“Tell me about it, stud.”


Considered the last great musical, Grease, in its original theatrical run, made more than
100 million dollars in the U.S alone, grossing over 300 million worldwide. A grand success considering the film only cost a mere 6 million to make.

Consider the movie that almost was. Instead of John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John playing the lead roles, we could have had Marie Osmond as Sandy, and…..in a giant acting stretch, Mr. Henry Winkler aka ‘The Fonz’ as Danny Zuko. Worrying that he would inevitably be typecast as a street thug, Henry Winkler turned the role down.
Remember that scene in the soda shop? Where Danny and Sandy argue at the juke box machine? Sandy could have saved her quarter had the Fonz been there.

It’s a Hollywood tradition to hire older actors to play younger parts. If you watched any of the television shows about high school kids in the 90’s then you know that half of those actors were well in their 20’s and 30’s. For the cast of Grease, this was true as well. Travolta was 24, Newton-John was pushing it at 29 and the grandmother of them all, Stockard Channing was 34.


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