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The Rocky Horror Picture Show Analysis

On September 25, 1975, Michael White Productions released The Rocky Horror Picture Show based on the 1973 cabaret musical (Schwab). The parody of a gothic horror film with elements of science fiction tells the story of Brad and Janet, two white, middle-class lovers betrothed to each other. As they travel to inform their high school science teacher that they are engaged, their car breaks down in the middle of the woods resulting in them entering the nearby castle to use the telephone. This castle is inhabited by Dr. Frank N. Furter, the genderfluid scientist from the planet known as Transexual in the galaxy of Transylvania. They are accompanied by their ragtag posse Riff Raff, Magenta, and Columbia. From here, chaos ensues which results in the death of the excessive scientist, freeing the couple and leaving Riff Raff in command. The movie ends with the castle, their spaceship jetting off into outer space. Although the story is quite complicated and confusing, the movie plays in at least 75 theaters across the United States every week to this day (Mochari). It has become known as the longest-running movie of all time (Schwab). This cult classic has a peculiar history that most blockbusters do not possess.

While looking at the typical blockbusters, one usually thinks of a film that is specifically designed to attract large audiences, for example using big casts, lavish sets, and a long run time. However, The Rocky Horror Picture Show has none of these (although some actors are well-known today). A blockbuster is also known as a movie that has done well in the box office, typically looking at the movie’s first weekend. Again, Rocky Horror does not fit into this category either as it was quickly shelved after its limited release in California, it didn’t see a nation-wide release (Schwab). However, it would be considered a blockbuster due to how well it has done after the initial showing. It has a lifetime earning of $100 million (Mochari). Thus, I will be examining how this cultural phenomenon came to be.

As stated above, Rocky Horror was based on the musical written by Richard O’Brien (Shwab). As far as production, things did not go well for the cult classic. The director, Jim Sharman, wanted to keep the cast the same as the musical to ensure that they all had chemistry together. However, the producers made him recast Brad and Janet, as more popular actors resulting in Barry Bostwick and Susan Sarandon playing the roles (McAdams). There were also problems with production as the set designer, Sue Blane, went on record stating that she did not want to be a part of the movie, however she then agreed and the movie is now known for its campy and extravagant costumes (McAdams). The director additionally had to take away all of Peter Hinwood, Rocky’s, lines because he can’t act (McAdams). He was hired for his good looks needed for the engineered creation, however, they looked over the fact that he had no talent for acting. Production continued to go awry when the movie’s $1.2 million budget could not afford to heat the set (Thompson; McAdams). This resulted in the lead, Susan Sarandon to become ill during filming. Finally, there were many injuries on-set of the movie because the low budget only allowed them to higher a rather inexperienced production team (McAdams). One example would be when the rock star playing the role of Eddie, Meat Loaf, was sitting in his wheelchair that then fell off the ramp (McAdams). It was clear that Rocky Horror had a hard time during the production of this blockbuster. However, that did not stop the cult classic from becoming the longest-running movie in history. In this clip, Richard O’Brien discusses the process of writing of the story and Tim Curry talks about what it was like to play the villainous Dr. Frank N. Furter. One can see more insight into the production of the film. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfL98tLN1t8

As far as marketing goes, they originally advertise that much for the movie. There is very little information out there about how the producers originally marketed the movie. Most of this has come from its redistribution after the release. Although the film did not do well originally, Rocky Horror was brought back at a midnight screening the next year on April Fool’s Day at the Waverly Theater in Greenwich Village, New York, due to the marketing savvy of an executive at 20th Century Fox (Schwab). The movie was then transformed from a failed movie-musical to an underground queer phenomenon to mainstream production, due to the die-hard fans who flocked to the late-night showings (Schwab). The cult classic, thus, has been able to reproduce for itself as it would play midnight showings weekly. Devout fans would draw in others to perpetuate the fervor around the movie. This video shows the audience participates with the actors on the stage. This exemplifies how the movie has been reproduced over the years and these are also done at showings of the movie. Here, one can see lines yelled and also how they participate in the dance of the “Time Warp.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nYI4IqDshQ

