December 29, 2022 • 51 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Stuff you Should Know, a production of I
Heart Radio. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh,
and there's Chuck and Jerry's here too, and it's a
super awesome, amazing last episode of the year episode. I
can't think of one that could have been better than this, Chuck.
(00:25):
I guess people, it's it's a spoiler of what the
show is about already because you've seen the title as
a listener. But this is courtesy of the Stuff you
Should Know Army. Came straight from them. We got emails
they said, hey, the stuff you should Army is chattering
about about Rocky Horror Picture show. Uh. They they have
(00:47):
been shivering with Antissa patient, very nice and so uh
this is it Stuff you should Know Army. Yeah. Um
oh and also in return, you guys, if you haven't already,
go donate to co ED because we're running out of time.
(01:07):
These the last few days of the and uh our
pledge drive, our fun drive, I don't know what you
call it, are awesome drive drive. Yeah, the d is
in parentheses. Um it ends on January one or December
thirty one pm, who knows. But you can go to
(01:28):
Cooperative for Education dot org slash s y s K
donate and we're going to reach that million dollar goal.
I just know it. I totally agree, and I'm super
excited for this episode. Our years winding down. Yeah, just
so you know in real time, you know, Josh and
I always take a nice long extended Christmas break from recording,
and it has gotten bigger and bigger every year, and
(01:51):
this year, I'm not gonna say how long we have
all from recording, but it's a nice, unprecedented break. It's
a chunk of change, and we're we love doing the show,
but that Christmas December downtime is a wonderful thing for us. Yeah.
We worked hard throughout the year, so hard, so you
better treat us right. So, UM, let's go start talking
(02:15):
about Rocky Horror Picture Show. UM, quick question, are you
a virgin? Yeah? So I guess I should quickly go
over we should both kind of go over our history
with this. UM. I have never been to a live
in the movie theater Rocky Horror Picture Show showing, which includes,
(02:36):
as you will see, the shadow cast, all the fun
of the audience participation. I have seen it. I remember
when it finally came to home video. It was it
took a long time. It wasn't like one of those.
It was just always out there. Oh I remember movies
like that. Yeah. Yeah, So there was like a lot
of fanfare when Rocky Horror finally came to home video,
and I really got into it for a while there,
(02:58):
watching it with friends and watching it at home. To
the tune of seeing it. I've probably seen the movie
on at home probably six or eight times. Okay, yeah,
so I am technically a virgin. Uh, but I'm gonna
go now, like I have to go now because Atlanta
has one of the great sort of legendary theaters that
still do this twice a month. Yeah. I think the
(03:21):
group that puts on the shadow cast is called Lips
Down on Dixie the Plaza Theater. Um. Yeah, it sounds
like a good time for sure. What's your deal? I
have not ever been either, and I thought that I
wasn't a virgin. I thought if you had seen the movie,
you were not a virgin. No, you're right, if you
you have to go to a live screening of it,
(03:43):
um to to not be a virgin any longer. Um. So, yeah,
I've seen it a bunch of times to I love
the soundtrack soundtrack is really good. To clean the house too,
I have to say, um, like you will be dancing
with your swiffer very quickly. Um. But yeah, it's a
great movie. I watched it again this morning. It was
really bizarre to watch it in the morning. You know,
(04:06):
it's not it just doesn't jibe with that. I watched uh,
quite a bit of it today too, not all of it,
but I kind of want to make sure I saw
the musical numbers because I just love those. And I also,
as many times as I've seen it, it's been a
long long time, so I couldn't exactly remember the third
act as well. I think it's one of those films
(04:27):
that the first two acts are a little more famous
than the third act. I mean, you know, the time
worp is the second number, well, the third, I guess
if you count the beginning song, which we're gonna talk
about the second but yeah, you got you know, and
then uh, you know Tim Curry's legendary sweet transvestite song
and that entrance in that performance gat Yeah, come up
(04:54):
to the lab, see what's on the slab. I mean,
like he's just he couldn't have been more perfect. And
as we'll see in a second. He was also not
an obvious choice to cast as Dr Frankenfurter as the
character you play. So let's get into this. Okay. For
people who have never seen Rocky Horror Picture Show, it
is a bizarre musical um camp fest that uh. Dave,
(05:19):
who helps us out with this one, describes as a
send up, which I I know intuitively what send up means,
but I've never seen like an actual definition of it. Yeah,
so I think it's I I made, I made up
my own if I if you don't mind me sharing
affectionate mockery. Yeah, it's like an affectionate homage slash mockery,
I think, right. So it's a send up of fifties
(05:42):
sci fi in horror movies like b movies, UM, things
like Forbidden Planet, um, The Day of the Earth Stood Still,
all of the canon of ed Wood, um, all that stuff. Uh.
And it's so it's kind of a tribute to that.
But it's also, like I said, super camp and it's
definitely its own thing, so much so that it was
(06:05):
made in and it does not seem like something from
the past. It has a timeless quality to it weirdly enough. Yeah,
I would agree with that it's sort of in that
um sort of same weird rock opera thing is Tommy,
where when you look at Tommy, it looks um, sort
of dated and old fashioned but also also somehow still
(06:26):
sort of of its time and futuristic or of today's
time and futuristic, but not at all anywhere near as
serious or not serious at all, Like Tommy took Itself.
It's not serious, it's just neat. Yeah, I guess Tommy
took itself fairly seriously. Um, so, uh, the plot, if
we can talk about the plot, right, yeah, I mean
(06:48):
I don't necessarily think we should give everything away, definitely,
I think we can nutshell it. But the idea is
that there are these two characters, Brandon Janet, who are
very straight laced, um sort of uh maybe Rubes but
sort of too young, naive characters that are had been
to a wedding and are talking about getting married themselves.
(07:09):
And they go on a little road trip and it's
a very sort of classic trophy thing. You know. The
car gets a flat and the only thing around is
this creepy castle in the rain, and they knock on
the door and all sorts of crazy, funny, fun sexual hijinks,
sci fi hijinks and sue. Yeah. So they start out
(07:30):
as just as white bread as you can be, and
then by the end of the movie they're like they're
they're both wearing garter belts and stockings and bikini briefs
and courses. Yeah, um, like they they've just gone through
the sexual transformation. But also, you know, I think a
life transformation, I guess, and I want to say also
(07:51):
there's plenty of analysis and like, um, you know, writing
about subtexts and all that stuff. This has always struck
me as one of those movie is that like it's
just not meant for that. You're not supposed to like
try to look too deep into it. You're just supposed
to enjoy it on its face. I totally agree. So again,
not to give too much away if you haven't seen it,
but the the head of this uh castle is Dr
(08:15):
Frank In Further, who is the Tim Curry character who
in that great song Sweet Transvestite. The lyrics are sweet
Transvestite from trans Sexual Transylvania, as we learn in the film,
and it's it's just sort of goofy that they threw
the sci fi element in there, which is really fun.
But trans Sexual is the home planet of Franken further
(08:38):
and Transylvania is the galaxy, and so he's sort of Frankenstein,
this ubermanch uh on on the slab. And uh, that's
kind of the plot. I mean, all kinds of u
seductions take place over the course of the movie at
various times, different characters seducing one another. There's a lot
(09:01):
of gender fluidity and sort of. Um, it was a
movie ahead of its time in a lot of ways
in that respect, and since it's become obviously a huge
movie in the l g t b Q community, Yeah
for sure. Um, so that's the movie. Uh, and it
didn't actually start out a movie. It started out of
stage play um in London actually. So the guy who
(09:23):
plays riff Raff is named Richard O'Brien. Riff Raff is
Dr Frankenforter's like eagle or like assistant. He has a
huge hunchback and like stringy hair and like dark circles
under his eyes. And um, he was thirty one years
old by the way when this got kicked off. Oh really,
he always just struck me as looking super old. But
(09:45):
then when I kind of you know, look today, with
more of a critical I was like, he doesn't look
old old, but the circles under his eyes it kind
of made him up to to look a little creepier.
But he just I never pictured that guys being in
his early thirties. No, And actually, if you see later
interview with them, he stayed basically the same, looking the
same from that point on. Um, not dark circles under
(10:06):
his eyes, but he didn't seem to age at all.
But that guy was named Richard, or is named Richard O'Brien.
He was the creator of the whole thing and played
a pretty big role in the movie as well. Um,
and I believe he played riff raff in the stage
production too, right, Yeah, so he was a New Zealander
who moved to London in the seventies in the early
(10:27):
seventies and you know, didn't have great prospects for jobs.
He was a stunt man for a little while. He
got some gigs acting on stage, but not a lot
of them and was basically bored, like he's been on
record saying like this was sort of like me doing
the cross word, was me writing these uh songs. He's
sort of um, kind of fun and funny songs about uh,
(10:51):
those sci fi B movies that he loved from the
nineteen fifties. This was before Netflix, by the way. This
is before Netflix. So the whole thing that kicked this
off was really auspicious. Um. There there he was friends
with some people who were musicians, and there was an
E m I party. The record label had a big party,
(11:12):
and his musician friends said, Hey, do you want to
record a song to play at this E m I party.
This is like a truck driver stuntman actor that they're asking,
But I guess he had developed enough of a reputation
for writing cool songs that they asked him. And he
wrote UM Science Fiction Double Feature, which is the song
(11:34):
that sung uh during the opening credits of the movie
Rocky Horror Picture Show UM, where, even if you haven't
seen the movie, I'm sure you're familiar with the iconic
um disembodied bright red lips against white teeth on a
black background that comes from the intro of the movie. UM.
(11:54):
And when he played this song, uh, he I guess
he got enough of a response to it that he
decided to kind of take that song and some of
his other songs and cobble him together into like a
loose plot that really never got more fleshed out and
ended up writing a stage play out of the whole thing. Yeah,
it was called the Rocky Horror Show after I think
(12:15):
the working title was they came Is it Denton High
or Dent High School? Denton High? Okay, they came from
Denton High, which I guess the idea was that Brad
and Janet were from Denton because the church at the
beginning is Denton Episcopalian Church. Yeah, okay, so they changed
the title. I think his friend was stage director. He
(12:36):
showed it to Jim Sharman said, they came from Denton High.
It is not a great title. Uh. And the name
of the uh Frankenstein like um, you know model with
perfect abs that Frankenfurter has built is named Rocky Horror.
