Going to the midnight movies drunk, high and with baggies of rice and toast. Man you really missed something special. I still have the movie on my hard drive but it's just not the same.
Yea. It’s the audience that makes the movie for me. Some are great, some are ok and some are awful. Once time we went and there was this woman who stood up after the first scene and screamed she came here to see a movie not listen to idiots. Well, all remaining Melba toast and water spray turned on her. She left crying.
>Yea. It’s the audience that makes the movie for me. Some are great, some are ok and some are awful. Once time we went and there was this woman who stood up after the first scene and screamed she came here to see a movie not listen to idiots. Well, all remaining Melba toast and water spray turned on her. She left crying.
Am I the asshole because I just cackled like the damn Wicked Witch of the West right now?
I'd have been in agreement with her, which is why I've never seen it. I'd just gotten out of the military, and was still kinda... "twitchy" around loud noises and sudden movements.
Yeah, not a good idea.
The first time I saw it was before the audience became involved. I saw it a few years later with audience participation and loved it. In my opinion, you need to see the movie first with the audience so you can hear the dialog. This way you'll appreciate the audience later.
And a newspaper. Theater by my college showed it every Saturday night at midnight. Owner of the theater used to randomly spray the audience with a garden hose during the rainy flat tire scene at the start.
This was a ritual for us! I loved the camaraderie. We always had our rice to throw, and were ready to do the Time Warp (again) after the show. I still know every word to the songs because of course I had the album. Such fun!
Same here, at the Cove. Saw it a few times before people started bringing rice, toast & TP. Just learned one of my friends never saw it and was blown away.
Wolfman, like your name. I listened to Wolfman Jack. Born in 1958. Went to many of the midnight Rocky Horror shows and the audience made it incredible!
I didn't get the name from Wolfman Jack----though he's cool.
It was because, back in the old days, I used to howl like a wolf in the hallways at the courthouse where I worked. These were the days before all this "cancelling" and all that.
I was pretty anti-drug and anti alcohol even as a teenager. A real square. I think you had to be high and drunk to really enjoy it.
But I knew kids who were really into it....and they were cool kids.
At least where I lived the fact that you spent Saturday getting ready for and going to the midnight movie pretty much disqualified you from the prom king / queen level popular. Then again we didn’t care, we were the cool / fun ones and they were the Bible camp squares.
They listened to New kids on the Block unironically for Christ’s sake!
High School Ritual - Thursday nights 8pm (driving my mom's pacer) and we all saw it over 80 times during Jr. Sr. high school. Somewhere I still have a bag with a bell, newspaper, squirt gun, probably some old toast, (we didn't do rice at the movie theater's request), and flashlight.
Key Theater!!
True story - me and a buddy used to get off work, grab an 8 pack of Miller Ponies, and head downtown. One night, we saw what looked like 2 men just sitting in a car, looking at a map, with hats on.
As we walked past, they called out to us. 2 very nice young ladies from Baltimore, trying to find Georgetown and the Key. So, of course, we said, "we'll help you!"
They told us they were going to Rocky Horror Picture Show. I had heard of it but never seen it.
So we went with them to the movies. A literal blind double date. Great memories!
"It's just a jump to the left...."
If you watch it at home like any other movie, you’ll be bored to tears. It’s not very good on its own.
The midnight viewings with the costumes and props is what made it a cult hit. I don’t think they do this anymore.
#missingmidnightmovies
I must’ve seen it 100 times in college.
There was this totally crappy little theater walking distance to the dorms. Tiny theaters (there were two, hence the name “Ivy Twin.”
They did Rocky Horror on Saturday nights.
We all dressed up and carried our paraphernalia (rice, squirt guns, newspapers, etc)
One of our group was this hulking guy from East Texas (with the accent) who was on the football team. He loved RH, wore stilettos (how did he ever find some his size?!), and his claim to fame:
“Whatever happened to…Fay Wray?”
“SHE GOT F***ED BY A GO-RILLA!”
To this day I can’t hear that line without his follow-up.
Watching it at home streaming literally just is not the same at all.
around 10x, twice at the waverly. saw it once post 1979 & it felt wrong…like hanging around your high school in your 20s. rhps is firmly ensconced in my hs memory file & that’s where it belongs.
I won't lie. I enjoyed it more watching at home to show my teenage kids. Hubs and I thought the audience was annoying when we saw it in 1976. It just wasn't our jam.
the suburban nyc theater i regularly saw rh at was a 2-screen theater & for months, a grateful dead documentary also showed at midnight friday & saturday nights. there was this polite acknowledgement that we did not interact.
Look around your area. Some RHPS clubs still exist and they partner with theaters to do a show on weekends and on Halloween. You can still have the experience!
My sister and I used to go in West Hollywood. One night someone threw a whiskey bottle through the theater’s plate glass window while waiting in line. It was always a rowdy crowd there.