There are stark differences between the reception of the movie-musical when it was first released to where it is today. It has transformed its $1.2 million budget into a $100 million dollar franchise. What drew people into this cultural cult was how the fans received the film. There are specific actions that became canonical while watching the movie. These include yelling known lines at the screen, bringing props to throw, and dressing up as one’s favorite character. The President of the Rocky Horror Fan Club, Sal Piro, discusses the history of the movie in his book Creatures of the Night. He states that this counterpoint dialogue is how the show “went public,” from people inventing lines to shout back at the screen (Piro). Some examples are yelling “asshole” whenever Brad is mentioned, “slut” whenever Janet is, booing the villain, and any other lines that were accepted which varied regionally. Additionally, props were used as part of the interaction between audience and screen. Viewers would come with a bag filled with rice to throw at the wedding scene, newspaper to cover themselves during the raining scene, and others (Piro). Some viewers also began to dress up as characters and play them at the front while the movie is playing behind them. Although the midnight showings were originally played at the Waverly Theater in New York, it quickly began to travel outside spanning all over the United States (Piro). And thus, Rocky Horror became the national phenomenon it is known for today. Here, Laverne Cox and others working on the production discuss her process of coming into the role of Dr. Frank N. Furter and how when she first saw the original film, she saw herself in the character. This speaks to how Rocky Horror has drawn those that feel othered in and made them feel accepted. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CH1a8zBWuaU

There were no real intentional marketing strategies that a production company fashioned, rather a group of devoted fans that brought others in. What began as a failed movie quickly became an underground scene for those that don’t fit into a mainstream work that is known by many. Rocky Horror has not only been reproduced by those at the theater, but it has also been a part of popular culture. It has been remade by popular shows like Sesame Street, That 70’s Show, and Glee dedicating an entire episode to the music. It was a plot point in the 2012 dramedy Perks of Being a Wallflower and has recently been recreated by Fox in 2016 starring Laverne Cox, Victoria Justice, and more. The cult classic has proven itself to last the test of time.

Although Rocky’s story is not the most concise, there are specific themes that make this movie so appealing. This would account for why so many hold the movie close to their hearts to this day. Brown and Hoch note two major themes throughout the films which are (1) the decline and fall of the family and metamorphosis of sex roles that have shocked the West in the post-World War II and Vietnam Era, and (2) the struggle between rationality and sexuality for dominance over the social order (Brown and Hoch, 61). The white middle-class archetype is exemplified in Brad and Janet who are at war against the indulgent Dr. Frank N. Furter.

The authors continue to note that the music also plays a part in this dispute. It provides a protest against the “bland, tightass pap of WASP [White Anglo-Saxon Protestant] culture” (Brown and Hoch, 62). These rock and roll anthems liberate the sexes with sexual choreography that allows all to release their inhibitions. The conflict between liberation and repression is shown through the changing sex roles, where the villain emphasizes pleasure and delight. In one of the final scenes, Dr. Frank N. Furter sings “Give yourself up to pleasure” as all the characters jump into a pool and participate in a soft-core orgy. This movie could also be seen as appealing to those tired of conventional social norms because the film is an attack against sexually repressive traditional mores and social institutions (Siegel, 306). It draws people in by operating similarly to a religion, where the audience is the mass attending the congregation with pre-scripted dialogue they repeat back to the minister, or the characters (Siegel, 307). Finally, when teens and young adults are asked about why they are attracted to the film, they state that the movie lets people know that it is okay to be different and it’s okay to feel good (Tyson et al, 60). For most, this goes against what they were previously taught, that one should try to fit in. It is understandable why this movie has lived on for 40 years and continues to bring in fans.