So that's got a ring to it. Let's call it
the Rocky Horror Show. And they did. Apparently it was
(12:58):
just in time for previews, so they were able to
change the name at the last minute. And that was Man,
that was a close call if you really stop and
think about it. So Jim Sharman and Richard O'Brien um
managed to talk their way into like a space above
the Royal Court Theater in London, and the Royal Court
(13:19):
Theater was like a serious, legitimate playhouse UM, and above
it was an experimental theater that I think sat sixty
three or sixty eight people. And they started performing this
thing and within weeks it was like the thing to
see in London. They sold out. And again it's not
that tough to sell out sixty three or sixty eight seats.
(13:42):
It was more like the buzz around. It was just
so just so gripping, and it happened so quickly that
it just took off like a rocket. In very short order.
They started touring. They they sent a touring company to
cities all over Europe UM showing people this thing, and
everybody was going nuts for Yeah. And in another turn
of fate, I guess you could say Tim Curry was
(14:05):
an actor at the Royal Court Theater UM obviously not
some you know, huge name at the time, and was
cast because of that association with the Royal Court as
Dr Frank and Further, who was originally going to uh
he was going to play it German because Frankenfurther obviously
is a German uh German word. But I think in
(14:27):
the interview, he talked about it and said that he
he was experimenting around with accents and he found this
the posh British thing really worked and said the character
should sound like the Queen. Yeah, and UH was originally
also supposed to be more of a classic mad scientists,
white lab coat kind of doctor. Uh. And in another
(14:49):
wonderful twist of fate, Uh, they hired a woman named
Sue Blaine to do the costumes because you know, they
needed to bring this. They didn't have a lot of
money at first. We'll talk about the movie budget too,
but Sue Blaine basically said, you know, I got almost
nothing in Uh. Came up with these ideas for the
ripped fishnet hose. And I think she had worked with
(15:11):
Tim Curry before on a play in Scotland where he
played a character in drag and she was like, you
look good in heels and a corset. So if it
hadn't have been for all those sort of weird things
coming together, Uh, it might have been a German mad
scientists in a white lab coat, which is really hard
to imagine. Once you know Frankenfurter, this movie wouldn't be
(15:34):
we wouldn't be talking about it right now, if they
if they had been a white lab coat, I'm sure
of it. No, really, I don't. I think Tim Curry's
character was such a huge part of the popularity of
it that, yeah, it just wouldn't have been the same.
And by the way, Sue Blaine's um uh costuming budget
for the original stage version was four dollars, which is
(15:57):
peanuts even back in nine pounds or dollars, let's say pounds,
all right, so maybe a few extra shekels. Yeah, that's
another thing too. We should say there's a lot of
made up information about Rocky Horror and its origins and
like the real story of it. So it's all fun,
but um, you have to like really kind of wade
(16:19):
through it. And if something sounds like no way, you
may want to stop and say, probably no way. But
it's still fun. So we'll mention things here there. But
I think we should kind of give like a little
caveat to them like that, how about that? Yeah, And
this is one of those fans centric, uh pieces of
entertainment where I'm sure there are people out there will
be that will be fact checking us, right, that's the
(16:42):
kindest way to say it. I'm literally sweating because I'm
so nervous about that. I think we should take a
break and then very quickly when we come back, I
will retell my Tim Curry story from Los Angeles. Sorry, Georsh,
(17:22):
all right, Uh, we're back. No, I've said this before,
but I think I can't not say it again. I
actually had two rocky horror sort of run INDs in
l A when I lived there, and when I got
my cat, Lauren, who was dearly departed. I found Lauren
in a dumpster behind my apartment, took him in, took
him to the vet, and as I was checking out
(17:43):
at my vet, I look over and there's Tim Curry.
And when I say look over, he was like two
ft from me. Wow, was he staring at you? I
don't know if he was or not. He was shorter
than I thought, which was kind of surprising because I
don't know. This character just seemed so larger than life. Well,
he was whearing like six inch platform heels. Yeah, that
as well, But when Tim Curry is like I think
(18:04):
he's listed at five nine, and that's usually fudging a
little bit. Like he was shorter than I was. Uh.
And I went to write a check to pay for it.
And I was holding Ran and I said, would you
mind holding my kitten? And he was like absolutely. And
Lauren was really funny looking. He had these huge ears.
He had a a gray back, uh, and the rest
(18:26):
of him was black and he eventually grew in all
black hair. I have no idea. It was kind of
a silver back. But he picked him up. That's why
l A is so great man. The weirdest things happened
in the most unlikely places. He stared at him and said, Lauren,
you have very dramatic ears. And he went and look
at your back. You look like a baboon. And he
(18:49):
held Lauren while I wrote the check and I had
like skipped out of there. It was like one of
the great days. So that's what I don't really, I
don't know if you've told it before. Oh I don't
see how I couldn't have held onto that one for
fifteen years, Like I really, it rings zero belt whatsoever.
And there's enough dimentions to it that something should be like, oh, yeah,
(19:10):
I've heard that one. This this story has not been
told before, and it is a fantastic story. All right,
Well there's my Tim Curry story. What's the other rocky
horror running you had. Well, I know I've talked about
um that I was friends with Meat Loaf's daughter for
a little while in l A. Oh, yes, sweet Potato,
(19:31):
I can't believe you're laughing like that. That's funny. Oh
that's a good one. Um. Yeah, I was sort of
friends with her and her boyfriend for a very short
time in l A. That was just a weird crossover
where my friend's girlfriend worked for meats ex wife. Uh.
And he did want to be called meat by the way.
But I never met him, but I hung out at
his house a few times. Uh. And he had a
(19:53):
TV that came out of a case at the foot
of his bed. Oh, I've seen that before via remote control.
You know. I was pretty astounded at the time. I
should say I've never seen it in person. I've seen
it like on on TV. Yeah. It was cool though,
walking around his house like rock memorabilia and all kinds
of stuff. I wanted to meet him, but never got
a chance. I like the Tim Curry story better. It's
(20:15):
better for sure. So, uh, where did we leave off? Oh?
The stage play is on Fire and they and they
toured it and Tim Curry played Frank Inverter everywhere except Australia.
I think, oh really, Okay, so the original cast tour it.
They didn't have a traveling cast. That's amazing. No, they
were pretty as you'll see when they went to make
the movie. They were very loyal to that original cast
(20:37):
as much as they could be. Yeah, for sure. So
um by four they moved it over to Los Angeles,
and I guess then, yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
Most of the cast went over to Los Angeles, and
including Tim Curry. But one of the people they added
in Los Angeles was meat Loaf And I never realized,
but you know, mel Off is pretty famous. He was
(21:00):
not famous. He was maybe a rising star at the time,
but he really gained his fame after Rocky Horror. And
this is a really weird choice for him, but he
did it and he stuck to it, and uh, it
was a really good move too, because he's got this
whole other legend that, like his actual other fan base
probably couldn't care less about um. And then he has,
(21:23):
like the Rocky Horror fans, two separate fan bases because
he made this very smart choice back in four. I
would argue three fan bases because he's got a bunch
of like creepy guys who only know him as the
guy from Fight Club. Oh yeah, Robert Paulson. Yeah, we
we have a friend who listens with that name, I know,
and he's he's heard it all. Yeah, I know. I'm
(21:45):
not gonna say it again, all right. So the um
they go to, l a Meat comes on board. It's
a big hit everywhere they go. So of course the
movie industry comes a stick in their nose into it,
and they say, well, why don't you make it this
into a film? And so the Rocky Horror Show became
the Rocky Horror Picture Show. And they did not have
(22:06):
a lot of money for a budget either. But the
kind of the cool part of the story is they
were offered more budget if they would put some sort
of bigger rock and roll stars of the time in
the major roles, and O'Brien said, no, I want to
keep everybody like basically the same, and I'll do it
for less money. And that's exactly what they did. Yeah,
(22:28):
about one and a quarter million. I also saw one
point four million. Um and even today and this was Fox,
twentieth century Fox, that would be like twentieth century Fox
giving somebody six and a half million dollars to make
a movie today, Like it was a shoe string budget.
I mean, so shoe string. And poor Sue Blaine, she
(22:49):
had a four hundred dollar budget for the stage play.
Originally she had like a fifteen dollar budget for the movie.
Well he's the same costume, so she had a leg
up there. Yeah, but still you're not supposed to have
to recycle the stage plays costumes for the movie, you know. Yeah, alright,
so they have their meager budget, they make the film.
It's released in September nineteen seventy five as uh, in
(23:13):
a limited release in some test markets. Reviews weren't great. Uh,
it is a very weird I mean it's it's amazing,
but it's a very weird movie that critics I could
see not getting on board with right away before there's
like a cult established around it. But then it's remarkable.
It never got a nationwide release, but even Roger Ebert
(23:35):
back then gave it a lukewarm review, but said that
it belongs on a stage with the performers and audience
joining in and a collective send up. Because word had
trickled out that this was starting a little bit here
and there. Yeah. I don't know if he was aware
of that or not, but or if he was just
prescient about it. But yeah, I think by venty six, Um,
(23:55):
April first, nineteen seventy six, Uh, the tradition of showing
Key Horror Picture Show at midnight started in Greenwich Village
actually at the Waverley Theater. And um, this, this is
the thing about Rocky Horror Picture Show. Up to this point,
we've been talking about a stage play, a movie, and
it's been following a pretty standard trajectory. Um, the movie
(24:19):
was just panned and it got shelved, but they were
still showing it here there because it was weird enough
that Greenwich Village would have gone crazy for it. Where
Rocky Horror Picture Show differs is what happens at the
midnight showings, and that is the audience participation that um,
Roger Ebert said would really kind of make the movie better.
(24:41):
And it's just it's what makes Rocky Horror Picture Show
Rocky Horror Picture Show, or at the very least it's
what has made it continue on all these years. I think, yeah,
I mean, I think it's grossed over a twenty million
dollars now total Yeah, over the years, and this is
a be that did never get a nationwide release, which
(25:03):
is not remarkable. And I think it's also the longest
running theatrical film release in movie history too, it's gotta be. Yeah,
that's as far as I understand it is. Yeah, the
Plaza does it still twice a month. They're doing it tomorrow. Uh,
And I'm not gonna go tomorrow because Emily's birthday parties
tomorrow night. But I'm gonna I'm gonna go soon. And
(25:25):
they mercifully started at eleven o'clock because when I was
thinking about I was like, am I really gonna go
somewhere at midnight? Like listeners that aren't fifty years old
yet may not understand you don't go somewhere at midnight anymore.
