To celebrate my latest interview with legendary actor, dancer and singer GEORGE CHAKIRIS (Episodes 55 & 56) who is best known for winning the Academy Award for playing the role of "Bernardo" in the 1961 film version of "WEST SIDE STORY" - I've put together this entertaining trivia list featuring some fun facts about the classic Oscar-winning movie musical for you to test your knowledge with. Enjoy!
The original Broadway production of "West Side Story" opened at the Winter Garden Theater on September 26, 1957, ran for 732 performances and was nominated for the 1958 Tony Award for the Best Musical. It lost the Tony Award to "The Music Man".
Chita Rivera originated the role of "Anita" when "West Side Story" premiered at New York's Winter Garden Theatre (September 26, 1957). Rita Moreno later played "Anita" in the film adaptation of the show.
Released on October 18, 1961, through United Artists, the film received praise from critics and viewers, and became the highest-grossing film of 1961.
It was nominated for 11 Academy Awards and won 10, including Best Picture (in addition to a special award for Robbins), becoming the record holder for the most wins for a musical.
"West Side Story" is regarded as one of the greatest musical films of all time.
George Chakiris (Bernardo) had previously played "Riff" in the London production. Tony Mordente (Action) had played "A-rab." David Winters (A-rab) had played "Baby John" in the original Broadway production.
Jerome Robbins initially refused to work on the film unless he could direct it. Producer Walter Mirisch was nervous about handing the reins entirely over to Robbins, who had never made a film before, so he enlisted Robert Wise to direct the drama while Robbins would handle the singing and dancing sequences. Robbins developed a habit of shooting numerous takes of each scene, to the point where the film went over budget and behind schedule. This led to his firing.
Recognizing Robbins's considerable creative contribution to the film, Wise agreed that Robbins should be given co-directing credit. Robbins and Wise also kept in contact and discussed the production, with Wise's taking many of Robbins's suggestions about the editing of the film.
Director Robert Wise hired New York gang members to control crowds on location, and fought to shoot on location in New York City.
The only scenes shot in New York City were the ones from the prologue number at the beginning of the movie. For the majority of the film the production crew used sound stages at the Samuel Goldwyn Studio, located in West Hollywood, California, for rehearsals and studio shooting.
The actors in the rival gangs were instructed to play pranks on each other off the set to keep tensions high.
The interior sets were built six feet off the ground to allow for low-angle shooting with large 70mm cameras.
The boys' jeans were dyed, re-dyed and "distressed," using special elastic thread to allow for the severity of the choreography.
Robert Wise's original choice to play "Tony" was Elvis Presley. However, Presley's manager, 'Colonel' Tom Parker refused, since Elvis would only sing in six of the twelve songs, and because he would not have exclusive rights to the soundtrack.
Not only are Natalie Wood and George Chakiris wearing make-up to look more "Puerto Rican," Rita Moreno (who is actually Puerto Rican) had to wear the same make-up to match their skintone.
Throughout the movie, Natalie Wood wears a bracelet on her left wrist, not for any aesthetic reason, but because she had injured her wrist in the scene of "The Green Promise" when she fell on the bridge that collapsed during the severe rainstorm, causing an unsightly bone protrusion on her wrist. She wore the bracelet to hide the injury. It became her trademark in all of her movies.
Gus Trikonis who played "Indio", one of the Puerto Rican Sharks - and who is actually Greek - is the brother of Gina Trikonis, who played "Graziella", the tough red-haired Italian girlfriend of "Riff", leader of the Jets. George Chakiris is also Greek.
Natalie Wood actually could sing, but her singing voice was not considered strong enough for the songs in this film.
In addition to recording Maria's singing voice, Marni Nixon also looped some of Natalie Wood's dialogue that needed to be fixed in post-production. Specifically, Maria's last lines: "Don't you touch him!" and "Te adoro, Anton," are spoken by Nixon, not Natalie Wood.
The lyrics to "America" were substantially changed for the movie. There had been complaints that the Broadway version was too belittling to Puerto Ricans, in that the song mainly ridiculed Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans. The movie lyrics emphasize the racism and discrimination that Puerto Ricans were subjected to in America.
Russ Tamblyn had originally tried out for the role of "Tony". It was down to just him and Richard Beymer, and Beymer ended up getting it. But then the casting directors called him back and asked him to read for "Riff", and he got the part.
"Cool" was such a demanding number for the performers, Harvey Evans (aka Harvey Hohnecker), who played "Mouthpiece", later stated that the actors ritually burned their kneepads upon wrapping the scene.
The song "One Hand, One Heart" was written for the earlier musical "Candide," but later discarded by Leonard Bernstein and revived for "West Side Story."
Jerome Robbins completed four numbers - the Prologue, "Cool", "I Feel Pretty" and "America" - before he was removed from the project.
The "America" sequence on stage was conceived as a duet between "Anita" and "Rosalia". For the film, it was altered to be one between "Anita" and "Bernardo".
Actor Eliot Feld (Baby John) collapsed and ended up hospitalized with pneumonia during the demanding filming of "Cool".
Richard Beymer's singing was dubbed by Jimmy Bryant.
The character "Anybodys" has been called the first transgender character in a Broadway musical.
John Astin (“The Addams Family”) played the host of the school dance.
George Chakiris was the only one out of the main characters to not be dubbed. This was because he had no hard solo songs to sing.
The actors playing the Jets and the Sharks suffered shin splits from dancing on the concrete streets of New York City. Despite this, and the constant rain, they all loved filming on location, even doing "rain dances" so they could be on location longer (which they were eventually barred from doing as it seemed to work once or twice).
Richard Beymer later revealed that he and Natalie Wood did not have a close rapport off camera, describing her treatment of him at the time of filming as aloof at best. Beymer believed part of the problem was a screen test from a previous film that went south. However, Beymer says that a few years later he and Wood crossed paths at a night club, she said hello to him and chatted with him for a few minutes, and he was left surprised at how sweet and kind she was to him.
Although the poster art is often mistakenly attributed to Saul Bass, it was actually designed by Joseph Caroff.
Despite winning an Oscar for his work in this film, this was the only film that Jerome Robbins ever directed.
During the entire production, the actors wore out 200 pairs of shoes, applied more than 100lbs of make-up, split 27 pairs of pants and performed in 30 different recording sessions.
With its win of 10 Academy Awards, this became the biggest Oscar-winning musical of all time, beating the record "Gigi" set three years before with its nine Oscars.
This was the first film to win a Best Director Oscar for two directors (Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins). This would not happen again until 46 years later, when Joel Coen and Ethan Coen shared the award for "No Country for Old Men".
George Chakiris's and Rita Moreno's Oscar-winning performances in this film were their only Academy Award nominations.
At the time, this became the biggest selling soundtrack album.
Richard Beymer and Russ Tamblyn later appeared on "Twin Peaks".
One of 9 American Musicals to win Best Picture: 1) The Broadway Melody, 2) The Great Ziegfeld, 3) An American in Paris, 4) Gigi, 5) West Side Story, 6) My Fair Lady, 7) The Sound of Music, 8) Amadeus, 9) Chicago.
A second film adaptation of the same name by Steven Spielberg was released in December 2021.
Trivia items from IMDB
To listen to my fascinating conversation with the legendary "West Side Story" star GEORGE CHAKIRIS on my podcast - click on the links below. Enjoy!
Episode 55 - HERE
Episode 56 - HERE
