The Rocky Horror Picture Show cult following
Encyclopedia
The Rocky Horror Picture Show cult following
describes 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 if not the first cinematic "midnight movie". The following resembles (to some extent) the fandom
of other fantasy
and science fiction films, with its own fan conventions, websites and YouTube
videos.
opened in the United States
at the United Artist Theatre in Westwood, 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.
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. 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., is credited by some with starting the convention of talking back to the film on Labor Day weekend, 1976, at the Waverly Theatre. [These mostly include melodramatic abuse of the characters or actor
s, vulgar sex jokes, pun
s, 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.
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. The Oriental Theatre
in Milwaukee, where the film has played as a Saturday midnight film since January 1978, is the world record holder for continuous showings. The Clinton Street Theatre in Portland, Oregon, has also had continuous runs of Rocky Horror since April 1978.
The film gained popularity as much because of the fan participation as anything else. Interactive shows featuring "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. 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 troupe. In Los Angeles fans included a transsexual performing as Frank N Furter at the Tiffany Theatre on Sunset Blvd, just a few blocks away from the Roxy Theatre where the Rocky Horror Show made its American debut.
Other audience participation includes dancing the Time Warp along with the film, and throwing toast
, water
, toilet paper
, hot dogs, and rice
at the appropriate points in the movie. Many theatre
s forbid throwing items that are difficult to clean up. In many cases a total ban of throwing anything at all have been instituted due to severe damage to screens. Fans often attend shows in costume as the characters, while an onstage "shadowcast" act out the movie. 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."
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.
. 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.
There have been audience participation album
s recorded and scripts published. However, most fans feel that it is preferable for responses to grow organically from the local culture. For example, the audience members in Salt Lake City have utilized frequent references to the LDS 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).
In Paris, where it's been shown twice a week for 20 years, the audience makes puns not only around the audio dialogs, but also with the French subtitles.
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, or even behind it for ghostly effects (Studio Galande, Paris). 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 the Long Beach
cast Midnight Insanity, a troupe that has been performing weekly since 1988. The annual Dragoncon showing, performed by Atlanta
cast Lips Down on Dixie in addition to their standard weekly shows at the Plaza Theatre
, also draws audiences of 3,000 or more each year.
from the soundtrack to The Good, The Bad & The Ugly plays throughout the house.
The levels and intensity of the preshow hazing varies from cinema to cinema, with some being pornographic or dangerous.
'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. However, plainclothes are considered acceptable among those who are not as serious.
into the air when the line "A toast!" is said, Scott brand
toilet paper
at the line "Great Scott!", and playing cards are often thrown when Frank N. Furter sings the line "cards for sorrow, cards for pain" in "I'm Going Home".
Some props and participation have evolved regionally. In semi-regular screenings of the Rocky Horror at the Belcourt Theatre
in Nashville, Tennessee
the longtime MC and shadow cast host has been known to throw a large bucket of water from the back of the cinema when Curry's character tosses a cup of water at the camera during a song. Those in the "know" have adapted to the surprise while the uninitiated in the audience become doused.
However, due to both the added burden of cleanup and the potential for more serious damage to the facility, not all theatres which screen Rocky Horror permit the use of props.
, 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, with Cosmo's Factory a close second. With a decline in the online Rocky Horror participation noticed, the Rocky Horror Online Community was created and announced at the 4/7/11 Rocky Horror convention in Atlantic City. Along with it, the official Rocky Horror FAQ was republished in a live Wiki format (with the original contributors still active as curators) at Rockypedia.org. Rockypedia now comprises the original FAQ and all of its contents and is being actively curated to include more material on a consistent basis. The Rockypedia Facebook fan page currently enjoys over 21,000 fans and regular participation, representing a resurgence in online Rocky Horror fandom.
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.