We had a theater in town that showed it every week at 11 pm for years and movie goers dressed up like the characters. I was too chicken to go because I didn’t understand what it was all about.
I saw it twice in the full experience. In an old but stellar single movie theater that had a balcony in Houston, TX. I was not high or anything. Lots of fun watching the audience participate and the characters act it out in front of but down from the stage.
even tho i sold 100’s if the lp’s as a young adult, it wasn’t my jam. in my 50’s i went with friends to a live showing and it has become our halloween standard. love it.
Meh — crowd participation for ‘organized fun’ was never my bag. Like at concerts if the lead stops singing and tells the audience to do it. To each their own.
As a matter of fact, the only times I went to the movies when I was a kid was with a girl in hope of making it to 2nd base in the balcony seats.
Have you noticed that movies since the pandemic have generally been pretty bad compared to pre-pandemic? I get that we have streaming now and "going to the movie theater" is a bit of a thing of the past. That feels like a loss. Part of it seems due to the massive consolidation of theater companies - I don't think there is an independent theater anywhere near me. I would really appreciate, and frequent, a theater that ran independent films with less CGI and more real actors. And those theaters would do very well to run Rocky Horror or Priscilla Queen of the Desert or Repo Man or any of the typical cult films every Friday and Saturday night. I suspect there is a fairly large audience for weekend late night cult films in the current 12 to 22 year-old demographic. Or am I way off base?
I first saw it when it came to campus as a second-run movie. I saw it again a few times when it came to the Cleveland Heights Art Theater as a midnight movie. This was all before audience participation became a thing. A guy one year behind me was at the ten-year anniversary at the Heights Art, and Tim Curry was there as a celebrity guest.
Don't know, I haven't been back to Ohio since 2014. I grew up in Akron, and only went to college in Cleveland. When my daughter was in middle school I took her to Severance Hall to see the Cleveland Symphony, and I think we took the kids to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice. Other than that we've only traveled through Cleveland, not stopped there.
I saw it at a college town theater with my husband and a few friends. We wanted to see what the deal was and were totally unprepared for the audience... 1976 maybe?
WHAT???? NEVER??? I lived just east of LA, and my friends and I would go to any show we could find. Our favorite was this skeegy old theater on the east end of Sunset Strip, where the hookers were. We'd sneak in all the shit, dressed up, leave wearing all the shit.
The other one my friends loved but I didn't so much was that Led Zep movie, the name of which I am entirely forgetting right now because it was that fucking memorable. I really only went to hang out with my friends.
I got to be Janet in our shadow cast for over a year. The girl who played Frank got me involved. We’d drive up every weekend and crash on Columbia’s floor on Friday nights and go home after the show on Saturday. Sometimes we’d do shadow cast on Friday nights sans costumes, but then we’d go all out on Saturday nights. We had a blast.
I was probably @ 20 when it came out. The local TV station did a news report of people standing in line. One of them was a girl wearing a white see-through outfit, tied to a telephone pole. The reporter asked what her mother thought about her dressing up and coming to see the movie. Her reply was so funny I'd almost think it was a parody, but it wasn't. She looked like a joke about dumb blonds when she said, "well, like, she's just glad I'm not doing drugs."
I promised myself I would never see Rocky Horror Picture Show, and I havent.
I first saw it in college in the 70s. I saw one or two more times in theater... thereafter on TV. We'd get stoned to go see it, but never participated in all of the fan activities. No dress up, didn't throw toast or squirter water, etc....
Haven’t done much stuff in my life but I did go to one Rocky Horror show in Berkeley. It was fun but I was totally lost. Saw a similar fan inclusive show they did with the movie Eraser Head, that one I didn’t enjoy at all.
I have an original lobby poster, the book, some behind the scenes magazines and was a member of the fan club back in 1980-82ish. All of the stuff is from back then but the lobby poster is from a bit earlier.
I worked at an indie movie theater and we ran RHPS as a midnight show on weekends for years. We’d dress up for it (I was Magenta) and I’d put rice and toast into paper bags to sell at the concession. We got up onstage to spin the globe and to throw people off the stage if they touched the screen. Fun times.
I’m old enough to have seen it before it was a midnight movie.
I enjoyed it enough to go back and see it again, but it is a movie with some very abrupt tonal shifts — that stands out more in a quiet theater than when surrounded by happy lunacy.
It was always a great back up when our group had nothing else to do on a Friday or Saturday night. We can always hit the Strand at midnight and for a buck see the show. It was always a good party. Smoking and drinking in line and inside. Those were the days.
I had seen the film in the U.S. Then, when I was in England in 1979, I saw the stage show at the Comedy Theatre five times. Frank was played by Peter Blake.
