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Grease
- Los Angeles Times Calendar article
by Randal Kleiser
- Imagine making a musical as a first feature, and
watching over your shoulder are executives, Michael
Eisner, Barry Diller, Don Simpson, and Jeffrey
Katzenberg. Directing "Grease" in 1977 was like returning
to high school, and they were the teachers.
For the upcoming re-release I've been in touch with the cast members again, and it feels like a twenty year high school reunion.
A few years ago I took Olivia Newton-John and Didi Conn (who played "Frenchy") to a midnight showing of the movie and we were surprised to see the audience dressed in fifties outfits. The crowd sang along with the songs and repeated lines back to the screen, very much how I remember midnight screenings of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" when I was in college.
After the show, audience members spotted Olivia and Didi and went crazy, treating them like cult superstars, taking pictures, asking for autographs. The girls were moved by the unexpected response.
When I studied filmmaking at USC in the late sixties and early seventies, I simultaneously worked as an extra in movie musicals. By being on the set of "Camelot", "Hello Dolly", "Thoroughly Modern Millie", and "Double Trouble" with Elvis Presley, I was able to observe different ways musical numbers can be staged. I learned how songs are broken down into short phrases of lyric and shot in sections. I watched directors yell, "Playback" instead of "action". So, when I showed up on the set of "Grease", I didn't feel completely lost.
Getting the Job
Robert Stigwood had made a three picture deal with John Travolta after seeing him on "Welcome Back, Kotter" There was an article in New York Magazine called "Tribal Rites of Saturday Night". Stigwood flew me to New York to meet with the writer, Nik Cohn. We discussed a music driven story which eventually became "Saturday Night Fever".
A decision was made to move me over to Travolta's number two movie, "Grease".
Pre-Production
Allan Carr flew me to Chicago to attend a production of the stage musical. Seeing it for the first time, I was most impressed by the spirit of fun that came across. I began to envision how it could be a movie. Certain scenes were very clear, like the numbers "Summer Nights", "Greased Lightening", and "We Go Together". Some of the other numbers were hard to imagine on screen. I was sitting there wondering how do we make this work? Pat Birch who choreographed the original stage production was hired to do the movie. and we began to analyze each number.
Adapting the play to film
The play was set in an urban Chicago. My background was suburban Philadelphia which was in synch with producer, Allan Carr's suburban Chicago background. There were no greasers in our high schools, just tough kids. By adjusting the script to a more suburban feel, we felt the characters would appeal to a wider audience. - Pat always thought the story would work in any
period. Teenagers have common problems, fitting in, being
popular. In any high school you can find characters
similar to those in "Grease".
The 180 yard low hurdles were my event when I ran track at Radnor High School. I remembered tripping and falling during one race and adapted that moment to a scene with Danny and Sandy.
The climactic car race between the T-Birds and the Scorpions was conceived to take place on the high school track surrounding the football field, where Rose Bowl-sized "Gladiator" floats were to be parked. As the cars raced around the track, the image was to be a sendup of the chariot race in "Ben Hur". For budgetary reasons, Paramont's production head talked me into shooting the race in the LA River bed near downtown. All that is left of this concept is the knife-like wheels that bad guy Leo grinds into Danny's car.
Before principal photography, my USC directing instructor, Nina Foch, had a dinner party and I was able to speak with Robert Wise, director of ""West Side Story" and The Sound of Music". I asked for advice in shooting musicals. He asked how much prep time I had. When I told him five weeks, he told me to get out of the assignment right away. It was going to be a disaster. This terrorized me, but luckily, I decided not to quit.
Casting
Olivia Newton-John was our first choice to play Sandy, but she was nervous about acting, feeling comfortable with us and whether she could pull it off at all. She requested a screen test to see how it would all work. Afterwards, she would decide if she would do the movie. It was very unusual, because normally the producer requests the test to determine whether they want to hire someone or not.
Olivia was concerned about playing a seventeen year old. I told her it was a bigger than life musical, that all the actors were going to be about the same age, late twenties into thirties. It would be a style; a kind of surreal high school.
We needed a backup actress in case Olivia decided not to do the picture. I wanted to see some film on Carrie Fisher who had just finished "Star Wars".
George Lucas invited me to the mixing stage at Goldwyn where he was working on one of the space battles. I watched a fast cut sequence with lasers and explosions. Every once in a while there was a quick cut of a girl with big hair buns turning to watch a ship whiz by. "That's her", George pointed out. There was no way to tell if she could carry a musical.
The day of Olivia's test, John Travolta was made aware of her fears and helped her feel as relaxed as possible. He took her under his wing and joked around with her. We used the drive-in scene for the test. Olivia came across naturally and was able to handle the comedy beats. She looked great. When she saw the test, she agreed to do the picture.
