And the Oscar goes to . . .

What an amazing roll Jennifer Hudson has been on! Voted off the island . . . to all of these major awards. Talk about rags to riches! And talk about feeling overwhelmed!




Don't get me wrong. I am very excited and happy for her. But it brings to mind a similar excitement I felt many years ago (eeek! 46 years ago!) when two of my favorite new stars won the supporting role Oscars.








It was 1961....I had just seen West Side Story at the Hellman Theater on Washington Avenue. I was 12 years old, just about to enter my teens. The Jets and the Sharks! Forbidden love. (Several years later, 1968 to be exact, some upstart stole this whole plot idea and made a movie set in an earlier time....Romeo and Juliet....can you believe it!) I fell in love with West Side Story. I think that's when all this crazy movie line quoting began. But anyhoo, I digress. West Side Story carried over into my daily life. We LIVED West Side Story. Only it wasn't on the West Side and it wasn't much of a story. I really wanted to get one of those leather wrist bands the Sharks wore. I never got the wrist band but I did repaint my 24 inch Rollfast bike to reflect my alliance to the Jets. I painted the shark and the word "Sharks" on the chain guard. Can you imagine if I actually had ridden that on the West Side? Uh hum. And as an aside, it would actually be another 3 years before I even step foot on the isle of Manhattan! Smoke on your pipe and put THAT in!


Which brings me to my two favorite winners of the Best Supporting roles Oscars. Anita and Bernardo. Whew! Talk about passion! I think 'America' was my favorite number. And boy was I on the edge of my seat when Anita went into Doc's to give Tony's message to Riff! But I guess that set the whole tragic end into motion. I remember when the movie ended, there was a lot of sniffling going on in the theater. And I remember all of us in our group were saying, "I didn't know anyone dies in this!" What a shock to our young and impressionable systems!

So, as I congratulate Jennifer, my heart goes out to her, and I hope her future continues to be bright. Rita Moreno went on to do a lot of television and movies. I seem to remember her the most from Electric Company when my kids used to watch that. As for George Chakiris, he seemed to drop from the face of the earth, although he didn't, but went on to do television and movies too. But, alas....neither went on to greater roles in Hollywood. And, my Rollfast bike never got to ride down the West Side. It's probably on the bottom of some trash heap, or maybe some kid is still riding it and wonder what kind of chowder head likes fish enough to paint one on his bike. Kids sure were weird back in the Sixties!