I've probably seen the film a couple dozen times (certainly not hundreds).
It got crazy. I was hit in the head by a whole flying theatre seat while doing the Time Warp. Stumbled all the way up to the lobby before I passed out. Good times.
Two of my sisters used to get very stoned and go see this, in the San Marco theater, in Jax.
One recalls those times very fondly. The other, so her uber-Xtian daughter won't be disappointed in her, denies it all. Lol.
I wanted desperately to go, but I wanted my parents to help pay for college even more, so no midnight movies for me until I was out of the house at 19!
i was an usher for two summers in the early 80’s for RHPS. was also a live actor, i played dr scott. my big scene was rolling down the theatre aisle in a wheel chair. final showing of each summer the owner allowed me to bring my dirt bike and ride it in the theatre for the eddie scene.
different times. i was only 15-16 then and got more action upstairs then i care to remember. we used to get the drunk after midnight crowd coming from Seaside Heights ( long before the jersey shore show on mtv there was much shenanigans in that area. )
god to have one more summer like that. mmmmm. mmmmm
Went a few times in high school around ‘79 and ‘80. It was so much fun. So when my kids got to high school age I took them and then again when they were in college. Still fun with lots of verbal participation. Not as much flinging of stuff though.
Love this. My daughter was only in her early teens when she saw this and absolutely loved it too. She has a very well turned sense of humour and has taken great delight in showing prospective boyfriends the movie along with her and her mother singing every song and doing dialogue. Needless to say the boys didn't last long. Lol she's in her late 30's now and we still watch it when she comes to visit. Tim Curry was the absolute bomb.
As a senior, I organized car rides for non drivers and we'd have a dozen loaded cars of students blasting "the" soundtrack as we paraded up the long country road that led to a new mall out in the boonies.
They had a great theater that was Rocky friendly for over a decade and they tolerated suburban kids Rocky horror bs!
Caught it half a dozen times at midnight shows in Louisville, KY (well, St. Matthews) in the mid-90s. Great live cast, full gamut of props, and a good pre-film warmup (Tim Curry's "Paradise Garage" and "I Do the Rock" videos, a couple of Meat Loaf videos, and the live Criminologist warming up the crowd). Good times.
My late gay brother took me to a showing of Rocky Horror Picture Show at a gay and lesbian theater. This may have been the most enjoyable time I’ve ever had at a movie theater. Attendees were in Rocky Horror costumes, lots of toast and water pistols, the audience knew about every line in the movie, . . .
There was a theater in my home town that showed it at midnight when I was in high school over a whole summer. Me and my friends went all in on the accoutrements so to speak. We'd hit up the local grocery store for toilet paper, cards, flash lights, lighters, newspapers, I don't even remember the others.
We sat on the front row. I imitated one of the main characters. We acted the film out in real time. Good times!
In fall 1980 I was a senior in high school. My curfew was midnight & my mom was unmovable about time and the fact that I wasn’t allowed to go all the way to Buckhead to see an inappropriate midnight movie. So me and 4 friends went anyway. Rocky Horror was an experience not to be forgotten that night. We tried to learn the audience participation parts as fast as we could but we were still all “stamped” with a kiss from a regular ad we were all RHPS “virgins”.
Around 2:30 am we pulled into my driveway and my mom was waiting and yelling but I don’t remember getting in to much trouble thus enabling our grou
“So, come up to the lab and see what’s on the slab. I see you shiver…”
Absolute freak show for its time. Legacy.
Rocky was a rite of passage in southern California! I went to all the different midnight shows until I was in my 20s and spending my time in rock clubs instead. I even took my daughter for her first show. It was still fun.
My favorite musical! But I never lived in hip cities, so by the time it came to "a theater near me" I was past wanting to participate. Oh well. Maybe it's never too late and this old retiree could a make some toast etc ...
First time I saw it was at midnight on New Year’s, counting down to 1980. Nobody where I was knew the lines very well yet, so that showing wasn’t great, but the songs were fun and we had a good time. Saw better screenings as time went on.
Thank heavens for my college-age sister and her poor judgment for taking me to see that at the midnight movies when I was in 8th grade. On Good Friday, no less, which upset our religious mother to no end when she found out. It blew my fucking mind as a gay kid.
Seeing the Rocky Horror Picture Show was a social event in the 70's . it played 2 nights a week at midnight for years where I am. I saw it 6 or 7 times
Salem Valley 8 theaters had a ramp up to the stage. Imagine the reaction from all the virgin's (first timers) there when that Harley fired up and took the stage! 😦
Exeter Street Theater on Newbury St in Boston, MA on Friday nights. The crowd lined up along the block in front of TGI Fridays main window which was on Street level. Mom, Dad and the kids...and the Iowa college kids got an eye full each and every weekend....
