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THRILLS WERE MULTIPLYING
Grease star Frenchy reveals hot summer nights on set as iconic film prepares to turn 40
WHEN a group of unknown twenty-somethings spent the summer of 1977 shooting a goofy high school movie, they had no idea it would become one of the biggest films of all time.
In fact, the “horny” cast of Grease, which made superstars of John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John, felt like they were away on a wild summer camp.
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As the musical phenomenon prepares to celebrate its 40th anniversary with yet another cinema release, Didi Conn, who played beauty school dropout Frenchy, opens up for the first time about behind-the-scenes sex, Scientology and life-changing injuries.
The New Yorker, 66, reveals: “By staying in character all day that gave us the licence to be silly and goofy and horny and flirty, and just have a wonderful, spontaneous improv going all day long.
“That had really terrific results because there were some relationships that started and, let’s just say, major flirting was going on. Some of the trailers were rocking! It was hot.”
That flirting even extended to the two main stars, who played T-Bird leader Danny Zuko and naive Aussie Sandy Olsson.
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Didi says: “The chemistry between John and Olivia was real — very, very real,” before hastily correcting herself and adding: “A romance? No, no no. Just on-set.”
The late Jeff Conaway was the most prolific shagger, matching his bad-boy character Kenickie.
Didi swoons as she says: “He just oozed sexuality and he was an ever-ready bunny. He was just a very, very sexy guy.
“He and [cheerleader] Patty Simcox [actress Susan Buckner] they had a lot of rehearsing, they had fun.”
As for John, 64, he is now one of Scientology’s most prominent figures but it turns out he was a proponent of the Hollywood religion backstage at just 23 years old.
On one occasion he even attempted to heal an infected foot the director Randal Kleiser had picked up while walking through the polluted water of the LA River during filming of the Thunder Road car race, which features near the end of the movie.
In the new episode of The Dan Wootton Interview podcast — which you can subscribe to for free on iTunes or wherever you listen to podcasts — Didi says: “Yeah, it did go back that far.
“I didn’t observe him doing it but I remember hearing about it. I remember talking to him about it.
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“He told me, ‘Why don’t I read [Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard’s book] Dianetics and then we’ll talk about it?’”
During the filming of Grease, Travolta received an early film reel of Saturday Night Fever, his other iconic early movie which had not yet been released.
“He had not seen it and he was a little concerned,” Didi remembers.
“He said to the cast: ‘You know I did this movie and it was in Brooklyn, it’s dancing, I’m really worried about it.”
He set up a screening room at the Paramount lot one night after work to play the film to the entire cast.
Didi says: “We see this amazing, unbelievable, sexy, fantastic Saturday Night Fever. I said: ‘John are you kidding me? This is unbelievable, you’re incredible!’
“So he had no idea how good it was and that says something about his humility.”
Filming on Grease was far from glamorous, with a rundown old high school in downtown LA doubling as Rydell High School during long days of filming of the prom’s dramatic dance concert.
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Didi explains: “There was no air conditioning and they couldn’t keep the windows open because right next door was a pork plant.
“So they had to keep the windows closed, it was awful.
“I did see people faint but most of us were pretty resilient and just kept going.”
Elvis Presley, who had originally been offered a role as Teen Angel in the film, died during filming, prompting the inclusion of a line about him in the song Look At Me I’m Sandra Dee.
“That was Stockyard (Channing)’s idea, yeah,” Didi says.
“But what was happening in the real world, we were protected from that.
“We were staying in character all the time.”
Grease made its £4.2m budget back in just two days – but studio bosses had not anticipated it would become such a worldwide box office smash.
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So did Didi and the other cast become rich as a result? Not a chance.
She laughs: “Believe me if I’d have known this was going to be such a big hit I would have negotiated for points (a percentage of profits) but no, one flat fee and that was it.”
John and Olivia, however, are thought to have become multi-millionaires thanks to a much better deal.
She confirms: “They had different agents that kind of looked into the future, yeah.”
Sadly for fans, the lack of early commitment from Paramount meant they ended up turning down a planned sequel called Summer School, which would have featured all the major cast members.
Didi discloses: “Nobody knew that it was going to be the hit.
“In the carnival scene when the boys are throwing pies at their coach, and he says, ‘Oh I’ll see you guys in summer school’, that was supposed to be the title of a sequel that everybody had agreed that they wanted to do.
“Paramount passed on it. They said, ‘Oh this movie isn’t going to do anything, glad you guys are having a good time but, no.’”
By the time it was a hit, it was too late because John and Olivia were now international superstars.
Grease 2 ended up featuring then newcomers Maxwell Caulfield and Michelle Pfeiffer, with Didi being the only original cast member to return as Frenchy.
She sighs then says: “When people compare the two I think they get disappointed because it didn’t feel like it was connecting to the original because they were all new people.
“The only reason I was in it was because I had been left back because of going to beauty school!”
In 1996, Didi came agonisingly close to getting Grease 3 made, with all the original stars, including John and Olivia, on board to return.
She remains close friends with both stars.
She published a book called Frenchy’s Grease scrapbook to raise money for autism, after her son was diagnosed with the condition.
All the cast contributed and she penned a chapter, based on conversations with the fellow stars, on what the characters would all have been doing 20 years after the film ended.
Original producer Alan Carr came on board to produce it as a movie, with the cast taking only small fees and the rest of the profits going to various charities.
But Hollywood bosses refused to use the plot written by the cast, resulting in John, Olivia and Stockyard Channing, who played Rizzo, to quit.
Disappointed Didi says: “We had a great story. Frenchy was a dog groomer. Sandy and Danny were still together. It was just a lot of fun. But nobody wanted to take our ideas, they wanted to do their own.”
Unfortunately as time went by John felt: ‘No let’s not do this, let’s let everybody just savour the moment of what we created and that’s that.’”
Now she is resigned to the fact, the third Grease movie will never eventuate.
She shakes her head then says: “It’s too late now. I don’t think so. I think now that we’d be grandparents so it’s another generation removed.”
Like many pop culture moments from another era, Grease – set in the 1950s America – has been criticised by the snowflake generation.
Case in point in Summer Nights when one of the T-Birds asks Danny of Sandy: “Did she put up a fight?”
Feminists have also criticised Sandy changing for Danny by the end of the film, missing the point that Danny also completely changed for Sandy, becoming a jock and shunning his precious leather jacket.
Didi responds by saying: “I can understand that people can look into things and find that it might be demeaning in a way.
“But there’s also all these double-entendre that I think is what keeps Grease generating with new interest all the time.
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“When you’re young you don’t really know what it means when Rizzo says to Sandy, ‘How are things down under?
“Think about it – 1970s when we did it, people were free, loose, whatever.
“But they were playing the 50s and there was so much flirting and there was a lot of that kind of fun hooking up. It definitely is a movie of an era.”
One that has absolutely stood the test of time.
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- NOW TV is celebrating Grease’s 40th anniversary with a series of free slumber screening sessions, all taking place in an exact replica of Frenchy’s iconic bedroom. Secure your tickets here: .
- Stream Grease now on NOW TV with a Sky Cinema Pass for £9.99.
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