“Now, this car could be system-matic. It could be hydro-matic, ultra-matic. Why, it could be greased lightning!”
The
movie was softened up from the stage version (the roll
of clingfilm in the Greased Lightning number
remains unexplained in the film), and all-American Sandy
Dubrowski was airbrushed into Aussie Sandy Olsen to
accommodate Olivia
Newton-John, but it remains one of the most successful
musicals of all time.
‘Rydell High’ is a conflation of three schools: the
art-deco façade is Venice High
School, 13000 Venice Boulevard (seen also
in American History
X; the school interiors, including the dance
contest in the gym, are Huntington
Park High School, 6020 Miles Avenue in Huntington
Park, southeast of downtown LA;
and the You’re The One That I Want carnival finale
is staged on the sports fields of John
Marshall High School, 3939 Tracy Street in
Silverlake, north
of downtown, seen also in the genuine 1957 juvenile
delinquent movie The Young
Stranger and lots of others, including the
original Buffy the Vampire
Slayer movie.
Grease location: You're
The One That I Want: playing field at John
Marshall High, Silverlake
The car racing sequence, where Sandy decides she doesn’t
want to be Sandra Dee any more, is along the concrete
spillways of the Los Angeles
River between the First and Seventh Street
Bridges, east of downtown, a location used in fifties
sci-fi classic Them! and
more recently in S.W.A.T..
Grease II, the disappointing
sequel with Maxwell Caulfield replacing John
Travolta and pre-stardom Michelle
Pfeiffer stepping into Olivia
Newton-John’s stilettos, used the Excelsior
High School at Norwalk,
southeast LA
on Route 5.
