Welcome to the singing and dancing world of "Grease," the most successful movie musical of all time. We are now celebrating its 20th anniversary with the gigantic re-release on March 27 - with Danny, Sandy, Rizzo, Frenchy and all the Rydell High gang seen uncut with new, enhanced color and fabulous new digital sound.

"Grease" debuted in 1978 and grossed more than $340 million at box-offices around the world, becoming the biggest grossing movie musical in film history, a record that still stands today.

After 20 years, it still ranks as one of the top 10 video titles sold in the U.S. in 1997. So far, over 20 million double soundtrack albums have been sold (more than 1.2 million of those sales came in 1996 and 1997). It has been in the top five on the Billboard pop charts for 244 consecutive weeks as of February 1, 1998. It's no wonder. Who could resist all those infectious songs performed by John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John, Stockard Channing, Frankie Avalon, Sha-Na-Na, Frankie Valli and the rest of the cast?

For me, as the adapter of the Broadway show and producer of the film, one of the greatest joys of "Grease" -- both the film and the soundtrack -- is that it has captivated a variety of generations for so many years. Ever since it first opened in 1978, the movie and the music have played continually on TV and radio, at college screenings and karaoke bars, on the family video machine and on car stereos, allowing people of all ages to discover and rediscover the wonderful vibrancy of the actors, the music, the story.

Baby boomers and post-baby boomers in their 30s and 40s, people who paid their $3 to see it in 1978, have told me that they can't wait to take their own children to see "Grease" on the big screen. College students still pack campus screenings of the film, and teen-agers cruising the video stores have discovered the film on their own. The young kids, especially those 5 to 12 years old who have heard about "Grease" from their older siblings, have made it their own favorite. They hold Danny and Sandy dress-up parties, and this new audience has their parents and grandparents buy the video and original CD for them.

I wish I could claim that my colleagues and I knew exactly what we were unleashing more than two decades ago when we first began planning this film. I always thought it would be successful when I optioned the rights with a vision of making it into a movie, but I never dreamed of this phenomenal success. What we ended up with was a motion picture that has continued to touch the hearts of people of all ages and backgrounds. "Grease" is magical, and I am very grateful to have had a part in bringing that magic to the world.

Allan Carr
February 1998

With top stars as clients and headline-and-money-making movies as properties, ALLAN CARR is one of Hollywood's most celebrated personal managers and producers. A leading denizen of the "new" Hollywood, Carr has been profiled in both TIME and PEOPLE magazines and is the executive consultant for this year's 50th Anniversary presentation of the Academy Awards®.

Over the past several years he has represented and guided the careers of some of the most exciting personalities in the entertainment field. A partial list of Carr's clients has included Ann-Margret, Peter Sellers, Nancy Walker, triple-Oscar®-winner Marvin Hamlisch, Stockard Channing, Melina Mercouri, Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, Marisa Berenson, Tony Curtis, Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, Dyan Cannon, Paul Anka, Petula Clark, Sonny Bono and the late Cass Elliot.

Carr served as creative consultant to The Robert Stigwood Organization in the marketing and promotion of "Tommy," the movie rock opera which racked up theatre rentals in excess of $40 million throughout the world. He and Stigwood then presented "Survive!," the cinematic saga of the Andes crash victims which became one of the top grossing international film successes of 1976. Carr previously produced "The First Time," starring Jacqueline Bisset, for United Artists, and "C.C. and Company," with Ann-Margret and Joe Namath, for Avco Embassy.

Allan Carr and Robert Stigwood are currently preparing to premiere their film production of the long-running stage musical "GREASE," which is still playing to capacity houses in its seventh year on Broadway.

Currently living in Beverly Hills, Carr also enjoys a well-deserved reputation for giving the most imaginative and glorious of Hollywood parties. His soirees for such luminaries as Elton John, Rudolf Nureyev and Neil Sedaka have become legendary - although none can compare to his black tie dinner dance given in honor of Truman Capote in the Los Angeles Lincoln Heights jail.

Raised in suburban Highland Park, Illinois, Carr attended Lake Forest College and entered show business after a stint at Northwestern University. His first venture was as one of the creators of the Playboy Penthouse Television series. He was also responsible for the opening of the magnificent Civic Theatre in Chicago, where he personally presented Bette Davis and Gary Merrill in "The World of Carl Sandburg," Tyrone Guthrie's production of "Mary Stuart," starring Eva La Gallienne, and Tennessee Williams' "Garden District," with Cathleen Nesbitt and Diana Barrymore.

