The Sound of Music Costume Collection

From a memoir to the biggest film in the world

The Sound of Music began as Maria von Trapp's 1949 memoir, The Story of the Trapp Family Singers, written to promote her family's singing group after the death of her husband, Georg, in 1947. It became a Broadway musical in 1959 with songs by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, and 20th Century-Fox hired Ernest Lehman in December 1962 to adapt it for the screen. Robert Wise joined as director in October 1963.

Lehman's first and only choice for Maria was Julie Andrews. After seeing footage from the not-yet-released Mary Poppins, Wise told him, 'Let's go sign this girl before somebody else sees this film and grabs her!' Casting the seven children took more than 200 interviews and auditions in the United States and England.

Principal photography began on March 26, 1964, at Fox's studios in Los Angeles, moved to Salzburg from late April through May, and wrapped back in Los Angeles on September 1, 1964. The film premiered at the Rivoli Theater in New York on March 2, 1965. By November 1966 it had become the highest-grossing film in history, passing Gone with the Wind, and it won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director.

What is in the collection

The centerpiece is the costume Maria wears when she takes the children on a day trip and teaches them 'Do-Re-Mi': a heavy brown homespun Austrian-style dress with a wheat-colored homespun blouse, bearing 20th Century-Fox bias labels in the collar and waistband.

The collection includes all seven of the children's 'drapery' outfits, the play clothes Maria sews from the curtains in her room when the Captain is away: Marta's jumper and shorts, Kurt's button-down shirt, Brigitta's sleeveless dress, Friedrich's lederhosen-style outfit, Louisa's dress with green ties, Liesl's puff-sleeved dress and Gretl's jumper with suspenders. It also holds all seven of the children's linen school uniforms with green trim.

Andrews is represented by two more pieces: the yellow wool skirt suit and sheer blouse Maria wears on returning from her honeymoon, each labeled 'J. Andrews,' and the purple wool cape with green trim and a flowered lining worn during the escape and the final mountaintop scene. The children's costumes go further: Kurt's gray jacket and striped vest from 'So Long, Farewell,' Brigitta's 'Do-Re-Mi' montage dress and her organdy dress from the wedding, and three dresses worn by Charmian Carr as Liesl, in 'Edelweiss,' 'So Long, Farewell' and 'Sixteen Going on Seventeen.' The last is still marked by the studio rain of that scene.

With the costumes came a four-page typewritten history of the Von Trapp family, signed by Maria von Trapp, explaining the singing family's origins and their escape from Austria after the Nazi takeover.

How to read the labels

Screen-used costumes are identified largely by their labels, and this set is unusually well marked. Andrews's pieces carry 20th Century-Fox bias labels, several handwritten 'J. Andrews,' and the cape's reads 'J. Andrews 1.' Most of the children's costumes carry Western Costume Company labels with the actor's name typed or handwritten, sometimes with 'SOM' for Sound of Music and a change number, such as 'Nicholas Hammond chg. #4.'

The labels also preserve small pieces of history. Liesl's costumes are marked 'Charmian Farnon,' Carr's birth name, in one case misspelled 'Charmine.' Several of the school uniforms carry later names, such as 'Julie Graham' and 'Shannon Terhune,' because the costume house reused them for subsequent productions.

The catalog was frank about wear: soiling on the yellow skirt, staining and studio repairs on some uniforms, linen deterioration reinforced by the costume company, and water distress on Liesl's chiffon gown from the rainstorm scene.

From a costume house to one collector

Most of the pieces passed through the Western Costume Company, the Hollywood costume house whose labels they carry, and left it in a series of sales of the company's 'Star Collection': the school uniforms in Part I on October 10, 1993; the drapery outfits and Maria's yellow suit in Part II on July 17-19, 1994; and the Kurt, Brigitta and Liesl costumes in Part III on December 3-4, 1994. Maria's 'Do-Re-Mi' dress still carries a small tag from a June 28, 1995, auction.

