GLOSSARY

"Whatever terms you're callin', buddy boy."

It has come to our attention that some of the dialogue in West Side Story is not immediately understood, due to either language barriers, outdated references, words spoken with exaggerated city accents, or, like the delinquents themselves, just misunderstood. We hope the following will assist in your understanding and enjoyment of the work. References that appear only in the stage play are so indicated (P) as are references that are present exclusively in the screenplay of the film (F). Your suggestions via e-mail are welcome as always.

America The title of either of two pieces of music featured in West Side Story. 1. The lively song and dance from Scene Five, written by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim. 2. The patriotic tune whistled by the Sharks as they are evicted from Doc’s drugstore, more commonly called "My Country 'Tis of Thee" when it is not filling its original role as the British National Anthem. Read all about it

Arab A street urchin, a clever young boy of the streets prone to mischief and wrong-doing. Normally not capitalized or hyphenated.

Boys See "Real down boys"

Bruja (P)    ["broo'-ha"] (Sp.) Witch. Among her other accomplishments, Anita has picked up the great American custom of bad-mouthing one’s employer behind her back. Members of the film audience with no command of Spanish are saved the trouble of translation, as the screenwriter has Anita describing Madame Lucia with the English word "witch."

Call girl (P) A prostitute who schedules clients' appointments by telephone. In response to Doc’s inquiry about her career plans, Anybodys replies "wistfully" that her goal is to be a "telephone call girl." A little puzzle presents itself here, and it is (no pun) anybody’s guess whether it is the character or the librettist who is making the joke. Is Anybodys doing what the rest of the gang does, taking a word or phrase she has heard and applying her own definition? (See Casual and Social disease for other examples of this resourceful trend.) If so, she may be innocently using this overheard but misunderstood phrase to describe her plans to become a switchboard operator, as "wistfully" as the dance-hall hostess in Sweet Charity who wants to better herself by becoming a hat-check girl at Sardi’s East. Or, more likely if not more cynically, Anybodys is letting Doc in on her exact plans and describing them perfectly, the "wistful" part emerging from her ambitious understanding that being a "telephone call girl" is superior to being the curbside kind. Notwithstanding any assessments of the character’s education or grammatical skills, the phrase contains a redundancy (wherein lies the comedic effect of the line) in that "call girl" in itself specifically indicates the use of a telephone.

Casual (i.e. "I'm a casual, Baby John.") (P) A-rab is both re-assuring Baby John and bragging to him, with the quiet pride of a grizzled veteran, about the fresh cut inflicted on his ear by Bernardo, undoubtedly contemplating the boost in status the scar will afford him. As he did with "protocality" and "we suspicion the job…" Mr. Laurents perpetuates the idea that street youths acquire some basic familiarity with their native language and then go blissfully on their own when trying to express themselves with it. A "casual" is A-rab’s idea of a wounded or injured person, especially as the result of an attack or injury in battle, even a street war. Actually: "casualty."

D.T.'s Delirium tremens is the medical name for a condition resulting from alcohol dependency and alcoholism withdrawal, one that produces hallucinations and physical agitation, including tremors. Lieutenant Schrank is most assuredly not inquiring after the good health of A-rab’s father. As he does with Action, the policeman is taking sarcastic and rather deplorable note of the fact that the Jets come from families whose members may not be model citizens and thus are no better than the Sharks, which, coming from Schrank’s lips, is meant as a piercing insult.

Emeralds Though gangs like the Jets did indeed exist, formed without a common ethnic bond, it was just as likely that members of a gang (such as the Sharks) achieved their camaraderie through nationalistic, religious or other sociological links. Gangs that were exclusively Irish, Italian, German, Polish, Chinese, African-American, or Jewish were (and most likely still are) the norm, their heritage often reflected in their colors and sometimes even in their name. Thus the speculation results that the clobbered "Emeralds" were likely to be a gang of Irish toughs. The film-only "Hawks" are less easily identifiable. [This educated guess provides a convenient and plausible example of heritage pride among young gang members, but perhaps not a totally reliable one. In fairness we must add information obtained from Wikipedia.com, which states that "Emeralds" was the name given to the Jewish gang in the original East Side Story concept of Jews vs Catholics, and the inclusion of their name in the finished product is merely a carry-over. Corroboration of this information is still pending.]

