THE REAL MARIA VON TRAPP

The real Maria Von Trapp (1905-1987) who was portayed in 1964's Sound Of Music was nothing like Julie Andrews who played her in the film. While The Sound of Music was generally based on the first section of Maria's book The Story of the Trapp Family Singers (published in 1949), there were many alterations and omissions:

*Maria came to the von Trapp family in 1926 as a tutor for one of the children, Maria, who was recovering from scarlet fever, not as governess to all the children.

*Maria and Georg married in 1927, 11 years before the family left Austria, not right before the Nazi takeover of Austria.

*Maria did not marry Georg von Trapp because she was in love with him. As she said in her autobiography Maria, she fell in love with the children at first sight, not their father. When he asked her to marry him, she was not sure if she should abandon her religious calling but was advised by the nuns to do God's will and marry Georg. "I really and truly was not in love. I liked him but didn't love him. However, I loved the children, so in a way I really married the children. . . . [B]y and by I learned to love him more than I have ever loved before or after."

*There were 10, not 7 von Trapp children.

*The names, ages, and sexes of the children were changed.

*The family was musically inclined before Maria arrived, but she did teach them to sing madrigals.

*Georg, far from being the detached, cold-blooded patriarch of the family who disapproved of music, as portrayed in the first half of The Sound of Music, was actually a gentle, warmhearted parent who enjoyed musical activities with his family. While this change in his character might have made for a better story in emphasizing Maria's healing effect on the von Trapps, it distressed his family greatly.

*The family did not secretly escape over the Alps to freedom in Switzerland, carrying their suitcases and musical instruments. As daughter Maria said in a 2003 interview printed in Opera News, "We did tell people that we were going to America to sing. And we did not climb over mountains with all our heavy suitcases and instruments. We left by train, pretending nothing."

Maria with Mary Martin, who portrayed her on Broadway

*The von Trapps traveled to Italy, not Switzerland. Georg was born in Zadar (now in Croatia), which at that time was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Zadar became part of Italy in 1920, and Georg was thus an Italian citizen, and his wife and children as well. The family had a contract with an American booking agent when they left Austria. They contacted the agent from Italy and requested fare to America.

*Instead of the fictional Max Detweiler, pushy music promoter, the von Trapps' priest, the Reverend Franz Wasner, acted as their musical director for over 20 years.

*Though she was a caring and loving person, Maria wasn't always as sweet as the fictional Maria. She tended to erupt in angry outbursts consisting of yelling, throwing things, and slamming doors. Her feelings would immediately be relieved and good humor restored, while other family members, particularly her husband, found it less easy to recover. In her 2003 interview, the younger Maria confirmed that her stepmother "had a terrible temper. . . . And from one moment to the next, you didn't know what hit her. We were not used to this. But we took it like a thunderstorm that would pass, because the next minute she could be very nice."

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FLASHBACK: MARY MARTIN & JANET GAYNOR - 1982

SAN FRANCISCO, SEPT. 6, 1982 — Mary Martin and Janet Gaynor, two of the most famous actresses of their time, were seriously hurt Sunday night in an automobile accident that killed Miss Martin's personal manager and companion. Ben Washer, a longtime friend of Miss Martin and her late husband, Richard Halliday, Paul Gregory, Miss Gaynor's husband, was also injured.

The accident occurred about 7:30 Sunday evening when a speeding van hit their taxicab broadside, knocking it into a tree at Franklin street, and California street intersection. The van's driver, Robert Cato, 36, of San Francisco, was arrested and charged with vehicular manslaughter, felony drunken driving, reckless driving, speeding and running a red light.

Miss Gaynor, 77, the most seriously injured, was reported to be in stable but critical condition at San Francisco General Hospital with the outlook ''very guarded'' after four hours of surgery.

''The outcome in her case will not be decided for many days,'' said Dr. Frank Lewis, chief of emergency services at the hospital. ''She had multiple trauma and has needed nine pints of blood and she's likely to need more. In a lady her age, the magnitude of the injuries is very critical.'' The Academy Award-winning actress had five broken ribs on the right side, six on the left, a right collarbone fracture, multiple pelvic fractures, a ruptured bladder and bleeding around the right kidney. Her breathing was being aided with a ventilator. 

