FROM THE ARCHIVE
21 Things We Love About Grease
Lovin' those Pink Ladies, lustin' after those Thunderbirds... Hey! There are worse things we could do. First published in GCN, August 2003.
1. Rizzo
Stockard Channing was all of 34 when she played foul-mouthed, wise-cracking 18 year-old leader of the Pink Ladies, Betty Rizzo. We loved Rizzo the best because of her sexy, hard-boiled vulnerability, her Bette Davis cigarette-eyes, and because she sang arguably the movie's best song, There Are Worse Things I Could Do, which was all about being a teenager with a bun in the oven. Rizzo was also embodied on stage by teenage '80's sensation, Debbie Gibson and Xenia Warrior Princess herself, Lucy Lawless. Stockard Channing currently plays the First Lady in TV's The West Wing. It's a far cry from the girl who once confided in Sandy, "I feel like a defective typewriter. I skipped a period".
2. Olivia Newton John
The film's producer, Allan Carr had penciled Marie Osmond in to play Sandy Olsen, but he met Olivia Newton John at a party in singer Helen Reddy's house and instantly changed his mind. Olivia was already a 29 year-old recording star in her own right, with hits like Country Roads and Sam under her oh-so-wholesome belt. Although Olivia refuses to talk about how much she earned doing Grease, one music magazine reports her to have only received $10,000. However, the songs and the spin-offs from Grease made Olivia a superstar.
3. The Homo Hug
On the front steps of Rydell High the Thunderbirds meet for the first time in the new school year. Best buddies Danny and Kenickie are so overjoyed to see each other; they embrace like big girl's blouses. Realising they've just had a sexual exchange, both boys pull away from each other, blush, take their combs out and awkwardly come their quiffs.
4. The Slumber Party
Every gay boy and lesbian teen's dream, the Pink Ladies' slumber party over at Frenchy's house is hair and nails, cigarettes and booze, gossip and bitchfest heaven, topped by Rizzo belting out Look At Me, I'm Sandra Dee, dragged up as Sandy in a blonde wig. Shameless!
5. Brusha, Brusha, Brusha
At the Pink Lady slumber party Jan sings along with a chipmunk who appears on an advert on TV for a brand of toothpaste called Ipana. Jamie Donnelly, the actress who played Jan, created the Brusha Brusha Brusha scene in an improv session, because she was unhappy with the original commercial used. It became a cult Grease moment.
5. Frenchy's Hair
"I don't look at it as dropping out. I look at it as a very strategic career move," said Frenchy when she decided to leave Rydell High behind for the highlights of Beauty School. She also decided to leave her natural hair colour behind and go pink-with-bangs. Peachy keen, jellybean!
6. Frankie Avalon
The casting of Frankie Avalon as the angel who advises beauty school drop-out, Frenchy to go back to High School was inspired. In the year Grease is set, Avalon was as the height of his fame as a teen idol in the series of Beach B-movies. The Beach movies had him typecast for years and provided his biggest hit record, Venus. Grease played on his teen idol status, mixing a touch of Elvis into his angel suit, virtually recreating him as a Vegas crooner. "Thank God for Grease," says Avalon, who in January of this year toured the States with a new stage production of Grease, "It kept me around and put my eight kids through school."
7. The Make-over
When Grease was first launched on a primed public, Olivia Newton John's climactic make-over from girl next door to sexy bitch on heat was the movie's biggest tabloid selling point. The cast was kept away from make-up on the day the scene was shot and even John Travolta claims he was flabbergasted by Livvy's transformation. Nowadays her black nylon stretch pants (into which she had to be sewn) and loop earrings seem a tad lame, but in 1978 she seemed the next best thing to a hooker. The make-over also charged Olivia's chart career and we next saw her cavorting with muscle boys in tight shorts and headbands in the video for Let's Get Physical.
8. John in the Opening Sequence
The opening shots of Grease in which Sandy and Danny romantically cavort in the surf couldn't have been further away from the streetwise image John Travolta had cultivated with his previous and first movie, Saturday Night Fever. The scene was a recreation of the cult Beach movies from the '50s and John looked every inch the teen idol he was to become, all clean cut, blue eyed and cleft-chinned. Henry Winkler, who was playing Fonzie on Happy Days was originally supposed to play Danny, but didn't for fear of being typecast.
