17 things you probably didn’t know about ‘Grease’

Before “Grease” became a movie-musical sensation in the late 1970s, it was a Tony-nominated Broadway musical that opened in February 1972. The show was later revived in 1994 and 2007.

Additionally, in 2016, Fox aired its “Grease Live!” television special, based on the musical, starring Aaron Tveit, Julianne Hough, Vanessa Hudgens, Carly Rae Jepsen, and Keke Palmer. 

It’s not uncommon for actors in their early 20s to play teens, but some members of the “Grease” cast were much older than that.

Stockard Channing (Rizzo) was 33, Jamie Donnelly (Jan) was 30, and Olivia Newton-John (Sandy) turned 29 during filming. 

John Travolta (Danny Zuko), Jeff Conaway (Kenickie), and Didi Conn (Frenchy) were some of the younger castmates at 23, 27, and 25, respectively. 

The film’s cocreator, Jim Jacobs, told Yahoo News in 2018 that Hollywood director Ralph Bakshi pitched “Grease” as an X-rated cartoon. He was well known for his animated hits like “Fritz the Cat,” but Jacobs wasn’t sold on his vision.

Instead, producer Allan Carr won the rights and made it a live-action film — but it still featured an animated opening-credits scene.

Henry Winkler’s “Happy Days” character, Fonzie, basically was Danny Zuko, so he was a natural first thought for the film.

But Winkler had been playing the ABC role for a decade, so he passed on “Grease.”

During an appearance on “The Rachael Ray Show” in 2019, the actor called it “one of the great decisions” of his life because Travolta “deserved” the role and ended up being so right for it.

“Grease” director Randal Kleiser was friends with “Star Wars” creator George Lucas.

When Kleiser was casting Sandy, he watched some footage of Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia to see if she’d be right for the role. But he ultimately couldn’t judge her singing or dancing talent and decided to pursue other options. 

Travolta was familiar with the movie’s source material before he was ever considered for the role of Danny Zuko. 

In the early 1970s, the actor played Doody in the Broadway production of the “Grease” musical.

Prior to being cast in “Grease,” the late Newton-John was already a popular singer with multiple hits. But she wasn’t sure of her abilities as an actor.

During a 1981 appearance on “The Merv Griffin Show,” she said that she wanted to see herself in a screen test with Travolta before accepting the role. That way if she didn’t think she was any good, she could drop out.

Fortunately, Newton-John was comfortable enough to proceed as Sandy. 

A 2016 Vanity Fair article revealed that Elvis Presley was up for the role of the Teen Angel, which eventually went to “Beach Party” star Frankie Avalon. 

Even though the rock-and-roll legend didn’t appear in the film, he was referenced in a lyric from the song “Look at Me, I’m Sandra Dee.”

During the film’s sleepover scene, Rizzo sings the song and does a little pelvis shake next to a picture of the musician during the line, “Elvis, Elvis, let me be. Keep that pelvis far from me.”

Presley died on August 16, 1977, the same day the sleepover scene was shot.

“It was very eerie,” Kleiser told the New York Post in 2010. “It was all over the news, so everyone knew. We did this number, and everybody kind of looked at each other like, ‘Yeah, this is creepy.'”

Vanity Fair also reported in 2016 that original drafts of “Grease” included a cameo from The Beach Boys singing “Greased Lightnin’.”

Even if The Beach Boys didn’t sing “Greased Lightnin’,” in the stage musical, it was originally meant to be Kenickie’s song.

But Travolta wanted the song for himself and his character, Danny.

“I have to be completely honest with you,” Travolta told Vanity Fair in 2016. “I wanted the number. And because I had clout, I could get the number.”

That same clout also came in handy when Travolta asked if his sister, Ellen, could have a small part in the film.

She’s an actor in her own right, but it was her brother who put in the good word for her with the “Grease” production team.

Ellen told The Spokesman-Review in 2018 that she was visiting the set one day when her brother asked if she wanted to be in the movie.

Ellen played one of the waitresses watching the high-school dance contest on TV. Her big line was, “Oh, there’s Danny and Sandy.”

Like many movies that are adapted from Broadway musicals, “Grease” added original songs to its soundtrack — perhaps in the hopes of an award nomination. 

Sandy’s big solo, “Hopelessly Devoted to You” wasn’t in the original Broadway musical. John Farrar, Newton-John’s music producer, wrote it specifically for the movie, and it did, in fact, earn the production an Oscar nomination for best original song. 

The other original songs from the film are “Grease” and “You’re the One That I Want.”

One of the film’s DVD extras revealed that actor Conaway actually gave Channing, his on-screen love interest, hickeys during filming.

Carr didn’t skimp on the set details for the film’s big finale.

Michael Tucci, who played Sonny told Yahoo in 2018 that the producer rented a fully operational carnival with real rides and everything.

“It was just a big party,” he said. “It was like we weren’t even shooting a movie; they were just shooting this wonderful experience. And we went on all the rides. I bought Eve Arden [the Golden Age Hollywood star who played Principal McGee] a lot of cotton candy.”

The big ending number was supposed to be “All Choked Up” — like it was in the original Broadway version.

At the last minute, however, it was switched to the now-iconic “You’re the One That I Want.”

Kelly Ward, who played Putzie, told Yahoo in the same 2018 interview, “It was lightning-fast work and nobody was really quite sure how it would play, because it’s such a different kind of music than the rest of the score. And nonetheless everybody threw themselves into it.”

The skin-tight black pants that Sandy wears at the end of “Grease” were a vintage pair from the 1950s with a broken zipper. 

Newton-John told The Guardian in 2019 that the costume crew actually had to sew her into them for filming. 

This story was originally published in September 2020 and most recently updated on September 12, 2024. 

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