Growing up in very white area of New York State, I didn't have that many people I could relate to or that even looked like me. I remember when I was 7 years old my parents rented the movie West Side Story. I fell in love with musicals and with Rita Moreno. All the other girls that watched the movie liked Maria, but I knew she wasn't Hispanic and honestly, bad girls are just more interesting. I started to sing and dance more and thought how wonderful it would be to play Anita in a remake of the play.
I think about a month or two ago I saw Rita Moreno again on TV, promoting her new book on The View. I was stunned to find out she was in her 80's and she looked fantastic. I was also very surprised to hear that she had an affair for almost a decade with Marlon Brando. At first I thought ewww, Marlon Brando, but then quickly remembered he used to be hot. Just another example of the Puerto Rican bad girl, I loved her even more. She also told the women on the View that she had been approached by JFK before she became famous with West Side Story and that Elvis had approached her too after WSS.
The thing that really clenched the pioneer aspect of Rita Moreno was that she has been the only Hispanic, male or female, to win an Oscar, Academy Award, Tony, Grammy and an Emmy. She achieved all of this before she turned 50. Since she recently went on a book tour to promote her memoirs, here are a couple of articles and the one, the only, Rita Moreno.
http://www.npr.org/2013/03/10/173726066/rita-moreno-reflects-on-anita-awards-and-accents
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/07/rita-moreno_n_1327415.html
I think about a month or two ago I saw Rita Moreno again on TV, promoting her new book on The View. I was stunned to find out she was in her 80's and she looked fantastic. I was also very surprised to hear that she had an affair for almost a decade with Marlon Brando. At first I thought ewww, Marlon Brando, but then quickly remembered he used to be hot. Just another example of the Puerto Rican bad girl, I loved her even more. She also told the women on the View that she had been approached by JFK before she became famous with West Side Story and that Elvis had approached her too after WSS.
The thing that really clenched the pioneer aspect of Rita Moreno was that she has been the only Hispanic, male or female, to win an Oscar, Academy Award, Tony, Grammy and an Emmy. She achieved all of this before she turned 50. Since she recently went on a book tour to promote her memoirs, here are a couple of articles and the one, the only, Rita Moreno.
http://www.npr.org/2013/03/10/173726066/rita-moreno-reflects-on-anita-awards-and-accents
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/07/rita-moreno_n_1327415.html
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