8. Wait, The Sound Of Music Was A True Story?
20th Century FoxAs seen on television screens up and down the country when it's Christmas and everybody's too stuffed with turkey to get up and change the channel, the 1965 film version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Broadway stage musical tells the story of the insufferably perfect Von Trapp family in Austria, who are joined by Julie Andrews' all-singing all-dancing nun to replace the mother they lost years ago. Oh also the Nazis turn up at some point, we think? Not sure if that's before or after they sing "So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, good night." Anyway, it all works out in the end and Andrews is free to go spin around in the alps until she falls down dizzy.
What really happened: Yes, believe it or no, the Von Trapps were an actual family, and they actually did spend that much time singing. Or so goes The Story of the Trapp Family Singers, a 1948 memoir Maria Augusta von Trapp, the musical nun played by Andrews in the film. The real tale is a little less dramatic, a little less prone to big show-stopping tunes, and with a much softer patriarch at the heart of it. The big conflict of the film - we mean, besides World War II - is between Andrews and Christopher Plummer's Austrian widower. Captain Georg von Trapp is shown to be a pretty harsh taskmaster, raising his even kids according to strict naval discipline, only to be turned around by the charming Maria. Actually it was Maria who was the stern one, with Georg trying to get her to chill out. One of the Von Trapp children remembers her as being moody and prone to outbursts of manic rage, which would be considerably less Andrews-like. Also they got married back in the twenties, way before the Third Reich started sweeping across the musical hills of Austria. Georg was actually kinda embarassed about singing, too, but that's only because the family had to start doing it because he lost all his money in a bad business deal. Perhaps worst of all is the fact that Maria and Georg didn't have a storybook romance. In fact, when they married Maria admitting to not loving him at all, wanting more to provide a proper mother figure to the kids that she was so frequently yelling at. So if you want to cause a ruckus next December 25th, why not totally spoil the Sound of Music for your loved ones?