Twentieth Century Fox
September 26, 1975, a day that will live in infamy. Well, not really, but it is an important day in cinema history as this is the day that The Rocky Horror Picture Show made its debut on the big screen in Los Angeles. The film had previously unspooled in London on August 14 and in Italy on August 31, but it didn’t make its way to US shores until September 26 (and it didn’t open in New York until April 1, 1976 after a Halloween premiere date was canceled due to poor box office results in other cities). The film was a huge flop upon its initial release, but here we are forty years later celebrating what has become the greatest cult film of all time with the longest theatrical release in history, and it was selected to be preserved by the Library of Congress in 2005.
Speaking of history, for those who do not know much about Rocky Horror, it started life as a stage show in London in 1973, playing at a small theatre at the Royal Court (Upstairs) before settling into a larger venue for a six year run. Producer Lou Adler caught a performance of the show and quickly secured a deal to bring it to the US. It debuted in Los Angeles at the Roxy Theatre and had a successful nine-month engagement. Adler shut the show down so the cast could return to London to shoot the movie, then the show opened in New York as a vehicle to build interest for the film. Tim Curry starred as Dr. Frank N. Furter in all three productions as well as the film.
Twentieth Century Fox
When the movie failed to generate interest at the box office, 20th Century Fox pulled it from release then paired it as a double feature with Brian DePalma’s The Phantom of the Paradise. About ready to throw in the towel and take a loss on their $1 million investment, Fox noticed that the Waverly Theater in New York was playing the film at midnight on weekends and people were coming to see it. Over and over again. The same thing was happening in Pittsburgh where audience members started dressing as the characters and performing along with the film, lip-syncing the lines. More and more cities began to launch their own midnight screenings and a legend was born. With the advent of home video and Fox releasing the film on various formats over the years (and I have VHS, laserdisc, DVD and Blu-ray versions of the film of my own!), the midnight circuit isn’t as big as it used to be, but you can still find a screening if you look for it.
I have seen the film over a hundred times myself, first being treated to a bootleg copy of the film (on Beta!) at a local science fiction convention I attended outside of Baltimore. (I do remember seeing a large display outside a theater in New York while on a junior high trip to the city in 1976.) There were a handful of us crammed into someone’s hotel room sitting in front of a small TV watching this bizarre movie that I just could not take my eyes from. I remember sitting on my knees for 90 minutes, the feeling going out of my leg, but I was not about to move. A couple of years later, a friend of a friend had a bootleg copy of the movie (who knows, maybe it was the same one) and a Beta deck that he let me borrow so I could watch the film again in my own living room. I was still a teen at the time, but after I reached the magical age of 17, I went to my first midnight screening at a local theater and I was hooked.
Ode Records
Rocky Horror is an experience you must have at least once in your life at the movies. The video versions have included a recorded audio track that lets you hear the audience participation, but that’s nothing like being there. Where else can you go and throw rice at a wedding scene, or use squirt guns to simulate rain, or throw rolls of toilet paper at the screen when Brad Majors yells, “Great Scott!” I don’t think you want to be doing that at home. If you’ve seen the movie enough times, you can talk to the screen too and no one will give you the stink eye. The Rocky Horror Picture Show is a party that brings a wide variety of people together who have a couple of hours on a weekend to let their freak flag fly.
I’ve had many interesting experiences during my times seeing the film, most very positive, but there was the occasional mishap (please, do not throw hot dogs or eggs at the movie screen!). I remember one time I had bought a five pound bag of rice that I was flinging around to shower the audience during the wedding but the bag slipped out of my hands and went flying across the theater, hitting another audience member. I quickly sat down so they couldn’t see me. One year, a high school friend and I did get dressed up as the Transylvanians, the party-goers at Frank N. Furter’s castle, complete with party hats, sunglasses, and eye shadow, lipstick and blush. The last time I went to see the movie was many years ago on my birthday … and the theater would not let us bring in any of the accepted props because they didn’t want to clean the theater! It was a very sombre experience that took all of the joy out of seeing the movie. But, that didn’t dim my love of it at all. I still listen to the soundtrack, and I will pop in the 35th anniversary Blu-ray (which also includes the UK version of the film and a hidden Wizard of Oz edition Easter egg that puts the opening of the film in black and white as the filmmakers had originally intended but Fox balked at that idea) from time to time and reminisce about the great times that were had through the years with friends and strangers, all “unconventional conventionists,” reveling in the performances of Curry, Susan Sarandon, Barry Bostwick, Richard O’Brien, Patricia Quinn, “Little Nell” Campbell, Meat Loaf, Jonathan Adams and Charles Grey. (A little bit of trivia: the film’s bride at the beginning, Betty Munroe, was played by Hillary Labow, better known today as Hillary Farr, the interior designer on HGTV’s Love It or List It.)
Going to a midnight screening is a communal, enlightening experience and Hotchka writer Kim Tibbs had this to say about her encounter with The Rocky Horror Picture Show: “There used to be this place in Indianapolis called Hollywood Bar & Filmworks that showed midnight screenings of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. I remember watching the movie on cable TV in high school but not really understanding the significance of a midnight showing until I actually attended one. I didn’t realize how much of a theatrical production it is with people bringing all the objects to throw at certain points and a group of actors “acting” out the parts in the front of the theater. It makes me wish people got that passionate about all movies. Can we make that a thing? I’d love to see Ghostbusters bustin’ at the front of a theater. I also remember being called out as a “virgin” at my first showing by my friends and having to go down to the front of the theater to be marked with a “V” in lipstick – very intimidating to a shy person such as myself but it was all in good spirit and fun. I know there are still theaters in my city showing midnight showings, but I haven’t thought about attending one in forever. And now I am starting to feel old! Such a campy classic.”
Twentieth Century Fox
The Rocky Horror Picture Show is campy and it is classic. Tim Curry’s performance is iconic, difficult to imagine anyone else in the role. It allows the viewer to really escape into another time and place, to be someone they can’t be the other 6 days and 22 hours of their lives. The film is visually stunning in all of its minute details (having been filmed at the estate used for many Hammer horror films, and borrowing many of the same props), and there isn’t a bad song in the bunch. It is something that must be experienced with a full audience at least once in your life. On this day marking the 40th anniversary of the film, seek out a midnight screening to celebrate the film’s message: “Don’t dream it, be it.”
Happy Anniversary, Rocky Horror. Thanks for forty years of pure entertainment. Now, let’s do the “Time Warp” again!
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