Maria von Trapp's Granddaughter Says 'The Sound of Music' Was 'Spot On': 'She Was Amazing'

Sound of Music (TODAY)

Sixty years after “The Sound of Music” came out, the hills of Salzburg, Austria are still alive with the sound of music.

The movie musical, based on a true story, follows what happens when a charming nun named Maria (Julie Andrews) joins the home of the stern Baron Georg Von Trapp (played by Christopher Plummer), a navy captain, and his seven children as a governess. They form a singing troupe and leave Austria on the eve of WWII.

A commercial and critical hit, "The Sound of Music" won five Oscars, including best picture, and draws an estimated 300,000 tourists to Salzburg annually, the area in Austria where the von Trapps lived and where the movie was filmed.

To commemorate the milestone anniversary, NBC correspondent Molly Hunter spoke to Elisabeth von Trapp, one of Maria and Georg von Trapp's many grandchildren, at the villa where her ancestors first met.

“I can’t believe that I’m able to greet you here. It’s like I’m able to speak on behalf of my parents,” Elisabeth von Trapp said. Her father, Werner von Trapp, is depicted as Kurt in the film, the second son of the family.

"The Sound Of Music": Charmian Carr, Nicholas Hammond, Heather Menzies, Duane Chase, Angela Cartwright, Debbie Turner, Kym Karath, Christopher Plummer (Shutterstock)

The real von Trapp family fled Austria in 1938 — and not by crossing the Alps with their suitcases, as they do in the film. Instead, they took a train to Italy the day before the borders closed in Austria and ended up in the United States.

Elisabeth von Trapp was born in Vermont. She had visited her grandfather's villa before, which is not the same house as the one used for the movie.

“When I came in 19, I think it was 1997, I had the most beautiful chance to visit with him here. He points up. He goes. That was my room where the shutters are,” Elisabeth von Trapp said.

The real Maria von Trapp died in 1987, but Elisabeth von Trapp remembers her well. “She was amazing,” she said. “Her enthusiasm, her imagination, her storytelling was amazing.”

She told Hunter that the film’s depiction of Maria von Trapp was accurate — especially her relationship with the von Trapp children. She and Georg von Trapp went on to have three children together of their own.

“I think that was spot on,” Elisabeth von Trapp said.

Elisabeth von Trapp said her grandmother was “so supportive” of her career as a singer. “She came to my concert and just stood in line like everybody else,” she said.

Her musically inclined grandmother once got her the perfect present. “One time she said, ‘So, what would you like for Christmas?’ I said, ‘You know what? I really need a new guitar case.’ And under the tree was a new guitar case that she got me,” she said.

Julie Andrews as Maria von Trapp in "The Sound of Music." (20th Century Fox / Alamy)

She remembered the first time she saw “The Sound of Music” musical with her family after first seeing the Broadway production. They drove an hour to a theater in Burlington, Vermont, she said, and as they walked down to their seats, audience members said, “There go the von Trapps, there go the von Trapps.”

“My mother, her eyes filled with tears,” Elisabeth von Trapp said. “My father’s just like, ‘I can’t believe I’m looking at Salzburg. My parents were just overwhelmed seeing Salzburg.”

In a meta moment, Elisabeth von Trapp once participated in a theater production of “The Sound of Music” in Vermont.

“I did it for two seasons. Learning the script, the blocking, everything,” she told Hunter. “I did it in honoring (my grandmother). She had just passed away, so I thought I would do it as a memorial for her. And the second time, I’ll do it for myself.”

Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer are flanked on all sides by their characters' children in "The Sound of Music." (Bettmann Archive)

Performing in the musical, she realized the story speaks to the human experience, beyond her own family’s story: “Finding love, being disappointed, making a big choice to go in one direction or the other.”

For the anniversary, Hunter also spoke to a few of the tourists in Salzburg who came to live out their “Sound of Music” dreams.

“It’s really exciting, actually, because I’ve seen it so many times, and to be actually here, it’s fantastic,” one visitor from Australia told Hunter.

“It makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck just to feel that feeling that they would have felt being here,” another said.