"Grease", the off-Broadway musical, opened at the Kingston Mines in Chicago, Illinois in 1971.
The original Broadway production opened at the Eden Theater on February 14, 1972 and ran for three thousand three hundred eighty-eight performances, setting a record. Adrienne Barbeau and Barry Bostwick were in the original Broadway cast. John Travolta appeared at some time as a replacement on Broadway in the role of "Doody". Marilu Henner, an alumnus of the original Chicago production, appeared as a replacement in the role of "Marty". Patrick Swayze and Treat Williams were replacements as Danny Zuko. Richard Gere is also listed as an understudy to many male roles, including Danny Zuko. Gere played Zuko in the London production in 1973.
Grease was part of a three-movie deal onto which Producer Robert Stigwood signed John Travolta, including Saturday Night Fever (1977) and Moment by Moment (1978).
Danny's blue windbreaker at the beginning of this movie was intended as a nod to Rebel Without a Cause (1955).
When Dame Olivia Newton-John was cast as Sandy, her character's background had to be changed to accommodate Newton-John's background. In the original Broadway musical, Sandy was an all-American girl and her last name was Dumbrowski. In the movie version, she became Sandy Olsson from Australia. John Farrar, Newton-John's frequent songwriter, wrote two new songs for this movie while other songs from the Broadway musical were dropped.
Rydell High School is a reference to teen idol Bobby Rydell, who had a million selling hit with "Swingin' School" in 1960.
FILMING LOCATION - ‘Rydell High’ is a blending of three schools: the art-deco façade featured at the beginning of the film and in the musical number "Summer Nights" is Venice High School, 13000 Venice Boulevard; the school interiors, including the dance contest in the gym, were filmed at Huntington Park High School, 6020 Miles Avenue in Huntington Park, southeast of downtown Los Angeles; and the "You’re The One That I Want" carnival finale is staged on the sports fields of John Marshall High School, 3939 Tracy Street in Silverlake.
The movie featured 1950s luminaries such as Eve Arden, Dody Goodman, Sid Caesar, and Frankie Avalon. Grease 2 (1982) brought 1950s stars Connie Stevens and Tab Hunter into the mix. Eve Arden's role as Principal McGee is a nod to her earlier role as a teacher in Our Miss Brooks (1952).
Most of the principal cast were well past their high school years. When filming began in June 1977, Stockard Channing was thirty-three (in 1958, the year the film is set, Channing was in fact only three years younger than the age she is playing here), Michael Tucci was thirty-one, Jamie Donnelly was thirty, Annette Charles was twenty-nine, Dame Olivia Newton-John was twenty-eight, Barry Pearl was twenty-seven, Jeff Conaway was twenty-six, Didi Conn was twenty-five, John Travolta was twenty-three, Dinah Manoff was twenty-one, Kelly Ward and Eddie Deezen were twenty, and Lorenzo Lamas was nineteen.
Originally, “Grease” was set in urban Chicago, Illinois, not suburban Los Angeles, California. The "Summer Nights" number was originally called "Foster Beach", which is a popular beach in Chicago.
In the stage play, the song "Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee" had a reference to Sal Mineo, who was murdered in 1976. For the movie, the lyric was changed to reference Elvis Presley. Ironically, the slumber party scene in the movie, and the song, was filmed on August 16th, 1977, the day Presley died.
Barry Pearl choreographed the slapstick routine based on The Three Stooges.
The actual hand jive is a dance just for the hands. Choreographer Patricia Birch added the feet and jumps.
The "blonde pineapple" line was improvised by Barry Pearl (Doody).
During the high school dance scene, Danny is very badly singing along to a song ('Those Magic Changes') prompting a bewildered Sandy to sarcastically ask if he'd ever thought about singing professionally. This is in fact an in-joke reference to the fact John Travolta played Doody on Broadway, and in the stage version 'Those Magic Changes' is Doody's solo song (which Travolta would have ironically sang professionally).
Originally, Sandy was not supposed to participate in the dance contest at all. She was supposed to be sidetracked and subdued by Sonny before the contest even started, allowing Cha Cha to jump in and take her place and win the contest. But Dame Olivia Newton-John was anxious to do some dancing in the movie, even though she was not a professionally trained dancer like John Travolta. So she convinced Director Randal Kleiser to let her dance with Danny in the contest for a few minutes, and then for Sonny to jump in and subdue her a few minutes later.
Rizzo's hickeys were real. Stockard Channing said in an interview that Jeff Conaway insisted on applying them himself.
Jeff Conaway was so infatuated with Dame Olivia Newton-John he was tongue-tied whenever she was around. He later married Olivia's sister, Rona Newton-John.
The final musical scene, "You're the One That I Want", was filmed with the help of a traveling carnival. Director Randal Kleiser decided the next day that additional shots were needed for close-ups. The carnival had left town, so set decorators were called in to build replica backgrounds that matched the carnival rides' construction for the close-ups.
"Grease" may be "the word" and the title, but it is never said once in the entire movie. The only time you hear anything close to it, is when you hear the word "greased" in the song "Greased Lightning" (and, of course in the animated opening credits, as well in the closing credits).
At the cast party, the T-Bird actors handed out buttons with a picture of them mooning the camera.
The official premiere after-party was at Studio 54.
Grease opened at #2 on its opening weekend behind Jaws 2 (released that same weekend). However, it went to #1 a week later and went on to become the highest grossing film of all time along with re-releases.
In 2020, the film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Trivia items from IMDB; Filming location from Movie-Locations.com
Listen to my fascinating conversation with actor Barry Pearl who played Doody in the iconic 1978 movie musical “GREASE” by clicking the links below
Episode 11 - HERE
Episode 12 - HERE