Free enterprise (i.e. "My old man says them Puerto Ricans is ruinin' free enterprise.") (P) The standard definition of this now-ancient and much taken-for-granted practice—giving business and industrial concerns the freedom to trade and make a profit without interference, specifically government interference—was somewhat skewed and saturated by prejudice in the musical. Baby John's father is handing down a legacy of bitterness, attributing his own failure (or perceived or prospective failure) to the "infiltration" of Puerto Rican businessmen, who presumably offer comparable service and/or products at a competitive level not expected or appreciated by the existing "native" merchants. The picture emerges of a slovenly, indifferent business owner with a corner on the market, who is suddenly threatened by both the unwelcome arrival of a more skillful and aggressive competitor and the disloyalty of his departing customers.

Gallito (F)    ["ga-yee'-toe"] (Sp.) Little chicken. Thus: (1) coward. (2) weakling. Bernardo is using his first language to disparage the bravery and alleged pugilistic skills of his would-be opponent.

Glad Hand A glad-hand is an extended handshake that seems genuine to the unwary but warrants suspicion among the twice-burned. The person who offers a glad-hand is probably greeting you out of self-interested motives and not necessarily friendly ones. A glad-hander is a jovial, characteristically outgoing person whose private agenda is usually well-hidden behind a seemingly innocent façade of affable good cheer. As the saying went, after he shook your hand you would do well to count your fingers, although the definition of glad-hand includes an element of successful deception, and theoretically you would never know what hit you until it was too late. The association to the character in the musical is unclear since, at least in examining the best-known portrayal, there doesn’t appear to be a dubious bone in the man’s body. The description "cheerful" in the script supports the "glad" part, but a further description ("square") suggests the opposite of the knowing and devious glad-hander. Glad Hand is addressed by name in the film; in the play he is anonymous, except in the programs. When written the term is lower-cased and usually either hyphenated or treated as one word: "gladhand."

Hawks (F) See "Emeralds"

Hoodlum An idler, a street ruffian; mischief maker. This term generally suggests a person outside or at odds with the law, and is used disparagingly even in the hierarchy of the underworld, suggesting as it does an unmotivated, undisciplined miscreant in contrast to the smoother and better-grounded members of organized crime. Both Schrank and Doc use the word with this implied condescension.

Jailbait An under-aged person; literally, a person whose intimacy with an older partner will result in the latter's incarceration, in accordance with the laws protecting minors. Anybodys' use of the term toward Baby John is her way of saying he is juvenile and immature, with "jailbait" as a synonym for "kid."

JDs (F) See "Juvenile Delinquent"

Jewel (trucks) (F) The trucks surrounding the dancers in the "Cool" sequence are not props with an invented name painted on the side. At the time of the filming (in California), the Jewel Tea Company was a thriving operation, delivering tea in trucks such as these in the Los Angeles area and many other cities throughout the country. (Service in New York City in 1961 is unconfirmed.)

Thanks, Paul

Jukebox A vending machine that dispenses music. In addition to a pool table and a pinball machine, a jukebox was an inevitable fixture of any public establishment populated by teen-agers. Stocked (then) with 45 RPM recordings of the current hits, along with a handful of perennials, the "juke" offered a variety of songs that could be heard for an established price. Boys would happily drop dimes into the slot for a chance to dance with a girl whose favorite song he had just selected. (The film set of Doc’s does not appear to include space enough for a dance floor, but the stage Doc’s is where "Cool," takes place—nothing but room.) Action snaps the orders ("Grab some reading matter, play the juke") in an effort to maintain a cool, unsuspicious façade. The music of the Taunting of Anita is meant to be emanating, at least at first, from the jukebox.

Juvenile Delinquent A young person who habitually breaks the law, especially someone repeatedly charged with public antisocial behavior, such as vandalism or other misdeeds associated with youths who are idle and irresponsible. The term more often applies to relatively minor infractions of the law and not the more serious acts of hardened criminals. Despite his attempts to avoid dating the work, the librettist (and the lyricist?) repeatedly used a phrase that was so much a part of the language that perhaps no one realized its usage would prove to be temporary and was indeed going to be very much associated with its era. The problem of "Juvenile Delinquency" was the relentless subject of television shows and movies, newspaper articles and editorials, religious sermons, lectures, meetings of parents' organizations and of most civic, social and fraternal neighborhood groups. The irreverent sarcasm of "Gee, Officer Krupke" was more than just a playful put-down of the adult disciplinarian world, but in context it was an attack on (and a spoof of) the national concern of this growing problem and the perceived inadequacies of the various solutions offered by the legal, medical and sociological communities. In the film Riff uses the term "JDs" to describe himself and his gang, and this breezy designation was also borrowed from the language of real life. While the problem never went away, the term itself faded into disuse in favor of more explicit and perhaps better-informed terminology, but not before popping up again in the score of Bye Bye Birdie as "…another teen-age delinquent."

