Mary Martin made $80,000,000 from the film version of The Sound of Music??

[StickToPriest]

Posted: 3/5/05 at 1:33am

Can anyone verify this "fact" from IMDB.com?

"Mary Martin, who originated the role of Maria on Broadway and co-produced the film, would eventually see nearly $80,000,000 from the film. In contrast, Julie Andrews earned just $225,000 for her performance."

[Urban]

Posted: 3/5/05 at 1:42am

If you adjust box office reciepts for inflation, "The Sound of Music" is the third best selling movie of all time:

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/adjusted.htm, with an adjusted gross of about $800,000,000 (all those zeros), so if arguably Mary Martin got a 10% share, $80,000,000 isn't that far out of the question.

Though I figure her precentage was less, and the $80,000,000 includes merchendise which insn't included in the above link, and would've racked in a small fortune as well.

All in all, is shows that "The Sound of Music" is a billion dollar movie once you factor in all the various tie-ins, copyrights, reshowings, albums et al, so somebody with even a few percent holding would be laughing all the way to the bank.

[wickedrentq]

Posted: 3/5/05 at 1:44am

And you also have to consider that wasn't she the one that first went to Rodgers and Hammerstein with the idea of Sound of Music to turn into a show? So while it seems off that she earned so much more than Julie Andrews, she probably deserves some of that since she was sort of the founder of the show.

[StickToPriest]

Posted: 3/5/05 at 1:46am

Yes. I knew she was the one who convinced/got R&H to write an original score as opposed to the original idea of using just tradiitonal folk music.
I just never knew she was a producer on the film.
Smart move.

[WISHIHADATONY]

Posted: 3/5/05 at 11:38am

Actually, Mary Martin was the first one to suggest turning the European films that had been made about the Von Trapp Family Singers into a Broadway musical.

THE SOUND OF MUSIC was Mary Martin's baby from the beginning. She can be seen on video saying that she was insistent on Andrews' casting and the most thrilled person in the world when Julie Andrews was signed to star in the film as Maria.

[wildcat]

Posted: 3/6/05 at 8:21am

Then the terrorists execute her and the screen goes black...

[Feodor Sverdlov]

Posted: 3/6/05 at 11:40am

Not sure why there would be video of Mary Martin saying she insisted on Julie Andrews being cast in THE SOUND OF MUSIC; but Mary Martin had absolutely nothing to do with the film version of THE SOUND OF MUSIC. She also wasn't the one who suggested it be a musical. She asked R&H to write one original song for a play version, where she was going to use actual music that the Von Trapp's sang. It was Rodgers who suggested that if she waited until after they were finished FLOWER DRUM SONG, they would write her an entire musical. Of course, she waited. Yes, she was a co-owner in the finished material and, actually had to sell most of her interest in the piece, even while it was running of Broadway, because she was making far too much money and placing she and her husband in a tax bracket that would require going into the business of finding tax shelters and write-offs. The interest she retained in the property probably did earn her $80,000,000; but that would be from the film and show's grosses and property rentals, combined. Not just the film. Ernest Lehman (screenplay) is responsible for Julie Andrews being in TSOM. It was his suggestion to both Richard Zanuck and Robert Wise. Wise was both the producer and director of the film, and after he and Lehman saw clips of the, unfinished, MARY POPPINS, they immediately signed Andrews.

[WISHIHADATONY]

Posted: 3/6/05 at 5:28pm

There are books about the "genesis" of the film of THE SOUND OF MUSIC that detail how the Broadway musical was birthed by Mary Martin.