When you're fifty years old. You you've been asleep for
a couple of hours by it on many nights that
(25:48):
it's true. Like even the thought of it makes me tired,
like I I can't, I can't do that. I'm gonna
pick out a nice time though, when my daughter is
like staying at my mom's and I'm gonna I'm gonna
make sure I do this because I did watch a
lot of them, a lot of YouTube videos of the participation,
and it just looks like so much fun. So what's
interesting about this is that audience participation and everything that
(26:11):
kind of you that you would experience when you went
to a Rocky Horror Picture Show live screening today just
kind of happened organically. A little bit by little bit,
people people around the country and around the world started
kind of contributing, and those ideas would just spread and
burgon and become part of the Rocky Horror Picture Show experience.
(26:32):
And the whole thing started because the Waverley showed this
this movie enough times and UM the manager would get
the crowd like ready for it by playing the soundtrack
to the stage show. So by the time people had
come a few times to see the movie, they have
memorized the lyrics generally because they're pretty catchy lyrics. UM,
(26:55):
and that kind of created like this idea of UM
people who really kind of knew this movie and could
sing along and talk along and just they just kind
of absorbed it into their cells. Yeah, so people are
singing this song during the run up to the showing
of the film. H And by the way, big thanks
to UM Dave got a lot of this stuff, and
(27:17):
we got a lot of our extra stuff from the
official Rocky Horror Picture Show fan site Rocky Horror dot
com UH, founded by Salpiro, just a wealth of information.
UH in a love letter to the film. It's a
it's a fun website, but they're pre showing it. They're
singing these songs. And then, according to the legend, on
Labor Day of nineteen seventy six, Labor Day weekend, there
(27:37):
was a Staten Island kindergarten teacher name I guess it's
Louis or Lewis Freese, and this person was the first person,
as far as the legend goes, to yell something back
at the screen when something happened on the screen, And
that was when Susan Surrandon gets out in the rain
at the beginning of the film, puts a newspaper overhead
(28:00):
to act as an umbrella, and supposedly he yelled out
by an umbrella, you cheap expletive, and supposedly that started
the call outs. Yeah, and you can actually, if you're
watching the movie, you don't even have to have gone
to uh A live showing UM. You can pick out
the exact moment, like the people who made this movie
(28:22):
new enough to make a movie, but they also didn't
know enough to make a movie that, like, you know,
moved along really quickly. There's there's this moment where you're
watching Brad and Janet get out of the car and
then walk around the car, just stuff that an editor
normally would cut out, and so I think just the
fact that that was left in and triggered that guy
(28:44):
to say that it's almost like the movie, Um, they
encouraged it itself. I just think that's so fascinating. Yeah,
it just definitely seems like a movie where just fate
had so many little hands in it. Uh, if you
believe that kind of thing. So people started dressing up
a little more and more, and this was mainly in
the lead up to Halloween ninety six. Then Halloween came
(29:08):
and went and people were still dressing up, and people
started bringing props. I think the original prop was they
would tear up their programs to use his confetti in
the wedding scene, and then they were like, why don't
we just bring rice? And then all of a sudden
they were bringing all kinds of props to use during
the film. So now you have people singing along, people
(29:29):
in costume, people shouting back at the screen at various, um,
well timed points, and then you have these props, right,
and all of this is happening mostly at the Waverley Theater,
but there's theaters and other cities that are showing the
movie as well. Um. And so somebody from New York
might go see a midnight showing in San Francisco and
(29:50):
all of a sudden, all the stuff that they've been
developing in New York, this one New Yorkers just schooling
the San Francisco rocky horror fans, and uh, it just
spread very quickly like that, I mean like really quickly.
And again, like I was saying earlier, it just became
this cohesive whole that now if you go to one
of these shows like, this is what's going to happen.
(30:13):
These are the props at these certain times, and all
of it just happened organically, Yeah, which is really remarkable
in a pre internet age that this can spread through
word of mouth like that strongly. Uh, but that's exactly
what happened. And then so you've got all these people
dressed up, you have people knowing all these songs and
the movie by heart basically, and apparently in the balconies
(30:36):
of some of these theaters people would sort of be
acting out the movie and then they were like, why
don't we just go down front under the screen, uh,
or a lot of times there's a stage under the
screen in front of the screen, and let's just do
it down there. And then the literal re enactment of
the full film with full cast was born via something
(30:57):
that was dubbed shadow casting. Yeah, I mean, like beat
for beat, there are people acting out the movie in
front of the movie screen. That is like the gist
now of going to see Rocky Horror Picture Show in
the theater. And apparently, uh, Michael Wolfson is credited for
coming up with the Rocky Horror Review the first organized
(31:20):
shadow cast back in n UM and so he may
have been the person who thought of this at least
putting it on stage in front of the screen. But
I mean it's not just people going in their street
clothes like acting this out. Like people are in full costume,
full makeup. Um. I think that depending on riff raff
(31:41):
changes um costumes. So some people come as igor riffraff,
other people come as sci fi riff raff um, so
they'll be like they'll alternate who's doing what depending on
the scene. And by the way, uh, there is a
sci fi riff raff um statue uh in Richard O'Brien's
hometown in New Zealand. Oh wow, it's pretty cool looking.
(32:06):
I'm curious how the hierarchy of this because it's obviously
all precast for the shadow cast. Like, I don't think
I could just show up as a virgin dressed like
Brad and be like I want to be Brad tonight. Yeah,
I don't know. I have no idea. That's a fascinating question,
Like how how does that evolve? Like in a local,
(32:26):
local place, like clearly in Atlanta it's organized, there's like
a group that does it. But I mean, like, how
do you how do you join that group? I don't know.
I guess you know, you get on their mailing list.
You should if you show up at their meetings and
you start agitating for a role. Man, I foresee Chuck's
future here. Oh not the goodn of course it too.
(32:49):
Uh So Richard O'Brien gets wind of this um in
the seventies that what's going on, and it's just obviously
as you would expect, completely knocked out in flatter and
it was like, you know, this movie has it all.
It's fun, it's campy. You've got the audience up there,
you've got the movie playing, you've got these people acting
and out I'm three for three. Uh and not in
(33:12):
a in a haughty way, but just super proud, I think. Uh.
And then shadow casting spread. There's all kinds of midnight
movies now where people shadow cast, um, and one that
that is a great one to check out if you
ever can, and very heavily influenced music wise too. I
think is Head Big in The Angry Inch. Yeah. They
also do Clue apparently, which is another Tim Curry great him.
(33:35):
Oh god, it's so good. So if you go, like
we said, you were a virgin, and at the very
beginning of the show, somebody will come out with a
microphone and um, get everybody pumped up and ask the
virgins to all stand up. And once you stand up,
people around you will probably put a V on your
forehead with lipstick. That's the first thing that's probably going
(33:58):
to happen to you. I love it. That'll that's the
worst thing that's going to happen. Yeah, is what I yeah, so,
uh yeah, that's a great way to put it, Chuck. Um.
The thing to remember throughout all this is, um Dave
puts it really really well. They're not trying to scare
you away. They want you to come back again. This
is just part of like this ritual, this process that's
(34:20):
developed over the decades. Um. And there's some things that
you can expect, uh and can prepare yourself ahead of time.
There's tons of off color jokes, UM, mostly sex jokes.
They're almost exclusively sex jokes, UM, sophomoric sex jokes. You
can't expect to hear the movie. You're not going to
(34:41):
sit down and watch a movie. That's not what you're
going to do. It reminds me of um, remember I
can't remember what concert it was on The Simpsons, but
everybody else is standing up and auto sitting down, you know,
the Rocker bus driver and you go sit down, sit down,
You're ruining it for the rest of I can just
imagine somebody going to a midnight screening of Rocky horor
(35:04):
Picture Show and just expecting to sit there and watch
the movie. You know. Yeah, I mean, if you have
hang ups and if you're maybe a little prude about
things like this may not be the experience for you
because there will be people in various states of undress,
like you mentioned, tons of body body sex jokes, and
it's just a sort of a raucous good time. Um.
(35:28):
But again, my recommendation, this is what I'm gonna do,
is just go and say yes to everything. If you're
a virgin, they may um drag you up there and
teach you the time warp during that point in the movie. Uh,
they you might get sprayed when when it's the rain.
I mean I think everyone kind of gets sprayed when
it rains. I think they tend to aim for the virgins. Yeah,
(35:49):
but just again, if you're not up for sort of
a fun, interactive, uh multi media experience, then maybe just
don't go right Yeah, and if you are a prude,
this is your big chance to break out of your shell. Yeah, totally, so, Chuck,
I say we take another break and we'll come back
with more on the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Sorry, Um,
(36:39):
we should probably say we've been using some antiquated terms
for transgender people, but it's because it's part of the
movie and I think the movie is so iconic and
so in favor of gender fluidity. And this is decades
before where we are today, when gender fluidity has really
broken out, and I mean it's basically become mainstream in
(37:02):
a lot of ways. Um, this is forty five, almost
fifty years before, right, Um, So, I think that the
popularity and the iconic nous of the movie has actually
kind of given a pass that no one's offended by
(37:23):
by the use of transvestite or trans sexual in the
context of that movie. Yeah, I think everyone understands these
were the terms of the time. When they did the
remake with Laverne Cox, who is a new Laverne Cox
from Orange is a new black but great transgender actress
to play Frankenfurter, I think she was even like, oh,
(37:45):
you know, should we update this a little bit, and
then finally decided no, the song is so iconic. These
were the terms of the day. And again, it's a
It is a blatant love letter. And I believe Richard
O'Brien identifies as trans if I'm not mistake in Yeah,
uh so, I mean it's a It is for this
group of people, this group of people who felt like
(38:07):
they were outsiders, who maybe didn't belong in uh, in
mainstream society, and these are the people who got dressed
up and we went down there and we're so creative
and sort of building this culture around it, like it
is a very and always has been a very safe
space for for that to occur. And so, um, it's
(38:27):
just a great movie for a lot of reasons, and
that's certainly one of them. Yeah, I can't imagine how
many kids in like Indiana and Iowa and Kansas and Georgia. Uh,
we're just had the opportunity to find themselves when they
found like midnight showings of Rocky Horror Picture Show and
like the people who were there that were like them,
that were and this was the only place in their
(38:49):
life that they could go and just be themselves like that.
