GREASE!

Entertainment 5 Minutes

Today is John Travolta’s birthday, so let’s look at some interesting facts about Grease from the Mental Floss website.

The movie Grease (1978), based on the musical of the same name, is about to be reimagined for a new generation. HBO Max just announced that it will be premiering Grease: Rydell High, a musical series inspired by the film. In the 1978 big-screen adaptation, John Travolta played tough guy Danny Zuko and Olivia Newton-John starred as sweet Sandy Olsson, two teenagers whose summer romance suddenly blossoms into a full-fledged high school love affair.

Shot on a budget of $6 million budget, Grease made nearly $400 million at the box office—making it one of the highest-grossing musical movies of all time.

Henry Winkler turned down the role of Danny Zuko.

As far as Henry Winkler was concerned, Danny Zuko was too similar to Fonzie, the tough guy with a heart of gold he was already playing on Happy Days.

Marie Osmond and Susan Dey said no to playing Sandy.

Marie Osmond told Larry King that she turned the part down because she “didn’t want my teenagers someday to say, you know, ‘You have to go bad to get the boy.’ It was just a personal choice as a someday mother.” Dey (Laurie on The Partridge Family) didn’t want to play another teenager. Director Randal Kleiser went to the Star Wars mixing stage to visit his college roommate, George Lucas, and to see Carrie Fisher in one of the battle scenes. But Kleiser couldn’t tell from the scene whether Fisher was right for the part, so he kept looking. In 1998, Travolta revealed he heard singer Linda Ronstadt was also in consideration.

Olivia Newton-John insisted on having a screen test with John Travolta.

Producer/co-writer Allan Carr met Olivia Newton-John at a party thrown by fellow Australian singer Helen Reddy and was “completely smitten” and begged her to sign on for the part. Travolta told The Morning Call that he rallied for Newton-John to get the part, too. Not trusting her good fortune or her acting (her previous film, Toomorrow, had been released back in 1970), Newton-John requested a screen test with Travolta to make sure they had chemistry.

Andy Warhol and an adult film star would have been cast if Paramount hadn’t stepped in.

Carr wanted Warhol to play the art teacher. One unnamed studio executive said he would not have “that man” in the movie, which Carr interpreted as the executive having a personal vendetta against the legendary artist. Carr also wanted porn star Harry Reems to play Coach Calhoun and offered him the part after a screening of Casablanca at Hugh Hefner’s mansion. The studio wouldn’t have it. “They bounced me out of the cast,” Reems said. “They thought they might lose some play dates in the South.” Carr felt so badly about it that he wrote Reems a personal check for $5000.

Lorenzo Lamas landed a role when a president’s son backed out.

Gerald Ford’s son, Steven, was too nervous to play Tom Chisum, Sandy’s jock boyfriend, who had a grand total of zero lines. Lamas (later Lance Cumson on Falcon Crest and Hector Ramírez on The Bold and the Beautiful) jumped at the chance, agreeing to lighten his dark hair because he looked too much like a T-Bird. “I would have dyed it green, fuchsia, anything,” Lamas told People.

Most of the main actors were far too old to be in high school.

Stockard Channing (Rizzo) was 34 when the film was released. Newton-John was 29. Jeff Conaway (Kenickie) was 27. Travolta was 24. Jamie Donnelly (Jan) was 30 during filming, and had to dye her hair from her premature grey to black. Her hair grew back so quickly that her roots had to be colored in with a black crayon every day.

The title song was written by Barry Gibb, and Peter Frampton played guitar.

Kleiser didn’t like this song because he thought the lyrics were too dark and not fitting of the 1950s. Kleiser asked Gibb to make the lyrics more upbeat; Gibb told Kleiser he should shoot a serious scene to match the song. It became a number one single in the United States.

Rizzo’s hickeys were real.

Conaway gave Channing a real hickey because he wanted it to be authentic. Conaway was also so infatuated with Newton-John that he was tongue-tied whenever she was around. He later married Olivia’s sister, Rona.

“Greased Lightnin'” was supposed to be sung by Jeff Conaway, not John Travolta.

