The Rocky Horror Picture Show cult

following
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 rst cinematic "midnight
movie".[1]

History and background

The lm 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
Dori Hartley and Sal Piro at the Waverly Theatre in New York in
people were returning to see the movie. This turned out
1977
to be an exception, not the rule as it was not doing well
elsewhere in the US.[2]
The lm was then re-launched as a midnight movie, be- Sal Piro and Dori Hartley one of several performers in
of Frank
ginning its run at the Waverly Theatre in New York City a exible, rotating cast to portray the character
[8][9]
N.
Furter,
shadowing
the
lm
above.
According
to
[3]
on April 1, 1976. The Riverside Twin in Austin, Texas,
J.
Hoberman,
author
of
Midnight
Movies,
it
was
after
became the second location to run the lm as a midrun when lines benighter. Over time, people began shouting responses to ve months into the lms midnight
[10]
gan
to
be
yelled
by
the
audience.
The rst person to
the characters' statements on the screen. Schoolteacher
yell
out
an
audience
participation
line
during a screenLouis Farese, Jr., is credited by some with starting the
ing was Louis Farese Jr., a normally quiet teacher who,
convention of talking back to the lm on Labor Day
weekend, 1976, at the Waverly Theatre.[4] (These mostly upon seeing the Character Janet place a newspaper over
her head to protect herself from rain yelled, Buy an uminclude melodramatic abuse of the characters or actors,
vulgar sex jokes, puns, or pop culture references.) A brella you cheap bitch. This self-proclaimed counter
point dialogue was soon helped into standardization by
showing of the lm at the 1976 World Science Fic[10]
tion Convention spread its fame to a new cadre of Piro and repeated nearly verbatim at each screening.
By that Halloween, people were attending in costume and
enthusiasts.[5]
talking back to the screen. By the end of 1979, there were
A part of audience reception can be recreating the art. twice-weekly showings at over 230 theatres.[11]
This is how the fandom of Rocky Horror developed into
a standardized ritual. The performances of the audience The National Fan Club began in 1977 and would merge
was scripted and actively discouraged improvising, being with the International Fan Club; the fan publication The
conformist in a similar way to the repressed characters.[6] Transylvanian printed a number of issues. A semimagazine was published as well as an oRocky Horror helped shape conditions of cult lms tran- regular poster [7]
cial
magazine.
[7]
sition from art-house to grind-house style. Early participation with the lm took place at the original Westwood The Los Angeles area performance groups originated in
location of the lms rst run with fans heard singing 1977 at the Fox Theatre, where Michael Wolfson portrayalong. Waverly Theatre fans in New York are credited ing Frank, won a look-alike contest, as well as another
with the call back lines.[8] Performance groups became a at the Tiany Theater on Sunset Blvd. Wolfsons group
staple at Rocky Horror screenings due in large part to the would perform in all of the LA area theaters screening
prominent New York City fan cast. The cast was orig- Rocky Horror including the Balboa Theater in Balboa,
inally run by former schoolteacher and stand-up comic, The Cove at Hermosa Beach and The Sands in Glendale,
1

2 AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION
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 Scodio 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
Ri Ra. The Strand group had performed at two large
science ction conventions, in Los Angeles and San Francisco and were oered a spot at The Mobuhay, A local
punk club and even performed for childrens television in
Argentina.[8]
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 lm each weekend, making the
practice a ritual of compulsive, re-armation 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]

D. Garrett Gaord and Terri Hardin, Tiany Theater Hollywood, 1978

2 Audience participation
and was invited to perform at the Sombrero Playhouse in
Phoenix, Arizona. At the Tiany Theatre, the audience
performance cast had the theaters full cooperation; the
local performers entered early and without charge. The
Frank N. Furter for this theatre was performed by a transgender performer.[8] D. Garret Gaord, was out of work
in 1978, trying to raise enough funds for a sex change operation while spending the weekends performing at the
Tiany.[12]

Some Rocky Horror paraphernalia set out at a Boise, Idaho

showing in early 2011

San Franciscos Strand Theatre, 1979. Linda Woods, Marni

Scodio, Denise Erickson and Jim Curry

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 lm, unlike the New

The lm gained popularity because of fan participation as

much as anything else.[16] 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 Tiany Theater on Sunset Boulevard in
Los Angeles, fans included a transsexual individual performing as Frank N. Furter, just a few blocks away from
the Roxy Theatre where the Rocky Horror Show made

3
its American debut.[17]

[8] William A. Henkin; Bill Henkin (1 August 1979). The

Rocky Horror Picture Show Book. PENGUIN Group
(USA) Incorporated. p. 104. ISBN 978-0-452-266544.

