at the age of three, holly sherwood began her professional career as the star of procter and gamble's "rosemary's reflects" ivory soap commercials. as she grew, she and four of her sisters were cast in a production of richard rodgers' "the sound of music", which led to appearances in no less than eighteen other productions of the show. in 1966, she was cast in the broadway revival of "annie get your gun", where her talent was noticed by the show's composer irving berlin, who added a new song tailored to her abilities. this was followed by an appearance in the los angeles premiere of leonard bernstein's "mass".