Child Stars Reveal Favorite Behind-the-Scenes Moments — and ‘Mischievous’ Pranks

PEOPLE exclusively spoke to Debbie Turner, Angela Cartwright, Nicholas Hammond, Duane Chase and Kym Karath about filming the 1965 film.

‘The Sound of Music’ cast.

Over the last 60 years, The Sound of Music has become a cherished touchstone for generations of audiences who became enamored with the beloved musical at some point in their lives.

For the young actors who played the von Trapp children, making the film was a truly integral core memory of their youth.

PEOPLE spoke exclusively with the five surviving performers – Kym Karath (Gretl), Debbie Turner (Marta), Angela Cartwright (Brigitta), Duane Chase (Kurt) and Nicholas Hammond (Friedrich) – who revealed the key moments that have stuck with them for a lifetime.

Karath was only 7 years old when she first arrived on set at the 20th Century Fox studio lot in Los Angeles.

While she had already been in several films, none of those projects had the lavish budget afforded by The Sound of Music.

“The other movies hadn’t had the incredible wardrobe department that 20th Century Fox had,” Karath, 67, recalls, “and since I loved clothes, I think, from birth, it was an amazing experience to go and have clothes made for me and see all those swatches on boards all over and have things designed and look at those beautiful sketches.

So that whole experience was wonderful.”.

‘The Sound of Music’ cast in 1965.
She was also in awe of the elaborate interior sets.

“The von Trapp house was so breathtaking,” Karath says, “those beautiful brocaded chairs and all the details everywhere.

And then I got to sing with a live orchestra – I mean, that was such a thrill!”.

At age 14, Hammond was less enamored with the L.A. sets, especially the lengthy rehearsal period prepping for the latter part of the production.

“That had a kind of sterility to it.

We were just isolated on our own, on a sound stage, working on plywood replicas of the real sets, wearing our jeans and T-shirts,” he recalls.

But everything changed when the cast and crew traveled to Salzburg, Austria, to shoot against the gloriously scenic backdrop of the Austrian Alps.

“Suddenly, when you’re in costume, when you’re standing in the Mirabell Garden, when you’re jumping up and down those steps to the playback of ‘Do Ri Me,’ it suddenly felt, ‘This is huge,’” Hammond, 75, remembers.

“And there are thousands of people behind barricades watching you as you’re doing it.

I suddenly thought, ‘I’m in something enormous here.’ ”.

‘The Sound of Music’ cast filming at a market.
The cast arrived in Austria with months of practice for the musical sequences under their collective belt, “which was very smart of [director] Robert Wise to do; just practicing those routines over and over led to a lot less mistakes when we were shooting it,” Cartwright says.

At 13, the actress was already a showbiz vet, having appeared on the sitcom The Danny Thomas Show as the titular star’s daughter for several seasons.

But Austria was an entirely different experience.

“Being at the festival with all these people in the audience – it was an open-air theater at that time and now they’ve since closed it over, but what an incredible experience that was, to get up there and be singing these songs with Julie [Andrews] and Chris [Plummer] in front of a live audience,” Cartwright, 73, says.

“That really comes to mind!”.

For Turner, 69, who was 8 during filming and had several commercials to her credit, shooting felt like it was part of her everyday childhood.

“It was all playtime: it was riding bikes, it was singing, it was being a kid…It just happened to be that they were filming it.” .

Turner vividly recalls shooting the children’s initial scene, singing “My Favorite Things” while cozied in bed with Andrews, who made a magical impression on them. “She was just warm and friendly,” Turner says.

“I had never met her prior to filming that scene, and she was so wonderful, so inviting.

And we didn’t know who she was because Mary Poppins had not been released yet, and so we just thought, ‘Oh, this lady’s so nice!’ “.

‘The Sound of Music’ cast in the Austrian Alps.
And her young palate immediately adapted to European cuisine.

“The foreign food was amazing! Wienerschnitzel to this day, it’s one of my favorite meals,” she laughs, noting that while visiting Salzburg as an adult, a local tour guide gave her his mother’s recipe.

“My husband absolutely loves it, so I’ll make it every now and then.”.