Audience participation also includes dancing the Time

Warp along with the lm, and throwing toast, water, toilet
paper, hot dogs, and rice at appropriate points in the
movie. Many theatres forbid throwing items that are dif- [9] Susan Tyler Hitchcock (2007). Frankenstein: A Cultural
History. W.W. Norton. pp. 251. ISBN 978-0-393cult to clean up. In many cases, a total ban on throw06144-4.
ing objects has been instituted due to severe damage to
movie screens. Fans often attend shows in costume as the [10] Vera Dika (9 June 2003). Recycled Culture in Contemcharacters. At a now-defunct theater in New Orleans, the
porary Art and Film: The Uses of Nostalgia. Cambridge
local Eddie would ride his motorcycle down the aisle
University Press. pp. 112. ISBN 978-0-521-01631-5.
during Meat Loafs/Eddies song, Hot Patootie.[18]
[11] Samuels (1983), p. 11

Call backs

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 nd 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.[20]

See also
Clinton Street Theater, Portland, Oregon

[12] Overand, William (July 19, 1978). Saturday Night Fervor at the Tiany Theater. Los Angeles Times.
[13] Jim Stewart (2011). Folsom Street Blues: A Memoir of
1970s SoMa and Leatherfolk in Gay San Francisco. Palm
Drive Publishing. pp. 109. ISBN 978-1-890834-03-6.
[14] Gay, Gerald M. (March 13, 2014). "'Rocky Horror' shines
at El Fishnet Fiesta. Arizona Daily Star. Retrieved 18
March 2014.
[15] Bob Batchelor (December 2011). Cult Pop Culture: How
the Fringe Became Mainstream. ABC-CLIO. pp. 52.
ISBN 978-0-313-35780-0.
[16] Henkin, Bill (1979). The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Book. Dutton Adult. p. 36. ISBN 978-0-8015-6436-9.
[17] Henkin, Bill (1979). The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Book. Dutton Adult. pp. 126 127. ISBN 978-0-80156436-9.
[18] Henkin, Bill (1979). The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Book. Dutton Adult. p. 120. ISBN 978-0-8015-64369.
[19] Lucas, Drake (2005-10-20). Rocky Horror Rolls On.
The Patriot Ledger. Retrieved 2007-06-13.

References

[1] Macor, Alison. The Rocky Horror Picture Show St.

James Encyclopedia of Pop Culture 2 Mar, 2009
[2] Henkin, Bill (1979). The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Book. Dutton Adult. p. 25. ISBN 978-0-8015-6436-9.
[3] Henkin, Bill (1979). The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Book. Dutton Adult. p. 26. ISBN 978-0-8015-6436-9.
[4] Hoberman, J., and Jonathan Rosenbaum (1983). Midnight
Movies. Da Capo. p. 176. ISBN 978-0-306-80433-5.
[5] Interview with Gene DeWeese Gene DeWeese
[6] Ernest Mathijs; Jamie Sexton (30 March 2012). Cult Cinema. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 101. ISBN 978-1-44439642-3.
[7] Mathijs, Ernest; Mendik, Xavier (1 December 2007). The
Cult Film Reader. McGraw-Hill International. pp. 395.
ISBN 978-0-335-21923-0.

[20] Henkin, Bill (1979). The Rocky Horror Picture Show

Book. Dutton Adult. p. 102. ISBN 978-0-8015-64369.

6 External links
Ocial Rocky Horror Picture Show fan club
Ocial Rocky Horror Picture Show community
Ocial Rocky Horror Picture Show FAQ site

7 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

7.1

Text

The Rocky Horror Picture Show cult following Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rocky_Horror_Picture_Show_cult_

following?oldid=665536268 Contributors: Bearcat, Orangemike, RandalSchwartz, WikiPediaAid, New Age Retro Hippie, Sexbeatle,
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7.2

Images

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current copyright holder as a work for hire in 1977
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Own work Original artist: LisaSutton
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7.3

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