Behind The Scenes Facts About Grease That Will Make You Sing 'Tell Me More!'

Greased hair, tight pants, and plenty of leather — this is Grease! Bringing the youthful angst and rebelliousness of the '50s to life like never before, Grease set the benchmark for what a great musical should be: fun, catchy, and filled with heart. But for a musical so iconic, Grease sure had plenty of unexpected drama behind the scenes. So get ready to be begging "tell me more, tell me more," because these Grease facts go together like rama lama lama ka dinga da dinga dong — wah-oooh, yeah!

1. Not so hopeless

While "Hopelessly Devoted To You" is easily one of Grease's most iconic songs, it actually wasn't written or shot until after the film was pretty much wrapped. This last-minute addition was clearly a worthwhile one, as it was the only song from the movie to be nominated for an Oscar.

2. Fonzie almost played Danny

Henry Winkler was famous for playing Fonzie in classic ’70s sitcom Happy Days, and he was also considered for the role of Danny in Grease. In fact, it seems that Winkler was actually Paramount’s top choice for the character, over John Travolta. Winkler said no to the movie, however, because he didn’t want to be pigeonholed as a young working-class cool guy in leathers for the rest of his career.

3. The "crow's feet test"

At the time of filming, the entire main cast was too old to be in high school. Director Randal Kleiser actually administered a "crow's feet test" around their eyes to see if they could pass for teenagers! It's safe to say that a few of the "students" looked more like tenured teachers...

4. Stockard Channing was in her thirties

While many of the actors cast to play high schoolers in the film were actually well out of their teens, Stockard Channing was the oldest of them all at 33. The actress even ended up having freckles painted on her face in an attempt to make her look younger.

5. Olivia Newton-John was stitched into her pants

Olivia Newton-John’s iconic transformation at the end of Grease is one of the most recognizable scenes in movie history. But have you ever thought that her tight-fitting leather outfit looked just a tad uncomfortable? Well, that’s because it was. At the time of filming, the pants were 25 years old. So when the zipper on them inevitably broke, wardrobe literally had to take a needle and thread and stitch the actress back in.

6. 100,000 pieces of gum

Bubble gum features prominently in Grease, with practically every high school character chewing a mouthful of the sticky stuff at some point in the movie. It’s perhaps no surprise, then, that the cast got through no less than 100,000 pieces of bubble gum during production. And to make sure fans were chomping too, Grease bubble gum packs, complete with free photo cards, were also manufactured to promote the film!

7. “Greased Lightnin’” changed drastically

John Travolta’s involvement in the movie came with a few conditions: he wanted Elvis-style “blue-black hair” and he wanted to sing “Greased Lightnin’” – despite the fact that it was Kenickie who belted it out in the original stage production. Jeff Conaway, who played Kenickie, was understandably miffed that the iconic song was taken away from him.

8. Tough times for Kenickie

Things didn't get any better for Conaway when, during the song, he injured his back after being dropped by his fellow cast members. This incident marked the beginning of his addiction to painkillers, which contributed to his untimely death in 2011.

9. John Travolta’s sister

Ellen Travolta, the big sister of John, made a cameo in Grease as a waitress. The actress went on to appear in the popular TV shows Happy Days, Joanie Loves Chachi, and Charles in Charge throughout the ’80s. But in Grease she had just one line: “Oh, there’s Danny and Sandy!”

10. There was romance on set

Just like his character Kenickie, Jeff Conaway liked the ladies and reportedly seduced many extras during filming. As it turns out, the actor also had a big crush on Olivia Newton-John! Funnily enough, Conaway eventually ended up marrying Newton-John's sister, Rona. They were together for five years before divorcing in 1985.

11. Marty couldn’t dance

Dinah Manoff played Pink Lady Marty in the film, but there was a slight problem with the casting: Manoff could neither dance nor hold a tune! And so if you watch closely, you’ll see the actress is subtly absent from the biggest musical scenes. “They were hiding me. I couldn’t really keep up!” she admitted to the Seattle Times in 2010.