During casting, each actor had to not only read for the part, but do a dance audition for Pat Birch to make sure they didn't have two left feet. I was watching carefully for "crow's feet" around the eyes of the actors. I wanted there to be at least some semblance of youth at Rydell High.
We wanted a supporting cast that would appeal to Baby Boomers who grew up in the fifties.
This is how we cast icons Eve Arden, from the TV show "Our Miss Brooks"; Sid Caesar from "Your Show of Shows"; Dody Goodman from the early "Tonight Show" with Jack Paar; Frankie Avalon, the 50's singing idol and star of the Beach Party movies; Alice Ghostly from "Bewitched"; and one of the first youth heroes of this initial TV generation; Edd Byrnes, who played Kookie on "77 Sunset Strip" and had a hit song, "Kookie, Lend me your Comb".
Rehearsals
For the three weeks up to principal photography, we rehearsed the script and the music numbers at Paramount Studios.
In the mornings, Pat Birch would choreograph the dancers while I worked on scenes with the actors.
Several of the cast had been in the stage musical. The advantage to this was that they were extremely familiar with their characters and knew exactly what lines and what business got great audience reaction. During rehearsals, I encouraged the actors to come up with jokes and bits we could incorporate. Jamie Donnely who played Jan on Broadway, remembered a line from the play that always got a laugh: "No shit, Bucky Beaver". She pointed out that she had rather large front teeth. We dug up the Bucky Beaver Ipana toothpaste ad that had run in the fifties and ran it on a vintage TV with Jan singing along with the commercial.
Barry Pearl (Doody) was a big Three Stooges fan, as was I. He worked with Kelly Ward and Michael Tucci, two other "T-birds", to come up with running bits based on those routines.
Jeff Conaway had played Danny Zuko onstage. He and Travolta came up with the moment where Danny and Kenikie hug each other, then quickly back away, embarrassed, combing their hair.
In the afternoons of the rehearsal period, we worked out the musical transitions and numbers on a barren soundstage with our musical director ,Louis St. Louis on the piano, and Cubby O'Brien from the original Mouseketeers on the drums (A real kick for me, having watched him on TV as a kid). Pat and I would work out where the camera would be in these numbers.
Jack Nicholson was prepping "Goin' South" in an office next to the soundstage. When the musical numbers went on too long, he would yell out his window for us to keep the racket down.
Just before shooting, we invited the studio executives to the stage and ran the numbers like a play. Nicholson, and Warren Beatty who was shooting "Heaven Can Wait" also attended. With the enthusiasm of the cast and dancers, it seemed like an Andy Hardy show.
Production
Producer Robert Stigwood was shooting "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" at the same time we were in production. All the attention seemed to be on the other film, which had George Burns and the BeeGees, and a much larger budget. We were the small low-budget teen musical, left alone to our own devices.
Instead of using regular Hollywood extras, we hired dancers as key background players. Pat Birch worked with twenty of them, giving each a name and backstory. Several had been in the Broadway cast and were excited to be part of the movie version. Much of the nonstop energy comes from the improvisations in rehearsals from these players.
Bill Butler, who shot "Jaws", was the cinematographer. The first thing I noticed when I looked through the lens was the oblong shape of the Panavision screen. I was used to the square of television. It felt like a big step up.
Costumes
Travolta's red windbreaker in opening scene was based on James Dean's in "Rebel without a Cause." We also made a blue windbreaker with the same design for the opening dialogue sequence .
Albert Wolsky designed a Fellini-like look for the 50's costumes that helped create the bigger than life feel we were attempting. - Whenever she was dressed as the conservative Sandy
character, Olivia was treated by the crew like just
another actor. The night we were shooting John's solo at
the drive-in, she stopped by to show me the hair, make-up
and wardrobe for the upcoming end scene where she has
been turned into a sex kitten.
When she walked on the set, sewn into her pants, the whole crew began acting like adolescents, with catcalls and whistles. They didn't even recognize it was Olivia at first. Cast member Sean Moran commented that half the dancers fell to their knees in amazement, and the other half wanted the outfit.
When she was in that makeup she was the center of attention, and if we had to shoot a scene later, where she was back to the original look, she was treated respectfully again.
Director felled by infection
When we were shooting the car chase in the LA River I was working barefooted. I cut my foot it became infected by some bacteria from the water. The next day, I had a fever of 102 and the production came to a stop. I couldn't get up off the bed in my trailer. They sent for the medic, but before she arrived, John Travolta entered to try a cure based on Scientology teachings. He sat down beside me and placed his index finger on my arm and said, "Feel my finger?" I replied, "Yes". He moved his finger an inch along my arm and asked the question again. I answered, and this process went on for about an hour.
