A Party Alive With Sounds of Reunion

The Scene: The 25th anniversary of “The Sound of Music” celebrated at Century City’s Cineplex Odeon with a screening and party. The film is being re-released in two theaters with new, stunningly immaculate 70-millimeter prints. “This is what makes a major a major,” said Tom Sherak, executive VP of the major studio (20th Century Fox) that made the film. “It’s history.”

Who Was There: The film’s star, Julie Andrews with her husband Blake Edwards, associate producer Saul Chaplin, and Oscar-winning director Robert Wise; plus six of the seven actors who played the Von Trapp children: Charmian Carr, Heather Menzies, Duane Chase, Debbie Turner, Kym Karath and Angela Cartwright. (The seventh, Nicholas Hammond was on stage in London, and Christopher Plummer, who was Capt. Von Trapp, was shooting in Toronto.)

The Buzz: It’s a great film and it’s a l-o-o-o-n-n-n-g film--including intermission it’s more than three hours. Yes, Virginia, before MTV there were sustained attention spans.

The Dress: After-work casual for the 800 guests, and alpine chic for the catering staff--lederhosen on the men and Marie Callender-waitress-goes-Tyrolian on the women.

The Chow: Lavish spreads of German-style food: liverwurst, mettwurst, bratwurst, every possible type of wurst in existence, plus smoked trout, smoked salmon and carved servings of turkey breast. There was also free popcorn and candy at the theater snack counters. Kids were seen in the lobby hauling off armloads of sweets. “Mom, we’re gonna be wired for days ,” said one already over-charged darling.

Entertainment: Party Planners West had Murray Korda and 16 of his Monseigneur Strings violinists greeting arriving guests. “Tony the Yodeler” circulated through the crowd and six goats grazed on a small hill of grass on the mall. Children hand-fed the animals liverwurst, mettwurst, etc. It was a very good gig for the goats.

Oversight: The cast and Wise should have been introduced before the screening. It would have saved the audience a lot of rubber-necking looking for them.

Quoted: “We’re all sane. We all raised nice families. No one’s killed themselves or gotten on drugs. There’s a lot to be said for that,” said Charmian Carr, who played Liesl, the eldest Von Trapp daughter. Added Kym Karath, who portrayed the youngest, Gretl: “Mr. Wise had an infallible ability to pick kids who were from secure backgrounds, an instinct that we were intact to begin with.”

Also Quoted: “This was a ‘road show’ film (when it first opened). It was an event--it had an intermission, two showings a day, reserved seats, you got your tickets in advance. I hope they find their way back to showing films like that again,” said Wise.

Note on Nostalgia: OK, so ‘50s musicals are corny. But in 2015 will anyone be humming the songs from “Miss Saigon?”