On heels of new 'Grease' edition, Didi Conn recalls how her voice led to role as Frenchy

Thanks to a fourth-grade teacher who encouraged the young Didi Conn to retell a story in her own way, the world got the chance to fall in love with a curly, pink-haired bob, "Beauty School Drop Out" and a pretty cool smoking technique.

Conn, 59, was born Edith Bernstein and is known for her squeaky-voiced role as "Frenchy" in the movie "Grease." She grew up in Brooklyn and by the time she was 2 wanted to be a dancer. But after reading "Pippy Longstocking" for a fourth-grade book report, Conn's ambition went from twirling center stage to shining on the silver screen.

"When I was in fourth grade . . . this wonderful teacher said you didn't have to write a book report, you could just talk about the book, you could do a drawing of the book, you could write a play inspired by the book, and that's what I did," Conn said. "I got to be so famous. I had to go around to every school and perform it. It was just so natural and fun."

Conn went on to take every acting and theater course Brooklyn College had to offer. Then after only six months at New York City's prized American Musical & Dramatic Academy, she started auditioning for commercials.

The first talent agency discovered her unusual voice.

"I walked in there without an appointment and asked the receptionist if anyone was available. Right then, this agent, who had been in her office, poked her head out of the door and said, 'What kind of voice is that? Do you really talk like that?' And she set me up right away," Conn said. "They put me in a Betty Boop commercial."

"I never knew that I had an unusual voice," she said. "It wasn't something anybody really pointed out to me."

After her agent moved her out to Los Angeles, Conn was told to go to an audition that would launch her career. Nervous and eager to make a good impression, she went driving around L.A. in search of a hip beauty parlor that could do her hair right.

"I found this place actually called Frenchy's, so I went in. I'll tell ya, there must have been a whole can of hairspray in that hairdo."

Conn walked out with a curly bob ready to land herself a role in "Grease." But when she got to the gate at Paramount Studios, she was only handed a small envelope with a few lines in it.

"It said, 'Men are rats, listen to me, they are fleas on rats,' and I didn't know what it meant," she said.

Without understanding the context of the soon-to-be memorable quote, Conn asked the guard if she could borrow a "fatter" script before she went in to the audition.

"The size of that toll booth wasn't very big. But I sat under his desk and read it and saw what was going on in that scene."

After she read her line for Frenchy, the casting staff asked Conn if she wanted to read any other part. She wanted Rizzo.

"They said, 'Nope. I don't think so.' "

Conn had nailed the part of Frenchy, but she was never able to master the "French inhale," her character's smoking trademark.

"I had broken my nose maybe a year before that, and I hadn't had it fixed, so I couldn't breathe out of one side of my nose. That's why it only goes up one nostril in the movie. I did get if fixed after, and I breathe great now."

Now, three decades after the film's original appearance, "Grease" has made a sing-along version for its fans. Conn, who loved the idea of animating the classic with sing-along subtitles, hosted the premiere of the enhanced film at the Hollywood Bowl about a month ago.

"It was amazing. It was so gratifying. I mean people just love the movie. I swear, out of 17,000 people I think 12,000 had pink hair."

Conn's fame has landed her multiple roles in other films, television episodes and on Broadway. But no role is more important right now than being the mother to her 18-year-old autistic son.

"It's challenging," she said. "It's difficult. It's sad sometimes because he's at a second-grade reading level and the social piece is the part he still has to learn. I remember being 18 was my most wild time, and that's not who he is."

In Conn's latest project, she takes some of her son's stories and love for animals and has created a preschool animated musical for Playhouse Disney called "Didi Lightful." Conn based the concept around "I Love Lucy" to show true friendship to kids.

"The show is really inspired by the one thousand pets we have at home," Conn said about the turtles, fish and birds that her son takes care of.

Aside from being a wife and a mother, Conn will always remember her "high school" days and the memories she still shares with her friends in the cast.

"To this day it's like no time has gone by," she said. "We really did just like each other."