Kym Karath (Mabel) almost drowned in The Sound of Music

[Easton]

In 'The Thanksgiving Story', there is a photo of Kym Karath standing in a doorway with Mary Ellen and some other girls. (Kym is on the right.)

As a child, Kym portrayed the youngest von Trapp child, Gretl. She almost drowned while filming the scene on the lake when Maria (Julie Andrews) and the children fall out of the boat.

According to Julie:

Anthea "Kym" Karath, who played young Gretl von Trapp, also found herself in a precarious situation on set.

Andrews recalled the filming of the scene where Maria and the kids fall out of the boat during a 2019 appearance on "The Graham Norton Show."

"... Just before we rolled, this assistant director waded into the water and said, 'Can I ask you something Julie? The little one doesn't swim,'" she said.

He then asked her to fall forward and try to get to Karath as quickly as possible once they landed in the water.

"... I went over the back rather than over the front. Never swum the breaststroke so fast in my life to get to her, "Andrews continued. "And that poor, lovely kid went under a couple of times, but she came up and threw up and then was fine."

14 Things You Probably Didn't Know About The Sound of Music - Interesting article for fans of The Sound of Music.

Kudos to Julie Andrews for managing that sprint swim in that dress.

[Brenda]

She was Pattie-Cake in Spencer’s Mountain too.

[Johnny]

There must have been more than one take.. In the film, they cut to where one
of the other children is carrying Kym in the water 
It appears Kym is bobbing out of the water at 0:32

[Kyle]

She was also in one of the better Brady Bunch episodes.

[e knight]

Think of the damper that a child's death would have put on that film! With millions of dollars on the line, I imagine they'd have re-cast the role and re-shot a few close-ups, but I'm sure that audiences would have had that tragedy in the back of their minds.

(I wonder if Robert Wise would have to testify in court as did John Landis for Twilight Zone!)

[Emmy]

I bet once Julie Andrews flipped off the back of the boat the first thing that popped into her head was where was little Kym and was frantic.