Kiddando (P) One of several nonce words invented by Arthur Laurents to provide slangy street flavor to the dialogue without using the real slang of the day, which, he felt, would date the work. Bernardo uses this word, presumably as a slur or a challenge or both, to encourage Tony to fight him at the rumble. There is a suggestion of chumminess in the epithet that unintentionally dilutes the sting of the thrust, and the word was replaced in the film by an actual Spanish word gallito [q.v.] whose precise meaning is a little clearer.

Palisades Amusement Park (F) An amusement park in the New York metropolitan area, advertised on a poster on a wall near Doc's candy store. If the street in front of Doc’s is in fact a Hollywood set, then it follows that the poster displayed on the neighboring wall must in fact be a prop. If so, it is a trustworthy one, as exact as it could be in replicating the real product, which at the time was as familiar to citizens of the area as the corner mailbox. Logo, image and copy have been faithfully reproduced, and the brief background glimpses offered in the film (visible behind the Jets during the sidewalk scene in which "Gee, Officer Krupke" is sung, and also prominent in the scenes where Tony is walking away from the dance, singing "Maria") provides both the intended subtle touch of authenticity and, for those aforementioned citizens looking back, a little tug of nostalgia. Sitting atop the Jersey cliffs across the river from Manhattan’s West Side, Palisades Amusement Park was a well-known, much-loved and undeniably irresistible fact of life for New Yorkers and New Jerseyans between the years 1908 and 1971. Opening day at the Park was as reliable a sign of spring as were the crocus and the tax collector. Available to visitors for the duration of the warm-weather months was an extraordinary variety of rides, side-shows, arcades, picnic grounds, shooting galleries, test-your-strength challenges, the occasional visiting circus, knock-over-the-whatever-and-win-your-gal-a-kewpie-doll come-ons, photo booths, a dance pavilion, a live-show pavilion, and what seemed to be an uncountable number of snack bars, ice cream shops and concession stands offering every imaginable type of day-tripping junk food. The price of admission to the rides could be as low as five cents on bargain days; admission to the Park itself, shameless or not, was sometimes free. The Park was many things to many people: a wondrous oversized playground for children, a solution to a number of teenage and young-adult issues relative to Date Night (including issues relative to Date Night with No Date), a destination for family excursions, a refreshing open-air getaway for weary city dwellers (lured by New Yorker-directed ad campaigns: "Come on over!") as well as a break in the monotony for lives less hectic, and, most famously, a quasi trip to the beach in the heart of the asphalt jungle, since its most popular (and most notably and thoroughly advertised) attraction was "The World’s Largest Outdoor Salt Water Pool." Palisades Park was at once a thrill-packed adventure and a pleasant and relaxing day’s outing, a dependable mainstay for folks growing up in the area—and for those who refused to grow up—until its ultimate sale in the real estate game in 1971. Read all about it Official Site             Wikipedia.com

Pass (i.e. "She's too dark to pass.") This line is often misunderstood as implying that the Jets have created a white man’s fortress with invisible barriers, and they are obliged to keep out people whose skin is a different shade, thus: "She's too dark to pass," meaning Anita is the wrong color to enter the sanctum of Doc's cellar. In fact the speaker is referring to another regrettable element of American prejudice. Facing bigotry in the workplace, schools, and society in general, members of minorities who were light-skinned sometimes took the chance of being "light enough to pass," that is pretend to be white in order to obtain a certain job, piece of real estate, or any other opportunity or commodity normally denied to minorities. This duplicity was usually met with the scorn and outrage of the deceiver’s peers. The Jet in West Side Story is doing a grim play on words regarding this type of masquerade, as insulting to Anita as any expletive imaginable.

Potsy (i.e. "They don't play potsy.") (F) Potsy is an archaic (and perhaps regional?) name for the game of hopscotch, which is played as follows: A diagram is drawn on the sidewalk, a marker is thrown, and players negotiate a route by hopping across the court according to certain rules and restrictions, either on one foot or two, turning, and working their way back to the start. Maria probably knew, without being told, that her brother and his gang were not meeting the Jets under the highway for a game of hopscotch, but by now she must be accustomed to her friend’s flippant style. Anita’s gift for brusque irony is in full play here. Her slightly disparaging, slightly rueful, but ultimately instructive remark to Maria about the boys’ plans for the evening emphasizes her continuing role as the younger girl’s teacher and advisor, sarcastic or not. There is the slightest tinge of respect in Rita Moreno’s multi-layered delivery of the line, a muted note of warning that the Sharks are to be taken seriously.

