Speaker 1: This August on Womanica, we're taking a trip through history
Speaker 1: to discover the stories of muses, women whose lives inspired
Speaker 1: work that's shaped our culture in small ways and large.
Speaker 1: Special things to this month's sponsor, Mercedes Benz, whose own
Speaker 1: famous namesake was inspired by a young muse named Mercedes.
Speaker 1: Join us all month long for fascinating stories of women
Speaker 1: who are drivers of creativity, inspiration and artistic expression. Hello
Speaker 1: from Wonder Media Network. I'm Jenny Kaplan, and this is Womanica.
Speaker 1: This month we're talking about muses, women who were drivers
Speaker 1: of creativity and inspiration. Today's Womanquan had her voice heard
Speaker 1: around the world, first as a member of a highly
Speaker 1: popular touring group, and second in theaters around the world
Speaker 1: as a rebel nun turned baroness. Let's talk about Maria
Speaker 1: von Trapp. Maria was born Maria Augusta Kuchera in Vienna, Austria,
Speaker 1: in nineteen oh five. She was her parents only child
Speaker 1: and was orphaned by age nine. A relative took her in,
Speaker 1: but Maria's life became even more difficult. Her new caretaker
Speaker 1: was abusive and an atheist. It was a jarring change
Speaker 1: for Maria, who saw the Bible stories of her childhood
Speaker 1: transformed into silly old legends in her new home. In
Speaker 1: the early nineteen twenties, Maria attended Vienna's State Teacher's College
Speaker 1: of Progressive Education. One day, she attended what she thought
Speaker 1: was a concert of Bach music. It turned out instead
Speaker 1: to be a Palm Sunday service. The priest's sermons swept
Speaker 1: Maria off her feet. She graduated from college and joined
Speaker 1: the Benedictine Abbey of Nonburg in Salzburg. There she found
Speaker 1: herself at odds with the cloistered nuns, but Maria persisted,
Speaker 1: asking to the rules of the convent. Eventually she developed
Speaker 1: a deep respect for the lessons she learned there. She'd
Speaker 1: later say that the nuns worked first to make a
Speaker 1: girl out of a boy, and then to make a
Speaker 1: nun out of that. In nineteen twenty six, a decorated
Speaker 1: captain of the Austrian Navy came to the convent looking
Speaker 1: for a teacher for one of his children. Baron von
Speaker 1: Trapp's wife had died of scarlet fever four years earlier,
Speaker 1: leaving him in charge of his seven children. Maria was
Speaker 1: assigned to the case. She was twenty one years old,
Speaker 1: right and athletic and loved singing. She quickly created unbreakable
Speaker 1: bonds with all seven of the von Trapp children. Maria
Speaker 1: was meant to work as a tutor for ten months,
Speaker 1: after which she would enter the convent. Instead, she became
Speaker 1: a baroness. Baron von Trapp proposed to Maria, asking her
Speaker 1: to stay with him and become a mother to the children.
Speaker 1: It was the second request that convinced Maria to say yes.
Speaker 1: She'd later write, I liked him but didn't love him. However,
Speaker 1: I loved the children. God must have made him word
Speaker 1: it that way, because if he'd only asked me to
Speaker 1: marry him, I might not have said yes. On November
Speaker 1: twenty sixth, nineteen twenty seven, Maria and the Baron were married.
Speaker 1: There was a twenty five year age difference between them.
Speaker 1: They had two children together over the next few years.
Speaker 1: In the nineteen thirties, the von Trapp family suffered significant
Speaker 1: financial losses in the worldwide depression. Maria helped make ends
Speaker 1: meet by taking on household chores and bringing in boarders,
Speaker 1: but the family needed a new income. The answer came
Speaker 1: in nineteen thirty five when a priest, father Franz Vasner,
Speaker 1: joined the von Trapps for mass He was a well
Speaker 1: respected musician. After hearing of Maria and the children's interest
Speaker 1: in singing, he offered to coach them in quarrel arrangements.