12. Annette Charles could have died

Annette Charles played sultry dancer Cha Cha, and she had some of the best moves in the film. But if you watch her closely during the drag racing scene, you’ll see the actress looks anything but fit and healthy. In fact, she has to use the vehicles as support just to stay standing. That’s because Charles was actually in a lot of pain at the time – she suffered an ectopic pregnancy and was rushed to the hospital right after the scene was finished.

13. Rizzo’s hickeys were the real deal

Rumor has it that Jeff Conaway wanted Rizzo’s “hickeys from Kenickie” to look authentic… and so he gave actress Stockard Channing actual love bites in between takes. Now that’s taking method acting to a whole new level! The jury's out on whether or not Frenchy's vibrant pink hair was also legit, though...

14. Not their first choice

Olivia Newton-John actually wasn't the producers' first choice for the soft-spoken Sandy. Carrie Fisher, Susan Dey, and Marie Osmond were all considered better fits, and Osmond was even the frontrunner for the part until Sandy's "good girl to bad girl" transformation scared her off.

15. Marie Osmond was nearly Sandy

Marie Osmond was offered the part of Sandy, but she said no because she disagreed with the script on a moral level. The singer told Larry King in 2006, “I didn’t want my teenagers someday to say… ‘You have to go bad to get the boy.’ It was just a personal choice as a some-day mother.”

16. Grease could have been an animation

Can you imagine Grease being a cartoon? Well, it might have happened. Steve Krantz and Ralph Bakshi owned the rights to Grease first, and they thought it would work well as an animated musical. Thankfully, the idea fell through, and the only cartoon jivers we see are in the opening credits.

17. Stay out of the river!

The drag racing scene sure is a fun one, but it came with some not-so-fun side effects. Allegedly, cast members actually fell ill while filming the scene thanks to the dirty L.A. River water. Director Randal Kleiser even developed a foot infection because of it!

18. Scientology had a presence on set

John Travolta joined the Church of Scientology in 1975, and he made no secret of his religious beliefs on the set of Grease. In fact, when director Randal Kleiser’s foot became infected from the dirty water at the drag racing scene, Travolta claimed he’d healed him with a Scientology “touch assist.” Yes, really.

19. Jamie Donnelly’s gray locks had to be recolored every day

Jamie Donnelly might only have been 30 when she played Pink Lady Jan in the movie, but she was already going gray. And so the actress had to continually dye over her roots because, let’s face it, a high school teen with gray hair would definitely have given the game away. Unfortunately, though, Donnelly’s hair grew extremely fast. So fast, in fact, that she had to use a black crayon to color over her roots.

20. Grease was nearly a franchise

It’s little wonder that Paramount was very keen to capitalize on the huge success of Grease, and the studio originally had plans for three more films and a TV show. What would they have entailed? Unfortunately, Grease 2 was such a disaster that the rest of the franchise was canceled, so we’ll never know.

21. The movie had a nod to Rebel Without a Cause

Many years before Grease, James Dean starred as the ultimate rebellious teenager in 1955’s Rebel Without A Cause. And because Dean’s red windbreaker is so iconic in that film, John Travolta’s Danny got his own blue breaker to wear in Grease.

22. All the Coca-Cola logos had to be removed

The filmmakers brokered a promotional deal with Pepsi just before Grease came out. This caused one slight problem: logos for its competitor, Coca-Cola, could be seen throughout the film. Reshooting the scenes would have cost far too much time and money, however, and so all the Coca-Cola logos had to be removed or disguised with optical mattes. Although if you look hard enough, you’ll see that one Coca-Cola sign was left in, by accident or design...

23. Danny almost had a different job

The Grease kids spend a lot of time dancing, singing, and jumping on cars, but very little time doing things actual high schoolers did. This almost wasn't the case, though; at one point, producer Allan Carr pushed for Danny to have a part-time job as a busboy or even a gas station attendant.

24. A particular word is never spoken in the film

The movie’s famous slogan is “Grease is the word”: pretty ironic, because the word “grease” isn’t spoken once in the whole film. Yes, while the word obviously appears in a slightly different form in the lyrics to the song “Greased Lightnin’”, the scriptwriters obviously decided that grease wasn’t the word they were looking for after all.

