{"id":250516,"date":"2025-09-24T03:01:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T03:01:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/250516\/"},"modified":"2025-09-24T03:01:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T03:01:10","slug":"50-years-of-cult-classic-legacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/250516\/","title":{"rendered":"50 Years of Cult Classic Legacy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tDespite a disappointing start 50 years ago, The Rocky Horror Picture Show<\/a> found new life among fans looking for a warped night out. <\/p>\n

\n\tRichard O\u2019Brien was a struggling actor when he wrote the book and songs for The Rocky Horror Show, a musical tribute to B-horror flicks that hit the London stage in 1973. The story centered on a newly engaged couple seeking shelter at the home of cross-dressing alien mad scientist Dr. Frank-N-Furter and his hunky creation, Rocky.<\/p>\n

\n\tProducer Lou Adler acquired the American theatrical rights and brought the stage show to L.A.\u2019s Roxy Theatre the following year. Its stateside success led to a deal with 20th Century Fox<\/a> for a film version from director Jim Sharman, who helmed the U.K. show. Making his feature debut as Frank-N-Furter was Tim Curry<\/a>, the only performer in both the London and L.A. versions. Rounding out the movie\u2019s cast were Susan Sarandon<\/a> as Janet and Barry Bostwick<\/a> as fianc\u00e9 Brad, while Meat Loaf<\/a> played motorcyclist Eddie. <\/p>\n

\n\tBostwick, known for portraying Danny Zuko in Grease\u2018s original Broadway run, tells The Hollywood Reporter that fans love to hate unfaithful Brad: \u201cIt will be the lead-off in my obituary \u2014 \u2018The Great Asshole died yesterday\u2019 \u2014 and I will be very proud of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFox released Rocky Horror in the U.S. to a lack of fanfare on Sept. 26, 1975, as it tallied just $1 million ($6 million today) in its initial run. But the film picked up steam the next year as audiences dressed in character for late night screenings, helping to usher in the popularity of midnight movies. In early 1979, THR reported that Rocky Horror \u201ccontinues to defy the law of diminishing returns\u201d as a cult sensation and collected nearly $3 million the previous year from weekend shows where devotees would act out scenes, shout at the screen and sing and dance to \u201cTime Warp.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tNow credited as the longest-running movie ever, Rocky Horror has earned an ardent LGBTQ fan base, along with landing tributes from Glee and The Simpsons and a 2016 Laverne Cox-led TV remake. Timed to the 50th anniversary, Disney restored and remastered the film in 4K Ultra HD, and a national tour with Bostwick and other castmembers starts later this month. <\/p>\n

\n\tSays Bostwick fondly, \u201cSo many people have made lifelong friends by sitting next to somebody, and then they\u2019d go and have sex after the show.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThis story appeared in the Sept. 18 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite a disappointing start 50 years ago, The Rocky Horror Picture Show found new life among fans looking…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":250517,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[132705,1582,276,623,72844,2961,224,5337,132706,93250,107442,132707],"class_list":{"0":"post-250516","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-barry-bostwick","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-fox","12":"tag-hollywood-flashback","13":"tag-la","14":"tag-los-angeles","15":"tag-losangeles","16":"tag-meat-loaf","17":"tag-rocky-horror-picture-show","18":"tag-susan-sarandon","19":"tag-tim-curry"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115257048109628117","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250516\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}