Travolta’s two conditions for agreeing to play Danny were that he could sing “Greased Lightnin’,” even though Kenickie sang it in the stage production; and that he had to have “blue black hair like Elvis Presley and Rock Hudson in the movies” because “it’s surreal and it’s very 1950s.” The star also argued with Kleiser over the end of the song “Sandy”; he wanted a close-up of himself instead of the cartoon shot of a hot dog diving into a bun. Kleiser got his way.

Coca-Cola signs were (mostly) blacked out.

Carr made a promotional deal with Pepsi; the set decorator didn’t know that. When the producer saw footage from the movie featuring Coke products he went “ballistic,” according to Kleiser. The Coca-Cola logos were blocked out with an optical printer. They couldn’t alter the Coke cooler, because it was impossible to cover with the technology available at the time. Pepsi never complained. They would have unblocked the Coke signs when the Pepsi deal expired before the 20th anniversary re-release if the original print hadn’t been lost.

Travolta kept flubbing a word so much it was kept in the movie.

Travolta kept lip-syncing “heap lap trials” instead of “heat lap trials,” and Kleiser claims you could see this in the finished product. Kleiser believed Travolta was distracted after reading a magazine article that morning about his recently deceased girlfriend, Diana Hyland, who had passed away from cancer.

Travolta got more of the stage script into the movie.

Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey, who wrote the original musical’s book, weren’t invited on set during production of the movie. Travolta had played Danny more than 100 times on the road doing the musical, and gradually got more lines from Jacobs and Casey’s version into the film, which was written by Carr and Bronté Woodard. When Travolta didn’t think a line of dialogue was working, he would quote a line from the original, and Kleiser would tend to agree and use that line instead.

That Elvis Presley lyric is creepy.

In “Look at Me, I’m Sandra Dee,” Rizzo sings “Elvis, Elvis, let me be, keep that pelvis far from me,” while looking at a picture of The King. That scene was shot on August 16, 1977—the day Presley died. “It was very eerie,” Kleiser told The New York Post. “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.’” When Carr first bought the film rights to Grease, he envisioned Elvis as Danny and Ann-Margret as Sandy. According to Broadway.com, Presley was offered the role of Teen Angel but turned it down.

Olivia Newton-John was sewn into those spandex pants.

“They sewed me into those pants every morning for a week,” Newton-John said. “Believe me, I had to be very careful about what I ate and drank. It was excruciating.” It was 106 degrees on the set for the carnival finale.

George Lucas helped get the movie re-released.

In 1997, Kleiser called Sherry Lansing, then head of Paramount, and insisted that Grease had to come back again for its 20th anniversary. Lansing informed Kleiser that George Lucas had called her a few days earlier and said that out of all of the movies in the Paramount vault, Grease is the one that should come back. The Star Wars creator explained that every nine-year-old he knew watched a VHS copy of Grease every day.

SOURCE: MENTAL FLOSS:  ROGER CORMIER

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Published by pat frederick

Published

137 thoughts on “GREASE!”

    1. Morning, Pat! I’ve got 28 this morning – just watched the forecast – we could be up to 60 in about 10 days!!! Hope the trees don’t start budding…..

      Liked by 1 person

    1. Hey, now! I have a pair of sneakers exactly like those w/velcro straps!!! And I’ve had ’em for over 10 years!!! My issue was laces that slip and won’t stay tied. Got those when I was working at the museum and I still wear them occasionally.

      Liked by 1 person

  7. pick me, pick me..I know!!! the STATE gets the money. it’s essentially a FINE an goes into the state coffers and probably tissue james will get a pay off and so will engorgio

    Liked by 1 person

  9. Liked by 1 person

  12. So, when the Muslims object, they listen….got it!!!

    “School district allows LGBTQ lesson opt-outs after legal threat by Muslim parents—White lesbian board member scolded black Muslim women for not showing “solidarity.” Federal appeals court could rule on similar suburban D.C. case “any day.”

    Christian, Jewish and Muslim families in suburban D.C. are waiting for a federal appeals court to determine whether their school district can continue requiring their children to read LGBTQ “storybooks” without parental knowledge or consent.

