On 30 Jan 1974, Var reported that producer Steve Krantz and animator Ralph Bakshi were in the process of acquiring film rights for the Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey musical Grease, with the intention of adapting it into an animated feature. The stage production, which opened modestly in 1972 at a “converted trolley barn” in Chicago, IL, became “the longest-running show in Broadway history” to that time within seven years, as announced in a 18 Nov 1979 LAT article. Upon the stage production's 14 Feb 1972 New York City opening at the off-Broadway Eden Theater, the musical received mixed reviews, with critics complaining that “Sandy’s” capitulation to peer-pressure was dishonorable. The production was further challenged when it was deemed ineligible for Tony Award consideration because it was not playing on Broadway. According to LAT, Grease producers Kenneth Waissman and Maxine Fox filed a lawsuit against ABC-television “to enjoin them [ABC] from showing the Tonys.” Although Waissman and Fox knew the case was impossible to win, it proved to be sufficiently threatening to ABC, and Grease was approved for Tony eligibility with nominations in seven categories. The publicity resulting from the lawsuit and the ensuing nominations led to increased ticket sales. As noted in LAT, the producers endeavored to maintain the popularity of Grease by casting high-caliber actors as replacements for the original performers, including Richard Gere, Treat Williams, and John Travolta. Travolta had played the supporting roles of “Doody” and “Sonny” in the stage production. According to a 26 Mar—1 Apr 1998 Dramalogue article, the Krantz-Bakshi option lapsed after two years, allowing producers Robert Stigwood and Allan Carr to purchase the musical’s film rights in 1976. Carr paid the amount of $200,000 with his personal funds in monthly installments, per his agreement with Waissman and Fox.
       According to various sources, including Stephen Tropiano’s 2011 book Grease, Carr’s adaptation of the musical transferred the action from urban Chicago to a generic representation of U.S. suburbs, reflecting the personal experience of a wider audience. In a 15 Mar 1998 LAT article, published upon the rerelease of Grease, director Randal Kleiser stated that he and choreographer Patricia Birch, who had also choreographed the original theatrical production, worked together to envision the musical numbers for the screen. The car race at the climax of the picture was originally written to evoke the chariot scene in Ben Hur (1959, see entry), with vehicles speeding around a high school track like gladiators. However, the scene was rewritten to utilize the cement enclosure of the Los Angeles, CA, riverbed due to budget constraints.
       Other changes from the stage show included the addition of several songs, including “Sandy,” with music by Louis St. Louis, and lyrics by Scott J. Simon, who was also known as “Screamin’” Scott Simon from the music group Sha-Na-Na. The band appeared in the film as “Johnny Casino & The Gamblers” and performed many of the picture’s previously released hit songs for the soundtrack. Olivia Newton-John’s music producer and songwriter, John Farrar, wrote “You’re The One That I Want” and “Hopelessly Devoted To You,” which became hit singles upon the film’s release. According to Kleiser, “Hopelessly Devoted To You” was written during the middle of production and added to the film because Newton-John was contractually entitled to a solo and song approval. The scene in which “Sandy” wanders through the backyard singing “Hopelessly Devoted To You” was one of the last sequences shot during production, and it was filmed in a single take.
       Also new to the film version of Grease was Barry Gibb’s theme song, “Grease.” Kleiser noted that he was initially troubled by the lyrics and tune of the song, which he found dark and inconsistent with the optimistic theme of 1950s teenagers. In addition, the opening credits were animated to the rhythm of a different song titled “Grease” by Bradford Craig. When Kleiser asked Gibb to change the lyrics to something more upbeat, Gibb suggested Kleiser shoot a serious scene for the movie, to reflect the mood of the song. Gibb’s “Grease,” performed by Frankie Valli, was used in its original form and became a number one hit single in the U.S.
       Grease marked Kleiser’s feature film directorial debut. His previous experience with musical productions consisted of uncredited background acting work on films including Double Trouble (1967, see entry) and Hello, Dolly! (1969, see entry) while he was studying filmmaking at the University of Southern California (USC). Kleiser had previously directed John Travolta in the 1976 ABC television movie, The Boy in the Plastic Bubble. When Travolta was cast in Grease as “Danny,” a role initially offered to Henry Winkler, according to the 19 Jun 1978 HR, he had recently become famous for his role on the television series Welcome Back, Kotter (ABC, 9 Sep 1975—10 Aug 1979) and had starred in the yet unreleased Saturday Night Fever (1977, see entry). As stated in the 13 Jun 1977 edition of People and Kleiser’s LAT article, Travolta’s girl friend at the time, Diana Hyland, who he met on the set of The Boy in the Plastic Bubble, died from cancer shortly before production for Grease was set to begin. Kleiser noted that the cast and crew tried to keep the set upbeat to help Travolta recover from his loss.
       Although the Mar 1998 edition of Premiere stated that the role of “Sandy” was originally offered to Susan Dey, and a 29 Jan 1979 LAT news item reported that Marie Osmond turned down the part “on moral grounds,” various sources, including the 15 Mar 1998 LAT, listed Olivia Newton-John as Carr’s first choice. However, she was set to turn twenty-nine years old during production, and was reticent to play the role of a teenager for her U.S. feature film debut. She agreed to accept the part on condition she approved her screen test.
       An 8 Aug 1977 People news item announced that Lorenzo Lamas, the son of actors Fernando Lamas and Arlene Dahl, had replaced Steven Ford, the son of President Gerald Ford, in the role of “Tom Chisum.”
