When I was 12 and my sister was 11, my mom took us to see Grease in the summer of 1978. Its nostalgic theme appealed to her, as she had grown up and attended high school in the ’50s, graduating in 1961. We all loved it, and I have seen it countless times over the intervening years. It’s now a part of American culture—timeless in its appeal.
The movie conjured a carefree time of drive-in movies, burgers, milkshakes, first sexual fumblings in the backseats of cars and a new kind of music called rock ’n roll. Despite its depiction of an increasingly laissez-faire attitude toward sex in the late ’50s as seen through the lens of the free-for-all ’70s, Grease is nevertheless fun and wholesome and sweet, considered family fare that all ages can enjoy.
Created by the songwriting team of Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey, Grease was Broadway’s longest-running musical (1972–1980) until it was overtaken by A Chorus Line in 1983. The film version, produced by Robert Stigwood (Tommy, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band) and Allan Carr (Can’t Stop the Music, Where the Boys Are) and directed by Randal Kleiser (The Blue Lagoon, It’s My Party), would become the highest-grossing movie musical of all time.
In the mid-to-late 1970s, America had a fascination with nostalgia—and the 1950s in particular. George Lucas’s American Graffiti had already become a classic and Happy Days was the #1 TV show.
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| Too cool for school—John Travolta as Danny |
A teenage soap opera centering on the frisky senior class of Rydell High School, the film is an interesting mix of gritty realism, a touch of camp, catchy tunes and good clean fun. Today, the film would probably garner an R rating for its subject matter and language alone—not the PG it earned originally. Some of the characters’ sexual innuendo and witty repartee are definitely not even PG-13. Peppered with raunchy dialogue, phallic imagery, choreography featuring “tasteless and vulgar movements” and yes, even a fleeting glimpse of bare buttocks “mooning” the audience, this is no High School Musical. Yet it still has an odd sense of innocence and joy—and a happy ending, though based on the female lead transforming herself from virgin to dominatrix.
In her American film debut, Australian vocalist Olivia Newton-John (her cover of fellow Aussie Peter Allen’s “I Honesty Love You” is one of my favorites) plays the role of Sandy, who revamps her image from ingenue to femme fatale with greased-lightning speed and alacrity. Newton-John triumphed in the role and became a worldwide superstar.
After Grease, Newton-John followed up with the musical Xanadu and later would team again with John Travolta in Two of a Kind. (Both were monumental flops.) She went back to cutting albums and making memorable MTV videos like “Physical” in the ’80s—but then accepted a non-singing role from director Randal Kleiser for his 1996 autobiographical film It’s My Party. She continued to tour the world and perform for adoring, sold-out crowds until illness prevented it; she died in 2022 at the age of 73.
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| Goodbye to Sandra Dee—Olivia Newton-John as Sandy |
John Travolta, fresh from his triumph as the dance sensation Tony Manero in Saturday Night Fever, which won him an Oscar nomination for Best Actor (he was the youngest man nominated in the category up that time), put his dancing shoes back on and added singing to his musical skill set for the role of Danny Zuko in Grease.
His Danny Zuko is part Tony Manero and part Vinnie Barbarino, his breakout role in the 1970s sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter. Impish, comical, with charm and sex appeal to spare and an inimitable peacock-strutting walk (with or without a BeeGees beat behind him), Travolta catapulted himself into the entertainment stratosphere and cemented his superstar status at the tender age of 24.
His surprisingly strong vocals had previously led to a not-very-successful solo album, which made him rethink his singing career and focus on acting. He would dance again, though, in Stayin’ Alive (the ignominious Saturday Night Fever sequel directed by Sylvester Stallone), Urban Cowboy and later in his comeback film, Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction—which revitalized his flagging career after a string of critical and box office disappointments. In the ’90s, Travolta enjoyed a major career resurrection with a string of hits after Pulp Fiction, including Get Shorty, Michael and Face/Off, among others. His last foray into the musical genre was the film version of the 1960s-themed Hairspray (2007), in which he played the Divine role, a mother in drag.
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| Be Pink, not Pure: Didi Conn, Jamie Donnelly, Stockard Channing and Dinah Manoff |
As the blunt and no-nonsense tough cookie Rizzo, leader of the Pink Ladies, Stockard Channing (Practical Magic, The First Wives Club) steals every scene she’s in and scores in her two solo songs: “Look At Me, I’m Sandra Dee” and “There Are Worse Things I Could Do.” The versatile Channing would enjoy a long and varied career, both as a character actress in film as well as on the stage, where she triumphed in both straight plays (Six Degrees of Separation) and musicals (Pal Joey).
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The other Pink Ladies have memorable moments as well—I particularly love a cotton-candy haired Didi Conn (You Light Up My Life) being serenaded by Teen Angel Frankie Avalon in the “Beauty School Dropout” number. Dinah Manoff (Ordinary People, Empty Nest and the daughter of the great Lee Grant) is humorously seductive being pursued by the vain and sleazy National Bandstand TV host Vince Fontaine, played by Edd Byrnes. Jamie Donnelly (who appeared in the original Broadway production) does a hilarious interpretation of the Ipana toothpaste commercial, another of hundreds of iconic moments in this film that almost everybody knows by heart.