    Eleven hundred miles away in a similarly blue jurisdiction led by the United States’ first known Somali-American mayor, Muslim immigrant families who escaped a war-torn country didn’t have to go to court to have their parental rights honored.

    St. Louis Park Schools in suburban Minneapolis agreed to notify six Somali-American families before their children are exposed to “LGBTQ-affirming books” and let them opt out of the instruction, their lawyers at First Liberty Institute and True North Legal said Tuesday.

    That’s a marked change from an Oct. 24 board meeting at which some of those parents asked for notice and opt-out. A white lesbian board member at the end of the meeting scolded the women of color, who all wore hijabs, for refusing “solidarity” with another “historically marginalized” community.

    Aquila Elementary School Principal María Graver rejected an Oct. 6, 2023, opt-out “because of the large number of requests that would come in,” according to the public interest law firms’ Dec. 7 letter to SLPS.

    That echoes the belated logistical rationale by Maryland’s Montgomery County Public Schools after getting sued. 

    MCPS has refused to specify how many opt-out requests it received after introducing the disputed books, which expose children as young as 3 to sex workers, kink, drag, gender transitions and same-sex romance. The alleged flood was not mentioned in internal communications obtained in legal discovery.

    The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in December, with Democrat-run states supporting MCPS and Republican-run states the parents. Their lawyers at the Becket religious liberty law firm told Just the News on Tuesday the court could rule “any day.”

    First Liberty declined to share SPLS’s written responses to its clients due to student privacy, even with redactions, but told Just the News the notices cover “[a]ny planned instructional materials and lessons/assignments by the teacher on the topic of LGBTQ+ sexuality.” ……

    https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/education/school-district-allows-lgbtq-lesson-opt-outs-after-legal-threat-muslim

    Liked by 1 person

  13. “Zelensky invites Trump to visit Ukraine amid ongoing war with Russia: “I am ready, even to go with him to the frontline,” Zelensky said.”

    By Charlotte Hazard, Just The News

    Published: February 17, 2024 3:12pm

    ENTIRE ARTICLE: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday invited former President Donald Trump to Ukraine while speaking at the Munich Security Conference.

    “[I]f Trump, Mr. Trump, if he will come, I am ready, even to go with him to the frontline,” Zelensky said, according to The Hill.

    Last year, Trump said he could help end the war and Zelensky argued that he couldn’t. “Former President Trump said that in about 24 hours, that he can manage it and finish the war,” Zelensky said during an interview last year. “For me, what can I say? So he’s very welcome as well.”

    The U.S. has been providing aid to Ukraine amid its ongoing war in Russia that began in 2022. 

    Earlier this week, the Senate passed a $95.3 billion foreign aid package that would give Ukraine $60 billion, but it is expected to have a difficult time passing in the House.”

    Liked by 2 people

  14. “This is my Valentines day card to the greatest country in the history of of the world. No matter what’s going on globally, in our country, your state, neighborhood, or household. You must never forget that we certainly do live in the single greatest expression of freedom the world has ever known. When you share this song with your friends, please remind them of that truth.”

    Liked by 1 person

  15. Just The News: “The children who were hospitalized from injuries following the Kansas City Super Bowl parade have all been discharged, according to reports. A hospital spokesperson told the New York Post that all 12 kids injured at the parade were discharged.

    “We have great news to share — all patients have been discharged from Children’s Mercy,” the spokesperson told the outlet. 

    The victims harmed were between eight and 47 years old, according to Kansas City police. Authorities said Friday they have officially filed charges against the two juveniles being held in connection with the parade shooting that left one dead and multiple injured.

    Twenty-two other people were injured or wounded in the shooting, which police say started as a “dispute between several people.”

    Liked by 1 person

  16. Well, let’s see how difficult WP is going to be today….

    Sunday Strip: Memory Test — Good to keep in mind.

    ROBERT W MALONE MD, MS

    FEB 18, 2024

    File under “Good to Know”:

    Sea lioning is a trolling or harassment tactic commonly deployed in online discussions and blogs. It involves the attacker asking relentless and insincere questions or requests for evidence under the guise of civility and a desire for genuine debate. These requests are often tangential or previously addressed, and when well deployed the attacker maintains a pretense of civility and sincerity, while feigning ignorance of the subject matter. Sea lioning is aimed at exhausting the patience and goodwill of the target, making them appear unreasonable.

