<P> Lorenzo Lamas was a last - minute replacement for Steven Ford, who developed stage fright shortly before filming and backed out . His role contained no spoken dialogue and required Lamas to dye his hair blond to avoid looking like most of the other T - Birds (although Conaway and Ward were also blonds). </P> <P> Henry Winkler was once considered for a lead in the film . Winkler, who was playing Arthur Fonzarelli on Happy Days, was originally chosen to play Danny . His lack of singing experience and fear of being typecast after Happy Days and the film The Lords of Flatbush led him to decline the role . Adult film star Harry Reems was originally signed to play Coach Calhoun; however, executives at Paramount nixed the idea due to Reems' previous work in adult films, and producers cast Sid Caesar instead . Caesar was one of several veterans of 1950s television (Eve Arden, Frankie Avalon, Joan Blondell, Edd Byrnes, Alice Ghostley, Dody Goodman) to be cast in supporting roles . Coincidentally, Frankie Avalon and Randal Kleiser had both appeared in 1966's Fireball 500, the latter as an extra . </P> <P> The opening beach scene was shot at Malibu's Leo Carrillo State Beach, making explicit reference to From Here to Eternity . The exterior Rydell scenes, including the basketball, baseball and track segments, were shot at Venice High School in Venice, California, while the Rydell interiors, including the high school dance, were filmed at Huntington Park High School . The sleepover was shot at a private house in East Hollywood . The Paramount Pictures studio lot was the location of the scenes that involve Frosty Palace and the musical numbers "Greased Lightning" and "Beauty School Dropout". The drive - in movie scenes were shot at the Burbank Pickwick Drive - In (it was closed and torn down in 1989 and a shopping center took its place). The race was filmed at the Los Angeles River, between the First and Seventh Street Bridges, where many other films have been shot . The final scene where the carnival took place used John Marshall High School . And due to budget cuts a short scene was filmed at Hazard Park in Los Angeles . </P> <P> Scenes inside the Frosty Palace contain obvious blurring of various Coca - Cola signs . Prior to the film's release, producer Allan Carr had made a product - placement deal with Coca - Cola's main competitor Pepsi (for example, a Pepsi logo can be seen in the animated opening sequence). When Carr saw the footage of the scene with Coca - Cola products and signage, he ordered director Randal Kleiser to either reshoot the scene with Pepsi products or remove the Coca - Cola logos from the scene . As reshoots were deemed too expensive and time - consuming, optical mattes were used to cover up or blur out the Coca - Cola references . The' blurring' covered up trademarked menu signage and a large wall poster, but a red cooler with the logo could not be sufficiently altered so was left unchanged . According to Kleiser, "We just had to hope that Pepsi wouldn't complain . They didn't ." </P>

Where was the race scene filmed in grease