Queer (i.e. "queer for Uncle Sam") (F) Infatuated, obsessed; ga-ga. In addition to its original meaning of "odd," or "curious," and its later identity as a slur toward gay people (not to mention its still-later incarnation as a self-referential vogue word among gay people themselves), the word "queer" had an additional meaning that fell out of usage around the general time of the filming. "Queer" was used to describe a person who was head over heels in love with someone or something. A person could be queer for cars, queer for pizza, queer for fine clothes, and all it meant was that he was rabidly and insanely devoted to the object of his affection, to the exclusion of the other more sensible elements in his life. Bernardo is japingly accusing Anita of forgetting her island roots and losing her head over her adopted home.

Querida (Sp.) A term of affection; dear. "Querida" is used to great effect in three different ways. Rosalia's harmless barb ("Gracias, querida") is tinged with a little condescension relative to the dialogue ("Thank you, sweetie"). Maria's offer to Anita ("You go, querida...") is meant to sound sincere, to mask her little deception ("Go ahead, dear...") while Anita's rejoinder repeats the offer in a knowing and accusing tone, and "querida" is delivered with stinging sarcasm.

Real down boys (F) Riff is advising his troops something they surely already know, that the Sharks are tough, knowing, wary, and perhaps a little crafty. Russ Tamblyn's delivery expertly manages to include a tinge of respect as well. The line is an effective upgrade from the playscript's: "...and they are tough."

Rumble A street fight, especially one fought by members of rival gangs. What happens in West Side Story does not meet the prevailing definition of a rumble, though the popularity of the work, ironically, has fortified the idea that any skirmish among street youths constitutes a rumble. At the time, a rumble was an escalated battle at which the strength of the entire gang was put to the test, not just the skills of shrewdly selected representatives. Until Tony's fair-fight suggestion changes the matter, Riff is planning a "traditional" rumble with which to challenge Bernardo, an all-out fight involving all the members of both gangs, literally a small war. The Jets' dismissal of Tony's offer ("That ain't a rumble") refers not only to the unexpected idea of a fistfight in place of the anticipated armed confrontation ("Not even garbage?"), but more specifically to the fact that the day will be carried thanks to the efforts of only one member of the victorious side, doubtlessly leaving some personal glories (and perhaps some private agendas) unfulfilled.

Settlement house In both the play and the film the site of the dance is called the "gym," and the music that accompanies the scene is officially called "The Dance at the Gym," a suite of six different movements.* Some audience members have decided that the gym is a facility attached to the neighborhood school that some of the gang members still may be attending. The playscript follows suit by placing the scene simply in "the gym," but goes on to describe the setting as "a converted gymnasium of a settlement house, at the moment being used as a dancehall, disguised for the occasion with streamers and bunting;" the film script, as published in the "Special Edition" DVD collection, uses a similar description and also identifies the venue as a settlement house. Exactly what is a settlement house? By all accounts they were establishments set up to meet the sociological, medical, educational, and employment needs of an underprivileged community. Where most other welfare agencies provided specific services to their clients, the settlement houses were designed to improve neighborhood life in general, in many different ways, and in fact to assume a role as part of the neighborhood, rather than as a separate and specialized service, such as a health clinic. The needs of a community usually dictated the services performed by the house, which typically were quite extensive. Today's community centers, day-care facilities, halfway houses and homeless shelters are all descendants of this mid-nineteenth century institution, the most famous of which was Jane Addams' Hull House. An organization with a mandate to improve the quality of everyday life in a crowded urban area would certainly be eager to provide an evening’s worth of entertainment and distraction to the neighborhood street youths, and the well-meaning but doomed attempt of the dance's co-ordinator to bring the opposing gangs to a friendly truce on the dance floor is perfectly consistent with the ambitious mission of the settlement house. *In several written and filmed interviews, Tony Mordente, who staged part of the film sequence, has referred to the set almost exclusively as "dancehall," and several of his colleagues have used the same term in describing the scene and the set.

Thanks to Barbara, Marcy and Gary B.

Skoit An outer-borough rendition of "skirt," more Hollywood than authentically Manhattan.

Snowboy The term "snowman" has at least two definitions in street argot. (1) A cool guy, savvy, worldly and unflappable. (2) A dealer of "snow," more street lingo for a white powdery substance that is sold under the counter. These two suggestions are the result of your Web Host's speculation and their possible relevance to this entry has not been validated by anyone directly associated with the masterwork.

Social disease When the headshrinker in "Gee, Officer Krupke" states that juvenile delinquency is purely a social disease, an intriguing little puzzle emerges. Does the boy actually know what he is saying? Did he hear the term at home or on television and mistakenly take it to mean "anti-social behavior"? Or is he simply pulling the collective leg of the rest of the gang? Exactly who is kidding whom? "Social disease" was and is a polite euphemistic term for venereal disease, or STDs as they are now known. Early audiences were heard to howl with laughter at the notion that "no one wants a fella with a social disease," than which a truer word was never spoken, but whether Mr. Sondheim’s joke is on the boy himself, on the other Jets or on the uncaring audience remains deliciously unclear.