    Yeah, I get this one deployed on me all the time. You too?

    Liked by 1 person

        1. It is….very! Ha! So much for the sanctions! Some pretty ingenious methods as well, such as the shopping carts. You have to insert $$$ to unlock the cart but when you return the cart, you get the $$$ back. As Tucker says….”so you can’t take it back to the homeless camp with you!”

          Liked by 1 person

    4. I think I’ve figured it out…if it won’t post “normally,” then I hit the plus sign and post the URL. That works most of the time.

      Liked by 1 person

    1. I figured that was what you were doing. No more shoveling for me for a while anyway. I still expect another big storm or two before real spring arrives but I don’t expect to call my shoveling guy – we shouldn’t get that much, hopefully. We generally don’t have many blizzards that are as bad as this last one.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. we got a couple inches here and there over the last few storms–but my kids got hammered!
        10 inches from each of the storms!
        but–as it is south of us–the temps warmed up within a day or two and just about melted the 10 inches before the next 10 inches hit.

        Liked by 1 person

  19. Saw this pic posted at W’s….IIRC, that is from a “spirit cooking” party!!! See the woman laying on the table in the background?

    Like

  20. Just The News: “NASCAR announced Sunday that the Daytona 500 race would be postponed until Monday afternoon “due to inclement weather” in the area. The postponement means that the Daytona International Speedway will have its first-ever Monday doubleheader, as the NASCAR Xfinity Series race is scheduled to still occur late Monday morning, speedway officials said on X, formerly Twitter.

    The Xfinity Series race was scheduled for Saturday but had also been postponed to Monday due to the weather.

    Daytona Beach, Fla., where the race is held, received about an inch of rain over the past day, according to the National Weather Service. It is expected to rain throughout the rest of the day Sunday, and a shower or two is expected in the area Monday morning, but the weather is predicted to clear up by the afternoon, per The Weather Channel.”

    Liked by 1 person

      1. Not any more! I had gotten out of watching the entire races due to all the restrictions and changing “rules,” etc., etc. but would watch bits and pieces It got waaay too commercial for me. The noose debacle sealed the deal once and for all!

        Liked by 1 person

      2. I’m at the first stage with Husker football….I record the games but FF thru all but the end of the 4th quarter….if we lose, I generally don’t watch any of it unless it’s really close. Bunch of pansy-ass whiners and cowards now to me, after the “team” decided to turn down a Bowl invite a few years ago, even when they hadn’t officially qualified for a Bowl game, due to fricking COVID! The coach left it up to them to decide.

        Liked by 1 person

  28. Liked by 1 person

      1. My Sis will get a good chuckle out of it, fer sure! LOL – we’ve never been a “union” family. Back in the ’70’s, when both my Sis and brother were OTR truckers, the truckers called for a strike in NE – they refused and had some hairy encounters but Sis had her dobie and Bro had his weapon – had to pull it out a time or two.

        Liked by 1 person

  29. Liked by 1 person

  31. “Why Alex Soros Is Demanding More Money for Globalist Incubator Ukraine—This isn’t about greed or stopping Russia. This is about prolonging the war and keeping their launching pad of corruption intact. News portion generated from corporate media reports.”
    JD RUCKER
    FEB 18, 2024

    Editor’s Commentary: This article was sent to me titled, “Globalists Panic: Alex Soros Declares We Must Not Abandon Ukraine.” I took great editorial liberty in changing it and added commentary before the news because the underlying message can easily be missed.

    EXCERPT: “George and Alex Soros, along with their globalist buddies in the World Economic Forum, United Nations, NATO, and the Council for Inclusive Capitalism, do not view Ukraine the way American leftists and NeoCons do. In America, most of the ongoing support for sending taxpayer dollars to Ukraine is driven by the Military Industrial Complex enacting their will on their puppets in Washington DC. It’s mostly driven by greed.