After finding success in the producing of plays and television shows, Carr became the assistant to Nicholas Ray on Samuel Bronston's "King of Kings," which filmed on location in Madrid for MGM. Soon thereafter, Carr migrated to California where he took an unknown University of Southern California student and presented her in the West Coast premiere of Norman Krasna's comedy, "Sunday in New York." The student was Marlo Thomas and the show, which flourished in Los Angeles for a nine-month engagement, launched the young actress as a major talent. It also did much to establish Carr as a major talent scout.

Carr has made future movie production arrangements to produce films for MGM, Columbia, and Universal, as well as for Paramount Pictures.

Thirty-year old RANDAL KLEISER is making his feature film directorial debut with "GREASE," having already racked up an impressive list of television and short subject credits. Born in Philadelphia, Randal resettled in Los Angeles at age 18 to attend the film school at the University of Southern California. While there he directed the award-winning one minute "Foot Fetish" about a pair of sneakers making love, and "Peege," his moving, 28-minute Master's project which took top honors at the Atlanta, Cine, Educational, and USA Film Festivals. He showed "Peege" to Universal, who offered the young director a non-exclusive contract. Starting with several episodes for "Marcus Welby, M.D.," Randal went on to direct for several series, most notably the highly-acclaimed "Family." Producer Robert Stigwood gave him his first opportunity to direct a made-for-TV film, the sensitive "All Together Now." His "Dawn: Portrait of a Teenage Runaway" was also well-received by critics and public alike, and his "Boy in the Plastic Bubble" introduced TV audiences to a non-Barbarino John Travolta, scoring for both of them with the Nielsens as well as the critics. Randal also directed "The Gathering," starring Maureen Stapleton and Edward Asner, which was aired on ABC last Christmas. Most recently, he has completed "Portrait of Grandpa Doc," a half-hour companion piece to "Peege," starring Melvyn Douglas.

In the past few years, ROBERT STIGWOOD has become one of the most influential figures in show business and heads a group of companies that encompass theatre, films, television, recordings, personal management, concert tours and music publishing.

Born in Adelaide, Australia in 1934 and educated at Sacred Heart College, Robert Stigwood began his career as a copywriter for a local advertising agency and then, at 21, left his home on a ship bound for England. A series of first jobs led to his opening a London theatrical agency. He began casting commercials for television and soon was producing records for many of his clients. In time, he became the first independent record producer in Great Britain.

During the middle 1960's, Stigwood joined forces for a while with Brian Epstein, the manager of the Beatles, to become co-manager of NEMS Enterprises. After Epstein's death, Stigwood went on to form his own company and launched the careers of, among others, the Bee Gees and Cream.

Moving into the world of theatre in 1968, Robert chose for his first venture the American rock musical, "Hair," a great success which ran for more than five years on London's West End. He followed with highly successful productions of "Jesus Christ Superstar," "Pippin" and "Oh! Calcutta!"

Robert then entered into film production and produced the motion picture version of "Jesus Christ Superstar" in association with the film's director, Norman Jewison. The Stigwood film production of "Tommy," directed by Ken Russell and starring Ann-Margret and Robert Daltry was one of 1975's most popular films and marked the first truly successful merger of rock music and film to tell a story.

RSO Records, which Stigwood founded in 1973, records the music of the Bee Gees, Eric Clapton, Yvonne Eilliman, Paul Nicholas, Player and Andy Gibb, as well as the many other new artists Robert continually adds to the successful label. In addition, the RSO label releases all motion picture soundtrack albums of Stigwood productions.

Stigwood's most recent dazzler with John Travolta, "Saturday Night Fever," has proved to be one of the biggest all-time money makers in movie history. He produced "GREASE" in association with Allan Carr, and has yet another spectacular movie musical in "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band."

There are many more Stigwood projects in the works: a stage project titled "Evita" and based on the life of Eva Peron, expansion into television films and series, a motion picture based on the extraordinary life of Uri Geller, and a new film starring John Travolta and Lily Tomlin called "Moment By Moment."

BRONTE WOODARD arrived in Los Angeles from Atlanta on New Year's Day, 1970. He sold his first script, "Radio Land," to Allan Carr for Ann-Margret, and although the project never developed, Carr and Woodard have remained good friends ever since. When Allan was looking for a screenwriter to adapt "GREASE" for film, Bronte received his big break.

And 1977 has been a major year for Woodard indeed. His first novel, "Meet Me at the Melba," rave-reviewed in the Los Angeles Times, is currently scheduled for filmization.

