Didi Conn, who played Frenchy in the 1978 film Grease, has revealed that the musical's iconic song Beauty School Dropout was inspired by a real-life murderer. She shared the story during an interview on Magic Radio.
Song Inspired by a Killer
Conn, 75, explained that the song came about after the writers heard a news report about a man who committed a murder and had attended beauty school after dropping out of high school. She said: "I'll tell you a funny thing about Beauty School Dropout, actually. I happened to speak to Jim Jacobs this week, and Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey wrote the original musical. The first song they wrote for Grease was Beauty School Dropout."
She continued: "There was something on the news about a murder, and the guy - they were talking about this guy, and he did a terrible murder, and they said, 'And he went to beauty school after high school.' Dropped out of high school, went to beauty school and then dropped out of beauty school! They said 'That's a song, Beauty School Dropout'. And that's where it came from."
From Stage to Screen
Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey's original Broadway musical hit the stage in 1971. It was inspired by the working-class subcultures of the 1950s in America and followed ten teenagers as they navigated love and life at Rydell High School in 1958.
Seven years later, John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John starred in the film adaptation. Grease was the highest-grossing film of the year and remains one of the highest-grossing musical films of all time. Conn's character, Frenchy, is a close friend of Sandy, played by Olivia Newton-John, and introduces her to the Pink Ladies. Frenchy later drops out of high school to attend beauty school.
When she discovers she is not very good at being a beautician, an epiphany comes to Frenchy in the form of Frankie Avalon's Teen Angel. He sings about how she is a "beauty school dropout, no graduation day for you" and that she "flunked shampoo", so should "go back to high school".
50th Anniversary Plans
Conn added that she is "so grateful" to be in Grease. "I can't begin to tell you how happy [I am]," she said. "It brings beaming. Everybody feels the camaraderie. You know, we sing 'We Go Together' and we still are together. We're still friends and in two years, it'll be our 50th and we are still friends and we're going to do a big fundraiser for our 50th and it's a gift."
This comes just days after fellow Grease star Stockard Channing admitted she was living like a recluse after the "devastating" death of her partner Dan Gillham in 2014. Channing, 82, who played Rizzo, relocated to London after his death. Speaking to The Sunday Times Magazine, she said: "I’m happy being a recluse. Children were thought about and, yeah, I think about them now because it’d be great to have someone taking care of me. But hey, children can be just as selfish as everybody else out there." She also said Dan's death was "more devastating than I realised; it had a lag effect. The pattern of my life shifted, so I shifted my life from Maine [to London]."