Miss Martin, 68, was in stable but serious condition, according to Leslie Lingass, a hospital spokesman. The actress had fractures to two right ribs and her pelvic bone, as well as contusions to a kidney. A broken rib had punctured her right lung. 

In 1928, Miss Gaynor won the first Academy Award for best actress for her roles in the 1927 films ''Seventh Heaven'' and ''Sunrise'' and the 1928 movie ''Street Angel.'' Before retiring from the screen in 1939, she appeared in numerous other films, including the original ''A Star Is Born,'' ''State Fair,'' ''High Society Blues'' and ''Daddy Longlegs.'' 

Miss Martin, known for her role as Nellie Forbush in the 1949 musical ''South Pacific'' and as Peter Panin the won three Tony Awards for her work on Broadway and three New York Drama Critics awards. Shewon an Emmy in 1955 for the television version of ''Peter Pan.'' Her Broadway appearances included ''Leave It to Me,'' in which she sang the show-stopping ''My Heart Belongs to Daddy.'' She also starred in ''One Touch of Venus,'' ''Annie Get Your Gun'' and ''The Sound of Music.'' The actor Larry Hagman, Miss Martin's son, flew here from Los Angeles to be with his mother. Mr. Hagman plays ''J.R.'' in the ''Dallas'' television series.

The taxicab had picked up Miss Martin and her friends at her home and was headed east on California Street to go across Nob Hill and down to Grant Street and Chinatown to Kan's Restaurant, according to a spokesman for the Veterans Taxi Company. 

According to witnesses, as the taxi entered the Franklin Point intersection, a van headed north collided broadside with the taxi. Mr. Cato, the van's driver, was jailed after he and his passenger, John McCue, 30, of Oakland, were treated for minor injuries. The police said he had borrowed the van.
Ronald Drury, 46, the cab driver, was also treated and released last January, tougher drunk-driving lawswent into effect in California. The law requires that a first offender pay a fine of $375 and serve two days in jail or have his license suspended for 90 days...

MUSIC BREAK: MARY MARTIN - I'M A STRANGER HERE MYSELF

GUEST REVIEW: RHYTHM ON THE RIVER

Today would have been Bing Crosby's 115th birthday, so I wanted to take a look at a Bing film. Guest reviewer Bruce Kogan is back to take a look at the forgotten 1940 musical gem - Rhythm On The River..

Poor Basil Rathbone, an egotistical composer who's lost his muse. He's been faking it for some time, buying his lyrics and his music from various sources. Trouble is that two of the sources (Bing Crosby music) and (Mary Martin words) happen to meet and fall in love. And then they discover what they've been doing. Complications ensue, but all is righted at the end.

Crosby and Martin sing terrifically. Mary had signed a Paramount contract and also at the same time doubled as a regular on Crosby's Kraft Music Hall Radio Show. For reasons I don't understand, movie audiences didn't take to her, so she went back to Broadway and did One Touch of Venus in 1944 and stayed there.

Basil Rathbone in one of the few times he played comedy does it very well. His ego is constantly being deflated by sidekick Oscar Levant and again I'm surprised they didn't do more films together.

As in most of Crosby's Paramount vehicles, no big production numbers, but the title tune being done as an impromptu jam session in a pawn shop is cinematic gold. It shows what great rhythm Bing had. Good job by all.

Billy Wilder is co-credited for the story, and his unsentimental touch is noticeable in this quite original tale of ghostwriting songwriters who both work for burnt-out music legend Oliver Courtney. The obvious misunderstandings are gotten out of the way quite quickly, thank heaven, and what remains is a witty and breezy concoction with some fine songs (and some more forgettable ones).

Crosby at his most charming, a great turn by Broadway legend Mary Martin and Basil Rathbone and Oscar Levant providing most of the cynical barbs (Levant is in rare form and his quips haven't dated at all). Martin's singing gives hope and question to the ironic fact that she never scored in movies, given four years to try and make it at Paramount before giving up and returning to Broadway where she had greater luck. Crosby is his easy going self as usual, dropping deadpan lines like a dog with a bone after realizing that nothing else remained to gnaw on. A delightful surprise, and recommended for all fans of the genre.