Rodgers and Hammerstein were the first to push for Julie Andrews starring in the film of THE SOUND OF MUSIC, before the musical ever opened on Broadway.(There are books outlining the specific timeline of how events occured.) Andrews had starred in their original television musical of CINDERELLA. Shortly after THE SOUND OF MUSIC opened on Broadway, Julie Andrews "lampooned" the charachter of Maria in THE SOUND OF MUSIC on the television special JULIE AND CAROL AT CARNEGIE HALL. Ernest Lehman did indeed want Julie Andrews for the part, as did Rodgers and Hammerstein and Mary Martin and her producer husband, Mr. Halliday. Julie Andrews wanted the part too. Her AGENT arranged for footage from the as yet unreleased MARY POPPINS be sent to the head of 20th CENTURY FOX. Julie Andrews mentions often, her gratitude to Mr. Disney for allowing rough footage of her in Poppins to be utilized as a screentest for MUSIC.

Mary Martin can be seen on video talking about her delight of Julie Andrews starring as Maria in THE SOUND OF MUSIC film. I cannot locate the video footage at the moment and am not positive if Martin said she insisted Andrews star in the film. It does not seem likely she would have insisted or have been able to have her insisting adhered to. Then again, the video clip of which I speak was made decades after THE SOUND OF MUSIC film was a phenomenon. I don't doubt at all that Mary Martin was delighted with the outcome of the casting, obviously.

[Feodor Sverdlov]

Posted: 3/7/05 at 9:55am

Again, I don't know what these books are, and if you have titles, I'd like to know; but they are wrong. Any books that I am aware of that speak to the topic, I have been a contributor to them. Andrews' casting in TSOM had nothing to do with R&H (Rodgers assumed Doris Day would play Maria in the film), Martin or anyone other than Lehman and Wise; and Disney, for allowing them to see clips of her in MP. I never said that Martin wasn't responsible for TSOM, I said it was Rodgers who told Martin they would write it as a complete musical, rather than one song.

The abridged version:
The story of the Trapp Family was first a book, by Maria. She sold her rights to the story to Max Reinhardt, who produced a German film DIE TRAPP FAMILIE and a sequel, DIE TRAPP FAMILIE IN AMERIKA. The rights to an American film version were optioned by Paramount Pictures, for Audrey Hepburn. She declined, opting to make THE NUN'S STORY, instead. The Paramount options were sold to Mary Martin and her husband, Richard Halliday, to be produced as a stage play. Martin was planning on using original Von Trapp music in her show, but approached R&H to write one original song for her to sing. Rodgers suggested that she wait and they would compose an entire musical for her. TSOM opened on Broadway and became R&H's biggest stage hit. 20th Century Fox, which had right of first refusal to any R&H show, opted to produce the film. Following CLEOPATRA, the studio was all but shut down. The president of Fox, Richard Zanuck, had to decide whether to make a bunch of smaller films or put all his eggs in one basket. He decided on TSOM and hired Ernest Lehman to write a screenplay. Lehman sent it to Robert Wise, who turned it down, because he was about to begin work on THE SAND PEBBLES and wasn't availabe. Lehman then sent it to Gene Kelly, who hated it and passed. Then it was given to William Wyler, who accepted. Lehman pushed Wyler to hire Julie Andrews for Maria; but Wyler felt that Audrey Hepburn would make a better Maria, but thought that Andrews would be good for THE AMERICANIZATION OF EMILY, and submitted her name to Marty Ransohoff, the producer. Follwing a location trip to Salzburg, it became clear than Wyler was not interested in the screenplay of TSOM, as written. He envisioned filming the invasion of Austria, with tanks and shooting and all kinds of "war' images. Lehman went to Zanuck and told him his concerns with Wyler. Upon mutual agreement, Wyler left TSOM to do THE COLLECTOR. Because of severe monsoons, THE SAND PEBBLES was delayed, and Lehman managed to secure Wise to produce and direct TSOM, once again claiming that he thought Julie Andrews would be ideal for Maria. Because, in Hollywood, Julie was thought to be non-photogenic, Wise and Lehman arranged to see clips of the unfinished MARY POPPINS at Disney studios (the clips were not sent to them), following which, Wise had her signed, immediately. Marty Ransohoff, did the same thing, on Wyler's recommendation, and signed Julie for THE AMERICANIZATION OF EMILY.