The Rocky Horror Picture Show: A Strange Journey

Get ready for a time warp: “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” starring Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon and Barry Bostwick premiered in London on Aug. 14, 1975 — 50 years ago next Thursday. It would debut in the U.S. six weeks later.

It’s been running somewhere ever since, making it the longest-running theatrical release in film history. Not bad for a movie based on a stage show written by a bored, unemployed actor and musician.

Celebrate a half-century of this pastiche of science-fiction B-movies, horror, 1950s rock and roll and hypersexualityby coming along to Reada, reada, reada, read me.

The Making Of The Ultimate Cult Classic Film

Richard O’Brien was born Richard Smith in England in 1942 and, at age 10, moved with his family to New Zealand. He returned to England in 1964 hoping to become an actor.

He spent 18 months in 1970 and 1971 in the musical “Hair” and then the next year as an apostle in “Jesus Christ Superstar.” But then his luck ran out.

Out of work and looking for a way to amuse himself, O’Brien grew tired of working crossword puzzles and began writing a stage musical that combined his own interests in science fiction, Hollywood B-movies, 1950s-style rock and roll and the newly-emerging style of glam rock.

He also wanted to mix in his own interests in transvestism and sexual fluidity. He later said he hadn’t originally expected those aspects to become as prominent in his finished play as they did.

O’Brien showed his work in progress — he was calling it “They Came from Denton High” — to the man who had directed him in “Jesus Christ Superstar,” Jim Sharman. Sharman saw promise in the script and talked the management of London’s Royal Court theater into providing a venue for the production.

The Royal Court staged “The Rocky Horror Show” in its upstairs theater, which held only 63 seats. After preview performances on June 16 and 18, 1973, the musical opened on June 19.

Only a few dozen people showed up at first, but word of mouth grew about the production. A record producer saw the play and rushed to issue an original cast recording. In August, the play moved to a 230-seat theater and, that November, moved again to a 500-seat venue.

“The Rocky Horror Show” would play 2,960 performances in London before finally closing in September 1980.

In March 1974, the show premiered at Los Angeles’ Roxy Theater. Tim Curry moved from London to star in the U.S. production. It would play there for nine months. In 1975, several of the actors would move to New York for its Broadway opening. O’Brien joined Curry in the U.S. for that production, but it closed after just 45 performances.

By that time, “The Rocky Horror Show” had attracted the attention of movie producers. 20th Century Fox gave the film a relatively small $1.6 million budget, so the director — Sharman again — cut costs by avoiding hiring big music stars and sticking mostly with cast members who had played their roles onstage.

Realizing the film had a unique appeal to young people, studio executives hired a company to distribute flyers to people in line at concerts and nightclubs to promote the film in the Los Angeles area.

“The Rocky Horror Picture Show” didn’t perform fabulously at the box office, grossing only $1.03 million in North America its first year. But in 1976, it grossed $11 million. By 1999, it had made more than $140 million.

The film developed a cult following, with audience members arriving in costume to midnight showings and interacting with dialogue in the film.

In 2005, the Library of Congress would add “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” to the National Film Registry of work that is “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.”

I'm Just A Sweet Transvestite, From Transsexual Transylavania'

O’Brien based the character of Frank-N-Furter on Alice Cooper. Frank-N-Furter’s title, “Doctor,” was added for the film. Mick Jagger loved the play and wanted to play Frank-N-Furter in the movie. Tim Curry — who had originated the part in various London stage productions and on Broadway — continued in the role. This was his film debut.

Curry originally played Frank-N-Furter with a German accent, but switched to an exaggerated British dowager-type voice after overhearing a woman speaking on a London bus. Curry had done his own makeup for stage productions but Pierre La Roche — makeup artist for Jagger and David Bowie — was hired to upgrade makeup work for the film.

Tuesday Weld turned down the role of Janet Weiss, so Susan Sarandon got the part. The director asked Sarandon to perform fully nude during the “Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch Me” number but she declined. Sarandon spent much of the film in skimpy clothing and complained the set was cold. She even caught pneumonia at one point.

Steve Martin auditioned for the part of Brad Majors. Cliff DeYoung was offered the role of Brad but had to turn it down because of a scheduling conflict. Barry Bostwick would land the part. DeYoung would play Brad in “Shock Treatment,” a very poorly-received 1981 sequel to “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.”

During the writing of the original stage production, O’Brien saw himself playing Eddie, the biker delivery boy who’s had part of his brain removed. His colleagues told him he’d be a much better fit as Frank-N-Furter’s sinister butler, Riff Raff. O’Brien would play the role in London, on stage in Los Angeles and in the film.

The original stage production ran so short that O’Brien added the entire “Time Warp” routine in order to highlight “Little Nell” Campbell’s tap-dancing skills. Campbell sings a solo verse in that song that prompted her mother to tell her she had “a voice that could open up a soup can.” The single version of “Time Warp” would peak at No. 29 in the Billboard Hot 100.

Patricia Quinn — who also plays Riff-Raff’s sister, Magenta — had opened the play with a song about a science fiction double feature. For the film, Quinn performed that same function, but as a disembodied pair of lips. O’Brien himself supplied the voice of those lips. Movie posters featured the lips and parodied 1975’s biggest film by offering “a different set of jaws.”

Vincent Price had seen the play on London’s West End and had loved it. He was offered the role of the narrating criminologist but had to turn it down due to scheduling conflicts. Plan B was to offer it to Alec Guinness, but he declined. Charles Gray — who had appeared in two James Bond films — got the job. All his scenes were filmed in one day.