‘Grease’ turns 40! 36 little-known facts about the beloved American musical

John Travolta was against the jumping hot dog scene - He wanted the song ‘Sandy’ to end with a close up on him, but director Robert Kleiser was adamant about having a cartoon hot dog jumping into a bun. “That hot dog was fantastic. I didn’t want to shoot the close-up because I loved the hot dog. That was a battle, but I won,” he told The New York Post.

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The soundtrack had two number-one singles - ‘Grease’ and ‘You’re the One That I Want.’

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Jeff Conaway had to slouch when he was filmed next to John Travolta - That’s so Travolta would appear to be taller.

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Most of the dancers had character names - Those names included Sauce, Trix, Cee Cee, Woppo and Bubba, but they were never used in the movie.

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The Rydell prom scene was filmed in 116ºF weather - The scene in downtown Los Angeles took two weeks to film, and several extras had to be treated for heat stroke.

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The actor who played Eugene threw up after filming the final carnival scene - All the spinning made Eddie Deezen sick.

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Annette Charles (Cha Cha) checked herself out of the hospital to film the drag race scene - She was rushed into surgery for an ectopic pregnancy later that day. She had been in intense pain for days.

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Olivia Newton-John had to be sewn into the pants for the 'You’re the One That I Want' scene - The pants were actually hers in real life, but they were 25 years old.

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The producers were counting on a product placement deal with Coke - Because that never happened, several shots of Coca-Cola products and signs in the Frosty Palace scenes had to be blurred out or digitally removed.

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Paramount had plans for a 'Grease' franchise - The franchise was supposed to feature three more movies and a TV series, but these plans were put on hold following the disappointing release of ‘Grease 2’ in 1982.

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The song ‘Beauty School Dropout’ was inspired by a news story about a teenage murderer - The writers wrote the song after coming across the story of a beauty school dropout turned murderer.

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The actors behaved like high schoolers on set - Despite all being adults in real life, the actors would show up several hours late to the set and were constantly being lectured.

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Jamie Donnelly had to dye her hair - The actor had prematurely gray hair, so she had to dye it black to play Jan.

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Kenickie married Sandy’s sister in real life - Jeff Conway married Rona Newton-John in 1980.

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‘Grease 2’ had double the budget of the original film - Despite having a $13 million budget, the movie made only $15 million at the box office.

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‘Grease’ is the highest-grossing movie musical of all time - Its production cost only $6 million, and it’s made more than $400 million internationally.

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The 1972 Broadway musical originally ran for 3,388 performances - It has since been revived twice.

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Changes were made for the film adaptation - While the greasers were called "Burger Palace Boys" in the Broadway show, the much catchier "T-Birds" was used in the movie.

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The 1978 film producers wanted it to be an animated movie - They finally settled for a live-action film with animated opening credits instead.

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Most of the main actors hadn’t seen the inside of a high school in quite some time - John Travolta was 23 at the time, Olivia Newton-John was 28, and Stockard Channing was 33.

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Frankie Valli sang the film’s title song ‘Grease’ - The song comes on during the opening credits.

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Henry Winkler was supposed to bring Danny to life - He turned down the role because he didn’t want to be typecast after playing Fonzie in ‘Happy Days.’

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Elvis Presley was offered the role of Teen Angel - Elvis Presley turned down the role not long before his fatal heart attack in 1977. The role ultimately went to Frankie Avalon.

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“Elvis, Elvis, let me be!/Keep that pelvis far from me!” - This Elvis Presley-reference scene was filmed the day of his death.

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Dinah Manoff was a horrible dancer - That’s why Marty was conveniently missing from most of the dance scenes.

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Lucie Arnaz was the original choice for Rizzo - Her mother refused to let her do a screen test.

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The son of President Gerald Ford was almost cast as Sandy’s jock boyfriend Tom - Steven Ford decided he was too nervous though. The role went to Lorenzo Lamas instead.

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100,000 pieces of bubble gum - That’s how many pieces the cast reportedly chewed during shooting.

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'You’re the One that I Want' was filmed at a traveling carnival in town for the day - The carnival had to be recreated for later close-up shots.

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Real hickeys - The hickeys on Rizzo’s neck in the diner scene were actual hickeys given to actor Stockard Channing by Jeff Conaway, who played Kenickie.

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John Travolta was not supposed to sing ‘Greased Lightning’ - Jeff Conaway was supposed to sing it, but Travolta convinced the producers to let him sing it.

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Vaseline - Grease was released under the name Vaselina (Spanish for Vaseline) in Mexico and Venezuela.

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