He is also adapting the best-selling "The Lonely Lady" to star Susan Blakely for Universal, and his "The Bessie Smith Story" is set to star Thelma Houston for Motown. He is also at work on screenplays for Ray Stark ("Free Style"), Allan Carr ("Open House"), and Paramount Pictures ("Ruby Red"). All of which goes to prove that his astrologist, who predicted these successes, certainly must have had a direct line to the stars.

BILL BUTLER was nominated for an Academy Award® for "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" in 1975. That same year he served as director of photography on "Jaws," the biggest grossing film of all time, which easily means that more people have seen his photography than any other cinematographer in film history.

Born in Colorado, Butler began his career in films working with then-novice director William Friedkin on a series of documentaries in Chicago. One of them, "The People Vs. Paul Crump," not only won the pair the top award at the San Francisco Film Festival, it also reversed the practice of capital punishment in Chicago following its impact. Friedkin brought Bill with him to work on his "Good Times," starring Sonny and Cher. He then worked with Jack Nicholson on "Drive, He Said," and with Francis Ford Coppola on one of his earliest features, "The Rain People." Coppola called upon Butler to photograph his critically acclaimed, Academy Award®-nominated "The Conversation," and then came assignments to work with Milos Forman on "Cuckoo's Nest" and with Steven Spielberg on "Jaws."

Having started as an electronics engineer, Butler still likes to work in television where his photography for "Raid on Entebbe" and "The Execution of Private Slovak" has been appreciated by critics and public alike.

Choreographer PATRICIA BIRCH received a Tony Award nomination for her musical staging of the original Broadway production of "GREASE." In all, Pat has been nominated for four Tonys, for "Over Here!," starring The Andrew Sisters and featuring John Travolta; for Hal Prince's "Pacific Overtures," and again recently for "Music Is" Her impressive list of stage credits goes on to include "You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown," "The Me Nobody Knows," "Diamond Studs," "Candide," "A Little Night Music" and "Happy End." Starting as a lead dancer with the Martha Graham Company, Ms. Birch has danced and acted in revivals of "Brigadoon," "Oklahoma!"and "Carousel." She is the permanent choreographer for television's "The Electric Company," the acclaimed series for The Children's Workshop; and, on film, Pat has just had a very busy year indeed, having choreographed sequences for James Ivory's "Roseland," starring Geraldine Chaplin, Hal Prince's "A Little Night Music," starring Elizabeth Taylor and Diana Rigg, and the soon-to-be-released "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band." She also was involved in the staging of the latest Academy Award® presentation.

Production designer PHILLIP JEFFERIES began in films by setting up the screen test for Paul Newman for "The Silver Chalice." He has since worked with Newman on "Sometimes A Great Notion," "WUSA," and one of the most successful films of all time, "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid." Beginning as an illustrator and later serving as assistant art director and color consultant, Jefferies was Oscar®-nominated for his design for the 1974 musical version of "Tom Sawyer," for Arthur Jacobs and Readers' Digest. The following year he worked on "Huckleberry Finn" and has more recently been praised for his work on "Ode to Billy Joe." He came to "GREASE" having just completed work on "The Island of Dr. Moreau," starring Michael York and Burt Lancaster.

ALBERT WOLSKY has already recreated the Fifties in costumes for Bob Fosse's "Lenny," starring Dustin Hoffman, and for Paul Mazursky's "Next Stop, Greenwich Village." Born in Paris and raised in New York, Albert began as an assistant costume designer on such to Broadway musicals as "Fiddler on the Roof," "Camelot," and "I Do! I Do!" For film, he has designed the costumes for "Where's Poppa?," Up the Sandbox," "Harry and Tonto," and "The Gambler," and this past year he worked on the critically-acclaimed "The Turning Point," starring Anne Bancroft and Shirley MacLaine, and "An Unmarried Woman," starring Jill Clayburgh and Alan Bates. His Broadway credits include "The Sunshine Boys," "All Over Town" and "Sly Fox" and his other New York stage credits include "Hamlet" in Central Park for Joseph Papp, and The Phoenix Repertory season. He was nominated for an Emmy for his work on the Hallmark Hall of Fame "Beauty and the Beast," starring George C. Scott and Trish Van Devere.

Having completed costuming chores on "Meteor," he is currently at work on "Moment By Moment" starring Lily Tomlin and John Travolta for Universal Pictures, and is also set to do the costumes for Bob Fosse's "All That Jazz" for Columbia Pictures.