The Rocky Horror Picture Show cult following is the cultural phenomenon surrounding the large fan base of enthusiastic participants of the movie The Rocky Horror Picture Show , generally credited as being the best-known cinematic "midnight movie". [1] [2]
The film The Rocky Horror Picture Show came about due to the tremendous success of the stage musical The Rocky Horror Show and opened in the United States at the United Artists Theater in Westwood, Los Angeles, California, on September 26, 1975. Although the theater was selling out every night, it was noted that many of the same people were returning to see the movie. This turned out to be an exception, not the rule as it was not doing well elsewhere in the US. [3] : 25
The film was then re-launched as a midnight movie, beginning its run at the Waverly Theatre in New York City on April 1, 1976. [3] : 26 The Riverside Twin in Austin, Texas, became the second location to run the film as a midnighter. Over time, people began shouting responses to the characters' statements on the screen. Schoolteacher Louis Farese, Jr., Theresa Krakauskas and Amy Lazarus, who attended together at the Waverly, are credited with having started the convention of talking back to the screen, bringing props and making up one-liners, the purpose of which was basically to make one another laugh. They had no idea that in doing so, they'd create something that would last decades. As Amy Lazarus once said, "we just trying to have a good time." [4] (These mostly included puns, or pop culture references.) A showing of the film at the 1976 World Science Fiction Convention spread its fame to a new cadre of enthusiasts. [5]
A part of audience reception can be recreating the art. This is how the fandom of Rocky Horror developed into a standardized ritual. The performances of the audience were scripted and actively discouraged improvising, being conformist in a similar way to the repressed characters. [6] Rocky Horror helped shape conditions of cult film's transition from art-house to grind-house style. [7] Early participation with the film took place at the original Westwood location of the film's first run with fans heard singing along. Waverly Theatre fans in New York are credited with the call back lines. [8] : 104 Performance groups became a staple at Rocky Horror screenings due in large part to the prominent New York City fan cast. The cast was originally run by former schoolteacher and stand-up comic Sal Piro and by Dori Hartley, one of several performers in a flexible, rotating cast to portray the character of Frank N. Furter, shadowing the film above. [8] [9] According to J. Hoberman, author of Midnight Movies, it was after five months into the film's midnight run when lines began to be yelled by the audience. [10] The first person to yell out an audience participation line during a screening was Louis Farese Jr., a normally quiet teacher who, upon seeing the character Janet place a newspaper over her head to protect herself from rain, yelled, "Buy an umbrella you cheap bitch". This self-proclaimed "counter point dialogue" was soon helped into standardization by Piro and repeated nearly verbatim at each screening. [10] By that Halloween, people were attending in costume and talking back to the screen. By the end of 1979, there were twice-weekly showings at over 230 theatres. [11]
The National Fan Club began in 1977 and would merge with the International Fan Club; the fan publication The Transylvanian printed a number of issues. A semi-regular poster magazine was published as well as an official magazine. [7]
The Los Angeles area performance groups originated in 1977 at the Fox Theatre, where Michael Wolfson, portraying Frank, won a look-alike contest, as well as another at the Tiffany Theater on Sunset Blvd. Wolfson's group would perform in all of the LA area theaters screening Rocky Horror, including the Balboa Theater in Balboa, The Cove at Hermosa Beach and The Sands in Glendale, and was invited to perform at the Sombrero Playhouse in Phoenix, Arizona. At the Tiffany Theatre, the audience performance cast had the theater's full cooperation; the local performers entered early and without charge. The Frank N. Furter for this theatre was performed by a transgender performer. [8] : 104–119 D. Garret Gafford, was out of work in 1978, trying to raise enough funds for gender confirmation surgery while spending the weekends performing at the Tiffany. [12]
In San Francisco Rocky Horror would move from one location to the Strand Theatre located near the Tenderloin on Market Street. [13] The performance group there would act out and perform almost the entire film, unlike the New York cast at that time. The Strand cast was put together from former members of the Berkeley group, disbanded due to less than enthusiastic management. Their Frank N. Furter was portrayed by Marni Scofidio who, in 1979, got many of the older group from Berkeley over to San Francisco. Other members included Mishell Erickson and her twin sister Denise Erickson, who portrayed Columbia and Magenta, Kathy Dolan playing Janet and Linda Woods as Riff Raff. The Strand group had performed at two large science fiction conventions, in Los Angeles and San Francisco, and were offered a spot at The Mabuhay, a local punk club; and even performed for children's television in Argentina. [8] : 109–114
Annual Rocky Horror conventions are held in varying locations lasting days. Tucson, Arizona has hosted a few times including 1999 with “El Fishnet Fiesta”, and “Queens of the Desert” held in 2006. [14] To the fans, Rocky Horror is a repeated cycle, of going home and coming back to see the film each weekend, making the practice a ritual of compulsive, re-affirmation of community that has been compared to a "religious event". [10] The audience call backs are similar to responses in church during a mass. [10] The Rocky Horror Picture Show has a global following and remains popular well into the 21st century, [15] and the film's fan culture of cosplaying and audience participation during screenings laid the groundwork for the similarly influential cult following surrounding Tommy Wiseau's The Room (2003). [16] [17]