It's really sad to think of, but it's also really
heartening to think that they finally did find that place,
you know, absolutely, and you know what it did was
it was like, um, it created an excuse to put
on the corset and the high heels. Uh if although
you really need an excuse, but if you were someone
(39:12):
struggling with that, you know in the nineties seventies, especially
with uh, with your gender fluidity and like just to
have a reason like no, mom and dad, like it's
a movie thing. You wear these costumes, and like it
gave them a reason to actually go and be themselves.
And Tim Curry over the years and Richard O'Brian had
both received you know, just hundreds and thousands of of
(39:36):
letters and and shout outs from people that said, you
know that confirm all of this. They said, like I
was able to be myself and I was able to
come out because of you and because of this film
and what it did. So it's been a really sort
of heartwarming thing, I think, um, for the for the
creators and the actors. Yeah, no, for sure. And what again,
one of the other reasons that it gets it passes
(39:57):
because that that show is so um reaffirming that one
of Tim Curry's lines is actually in one of the
songs is don't dream it be it, And um, people
just latch onto that because if you just stop and
think about what it's saying, like that's that's that's kind
of all you need to know. It's almost like the
(40:18):
camp be version of uh Yoda's there do or do not?
There is no try kind of thing. You know, if
you build it, they will come. There are all sorts
of classic movie lines there are, and that is one
of them. No, it is. It is a super empowering statement,
and uh, you know it's it's the kind of thing
where I don't think Richard O'Brien really maybe thought about
(40:39):
that specific line too much at the time, but it
ends up having so much meaning later on. Uh. And
you know, kind of a fun side story that we
didn't get too earlier, but Tim Curry lived near the
Waverley UH in Greenwich Village in New York when this
was going on, and apparently wanted to go and like
make an appearance and just knock everyone sucks off and
(41:00):
called ahead to the theater. Um even showed up. Um
they let him in, and then I guess it was
a couple of It sounds like a couple of rogue
theater attendants that hadn't let him in were like, no,
this guy's a fake, Like let's get him out of here,
and they literally threw Tim Curry out. He gets incensed,
gets his passport and shows them, and I think it
(41:24):
was like the manager or somebody who had the authority
to let him back in was like, I'm so sorry
he come back in and he was like, I wouldn't
dream of it, and he left. Yes, that's how you
show him, Curry, so he's like, I've got a kitten
to hold in Los Angeles. That's right. Uh. There's some
other pretty neat little things about the movie to um.
(41:45):
One of the ones that I love is Easter eggs. Um,
there are actual Easter eggs and hidden in the movie
unintentionally because apparently they had an Easter egg hunt on
the set and um, they didn't find them all. So
if you really know what to look for. I I
didn't see him, but you can find three different Easter
(42:06):
eggs throughout the movie. And that's not actually the term
or where the term Easter egg comes from. Strangely enough,
apparently that was from an Atari game developer from nineteen
eighty that that's who really coined that term and where
it came into use from. I think, if I'm not mistaken,
from our Nintendo episode, that was Warren Robinette, who wrote
(42:29):
the game Adventure and that had the first Easter egg.
Oh is that right? I'm pretty sure I saw a
guy named Steve Wright. Oh really, yeah, coined the term. Yeah, okay,
I think the first Easter egg was an adventure though,
but maybe I got you, I got you? Yeah, yeah, yeah,
what else? Chuck Well, Susan Sarandon, who was uh, they
(42:52):
were all very young. They're on they're sort of late twenties,
early thirties when they're making this. Um. She got pneumonia.
Um not too long after she got there. And they
shot this movie at at a real old English castle
named Oakley Court, which is now a luxury hotel, even
though I think at the time it was falling apart
such that the owners wanted to raise the place. UM,
(43:13):
So they shooted in this legit, drafty old castle. She
gets there, she's got pneumonia. She's half undressed for half
the movie. There's a scene in a swimming pool. She's
freezing to death and feverish. You know that's cold chills
and apparently just had a pretty rough go but was
like game through all of it, well even worse, and
(43:33):
I saw this confirmed by her. Um, She's like, you
have to get me some heated place to to like
be sick in between takes. So they gave her a
trailer and it did in fact have heat, there were
space heaters in it, but they ended up burning the
trailer down. It was that kind of shoot. That's amazing.
(43:54):
Another bit of trivia that all rocky horror fans know.
But those disembodied lips at the beginning were the lips
of Patricia Quinn, who played Magenta and u Hurette. But
Uh and signed on with the idea that she was
going to sing that song, and she said she loved it.
I think she said it was like the most beautiful
song she'd ever heard at the time. But when it
(44:15):
came time to actually sing the song, Richard O'Brien sang it,
and Patricia Quinn I think, somewhat disappointedly lip syncd it.
She was really mad about that. She had basically joined
the cast originally UH for the stage show too, because
of that song, and so she thought she would have
(44:37):
the opportunity to do it in the movie. And I
guess he had her sing And she didn't find out
until the movie was released, till she saw it that
she she wasn't the one who was singing it at
the beginning. Not cool, no, But I think it was
a good move because if you listen, I don't think
it would be the same with her singing yeah, And
I think it it definitely. Like you said with meat
(44:59):
Loaf was he had been in Hair right before this,
he had a duo album with this woman, Um, and
he was sort of around, but he definitely was not
a big star at all. And and Rocky horror his
role as Eddie, and especially that the great great song
uh Hotpituity Bless my Soul. Uh such a good song. Um.
(45:20):
I think people saw that and they were like, there's
something to this guy. Yeah, for sure, because he plays
the part really really well. I mean that's a great job. Um.
There's a lot of lore around it too. Uh that
those people that the producers offered a bigger budget to
Richard O'Brien and Jim Sharman to make the movie. Another
(45:40):
thing to Chuck that I found fascinating. Um, you mentioned
before that the producers had wanted to kind of stack
the film version with like rock stars. Um, there's tons
of legends about who those were. Share David Bowie, Mick Jagger,
Um as Dr Frankfort would have been pretty good. Actually yeah,
but yeah, know he's the only person I could see
(46:03):
doing justice to that role. Let me just say that
I'm not saying better than Tim Curry, but it would
be fascinating to go see for sure. Yeah. Um, so
the one that does seem to be actually legitimate that
the producers actually did float was Elvis as Eddie replacing
meat Loaf with Elvis seventies six Elvis. Wow, yeah, that
was near the end. Yeah, and then it was basically
(46:26):
it would be a cool cameo for him. That would
have been Oh man, I'm just trying to wrap my
head around what that would have been. Like. I mean,
he would have been great in that role and singing
that number. But can you imagine what kind of like
up people that would have thrown that production into Oh yeah,
I mean completely imbalanced the movie too. Yeah. You know,
(46:50):
you've got all these people who are doing this thing
because they love it. And there's Elvis too, you know, yeah,
like Vegas Elvis. Yeah, exactly. Did you see that movie
at the Elvis movie? Uh? No, another boss Lerman would Yeah, No,
I haven't seen it. It's worth seeing. It's it's it
was I think I might have even mentioned it before.
It's a bit much, but the the actor does such
(47:12):
a great job in recreating those performances. It's it's worth
it for that. Um. There's also a little known sequel,
the Rocky Horror Picture Show. I did not know this
until a couple of days ago. Yeah, I knew about it.
I've never seen it. It's called Shock Treatment, right, Yeah,
and it was sort of a loose sequel. Uh did
(47:33):
not catch on obviously like Rocky Horror did at all.
It was it was basically a big flop. I just
remember seeing when I worked at the video store and
Athens at Vision Video. I remember seeing the cover uh
of Shock Treatment and Countain. I was like, what is
this even and then found out later that it was
a sequel. Got you, Um, you got anything else? I
(47:56):
got nothing else. I'm gonna go. I encourage uh, everyone
else to go that maybe they'll be fun to get
some stuff. You should know local listeners to all go
on a certain night. That's a great idea. Also, if
you want to find you know where you can see
one by your house. The Rocky Horror site Rocky Horror
dot com um actually has a pretty good list around
(48:20):
the country and I think around the world too, because
they do it in England. But I've heard they are
way more reserved than one you would go to in America. Yeah,
I think so. So that's it for Rocky Horror Picture Show.
I hope you enjoyed it, hope it was worth it.
Stuff you should know, Army, thanks for the idea. Uh
(48:40):
and since I said thanks for the idea, it's time
for listener mail. Yeah. Before we get into that, though,
we always like to give our end of the year
well wishings to everyone who got us through another year.
And uh, I believe your lovely wife has a birthday
coming up to right. Yeah, when this comes out, it
(49:01):
will be right around Yumi's birthday. Happy birthday, and really
coolly in real time, it's right around Emily's birthday, So
happy birthday Emily too. It's right her birthdays in a
few days. Yeah. Uh so thanks everyone. You know, it's
been a rough few years, but I think two shown
a little light on us all and uh we hope
that continues. And and thanks for hanging in there and
(49:22):
letting us keep our jobs again. Yeah, well said Chuck.
You could all fire us. Please don't, though I have
to do. Stop listening and we're gone. You should stop
putting ideas in people's heads, agreed. Yeah, well from us
and from Jerry and all of the gang who work
on stuff you should know. Happy New year. Everybody, all right,
(49:44):
so we will do a listener mail from the Shakespeare
episode about whether Shakespeare really wrote all that stuff? That
is maybe one that's my new favorite episode. Oh yeah,
I loved that episode. I thought it was so fascinating.
It was just a really a good episode. Aw I
love that. Hey guys enjoyed the podcast. I have to
(50:04):
admit I am an oxford Ian believer that the seventeenth
Earl of Oxford was the real Shakespeare. Many facts about
the Earl's life and its reflection in the plays are
very convincing. But I also was intrigued by the Earl's
own family crest being a lion brandishing a spear. The
history of the Earl being a part of the Elizabethan
court life, as well as his travels to Italy and
(50:25):
his family life mirror so much in the place. I
had the bad form when visiting Stratford upon Avon h
the Shakespeare family home. They're having a discussion with another
visitor about Edward de Vere possibly being the truth. Shakespeare
tour guide was rushing us out. Thanks for the fun discussion.
That is from Dana B. Goward. Dania got booted from
(50:48):
Stratford upon Avon, I love it. Run out of town.
I could see that being a bad place to mention that. Yeah,
I was hoping we would hear from some Oxfordians though. Yeah,
thanks a lot, Dana. Thanks for getting in touch, and
if you want to be like Dana, everybody, you can
get in touch with us as well. Send us an
email to Stuff podcast at i heart radio dot com.
(51:13):
Stuff you Should Know is a production of I heart Radio.