Soda jerker (more commonly, "soda jerk") A person who serves food and beverages at a soda fountain. For the phrase "just our bringing upke," Mr. Sondheim uncharacteristically employed a Johnny Mercer technique of stretching or mangling a word for a rhyme. It might appear that the trick is repeated here, but the lyricist fooled us as usual; "soda jerker" was indeed the correct usage in earlier decades, though by 1957 the term was shortened to "soda jerk." Either way, the singer of "Gee, Officer Krupke" wants the "woild" to know that he is not interested in taking a job, much less this ordinary, unglamourous and blatantly "square" one. "Soda jerk" is said to come from the act of pulling or jerking the tap of a soda fountain to draw the beverage, and is not a comment on the employee's mental prowess or lack of same.

Stork Club, The (F) A prominent New York night club of the era. This venerable watering hole was the fashionable insiders’ base of operations for decades in New York City. Populated by a cross section of entertainment icons, politicians, sports figures, columnists and anonymous fat cats, The Stork Club was the last word in New York society for the duration of its solid and presumably lucrative run. Deals and reputations were made (and destroyed) over drinks at the small, sought-after tables of this renowned bistro. The Stork Club would indeed be the last place on earth Krupke would think to look for A-rab, but the zinging little riposte exactly captures A-rab’s penchant for insolence and wit. Read all about it

Tea The singer of "Gee, Officer Krupke" is comically suggesting that his grandmother is a dealer, a seller of marijuana. This one is wide open and can vary by geographical location. "Tea" can refer to (1) one method of growing the stuff, which calls for used tea leaves as compost, and also to the fact that (2) like any herb the drug can be "brewed" in water and consumed in liquid form. A gathering of marijuana users is sometimes called a Tea Party.

Trucks (in garage) (F) See "Jewel"

Uncle (slang) Surrender. To "cry uncle" is to give up to an attacker, usually from a position of extreme disadvantage or near or virtual defeat. 1) In Scene Two, having been pinned down by Tony, Riff hollers "uncle" in a clever segue from a mention of his actual uncle. 2) In the Quintet, the Jets are prepared to accept the surrender of the Sharks at the fair-fight: "…and when he’s hollered 'uncle' / We’ll tear up the town…" Read all about it

Village Idiot The slow, dim-witted and oblivious person in a village or any small community singled out and invariably ridiculed for his mental deficiencies and dullness. Doc is explaining that he is powerless to change the behavior and events surrounding him, and as a result of his frustrating uselessness he perforce does nothing. His attitude changes by the end of the show with the opportunity to offer financial help to Tony.

Womb to tomb... Riff and Tony obviously have a ritualistic agreement defining and confirming their friendship and its anticipated duration. "Womb to tomb" means from birth to death, i.e. "for as long as we live." In the play, the rejoinder is "Sperm to worm," which constitutes an even longer commitment: literally from the initial process of their conception to the ultimate process of their corpses’ decay. The second half of the exchange was replaced in the film by "birth to earth," a presumably more delicate way of saying "from beginning to end," "earth" signifying the ground in which a body is buried. The couplet is repeated in the stage version of The Quintet.

Youth Board (F) In his rapid and not easily understood delivery of "the Youth Board corrupted him," Snowboy is explaining his understanding of the reason for Tony's desertion of the Jets and why it is probably permanent. Tony apparently has received advice or counseling from a neighborhood guidance or youth assistance agency, the kind of adult-intervention situation that the Jets deride later as the various characters in "Gee, Officer Krupke."

Zip gun A home-made street weapon. The appeal of these dangerous objects to street youths lay in their being easily available, made, as it were, in the boys' own backyard, sometimes literally. Zip guns consisted of a variety of improvised components, including elastic bands, blocks of wood, a car antenna, and even such household items such as a coffee percolator, the diameter of whose barrel snugly accommodates .22 caliber ammunition. The zip gun’s great claim to fame is the disquieting statistic that the assailant operating the gun has as much or better chance of being injured than the target, due, in the latter case, to the high degree of inaccuracy this crude handgun provides, and, in the former, because of the high incidence of the make-shift construction exploding in the user’s hand. Nor did innocent bystanders always walk away under their own steam. The apprehension displayed by some of the Jets at the grim prospect of being at either end of--or even in the vicinity of--a zip gun is easily understandable.

Return to FRABBAJABBA HOME