{"id":1294,"date":"2008-12-24T22:37:00","date_gmt":"2008-12-24T22:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2008\/12\/how-do-you-solve-a-problem-like-maria.html"},"modified":"2008-12-24T22:37:00","modified_gmt":"2008-12-24T22:37:00","slug":"how-do-you-solve-a-problem-like-maria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/12\/how-do-you-solve-a-problem-like-maria.html","title":{"rendered":"How do you solve a problem like Maria?"},"content":{"rendered":"

If your name is Von Trapp, and you’re the grandson of that fabled former nun, you decide to turn the lemons of Hollywood into lemonade. <\/p>\n

The New York Times<\/a> catches up with the family heirs and what they’re up to today: <\/p>\n

When Sam von Trapp, the grandson of Maria, the singing nun made famous by \u201cThe Sound of Music,\u201d graduated from college, his father offered him a deal: Sam could do whatever he wanted for 10 years before he had to return home here to run the family\u2019s ski lodge.<\/p>\n

His father started calling him to come home after six years.<\/p>\n

When Mr. von Trapp finally returned to take over from his father, Johannes, he had had quite a decade: teaching skiing in Aspen, modeling for Ralph Lauren, surfing in Chile and even making People magazine\u2019s America\u2019s Top 50 Bachelors list in 2001. Recently, he sat in a dark office at the Trapp Family Lodge, the inn his grandmother started, trying to decide what to do with some old curtains.<\/p>\n

<\/a>It is hard for anyone to untangle family history and allegiances during the holidays. When your last name is von Trapp, and Americans claim you as part of their own legacy, that task is just that much harder.<\/p>\n

That legacy weighs on Mr. von Trapp even as he considers something as mundane as curtains.<\/p>\n

In \u201cThe Sound of Music,\u201d the beloved 1965 movie, Maria, the governess played by Julie Andrews, turned old curtains into play clothes for the seven von Trapp children, just as the real Maria had done. Mr. von Trapp figured that if he sold von Trapp draperies on eBay, he might turn a nice little profit.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody has the level of commitment I do,\u201d said Mr. von Trapp, now 36, but with the energy and earnestness of a teenager. \u201cNobody has as much to gain.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the nostalgic mist around \u201cThe Sound of Music,” Mr. von Trapp is taking over a business for a family that has had its share of ups and downs and disagreements.<\/p>\n

When the von Trapps arrived in the United States in 1938, they settled in Pennsylvania and made money by singing baroque and folk music. By 1942, the family had bought a farm in Stowe. Maria rented out rooms in the house when the von Trapps were on tour singing.<\/p>\n

Still, Johannes von Trapp, the 10th and youngest child, remembers growing up relatively anonymously in a quiet, strict home. That began to shift after the 1959 Broadway production of Rodgers and Hammerstein\u2019s \u201cThe Sound of Music,\u201d and when the movie opened, everything changed.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could no longer give your name anywhere without people saying \u2018Oh, are you … ?\u2019 \u201d said the elder Mr. von Trapp, now 69. \u201cThe film, for better or for worse, made us a mass market commodity.\u201d<\/p>\n

The von Trapps have never directly profited from the film or Broadway musical: Maria, whose husband died in 1947, sold the rights to the family story to a German film company in the mid-1950s for just $9,000. Johannes and now his son run the cross-country skiing lodge that trades on the family\u2019s fame with Austrian food, waitresses wearing dirndls and pictures of the family, but not a single poster from the movie.<\/p>\n

\u201c \u2018The Sound of Music\u2019 was great, but it was an American version of my family\u2019s life,\u201d said Johannes, who no longer sings, although he still has a pleasant, reedy bass voice. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t what we were. I just got tired of being cast as a \u2018Sound of Music\u2019 person.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read on<\/a> to find out more. For those of us who grew up singing the songs and attending endless high school productions of the musical, it’s a revelation. <\/p>\n

Photo: Johannes Von Trapp and his mother Maria, in 1984. By Toby Talbott, Associated Press.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If your name is Von Trapp, and you’re the grandson of that fabled former nun, you decide to turn the lemons of Hollywood into lemonade. The New York Times catches up with the family heirs and what they’re up to today: When Sam von Trapp, the grandson of Maria, the singing nun made famous by…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":365,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-this-and-that"],"yoast_head":"\nHow do you solve a problem like Maria? - The Deacon's Bench<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/12\/how-do-you-solve-a-problem-like-maria.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How do you solve a problem like Maria? - The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If your name is Von Trapp, and you’re the grandson of that fabled former nun, you decide to turn the lemons of Hollywood into lemonade. 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