For more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the i heart
Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows.
Welcome to Stuff you Should Know, a production of I
Heart Radio. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh,
and there's Chuck and Jerry's here too, and it's a
super awesome, amazing last episode of the year episode. I
can't think of one that could have been better than this, Chuck.
(00:25):
I guess people, it's it's a spoiler of what the
show is about already because you've seen the title as
a listener. But this is courtesy of the Stuff you
Should Know Army. Came straight from them. We got emails
they said, hey, the stuff you should Army is chattering
about about Rocky Horror Picture show. Uh. They they have
(00:47):
been shivering with Antissa patient, very nice and so uh
this is it Stuff you should Know Army. Yeah. Um
oh and also in return, you guys, if you haven't already,
go donate to co ED because we're running out of time.
(01:07):
These the last few days of the and uh our
pledge drive, our fun drive, I don't know what you
call it, are awesome drive drive. Yeah, the d is
in parentheses. Um it ends on January one or December
thirty one pm, who knows. But you can go to
(01:28):
Cooperative for Education dot org slash s y s K
donate and we're going to reach that million dollar goal.
I just know it. I totally agree, and I'm super
excited for this episode. Our years winding down. Yeah, just
so you know in real time, you know, Josh and
I always take a nice long extended Christmas break from recording,
and it has gotten bigger and bigger every year, and
(01:51):
this year, I'm not gonna say how long we have
all from recording, but it's a nice, unprecedented break. It's
a chunk of change, and we're we love doing the show,
but that Christmas December downtime is a wonderful thing for us. Yeah.
We worked hard throughout the year, so hard, so you
better treat us right. So, UM, let's go start talking
(02:15):
about Rocky Horror Picture Show. UM, quick question, are you
a virgin? Yeah? So I guess I should quickly go
over we should both kind of go over our history
with this. UM. I have never been to a live
in the movie theater Rocky Horror Picture Show showing, which includes,
(02:36):
as you will see, the shadow cast, all the fun
of the audience participation. I have seen it. I remember
when it finally came to home video. It was it
took a long time. It wasn't like one of those.
It was just always out there. Oh I remember movies
like that. Yeah. Yeah, So there was like a lot
of fanfare when Rocky Horror finally came to home video,
and I really got into it for a while there,
(02:58):
watching it with friends and watching it at home. To
the tune of seeing it. I've probably seen the movie
on at home probably six or eight times. Okay, yeah,
so I am technically a virgin. Uh, but I'm gonna
go now, like I have to go now because Atlanta
has one of the great sort of legendary theaters that
still do this twice a month. Yeah. I think the
(03:21):
group that puts on the shadow cast is called Lips
Down on Dixie the Plaza Theater. Um. Yeah, it sounds
like a good time for sure. What's your deal? I
have not ever been either, and I thought that I
wasn't a virgin. I thought if you had seen the movie,
you were not a virgin. No, you're right, if you
you have to go to a live screening of it,
(03:43):
um to to not be a virgin any longer. Um. So, yeah,
I've seen it a bunch of times to I love
the soundtrack soundtrack is really good. To clean the house too,
I have to say, um, like you will be dancing
with your swiffer very quickly. Um. But yeah, it's a
great movie. I watched it again this morning. It was
really bizarre to watch it in the morning. You know,
(04:06):
it's not it just doesn't jibe with that. I watched uh,
quite a bit of it today too, not all of it,
but I kind of want to make sure I saw
the musical numbers because I just love those. And I also,
as many times as I've seen it, it's been a
long long time, so I couldn't exactly remember the third
act as well. I think it's one of those films
(04:27):
that the first two acts are a little more famous
than the third act. I mean, you know, the time
worp is the second number, well, the third, I guess
if you count the beginning song, which we're gonna talk
about the second but yeah, you got you know, and
then uh, you know Tim Curry's legendary sweet transvestite song
and that entrance in that performance gat Yeah, come up
(04:54):
to the lab, see what's on the slab. I mean,
like he's just he couldn't have been more perfect. And
as we'll see in a second. He was also not
an obvious choice to cast as Dr Frankenfurter as the
character you play. So let's get into this. Okay. For
people who have never seen Rocky Horror Picture Show, it
is a bizarre musical um camp fest that uh. Dave,
(05:19):
who helps us out with this one, describes as a
send up, which I I know intuitively what send up means,
but I've never seen like an actual definition of it. Yeah,
so I think it's I I made, I made up
my own if I if you don't mind me sharing
affectionate mockery. Yeah, it's like an affectionate homage slash mockery,
I think, right. So it's a send up of fifties
(05:42):
sci fi in horror movies like b movies, UM, things
like Forbidden Planet, um, The Day of the Earth Stood Still,
all of the canon of ed Wood, um, all that stuff. Uh.
And it's so it's kind of a tribute to that.
But it's also, like I said, super camp and it's
definitely its own thing, so much so that it was
(06:05):
made in and it does not seem like something from
the past. It has a timeless quality to it weirdly enough. Yeah,
I would agree with that it's sort of in that
um sort of same weird rock opera thing is Tommy,
where when you look at Tommy, it looks um, sort
of dated and old fashioned but also also somehow still
(06:26):
sort of of its time and futuristic or of today's
time and futuristic, but not at all anywhere near as
serious or not serious at all, Like Tommy took Itself.
It's not serious, it's just neat. Yeah, I guess Tommy
took itself fairly seriously. Um, so, uh, the plot, if
we can talk about the plot, right, yeah, I mean
(06:48):
I don't necessarily think we should give everything away, definitely,
I think we can nutshell it. But the idea is
that there are these two characters, Brandon Janet, who are
very straight laced, um sort of uh maybe Rubes but
sort of too young, naive characters that are had been
to a wedding and are talking about getting married themselves.
(07:09):
And they go on a little road trip and it's
a very sort of classic trophy thing. You know. The
car gets a flat and the only thing around is
this creepy castle in the rain, and they knock on
the door and all sorts of crazy, funny, fun sexual hijinks,
sci fi hijinks and sue. Yeah. So they start out
(07:30):
as just as white bread as you can be, and
then by the end of the movie they're like they're
they're both wearing garter belts and stockings and bikini briefs
and courses. Yeah, um, like they they've just gone through
the sexual transformation. But also, you know, I think a
life transformation, I guess, and I want to say also
(07:51):
there's plenty of analysis and like, um, you know, writing
about subtexts and all that stuff. This has always struck
me as one of those movie is that like it's
just not meant for that. You're not supposed to like
try to look too deep into it. You're just supposed
to enjoy it on its face. I totally agree. So again,
not to give too much away if you haven't seen it,
but the the head of this uh castle is Dr
(08:15):
Frank In Further, who is the Tim Curry character who
in that great song Sweet Transvestite. The lyrics are sweet
Transvestite from trans Sexual Transylvania, as we learn in the film,
and it's it's just sort of goofy that they threw
the sci fi element in there, which is really fun.
But trans Sexual is the home planet of Franken further
(08:38):
and Transylvania is the galaxy, and so he's sort of Frankenstein,
this ubermanch uh on on the slab. And uh, that's
kind of the plot. I mean, all kinds of u
seductions take place over the course of the movie at
various times, different characters seducing one another. There's a lot
(09:01):
of gender fluidity and sort of. Um, it was a
movie ahead of its time in a lot of ways
in that respect, and since it's become obviously a huge
movie in the l g t b Q community, Yeah
for sure. Um, so that's the movie. Uh, and it
didn't actually start out a movie. It started out of
stage play um in London actually. So the guy who
(09:23):
plays riff Raff is named Richard O'Brien. Riff Raff is
Dr Frankenforter's like eagle or like assistant. He has a
huge hunchback and like stringy hair and like dark circles
under his eyes. And um, he was thirty one years
old by the way when this got kicked off. Oh really,
he always just struck me as looking super old. But
(09:45):
then when I kind of you know, look today, with
more of a critical I was like, he doesn't look
old old, but the circles under his eyes it kind
of made him up to to look a little creepier.
But he just I never pictured that guys being in
his early thirties. No, And actually, if you see later
interview with them, he stayed basically the same, looking the
same from that point on. Um, not dark circles under
(10:06):
his eyes, but he didn't seem to age at all.
But that guy was named Richard, or is named Richard O'Brien.
He was the creator of the whole thing and played
a pretty big role in the movie as well. Um,
and I believe he played riff raff in the stage
production too, right, Yeah, so he was a New Zealander
who moved to London in the seventies in the early
(10:27):
seventies and you know, didn't have great prospects for jobs.
He was a stunt man for a little while. He
got some gigs acting on stage, but not a lot
of them and was basically bored, like he's been on
record saying like this was sort of like me doing
the cross word, was me writing these uh songs. He's
sort of um, kind of fun and funny songs about uh,
(10:51):
those sci fi B movies that he loved from the
nineteen fifties. This was before Netflix, by the way. This
is before Netflix. So the whole thing that kicked this
off was really auspicious. Um. There there he was friends
with some people who were musicians, and there was an
E m I party. The record label had a big party,
(11:12):
and his musician friends said, Hey, do you want to
record a song to play at this E m I party.
This is like a truck driver stuntman actor that they're asking,
But I guess he had developed enough of a reputation
for writing cool songs that they asked him. And he
wrote UM Science Fiction Double Feature, which is the song
(11:34):
that sung uh during the opening credits of the movie
Rocky Horror Picture Show UM, where, even if you haven't
seen the movie, I'm sure you're familiar with the iconic
um disembodied bright red lips against white teeth on a
black background that comes from the intro of the movie. UM.
(11:54):
And when he played this song, uh, he I guess
he got enough of a response to it that he
decided to kind of take that song and some of
his other songs and cobble him together into like a
loose plot that really never got more fleshed out and
ended up writing a stage play out of the whole thing. Yeah,
it was called the Rocky Horror Show after I think
(12:15):
the working title was they came Is it Denton High
or Dent High School? Denton High? Okay, they came from
Denton High, which I guess the idea was that Brad
and Janet were from Denton because the church at the
beginning is Denton Episcopalian Church. Yeah, okay, so they changed
the title. I think his friend was stage director. He
(12:36):
showed it to Jim Sharman said, they came from Denton High.
It is not a great title. Uh. And the name
of the uh Frankenstein like um, you know model with
perfect abs that Frankenfurter has built is named Rocky Horror.
