Trapp makes a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it appearance in the movie. She can be seen walking with her daughter and granddaughter while Julie Andrews as Maria leaves the abbey and sings “I Have Confidence.” Director Robert Wise recalled filming the moment, saying, “We got her a costume and everything, but like in every film, we had to do a number of takes, and it took, I think, three hours. She didn’t know you have to do it again and again.”
12.
Julia Andrews’s stand-in, Larri Thomas, was only used for one scene in the final movie. It’s actually Larri who is hanging from a tree when the Captain drives by and sees all of the children. No doubles were used for the children because they gladly wanted to climb the trees.
13.
It took over 12 takes to film the kiss between the Captain and Maria because Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer could not stop laughing. Apparently, in order to create the shaft of moonlight that lights the scene, huge arc lights were used that emitted a groan or “raspberry” sound when used. Every time the noise happened, the duo would start giggling. Their laughter was so bad director Robert Wise ended up filming the duo mostly in the dark.
14.
They also did four takes of the moment when Maria and the children fall out of the boat and into the water. In fact, Kym Karath, who played Gretl, couldn’t swim at the time, so a crew member instructed Julie Andrews to try and “fall forward from the boat and get to her as quickly as possible.” Of course, Julie ended up falling backwards, so crew members rushed in to try and get Kym quickly.
15.
It took two months of rehearsal to get the moment in “Do-Re-Mi” when Maria and the von Trapp children ride their bicycles and sing just right. In fact, before they even traveled to Salzburg to film the iconic scene, Julie Andrews and the children would practice riding their bikes down a street on the Fox lot so they could time the riding with the music.
16.
The young actors who played the von Trapp children grew up a lot over the course of filming. For starters, Nicholas Hammond, who played Friedrich, grew a reported “six inches” during the six months of filming, and because of this, he was now taller than Charmian Carr, who played Liesl. So, they had to put Charmian on boxes so they would be around the same height. Also, Debbie Turner, who played Marta, lost her two front teeth during filming, so the props department had to make her two fake teeth.
17.
The puppets used by Maria and the von Trapp children were specially designed for the film. Bill and Cora Baird, the puppeteers, worked hand-in-hand with choreographers Marc Breaux and Dee Dee Wood to make sure the puppets could easily perform the choreography. It took a reported three weeks of rehearsal for Julie Andrews and the children to make it seem like they were operating the puppets.
18.
During the filming of “Sixteen Going On Seventeen,” Charmian Carr accidentally danced through one of the plate-glass windows in the gazebo. This was one of the final sequences they filmed for the movie, so they bandaged up her ankle, disguised it with makeup, and removed it as much as possible during post-production.
19.
While all of the music was the same as it was in the original Broadway musical, one of the biggest changes was Julie Andrews adding “an extra octave” to the very end of “Do Re Mi.” She told Diane Sawyer in 2015 that she did it “because [she] could, and so [she] did.”
20.
The city of Salzburg was reportedly “very cooperative” with where in the city the movie needed to film, except when it came time to depict the Anschluss, where Nazis marched across the Residenzplatz and took over Austria. The scene required the hanging of swastika banners from buildings and recreated a cheering crowd. The crew was originally told they couldn’t do that because “the people of Salzburg were not sympathizers.” Then, second unit director Maurice Zuberano said they would use real-life footage of Hitler marching into Austria with crowds of sympathizers instead, and they changed their minds.
21.
And finally, there were reportedly only three scenes that didn’t make it into the final version of the movie. One of the scenes that was cut came during the “Do-Re-Mi” sequences. Leisel was originally going to spot Rolf delivering telegrams and invite him over to meet Maria. However, the moment was cut because it “interrupted the flow” of the montage. There was also going to be a scene where the Captain sings “Edelweiss” while walking around the garden thinking about Maria. The scene would then show Maria looking out her window, thinking of the Captain.
Is there another The Sound of Music behind-the-scenes fact that you love that isn’t mentioned above? Tell us about it in the comments below!
And you can buy the book The Sound of Music: The Making of America’s Favorite Movie by Julia Antopol Hirsch here.