Cult following
A cult following is a group of fans who are highly dedicated to a specific area of pop culture. A film, book, band, or video game, among other things, will be said to have a cult following when it has a small but very passionate fan base...
describes the cultural phenomenon surrounding the large fan base of enthusiastic participants of the movie The Rocky Horror Picture Show
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
The Rocky Horror Picture Show is the 1975 film adaptation of the British rock musical stageplay, The Rocky Horror Show, written by Richard O'Brien. The film is a parody of B-movie, science fiction and horror films of the late 1940s through early 1970s. Director Jim Sharman collaborated on the...
, generally credited as being the best-known if not the first cinematic "midnight movie". The following resembles (to some extent) the fandom
Fandom
Fandom is a term used to refer to a subculture composed of fans characterized by a feeling of sympathy and camaraderie with others who share a common interest...
of other fantasy
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
and science fiction films, with its own fan conventions, websites and YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
videos.
History and background
The film The Rocky Horror Picture ShowThe Rocky Horror Picture Show
The Rocky Horror Picture Show is the 1975 film adaptation of the British rock musical stageplay, The Rocky Horror Show, written by Richard O'Brien. The film is a parody of B-movie, science fiction and horror films of the late 1940s through early 1970s. Director Jim Sharman collaborated on the...
opened in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
at the United Artist Theatre in Westwood, California
Westwood, California
Westwood is a census-designated place in Lassen County, California, United States. Westwood is located west-southwest of Susanville, at an elevation of 5128 feet...
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.
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
' statements on the screen. Schoolteacher Louis Farese, Jr., is credited by some with starting the convention of talking back to the film on Labor Day weekend, 1976, at the Waverly Theatre. [These mostly include melodramatic abuse of the characters or actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
s, vulgar sex jokes, pun
Pun
The pun, also called paronomasia, is a form of word play which suggests two or more meanings, by exploiting multiple meanings of words, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use and abuse of homophonic,...
s, or pop culture references.) A showing of the film at the 1976
34th World Science Fiction Convention
The 34th World Science Fiction Convention was named MidAmeriCon and was held in Kansas City, Missouri, USA, 2–6 September 1976, at the historic Radisson Muehlebach Hotel and nearby Phillips House hotel. The convention committee was chaired by Ken Keller, who had also chaired the "KC in '76" bid...
World Science Fiction Convention spread its fame to a new cadre of enthusiasts.
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. The Oriental Theatre
Oriental Theatre (Milwaukee)
The Oriental Theatre is located in the East Side neighborhood of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It was built and opened in 1927 as a movie palace. The themes of the decor are East Indian, with no traces of Chinese or Japanese artwork; it is said to be the only movie palace to incorporate East Indian...
in Milwaukee, where the film has played as a Saturday midnight film since January 1978, is the world record holder for continuous showings. The Clinton Street Theatre in Portland, Oregon, has also had continuous runs of Rocky Horror since April 1978.
The film gained popularity as much because of the fan participation as anything else. Interactive shows featuring "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. 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 troupe. In Los Angeles fans included a transsexual performing as Frank N Furter at the Tiffany Theatre on Sunset Blvd, just a few blocks away from the Roxy Theatre where the Rocky Horror Show made its American debut.
Other audience participation includes dancing the Time Warp along with the film, and throwing toast
Toast
Toast is bread that has been browned by exposure to radiant heat. This browning reaction is known as the Maillard reaction. Toasting warms the bread and makes it firmer, so it holds toppings more securely...
, water
Water
Water is a chemical substance with the chemical formula H2O. A water molecule contains one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms connected by covalent bonds. Water is a liquid at ambient conditions, but it often co-exists on Earth with its solid state, ice, and gaseous state . Water also exists in a...
, toilet paper
Toilet paper
Toilet paper is a soft paper product used to maintain personal hygiene after human defecation or urination. However, it can also be used for other purposes such as blowing one's nose when one has a cold or absorbing common spills around the house, although paper towels are more used for the latter...