20th Century Fox, the distributor of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, had a longstanding policy that offered most of the films in its archive to any theater who requested it, thus allowing older films to receive theatrical showings far longer than other studios' films. [18] As a result of this policy, and of the frequent requests for the film, it has remained in continuous circulation since its release. The Walt Disney Company ended this policy when it acquired 20th Century Fox in 2019, but it made an exception for The Rocky Horror Picture Show because of its long history (and, as commentators noted, because putting the film into the Disney Vault would likely cause a revolt against Disney). [18]
The film gained popularity because of fan participation as much as anything else. [3] : 36 "Shadow Casts" of fans acting out the entire movie below, or in some cases directly in front of the screen, are almost always present at showings. At the Strand Theatre in San Francisco, fans came to see a well-organized group coordinated by Grady Broyles, performing with sets and props like a professional theatre troupe. At the Tiffany Theater on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, fans included a transgender individual performing as Frank N. Furter, just a few blocks away from the Roxy Theatre where The Rocky Horror Show made its American debut. [3] : 126–127
Audience participation also includes dancing the Time Warp along with the film, and throwing objects such as toast, water, toilet paper, hot dogs, and rice at appropriate points in the movie. Many theatres forbid throwing items that are difficult to clean up. In many cases, a total ban on throwing objects has been instituted due to severe damage to movie screens, or demand that the audience throw items up and backward to the seats behind them. Fans often attend shows in costume as the characters. At a now-defunct theater in New Orleans, the local "Eddie" would ride his motorcycle down the aisle during Meat Loaf's/Eddie's song, "Hot Patootie." [3] : 120
During a showing of Rocky Horror, ad-lib responses, more commonly known as call backs, are lines the audience may shout out in response to events occurring on screen, as a form of audience participation. In some venues, audience members who provide incorrect or poorly timed responses may find themselves angrily shouted down just as if they were being disruptive in a normal movie. However, creative new lines are usually applauded and even added to the local repertoire. [19] There have been audience participation albums recorded and scripts published. However, most fans feel that it is preferable for responses to grow organically from the local culture. [3] : 102
The Rocky Horror Picture Show is a 1975 independent musical comedy horror film produced by Lou Adler and Michael White, directed by Jim Sharman, and distributed by 20th Century Fox. The screenplay was written by Jim Sharman and Richard O'Brien, who also played the supporting role Riff-raff. The film is based on the 1973 musical stage production The Rocky Horror Show, with music, book, and lyrics by O'Brien. The production is a tribute to the science fiction and horror B movies of the 1930s through to the early 1960s. The film stars Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon, and Barry Bostwick. The film is narrated by Charles Gray, with cast members from the original Royal Court Theatre, Roxy Theatre, and Belasco Theatre productions, including Nell Campbell and Patricia Quinn.
The Rocky Horror Show is a musical with music, lyrics and book by Richard O'Brien. A humorous tribute to various B movies associated with the science fiction and horror genres from the 1930s to the early 1960s, the musical tells the story of a newly engaged couple getting caught in a storm and coming to the home of a mad transvestite scientist, Dr Frank-N-Furter, unveiling his new creation, Rocky, a sort of Frankenstein-style monster in the form of an artificially made, fully grown, physically perfect muscle man complete "with blond hair and a tan".
"Time Warp" is a song featured in the 1973 rock musical The Rocky Horror Show, its 1975 film adaptation The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and a 2016 TV production. The song title comes from a dance performed during the chorus of the song.
IFC Center is an art house movie theater in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York City. Located at 323 Sixth Avenue at West 3rd Street, it was formerly the Waverly Theater, an art house movie theater. IFC Center is owned by AMC Networks, the entertainment company that owns the cable channels AMC, BBC America, IFC, We TV and Sundance TV and the offshoot film company IFC Films.
The term midnight movie is rooted in the practice that emerged in the 1950s of local television stations around the United States airing low-budget genre films as late-night programming, often with a host delivering ironic asides. As a cinematic phenomenon, the midnight screening of offbeat movies began in the early 1970s in a few urban centers, particularly in New York City with screenings of El Topo at the Elgin Theater, eventually spreading across the country. The screening of non-mainstream pictures at midnight was aimed at building a cult film audience, encouraging repeat viewing and social interaction in what was originally a countercultural setting.