So that's got a ring to it. Let's call it
the Rocky Horror Show. And they did. Apparently it was
(12:58):
just in time for previews, so they were able to
change the name at the last minute. And that was Man,
that was a close call if you really stop and
think about it. So Jim Sharman and Richard O'Brien um
managed to talk their way into like a space above
the Royal Court Theater in London, and the Royal Court
(13:19):
Theater was like a serious, legitimate playhouse UM, and above
it was an experimental theater that I think sat sixty
three or sixty eight people. And they started performing this
thing and within weeks it was like the thing to
see in London. They sold out. And again it's not
that tough to sell out sixty three or sixty eight seats.
(13:42):
It was more like the buzz around. It was just
so just so gripping, and it happened so quickly that
it just took off like a rocket. In very short order.
They started touring. They they sent a touring company to
cities all over Europe UM showing people this thing, and
everybody was going nuts for Yeah. And in another turn
of fate, I guess you could say Tim Curry was
(14:05):
an actor at the Royal Court Theater UM obviously not
some you know, huge name at the time, and was
cast because of that association with the Royal Court as
Dr Frank and Further, who was originally going to uh
he was going to play it German because Frankenfurther obviously
is a German uh German word. But I think in
(14:27):
the interview, he talked about it and said that he
he was experimenting around with accents and he found this
the posh British thing really worked and said the character
should sound like the Queen. Yeah, and UH was originally
also supposed to be more of a classic mad scientists,
white lab coat kind of doctor. Uh. And in another
(14:49):
wonderful twist of fate, Uh, they hired a woman named
Sue Blaine to do the costumes because you know, they
needed to bring this. They didn't have a lot of
money at first. We'll talk about the movie budget too,
but Sue Blaine basically said, you know, I got almost
nothing in Uh. Came up with these ideas for the
ripped fishnet hose. And I think she had worked with
(15:11):
Tim Curry before on a play in Scotland where he
played a character in drag and she was like, you
look good in heels and a corset. So if it
hadn't have been for all those sort of weird things
coming together, Uh, it might have been a German mad
scientists in a white lab coat, which is really hard
to imagine. Once you know Frankenfurter, this movie wouldn't be
(15:34):
we wouldn't be talking about it right now, if they
if they had been a white lab coat, I'm sure
of it. No, really, I don't. I think Tim Curry's
character was such a huge part of the popularity of
it that, yeah, it just wouldn't have been the same.
And by the way, Sue Blaine's um uh costuming budget
for the original stage version was four dollars, which is
(15:57):
peanuts even back in nine pounds or dollars, let's say pounds,
all right, so maybe a few extra shekels. Yeah, that's
another thing too. We should say there's a lot of
made up information about Rocky Horror and its origins and
like the real story of it. So it's all fun,
but um, you have to like really kind of wade
(16:19):
through it. And if something sounds like no way, you
may want to stop and say, probably no way. But
it's still fun. So we'll mention things here there. But
I think we should kind of give like a little
caveat to them like that, how about that? Yeah, And
this is one of those fans centric, uh pieces of
entertainment where I'm sure there are people out there will
be that will be fact checking us, right, that's the
(16:42):
kindest way to say it. I'm literally sweating because I'm
so nervous about that. I think we should take a
break and then very quickly when we come back, I
will retell my Tim Curry story from Los Angeles. Sorry, Georsh,
(17:22):
all right, Uh, we're back. No, I've said this before,
but I think I can't not say it again. I
actually had two rocky horror sort of run INDs in
l A when I lived there, and when I got
my cat, Lauren, who was dearly departed. I found Lauren
in a dumpster behind my apartment, took him in, took
him to the vet, and as I was checking out
(17:43):
at my vet, I look over and there's Tim Curry.
And when I say look over, he was like two
ft from me. Wow, was he staring at you? I
don't know if he was or not. He was shorter
than I thought, which was kind of surprising because I
don't know. This character just seemed so larger than life. Well,
he was whearing like six inch platform heels. Yeah, that
as well, But when Tim Curry is like I think
(18:04):
he's listed at five nine, and that's usually fudging a
little bit. Like he was shorter than I was. Uh.
And I went to write a check to pay for it.
And I was holding Ran and I said, would you
mind holding my kitten? And he was like absolutely. And
Lauren was really funny looking. He had these huge ears.
He had a a gray back, uh, and the rest
(18:26):
of him was black and he eventually grew in all
black hair. I have no idea. It was kind of
a silver back. But he picked him up. That's why
l A is so great man. The weirdest things happened
in the most unlikely places. He stared at him and said, Lauren,
you have very dramatic ears. And he went and look
at your back. You look like a baboon. And he
(18:49):
held Lauren while I wrote the check and I had
like skipped out of there. It was like one of
the great days. So that's what I don't really, I
don't know if you've told it before. Oh I don't
see how I couldn't have held onto that one for
fifteen years, Like I really, it rings zero belt whatsoever.
And there's enough dimentions to it that something should be like, oh, yeah,
(19:10):
I've heard that one. This this story has not been
told before, and it is a fantastic story. All right,
Well there's my Tim Curry story. What's the other rocky
horror running you had. Well, I know I've talked about
um that I was friends with Meat Loaf's daughter for
a little while in l A. Oh, yes, sweet Potato,
(19:31):
I can't believe you're laughing like that. That's funny. Oh
that's a good one. Um. Yeah, I was sort of
friends with her and her boyfriend for a very short
time in l A. That was just a weird crossover
where my friend's girlfriend worked for meats ex wife. Uh.
And he did want to be called meat by the way.
But I never met him, but I hung out at
his house a few times. Uh. And he had a
(19:53):
TV that came out of a case at the foot
of his bed. Oh, I've seen that before via remote control.
You know. I was pretty astounded at the time. I
should say I've never seen it in person. I've seen
it like on on TV. Yeah. It was cool though,
walking around his house like rock memorabilia and all kinds
of stuff. I wanted to meet him, but never got
a chance. I like the Tim Curry story better. It's
(20:15):
better for sure. So, uh, where did we leave off? Oh?
The stage play is on Fire and they and they
toured it and Tim Curry played Frank Inverter everywhere except Australia.
I think, oh really, Okay, so the original cast tour it.
They didn't have a traveling cast. That's amazing. No, they
were pretty as you'll see when they went to make
the movie. They were very loyal to that original cast
(20:37):
as much as they could be. Yeah, for sure. So
um by four they moved it over to Los Angeles,
and I guess then, yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
Most of the cast went over to Los Angeles, and
including Tim Curry. But one of the people they added
in Los Angeles was meat Loaf And I never realized,
but you know, mel Off is pretty famous. He was
(21:00):
not famous. He was maybe a rising star at the time,
but he really gained his fame after Rocky Horror. And
this is a really weird choice for him, but he
did it and he stuck to it, and uh, it
was a really good move too, because he's got this
whole other legend that, like his actual other fan base
probably couldn't care less about um. And then he has,
(21:23):
like the Rocky Horror fans, two separate fan bases because
he made this very smart choice back in four. I
would argue three fan bases because he's got a bunch
of like creepy guys who only know him as the
guy from Fight Club. Oh yeah, Robert Paulson. Yeah, we
we have a friend who listens with that name, I know,
and he's he's heard it all. Yeah, I know. I'm
(21:45):
not gonna say it again, all right. So the um
they go to, l a Meat comes on board. It's
a big hit everywhere they go. So of course the
movie industry comes a stick in their nose into it,
and they say, well, why don't you make it this
into a film? And so the Rocky Horror Show became
the Rocky Horror Picture Show. And they did not have
(22:06):
a lot of money for a budget either. But the
kind of the cool part of the story is they
were offered more budget if they would put some sort
of bigger rock and roll stars of the time in
the major roles, and O'Brien said, no, I want to
keep everybody like basically the same, and I'll do it
for less money. And that's exactly what they did. Yeah,
(22:28):
about one and a quarter million. I also saw one
point four million. Um and even today and this was Fox,
twentieth century Fox, that would be like twentieth century Fox
giving somebody six and a half million dollars to make
a movie today, Like it was a shoe string budget.
I mean, so shoe string. And poor Sue Blaine, she
(22:49):
had a four hundred dollar budget for the stage play.
Originally she had like a fifteen dollar budget for the movie.
Well he's the same costume, so she had a leg
up there. Yeah, but still you're not supposed to have
to recycle the stage plays costumes for the movie, you know. Yeah, alright,
so they have their meager budget, they make the film.
It's released in September nineteen seventy five as uh, in
(23:13):
a limited release in some test markets. Reviews weren't great. Uh,
it is a very weird I mean it's it's amazing,
but it's a very weird movie that critics I could
see not getting on board with right away before there's
like a cult established around it. But then it's remarkable.
It never got a nationwide release, but even Roger Ebert
(23:35):
back then gave it a lukewarm review, but said that
it belongs on a stage with the performers and audience
joining in and a collective send up. Because word had
trickled out that this was starting a little bit here
and there. Yeah. I don't know if he was aware
of that or not, but or if he was just
prescient about it. But yeah, I think by venty six, Um,
(23:55):
April first, nineteen seventy six, Uh, the tradition of showing
Key Horror Picture Show at midnight started in Greenwich Village
actually at the Waverley Theater. And um, this, this is
the thing about Rocky Horror Picture Show. Up to this point,
we've been talking about a stage play, a movie, and
it's been following a pretty standard trajectory. Um, the movie
(24:19):
was just panned and it got shelved, but they were
still showing it here there because it was weird enough
that Greenwich Village would have gone crazy for it. Where
Rocky Horror Picture Show differs is what happens at the
midnight showings, and that is the audience participation that um,
Roger Ebert said would really kind of make the movie better.
(24:41):
And it's just it's what makes Rocky Horror Picture Show
Rocky Horror Picture Show, or at the very least it's
what has made it continue on all these years. I think, yeah,
I mean, I think it's grossed over a twenty million
dollars now total Yeah, over the years, and this is
a be that did never get a nationwide release, which
(25:03):
is not remarkable. And I think it's also the longest
running theatrical film release in movie history too, it's gotta be. Yeah,
that's as far as I understand it is. Yeah, the
Plaza does it still twice a month. They're doing it tomorrow. Uh,
And I'm not gonna go tomorrow because Emily's birthday parties
tomorrow night. But I'm gonna I'm gonna go soon. And
(25:25):
they mercifully started at eleven o'clock because when I was
thinking about I was like, am I really gonna go
somewhere at midnight? Like listeners that aren't fifty years old
yet may not understand you don't go somewhere at midnight anymore.
