From the Library of Congress Archives: Sister Gregory Duffy's Influence on THE SOUND OF MUSIC

Some stories are best discovered after the fact. In the case of Sister Gregory of Rosary College, her story and hard work helped create one of the biggest musiclas of a generation, The Sound of Music. As featured as a part of the Library of Congress' 'In the Muse' blog, some letters were discovered that were written by Sister Gregory of Rosary College and included correspondances between Sister Gregory and the creators of the 1959 musical The Sound of Music.

Sister Gregory was born in 1912 and passed away in 1995. She was a Dominican nun and theater professor at the Rosary College in Illinois, the college is now named the Dominican University. According to the letters found in the Oscar Hammerstein II collection, Sister Gregory would travel to NYC and take in the budding theater scene. Through her travels to NYC she developed several personal relationships with famous actors. One of which was Mary Martin whom she met after seeng Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific in 1949.

Little did Sister Gregory know that Rodgers and Hammerstein team up with writers Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse as well as Mary Martin and producer Richard Halliday to write a new project about the Trapp Familly Sinsers. According to numerous sources, Sister Gregory was contacted to give an inside perspective on the relgious aspects protrayed in the upcoming musical.

The letters show that the correspondances started in 1958 when Martin and Halliday contacted her about The Sound of Music. As shown in her letters, Sister Gregory became infactuated with the storylines the creative team presented her. She became enthusastic aboutthe women in the religious life that were portrayed. She began to ofer inside perspectives about the women and the convent and what "motivates the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience." Sister Gregory writes, "The whole purpose of life, it seems to me, is pin-pointed in Maria's struggle to choose between two vocations."

According to the Library of Congress, there are about 15 pieces that document the correspondences between Sister Gregory and the Hammerstein Collection started in 1958 and ending in late 1959. The letters began as being addressed to Halliday and Martin and then as the relationship continued Sister Gregory began addressing Hammerstein directly in late 1959. She even gave Hammerstein spiritual guidance when he began to face stomach cancer.

Although the correspondance started with Sister Gregory offering advice it later evolved to her discussing the character arc of Captain Von Trapp. In Sister Gregory's words, "As the script is now, the Captain is cold... The only scene where I think he is even likeable is the last scene - after they're married. It's unbelievable that anyone could change so quickly...As a woman, I'd much rather get my hands on Max!" She begins to assert herself in matters of character development and not solely relgious aspects of The Sound of Music.

The letters cease around September 1959 however Rodgers and Hammerstein mail Sister Gregory new music about two months before opening night. Sister Gregory writers that she recieved the music and gathered several other nuns to play and sing the songs around a piano.

The best part of these letters? Sister Gregory writers about her response to the first time she hears the song "Climb Every Mountain." She writes, "It's a beautiful song and drove me to the Chapel...It made me acutely aware of how tremendously fortunate are those who find the dream that will absorb all their love, and finding it, embrace it to the end...So I just had to dash into Chapel, give Him a quick but heart-felt 'thank you' and ask that all the youngsters I love so devotedly not only find their dreams but also have the courage to follow them - wherever they lead."

Sister Gregory proved to be a major influence on The Sound of Music. Her correspondances proved to help The Sound of Music take shape and become one of the greatest musicals of all time.

Click here to read the full blog.

Photo Credit: Library of Congress/Dominican University, Archives and Special Collections.