20 facts you might not know about 'Grease'

Grease is a throwback to the 1950s, and that throwback first happened well before the 1978 film. Grease began as a stage musical in 1971, and it eventually made its way to Broadway. The show was nominated for several Tonys, but didn’t win any.

Randall Kleiser, who was making his directorial debut, was able to make some change to the film version of the show. That included moving the setting from inner-city Chicago to the suburbs. There is also one other notable difference between the play and the musical, and that’s the fact the T-Birds were originally known as the “Burger Palace Boys” on stage. Yes, really.

Obviously, as an adaptation of a stage musical, there was plenty of music incumbent to Grease. That didn’t include a theme song for the opening credits, though, given that plays don’t tend to have opening credits. Kleiser wanted to use a song that had been written by Charles Fox and Paul Williams. Then, producers Robert Stigwood and Allan Carr went behind his back to commission a song from Barry Gibb, and that ended up being used as the theme song.

Henry Winkler was given the opportunity to play Danny Zuko, the lead in Grease. However, he turned it down, fearing being typecast after years of playing The Fonz on Happy Days. While Winkler has had an excellent career in the ensuing years, he has said he regrets turning down the role of Danny.

Travolta was a big star by 1978, and he had some music history in his past as well, both in terms of starring in Saturday Night Fever and recording the top-10 hit “Let Her In.” He also had firsthand experience with Grease. In his younger days, he had played Doody in a touring production of the musical.

Jeff Conaway got a solid role in Kenickie, the second-biggest male role in the movie. However, it was still a step down for the actor. He had played Danny on Broadway. Only one Broadway actor reprised their role in the film. That would be Jamie Donnelly, who played Jan.

Many a name was considered for Sandy. Marie Osmond was offered the role, but she decided to turn it down. She worried that Sandy’s turn at the end would hurt her image. Also in the running were Ann-Margret, Susan Dey, and Carry Fisher. Ultimately, John Travolta recommended Olivia Newton-John.

When Newton-John was brought in to screen test to play Sandy, she was basically just known as a singer. In fact, she only had two acting credits to her name. That being said, for a musical, a singer is a reasonable choice for a lead role. There was one concern, though. When Newton-John screen tested, she simply could not pull off an American accent. As such, when she was cast, the role was rewritten to make Sandy an Australian.

Back in the day, it wasn’t uncommon for teenage characters to be played by adults. Grease took things to the next level, though. Stockard Channing, who plays Rizzo, was 33 when filming the movie. Meanwhile, the aforementioned Donnelly was a bit older than when she played Jan on stage. She had to dye her hair, as it had begun to go gray.

Lorenzo Lamas plays Tom, the popular athlete who vies for Sandy’s affection opposite Danny. His role didn’t require dialogue, but he was actually a replacement for a replacement in the role. Steven Ford was cast in the role, but he then developed a case of stage fright and dropped out of the project. They wanted Mark Fidrych for the role, too, and it made sense given that he was a professional athlete. However, the fact he was pitching in MLB kept him from being able to film the part.

Perhaps in honor of the movie's 1950s setting, a few veterans of ‘50s entertainment were cast in supporting roles in Grease. That includes television icons Eve Arden and Sid Caesar, who play Principal McGee and Coach Calhoun, respectively. Then, of course, there’s Frankie Avalon as the Teen Angel.

For the one-scene, one-song role of the Teen Angel, the production considered Elvis Presley. Now, Elvis would have been a huge name, but he died just before production began. Donny Osmond, brother of Marie Osmond, was also considered. Ultimately, neither Osmond ended up in the movie.

The vast majority of the exterior scenes of Rydell High were shot at Venice High School in Venice, California. Meanwhile, for the interiors, Huntington Park's Huntington Park High School was naturally used. Lastly, the carnival at the end of the film was shot at John Marshall High School. It’s in Los Feliz, not a neighborhood called “John Marshall.”

The Frosty Palace was built on set, and the set design involved a lot of Coca-Cola signs. There was only one problem. Producer Allan Carr made a product placement deal with Pepsi. Suddenly, Carr wanted to reshoot the Frosty Palace scenes with Pepsi signs, but that proved too time consuming and costly, so the Coca-Cola iconography was all blurred out instead. One Coca-Cola cooler was not obscured, but Pepsi apparently did not complain.

A few songs from the Broadway musical didn’t make the cut for the film. Most notably, Sandy’s song “Raining on Prom Night.” Meanwhile, a few songs were added, including “Hopelessly Devoted to You” and “You’re the One That I Want.” On top of that, “Greased Lightnin’” becomes a Danny song, whereas it’s a Kenickie song in the play. There was almost one more song cut, but Channing fought to keep “There Are Worth Things I Could Do” for Rizzo so that she wouldn’t be a one-dimensional character.

“Look at Me, I’m Sandra Dee” is in the film, and it’s largely the exact same song as on stage. However, one name was swapped out. Sal Mineo was replaced with Elvis, because Mineo had been murdered a year before the movie started filming.

Grease opened as the No. 2 film in the box office, and then became the top movie in its second weekend. It ended its initial run with $132.5 million domestically, making it the highest-grossing movie of 1978. Grease was the highest-grossing musical worldwide until 2012 and domestically until 2017. Thanks to a handful of re-releases, Grease has made $366.2 million worldwide off of a budget of $6 million.

Man, people love the music of Grease. It reached No. 1 on Billboard's album chart, and it finished 1978 as the second-highest-selling album of the year? In first? The soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever. On top of that, the album provided three No. 1 hits in the United States, all three of them original songs: “Grease,” “You’re the One That I Want,” and “Hopelessly Devoted to You.”

In 1982, we got Grease 2. However, it’s a decidedly different film. None of the main characters return for the film, with the biggest character from the first movie to return is Didi Conn as Frenchy. The film was an early role for Michelle Pfeiffer, but it flopped at theaters, making $15.2 million worldwide off of an $11.2 million budget. In the intervening years, though, it has become a bit of a cult classic.

No stone goes unturned in modern media. Grease got the live TV adaptation in 2016, and now, we have a couple more Grease projects potentially coming our way. A prequel movie called Summer Lovin’ was announced in 2019, but that project has seemingly gone a bit fallow. On the other hand, a musical TV series based on the film does seem to be coming. Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies began shooting in January 2022 and is planned to arrive on Paramount+ at some point.