A surprisingly original plot and great entertainment...

BRUCE'S RATING: 9 OUT OF 10
MY RATING: 9 OUT OF 10

BORN ON THIS DAY: MARY MARTIN

Most people remember actress Mary Martin as the queen of Broadway and rightfully so. She was one of the most talented performers Hollywood has ever known, but in my opinion some of the records she made for Decca in the 1930s and 1940s are among my favorite records. I am happy to celebrate Mary Martin's birthday today. She was born on this day in 1912.

Martin was born in Weatherford, Texas. Her life as a child, as she describes it in her autobiography My Heart Belongs, was secure and happy. She had close relationships with both her mother and father, as well as her siblings. Her autobiography details how the young actress had an instinctive ear for recreating musical sounds. Martin's father, Preston Martin, was a lawyer, and her mother, Juanita Presley, was a violin teacher. Although the doctors told Juanita that she would risk her life if she attempted to have another baby, she was determined to have a boy. Instead, she had Mary, who became quite a tomboy. Her birth was an event as all of the neighbors gathered around Juanita's bedroom window, waiting for the raising of a curtain to signal the baby’s arrival.

During high school, Martin dated Benjamin Hagman, before she was packed off to finishing school at Ward-Belmont in Nashville, Tennessee. During that time, she enjoyed imitating Fanny Brice at singing gigs, but she found school dull and felt confined by its strict rules. She was homesick for Weatherford, her family, and Hagman. During a visit, Mary and Benjamin persuaded Mary's mother to allow them to marry. They did, and by the age of 17, Martin was legally married, pregnant with her first child (Larry Hagman) and forced to leave Ward-Belmont. She was, however, happy to begin her new life. But she soon learned that this life, as she would later say, was nothing but “role playing".

Wanting to learn more moves, Martin went to California to attend the dance school at the Franchon and Marco School of the Theatre, and opened her own dance studio in Mineral Wells, Texas. She was given a ballroom studio with the premise that she would sing in the lobby every Saturday. There, she learned how to sing into a microphone and how to phrase blues songs. One day at work, she accidentally walked into the wrong room where auditions were being held. They asked her what key she’d like to sing “So Red Rose”. Having absolutely no idea what her key was, she sang regardless and got the job. She was hired to sing “So Red Rose” at the Fox Theater in San Francisco, followed by the Paramount Theater in Los Angeles. There would be one catch—she had to sing in the wings. She scored her first professional gig, unaware that she would soon be center stage.
Soon after, Martin learned that her studio had been burnt down by a man who thought dancing was a sin. She began to express her unhappiness. Her father gave her advice, saying that she was too young to be married. Martin left everything behind, including her young son, Larry, and went to Hollywood while her father handled the divorce for her.

In Hollywood, Martin plunged herself into auditions—so many that she became known as “Audition Mary”. Her first professional audition and job was on a national radio network. Among Martin's first auditions in Hollywood, Martin sang, 'Indian Love Call'". After singing the song, “a tall, craggly man who looked like a mountain” told Martin that he thought she had something special. It was Oscar Hammerstein II (pp. 58–59). This marked the start of her career.

Mary Martin struggled for nearly two years to break into show business. As a struggling young actress, Martin endured humorous and sometimes frightful luck trying to make it in the world, from car crashes leading to vocal instruction, unknowingly singing in front of Oscar Hammerstein II, to her final break on Broadway granted by the very prominent producer, Lawrence Schwab.Using her maiden name, Mary Martin began pursuing a performing career singing on radio in Dallas and in nightclubs in Los Angeles. Her performance at one club impressed a theatrical producer, and he cast her in a play in New York, but that production did not open.

She was then cast in Cole Porter's Leave It to Me!, making her Broadway debut in November 1938. In that production, she became popular on Broadway and received attention in the national media singing "My Heart Belongs to Daddy". With that one song in the second act, she became a star 'overnight'. This would leave to records, movies, and her reign as the queen of Broadway...

