Shaykitteh's World of Books

With THE SOUND OF MUSIC celebrating it's 50th Anniversary, this is a great time to revisit the story of the Von Trapps that started it all, the musical, and - of course - the movie. Growing up, I loved THE SOUND OF MUSIC, singing along to the movie and even using a few of the songs as audition pieces for community theater. The spread of this movie is so great that even my husband - who essentially loathes musicals - was able to fondly ask, "That's the one with the nuns who steal the carburetors, isn't it?"

So it was with joy that I picked up Tom Santopietro's THE SOUND OF MUSIC STORY. Starting with the story of the Von Trapps, the author takes us through the history of the family and their journey to the United States, the writing of the musical, the uncertainty of a movie that almost never happened (due to financial difficulty with 20th Century Fox) and through the casting and filming. The first 2/3 of the book goes takes us through the Premiere, while the last 1/3 of the book continues the story after the movie, taking us through where the actors, actresses, and other industry staff are now and what they did after the movie, and ends with the return of the Von Trapps in Austria to celebrate the stage production opening in Salzburg.

While this book is interesting, especially the lead up to the actual filming of the movie with the industry politics and casting decisions, this novel lacks a personal touch. I was really hoping for some personal stories of the cast and crew during the filming process, but other than knowing the Julie Andrews was always pleasant and Christopher Plummer was an egotistical jerk, the only personal information we really learned about the cast during the filming process was that Kym Karath (Gretl) gained so much weight during the filming that more than one person complained about how heavy she was. We didn't have any endearing moments or funny tales... everything was just another footnote in the history of the movie. Lacking anything to really connect the reader to the story, there are times when the book comes across as just a really long Wikipedia article or film history class. There are a few times that the book goes off on a tangent as well, most notably when discussing the hiarachy of Hollywood in the section that was supposed to be talking about what Julie Andrews does next. Instead of just learning about the further career and life of Julie Andrews, we're granted a discussion of Doris Day and Sidney Poitier and THEIR careers. It just didn't fit.

While I was happy to read some new information and get a further history of the Von Trapps themselves, this book just doesn't come across as fresh or entertaining. For diehard fans of the movie, most of the information in here will probably be a repeat, just repackaged into a cohesive form. I recommend this more for people who are less interested in THE SOUND OF MUSIC itself, and more interested in the history and inner workings of the movie industry.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

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