       Casting also included a nation-wide contest in which forty-two teenagers were treated to a Los Angeles working vacation, according to a 31 Aug 1977 HR announcement. The youths performed as background actors in a scene filmed on 30 Aug 1977 at Venice High School. According to production notes in AMPAS library files, principal photography began one month earlier, on 27 Jun 1977, at Paramount Pictures studios and locations in and around Los Angeles, including Venice High School, which provided the exteriors of the film’s Rydell High School. Interior classroom scenes were filmed at Huntington High School, and the carnival finale was shot at John Marshall High School. All of the fantasy sequences and production numbers were filmed on Paramount soundstages. Kleiser’s LAT article added the Pickwick Drive-In Theatre in Burbank, CA, as a location. On 14 Sep 1977, Var announced that filming was set to conclude that day on the Paramount lot. In a 20 Mar 1998 HR article, Carr reported the budget as $6 million, and noted that the cost was half the amount of average Hollywood feature films at the time. He stated that due to the budget, every scene was planned carefully, and “everything we shot” remained in the final print; no songs or dance numbers were removed in post-production.
       A 16 Nov 1977 Var brief announced that Paramount was booking the film at theaters in preparation for a 10 May 1978 release with “steep terms,” including an eleven-week minimum engagement and a $100,000 “upfront guarantee for each house.” According to a 22 Mar 1978 Var article, Paramount provided theaters with a fifteen-minute musical short about the rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd, “presented” by Pepsi Cola, to run as a trailer for Grease. Although Paramount was engaged in a $2.5 million “promotional tie-in” advertising campaign with Pepsi at that time, studio vice-president Frank Mancuso argued that Paramount was not using the featurette to promote Pepsi, and was against “screen advertising in any form.” However, the 18 Nov 1979 LAT stated that Paramount had agreed to screen a thirty-second commercial for the stage version of Grease at the end of the picture as part of the “movie deal” with stage producers Waissman and Fox.
       On 31 May 1978, Var announced that Travolta’s recent success in Saturday Night Fever caused Paramount to reconsider its release plan for Grease, which was originally scheduled for a twelve-week test run at four theaters in Chicago, IL, starting in May 1978. The studio reportedly pushed back the opening of another Paramount release, Warren Beatty’s Heaven Can Wait (1978, see entry), so that it would not compete with Grease. As noted in a 21 Jun 1978 Var news item, Grease premiered 15 Jun 1978 at Chicago’s State-Lake Theatre, where Olivia Newton-John sustained bruised ribs while trying to pass through a crowd of nearly 3,000 onlookers.
       The film opened to widespread critical acclaim and box-office success on 16 Jun 1978. Over the next year, Grease grossed approximately $200 million, making it second only to Star Wars (1977, see entry) as the highest earning film in motion picture history to that time, according to the 18 Nov 1979 LAT. Upon its Mar 1998 rerelease, the picture had earned “$360 million worldwide, making it the highest grossing movie musical ever,” as noted in the 20 Mar 1998 HR. Additionally, the soundtrack had sold over twenty-two million copies and the video releases simultaneously ranked number one, for the “20th anniversary edition” and number three, for the original 1978 version, on the U.S. video sales chart, as announced in the 22 Jul 1998 DV.
       According to a 30 Mar 1998 DV report, Grease grossed $13 million in the first week of its reissue, marking the highest earnings for any rerelease except for the three pictures in the Star Wars trilogy (1977, 1980, and 1983, see entries). Kleiser’s 15 Mar 1998 LAT article noted that when the rerelease was approved, the 35mm music masters were discovered, but were in a nearly destroyed condition in the Paramount archives; the tracks could not be unwound or played. The studio’s vice-president of post-production sound, Cecelia Hall, had recently learned of method “to temporarily bind the brown oxide to the clear Mylar film, at least long enough to make a transfer, by heating them.” She baked the masters in her kitchen oven and “saved the tracks, allowing the Dolby six-track mix to be done.” Kleiser also noted that he added handclaps and backup singers to the surround sound reissue mix, hoping to “encourage audience participation.” He was inspired by the picture’s transformation into an interactive sing-along event akin to The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975, see entry), where audiences would dress as characters, recite dialogue, talk back to the screen, and perform musical numbers. Twelve years after Grease’s twentieth anniversary reissue, the 6 Jun 2010 DV announced that “sing-along screenings” of the film would take place in cities across the nation including New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago. As of Oct 2013, the “Grease Sing-A-Long” has become a summer tradition at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, as well as a nationwide event at select theaters.
       The film was followed by a sequel, Grease 2 (1982, see entry), which marked the directorial debut of choreographer Patricia Birch. It was also developed into an ice skating show called Grease – On Ice, as announced in the 11 Jun 1998 HR. On 18 Apr 2000, The Times (London) reported speculation that Britney Spears had agreed to star in a third film in the Grease series, “focusing on the lives of the children of the characters originally played by Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta.” As of Jan 2014, this third Grease feature film remains unproduced.
       Grease was nominated for one Academy Award in the category Music (Original Song) for John Farrar’s “Hopelessly Devoted To You.” It also ranked #20 on AFI’s list of “The 25 Greatest Musicals of All Time.”

      End credits include the following written statement: “Made in Hollywood, U.S.A.” While opening credits list actress Didi Conn’s character as “Frenchy,” end credits spell the character name “Frenchie.”