A reader has pointed out the many inaccuracies in the 'Sound of Music'. "Regarding your Von Trapp Family and 'Sound of Music' pages, I recently did a bit of research about the von Trapp family, and found some interesting differences between the real family and the family as depicted in the film. (1) The father was not the martinet depicted in the play/movie but actually did a lot with his kids, including singing. This was one of the family's pet peeves with the play/movie "The Sound of Music." (2) Although the children were approximately the ages depicted in "The Sound of Music" when the Captain and Maria Kutschera married (Nov 26, 1927), they were almost 11 years older when the family fled Austria (June 1938). And by the time of the flight, Captain von Trapp and Maria had had two more children together, so there were nine "children" who fled, not seven, with "children" in quotes because the oldest, Rupert, was 28 at the time, and the others correspondingly older. (3) In real life the oldest child was a boy and the second oldest a girl; "The Sound of Music" -- presumably for dramatic reasons -- reversed that: the oldest is a girl, the second oldest a boy. I'm not sure what would have happened to the song "Sixteen Going on Seventeen" if the 16 year old had been a boy or if the sixteen year old girl had had a 17 or 18 year old big brother. (4) When they fled, the went on tour and never came back. Crossing the border suitcases in hand was better drama, but not the way it actually happened. I have prepared a table summarized the ages in the film and those portrayed in the film."

Created: 8:13 PM 11/29/2013
Last updated: 8:13 PM 11/29/2013