25. The real "Beauty School Dropout"

The song "Beauty School Dropout" may seem an innocent, comically pointed number, but its inspiration was quite the opposite. Two of Grease's writers actually penned the song after watching a news report about a teenager who dropped out of beauty school and became a murderer!

26. The Elvis coincidence

During the "Look At Me, I'm Sandra Dee" number, one of the original lyrics was changed to something a little more suggestive: "Elvis, Elvis, let me be! Keep that pelvis far from me!" Coincidentally, Elvis actually died the day the scene was filmed.

27. The week-long dance contest

It took a week to film the entire dance contest scene, which was shot at Huntington Park High School in Los Angeles. Temperatures in the gym reached up to 116 degrees while filming, and some extras even got mildly ill because of the heat.

28. Sandy wasn’t always an Aussie

Anyone who has ever watched even ten minutes of Grease will realize that the female lead is Australian. But did you know that Sandy was a totally different nationality in the original musical? On Broadway, Sandy was actually an all-American sweetheart with the last name “Dumbrowski.” Olivia Newton-John’s casting put an end to that, though, and the character was also given the much simpler surname of “Olsen.”

29. The other Rizzo

Lucie Arnaz, daughter of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, was originally considered for the role of Rizzo but was dropped after Lucille made her refuse to take a screen test. Ball reportedly told producers, "I used to own that studio; my daughter’s not doing a screen test!"

30. "Very freeing"

As it turns out, Marie Osmond wasn't the only one with reservations about Sandy's makeover. Olivia Newton-John actually had to be talked into Sandy's big transition by John Travolta. "That was such a stretch, and something I was really worried about," Newton-John recalled. "But when it happened, it was just this amazing feeling. It was very freeing."

Before the fame

After all, Olivia wasn't really accustomed to playing the 'bad girl' — or to the spotlight in general. This all changed when she landed her leading role in Grease! Whether it's the versatile songstress or the on-screen bombshell that holds a place in your heart, there's no denying that Olivia Newton-John was a force to be reckoned with. But before she became a global sensation, Olivia was just another girl from Australia — with one small twist.

Making her own way

Born in Cambridge, England, Olivia's father was an MI5 agent and schoolmaster. And it was at Cambridge University where her parents first met. Apparently they bonded over their shared passion for music. Her musical roots didn't go back quite so far, though, as among her ancestors were jurists and even a Nobel Prize-winning physicist. Unlike her wider family, however, Olivia preferred to dabble in a field less rigid than law or science.

Gotta start somewhere

Music! At just 14 years old, Olivia began pursuing her dreams of stardom. It all started after her return to Australia from Cambridge with the formation of her all-girl group Sol Four. Olivia banded together with her classmates, and the trio began performing in local coffee shops. Their time in the spotlight was short-lived, however, leading Olivia to embark on a new venture — her appearances on local radio and television as "Lovely Livvy."

Broadening her horizons

After more local performances, she entered a talent contest that had the potential to change everything. Sing, Sing, Sing was a televised competition hosted by Australian rock n' roll singer Johnny O'Keefe, and the prize was big. Eventually, she won the series. And the life-changing prize — a trip to Great Britain to begin her recording career. Olivia was reluctant at first, though after some persuading by her mother, she decided to give it a shot.

Calling it quits?

In 1966, Olivia record her first single "Till You Say You'll Be Mine" with Decca records. Unfortunately, despite her undeniable talent, the song failed to generate much buzz. Disheartened and missing her boyfriend back home, Olivia was determined to return to Australia — that is, until an old friend decided to pay her an unexpected visit.

Fun while it lasted

Pat Carroll, a fellow Australian singer whom Olivia had met on The Go!! Show years prior, arrived in Britain. And before long, the pair joined forces to form the duo "Pat and Olivia." They toured nightclubs and pubs across Europe for several years, though after Pat's visa expired, Olivia found herself riding solo once more.

Hitting her stride

Yet this time would be different for Olivia, as after cutting her first album If Not for You in 1971 she found international success with the title track and the single "Banks of the Ohio." She was voted Best British Female Vocalist two years straight — this, however, was only the beginning of her big break.

