Grease was originally planned to be a lot grittier than the final product. The original goal was to be a little more realistic regarding the language used in the film and the behavior of the teenagers in the film. Of course, the title is based on everything greasy in the ‘50s – the hair, the food, and the engines.
Nevertheless, they ended up not going full Greaser when it came to the 1950s antics. The gangs in it are much more subdued and really just rebellious teens in cool jackets. The final result is a film that is much more family-friendly and that really helped it to become such a timeless classic.
Henry Winkler was the original choice for Danny Zuko. And no, it wasn’t because they discovered John Travolta and ended up going with him because they thought he would be so much better. No, it was the fact that Henry Winkler just didn’t want to do it, having also played Arthur Fonzarelli on “Happy Days.”
Like Danny, “The Fonz” is a greaser-type character with a heart of gold. Henry Winkler proved that he could play the part well, having played a similar role on “Happy Days,” but Winkler did not want to be typecast, so he turned the part down. Paramount was disappointed but they definitely found a terrific replacement. Everything happens for a reason.
Marie Osmond was a frontrunner for the role of Sandy, in large part because of her ability to sing and because she embodied Sandy’s purity which made her well suited for the role. However, as a Mormon, Osmond rejected the bad girl transformation that happens at the end, so she had to decline the role.
Marie Osmond’s first feature film ended up being Goin’ Coconuts, a comedy film that also starred her brother Donny. It was a critical and commercial failure. While things didn’t end up quite working out for her when it came to that project, it was a good thing she turned it down, because it’s really hard to imagine anyone other than Olivia Newton-John playing Sandy in the film.
The character Sandy wasn’t originally supposed to be Australian in the original script. Sandy was American but they ended up changing where she was from to better suit the part for Olivia Newton-John, who was, in fact, Australian. American film producer Allan Carr discovered Olivia Newton-John after sitting across from her at a dinner party.
Apparently, she had the perfect look for the Sandy that he needed for part, and as a country-singer, she also had the singing voice for it. The problem, nonetheless, was that she couldn’t do an American accent to save her life. So, the character’s origins were slightly altered and the character’s last name was changed from Dumbrowski to Olsson.
Jeff Conaway was already a Grease alum when he was onboard with the film version. He originally acted in the Broadway version of the musical, in which he played Danny Zuko - among other characters - as an understudy. However, his part in the movie as Kenickie would be set in stone.
While it wasn’t the leading part that belonged to Travolta, he still knocked it out of the part as the sidekick. And besides that, playing the main role may have just been too much for him as Conaway allegedly had a huge crush on Olivia Newton-John and was absolutely tongued-tied around her. The actor ended up marrying her sister.
The film has a clear reference to another coming-of-age story about rebellious teens in love and that’s the film Rebel Without a Cause. The reference is Danny’s blue windbreaker jacket at the beginning of Grease; it’s a nod to James Dean’s similar red windbreaker in Rebel Without a Cause.
Rebel Without a Cause was one of the defining movies of the 1950s. The film resonated with the youth of the ‘50s who felt unheard. The film touched on themes of parenting and generational gaps. It’s a much more serious film than Grease but it certainly has a similar atmosphere since it takes place in the decade it was filmed.
While they may have all done a decent job acting like kids in high school, in terms of their looks and actual ages, they were much to old to have actually been in high school. Had the movie been about greasers getting their GEDs, then sure, but much of the cast were in their late 20s or early 30s.
John Travolta was 29 when he filmed the movie, Olivia Newton-John was 28, and Stockard Channing was 33 years old. Jamie Donnelly, who was 30, actually had gray hairs. To make the cast look younger, a soft focus lens was used on them to smooth out their faces. Of course, casting people who were much too old to be in high school as a high school students was pretty typical.
When it came to putting Grease on film, there was a bit of discrepancy as to just how many songs the story really needed. The producers of the film felt it needed more and so a total of four more songs were added in the film at last minute, including “Grease,” “Sandy,” and the ending song – “You’re the One that I Want.”