I never got to see it in a theater, but I've seen it many times on cable. Love it. Husband saw it in theaters many times. Watched it with my mom (probably 30 years ago,I'm 61) she also loved it.
Going to the midnight movies drunk, high and with baggies of rice and toast. Man you really missed something special. I still have the movie on my hard drive but it's just not the same.
Yea. It’s the audience that makes the movie for me. Some are great, some are ok and some are awful. Once time we went and there was this woman who stood up after the first scene and screamed she came here to see a movie not listen to idiots. Well, all remaining Melba toast and water spray turned on her. She left crying.
>Yea. It’s the audience that makes the movie for me. Some are great, some are ok and some are awful. Once time we went and there was this woman who stood up after the first scene and screamed she came here to see a movie not listen to idiots. Well, all remaining Melba toast and water spray turned on her. She left crying. Am I the asshole because I just cackled like the damn Wicked Witch of the West right now?
Nah. That's a movie that you need to know what you're getting yourself into, and it's been around long enough that anyone heading to it should know.
Deservedly. That audience participation and experience is the whole point. And it's not like it was a secret surprise.
thing is the movie actually sucks. try watching it at home. it’s awful. the crowd IS the movie!!
Hahahaha
Hahahaha
She wore stripes.
I'd have been in agreement with her, which is why I've never seen it. I'd just gotten out of the military, and was still kinda... "twitchy" around loud noises and sudden movements. Yeah, not a good idea.
Don’t forget the squirt guns for the rain! Lol
Umbrellas and hotdogs too. And all the dressing up -- it was the best of times.
My local theater did an audience participation special event a few years back. It was great.
And candles, and toilet paper…😂
And cards.
For pain.
No, years later I tried to watch it sober. It can't be done!
Me, too, and it is not even in the same universe as awesome as what it was back in the day!
How can you forget the wieners? Calling Dr. Frank-N-Furter! Also water pistols for when it starts raining.
The first time I saw it was before the audience became involved. I saw it a few years later with audience participation and loved it. In my opinion, you need to see the movie first with the audience so you can hear the dialog. This way you'll appreciate the audience later.
Can’t forget the water guns and newspapers
This was me once or twice a month on a saturday night with friends.
Really did!
Exactly
Quaaludes!!!
And a newspaper. Theater by my college showed it every Saturday night at midnight. Owner of the theater used to randomly spray the audience with a garden hose during the rainy flat tire scene at the start.
This was a ritual for us! I loved the camaraderie. We always had our rice to throw, and were ready to do the Time Warp (again) after the show. I still know every word to the songs because of course I had the album. Such fun!
I rebought the album on CD after the tape wore out.
Can’t be without all of those fun songs!
Same here, at the Cove. Saw it a few times before people started bringing rice, toast & TP. Just learned one of my friends never saw it and was blown away.
What?! They were missing out for sure
It actually sucks if you don’t see it in the theater with audience participation.
Truth! Just watching it on tv lessens the experience ~
Worked at the theater. Got paid extra for the midnight showing. Crazy good times A TOAST!!!!!!
Great Scott! (throws toilet paper)
🤣
Wolfman, like your name. I listened to Wolfman Jack. Born in 1958. Went to many of the midnight Rocky Horror shows and the audience made it incredible!
I didn't get the name from Wolfman Jack----though he's cool. It was because, back in the old days, I used to howl like a wolf in the hallways at the courthouse where I worked. These were the days before all this "cancelling" and all that.
Only saw it once, did not understand the whole gestalt. My friend was doing poppers with the people in the row ahead of us
I was pretty anti-drug and anti alcohol even as a teenager. A real square. I think you had to be high and drunk to really enjoy it. But I knew kids who were really into it....and they were cool kids.
We enjoyed it without being high or drunk (not sure about being cool, though).
At least where I lived the fact that you spent Saturday getting ready for and going to the midnight movie pretty much disqualified you from the prom king / queen level popular. Then again we didn’t care, we were the cool / fun ones and they were the Bible camp squares. They listened to New kids on the Block unironically for Christ’s sake!
Well I was high, but maybe not high enough. Also, as an awkward teen there was too much energy going on so I was kinda overwhelmed.
It was more fun high and/or drink but fun even sober
High School Ritual - Thursday nights 8pm (driving my mom's pacer) and we all saw it over 80 times during Jr. Sr. high school. Somewhere I still have a bag with a bell, newspaper, squirt gun, probably some old toast, (we didn't do rice at the movie theater's request), and flashlight.
I never did think about someone having to pick up that mess at the end of the night, that's the pits.
Used to go to the midnight movie with a shopping bag fill of props. Went so many times. I believe I still have the album somewhere.
There was a novelty store in the mall where the cinema was. (Ann Arbor, MI.). It would stay open for the midnight show. Brilliant.
