Only in Chicago: ‘Grease’ was inspired by Chicago’s Taft High School

Call it the real life Rydell high!

The leather jackets, the Pink Ladies and the summer nights of the iconic film and musical “Grease” are all original ideas that come from Chicago’s Taft High School’s halls, where co-creator Jim Jacobs attended school in the 1950s. He worked with his close friend Warren Casey on the original script.

“Obviously, it’s changed from the time Jim walked these halls, but it really has maintained the working-class mentality the musical is based on,” Glowacz said. “And you see it in the fabric of the school today.”

“People know that Taft is the ‘Grease’ school,” said principal Ryan Glowacz.

Jacobs is now 83 years old and living in California, but he spoke to NBC 5 about how Grease came to be.

He said he wanted to create a musical that had music he enjoyed – 1950s rock and roll instead of typical showtunes – and themes from his life growing up on the northwest side of Chicago.

“You know, man, we had drive-in movies, we had the high school dance, there was a girls’ gang at Taft, these tough chicks and they were called the Pink Ladies,” Jacobs explained to Lexi Sutter over the phone. “That was their gang!”

But what about the name “Grease?”

“Grease is the guys, the pomade in their hair, think of the food like greasy burgers and French fries,” he said. “The guys under the hood of a car getting all greasy. Everything was just greasy at that time!”

Even Jacobs can’t believe how his play that debuted at a small Lincoln Park theater has made a global splash and continues to resonate decades later.

“This show at the Kingston Mines was scheduled to run only four performances,” he said. “And it was an amazing phenomenon after that first night.”

Its staying power is present at Taft, too. The drama department has revisited the musical with its own students.

“We were able to kickstart our program into another level, and we are one of the top musical producing high schools in CPS,” said Drama teacher Bryan Wilson. “So I guess that is part of the legacy here, thanks to Jim Jacobs.”

“Grease” is not only a point of pride but ingrained in school culture.

“A number of our teacher and leaders wear the letterman sweater from that era,” Glowacz said. “So we keep it alive in the apparel we wear.”

While Broadway and Hollywood often make the headlines, it’s this Chicago public high school that inspired a story that’s still the word decades later.

“They were greasers! They embraced it. They weren’t ashamed of it. And I think the same is of the neighborhood today, we really celebrate that working class mentality,” Glowacz added.