One of my favorite movies is and always will be The Sound of Music. I’ve watched it many times and wondered about the real family behind the movie. Fortunately it wasn’t hard to find about them since the real Maria Von Trapp wrote quite a few books about them and it was the book The Story of The Trapp Family Singers, originally published in 1949, that the movie was based upon. The book describes their life both before and after their escape from Nazi occupied Austria and it’s very interesting to compare and contrast the book and the movie. For instance the real family didn’t escape by walking over the mountains as in the movie – they took a train into Italy. Also the family was musical before Maria ever appeared on the scene and the Captain wasn’t as strict as he was portrayed in the movie. Maria gave birth to three children and after emigrating to America their family’s singing group toured all over the world. A few years ago the eldest daughter of Captain Von Trapp and his first wife wrote a book called Memories Before And After The Sound Of Music about the childhood of her and her siblings and it’s very interesting to get her perspective about the family’s life before and after Maria arrived.
Tag Archives: pamela’s picks
Pamela’s Picks: Cheaper By The Dozen by Frank Gilbreth Junior and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey
Long before the Duggar family of 19 Kids And Counting television fame the most well known large family was the Gilbreths of the Cheaper By The Dozen books. I first read Cheaper By The Dozen and its sequel Belles On Their Toes (the story of the family after the father died) as a child and loved them enough to read them many times. The books, written by two of the children, Frank and Ernestine Gilbreth, tell the story of the Gilbreth family of twelve children who grew up in the 1920s. Their father, Frank Gilbreth, was a well know efficiency expert and ran his family on the same efficiency principles as he did his business. Whether it was having tonsils out en masse, learning to touch type or playing educational games so as to skip grades at school the results were often very humorous. If you get a chance watch the 1950 film of the same name with Clifton Webb and Myrna Loy which is true to the books in a way that the versions with Steve Martin are definitely not
Pamela’s Picks: Cleopatra’s Daughter by Michelle Moran
Most people know the story of Cleopatra the Egyptian queen who committed suicide after her country was overrun by Roman forces as told in Shakespeare’s tragedy Antony and Cleopatra. But the story didn’t end there. Cleopatra and Marc Antony had three children who survived and Cleopatra’s Daughter by Michelle Moran is the story of the only daughter Cleopatra Selene and how she adapts to being taken prisoner by the Roman Ceasar Octavian and brought to Rome to a place and culture that is totally foreign to her. At first she is unsure that if she will even have a future (prisoners were often killed) but as time goes by she learns how to adapt to her new homeland and experiences things that are common to girls of every age such as friendship, development of special talents, and first love. Based on historical facts, Selene’s story is captivating and intriguing. So come experience life in ancient Rome with Selene, you will not be disappointed.