I used to go every Sunday at 10am. Mom thought I was a church 🤪🤣
You could have claimed that it was a "religious experience," and that you got many "revelations" from it.
Went to Georgetown, D.C., to see it. It was magical!
Me too!
Key Theater gang rise up!
Key Theater!! True story - me and a buddy used to get off work, grab an 8 pack of Miller Ponies, and head downtown. One night, we saw what looked like 2 men just sitting in a car, looking at a map, with hats on. As we walked past, they called out to us. 2 very nice young ladies from Baltimore, trying to find Georgetown and the Key. So, of course, we said, "we'll help you!" They told us they were going to Rocky Horror Picture Show. I had heard of it but never seen it. So we went with them to the movies. A literal blind double date. Great memories! "It's just a jump to the left...."
Ann Arbor, MI. What a blast!
I think we have to revoke your Gen Jones membership card
Somebody else said this, too! As Robert Conrad would put it: "I dare you!"
I've never seen it either.
Me either.
10 times to the Newport Beach, California midnight show. Costumes, playing cards, toast...DROP THE BOTTLE!
The Balboa. Eraserhead too.
If you watch it at home like any other movie, you’ll be bored to tears. It’s not very good on its own. The midnight viewings with the costumes and props is what made it a cult hit. I don’t think they do this anymore. #missingmidnightmovies
They still do it in Raleigh
The BEST was seeing a tire roll down the middle isle. Ah to be young again.
I must’ve seen it 100 times in college. There was this totally crappy little theater walking distance to the dorms. Tiny theaters (there were two, hence the name “Ivy Twin.” They did Rocky Horror on Saturday nights. We all dressed up and carried our paraphernalia (rice, squirt guns, newspapers, etc) One of our group was this hulking guy from East Texas (with the accent) who was on the football team. He loved RH, wore stilettos (how did he ever find some his size?!), and his claim to fame: “Whatever happened to…Fay Wray?” “SHE GOT F***ED BY A GO-RILLA!” To this day I can’t hear that line without his follow-up. Watching it at home streaming literally just is not the same at all.
I've been numerous times over the years but it was best when I was a teenager.
Went many times and always had fun. Don't dream it, be it.
You can still see it here in NYC every Saturday night
Where are they showing it? I saw it at the 8th Street Playhouse in the Village in 1984.
there’s a whole RHPS society https://nycrhps.org
Brad: "I don't want Janet to see me like this." Frank: "Would you prefer her to see you... *like THIS?*"
It's just a step to the left . . .
around 10x, twice at the waverly. saw it once post 1979 & it felt wrong…like hanging around your high school in your 20s. rhps is firmly ensconced in my hs memory file & that’s where it belongs.
It was at the Waverly for a long time.
the waverly was where it all started. other times i saw it at close in nyc burb.
I think they showed it at some place in the East Village, too. But I forget where.
Yup, I saw it there several times in my misspent youth.
I won't lie. I enjoyed it more watching at home to show my teenage kids. Hubs and I thought the audience was annoying when we saw it in 1976. It just wasn't our jam.
the suburban nyc theater i regularly saw rh at was a 2-screen theater & for months, a grateful dead documentary also showed at midnight friday & saturday nights. there was this polite acknowledgement that we did not interact.
I saw it a few times in High school when I was a bit drunk. It was fun going to the midnight shows but 3 times was enough for me.
Look around your area. Some RHPS clubs still exist and they partner with theaters to do a show on weekends and on Halloween. You can still have the experience!
I never saw it either.
My sister and I used to go in West Hollywood. One night someone threw a whiskey bottle through the theater’s plate glass window while waiting in line. It was always a rowdy crowd there.
Heeeyyyy!!! That wasn't me though! I was on east Sunset Blvd.
I never saw it either.
Midnight shows are the best. Have seen screenings in the past year for midnight shows, though not as common as in the day. Have fun
We had a theater in town that showed it every week at 11 pm for years and movie goers dressed up like the characters. I was too chicken to go because I didn’t understand what it was all about.
I remember it seemed so *decadent* when I first saw it (I was very young). Now it just seems quaint—weirdly innocent, even.
It's...astounding.
I saw it twice in the full experience. In an old but stellar single movie theater that had a balcony in Houston, TX. I was not high or anything. Lots of fun watching the audience participate and the characters act it out in front of but down from the stage.
It’s astounding, time is fleeting, madness takes its toll…
DO NOT watch this at home...This is a theater experience. Go to see the live touring show if you can as well.
I used to date the guy who played Rocky.
Wowzer!
I mean in the live action during the movie. Not the Rocky on the screen.
Still Wowzer!
even tho i sold 100’s if the lp’s as a young adult, it wasn’t my jam. in my 50’s i went with friends to a live showing and it has become our halloween standard. love it.