10. Principal McGee and Blanche
A classic double act, straight woman and goofy sidekick, Principal McGee and her assistant, the hapless Blanche provided much of the background comedy. McGee was played by yet another cult cast member, Eve Arden, who made her name as a wise-cracking character actress in the '30s in films like Stage Door and the Marx Brothers' At The Circus. She was nominated for an Oscar for her role supporting Joan Crawford in Mildred Pierce (1945). Her best line in Grease? "If you can't be an athlete, be an athletic supporter."
11. Fannie Flagg
Nurse Wilkins may have only appeared in one scene, but the actress who played her went on to write Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café not to mention become the life-long partner of another fabulous dyke writer, Rita Mae Brown.
12. Summer Nights
The second most popular karaoke number in the world took two weeks to film in its original movie outing. John Travolta has claimed that the choreography involved was more exacting than that on the set of Saturday Night Fever. Wulla, wulla, wulla, so what?
13. Lorenzo Lamas
The man who went on to become one of the biggest TV hunks of the '80s, luscious Lance from the utterly camp Dallas rip-off, Falconcrest, began his career playing the boy Sandy jilted Danny for, clean-cut cardigan-wearing jock, the chiseled Tom Chisum. We knew he had it in him from the start.
14. The Jock Tryouts
In which Danny shows how much of a big girls blouse he really is. It's always gratifying to see the school hard-guys bent over and panting on the finishing line.
15. The Sequel
In which Michelle Pfeiffer played Stephanie Zinoni, brand new leader of the Pink Ladies, and Maxwell Caulfield (who later starred in Dynasty spin-off, The Colbys) was Michael Carrington, Sandy's cousin from England. Didi Conn reprised her role as Frenchy, along with many of the original Rydell High faculty, including Blanch and Mrs McGee, in an effort at continuity, and essentially it was the original story set in 1961 and gender-fucked. Stephanie is a pseudo-feminist bad girl, but Michael must butch up to keep her greased-up. Hmmmm, interesting...
16. High School Musical
Grease 3 was to be set in the late '70s at a Rydell High reunion, at which the longtime separated Sandy and Danny's children become romantically involved. Instead it became a little old phenomenon called High School Musical and teen queens across the world just adore it.
17. Eugene
The school underdog, Eugene, is someone many queer viewers could identify with, at least in his constant alienation. The name Eugene became so identified with his geeky character, another incarnation of it went on to star in a subsequent run of TV commercials for lipsmackin' Pepsi cola. Remember, 'Hey, Eugene, how come you're such a big hit with the girls?" At the end of Grease, Eugene finds his match in cheerleading Patti Simpcox, which was a bit of an imaginative stretch.
18. The Gay Rumours
At the height of Grease's popularity a male porn star claimed he had an alleged two-year affair with John Travolta. More recently a man called Michael Pattison sued the church of Scientology, claiming the sect promised to cure him of his homosexuality, citing Travolta as their most successful case. Pattison is still gay.
19. A Hickey from Kenickie
Jeff Conaway, who played Rizzo's boyfriend, Kenickie, has spread plenty of rumours that he was leaving his famous mark on lots of the actresses behind the scenes. In truth, this might have been a figment of a drug-addled imagination. 1978 was his big year. After landing the part in Grease (he played the Kenickie in the original Broadway production) he began a three-year run on the TV sitcom Taxi, alongside Danny DeVito. The success proved too much for him, for a while anyhow and he began imbibing illegal substances. As you do. His most recent movie was the straight to video slasher flick, Do You Wanna Know A Secret (2001). He played a policeman who wasn't giving anyone any hickies at all.
20. The Subsequent Careers
Olivia went on to star with Gene Kelly in the execrable but fabulously camp Xanadu (in which she sang songs with ELO), John went to star with Lily Tomlin in Moment by Moment, in which he played a younger man in love with a dying older woman (all together now, ahhh). John's career died a death for a while until he was cast opposite Kristie Alley in Look Who's Talking ten years later. Two sequels on, his career died another death, until he was cast by Quentin Tarantino in Pulp Fiction four years later. Next up, John is to play JR in the movie version of Dallas. We kid you not.
21. The Closing Lines
As intoned by Principal McGee: "Attention seniors. Before the merriment of commencement commences, I hope that your years with us here at Rydell have prepared you for the challenges you face. Who knows. Among you there may be a future Eleanor Roosevelt or a Rosemary Clooney, and among you young men, there may be a Joe DiMaggio, a President Eisenhower, or a Vice-President Nixon. But you will always the glorious memories of Rydell High. Rydell forever. Bon voyage."