The next day I had recovered and back at work.
THE MUSICAL NUMBERS
"Summer Nights"
It was clear to me that "Summer Nights" could be made cinematic. Danny Zuko and the boys were on the left side of the stage and Sandy and the girls were on the right side, both singing about what happened the previous summer. We developed a plan to intercut the two sides of the story, finding visual ways to connect them. This was one of the numbers that was carefully storyboarded.
At the end of the song, I wanted to see both faces in a split screen as they reached the climax of the song. When we were shooting Travolta's side of the split, which pulled back to a full shot, a lucky accident occurred; it was a cloudy day and just as he smiled in remembrance of that summer and sang, "Ohhhh", the sun came out and lit up his smiling face as the crane pulled away. It is hard to see this moment on video, but on the big screen it is very effective.
"Sandy"
At the Drive-In, when Olivia's character leaves Travolta alone, there was a song in the play called "Alone at a Drive-In Movie". None of us felt this would work effectively in the screen version and our musical director, Louis St. Louis, wrote the song "Sandy" to replace it. Now the challenge was how to stage it so it was interesting. We didn't want him to just sit in his car and sing.
When I was in high school I used to go to the Main Line Drive-In (which is now a housing development). Just below the screen there was a small playground for kids to amuse themselves at dusk waiting for the movie to start. I loved the idea of Travolta sitting on the kid's swing, pining away for his girlfriend.
The popcorn trailers that ran between drive-in features encouraged viewers to visit the refreshment stand with animated countdowns of when the next movie would start. We sent away to a Chicago distributor for about twenty vintage 50's popcorn trailers, but they didn't arrive until the night we were shooting at Burbank's Pickwick Drive-in (now a shopping mall). Bill Hansard, the industry's top process projectionist, ran the trailers one by one on the drive-in screen as the crew sat around waiting. My eye was caught by one that had a hot dog jumping into a bun at the end. I asked Bill if he could synch that action up to the end of the song. The end result looked like it had been carefully planned instead of improvised on the spot.
Thinking back, I guess I should have played more of the ending on Travolta; this was his solo. But, I was so excited by the animated hot dog falling into synch that I was swept along and didn't shoot a closeup. One of my regrets.
"Hopelessly Devoted to You"
As part of her contract, Olivia also had a solo and approval of the song. As we went into production, there was no song and no idea where we would put it. It was not even on the production schedule. John Farrar, who had written for her in the past, came up with "Hopelessly Devoted to You" about halfway through production. I had never heard a demo before, and it was hard for me to imagine the finished product listening to the author singing the song with a guitar. Olivia was convinced it would work.
Time was running out and we had to figure out where to put the song and how to integrate it into the story. We came up with the idea of Sandy wandering around the backyard singing about Danny after the slumber party. A set was quickly built. It was one of the last things shot, almost in one take.
The Dance Contest
There is a moment in this sequence when we come upon Danny singing along with the band as he dances with Sandy. She asks if he's ever consider singing professionally and he attempts to launch into a real performance. The song he sings along with is "Magic Changes" which John sang every night in the Broadway production when he played the role of "Doody".
"There are Worst Things I Could Do"
This song almost didn't make it into the shooting script. It was criticized as a downer in an otherwise upbeat musical. We decided to shoot it and see how it turned out. Stockard Channing acted the song beautifully, bringing out all the nuances of Rizzo's vulnerable bad girl. Her performance kept the song in the final cut.
"Greased Lightning" - In this number, at one point John runs around the car
rubbing saran wrap on his jeans. This was a hold-over
from the play where saran wrap is referred to as a
prophylactic. By using it as a prop, it got into the
movie, but in a non-specific way.
"Look at me I'm Sandra Dee"
It was eerie to shoot Stockard Channing's two shot with Elvis's picture as she sang the words, "Elvis, Elvis, let me be. Keep that pelvis far from me", because this number was filmed the day Elvis Presley died. It was the last day of our schedule.
"Beauty School Drop Out"
Didi Conn was genuinely in awe of Frankie's looks and charm and that came across in the close-ups.
During my USC days I had been an extra dancing behind Frankie Avalon in "Fireball 500". It felt very strange directing this musical number with him.
"You're the One That I Want"
This duet between John and Olivia was somewhat improvised on the spot by Pat Birch. She had worked out some of the beats, like Sandy stamping out her cigarette and kicking him over, but we needed a place to stage it.
Among the carnival machines rented for the end sequence was a kind of cheesy tunnel of love attraction. We took a look inside and decided to shoot on the moving platforms. Pat quickly worked out the choreography while I shot some dialogue with supporting characters. Because of our fast schedule, it was filmed in one wide master shot.