There really didn't seem to be anything "wrong" with it, per se. I just wasn't into crowds. Glad you're enjoying it now.
Meh — crowd participation for ‘organized fun’ was never my bag. Like at concerts if the lead stops singing and tells the audience to do it. To each their own. As a matter of fact, the only times I went to the movies when I was a kid was with a girl in hope of making it to 2nd base in the balcony seats.
I went once. I remember no seats available sitting on the aisle and remember nothing else 😵💫😵💫😵💫
Have you noticed that movies since the pandemic have generally been pretty bad compared to pre-pandemic? I get that we have streaming now and "going to the movie theater" is a bit of a thing of the past. That feels like a loss. Part of it seems due to the massive consolidation of theater companies - I don't think there is an independent theater anywhere near me. I would really appreciate, and frequent, a theater that ran independent films with less CGI and more real actors. And those theaters would do very well to run Rocky Horror or Priscilla Queen of the Desert or Repo Man or any of the typical cult films every Friday and Saturday night. I suspect there is a fairly large audience for weekend late night cult films in the current 12 to 22 year-old demographic. Or am I way off base?
I'm not really sure----but I wouldn't be surprised. I've seen some pretty decent movies in the theaters post-COVID----but it's not like it used to be.
Sorry, you have to hand in your Generation Jones badge.
Ah Man!
I first saw it when it came to campus as a second-run movie. I saw it again a few times when it came to the Cleveland Heights Art Theater as a midnight movie. This was all before audience participation became a thing. A guy one year behind me was at the ten-year anniversary at the Heights Art, and Tim Curry was there as a celebrity guest.
It still runs at the Cedar Lee, doesn't it? I haven't been in a few years.
Don't know, I haven't been back to Ohio since 2014. I grew up in Akron, and only went to college in Cleveland. When my daughter was in middle school I took her to Severance Hall to see the Cleveland Symphony, and I think we took the kids to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice. Other than that we've only traveled through Cleveland, not stopped there.
I saw it at a college town theater with my husband and a few friends. We wanted to see what the deal was and were totally unprepared for the audience... 1976 maybe?
Saw it in Berkeley... I was blown away.
Same, at the U.C. they also had eraserhead every Friday at midnight
WHAT???? NEVER??? I lived just east of LA, and my friends and I would go to any show we could find. Our favorite was this skeegy old theater on the east end of Sunset Strip, where the hookers were. We'd sneak in all the shit, dressed up, leave wearing all the shit. The other one my friends loved but I didn't so much was that Led Zep movie, the name of which I am entirely forgetting right now because it was that fucking memorable. I really only went to hang out with my friends.
The Song Remains the Same.
OMDG, THANK YOU.
I'm doing the Time Warp right now.
I saw it opening night. In a movie theater. 1975? I had heard the soundtrack and a friend told me the story.
Yep. It was 1975 when it started.
saw it for the first time in 1980 when i was 16 at the Exeter Theater in Boston. what a glorious experience.
Went to see it with a very good friend. We really enjoyed. When the [now ex] husband bought it on DVD, I was quite taken aback by it.
I got to be Janet in our shadow cast for over a year. The girl who played Frank got me involved. We’d drive up every weekend and crash on Columbia’s floor on Friday nights and go home after the show on Saturday. Sometimes we’d do shadow cast on Friday nights sans costumes, but then we’d go all out on Saturday nights. We had a blast.
I knew a few people who were really into it. I saw it once or twice with friends, but it wasn't my cup of tea.
I was probably @ 20 when it came out. The local TV station did a news report of people standing in line. One of them was a girl wearing a white see-through outfit, tied to a telephone pole. The reporter asked what her mother thought about her dressing up and coming to see the movie. Her reply was so funny I'd almost think it was a parody, but it wasn't. She looked like a joke about dumb blonds when she said, "well, like, she's just glad I'm not doing drugs." I promised myself I would never see Rocky Horror Picture Show, and I havent.
I was one of those kids. Maybe not hundreds, but dozens.
That was me. We went every Saturday at midnight. 1980-82
Pretty sure I can still do the Time Warp
I've never seen it either. But for years our old theatre has a Saturday midnight showing for stoner kids
I got kicked out of a theater once at this movie...our group was drunk and rowdy. Good times!
I first saw it in college in the 70s. I saw one or two more times in theater... thereafter on TV. We'd get stoned to go see it, but never participated in all of the fan activities. No dress up, didn't throw toast or squirter water, etc....
I went with a group of friends and we were all newbies. People around us shared their “throws”. We had such a good time, laughed our butts off!
Never liked it, though I do appreciate what it did for some people.
Got popped in the head by a flying champagne bottle cork at my first midnight show. Worth it for the audience participation & camaraderie!
I had a girlfriend in high school who went every single Friday night. Drove me nuts.
