Forever Liesl: A Memoir of The Sound of Music($15.99Value)

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The magic of The Sound of Music lives on in the minds and hearts of everyone it has touched. Now, Charmian Carr, who in 1965 captivated moviegoers as Liesl "Sixteen Going on Seventeen" von Trapp, tells what it was like to be a part of the film that has become a cultural phenomenon. It's all here: from how she got the role (and why she almost didn't) to romances on the set and wild nights in Salzburg; from the near-disaster during the gazebo dance to her relationships—then and now—with her six celluloid siblings. Charmian offers stories from fans and friends and a treasury of photographs. And she reveals why she left acting, what she learned when she met the real von Trapp children; and how The Sound of Music has helped her get through stormy times in her own life. Forever Liesl celebrates the spirit of the movie and what it stands for: family love, romance, inspiration, nostalgia, and the joy and power of music. "Plenty of behind-the-gazebo tidbits."— Entertainment Weekly "Just as heartwarming as the movie."— Chicago Sun-Times Charmian Carr was 21 years old when she played Liesl von Trapp in The Sound of Music. Now an interior designer, Carr continues to promote the movie on special occasions. She lives in Encino, California. Forever Liesl A Memoir of the Sound of Music By Charmian Carr Penguin Books Copyright © 2001 Charmian Carr All right reserved. ISBN: 0140298401 Chapter One Maria     W e stood in the hotel lobby, Nicholas and Heather andDuane and Angela and Debbie and Kym and I, awkward and uncertain.The von Trapps were easy to spot. There were six in all, the sole survivingchildren of Georg and Agathe and Maria von Trapp. Dressed intraditional Austrian clothes, the women in dirndls with their gray hair inbraids, they stood out among the other guests.     "This is very intimidating," Nicholas whispered into my ear. I noddedas the von Trapps glanced at us shyly, and then turned away. Theseven of us who had portrayed them in the 1965 film The Sound of Music wanted to approach them, but this was such a momentous occasion,none of us knew how to proceed.     It was December of 1998. We were all in New York to be honored bythe State of Salzburg. The von Trapps were to be awarded the GoldenDecoration of Honor for the many ways in which their family hadhelped Austria, and we seven were to receive the Mozart Medal for ourpart in spreading the von Trapps' story worldwide.     In all the years since we made the film, I had never met our real-lifecounterparts, only their stepmother, Maria Augusta Kutschera, whomJulie Andrews portrayed in the film. In 1964, while we were filming onlocation, Maria traveled to Salzburg, met the cast, and was given a walk-onpart. As Julie Andrews sings "I Have Confidence" on her way fromNonnberg Abbey to the Trapp Villa, and passes beneath an arch indowntown Salzburg, in the shadows behind her is the real Maria vonTrapp. Getting those few seconds on film took thirty-seven takes, betweenthe master shot and the reverse angles, and when it was all doneMaria von Trapp told director Robert Wise, "Mr. Wise, I have just abandoneda lifelong ambition to work in the movies."     I never saw the real Maria again before she died in 1987. Now that themoment had finally arrived that I would meet the "children" we'd portrayed,it was daunting. It felt as if we were impostors. For more thanthree decades, the seven of us had been applauded for being von Trapps,and suddenly we were faced with the real ones.     We all retreated to our hotel rooms surprised at how awkward thatfirst moment felt, and wondering why we found it so hard to speak tothem. I realized how much I wanted these people to accept us. We hadportrayed them, but we were aware that members of the von Trapp familywere not entirely enamored of the film. Since its release in 1965, theyhad lived with the burden of being fictionalized. Important facts aboutthem had been changed or obscured. People expected them to be like thefilm characters, and were disappointed to find the von Trapps were notmirror images of the children in the film?nor did they want to be.     Unlike the story told in The Sound of Music , Maria, a young noviceat Nonnberg Abbey in Salzburg, was sent to the von Trapp home to carenot for all seven children, but for only one child. Georg von Trapp,a widowed World War I submarine captain, had contacted the abbeyseeking a tutor for his twelve-year-old daughter, whose name was alsoMaria. The Captain's wife had died of scarlet fever, and then Maria, histhird child, had been stricken by the virus. Though little Maria had survived,her heart had been weakened. She was fragile and unable to attendschool.     Maria Kutschera's arrival in the von Trapp home set in motion a seriesof events that decades later would be the basis for The Sound of Music .Some parts of the story were entirely accurate. Maria, the youngnovice, was the latest in a long line of governesses and teachers that theCaptain