While most of the themes are accepting, there are some problematic elements while watching the movie in 2019 with the current political climate. First, the villain Dr. Frank N. Furter, the villain, refers to themselves as a “Sweet Transvestite,” a politically incorrect and offensive term for transgender individuals. This character is also played by Tim Curry a cisgender man which would not fly today. Dr. Frank N. Furter is also problematic because they are a sexual predator who uses their power to take advantage of others sexually. In an analysis of the troubling elements of the film, Jef Rouner notes that they “look like a caricature of the LGBTQ predator conservative lawmakers are so intent on convincing us is real” (Rouner). There are offensive elements that are also present in the ceremonial viewing of the film. Whenever Janet is on the screen, the entire audience hurls the epithet “slut,” while Brad only receives an “asshole” (Rouner). Why does Janet get labeled a slut, while there are characters that have more sex than her in the film? Again, this would not be permissible today. However, Rouner notes that the film should be taken more as “an artifact to be appreciated for its historical value more than for its continued cultural relevance” (Rouner). Although there are troubling themes, the film can still be viewed and appreciated for the specific historical moment it holds.

Works Cited

BROWN, JERRY B., and JUDITH HOCH. “The Rocky Horror Picture Show: A Galactic Gothic Epic.” Studies in Popular Culture, vol. 4, 1981, pp. 59–66. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/45018077.

Central Arkansas Library System. The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975, R). 1975. https://cals.org/event/rocky-horror-picture-show-oct4/.

Collectors.com. “Meatloaf from the movie ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW ** Private Signing ** From a Ed Bedrick Autographs private signing.” https://www.collectors.com/autograph/meatloaf-from-the-movie-rocky-horror-picture-show-private-s/-950191601604210661.

“Finding Frank N. Fruter | THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW” Uploaded by FOX. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CH1a8zBWuaU.

FOX. “A ‘Rocky Horror Picture Show’ Cast Comparison To Prepare You For Tonight’s Time Warp.” Getty Images. https://decider.com/2016/10/20/rocky-horror-cast-then-and-now/.

McAdams, Eric. “20 Crazy Details Behind the Making of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” Screen Rant. October 8, 2018. https://screenrant.com/rocky-horror-picture-show-behind-scenes-details-making-trivia/.

Mochari, Ilan. “How ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’ Became an Enduring, $100 Million Brand.” Inc. October 28, 2015. https://www.inc.com/ilan-mochari/why-rocky-horror-picture-show-still-has-cult-following.html.

Piro, Sal. “It Was Great When It All Began.” From Creatures of the Night. Accessed December 2, 2019. http://www.rockyhorror.com/history/howapbegan.php.

“Rocky Horror Audience Participation Night Montage.” Uploaded by Robert Neblett. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nYI4IqDshQ.

“Rocky Horror Picture Show-Behind The Scenes (Remastered). Uploaded by Stotle. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfL98tLN1t8.

Rouner, Jef. “Looking Back, The Rocky Horror Picture Show Hasn’t Aged That Well.” Houston Press. July 13, 2017. https://www.houstonpress.com/arts/the-rocky-horror-picture-show-is-very-problematic-in-2017-9601139.

Schwab, Katharine. “After 40 Years, Rocky Horror Has Become Mainstream.” The Atlantic. September 26, 2015. https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/09/after-40-years-rocky-horror-has-become-mainstream/407491/.

Siegel, Mark. “‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’: More than a Lip Service (Le ‘Rocky Horror Picture Show," Du Bout Des Lèvres).” Science Fiction Studies, vol. 7, no. 3, 1980, pp. 305–312. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/4239358.

Thompson, Simon. “‘Rocky Horror’ Remake Cast Talk Giving The $1.2 Million Cult Classic A $20 Million Update.” Forbes. July 25, 2016. https://www.forbes.com/sites/simonthompson/2016/07/25/rocky-horror-remake-cast-talk-giving-the-cult-classic-a-20-million-update/#2ae4e4fe3afe.

TomorroWoman. “Secrets You Didn’t Know About Rocky Horror Picture Show.” http://www.tomorrowoman.com/culture/things-you-didnt-know-about-rocky-horror-picture-show/17/.

