5 Things You Might Not Know About "The Sound of Music"

1. Julie Andrews kept falling over during that iconic opening scene. The down draft from the helicopter shooting the mountaintop sequence knocked Andrews over every time it circled around her. "It was fine for a couple of takes, but after that you begin to get just a little bit angry," she said. "And I really tried. I mean, I braced myself, I thought, 'It's not going to get me this time.' And every single time, I bit the dust."

2. The Sound of Music was the last Rodgers and Hammerstein musical.
The legendary partnership between Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II produced classic musical theatre hits like Oklahoma! and The King and I. The Sound of Music opened on Broadway in 1959 (six years before the Hollywood version appeared on the big screen). In 1960, Hammerstein died from stomach cancer. The last song he wrote was "Edelweiss."

3. The movie could have starred Audrey Hepburn and Bing Crosby.
Other potential Marias included Doris Day, Leslie Caron, Anne Bancroft and Shirley Jones. Captain von Trapp was also almost Sean Connery or Yul Brynner. And some well-known names auditioned for the von Trapp children, including Mia Farrow and Richard Dreyfuss.

4. Julie Andrews yodeled with the real Maria von Trapp.
In a 1973 episode of the variety TV show The Julie Andrews Hour, von Trapp told Andrews that the actress was "absolutely wonderful" in the film, but her yodeling was not quite up to par—leading to this duet.

5. The Sound of Music is #4 on AFI's Greatest Movie Musicals of All-Time list.
The film also won five Oscars^® in 1966, including Best Picture and Best Director. And adjusted for ticket price inflation, The Sound of Music is the third highest-grossing film of all time (behind only Gone with the Wind and Star Wars).