As Kenickie, the handsome Jeff Conaway has one of the best roles of his career, though he was disappointed to learn that his one musical solo number, “Greased Lightnin’,” would be handed to up-and-coming star Travolta. Conaway would become a beloved and familiar face in the long-running TV series Taxi, only to lose a tragic struggle with substance abuse. He died in 2011 at the age of 60.
The other T-Birds—Barry Pearl, Michael Tucci and Kelly Ward—exhibit good chemistry, genuine camaraderie and perfect comic timing, but none of them went on to bigger and better things, though they have all worked steadily in show business over the years.
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| Bromance, T-Bird Style: Jeff Conaway, Barry Pearl, Michael Tucci and Kelly Ward with Travolta |
The inclusion of classic movie and TV stars underlines the movie’s nostalgic appeal to older generations. As the straightlaced Rydell school principal, the venerable Eve Arden (Mildred Pierce) has to contend with a scene-stealing Dody Goodman (Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman) as her kooky secretary, but their comic pas de deux is warmly amusing.
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| Dody Goodman upstages Eve Arden |
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| Frankie Avalon—guardian angel of Frenchy (and Angelman) |
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| The acerbic Joan Blondell as Vi—a film star since the 1930s |
Fans of golden era movies and television will enjoy turns by Joan Blondell (Gold Diggers of 1933) as Vi the waitress, Sid Caesar (Your Show of Shows) as Couch Calhoun, Edd ‘Kooky’ Byrnes (77 Sunset Strip) as Vince Fontaine, Alice Ghostley (Bewitched) as Mrs. Murdock, tribute band Sha Na Na as Johnny Casino and the Gamblers and Frankie Avalon (Beach Blanket Bingo) as the Teen Angel.
Other fleeting cameos: Fannie Flagg as a school nurse in search of stolen castor oil, and a young Lorenzo Lamas (son of Fernando; stepson of Esther Williams) as a dimwitted football player.
Much of the film’s magic comes from the music. In addition to the songs written for Broadway by Jacobs and Casey, there are snippets of a few genuine ’50s classics thrown in for the nostalgia crowd (“Blue Moon,” “Hound Dog,” “Love Is a Many Splendored Thing”)—and new songs that made the 1978 pop charts. A new title tune by Barry Gibb, “Grease is the Word,” is sung by Frankie Valli over the opening title cartoon credits. “Hopelessly Devoted to You,” sung by Newton-John and “You’re the One That I Want” performed by Newton-John and Travolta, were written and produced by John Farrar.
To underline the plot of Danny and Sandy’s rocky romance, a new song for the famous drive-in movie sequence, “Sandy,” performed by John Travolta under the behemoth outdoor screen, was written by Louis St. Louis to replace the Broadway song “Alone at the Drive-in Movie.” A preamble was added in keeping with the drive-in theme: “Stranded at the drive-in/Branded a fool/What will they say/Monday at school?”
Many of the Broadway songs were cut to make room for the new material, but the big showstoppers and specialty numbers remained, expertly choreographed by Patricia Birch (Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band) and exuberantly performed by the principles and a talented ensemble: “Summer Nights,” “We Go Together,”” Born to Hand Jive” and “Greased Lightnin’.”
The National Bandstand sequence remains a highlight, bringing together the elements of comedy, romance, music and dance. Of course, John Travolta’s electrifying dance movies are a highlight, helping him earn the reputation as his generation’s Fred Astaire. Singer Newton-John also acquitted herself nicely in the dance sequences; in 1980 she would graduate to dancing with Gene Kelly in Xanadu.
There is an interesting juxtaposition of verisimilitude and willing suspension of disbelief. Production design by Philip M. Jefferies and imaginative, character-driven costumes by the late great Albert Wolsky have real authenticity and put the viewer squarely in the period. But the fact that all the actors playing Rydell High students are far out of their teen years (Newton-John was 30, Channing 34!) adds a layer of high camp—especially since the film is a dreamlike return to high school in a 1950s that never really existed. “We’re seniors now,” Rizzo straightfaces, “and we’re gonna rule the school.” Then the Pink Ladies all hoot with laughter—and the audience laughs along with them.
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The movie endures because it is joyful, fun and free. And the songs get in your head and never leave—at least for a GenXer like me. We know every word!
A few years back, I attended a screening of the singalong version—that was too, too, too much fun, a delightful experience. Very Rocky Horror, with people just standing up at their seats to sing and performing impromptu choreography in the aisles. During “Beauty School Dropout,” everyone in the theater turned around to see who was outblasting Frankie Avalon. (Yes, that was little ol’ me.)
This is an entry in the Celebrate the Drive-in Week blogathon hosted by Quiggy and his prolific Midnite Drive-in Blog.
