Thread by @ATRightMovies

GREASE was released 46 years ago today. One of the most popular musicals to come out of Hollywood and one of the movies that launched the career of John Travolta, the behind the scenes story is like greased lightnin’…

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In February 1971, Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey’s musical Grease debuted at the Kingston Mines club in Chicago. A big Off-Broadway hit, it was Tony nominated and, at one point, featured a young Richard Gere. Film studios soon became interested…

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The creators received several offers, one of which came from Ralph Bakshi, director of 1978 animation The Lord Of The Rings. He bought the rights with the intention of creating an X-rated cartoon musical. It didn’t happen, and the rights expired

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Producer Allan Carr, who had a hit with rock opera Tommy in 1975, saw the Grease show and loved it. He bought the rights for $200,000 and took it to Paramount Pictures. The studio were on board but far from convinced, and greenlit just $6m as a budget.

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Carr hired American novelist Bronté Woodard to adapt the musical to a screenplay. The first draft of the script was submitted in 1976 and went through several drafts until it was approved. Even though no director was in the frame, Carr pressed ahead with finding his cast.

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As the male lead of Danny Zuko, the studio were keen on Henry Winkler, best-known as cool greaser Arthur ‘Fonzie’ Fonzarelli from Happy Days. Worried about being typecast, Winkler turned the role down. A decision he later said he regretted.

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At the time, Paramount had just signed an up-and-coming young actor, John Travolta, to a three-picture deal. He’d made his name on hit TV show Welcome Back, Kotter and was looking to make name in movies. Travolta read the script for Grease and signed up immediately.

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Travolta had recently filmed a TV movie called The Boy In The Plastic Bubble, and been impressed with its director, Randal Kleiser. He recommended Kleiser to Carr and, after a successful meeting, Kleiser was hired to direct Grease.

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The female lead is Sandy Olsson, love interest to Danny. Several names were considered for the part, including Ann-Margret and Susan Dey. Kleiser had been at film school with Star Wars creator George Lucas and spoke to him about possibly casting Carrie Fisher.

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Carr and Kleiser then set their sights on Marie Osmond, the teenage star who’d had success as a singer and actress. She was interested until she realised Sandy changed into a rebel and, worried about tarnishing her own ‘good girl’ image, Osmond turned the chance down.

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At this point, Carr attended a party thrown by Australian singer and actress, Helen Reddy. At the same party was Grammy Award-winning pop singer Olivia Newton-John. Already a household name, Carr thought ONJ perfect to play Sandy and she was offered the part.

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Newton-John had little acting experience and, at 28 years-old, worried she might be too old to play a high school teen. As such, she asked for a screen test with Travolta. “There was great chemistry” she said and, on being promised equal star billing, ONJ signed on.

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Lucille Ball's daughter Lucie Arnaz was up for the part of head of the Pink Ladies, Rizzo, but reportedly ruled out when her mother said “I used to own that studio; my daughter’s not doing a screen test!” (Ball owned DesiLu Productions, which Paramount had bought out).

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Instead, Carr turned to Stockard Channing, and she was cast. This was her second feature film appearance after The Fortune, and she said “You’re the hottest girl in town, and then two years later you’re in the tank.”

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At 33, Channing was the oldest cast member playing a teenager, and some ‘measures’ were taken: “Allan showed up on the set with a brown pencil and started dotting freckles on my nose so I would look younger,” Channing said. “I don’t look younger! I just look dirtier!”

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Kleiser also carried out what he called the "crow’s feet test" to see whether actors could pass for younger in close-ups. Further to that, softer focus was used on some of the older actors' faces.

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Didi Conn was cast as beauty school dropout and Pink Lady, Frenchy, after auditioning. The producers asker her to turn up dressed as Frenchy and Conn visited a salon, later saying: “I don’t know how many cans of hairspray she used but… everyone was just laughing at me!”

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Jeff Conaway had played the role of Danny Zuko on Broadway and was cast as fellow T-Bird Kenickie in the film. He gave the line “A hickey from Kenickie” new meaning by insisting he slap his lips on Channing for real, and did.

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Conaway apparently had a crush on Newton-John throughout filming, and ended up marrying her sister, Rona Newton-John. Travolta’s sister was involved too: Ellen Travolta played one of the waitresses watching the dance contest who exclaims: "Oh, there's Danny and Sandy."

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The title, Grease, came from the original musical as a nod to the 1950s and the era's hair, engines, and food, which were all greasy. A change from the musical is that the name of Danny’s gang was altered from The Burger Palace Boys to The T-Birds.