Speaker 1: The following year, an opera diva heard them singing and
Speaker 1: suggested they entered the nineteen thirty six Salzburg Music Festival.
Speaker 1: They won first place. Soon the von Trapps were singing
Speaker 1: Renaissance and Baroque music for huge crowds. The Baron was
Speaker 1: hesitant for the family's hobby to become an actual profession,
Speaker 1: but he followed them on tour. They performed on radio,
Speaker 1: on tour contracts in Europe, in America, and even for
Speaker 1: the Chancellor of Austria. Then, in nineteen thirty eight, Nazis
Speaker 1: annexed Austria. The von Trapps knew their time in the
Speaker 1: country was running short. They had been offered various incentives
Speaker 1: by the Nazi regime, from singing engagements to career opportunities
Speaker 1: for the baron and the children. The family refused them
Speaker 1: and turned down requests to fly the Nazi flag and
Speaker 1: sing at Hitler's birthday party. The von Trapps left for
Speaker 1: Italy on a concert engagement. They wouldn't returned to Austria
Speaker 1: as a family again. After a short European tour, they
Speaker 1: set out for the US in January. Maria and the
Speaker 1: baron's final child, the tenth bun Trap Child, was born
Speaker 1: in Philadelphia. When the family returned from a Scandinavian tour
Speaker 1: later that year, they were allegedly held at Ellis Island
Speaker 1: for investigation. Maria had excitedly said she would never leave
Speaker 1: America again when asked how long she'd be staying in
Speaker 1: the country, even though her visa was only good for
Speaker 1: six months. In the early nineteen forties, the family bought
Speaker 1: a farm and stow Vermont. They cultivated the land and
Speaker 1: built a house on it. Between tours, they called the
Speaker 1: farm corps Unum or One Heart, One Soul. In nineteen
Speaker 1: forty four, they opened the Trap Family Music Camp out
Speaker 1: of their barn. The summer retreat operated for twelve seasons.
Speaker 1: After the Baron's death in nineteen forty seven, the group
Speaker 1: met less and less frequently. By nineteen forty eight, all
Speaker 1: of the children and Maria had citizenship and began to
Speaker 1: get married, build careers, and move away from the farm.
Speaker 1: In nineteen fifty six, Maria and three of the children
Speaker 1: did missionary work in New Guinea. Most summers, Maria ran
Speaker 1: the Trap Family Lodge as a tourist attraction. In nineteen
Speaker 1: forty nine, Maria published a memoir of her life called
Speaker 1: The Story of the Trap Family Singers. A few years later,
Speaker 1: Maria sold the book rights to German film producers. She
Speaker 1: inadvertently signed away her own rights in the process, for
Speaker 1: just nine thousand dollars. The results in German films were
Speaker 1: moderately successful, but the real boon came a few years later,
Speaker 1: Life with the Song of Musing. American producers bought the
Speaker 1: rights from the German producers. In nineteen fifty nine, Rogers
Speaker 1: and Hammerstein premiered The Sound of Music on Broadway. Six
Speaker 1: years later, Julie Andrews took on Maria von Trapp's name
Speaker 1: and one of the most beloved movies of the era.
Speaker 1: Maria and the Von Trapp saw a fraction of the
Speaker 1: film's profits and were virtually excluded from providing any input.
Speaker 1: Though she didn't have any major qualms with the film,
Speaker 1: Maria von Trapp did feel that the fictional Von Trapps
Speaker 1: sang lightweight music and were oversimplified. Maria died in nineteen
Speaker 1: eighty seven at the age of eighty two. All month
Speaker 1: were highlighting muses. For more information, check us out on
Speaker 1: Facebook and Instagram at Womanica Podcast special thanks to Liz Kaplan,
Speaker 1: my favorite sister and co creator. Talk to you tomorrow