My Time With An Oscar Winner

Pangiota’s Personal Meeting with Oscar Winner, George Chakiris of “West Side Story”…. 1961 You were alarmingly affable and delightful. Accepting, and so very, very sweet, To have a special-one on one with you. Heavenly, and nearly swept me off my feet! I had asked the club host, if I could meet with you. He went to check and said, surely, after he finished his act. I pinched my forearm hard, to see if I were dreaming, or was this real and a fact. The audience, that night listened to your charming songs and storiries, with a divine glue. I had seen you so many times in the original movie-musical, West Side Story. Your ability to charm and audience and put them at ease, was something I wanted tolearn. My stomach got all a bubbly and began to churn. The very idea, that I was about to meet you face to face, made we gleam with glory. Escorted to your dressing room, I felt like royalty~ a precious princess! The door opened and there you were, far more handsome than on a movie screen. I asked for tips on how to relate to an audience, as he did it with such a magical sheen! George was not only affable, but a shining ship of finesse! I was not with George, very long, but he was welcoming and so majestically charming. I wondered what he thought of me, the brunette, in the lush,green velvet beret! Meetings like this, so enchanting, after all,do not happen everyday. But I welcome such events with open arms and find them…. anything but alarming! Notes. George Chakiris, as Bernardo,won an Oscar for best supporting actor with Natalie Wood as Maria, in the Leonard Bernstein musical, “WEST SIDE STORY, “ 1961.