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Kleiser made some other changes from the musical, too. The setting was moved from inner-city Chicago to the suburbs. And Sandy was changed from a girl of Polish descent with surname Dumbrowski to Australian (like Newton-John) with surname Olsson.

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There were changes to the music, too. Raining On Prom Night was dropped from the original and in came Hopelessly Devoted To You. Kleiser thought about cutting Rizzo’s song There Are Worse Things I Could Do but Channing said Rizzo was one-dimensional without it.

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You’re The One That I Want was written by Newton-John’s songwriter John Farrar. ONJ recalled: “He came in my trailer at 6am. He played it and… I went ‘Oh God, it’s amazing.’” Barry Gibb was commissioned to write a song, and wrote the title track, sung by Frankie Valli.

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The animated title sequence was created by John David Wilson’s Fine Arts Films. The idea had been with Carr since Ralph Bakshi’s involvement. The cast had no idea about it so were thrilled when they attended the premiere.

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The opening sequence where we see Danny and Sandy’s first summer together was shot at Malibu's Leo Carrillo State Beach, making reference to love movie classic From Here to Eternity, which also filmed there.

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The Rydell High School-set scenes, including the parking lot scenes, auto shop, and gymnasium, were filmed at Venice High School in California.

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Elvis Presley was considered by Kleiser to play the part of The Teen Angel. Teen heartthrob Donnie Osmond was discussed too, before Kleiser hired Frankie Avalon. Didi Conn said she would’ve happily Let Avalon serenade her for the entire shoot.

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Avalon was scared of heights which caused some problems filming the Beauty School Dropout scene, us he had to descend a staircase with no railings. After two takes, Avalon told Kleiser he couldn’t do any more, so Kleiser had mattresses placed down each side of the stairs.

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Travolta was going through some problems. Just before filming, his girlfriend, actress Diana Hyland, had been suffering cancer, and passed away with Travolta at her side. He was in mourning and would call Kleiser at all hours of the morning during production.

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Carr was overruled in casting the Rydell staff. He wanted Andy Warhol as the art teacher, but a studio exec said “that man” couldn’t be cast. Carr also cast adult movie star Harry Reems as Coach Calhoun, until the studio intervened. Carr still paid Reems $5000.

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In the first drafts, Greased Lightnin’ was performed by The Beach Boys. In the musical, it was a Kenickie song, but Travolta had it changed, saying “I wanted the number. Because I had clout, I could get the number.” Jeff Conaway was understandably crushed by the change.

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There was a delay in production when filming the Thunder Road drag race sequence. It was filmed at the Los Angeles River, and Kleiser’s foot became infected. He said Travolta came to his trailer with a Scientology remedy, telling Kleiser to “feel my finger.”

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The dance contest sequence took a week to film and was shot in Huntington Park High School in Los Angeles. Temperatures hit a sweltering, causing some illness on the set. Michael Tucci, who played T-Bird Sonny, fainted and was taken to hospital.

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Newton-John was anxious about portraying Sandy’s final act change from clean-cut girl to rebel. She said Travolta talked to her and guided her through it, and she later said “When it happened, it was just this amazing feeling. Not just for Sandy. For me as well."

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You’re the One That I Want was worked out by choreographer Patricia Birch on the set and it took 7 hours to shoot. Lorenzo Lamas played a jock extra and said “We were just ear-to-ear grins. That’s when we knew this was going to be amazing.”

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The costume designer was Albert Wolsky, and he designed Sandy’s ‘bad girl’ outfit. He found the leather trousers in a second-hand store. They had no zipper and were so tight that Newton-John had to be sewn in and out of them every time she changed.

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In filming the final fairground sequence, Carr pulled out all the stops and rented a fully operational amusement park with real rides. Michael Tucci later said "It was like we weren't even shooting a movie; they were just shooting this wonderful experience.”

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Carr had signed a product placement deal with Pepsi before filming and had a mild panic when he realised the Frosty Palace scene showed Coca-Cola signage. The effects team blurred the image in the background and Carr hoped Pepsi didn’t notice (they didn’t)..

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Grease was released in June 1978 and, despite some (initially) unfavourable reviews, was a smash hit. From a $6m production budget, it would go on to gross a mammoth $396m worldwide. It was the biggest hit of the year, and the highest grossing musical of all time.

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Finally… the Grease soundtrack featuring music from the film was a story all of its own. Released two weeks before the film, it went to number 1 in the album charts and, in selling 28,000,000 copies is the 34th-highest selling album of all time.

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