My introduction to Grease wasn't the through watching the movie, but through listening to the soundtrack. Grease was one of the few albums my mother owned and listened to and I knew learned the music long before I saw the film on VHS many years later. I remember laying on the floor in the eighties opening the LP and staring at the images on the inside cover.
Like John Travolta I would guess... the cute blonde who really drew my attention wasn't Olivia Newton-John, it was Kelly Ward who played Putzie. I like many of Travolta's movies, but never really got his appeal physically. He is an actor who to me seems to appeal more to women than men. When I finally got to see Grease on video, the only actor who drew my 'lustful' attention was the adorable Ward.
Ward got his start in another Travolta project, the 1976 TV movie, The Boy in the Plastic Bubble. After appearing in Grease, Ward made a few guest appearances on TV shows, but by the early 80's moved behind the camera doing voice work and working as a dialogue and voice director.
The name Putzie is actually only used in the film version of the musical. In the original stage production, the third T-bird character's name is Roger. Putzie only sang in group numbers, but in the stage version Roger sang one of my favorites songs from the musical Mooning Given Putzie and the T-birds had a mooning song in the film, too bad Ward didn't get to sing the song to Jan.
Below Ward and Jeff Conaway with Barry Pearl (Doody) and Michael Tucci (Sonny)
I never appeared in a stage version of Grease, but I did sing Mooning in a Grease night showcase in my first year of University. One of the best versions of 'Roger' singing the song on Youtube HERE:
T-Birds
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