Wendy Brandes Jewelry Blog

Never Is the Next New Thing

Grease Is the Word

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Every time I come across Grease on TV,  I have to watch it. I enjoy every second of it … the songs, skinny John Travolta, the Pink Ladies, the cigarettes that the bad kids smoke. Back when it was first released (yes, I was alive then), I wanted to be bad-ass like Rizzo (Stockard Channing) but look like Sandy (Olivia Newton-John) when she dresses all sex-ay at the end. In fact, I’m pretty sure that Grease kickstarted my enduring love for biker jackets and shiny leggings.

Hawt! But I never got into cigarettes. Just the jackets and leggings.

Nowadays, I’m amazed that I didn’t know the real sex kitten of the movie was luscious 19-year-old Dinah Manoff as Marty Maraschino. I guess her dialogue with dance-contest judge Vince Fontaine went right over my head:

Marty wows Vince.

Vince: Hi, I’m Vince Fontaine, I’m judging the dance contest.
Marty : I don’t think I’m entered.
Vince : A knockout like you? What’s your name?
Marty : Marty.
Vince : Marty what?
Marty : Maraschino. You know, as in cherry.

Yeah, I didn’t get that cherry line when I was 10, but I appreciate it now. Another thing that I appreciate these days is a good butt bow. During a Grease viewing last year, I could have sworn I saw a butt bow on Rizzo’s red-and-black polka dot dance-contest dress. I scoured the Internets looking for a good shot to no avail until I stumbled upon Chris Laverty’s Clothes on Film blog. He didn’t have Rizzo’s dress in his Grease post but, when I emailed him, he sent back multiple screen caps of Rizzo’s behind.

All Rizzo screen caps courtesy Clothes on Film. Click for source.

Hmm! It’s not a pronounced butt bow like the one on my vintage Guy Laroche dress …

This is undeniably a butt bow. Click for original post.

… but I think we can safely call Rizzo’s adornment an “ass corsage.”

Check out Grease if you’ve never seen it — or even if you’ve seen it dozens of times like me — and tell me that Marty isn’t the the sweetest thing you’ve ever seen in a strapless dress. And if you’re looking for good information on movie costuming, go to Clothes on Film. Chris is your man!

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. I was alive then too and I clearly remember singing “You’re The One That I Want” in the bathtub and thinking ONJ looked all kinds of slutty in those leggings and birdsnest hair at the end. And nagging my folks to buy me the double album soundtrack. And they wouldn’t as it was tres expensive. Then I got it for Christmas and I think I may have slept with it. Once I’d finished looking at all the photos in the middle of the awesome costumes.

    The end.

    PS Stockard Channing was cute, but NO WAY was she 18.:) The Grease teens were the oldest teens in history. Jeff Conaway, really?

  4. Grease is actually one of my favorite movies, I remember seeing it for the first time in our 8th grade student body class and the teacher told us to not tell anyone he showed it to us. I’ve been since obsessed with movies and tv shows that show people in the 50’s and 60’s. Im obsessed with Hairspray and some other John Waters movies, Beach Blanket Bingo, and Gidget. This is like my guilty pleasure!

  5. Holy smokes, did I love “Grease” back in the day! And of course, you couldn’t rent it, so we played the record (yes! vinyl!) over and over again and acted out the parts. A lot of the jokes went right over my head too (Danny Zucko holding the Saran Wrap over his crotch – an “in a pinch” condom – during “Greased Lightning?? Wha???).

  6. Hi there-Oh isn’t Rizzo’s dress just gorgeous, love the ‘ass corsage’!! I loved all the looks and outfits in the film, its such a favourite of mine!! You look stunning in your gown, now there is a butt bow!!

  7. I loved every moment of “Grease” and strange as it may seem, my daughter loves it too. It’s one movie that we will both willing watch again and again. I get a little embarrasing when I start getting carried away and singing along with the tunes like I did at the time. I remember having those ONJ jeans, where did that figure go?

  8. Wow, Wendy, that dress is a show-stopper! You know I adore Grease, too – watched it several times over Christmas holidays. Seems to be the time when it’s on TV a lot. 🙂 And you know what? Sometimes I even sing along… 🙂 because it’s such a contagious movie! The good thing I don’t dance along, that would be pretty insane, I think. 🙂 By the way, have you ever noticed those red sandals in the movie? I love them so much… wish I could find something similar these days.

