Grease: Music on Film Series

Front Cover
Rowman & Littlefield, 2011 M09 1 - 192 pages

In the summer of 1978, Grease was the word. On Friday, June 16, 1978, the movie musical made a major comeback when a big-screen version of the long-running rock-and-roll stage musical, Grease , opened in theaters around the country. With a talented cast led by John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John and a memorable score featuring a mixture of oldies-style rock and contemporary pop, Grease captured the look and the feel of an old-fashioned Hollywood musical while taking audiences on a nostalgic trip back to the days of poodle skirts, malt shops, drag racing, and sock hops. Stephen Tropiano takes a fascinating and revealing look at Grease as a cultural phenomenon from its humble beginnings as a fringe musical in Chicago, to its unparalleled success on Broadway, to the making of the film that became the highest-grossing movie musical of all time. You will get an in-depth, close-up look at the making of this Hollywood classic and the creative talent in front and behind the camera that made it all happen. Thirty-plus years after its release, Grease is still the word!

 

Contents

Acknowledgments
1894
From Stage to Screen How Grease Became the Word
1905
Youre the One That I Want Casting Grease
1930
We Go Together Shooting Grease
1948
Oh Those Summer Nights The Grease Phenomenon
1963
Grease Is Still the Word
Greaseography
Notes
Bibliography
Copyright

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About the author (2011)

Stephen Tropiano (Los Angles, CA) is the author of Cabaret: Music on Film, Obscene, Indecent, Immoral and Offensive: 100+ Years of Censored, Banned and Controversial Films, and The Prime Time Closet: A History of Gays and Lesbians on Television. He is editor of the Journal of Film and Video and the founding director of the Ithaca College Los Angeles Program, where he teaches courses in film and television history, theory, and criticism.

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