In 1975 the creators of the stage show called The Rocky Horror Show which was a huge hit in England decided that they wanted to put their extravaganza on film and release it as a major motion picture. Against the advice of some of the smartest people in Hollywood they did just that and released the Rocky Horror Picture Show. When the Rocky Horror Picture Show was first released in 1975 it tried to play to the typical afternoon and evening movie going audiences and it bombed horribly. No one was interested in seeing this strange adaptation of a strange British stage production. Then a resourceful theater owner got the idea of showing the movie at midnight and soon the popularity of the Rocky Horror Picture Show began to grow by word of mouth and soon the word was spreading all over the world. There is a theater in Germany that has been showing the Rocky Horror Picture Show every night at midnight since the movie was released in 1975 and they continue to show it and people continue to show up. Soon midnight showings of the Rocky Horror Picture Show became legendary and people that felt alienated from all of the standard walks of life found a home at the midnight showings of the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Some people have boasted that they have seen the movie over 700 times and continue to see it regularly. People come to the showings dressed in the costumes of the characters and they bring props too. So what is it like to be at a Rocky Horror Picture Show midnight showing? Let’s run down the list.

You will need rubber gloves, toast, a copy of the Cleveland Plain Dealer if you are sitting in the front rows or a water pistol if you are sitting in the back rows, a roll of Scott toilet paper, and rice. So far it sounds like you are going anywhere but a movie. The rubber gloves you will need for the laboratory scene when Dr. Frank N. Furter, played by Tim Curry, snaps his rubber gloves three times. If you are sitting in the back rows you need the water pistols because you make it rain when the rain scene comes on to open the movie immediately following the wedding scene. If you are sitting in the front rows you will need the Cleveland Plain Dealer to protect yourself from the rain because that is the paper that Brad, played by Barry Bostwick, uses to cover himself and his wife Janet, played by Susan Sarandon, from the rain. The toilet paper is to be thrown when Dr. Scott the criminologist appears on screen. The toast is for the scene where Dr. Frank proposes a toast at dinner. Don’t butter the toast please, the theater owners hate cleaning that up. The rice is to be thrown in the opening scene which is a wedding scene. Now you have your props and you know when to use them. It is time to take a jump to the left.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show will probably go down in history as the most popular movie that ever bombed. Were it not for the attraction that the young alienated population felt towards the movie, and the freedom that a midnight showing seems to provide, the movie would have been shelved after 6 weeks and never heard from again. But it became a success and stands as the movie with the longest theater run in the history of motion pictures and because it keeps being played it looks like the world will never be rid of the Rocky Horror Picture Show.