When you're fifty years old. You you've been asleep for
a couple of hours by it on many nights that
(25:48):
it's true. Like even the thought of it makes me tired,
like I I can't, I can't do that. I'm gonna
pick out a nice time though, when my daughter is
like staying at my mom's and I'm gonna I'm gonna
make sure I do this because I did watch a
lot of them, a lot of YouTube videos of the participation,
and it just looks like so much fun. So what's
interesting about this is that audience participation and everything that
(26:11):
kind of you that you would experience when you went
to a Rocky Horror Picture Show live screening today just
kind of happened organically. A little bit by little bit,
people people around the country and around the world started
kind of contributing, and those ideas would just spread and
burgon and become part of the Rocky Horror Picture Show experience.
(26:32):
And the whole thing started because the Waverley showed this
this movie enough times and UM the manager would get
the crowd like ready for it by playing the soundtrack
to the stage show. So by the time people had
come a few times to see the movie, they have
memorized the lyrics generally because they're pretty catchy lyrics. UM,
(26:55):
and that kind of created like this idea of UM
people who really kind of knew this movie and could
sing along and talk along and just they just kind
of absorbed it into their cells. Yeah, so people are
singing this song during the run up to the showing
of the film. H And by the way, big thanks
to UM Dave got a lot of this stuff, and
(27:17):
we got a lot of our extra stuff from the
official Rocky Horror Picture Show fan site Rocky Horror dot
com UH, founded by Salpiro, just a wealth of information.
UH in a love letter to the film. It's a
it's a fun website, but they're pre showing it. They're
singing these songs. And then, according to the legend, on
Labor Day of nineteen seventy six, Labor Day weekend, there
(27:37):
was a Staten Island kindergarten teacher name I guess it's
Louis or Lewis Freese, and this person was the first person,
as far as the legend goes, to yell something back
at the screen when something happened on the screen, And
that was when Susan Surrandon gets out in the rain
at the beginning of the film, puts a newspaper overhead
(28:00):
to act as an umbrella, and supposedly he yelled out
by an umbrella, you cheap expletive, and supposedly that started
the call outs. Yeah, and you can actually, if you're
watching the movie, you don't even have to have gone
to uh A live showing UM. You can pick out
the exact moment, like the people who made this movie
(28:22):
new enough to make a movie, but they also didn't
know enough to make a movie that, like, you know,
moved along really quickly. There's there's this moment where you're
watching Brad and Janet get out of the car and
then walk around the car, just stuff that an editor
normally would cut out, and so I think just the
fact that that was left in and triggered that guy
(28:44):
to say that it's almost like the movie, Um, they
encouraged it itself. I just think that's so fascinating. Yeah,
it just definitely seems like a movie where just fate
had so many little hands in it. Uh, if you
believe that kind of thing. So people started dressing up
a little more and more, and this was mainly in
the lead up to Halloween ninety six. Then Halloween came
(29:08):
and went and people were still dressing up, and people
started bringing props. I think the original prop was they
would tear up their programs to use his confetti in
the wedding scene, and then they were like, why don't
we just bring rice? And then all of a sudden
they were bringing all kinds of props to use during
the film. So now you have people singing along, people
(29:29):
in costume, people shouting back at the screen at various, um,
well timed points, and then you have these props, right,
and all of this is happening mostly at the Waverley Theater,
but there's theaters and other cities that are showing the
movie as well. Um. And so somebody from New York
might go see a midnight showing in San Francisco and
(29:50):
all of a sudden, all the stuff that they've been
developing in New York, this one New Yorkers just schooling
the San Francisco rocky horror fans, and uh, it just
spread very quickly like that, I mean like really quickly.
And again, like I was saying earlier, it just became
this cohesive whole that now if you go to one
of these shows like, this is what's going to happen.
(30:13):
These are the props at these certain times, and all
of it just happened organically, Yeah, which is really remarkable
in a pre internet age that this can spread through
word of mouth like that strongly. Uh, but that's exactly
what happened. And then so you've got all these people
dressed up, you have people knowing all these songs and
the movie by heart basically, and apparently in the balconies
(30:36):
of some of these theaters people would sort of be
acting out the movie and then they were like, why
don't we just go down front under the screen, uh,
or a lot of times there's a stage under the
screen in front of the screen, and let's just do
it down there. And then the literal re enactment of
the full film with full cast was born via something
(30:57):
that was dubbed shadow casting. Yeah, I mean, like beat
for beat, there are people acting out the movie in
front of the movie screen. That is like the gist
now of going to see Rocky Horror Picture Show in
the theater. And apparently, uh, Michael Wolfson is credited for
coming up with the Rocky Horror Review the first organized
(31:20):
shadow cast back in n UM and so he may
have been the person who thought of this at least
putting it on stage in front of the screen. But
I mean it's not just people going in their street
clothes like acting this out. Like people are in full costume,
full makeup. Um. I think that depending on riff raff
(31:41):
changes um costumes. So some people come as igor riffraff,
other people come as sci fi riff raff um, so
they'll be like they'll alternate who's doing what depending on
the scene. And by the way, uh, there is a
sci fi riff raff um statue uh in Richard O'Brien's
hometown in New Zealand. Oh wow, it's pretty cool looking.
(32:06):
I'm curious how the hierarchy of this because it's obviously
all precast for the shadow cast. Like, I don't think
I could just show up as a virgin dressed like
Brad and be like I want to be Brad tonight. Yeah,
I don't know. I have no idea. That's a fascinating question,
Like how how does that evolve? Like in a local,
(32:26):
local place, like clearly in Atlanta it's organized, there's like
a group that does it. But I mean, like, how
do you how do you join that group? I don't know.
I guess you know, you get on their mailing list.
You should if you show up at their meetings and
you start agitating for a role. Man, I foresee Chuck's
future here. Oh not the goodn of course it too.
(32:49):
Uh So Richard O'Brien gets wind of this um in
the seventies that what's going on, and it's just obviously
as you would expect, completely knocked out in flatter and
it was like, you know, this movie has it all.
It's fun, it's campy. You've got the audience up there,
you've got the movie playing, you've got these people acting
and out I'm three for three. Uh and not in
(33:12):
a in a haughty way, but just super proud, I think. Uh.
And then shadow casting spread. There's all kinds of midnight
movies now where people shadow cast, um, and one that
that is a great one to check out if you
ever can, and very heavily influenced music wise too. I
think is Head Big in The Angry Inch. Yeah. They
also do Clue apparently, which is another Tim Curry great him.
(33:35):
Oh god, it's so good. So if you go, like
we said, you were a virgin, and at the very
beginning of the show, somebody will come out with a
microphone and um, get everybody pumped up and ask the
virgins to all stand up. And once you stand up,
people around you will probably put a V on your
forehead with lipstick. That's the first thing that's probably going
(33:58):
to happen to you. I love it. That'll that's the
worst thing that's going to happen. Yeah, is what I yeah, so,
uh yeah, that's a great way to put it, Chuck. Um.
The thing to remember throughout all this is, um Dave
puts it really really well. They're not trying to scare
you away. They want you to come back again. This
is just part of like this ritual, this process that's
(34:20):
developed over the decades. Um. And there's some things that
you can expect, uh and can prepare yourself ahead of time.
There's tons of off color jokes, UM, mostly sex jokes.
They're almost exclusively sex jokes, UM, sophomoric sex jokes. You
can't expect to hear the movie. You're not going to
(34:41):
sit down and watch a movie. That's not what you're
going to do. It reminds me of um, remember I
can't remember what concert it was on The Simpsons, but
everybody else is standing up and auto sitting down, you know,
the Rocker bus driver and you go sit down, sit down,
You're ruining it for the rest of I can just
imagine somebody going to a midnight screening of Rocky horor
(35:04):
Picture Show and just expecting to sit there and watch
the movie. You know. Yeah, I mean, if you have
hang ups and if you're maybe a little prude about
things like this may not be the experience for you
because there will be people in various states of undress,
like you mentioned, tons of body body sex jokes, and
it's just a sort of a raucous good time. Um.
(35:28):
But again, my recommendation, this is what I'm gonna do,
is just go and say yes to everything. If you're
a virgin, they may um drag you up there and
teach you the time warp during that point in the movie. Uh,
they you might get sprayed when when it's the rain.
I mean I think everyone kind of gets sprayed when
it rains. I think they tend to aim for the virgins. Yeah,
(35:49):
but just again, if you're not up for sort of
a fun, interactive, uh multi media experience, then maybe just
don't go right Yeah, and if you are a prude,
this is your big chance to break out of your shell. Yeah, totally, so, Chuck,
I say we take another break and we'll come back
with more on the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Sorry, Um,
(36:39):
we should probably say we've been using some antiquated terms
for transgender people, but it's because it's part of the
movie and I think the movie is so iconic and
so in favor of gender fluidity. And this is decades
before where we are today, when gender fluidity has really
broken out, and I mean it's basically become mainstream in
(37:02):
a lot of ways. Um, this is forty five, almost
fifty years before, right, Um, So, I think that the
popularity and the iconic nous of the movie has actually
kind of given a pass that no one's offended by
(37:23):
by the use of transvestite or trans sexual in the
context of that movie. Yeah, I think everyone understands these
were the terms of the time. When they did the
remake with Laverne Cox, who is a new Laverne Cox
from Orange is a new black but great transgender actress
to play Frankenfurter, I think she was even like, oh,
(37:45):
you know, should we update this a little bit, and
then finally decided no, the song is so iconic. These
were the terms of the day. And again, it's a
It is a blatant love letter. And I believe Richard
O'Brien identifies as trans if I'm not mistake in Yeah,
uh so, I mean it's a It is for this
group of people, this group of people who felt like
(38:07):
they were outsiders, who maybe didn't belong in uh, in
mainstream society, and these are the people who got dressed
up and we went down there and we're so creative
and sort of building this culture around it, like it
is a very and always has been a very safe
space for for that to occur. And so, um, it's
(38:27):
just a great movie for a lot of reasons, and
that's certainly one of them. Yeah, I can't imagine how
many kids in like Indiana and Iowa and Kansas and Georgia. Uh,
we're just had the opportunity to find themselves when they
found like midnight showings of Rocky Horror Picture Show and
like the people who were there that were like them,
that were and this was the only place in their
(38:49):
life that they could go and just be themselves like that.