, hot dogs, and rice
Rice
Rice is the seed of the monocot plants Oryza sativa or Oryza glaberrima . As a cereal grain, it is the most important staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and the West Indies...
at the appropriate points in the movie. Many theatre
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
s forbid throwing items that are difficult to clean up. In many cases a total ban of throwing anything at all have been instituted due to severe damage to screens. Fans often attend shows in costume as the characters, while an onstage "shadowcast" act out the movie. 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."
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
Sal Piro
Sal Piro is the president of The Rocky Horror Picture Show Fan Club, a position he's held since 1977. Piro was a part of the original Waverly Theatre audience, from which the unique audience participation elements and much of the film's cult following were born...
, the president of the National Fan Club. Piro made an appearance in the film playing himself during the screening of Rocky Horror.
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.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 screenplayScreenplay
A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...
. 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.
There have been audience participation album
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
s recorded and scripts published. However, most fans feel that it is preferable for responses to grow organically from the local culture. For example, the audience members in Salt Lake City have utilized frequent references to the LDS Church and Brigham Young University
Brigham Young University
Brigham Young University is a private university located in Provo, Utah. It is owned and operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , and is the United States' largest religious university and third-largest private university.Approximately 98% of the university's 34,000 students...
. In most locales, new responses are regularly added to the canon
Canon (fiction)
In the context of a work of fiction, the term canon denotes the material accepted as "official" in a fictional universe's fan base. It is often contrasted with, or used as the basis for, works of fan fiction, which are not considered canonical...
(for example the introduction of references to South Park
South Park
South Park is an American animated television series created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone for the Comedy Central television network. Intended for mature audiences, the show has become famous for its crude language, surreal, satirical, and dark humor that lampoons a wide range of topics...
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).
In Paris, where it's been shown twice a week for 20 years, the audience makes puns not only around the audio dialogs, but also with the French subtitles.
Theatre "Shadow Casts"
Some arthouseArt film
An art film is the result of filmmaking which is typically a serious, independent film aimed at a niche market rather than a mass market audience...
cinemas will have a tradition of regularly playing the film on a particular date, especially Halloween
Halloween
Hallowe'en , also known as Halloween or All Hallows' Eve, is a yearly holiday observed around the world on October 31, the night before All Saints' Day...
. 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, or even behind it for ghostly effects (Studio Galande, Paris). 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
Hollywood Bowl
The Hollywood Bowl is a modern amphitheater in the Hollywood area of Los Angeles, California, United States that is used primarily for music performances...
in September 2005, featuring the Long Beach
Long Beach, California
Long Beach is a city situated in Los Angeles County in Southern California, on the Pacific coast of the United States. The city is the 36th-largest city in the nation and the seventh-largest in California. As of 2010, its population was 462,257...
cast Midnight Insanity, a troupe that has been performing weekly since 1988. The annual Dragoncon showing, performed by Atlanta
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
cast Lips Down on Dixie in addition to their standard weekly shows at the Plaza Theatre
Plaza Theatre (Atlanta)
The Plaza Theatre is an Atlanta landmark and the city’s oldest continuously operating movie theatre. It is home to several weekly and monthly events, including The Rocky Horror Picture Show and both the Silver Scream Spookshow and Splatter Cinema, mixed-media events featuring live performances and...
, also draws audiences of 3,000 or more each year.
Audience Hazing
Typically, a showing that uses a shadow cast will include a pre-show ritual that involves calling attention to anyone who hasn't seen the film in a theater. Those who haven't experienced Rocky Horror "live" are considered "Virgins", often having a 'V' marked on their foreheads with red lipstick. Depending on the theater and shadow cast, Virgins will be called out, mocked, made fun of (usually in a good-natured-but-vulgar way) and encouraged to participate in party tricks and games that might be considered racy or demeaning. It is not uncommon to have rubber balloons (or even inflated condoms) placed between a "virgin's" knees to be popped by cast members. In the 1990s, casts in New York and Virginia would fill a "Virgin's" mouth with whip cream and put a cherry on top, etc. A Nashville-based pre-show includes parading the "Virgins" up and down the aisles of the theater with balloons (referred to as "cherries") held between their knees, while the song The Ecstasy Of GoldThe Ecstasy of Gold
"The Ecstasy of Gold" is a musical composition by Ennio Morricone, part of his score for the Sergio Leone film The Good, the Bad and the Ugly...
from the soundtrack to The Good, The Bad & The Ugly plays throughout the house.