In the dailies, the number had an energetic loose quality, but was a little rough around the edges. We thought, boy this needs something. A few days later we decided to punch the number up with close-ups. No one had any idea where the set had gone; it was a traveling carnival. To shoot the close-ups the art department mocked up the background on a soundstage.
"We Go Together"
Pat Birch choreographed this energetic number to show the connections these characters had made in high school. She had them piling up all over each other to show the need they had to hold on to each other. - Unfortunately, we shot this on an August day in 106
degree heat. George Cukor, the legendary director of ,
visited the set that day and Pat and I offered to show
him the climactic dance number.
We placed Mr. Cukor in a director's chair at end of the football field facing the two hundred dancers. The playback started and the principals, dancers, and extras performed the three minute song in the sweltering heat.. - The cast was panting and sweating. I turned to Cukor
and he said, "Good stuff...very spirited."
GREASE
The title sequence was precisely animated to the beat of a fifties sounding original demo called "Grease" written by Bradford Craig. - During post-production, Barry Gibb wrote and recorded
his new song, also entitled
"Grease". When I first heard Barry's demo, I felt the music didn't sound at all fifties and the lyrics seemed inappropriate. When I brought this up, I was told to go talk to Barry. He was shooting "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" at a nearby studio.
When I arrived Barry was about to do a big production number and he led me behind some flats to talk privately. He looked at me suspiciously. I was a first time director.
" Barry, you haven't seen any of our footage, but we're making a light sunny musical. For the title song you have written;
This is a life of illusion, wrapped up in trouble and laced in confusion, what are we doing here?'
These lyrics don't really work for our movie; there's no trouble, no confusion. It's not like a film noir. There aren't any serious scenes. It's a happy-go-lucky thing. Do you think you could change them?"
He looked insulted. The assistant director was calling him for a take. - "Why don't you shoot a serious scene so the lyrics will work."
- At first, I thought he was joking, but he wasn't.
- We laid Barry's song against the animation, and although the precise animated beats were off, no one noticed. No one noticed the lyrics were off either.
- Dropped Number: "It's Raining on Prom Night"
- One of the songs from the play that never made it to
production was "It's Raining on Prom Night". I had big
plans for Olivia to sing this song walking through the
high school parking lot surrounded by rain machines.
Everyone agreed that it worked for Gene Kelly in "Singing
in the Rain" but I was talked out of it because of hair
and makeup difficulties.
CUT SEQUENCE
When the movie was finished, we got a note from Michael Eisner who felt that we had to explain more about what was going on between Kenickie and Rizzo. Why did she throw that milkshake in his face? We came up with a scene that explained their relationship and added it to the picture. It felt out of place and everyone agreed to drop it.
The Preview
The executives at Paramont weren't sure what they had. They decided to test the picture way out of town in case the reaction was poor. We went to Honolulu with cans marked with a fake title. A local radio station found out, and by the night of the preview there was a line that extended around the block twice. - Barry Diller sat in the front row on the left, where
he could watch the audience reaction. Michael Eisner was
in the back with other brass.
When first musical number came up, Travolta began singing and strutting down the football bleachers. The audience burst into laughter. My stomach sank. I thought it was a bad laugh; that they thought it looked ridiculous and we had bombed. At the laughter continued, I realized that it was a good laugh; they were delighted. - When the movie opened, I got a call from the studio
telling me what the grosses and per screen average were
for the weekend. In those days there was no
"Entertainment Tonight" reporting weekend grosses, and I
was a first time director who never paid much attention
to box office reports. I had no idea what figures were
high, low, or average.
"Is that good?" I asked. They seemed excited, but I thought they were just being polite.
I could tell the movie wasn't losing money but it wasn't until much later when my first checks came in that I learned they were telling the truth, it was a huge hit.
REVAMPING THE PRINT FOR THE RE-RELEASE
When the re-release was confirmed, Paramount's Vice President of Post Production Sound, Cecelia Hall, went into the vaults and examined the original 35 millimeter music masters. The adhesive on the film had become a flaking gooey mess. The music tracks could not be unwound, much less played. Cecelia had heard of a technique to temporarily bind the brown oxide to the clear mylar film, at least long enough to make a transfer, by heating them. There was nothing to lose. We couldn't use them in their deteriorated condition.
She took these original music masters to her Tujunga home and baked them in her kitchen oven at 150 degrees for six hours. Miraculously, it worked and she saved the tracks allowing the Dolby six track mix to be done.
Having attended midnight showings, and having seen the success of TNT's bouncing ball singalong version, I realized that many people in the audience want to sing the songs in the theatre with the soundtrack. For the enhanced stereo re-mix, we put backup singers and hand clapping in the surround speakers to encourage this idea.
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FREIHEIT
An Early Lucas Film Featuring Randal Kleiser