Tyson, Christy, et al. “Our Readers Write: What Is the Significance of the Rocky Horror Picture Show? Why Do Kids Keep Going to It?” The English Journal, vol. 69, no. 7, 1980, pp. 60–62. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/817417.

20TH CENTURY FOX. “Tim Curry in The Rocky Horror Picture Show with Barry Bostwick and Susan Sarandon in 1975.” The Kobal Collection. https://www.kunc.org/post/movie-gabriel-machts-seen-million-times#stream/0.

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itsworn · 6 years

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This 1970 Boss 302 “Barn Find” is Preserved, not Restored

The story starts on November 21, 1969, when Les Baer’s Boss 302 rolled off Ford’s Dearborn assembly plant wearing Calypso Coral paint with a Vermilion Red bucket seat interior. Of the 7,014 1970 Boss 302s, just 575 were painted that color, and only 78 had the Vermilion Red bucket seat interior.

From Dearborn, the Boss went to Hinchey Motors in Guymon, a city in the panhandle of Oklahoma. The car made an impression on the locals, some of whom still remember when the Calypso Coral Boss 302 came rolling in on the transport truck. It was a pretty loaded example: Magnum 500 wheels rarely seen on Boss 302 models, a close-ratio four-speed, rear window sports slats and rear spoiler, Shaker hoodscoop, a tachometer, and front bumper guards. Local history says that the first owner of the Boss was so unhappy the car arrived with the Vermilion Red interior instead of the black interior he ordered that he traded it off by 1972. In that short amount of time, he barely drove the car because of his disappointment.

Dwight Eubank, Blane Eubank’s cousin, swooped in when the car landed back on a dealership lot in 1972—this time in the Texas panhandle—and bought it for himself. According to Blane, Dwight street-drove the car for a bit before taking it to the track.

“He drove it just for the first couple of years, and then he was always interested in drag racing and he drag raced it at Amarillo and just different places around,” Blane recalled.

Blane was enamored with the car himself and kept track of it all through the 1970s and into the 1980s, when Dwight blew the motor and parked it.

“I think he just ran out of money and he started having kids and stuff and it got put aside and he just never got back to the car,” Blane said.

Even with a bad engine, the Boss didn’t lose its luster to Blane, who had taken a shine to the car way back when his cousin bought it. Knowing the Boss had become lame, and his cousin wasn’t doing anything with it, Blane began the slow and tedious process of making it his.

“I started calling him sometime in the late 1980s and was just pretty persistent and called him for several, several years,” Blane said. “He told me the car would never be for sale. But I would call him or see him at family reunions and take the opportunity to ask him about it until the summer of ’15 or ’16 when he said, ‘I might be interested in selling it,’ and my ears kind of perked up. We talked a little bit and the more we talked, the more he was interested in selling it, and we came to terms and I got to buy the car.”

By this time, the Boss 302 didn’t look like it did back in 1972 when Dwight bought it. In the interest of speed, Dwight had begun removing parts to save weight, including the entire interior. Luckily, the modifications he had performed were simple bolt-on additions, and he had saved every part he removed. Because the first owner hadn’t driven it long, and because Dwight quickly began putting miles on just one quarter-mile at a time, the Boss had just 30-some-thousand miles when it was parked. That was the good news. The bad news was that the parts were haphazardly strewn about the barn and mixed among parts from other cars, trucks, and even airplanes.

Although he was already a Mustang owner, Blane reached out to Mustang restoration guru Jason Billups in search of some guidance about his pending purchase. Blane found that putting a price on such a desirable but disassembled pony car was difficult, and he wanted an expert opinion. When Blane told Jason the price, Jason said, “If you don’t buy it, I will.”

While Blane had grown up digging Mustangs and admiring Shelbys and Bosses, he didn’t feel comfortable excavating the Boss 302 and its parts on his own. Jason and the whole team at Billups Classic Cars in Colcord, Oklahoma, had been pitched to Blane as the go-to folks for Shelbys, Bosses, and other hi-po Fords, so Blane asked Jason to accompany him to the barn where the Boss was stored.