GUY LOMBARDO AND FRIENDS

Guy Lombardo gets a bad rap for being corny and outdated. He was getting jokes made about him back as early as the 1940s that he was cheesy. However, he was one of the best loved bandleaders of all time, and was popular until his death in 1977. Despite his fame in the music industry, Guy Lombardo rarely enjoyed the company of guest stars in the recording studio. This is doubling puzzling when you consider Jack Kapp, the head of Lombardo's label, pioneered the practice of twinning his talent pool in the 1930s. (Note: This list only covers Lombardo's commercial recordings. It does not included parings on radio, film or television)...

Weston Vaughan - Who? This deservedly forgotten singer provided the vocal on the Royal Canadian's first hit record, Charmaine. There lies one of his few claims to fame. Incredibly, Vaughan's mewly whining didn't prevent him from making records well into the 1930s. Maybe he worked cheap.

The Two Black Crows - Oh, I am so glad these sides were never issued. The Crows were George Moran and Charles Mack, two white guys who recorded a series of droll but hopelessly racist comedy routines in a heavy southern Negro drawl. In March of 1928 they were accompanied by the Royal Canadians on four rejected numbers. To quote the Crows: "Even if that was good I wouldn't like it!"

Kate Smith - Two sides recorded in 1931: River, Stay 'Way From My Door and Too Late. Kate was a pretty moral young lady - she once refused to have sex siren Mae West in the same room with her. Chances are the sweet sounds Royal Canadians made them one of the few suitable accompanists for her singing.

Al Jolson - In December of 1932 Jolson had not made a record in over two years when he walked into the studios of the American Recording Corp. to wax five sides - two of them with Lombardo: Rock-A-Bye Your Baby With a Dixie Melody and April Showers. Unfortunately, Jolson's bravura signing style was at odds with the band's bleating sax section. The result produced what critic Will Friedwald calls "the most unintentionally hilarious record of all time." Jolson would not make another record for 13 years when he was signed by Decca. We can be grateful the company did not rejoin Jolie with label mate Lombardo.

Bing Crosby - Oddly enough, Crosby and Lombardo worked together at the beginning and end of their superstar years. In 1933 Crosby was paired with Lombardo for three sides: You're Getting to Be a Habit With Me, Young and Healthy and You're Beautiful Tonight Dear. When these selections were first released on LP in 1978 producer/annotater Michael Brooks noted how the listener is "engulfed by that sax section which is like being smothered by a giant placenta." How would he know? Twenty one years later both men enjoyed one of their last chartings with a Frank Sinatra cover: Young at Heart. Save for reissues of White Christmas and Auld Lang Syne, neither man would attain the heights of pop music they had scaled in the 1930s and 1940s.

The Andrews Sisters - Patty, Maxene and La Verne helped Guy cruise to another million seller with Christmas Island, proving that the Royal Canadians weren't just for New Year's Eve. In a possible reference to Lombardo's Canuck roots, the chorus of the song goes "Aloha - eh!" The disc's flip side was Winter Wonderland - which became a seasonal standard. Prior to this 1946 hit, Guy and the sisters had first recorded a year earlier and would reunite in 1951 for Play Me a Hurtin' Tune. Lombardo did.

Hildegarde - Comedian Jimmy Durante once joked he wanted to marry this popular chanteuse - just to give her a last name. She waxed five titles with the Royal Canadians in 1945 and 1946 including such standards as June is Bustin' Out All Over and The Gypsy.

Mary Martin - The future star of South Pacific and Peter Pan cut two unremarkable sides with the band in 1947: Come to the Mardi Gras and Almost Like Being in Love.

Louis Armstrong - Despite their mutual admiration, Armstrong and Lombardo recorded just two sides: Mumbo Jumbo and Come Along Down - both penned by Carmen Lombardo. The numbers are from the 1966 Jones Beach musical Mardi Gras which featured Armstrong.

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CELEBRITY DEATHS: MARY MARTIN - 1990

Mary Martin was one of Broadway's biggest talents, and Entertainment Tonight gave a nice profile of her life when she died in 1990. They do not give entertainment obituaries like this anymore...