Randal Kleiser’s ‘Grease’ was released in 1978, starring John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John, Stockard Channing, and Jeff Conaway.
The story follows Sandy Olsson, a high school student from Australia who travels to the United States for summer vacation and meets Danny Zuko, the leader of the T-Birds gang. They fall in love, but at the end of the summer they must part ways as Sandy prepares to return home. By coincidence, she ends up staying in America and enrolling in the same high school Danny attends.
There, she befriends the Pink Ladies, led by Betty Rizzo (Stockard Channing). Unaware of how close their social circles are, Danny and Sandy each tell their friends about their summer romance. Eventually, the two meet again and decide to rekindle their relationship, despite opposition from their peers.
By the time filming began, John Travolta had already gained some fame thanks to his role in Saturday Night Fever, but it was the role of Danny Zuko that turned him into a true movie star.
Perhaps because of this newfound status, Travolta made several special demands on set. He insisted on being transported to the set in an armored vehicle and was constantly accompanied by a bodyguard and two police officers. In addition, he required his co-star Jeff Conaway, who was a few centimeters taller, to stand slightly bent so that Travolta would appear more authoritative as the gang leader.
These were the kinds of whims the rising Hollywood star allowed himself during the making of Grease.