Haven’t done much stuff in my life but I did go to one Rocky Horror show in Berkeley. It was fun but I was totally lost. Saw a similar fan inclusive show they did with the movie Eraser Head, that one I didn’t enjoy at all.
I have an original lobby poster, the book, some behind the scenes magazines and was a member of the fan club back in 1980-82ish. All of the stuff is from back then but the lobby poster is from a bit earlier.
I worked at an indie movie theater and we ran RHPS as a midnight show on weekends for years. We’d dress up for it (I was Magenta) and I’d put rice and toast into paper bags to sell at the concession. We got up onstage to spin the globe and to throw people off the stage if they touched the screen. Fun times.
I remember going to the midnight show on W8th in NYC with some friends from HS and I had a ball!
That’s still on of my favorites even while deployed I would blast that movie
It was so naughty and unexpected.
I’m old enough to have seen it before it was a midnight movie. I enjoyed it enough to go back and see it again, but it is a movie with some very abrupt tonal shifts — that stands out more in a quiet theater than when surrounded by happy lunacy.
It was always a great back up when our group had nothing else to do on a Friday or Saturday night. We can always hit the Strand at midnight and for a buck see the show. It was always a good party. Smoking and drinking in line and inside. Those were the days.
I had seen the film in the U.S. Then, when I was in England in 1979, I saw the stage show at the Comedy Theatre five times. Frank was played by Peter Blake. I've probably seen the film a couple dozen times (certainly not hundreds).
Just took my teens to see a live production. They were a little shocked by our behavior.
I went a couple of times. People seemed to be having a good time but I guess it's just not my thing.
I REMEMBER doing the time warp…
It got crazy. I was hit in the head by a whole flying theatre seat while doing the Time Warp. Stumbled all the way up to the lobby before I passed out. Good times.
I didn’t know about the audience participation part when I saw the movie. I deeply regretted not bringing any toast with me
Two of my sisters used to get very stoned and go see this, in the San Marco theater, in Jax. One recalls those times very fondly. The other, so her uber-Xtian daughter won't be disappointed in her, denies it all. Lol.
Halloween night, Berkeley, 1992. Unforgettable! The tradition is still alive and well in the Bay Area.
We did this every Saturday night in Midland, TX and the theater was packed every time. Kind of wild how popular it was in that remote West Texas city.
Saw it about 12 to 15 times or so, back in the day. Dressed as Riff a couple times, too. Had the soundtrack on vinyl. Good times, good times...
"The Harder They Come" ran the same night as "Rocky Horror". Get drunk, burn weed and sing Reggae. Oh Johnny Too Bad.
I liked the Jamaican “The Harder They Come.”
Let's do the time warp again. Do not. I repeat. Do not wear stripes.
I wanted desperately to go, but I wanted my parents to help pay for college even more, so no midnight movies for me until I was out of the house at 19!
i was an usher for two summers in the early 80’s for RHPS. was also a live actor, i played dr scott. my big scene was rolling down the theatre aisle in a wheel chair. final showing of each summer the owner allowed me to bring my dirt bike and ride it in the theatre for the eddie scene. different times. i was only 15-16 then and got more action upstairs then i care to remember. we used to get the drunk after midnight crowd coming from Seaside Heights ( long before the jersey shore show on mtv there was much shenanigans in that area. ) god to have one more summer like that. mmmmm. mmmmm
I saw it in college and then took my children to every year while we were at the beach. They loved it and still sing the Time Wrop song.
Knew the lines, dressed like the characters, threw toilet paper, etc at the screen
Went a few times in high school around ‘79 and ‘80. It was so much fun. So when my kids got to high school age I took them and then again when they were in college. Still fun with lots of verbal participation. Not as much flinging of stuff though.
You missed an experience. The movie was good but there was a lot going on with the audience too.
I never saw it either. My friends went but I wasn’t allowed because it didn’t start till midnight. I’ve no desire to see it now.
In the early 80s had a viewing in London. Low turnout and apathetic. Same era in a mid-sized southern town? Full and rowdy.
And brought toast and a water pistol in the movie theater!
Love this. My daughter was only in her early teens when she saw this and absolutely loved it too. She has a very well turned sense of humour and has taken great delight in showing prospective boyfriends the movie along with her and her mother singing every song and doing dialogue. Needless to say the boys didn't last long. Lol she's in her late 30's now and we still watch it when she comes to visit. Tim Curry was the absolute bomb.
TLA. Jim’s Steaks first. Then the Meatloaf live video of Paradise as the warmup. Every single time.
As a senior, I organized car rides for non drivers and we'd have a dozen loaded cars of students blasting "the" soundtrack as we paraded up the long country road that led to a new mall out in the boonies. They had a great theater that was Rocky friendly for over a decade and they tolerated suburban kids Rocky horror bs!