    For the Globalist Elite Cabal, the stakes in Ukraine are far greater than making a quick buck. It is the cesspool of corruption from which they’re able to launch their most important initiatives in Europe. This is why it was so important for Barack Obama and the Deep State to initiate the color revolution in the nation in 2014. And it’s why Alex Soros is working hard to keep the money and weapons flowing in.

    Keep in mind that they do not believe Ukraine can actually win. In fact, they don’t care about the outcome at all. What they want is for the war to be prolonged. The longer it lasts, the easier it is for the globalists to assert their will. The more damaged Ukraine is when (if?) a winner is finally declared, the better it will be for the aforementioned globalist groups as well as their financiers in BlackRock, Vanguard, central banks, the IMF, and the BIS.

    Modern day Ukraine was built by Obama and his underlings to be a black hole from which truth cannot escape. Massive money laundering goes undetected in Ukraine. Bioweapons can be built with less scrutiny than in Communist China. Weapons can be brought in and divvied out to whatever nation or terrorist organization suits the needs of the globalists. Hamas and Hezbollah are recent recipients of military aid that was laundered through Ukraine….”

    https://jdrucker.substack.com/p/why-alex-soros-is-demanding-more

    Liked by 1 person

      1. Take note: HER charity = HER pockets!

        “Alex Soros, much like his father, has been a staunch advocate for Ukraine. His recent visit to Kyiv, where he met with President Zelensky and First Lady Olena Zelenska, reflects his ongoing commitment. Soros’s donation of $1 million to Olena Zelenska’s charity further solidifies his partnership with the Open Society Foundations in supporting Ukrainian causes.”

        Liked by 1 person

  32. Oh, fucking wonderful! Way to go, Maria! SMDH – Mike Walz on her show and they are both freaking out over the “Russia pursuing a nuclear anti-satellite space weapon!” He is trying to claim that Turner putting out the public warning was only because they have allegedly sent “classified letter after classified letter” asking the FJB admin how they plan to deal with it and getting no response. And he thinks he is playing CYA by praising Trump for creating Space Force. Yeah, no, asswipe! Stop with the fucking gaslighting, Maria!!!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Did the snow on the roof come off? We’re at 53 and there are only a few stray patches of snow left. Bright sun all day will do that!

      Liked by 1 person

  34. The figure of Baron Roman von Ungern-Sternberg, commander of the anti-communist resistance in the Far East of Russia and Mongolia, appeared in Novosibirsk, at 10 Fabricnaya Street, at the place where he was shot.

    “Gotta love a rodeo after a good downpour…”

    Liked by 1 person

  38. I am adding a short daily prayer to the board. I would invite each of you, if you wish, to also add one or maybe two of your own liking. I do not want to stifle anyone but please limit yourself to one or two religious postings. here’s one I found that I liked.

    Like

  50. NEW: The first female mayor of a small Illinois village is facing accusations of shutting down businesses that refuse to donate to her campaign

    During official meetings, Tiffany Henyard is seen dressed as the movie gangster Nino Brown from ‘New Jack City.’

    She even brought a DJ to play Rihanna’s ‘B***h Better Have My Money.’

    One resident, Lawrence Gardner, claimed she forced the closure of his trucking business after he refused to renew a $3,500 contribution to her political fund

    ‘I made the payment,’ he said. ‘Then every year she started coming and required the same thing, and we had a problem about that.’

    ‘What is she, Nino Brown?’ he said. ‘Anything she wants done, she gets them to harass you. She likes nobody. If you are not doing what she say, if you are not doing how she’s saying to do it, you are a problem. She don’t like them.’

    Liked by 1 person

    1. we had a councilwoman like that. her son was chief of police and she was a royal pita. no one liked her. she tried repeatedly to get me fired–and i kept asking the council president what i was doing wrong and she told me–you’re not being intimidated by her.
      this woman would come into the office and expect to rummage thru the borough records and take what she wanted…me being a by-the-book sect. said fill out the proper paperwork and i will happily make you copies.
      she made my job unbearable. when i finally quit, i applied for unemployment citing hostile work environment. there was a hearing i brought my sect journal and details of every bad thing she said about me in a public meeting (without proof) and dozens of witnesses.
      i won.

      Liked by 1 person

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