“Hopelessly Devoted to You” was the last song added to the film. It was filmed and recorded after the filming had already wrapped up. It was written in Olivia Newton-John’s contract that she have a solo song in the film. While the song had been written during filming, they never figured out how to use it in the movie until later. But it was a good thing they added it, because it earned the film its only Oscar nomination.
The T-Birds, if you are familiar with the movie, are the teen gang that Danny Zuko (played by Travolta) belongs to in the film. The whole gang attends Rydell High School. They are named in honor of the Ford Thunderbird, which was a well-known 1950s car. It certainly sets the tone for the gang and what they are all about.
Nevertheless, in the original Broadway musical, they have a much sillier and somewhat juvenile name that’s decidedly not rebellious sounding at all. In the original version, the gang is called The Burger Palace Boys, having named themselves after their favorite restaurant. Imagine being a gang and calling yourselves The Burger King Boys – it’s a bit like that.
Teen Angel is a character briefly featured in the song “Beauty School Dropout,” featured in the film. The ironic comedy song features Frenchy’s guardian angel, Teen Angel, singing to her, dressed in all white. In the film, Frankie Avalon plays the character in a mere cameo role.
Originally, the idea was to have Elvis Presley fulfill the role. However, he died during the filming of Grease so that plan was not going to work out for obvious reasons. Ironically enough, a reference to Sal Mineo was cut from the film because the actor had died in real life, and it was changed to become a reference to Elvis – but then Elvis died too.
The carnival scene really had to be shot in one day because the fair was only in town for a single day. That meant that most of the filming of the final scene was finished in less than 24 hours. They did, however, have to recreate parts of the rides at the fair for the purposes of close-up shots.
Since the traveling carnival had left town the very next day, director Randal Kleiser had set decorators create replica backgrounds of the rides construction. This happened often before the age of CGI and the constructed backgrounds blend seamlessly in the movie and they really worked with Grease because we didn’t even notice!
Olivia Newton-John’s outfit at the end of Grease is iconic. In part, because it’s the big turning point for her character but also because she looks so damn good in those pants. Unfortunately, achieving that look was not without effort. Apparently, those pants didn’t even quite fit her when it came to filming the final scene.
The pants were apparently too tight and the zipper ended up breaking on the pants, so she had to be sewn into them each morning during filming. She couldn’t gain any more weight either or the pants would not fit at all. She had to watch what she ate and even how much water she drank. To make matters worse, it was 106 degrees outside.
The success of Grease really can’t be understated. The 1978 film was made with a budget of just $6 million and it ended up earning a whopping $366.2 million at the box office. It was both critically and commercially successful, although not everyone loved it back then.
The film became the highest-grossing musical ever made at the time and it remains the highest-grossing musical of the 20th century. In 1978, its soundtrack was the second best-selling album of that year, behind only the soundtrack for another Travolta film, Saturday Night Fever. In 2020, the film was selected for preservation by the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.
The famous leather jacket and pants worn by Olivia Newton-John at the end of the film were kept safe by the actress for years, but she never wore them again. We venture to say it was probably because they weren’t very comfortable. Eventually, she auctioned them off to someone who might appreciate them even more.
In an effort to raise money for a breast cancer charity, she auctioned off the iconic leather jacket to a man who paid $243,200 for it in 2019. However, the man paid the money and gave the jacket back to her. With the pants included, the entire outfit raised $405,700 at auction, of which the proceeds went to the research of breast cancer, the disease that claimed her life.
Chewing gum was certainly a big thing in the 1950s and the introduction of sugarless gum really made it a healthier habit than it previously was. To reflect the popularity of chewing gum, you might notice that in Grease, the characters are chewing gum quite a bit, actually. Needless to say, the actors were going through a lot of it, chewing up to five pieces per day
Allegedly, a whopping 100,000 pieces of bubble gum were chewed during the filming of Grease. That’s a heck of a lot of gum but at least chewing gum burns calories. Frankly, I don’t know how they did it. Surely, there must have been complaints of sore jaws and headaches while shooting. But a fun fact nonetheless!
