Even though it premiered in theaters 50 years ago, the much
beloved Rodgers and Hammerstein musical still has its own surprises to offer to
both old and new fans?
By: Ringo Bones
Recent revelations about the much beloved 1959 Rodgers and
Hammerstein musical turned cinema blockbuster – i.e. The Sound of Music – says that
this 50 year old cinema classic isn’t just for your grandmother anymore. But
what factoids – both esoteric and revelational - could it offer to both old
time fans and the uninitiated?
Just like The Golden Age of Stereo still fascinates young
ones who’ve just discovered their soldering skills to cobble up single ended
triode and pentode vacuum tube amplifiers that represent 1950s era high
resolution sound that contemporary solid-state audio amplifiers from big
consumer electronic firms still have trouble matching in sound quality terms,
it seems like The Sound of Music – especially the movie version that stars
Julie Andrews – still offers a unique zeitgeist of how the world view countries
who pledge their loyalties to the Third Reich 20 years after their defeat and
surrender.
Even though it was later dubbed “The Sound of Money” weeks
after its runaway blockbuster success after the initial March 2, 1965 opening
in the United States, it seems like the producer and director Robert Wise has
been blinded by the glory of the Marshall Plan as its lifesaving economic aid sweeps
across Europe that were formerly controlled and then ravaged by the Third
Reich. Take the song Edelweiss for instance, which is a cornerstone of the
movie’s soundtrack and to be sung by Captain von Trapp. In truth, Edelweiss was
a Rodger’s and Hammerstein construct and it is not an actual folksong in
Salzburg, Austria signifying loyalty to the Austrian nation. Thus Robert Wise’s
headache when he found out that no native Salzburg resident knew how to sing
the song in either English of German.
And let’s not forget the iconic boat scene where Julie
Andrews is singing with the von Trapp kids. It seems to be the most idyll scene
of the movie but almost ended in tragedy when the boat tipped over and one of
the von Trapp kids almost drowned. And given the 50th Anniversary of
The Sound of Music is a year long celebration in 2015, who knows what other
revelatory factoids will emerge about this iconic cinema classic.
