“High on a hill was a lonely goatherd...”

It’s funny how your perspective changes with age. As a kid I was tortured annually with the BBC’s Christmas airing of the Rogers and Hammerstein musical The Sound of Music. But as an adult I find it absolutely captivating – all three hours of it. I mean, it’s got everything… Nuns. Yodeling. Christopher Plummer. Some Nazis.

In the film adaptation, the The Lonely Goatherd number was performed as a marionette show (by Bil Baird and Cora Eisenberg-Baird). And now half a century later, VirtualLUG die-hard Millie McKenzie has perfectly recreated the entire theater and its distinctive puppets for our enjoyment:

If all this looks vaguely familiar, but you need your memory jogging, here’s the original scene:


Clearly the goats were too lifelike, as sadly Millie’s cat later went on to destroy the entire setup…

…naughty kittie, over the Alps into Switzerland with you!

1 comment on ““High on a hill was a lonely goatherd...”

  1. Nicholas

    Although I am a New Yorker, I too loved “THE SOUND OF MUSIC” ! I have even had the pleasure of seeing it on Broadway 4 times. I must play my CD a billion times! I remember as a Kid reading maria Augusta Von Trapp’s both books: The Story of the Trapp Family Singers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Story_of_the_Trapp_Family_Singers) which came out the year I was born 1949 and A Family on Wheels (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_von_Trapp) 1959. I even went to Stowe, Vermont to see their lodge and hoped to meet one of the Von Trapps, but no luck!
    This LEGO VERSION of one of the most cherished scenes in the Movie was done with such TLC it’s amazing! Your cat must be a member of the SS to swipe your lovely work! [lol]
    A note: in the original book and Musical-the Lonely Goatherd was the song Maria sang to the children as they crawled into bed with her NOT My favorite things as in the Movie. It was decided they wanted the Bill Baird (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bil_Baird) marionettes to somehow fit into the Movie and hence the scene was created! You brought back such beautiful memories and recollections of the movie. Your MOC was so full of detail you can almost see the strings and Julie Andrews along with the Von Trapp Children acting as the puppeteers!
    An idea: Can you include the other scenes in this clip one day?
    I loved it!

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