West Side Story

Daisy's story is below the poster.

Daisy always wanted to enjoy starring in a musical and her opportunity came with West Side Story.

Originally, the musical was to be called East Side Story about a Catholic boy and a Jewish girl, but when Leonard Bernstein and Arthur Laurents read a newspaper article about the rise of teen-age gangs, they decided that would make a better storyline. So the story moved from the Upper East Side to the West Side.

The story's location change wasn't of great importance to Daisy because her scenes were primarily on balconies and interior settings rather than her having to act the part of an alley cat. Plus up close, all of the dancing and jumping around was very unnerving, so she stayed up on balconies and fire escapes where she could safely watch. The scene in the bedroom with Natalie Wood, Richard Beyer, and Rita Moreno was the easiest and the most comfortable.

One thing that did surprise her when the film was released was that the actors' voices were not the same during musical numbers as they had been when the scenes were originally shot. She learned that all of the songs sung by Natalie Wood and Richard Beymer in the movie were over-dubbed by other singers. No over-dubbing of her purring and mewing was needed; she hit all of her notes perfectly.