The levels and intensity of the preshow hazing varies from cinema to cinema, with some being pornographic or dangerous.
Costume recreation
Costume designer Sue BlaneSue Blane
Susan Margret Blane is best known for her costume designs for both The Rocky Horror Show and The Rocky Horror Picture Show.-Life and career:...
'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. However, plainclothes are considered acceptable among those who are not as serious.
Use of objects
During select moments of the film, audience members will use select props they had brought for the film. For instance, when Brad and Janet start running in the rain, some audience members will fire off loaded water pistols into the air, while others cover their heads with newspaper as Janet does in the scene. Many fans will fling toastToast
Toast is bread that has been browned by exposure to radiant heat. This browning reaction is known as the Maillard reaction. Toasting warms the bread and makes it firmer, so it holds toppings more securely...
into the air when the line "A toast!" is said, Scott brand
Scott Paper Company
The Scott Paper Company is a USA-based corporation which manufactures mostly paper based consumer products.Scott Paper was founded in 1879 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by brothers E. Irvin and Clarence Scott, and is often credited as being the first to market toilet paper sold on a roll...
toilet paper
Toilet paper
Toilet paper is a soft paper product used to maintain personal hygiene after human defecation or urination. However, it can also be used for other purposes such as blowing one's nose when one has a cold or absorbing common spills around the house, although paper towels are more used for the latter...
at the line "Great Scott!", and playing cards are often thrown when Frank N. Furter sings the line "cards for sorrow, cards for pain" in "I'm Going Home".
Some props and participation have evolved regionally. In semi-regular screenings of the Rocky Horror at the Belcourt Theatre
Belcourt Theatre
The Belcourt Theatre is a 2-cinema theater operating in Nashville's Hillsboro Village district. It is operating by a non-profit organization, and features independent films, as well as live performances.- History :...
in Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
the longtime MC and shadow cast host has been known to throw a large bucket of water from the back of the cinema when Curry's character tosses a cup of water at the camera during a song. Those in the "know" have adapted to the surprise while the uninitiated in the audience become doused.
However, due to both the added burden of cleanup and the potential for more serious damage to the facility, not all theatres which screen Rocky Horror permit the use of props.
Fans on 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 scriptsScreenplay
A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...
, parodies, and scripts of callback lines. As the World Wide Web
World Wide Web
The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...
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, with Cosmo's Factory a close second. With a decline in the online Rocky Horror participation noticed, the Rocky Horror Online Community was created and announced at the 4/7/11 Rocky Horror convention in Atlantic City. Along with it, the official Rocky Horror FAQ was republished in a live Wiki format (with the original contributors still active as curators) at Rockypedia.org. Rockypedia now comprises the original FAQ and all of its contents and is being actively curated to include more material on a consistent basis. The Rockypedia Facebook fan page currently enjoys over 21,000 fans and regular participation, representing a resurgence in online Rocky Horror fandom.
Many of the web sites that cropped up were small personal fan pages hosted for free with companies such as GeoCities
GeoCities
Yahoo! GeoCities is a web hosting service, currently available only in Japan.GeoCities was originally founded by David Bohnett and John Rezner in late 1994 as Beverly Hills Internet . In its original form, site users selected a "city" in which to place their web pages...
, 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.
External links
- Official Rocky Horror Picture Show Fan Site
- The Rocky Horror Online Community at http://www.rockyhorror.org
- Rockypedia at http://www.rockypedia.org