The Room is a 2003 American independent romantic drama film written, directed, and produced by Tommy Wiseau, who also stars in the film alongside Juliette Danielle and Greg Sestero. Set in San Francisco, the film is centered around a melodramatic love triangle between amiable banker Johnny (Wiseau), his deceptive fiancée Lisa (Danielle), and his conflicted best friend Mark (Sestero). The work was reportedly intended to be semi-autobiographical in nature. According to Wiseau, the title alludes to the potential of a room to be the site of both good and bad events. The stage play from which the film is derived was so named due to its events taking place entirely in a single room.
The River Oaks Theatre is a historic movie theater located in the River Oaks Shopping Center in the Neartown community in Houston, Texas, United States, east of the River Oaks community. The theater has three projection screens; one large screen, downstairs, and two smaller screens, upstairs.
"Over at the Frankenstein Place" is the third song in the cult musical The Rocky Horror Show, sung outside Dr. Frank N. Furter's castle in the rain in the 1975 cult film. The song is in the key of E major.
"Sweet Transvestite" is a song from the 1973 British musical stage production The Rocky Horror Show and its 1975 film counterpart The Rocky Horror Picture Show. The song is performed by the character, Dr Frank N. Furter, originally played by Tim Curry. The book, music and lyrics are by Richard O'Brien and the musical arrangements by Richard Hartley. It is in the key of E major.
Susan Margaret Blane, is an English costume designer. She is best known for her costume designs for both The Rocky Horror Show and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. With her designs for Rocky Horror, Blane is credited for creating the look that became the template for punk rock fashion.
The Rocky Horror Show is a British musical comedy franchise that began with the 1973 stage performance The Rocky Horror Show. The stage performance mimics many horror B movie and science fiction elements. The stage show was adapted in 1975 as the film The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which quickly gained a cult following. After being successfully adapted to film, an "equal" was released in 1981 under the title Shock Treatment. While not an outright sequel, the film features many characters from the first film returning, as well as some cast members in different roles.
The Music Box Theatre is a historic movie theater located in Chicago, Illinois. Built in 1929, it has been operating continuously as an art-house and repertory cinema since the early 1980s.
The Plaza Theatre is a movie theatre located in Atlanta, Georgia. Opened in 1939, it is Atlanta's longest continuously operating independent movie theatre and a city landmark.
The Tiffany Theater was the first theater on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood, California. It stood west of La Cienega between the Playboy Club and Dino's Lodge restaurant. Before being converted from the Mary Webb Davis Modeling School office at 8532 W. Sunset Blvd to a movie theater, the building had been seen in the 1958–1964 television series 77 Sunset Strip as the office for detectives Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., Roger Smith, and Edd Byrnes.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let's Do the Time Warp Again is a 2016 American musical comedy television film. It is a tribute to and remake of the cult classic 1975 film of the same name and directed by Kenny Ortega, using the original script written by Richard O'Brien and Jim Sharman.
The Neptune Theatre, formerly known as U-Neptune Theatre, is a performing arts venue in the University District neighborhood of Seattle, Washington, United States. Opened in 1921, the 1,000 capacity venue hosts a variety of events, including dance and music performances, film screenings, and arts education. It was primarily used for screening classic films prior to a 2011 renovation. In 2014, the theater and building were designated a Seattle landmark.
The Balboa Theater is a historic former movie theater on the Balboa Peninsula in Newport Beach, California. Opened as the Ritz Theater in 1928, it screened mainstream film for 47 years. In 1975, Pussycat Theaters acquired the venue and converted it to an adult movie theater to the ire of residents and city officials. The Pussycat operation became the subject of several police raids and an eventual criminal court trial for its exhibition of pornographic films. In 1979, Landmark Theatres became the Balboa's operator, operating it as an arthouse theater. The Balboa Theater screened its final movie in 1991 and remains closed despite attempts to reopen it.
A cheer screening is a type of film screening associated with Japanese cinema that encourages audience participation through cheering, typically in the form of applause, singing, and the shouting of responses to statements made by characters. Other terms used to describe this category of screening include cheering screening, vocal screening, screaming screening and voice screening. When applied to Indian films, it is often called a masala screening.
The Joyo Theater is a historic theater in Lincoln, Nebraska. It is a single-screen movie theater adapted to also host acts on stage such as musicians and movies with a stage-show component. Constructed in 1926 as the New Lyric Theatre, the marquee and ticket booth date from the 1930s.
Midnight ghost shows were traveling stage shows that originated in the United States during the Great Depression. The shows were influenced by the stage magic traditions that preceded them, and typically incorporated illusions; simulated séances; interactivity between a host—often called a "ghostmaster"—or performers and the audience; a "blackout" sequence in which the theater would go completely dark; and horror film screenings before or after the show.