It's really sad to think of, but it's also really
heartening to think that they finally did find that place,
you know, absolutely, and you know what it did was
it was like, um, it created an excuse to put
on the corset and the high heels. Uh if although
you really need an excuse, but if you were someone
(39:12):
struggling with that, you know in the nineties seventies, especially
with uh, with your gender fluidity and like just to
have a reason like no, mom and dad, like it's
a movie thing. You wear these costumes, and like it
gave them a reason to actually go and be themselves.
And Tim Curry over the years and Richard O'Brian had
both received you know, just hundreds and thousands of of
(39:36):
letters and and shout outs from people that said, you
know that confirm all of this. They said, like I
was able to be myself and I was able to
come out because of you and because of this film
and what it did. So it's been a really sort
of heartwarming thing, I think, um, for the for the
creators and the actors. Yeah, no, for sure. And what again,
one of the other reasons that it gets it passes
(39:57):
because that that show is so um reaffirming that one
of Tim Curry's lines is actually in one of the
songs is don't dream it be it, And um, people
just latch onto that because if you just stop and
think about what it's saying, like that's that's that's kind
of all you need to know. It's almost like the
(40:18):
camp be version of uh Yoda's there do or do not?
There is no try kind of thing. You know, if
you build it, they will come. There are all sorts
of classic movie lines there are, and that is one
of them. No, it is. It is a super empowering statement,
and uh, you know it's it's the kind of thing
where I don't think Richard O'Brien really maybe thought about
(40:39):
that specific line too much at the time, but it
ends up having so much meaning later on. Uh. And
you know, kind of a fun side story that we
didn't get too earlier, but Tim Curry lived near the
Waverley UH in Greenwich Village in New York when this
was going on, and apparently wanted to go and like
make an appearance and just knock everyone sucks off and
(41:00):
called ahead to the theater. Um even showed up. Um
they let him in, and then I guess it was
a couple of It sounds like a couple of rogue
theater attendants that hadn't let him in were like, no,
this guy's a fake, Like let's get him out of here,
and they literally threw Tim Curry out. He gets incensed,
gets his passport and shows them, and I think it
(41:24):
was like the manager or somebody who had the authority
to let him back in was like, I'm so sorry
he come back in and he was like, I wouldn't
dream of it, and he left. Yes, that's how you
show him, Curry, so he's like, I've got a kitten
to hold in Los Angeles. That's right. Uh. There's some
other pretty neat little things about the movie to um.
(41:45):
One of the ones that I love is Easter eggs. Um,
there are actual Easter eggs and hidden in the movie
unintentionally because apparently they had an Easter egg hunt on
the set and um, they didn't find them all. So
if you really know what to look for. I I
didn't see him, but you can find three different Easter
(42:06):
eggs throughout the movie. And that's not actually the term
or where the term Easter egg comes from. Strangely enough,
apparently that was from an Atari game developer from nineteen
eighty that that's who really coined that term and where
it came into use from. I think, if I'm not mistaken,
from our Nintendo episode, that was Warren Robinette, who wrote
(42:29):
the game Adventure and that had the first Easter egg.
Oh is that right? I'm pretty sure I saw a
guy named Steve Wright. Oh really, yeah, coined the term. Yeah, okay,
I think the first Easter egg was an adventure though,
but maybe I got you, I got you? Yeah, yeah, yeah,
what else? Chuck Well, Susan Sarandon, who was uh, they
(42:52):
were all very young. They're on they're sort of late twenties,
early thirties when they're making this. Um. She got pneumonia.
Um not too long after she got there. And they
shot this movie at at a real old English castle
named Oakley Court, which is now a luxury hotel, even
though I think at the time it was falling apart
such that the owners wanted to raise the place. UM,
(43:13):
So they shooted in this legit, drafty old castle. She
gets there, she's got pneumonia. She's half undressed for half
the movie. There's a scene in a swimming pool. She's
freezing to death and feverish. You know that's cold chills
and apparently just had a pretty rough go but was
like game through all of it, well even worse, and
(43:33):
I saw this confirmed by her. Um, She's like, you
have to get me some heated place to to like
be sick in between takes. So they gave her a
trailer and it did in fact have heat, there were
space heaters in it, but they ended up burning the
trailer down. It was that kind of shoot. That's amazing.
(43:54):
Another bit of trivia that all rocky horror fans know.
But those disembodied lips at the beginning were the lips
of Patricia Quinn, who played Magenta and u Hurette. But
Uh and signed on with the idea that she was
going to sing that song, and she said she loved it.
I think she said it was like the most beautiful
song she'd ever heard at the time. But when it
(44:15):
came time to actually sing the song, Richard O'Brien sang it,
and Patricia Quinn I think, somewhat disappointedly lip syncd it.
She was really mad about that. She had basically joined
the cast originally UH for the stage show too, because
of that song, and so she thought she would have
(44:37):
the opportunity to do it in the movie. And I
guess he had her sing And she didn't find out
until the movie was released, till she saw it that
she she wasn't the one who was singing it at
the beginning. Not cool, no, But I think it was
a good move because if you listen, I don't think
it would be the same with her singing yeah, And
I think it it definitely. Like you said with meat
(44:59):
Loaf was he had been in Hair right before this,
he had a duo album with this woman, Um, and
he was sort of around, but he definitely was not
a big star at all. And and Rocky horror his
role as Eddie, and especially that the great great song
uh Hotpituity Bless my Soul. Uh such a good song. Um.
(45:20):
I think people saw that and they were like, there's
something to this guy. Yeah, for sure, because he plays
the part really really well. I mean that's a great job. Um.
There's a lot of lore around it too. Uh that
those people that the producers offered a bigger budget to
Richard O'Brien and Jim Sharman to make the movie. Another
(45:40):
thing to Chuck that I found fascinating. Um, you mentioned
before that the producers had wanted to kind of stack
the film version with like rock stars. Um, there's tons
of legends about who those were. Share David Bowie, Mick Jagger,
Um as Dr Frankfort would have been pretty good. Actually yeah,
but yeah, know he's the only person I could see
(46:03):
doing justice to that role. Let me just say that
I'm not saying better than Tim Curry, but it would
be fascinating to go see for sure. Yeah. Um, so
the one that does seem to be actually legitimate that
the producers actually did float was Elvis as Eddie replacing
meat Loaf with Elvis seventies six Elvis. Wow, yeah, that
was near the end. Yeah, and then it was basically
(46:26):
it would be a cool cameo for him. That would
have been Oh man, I'm just trying to wrap my
head around what that would have been. Like. I mean,
he would have been great in that role and singing
that number. But can you imagine what kind of like
up people that would have thrown that production into Oh yeah,
I mean completely imbalanced the movie too. Yeah. You know,
(46:50):
you've got all these people who are doing this thing
because they love it. And there's Elvis too, you know, yeah,
like Vegas Elvis. Yeah, exactly. Did you see that movie
at the Elvis movie? Uh? No, another boss Lerman would Yeah, No,
I haven't seen it. It's worth seeing. It's it's it
was I think I might have even mentioned it before.
It's a bit much, but the the actor does such
(47:12):
a great job in recreating those performances. It's it's worth
it for that. Um. There's also a little known sequel,
the Rocky Horror Picture Show. I did not know this
until a couple of days ago. Yeah, I knew about it.
I've never seen it. It's called Shock Treatment, right, Yeah,
and it was sort of a loose sequel. Uh did
(47:33):
not catch on obviously like Rocky Horror did at all.
It was it was basically a big flop. I just
remember seeing when I worked at the video store and
Athens at Vision Video. I remember seeing the cover uh
of Shock Treatment and Countain. I was like, what is
this even and then found out later that it was
a sequel. Got you, Um, you got anything else? I
(47:56):
got nothing else. I'm gonna go. I encourage uh, everyone
else to go that maybe they'll be fun to get
some stuff. You should know local listeners to all go
on a certain night. That's a great idea. Also, if
you want to find you know where you can see
one by your house. The Rocky Horror site Rocky Horror
dot com um actually has a pretty good list around
(48:20):
the country and I think around the world too, because
they do it in England. But I've heard they are
way more reserved than one you would go to in America. Yeah,
I think so. So that's it for Rocky Horror Picture Show.
I hope you enjoyed it, hope it was worth it.
Stuff you should know, Army, thanks for the idea. Uh
(48:40):
and since I said thanks for the idea, it's time
for listener mail. Yeah. Before we get into that, though,
we always like to give our end of the year
well wishings to everyone who got us through another year.
And uh, I believe your lovely wife has a birthday
coming up to right. Yeah, when this comes out, it
(49:01):
will be right around Yumi's birthday. Happy birthday, and really
coolly in real time, it's right around Emily's birthday, So
happy birthday Emily too. It's right her birthdays in a
few days. Yeah. Uh so thanks everyone. You know, it's
been a rough few years, but I think two shown
a little light on us all and uh we hope
that continues. And and thanks for hanging in there and
(49:22):
letting us keep our jobs again. Yeah, well said Chuck.
You could all fire us. Please don't, though I have
to do. Stop listening and we're gone. You should stop
putting ideas in people's heads, agreed. Yeah, well from us
and from Jerry and all of the gang who work
on stuff you should know. Happy New year. Everybody, all right,
(49:44):
so we will do a listener mail from the Shakespeare
episode about whether Shakespeare really wrote all that stuff? That
is maybe one that's my new favorite episode. Oh yeah,
I loved that episode. I thought it was so fascinating.
It was just a really a good episode. Aw I
love that. Hey guys enjoyed the podcast. I have to
(50:04):
admit I am an oxford Ian believer that the seventeenth
Earl of Oxford was the real Shakespeare. Many facts about
the Earl's life and its reflection in the plays are
very convincing. But I also was intrigued by the Earl's
own family crest being a lion brandishing a spear. The
history of the Earl being a part of the Elizabethan
court life, as well as his travels to Italy and
(50:25):
his family life mirror so much in the place. I
had the bad form when visiting Stratford upon Avon h
the Shakespeare family home. They're having a discussion with another
visitor about Edward de Vere possibly being the truth. Shakespeare
tour guide was rushing us out. Thanks for the fun discussion.
That is from Dana B. Goward. Dania got booted from
(50:48):
Stratford upon Avon, I love it. Run out of town.
I could see that being a bad place to mention that. Yeah,
I was hoping we would hear from some Oxfordians though. Yeah,
thanks a lot, Dana. Thanks for getting in touch, and
if you want to be like Dana, everybody, you can
get in touch with us as well. Send us an
email to Stuff podcast at i heart radio dot com.
(51:13):
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