The Rocky Horror Picture Show cult following

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The Rocky Horror Picture Show opened in the US at the United Artist Theatre in Westwood, California on September 26th, 1975. Although the theatre 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.^[1]

The film was then re-launched as a midnight movie, beginning its run at the Waverly Theatre in New York City on April 1st, 1976.^[2] 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. These mostly include melodramatic abuse of the characters or actors, vulgar sex jokes, puns, or pop culture references. Midnight screenings of the film soon became a national sensation. All across the country people were lining up on Friday and Saturday nights to see this unique film experience. In New York, the film relocated from the Waverly after a house record ninety-five weeks to the 8th Street Playhouse. By summer 1979, the film was playing on weekend midnights in twenty-odd suburban theaters in the New York region alone; 20th Century-Fox had approximately two hundred prints of the movie in circulation for midnight shows around the country.^[3] The Oriental Theatre in Milwaukee, where the film has played as a Saturday midnight film since January of 1978, is the world record holder for continuous showings.^[4]

The Rocky Horror Picture Show gained popularity as much because of the fan participation as anything else.^[5] Interactive shows featuring "Shadow Casts" of fans acting out the entire movie below, or in some cases directly in front of the screen. In San Francisco at the Strand Theatre on Market Street fans came to see the well organized group there performing with sets and props like a professional theatre troup. In Los Angeles fans included a true life transsexual performing as Frank N Furter at the Tiffany Theatre on Sunset Blvd, just a few blocks away from the Roxy Theatre where Rocky Horror made its American debut.^[6]

Other audience participation includes dancing the Time Warp, throwing toast, water, toilet paper, hot dogs, underwear, and rice at the appropriate points in the movie (many theatres forbid throwing things that are difficult to clean up, such as confetti, buttered toast, and sometimes rice). Fans often attend shows dressed up as the characters, while an onstage "shadowcasts" would act out the movie in front of the screen. 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."^[7] Audience members also use newspapers to cover their heads and squirt guns for rain during the "Over at the Frankenstein Place" musical sequence, and use noise makers during the scene in which Rocky is unveiled. The whole phenomenon got a boost in 1980, with the release of the movie Fame, in which some characters attend a screening of Rocky Horror at the 8th Street Playhouse. It was this feature film that introduced America to Sal Piro, the President of the National Fan Club. Piro made an appearance in the film playing himself during the screening of Rocky Horror.^[8]

Contents 1 Audience Participation 1.1 Call Backs 1.2 Theatre "Shadow Casts" 1.3 Costume recreation 2 RHPS Fans and the Internet 3 References 4 External links

[edit] Audience Participation

There are many aspects and levels to participating at a showing of this movie. Many people just yell at the screen while others go much deeper. Many people develop over time into die hard fans. During the song "Time Warp" in many theatres nearly everyone stands up and does the dance. Costumes, props, and verbal dialogue are all tools in participating.

[edit] Call Backs

What were ad lib responses, more commonly known as "Call Backs" by followers, from the audience are now, in a few locales, as tightly scripted as any screenplay. 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.^[9]

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.^[10] For example, the audience members in Salt Lake City have utilized frequent references to the Mormon church and Brigham Young University. In most locales, new responses are regularly added to the canon (for example the introduction of references to South Park character Timmy at times when the paraplegic Dr. Scott is in a scene). Additionally, in some areas, the lines take note of current events (for example, the use of the name of a recent famous deceased in the line "SHOW ME NAME", when Riff-Raff opens the coffin at the beginning of the Time Warp).

[edit] Theatre "Shadow Casts"

Some arthouse cinemas will have a tradition of regularly playing the film on a particular date, especially Halloween. While the film — and associated live cast performances — are less popular than in its heyday, regular weekend showings can still be found in many cities throughout the world.

In cinemas where the film plays on a regular or semi-regular basis, groups of fans have formed casts. These casts act out the movie on a stage or on the floor in front of the movie screen. Among many Rocky Horror casts there is a perpetual quest for "screen-accuracy", meaning that everything from costumes to props to the motions that actors make on stage match the movie exactly. Other casts focus on innovation or simply giving the audience a good time.

Largest showing ever: over 8,000 fans at the Hollywood Bowl in September 2005, featuring Long Beach cast Midnight Insanity, a troupe performing weekly since 1988, currently at the Warner Grand in San Pedro.

[edit] Costume recreation

Costume designer Sue Blane's original designs for the film are recreated by fans in great detail. Costumes range from the very simple to extremely elaborate. Fans can be very serious about their recreations and take great pride in entering costume contests at conventions and debating various techniques and materials used to build them.

[edit] RHPS Fans and the Internet

In the 1990s fan-based sites for Rocky Horror began to pop up. Initially these were FTP archives, with various text and graphic files available for download including movie scripts, parodies, and scripts of callback lines. As the World Wide Web gained popularity these sites shifted there and many more came into being. Zenin's Rocky Horror Archive is considered to be the longest running of the sites^[11], with Cosmo's Factory a close second.

Many of the web sites that cropped up were small personal fan pages hosted for free with companies such as GeoCities, and would appear and disappear within a relatively short time. Other sites became well-known resources for a specific niche of Rocky Horror fandom. The fan clubs also have popular sites, both for the official fan club and TimeWarp UK.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official Rocky Horror Picture Show Fan Site