As Google reminded us, yesterday was Audrey Hepburn's 85th birthday. Before the Broadway musical was conceived, Paramount had bought the film rights to the Trapp story from the German film company which produced two German language films - Die Trapp Familie and Die Trapp Familie in Amerika. Lawrence Maslon writes in The Sound of Music Companion that the films "were quite successful in Europe, and Paramount wondered if an English-language remake could be made out of them, maybe as a vehicle for Audrey Hepburn." When Vincent Donehue saw the films, he contacted Mary Martin and Richard Halliday (Martin's husband) and pitched the idea for a Broadway musical based on the Trapp family story.
Ironic that Hepburn would later claim the film role of Eliza in My Fair Lady that Julie Andrews coveted while Andrews ended up with the role of Maria that might have been Audrey's.
The first of the German films is now completely available on YouTube with English subtitles (via closed captioning). Here's the first segment:
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