Welcome back to Behind The Scenes Saturday!!! Recently, I rewatched a film I haven’t seen in the longest time and I ended up getting new appreciation for it. That film was, of course, Grease! Grease has some epic and catchy songs, unforgettable quotes, and characters that have left an impact for decades. So, don’t let Frenchie pierce your ears, drive carefully on Thunder Road, and enjoy these fun pictures and bits of trivia!!

(Trivia provided by IMDb.com)

(Pictures provided by google.com and IMDb.com)

(SPOILER ALERT!!!)

• The hickeys on Rizzo’s neck were in fact real. Stockard Channing confirmed that Jeff Conaway (Kenickie) insisted on applying them himself.
• In the stage play, the song “Look At Me, I’m Sandra Dee” had a reference to Sal Mineo. For the film, the lyric was changed to reference Elvis Presley. Ironically, the song and the slumber party scene were filmed on August 16, 1977: the day that Elvis died.

• Jeff Conaway was so infatuated with Dame Olivia Newton-John (Sandy), that he got tongue-tied whenever she was around him. He ended up marrying her sister, Rona Newton-John.
• While shooting the “Greased Lightning” scene, Jeff Conaway was accidentally dropped and he injured his back. This jump-started his addiction to pain killers and prescription dug abuse.

• The song “Hopelessly Devoted To You” was written and recorded AFTER the whole film wrapped. It was in Dame Olivia Newton-John’s contract that she should have a solo song. At the time, nobody could come up with any ideas for her. However, Newton-John’s songwriter, John Farrar came up with the song halfway through the shoot. The film’s director, Randal Kleiser wasn’t completely on board with the song and had to create the perfect scene to put it in. The song ended up getting the film’s only Oscar nomination.
• While filming the Thunder Road scene, Annette Charles was suffering from an ectopic pregnancy. That’s why her character, Cha Cha can frequently be seen leaning against cars.

• The dance contest scene was filmed during the summer, when the school they filmed in was closed. The gym had no air conditioning and the doors had to be kept shut to control lighting. The gym became almost unbearably hot, and a few extras had to be taken out due to heat-related illness.
• John Travolta (Danny) started rehearsals for this film just four days after completing filming for Saturday Night Fever.

• After the zipper broke on her costume, Dame Olivia Newton-John had to be sewn into her trousers for the carnival scene.
• In the original broadway musical, Sandy was an all-American girl whose last name was Dumbrowski. After Dame Olivia Newton-John was cast for the film, her character was changed to Sandy Olsson from Australia.

• The song “Greased Lightning” was supposed to be sung by Jeff Conaway, as it was Kenickie’s song in the stage production. Supposedly, John Travolta used his star power to change it to Danny’s song. Randal Kleiser asked Conaway if it would be okay and Conaway rightfully refused. After a while, Conaway eventually gave in.
• It only took one afternoon to shoot the “You’re The One That I Want” scene.

• There was a scene where Rizzo and Kenickie got into a really heated argument which would’ve explained their attitudes towards each other in the diner scene. The argument was cut out of the film because it didn’t match the film’s overall tone. It was much grittier and one crew member said it looked like something Martin Scorsese might have directed.
• Elvis Presley was approached to play the role of The Guardian Angel (Frankie Avalon) in the “Beauty School Dropout” scene, but he turned it down. When Allan Carr bought the rights to the film, he pictured Elvis as Danny and Ann-Margaret as Sandy.

• A majority of the cast were much older than their high-schooler characters. Stockard Channing was 33. Michael Tucci (Sonny) was 31. Jamie Donnelly (Jan) was 30. Annette Charles was 29. Dame Olivia Newton-John was 28. Barry Pearl (Doody) was 27. Jeff Conaway was 26. Didi Conn (Frenchie) was 25. John Travolta was 23. Dinah Manoff (Marty) was 21. Kelly Ward (Putzie) and Eddie Deezen (Eugene) were 20. Lorenzo Lamas (Tom) was 19.
• John Travolta and Randal Kleiser argued over the end of the song, “Sandy.” Travolta wanted it to end on a close-up of himself. Kleiser wanted to show the cartoon of the hot dog diving into a bun in the background. As we all know, Kleiser won that battle.

• Because Jeff Conaway was the same height as John Travolta, he had to stoop down a bit so Travolta appeared taller whenever they had a scene together.
• The cast all had to chew about 5 thousand pieces of bubble gum a day while filming.

• Henry Winkler turned down the part of Danny for fear of being typecast. He also admitted that he couldn’t sing.
• Most of the extras got to be in this film because they won a nationwide contest.

• For the first day of rehearsal, the cast all had a sock hop to learn the dance moves and get to know each other better.
• Originally, Sandy wasn’t supposed to participate in the dance contest. She was supposed to be sabotaged by Sonny before the contest even started, giving Cha Cha the chance to win with Danny. However, Dame Olivia Newton-John really wanted to do some dancing in the scene. She convinced Randal Kleiser to let her character dance with Danny for a few minutes before she was taken away, which to me made a lot more sense for the film.

• At the cast party, the T-Bird trio handed out buttons with a picture of them mooning the camera.
• The high school that they filmed in was right next to a pork plant, so everything smelled like bacon.

• Lucie Arnaz was considered for the role of Rizzo before anyone else. When her mother, Lucille Ball heard about this, she called Paramount Pictures and said, “I used to own that studio! My daughter’s not doing a screen-test!”
• Barry Pearl improvised the “Blonde Pineapple” line.

• Didi Conn said that most of the cast became like a family, and Susan Buckner (Patty) was a bit of an outcast, much like her character. They made fun of her and ignored her like their characters did.
• Jamie Donnelly had prematurely gray hair during filming. She dyed it black to play Jan. Because her hair grew fairly quickly, her roots had to be colored in daily with a black crayon.

• While shooting, the cast of Bad News Bears challenged this cast to a friendly game of softball. John Travolta ended up pitching for this team.
• Michael Biehn read for the role of Tom, but didn’t get it. He ended up being in the film as the guy Danny punched during the basketball game. He can also be seen in the classroom when Kenickie puts the frog in Patty’s bag.

• This film brought the first on-screen kiss for both John Travolta and Dame Olivia Newton-John.
• Kelly Ward originally showed up at auditions to help the film’s choreographer, Patricia Birch. He ended up getting cast in the film himself.

• Adrienne Barbeau played Rizzo in the stage production. When the film was casting, she was passed over in favor of Stockard Channing, who was 1 year older than her.
• Barry Pearl was the one who choreographed the slapstick routine that was based on The Three Stooges.

• Eddie Deezen stated that Dennis Stewart (Leo) picked him up in the mornings and they drove to the shoot together.
• One of the most uncomfortable shooting days was when the T-Birds were singing “Summer Nights” on the bleachers. The temperatures were in the very high 90s and the cast members weren’t allowed to remove their leather jackets.

• Nancy Kyes was also considered for the role of Rizzo.
• One of the writers, Jim Jacobs commented on the film’s controversial ending. According to him, the fact that Sandy conformed to the greaser lifestyle was meant to be a spoof. Usually, the bad boy gives up his bad ways at the end of the film and turns over a new leaf. The audience was expecting Danny to change and become a good boy, so they instead turned Sandy into the bad girl.
• The film’s choreographer and director of Grease 2, Patricia Birch has a small cameo as one of the dancers in the dance contest.