Making waves

With the release of the singles "Let Me Be There" and "I Honestly Love You" in the early 70s, Olivia earned an impressive three Grammy Awards in just two years. An accolade that established her as a force in both the pop and country genres. But of course, the road to success rarely runs smooth. Unfortunately, not everyone was so impressed by the young star's versatility.

A country blessing

American country purists rallied against Olivia, claiming that the foreigner's brand of country-pop had no place among Nashville artists. Luckily, this stance eventually shifted as the country community joined forces to embrace the Australian native. The damage was done, though, as the support of traditional stars like Loretta Lynn and Dolly Parton didn't necessarily translate to success in the charts.

Cooling off

Despite moving to the U.S. and earning critical acclaim for her album Have You Never Been Mellow, Olivia's seventh album Clearly Love broke her streak of five consecutive gold top ten singles when "Something Better To Do" stopped at No. 13. She didn't return to the top ten until 1978, though. And what a year it would turn out to be...

Look at me, I'm Sandra Dee

And that's because it was the year the 29-year-old starred in her breakout role of Sandy in the film adaptation of the Broadway musical Grease. The film's soundtrack became — and remains — one of the best-selling of all time, and the role served as a real turning point for Olivia in her career.

Changing it up

As the reverberations of her global success continued to build Olivia's status, her personal style began to shift, too. Just like her character's dramatic image change in Grease, Olivia's look off-camera, as well as her music, took on an edgier, more mature style. Her 1978 album Totally Hot displayed a leather-clad Olivia on the cover, and the songs within featured a more aggressive, uptempo sound.

Silver lining

Still, this new rockier image wasn't enough to save her 1980 film Xanadu from flopping. The movie was a critical and commercial disaster and even helped to inspire the creation of the Golden Raspberry Awards — a parody award show that honors cinema's ultimate under-achievers. The soundtrack, however, proved to be a hit, setting Olivia up for her biggest success yet.

Reaching the top

Putting the monumental failure of Xanadu behind her, it didn't take long for Olivia to reclaim her rightful place at the top. In 1981, her new look and sound combined to create Physical, a risqué, rock-oriented album that went on to go double-platinum. The title track, despite its suggestive lyrics, topped the charts for ten whole weeks, going platinum itself and becoming the undisputed song of the decade.

Trailblazer

To accompany Physical, Olivia also released a video album that served as the basis for the fledgling music video industry. What's more, it earned her another shiny Grammy to add to her growing collection. The success of the album also led to an international tour, firmly establishing Olivia as the world's premiere pop star — at least, for a time.

Past her prime?

Things began to fizzle out for Olivia around the turn of the decade. Her next slew of albums failed to garner the same enthusiasm as her past successes. But, not one to be deterred, after a three-year hiatus following the birth of her daughter, Chloe, Olivia attempted a promising comeback. Tragically, though, her hope of returning to superstardom was derailed by a devastating blow.

Fight of her life

In 1992, aged 44, Olivia was diagnosed with breast cancer for the first time. Naturally, she was forced to cancel all tours and upcoming projects. Thankfully, she made a full recovery after her first diagnosis, though her ongoing battle with cancer would call for treatment again in 2013 and 2018. As well as the enduring cancer-research legacy that she's left behind, her initial experience with the harrowing disease changed the way she approached her music.

Sharing her strength

After her first diagnosis and experiences, Olivia's songs began taking on a whole new layer of meaning. Her 1994 album, Gaia: One Woman's Journey, for example, chronicled her fight. And her 2005 album — Stronger Than Before — featured a handful of fellow breast cancer survivors. Still, that didn't mean the iconic singer was giving up on the classics entirely.

Still had it

Despite her cancer returning in the years following 1992, Olivia continued to dazzle fans on stages the world over. She toured and performed like nothing had changed. She also maintained an almost three-year residency at the Flamingo Las Vegas! But even with so many hit songs to choose from, there were always a select few that audiences just had to hear...

Grease is the word

Her Grease classics, of course! Fans were so desperate for another rendition of their favorites, in fact, that Olivia actually reunited with John Travolta in 2019 to perform the floor-filling hits everyone knows and loves. The songstress will be remembered not only for her sunny portrayal of Sandy, but for her real-life strength.