The pieces were brought together in the collection of Chris Christian, according to the 2013 catalog. The auctioneers called it 'the most comprehensive collection of signature costumes from The Sound of Music any institution or collector could ever hope to obtain.'

The collection was offered as one lot in a two-day Hollywood memorabilia auction in July 2013, estimated at $800,000 to $1.2 million. Bidders in the room competed with others on the phone and online, and on July 28, 2013, it sold for $1.3 million, above the high estimate. The buyer was not identified. Because the price covers more than 20 costumes, it is not a price for any single costume.

A separate Andrews costume from the film, not part of this collection, had sold for $38,400 at auction in 2012.

The happiest sound in all the world

The film's first theatrical run lasted four and a half years, it broke box-office records in 29 countries, and its soundtrack album has sold more than 20 million copies. In 1998 the American Film Institute ranked it the 55th greatest American film, and in 2001 the Library of Congress added it to the National Film Registry.

'It made my career. It was that big of a movie,' Andrews told Oprah Winfrey in 2010, adding that the cast had no idea how successful it would be. This collection keeps all seven of the children's drapery outfits together.

Timeline

1. 1949

   Maria von Trapp publishes The Story of the Trapp Family Singers.

2. 1959

   The stage musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein opens on Broadway.

3. Dec 1962

   20th Century-Fox hires Ernest Lehman to write the screenplay.

4. Mar 26, 1964

   Principal photography begins at Fox studios in Los Angeles.

5. Apr 23, 1964

   Filming resumes in Salzburg with the wedding scenes at Mondsee Abbey.

6. Sep 1, 1964

   Principal photography wraps with the gazebo scenes.

7. Mar 2, 1965

   The Sound of Music premieres at the Rivoli Theater in New York.

8. Nov 1966

   The film passes Gone with the Wind as the highest-grossing film in history.

9. Oct 10, 1993

   The children's school uniforms are sold in Part I of the Western Costume 'Star Collection' sales.

10. Jul 17, 1994

    Part II of the 'Star Collection' sales offers the drapery outfits and Maria's yellow suit.

11. Dec 3, 1994

    Part III offers costumes for Kurt, Brigitta and Liesl.

12. Jun 28, 1995

    Maria's 'Do-Re-Mi' dress passes through an auction, whose tag it still carries.

13. 2001

    The Library of Congress selects the film for the National Film Registry.

14. 2012

    A different Andrews costume from the film sells at auction for $38,400.

15. Jul 28, 2013

    The collection sells as a single lot at auction in Hollywood for $1.3 million.

The world in 1965

• Feb 21, 1965

  Malcolm X is assassinated in Manhattan.

• Mar 7, 1965

  Alabama state troopers clash with civil rights marchers in Selma, Alabama, on Bloody Sunday.

• Mar 8, 1965

  About 3,500 U.S. Marines land in South Vietnam, the first American combat troops there.

• Jun 3, 1965

  Ed White makes the first American spacewalk on Gemini 4.

• Jul 14, 1965

  Mariner 4 flies past Mars and returns the first images of the planet.

• Aug 6, 1965

  President Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act.

• Aug 15, 1965

  The Beatles play Shea Stadium, the first stadium concert in rock history.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, The Sound of Music Costume Collection is number 59 of 100 in the memorabilia entries of the FLOAT 100. 100 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (58 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• In the story, Maria sews the children's play clothes from the curtains in her room; the real costumes survive as a complete set of seven.
• Liesl's costumes are labeled with Charmian Carr's birth name, Charmian Farnon.
• Some school uniforms carry other actors' names because the costume house reused them in later productions.
• Liesl's chiffon gown still shows water damage from the studio rainstorm in 'Sixteen Going on Seventeen.'
• The real Maria von Trapp makes a brief uncredited cameo in the film, walking past during 'I Have Confidence.'
• The film's 1965 first run lasted four and a half years.