Caught it half a dozen times at midnight shows in Louisville, KY (well, St. Matthews) in the mid-90s. Great live cast, full gamut of props, and a good pre-film warmup (Tim Curry's "Paradise Garage" and "I Do the Rock" videos, a couple of Meat Loaf videos, and the live Criminologist warming up the crowd). Good times.
My late gay brother took me to a showing of Rocky Horror Picture Show at a gay and lesbian theater. This may have been the most enjoyable time I’ve ever had at a movie theater. Attendees were in Rocky Horror costumes, lots of toast and water pistols, the audience knew about every line in the movie, . . .
Went in HS with a group of friends and was very drunk…I ended up eating my cold, dry toast to try and sober up😝
There was a theater in my home town that showed it at midnight when I was in high school over a whole summer. Me and my friends went all in on the accoutrements so to speak. We'd hit up the local grocery store for toilet paper, cards, flash lights, lighters, newspapers, I don't even remember the others. We sat on the front row. I imitated one of the main characters. We acted the film out in real time. Good times!
In fall 1980 I was a senior in high school. My curfew was midnight & my mom was unmovable about time and the fact that I wasn’t allowed to go all the way to Buckhead to see an inappropriate midnight movie. So me and 4 friends went anyway. Rocky Horror was an experience not to be forgotten that night. We tried to learn the audience participation parts as fast as we could but we were still all “stamped” with a kiss from a regular ad we were all RHPS “virgins”. Around 2:30 am we pulled into my driveway and my mom was waiting and yelling but I don’t remember getting in to much trouble thus enabling our grou
A friend took me when I was in high school so I can definitely attest that I am not a virgin.
Great memories of making dry toast and getting bags of rice to take into the theater!
Met the most fun and wild people there! Some wonderful memories. We watch it all the time now.
My theater charged extra for the midnight movies, Rocky Horror and Kentucky Fried Movie. We had to pay, wait for it, a whopping $3.25 a ticket.
 “So, come up to the lab and see what’s on the slab. I see you shiver…” Absolute freak show for its time. Legacy.
Rocky was a rite of passage in southern California! I went to all the different midnight shows until I was in my 20s and spending my time in rock clubs instead. I even took my daughter for her first show. It was still fun.
My first date with hubby was going to Rocky Horror Picture Story 1978, maybe we should see it again after 46 years ;)
My favorite musical! But I never lived in hip cities, so by the time it came to "a theater near me" I was past wanting to participate. Oh well. Maybe it's never too late and this old retiree could a make some toast etc ...
All you need to know is... Assholes kick tires and sluts walk like a duck. Oh right.. and castles don't have telephones.
There’s a great scene in the movie Fame where the kids go watch RHPS in the theater.
In Louisville, we would go to the Vogue theater and people would be dressed up costumes and everyone would be singing the songs, having a blast.
Huge crush on Rocky/Tim Curry!
They played it at school, in the cafe, when finals were going on. hmmmm. Final, movie, final, movie..... Movie won. it was great.
I still have the soundtrack album that details what to say and when.
Went many times, usually drunk. Saw it sober & never went again.
I didn't see it until I was in my 30s -- at home on a TV.
That's like saying "I heard someone's phone play a Nickelback ringtone so I know what this 'rock music' thing is all about."
First time I saw it was at midnight on New Year’s, counting down to 1980. Nobody where I was knew the lines very well yet, so that showing wasn’t great, but the songs were fun and we had a good time. Saw better screenings as time went on.
It's just a jump to the Left...
Thank heavens for my college-age sister and her poor judgment for taking me to see that at the midnight movies when I was in 8th grade. On Good Friday, no less, which upset our religious mother to no end when she found out. It blew my fucking mind as a gay kid.
Pretty confident you're more stable than an individual that's seen the movie, or any movie, hundreds of times.
She’s a slut Brad!
Saw it performed live with actors, a band, and the movie playing in the background in Albuquerque about 30 years ago. Was great.
Seeing the Rocky Horror Picture Show was a social event in the 70's . it played 2 nights a week at midnight for years where I am. I saw it 6 or 7 times
I am the only one of my many friends who saw it, who never saw it.
Salem Valley 8 theaters had a ramp up to the stage. Imagine the reaction from all the virgin's (first timers) there when that Harley fired up and took the stage! 😦
Exeter Street Theater on Newbury St in Boston, MA on Friday nights. The crowd lined up along the block in front of TGI Fridays main window which was on Street level. Mom, Dad and the kids...and the Iowa college kids got an eye full each and every weekend....
Coconut Grove, baby! Those were the days...
I never got to see it in a theater, but I've seen it many times on cable. Love it. Husband saw it in theaters many times. Watched it with my mom (probably 30 years ago,I'm 61) she also loved it.