    Wishing you a wonderful week!
    x

  9. I loved Grease! And to make the memory sweeter, I think I saw it at the local drive-in in a car full of my girlfriends.

    Of course, being one of a crowd of rabid preppies in High School meant that I didn’t try any of the looks out until I got to BU, but I made up for it with a vengeance then, much to my mother’s horror.

  10. I’m def. more of a “Grease 2” kind of girl. I always, and still do, want to be Michelle Pfeiffer in that movie, with the biker jacket, blond 80’s metal hair, red lipstick. Amazing.

  12. Oh boy, I loved everything about Grease, too! In high school, I got to play Marty in our school’s production and had such a blast. She has a solo in the play version – a song called “Freddy My Love” about her gold digging ways! So funny.

  13. You’re preachin’ to the choir. I’ve been obsessed with that movie and it’s wardrobe for ages. I SO wanted Rizzo’s dress when I was little. I think that worried my mom. HAHA

  15. I’ll never forget our summer of Grease, my cousin, sister and I sang those songs constantly, and saw the movie probably 3 times. I would never turn the channel if it was on TV!

  17. Dear Wendy, I love the bow. I too have a thing for satin leggings. I had the full outfit – black satin leggings and sequined boob tube for the school disco… I was 9 in 1978.

    I bought some great ones in Camden years ago and have recently been looking for some more. I don’t want really low waisted ones or wet look. Is there anywhere good over there I can buy some? xx

  18. How appropriate! My verification word is “Greece!”

    The only joke I caught the first time I saw Grease was when one character says, “Bite the weiner, Rizzo!” and she says, “With relish!” Weiner! weiner! weiner!

  19. It took me many years before I caught all the dirty lyrics in “Greased Lightening.”

    My favorite moments in The West Wing were when Stockard Channing seemed to be channeling a wee bit of Rizzo.

  20. OK, I was alive then too – saw that movie a dozen times (not that I remember it in great detail, I’m not a movie rememberer) and I have to say I don’t like it. Maybe I have to give it one more try. But the thought of having those songs stuck in my head for 6 months is too much.

    Maybe the adult me will catch the nuance I most certainly couldn’t appreciate when I was 10.

  22. and now i’m humming “you’re the one that i want” haha…i laughed when i read…”yes…i was alive then” glad i’m not the only one…

  23. I was such a “good” girl; I loved pre-makeover Sandy. But my two daughters (8, 11) like the Pink Ladies (though they don’t understand many of the references).

  24. Good to know about Chris I often see amazing clothing in movies and can never find the pictures online. Its so freaken frustrating.

    and BTW I love grease! Good Girl meets Bad Ass Hot Guy <3

  25. I too watch it every time I see it and I sing along, out loud. Yeah, it ain’t pretty. And your butt corsage is beautiful. I know that I have never said that before.;-)

  26. Wow, was Grease really released in 1978? Do you remember my mother and my grandmother taking us to go see it? I’m pretty sure my sister Suzy squeezed in on that date night too. If I had not looked it up myself I would have thought I was older than 11 … or was it re-released? Grease is still one of my favs … I have shown it to my girls now and it’s fun to see them get up to sing and dance with the characters.

  27. I still rate “One That I Want” sequence as one of the sexist ever in a musical. I just love Sandy going all sex bombshell and the reaction that causes.

    I want her red heels!

    I rewatch this film every summer because it is so much fun.

  29. OMG! i loved grease and still do. like you i wanted to be as nasty as stockard but look like onj at the end and that is why i have all 5 pairs of disco pants—seriously. and i loved the butt bow dress…. i wanted it. as for your butt bow dress—holy amazingness! best butt bow ever!

    xxx
    t

  31. ahh the memories…I watched in the 80’s but it’s timeless along with my other favourite ‘Desperately Seeking Susan’ and ‘St Elmos Fire’ and yes Marty is complete gorgeousness in a strapless dress ( I still don’t get the ‘cherry’ thing though )