"THE SOUND OF MUSIC" (or the lack thereof). Pt. 2

 
And then, as I previously inferred, there was Maria Augusta Kutschera von Trapp. Christopher Plummer and Maria von Trapp had met on the set in Salzburg and would become quite fond of one another. 

It seems the real Maria, (as portrayed by Julie Andrews) was, during her middle years, somewhat ‘a contradiction in terms,’ since the overweight heroine of Third Reich Austria was a marathoner, and swimmer.

The gregarious widow was the polar opposite of the man who portrayed her late husband in the classic movie. She was as pleasingly personable, as Mr. Plummer (apparently) was not; (unless, as Charmian’s volume implies, it was convenient for him to be).

Christopher Plummer reminisced that, 

“She was naughty and funny and just a delightful person. She had this laugh like a German Hausfrau. ‘Ho, ho, ho,’ she chortled. ‘Ach, Christopher, you’re so much more handsome than my real husband. Ho, ho, ho.’ God love her. She was fun.”

Mr. Plummer recounts another incident from that time period, and which betrays Maria’s vivacious nature.

“She was quite famous as a long-distance swimmer, and it just so happened when I was in Nassau, Maria was also there,…swimming the Nassau Channel. It was marvelous. Here was this wonderful rotund woman with all these little boats following her, and throwing her bananas to eat during the crossing. 

We arranged to meet later at the hotel. Maria had this wild humor and absolutely no pretensions of grandeur at all. She arrived with the governor general of Nassau, and everyone was being very stuffy and prim, and Maria saw me across the room, and shrieked, ‘My husband! My husband!’ and came running over to me, giving me this huge bear hug embrace. I absolutely adored her.”

Afterward:

Two persons with two absolutely contradictory natures.

An individual who only portrayed the real life hero of “The Sound of Music.”

The flesh and blood luminary who experienced the rigors of Nazi-occupied Austria, and who, along with her husband and children, managed to make their departure from that place.

The genuine and the counterfeit

I think the counterfeit might have done well to learn something from the genuine.

By William McDonald, PhD. Excerpt from "(Mc)Donald's Daily Diary" Vol. 50. Copyright pending

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