Friday, December 30, 2011

The Colors or Livery of Rydell High - from Grease 1978

Animated Rydell School Pennant in Rizzo's Room

The fictional school in Grease is Rydell High. It is the primary setting for one of the classic and epic musicals about the 1950s - Grease. During the movie the colors or rather livery of the school are displayed - red and white.

Grease was originally produced as a play in 1971, and it is one of the few Broadway productions to successfully cross over in Hollywood in 1978.

The real Rydell High School Pennant
in Rizzo's Room minus Rizzo

During a Pink Ladies slumber party at Rizzo's, the school pennant from Rydell High can be seen hanging on the wall behind a paint by number horse and picture of Elvis. It can be seen clearly during the Look at Me, I'm Sandradee song.


The Rydell Rangers Pep Rally - Grease 1978

At a pep rally for the Rydell Rangers the school coach leads the cheerleaders and fans. The American flag with 48 stars can be seen in the background and the stage columns are wrapped in red bunting on a white background to emphasize the school colors.

Principal Mrs. McGee raising
school flag with assistant Blanche


In the Hollywood sequel of Grease 2 - the tacky 80s take on the not so electric boogaloo. This train wreck takes place two years later in 1961, the school flag of Rydell Flag is shown in the beginning. The director couldn't help but sneak so totally not so tubular in 80s hair, music and style. Although marketing forces like to wrap decades and generations into neat little packages like the 50s, 80s, 00s, Generation X, Y, & Z. These are broad and often untrue generalizations, since there parts of the the 1960s that were no different from the 1950s. Likewise each person is their own 'decade' of whatever.

Original Trailer

5 comments:

  1. The pictures are great! FYI though, in the second picture they're in Frenchie's bedroom, not Rizzo's.

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  2. Actually it was Marty's bedroom.

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    Replies
    1. Actually it *was* Frenchy's parent's house. Frenchy said about the arrival of the T-Birds "They can't come in here. My folks'll flip!"

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  3. I'm actually a strong supporter of Grease 2. I grew up with it and see more in it than most, especially since one of the dancers, Ivy Austin (Francine) gave me a ton of info on the other dancers.
    However I do respect that many view G2 as inferior. It does fall short a bit, even for me, in comparison to Grease, but a few seconds later it picks up and is enjoyable throughout.
    Rant - this is actually a form explanation I wrote on why I love Grease 2 -
    I lived in Germany 1982-1983 and we had Jack for US movies. Family friends sent us VHS copies. We had...
    Tape 1: Tron, Grease 2, Stripes. Tape 2: Dragonslayer, Condorman. Tape 3: Love At First Bite, Zorro The Gay Blade. Tape 4: Rocky 3. Tape 5: Airplane 2. I ended up watching both Tron and Grease 2 literally back-to-back, bi-weekly, for a year.

    Besides, even though Francine was nerdy, she was a Hot Nerd.

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