Today, Turner says that as she grows older, she grows more nostalgic about the cast’s time in Austria.

“I’ve made several trips back to Salzburg, which is my favorite place to visit in Europe,” she reveals.

“To go to all the places that I remember as a child is just so special because it really hasn’t changed.

Salzburg is very much the same as it was back then – hard to believe, 60 years, but they still have all the beautiful buildings and fountains and the places that we were.”

Landing the role of Kurt still looms large in the memory of Chase, who at 13 was just breaking into the industry.

On his second callback, he showed up to a soundstage expecting to shoot a screen test, he recalls.

“I was sitting in the corner with some of the other kids that had been selected already, and Bob Wise walks over to me and basically says, ‘Duane, how would you like to go to Austria?’ And I knew at that moment that I had gotten the part without a screen test, and I was absolutely flabbergasted, but excited at the same time.”.

Chase, 74, also has a fond memento of his time acting alongside Plummer.

To this day, he still has an on-set photograph of “Chris and me sitting in our chairs having a good laugh.”.

“And I don’t remember the joke, but he signed the back of the picture ‘To those two laughing boys – your friend, Chris,’” Chase says.

“And that is one of the pictures that I cherish most out of the whole experience of the movie, both during and after.”.

The surviving von Trapp actors – or “Non-Trapps,” as Cartwright noted they call themselves today – also retain deep affection for their late on-screen “siblings,” Charmian Carr, who died in 2016 at age 73, and Heather Menzies, who died the following year at age 68.

Several of the cast warmly remembered Menzies’ and Cartwright’s shared obsession with The Beatles – not uncommon among teen and tween girls in 1964.

Julie Andrews playing guitar in ‘The Sound of Music.’.
And despite the age differences among the young actors, they found themselves spending a lot of time together when they weren’t required to be on set.

“We took a lot of field trips when we were over in Austria,” Hammond recalls of the organized tours the set teacher arranged of various castles and other Bavarian wonders.

“I have very vivid memories of being with those kids and their mothers.”.

“It was a kind of dual existence,” Hammond continues, “where half the time you’re just a bunch of kids with your parents going off on excursions, and the other half of the time you’re in the makeup chair at 5 a.m., you’re in costume, you’re on the set, you’re in your chair, you’ve got your script in your hand, and you’re ready to go when Robert Wise says he’s ready for you.”.

And yes, there were occasional hijinks spurred by youthful boredom and restlessness.

“The movie took a lot longer than we thought it would to film, so we were away from home a lot longer than we expected, mainly because of rain, and so we got a little bored near the end,” Cartwright says.

“We played a lot of tricks in the hotel, we had some pranks,” Hammond admits.

“They were terribly innocent by today’s standards, but for us, it was fun.

We switched the shoes around in front of the doors [fellow hotel guests] had left out to be shined during the night, and just stuff like that.

We had a lot of time on our hands because there were a lot of rainy days.”.

“We did throw toilet paper out of a window and try to hit the umbrellas in the rain, I remember,” Cartwright recalls with a chuckle.

“That would’ve just been Nicky, Heather and me, but nothing awful.

Yeah, a little mischievous here and there.”.

Julie Andrews in ‘The Sound of Music’.

Even after filming wrapped and the cast returned home, there was yet another indelible memory to come.

“We never saw the movie put together until we went to the premiere” at Fox Theater in Los Angeles, Cartwright notes.

“Robert Wise requested that we wear our party clothes from the movie, which was great because we didn’t have to worry about what we were going to wear!”.

“We arrived in a carriage, and everybody was there in Hollywood,” she remembers.

“It was huge, and just seeing the big red curtains part, and there was an intermission – the curtains closed, there was an intermission, and then they opened up again – I remember thinking, ‘Oh my gosh – this is amazing!’ “.

With so many standout memories of making the film, it’s almost impossible to single out a personal favorite, Karath says.

“There isn’t just one.

It’s just a whole kaleidoscope of moments.”.

For the first time ever, The Sound of Music is now available worldwide in 4K Ultra HD Digital & Blu-ray disc.

Featuring remastered sound, restored visuals and bonus content.