When they arrived at Dwight’s barn, the men studied the dirty Boss, taking note of the solid body; the dry Texas earth had been kind to the Boss’s metal. Blane and Jason worked out a deal where Jason would use his expert eye to sift through the barn and retrieve every Boss 302 part he could find.

“I went through the barn and found the original engine,” Jason said. “He didn’t know that was there. I also found the original transmission. It still had the original paint, and he pulled the interior, but luckily, he saved it all.”

“There was stuff buried, all kinds of stuff,” Jason said. “It was a dirt floor barn. The transmission was just an empty case. He had put a big Top Loader in it just because it was stronger for drag racing. We pulled the original gears out of the barn’s dirt floor. I found all of the gears, but they were rough. He hired me to gather the parts and look at what was right with the car, and that’s what I did.”

A previous fire in the barn where the Boss 302 had been stored only made Jason’s task more difficult. While the Boss hadn’t burned, it did have to be moved from its original location in the barn following the blaze, further separating it from some of its components. However, Jason found all but a couple minor parts in the dirt and under the dust. When Jason looked at the dry car and its pile of parts, he realized the rather unusual car was very complete, very original, and in very good condition, and it deserved something different than a restoration.

“When Blane bought the car, he thought it would probably need to be restored, but with the parts available to us and the experience that we have, I thought the paint was good enough on the car that I thought it would be a shame to repaint it,” Jason said. He said he told Blane, “When the car is finished, I think it would have more value as a survivor car than a restored car.”

Once the Boss was out of the barn and washed, Blane and his wife, Doris, truly saw what Jason had seen in the car’s condition, and they decided to go for preservation. Jason and his brother Scott completed what they consider a “clean up,” not a restoration. They put the car on a rotisserie, removed its suspension, and steam-cleaned off all of that Texas dirt from the top and bottom of the car, revealing many of the original factory paint and chalk markings. As pictures show, the Calypso Coral paint came out remarkably well—ditto for the Ford Blue engine components—and very little paint touch-up had to be performed on the car’s top or bottom. The original interior sans the headliner was simply cleaned and reinstalled.

“The car was in just such good shape,” Blane said. “It was just a beautiful car. The drag racing took its toll in certain ways, but it also preserved it because it wasn’t on the highway. The miles were just one quarter-mile at a time. Even though [racing] was hard on the [drivetrain], it preserved the ‘physicalness’ of the car.”

While the body and interior only needed to be cleaned and reassembled, the drivetrain was another story. Jason installed all-new parts inside the transmission and went through the rest of the drivetrain, with the exception of the engine. That task was entrusted to his father, Gerald, who re-sleeved the bad cylinder in the 302 that originally took it off the road and landed it in the barn.

Given Jason and Scott’s extensive experience with high-end, high-performance Mustangs, they also knew where every correct bolt should go on the car and were able to put the Boss 302’s original parts right back where Ford originally installed them.

Once the Boss 302 was finally reassembled, Blane and Doris realized they loved the car, but it made them nervous to run it on the road. “My intentions were to keep the car, but we just got so much in it that I didn’t feel comfortable having that much money tied up in a car and not being able to drive it,” Blane said. “I thought if we found a buyer that would be fine, but if we didn’t that would be fine.”

That’s where Les Baer came onto the scene. Baer already had several Shelby and Boss Mustangs in his collection, including three other 302s. The survivor-quality Boss 302 appealed to him because he figured it was one he could drive, rather than worry about paint chips and dirt on a completely restored example.

“To be honest, I wasn’t even looking for one until Jason Billups called me,” he said. “I like them all pretty and restored and stuff and he said this ain’t like that, but it’s all there.”

Baer said there are imperfections in the car due to its age and originality, but the solid condition of the metal and the rarity of the car—it’s one of very few Boss 302s with the 4.30:1 Traction Lok rear and the Vermilion Red interior—makes it appealing to own and to drive.

“This one, I drive it,” Baer said. “The cruise-ins are just starting here…and it will be fun to see what people think.”

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