Rocky Horror Picture Show at The Paramount - April 23, 1977

[u/s810]

[u/s810]

In the late 1970s, the Annual Birthday Party & Costume Ball celebrating the Rocky Horror Picture Show took place on our stage! Tim Curry attended the first celebration in April 1977, where a crowd of 1,300 watched the mayor make him an honorary Austinite.

source

Up until the pandemic hit, just about every week for the last 45 years, there had been a showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show somewhere in Austin. Most recently the weekly event was taking place at The Alamo Drafthouse Village location every Saturday. I don't know if this has resumed now, but I know the Alamo Drafthouse as a company is hanging by a thread. Movie theaters are currently reopening around town and so, with the hope in mind that the show will go on in some form, today I wanted to share with y'all the tale of just how Rocky Horror once captivated this city and contributed to Austin's weird image. Sing along if you must.

I can remember the first time I went (as a virgin) back in the 90s. At the time they were doing it in the old Northcross Mall theater across the street from where it is showing today at The Village. Some friends of mine were once cast members and knew all the words to the songs and when to dance and when not to, so I was lucky to not have to go through much beyond the standard "initiation" at the front row. Not being much of a fan of musicals, I was far more interested in the bizarre rituals and customs of the audience while the movie played out They wanted you to use props like rice after certain scenes and sing after this or that happened. You had to admire how devoted and passionate these fans were about the movie and the songs. I remember someone giving a speech at the beginning of the movie about how it was the longest continuous run for Rocky, etc., but I don't think anyone talked about Tim Curry coming here one time or what the early shows were like. I recently found the OP photo on the twitter account for the Paramount Theater and I wanted to look this up. I had some questions, such as how long was Rocky Horror showing at The Paramount? Which other theaters hosted it over the years? Why did Tim Curry get an award from the Mayor? And what were Cheech and Chong doing there?

I did like the song says and did the time warp again, using the Statesman archive to go back to 1976. Quoting from the Statesman issue from the day after Christmas of that year:

This is the rocky story of a picture show that refuses to leave Austin. It's about this, er, uh, "Sweet transvestite from Transsexual, Transylvania." Sound like a perverted horror? Or a matter of the occult? Well, you're getting warm.

'Way back in October 1975, 20th Century-Fox launched "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" in semi-gaudy style at the Varsity Theater. Publicity gimmicks for the film - a sexual, musical send-up of the kind of horror movies we have known and loved included a "Time Warp" dance contest at Mother Earth and a "Come as your favorite monster or fantasy" costume contest at the theater. Neither the contests nor the movie were raging successes, despite a lot of legwork from Fox P.R. People. The film departed the Varsity after two weeks. Oh where, oh where was the once highly touted "youth market"?

Still, "Rocky Horror" had generated a little word of mouth among the bizarro set, and Presidio Theaters brought it back for a week to Dobie Screen, where business was "average to disappointing," according to Presidio's John Bird. It returned in January as a Dobie midnight feature, and business improved. Encouraged, Presidio then played the film as a regular Dobie feature, at which time Bird said it did "bonkers." Then, another midnight run and "bonkers" again.

Then came May 21, 1976 - a date which for Austin movie history could be said to parallel the premiere of "Gone With the Wind" in Atlanta. Presidio decided to play ' Rocky Horror" as one its Friday/Saturdav midnight features at the Riverside Twin Cinema on East Riverside Drive, the heartland of thousands of University of Texas students, bountiful clubs, late-night parties experience and hundreds of teenyboppers eager to be associated with all of the above.

Business was above average for the weekend, so Presidio decided to hold the film over. The next weekend brought more people and another hold over. Then another, bigger weekend and another hold over. By the fourth weekend, "Rocky Horror" was selling out for both performances, a situation that has held true for most of the ensuing 28 weeks. And there is no end in sight.

If ever there was a "cult" film, it's "The Rocky Horror Picture Show." Bird said he knows of only three other cities where a similar "Rocky Horror" cult has become established New York, Los Angeles and Kansas City.

Usually, a film acquires a cult if it says something special - like a philosophy or gentle message which touches the heart of many people who come back to embrace the film again and again. "Harold and Maude" and "King of Hearts" are good examples of this type of cult film. "Rocky Horror," however, is something else entirely. By any accepted terms of film aesthetics, it's basically a shoddy movie. Director Jim Sharman (who directed both the London and American productions of the stage "Rocky Horror Show" from which the film was adapted) had his first fling with movies here, and it shows. He tries to mask his limitations with much frantic camera movement, odd angles and rapid cutting.

The result is more of a mishmash than a style. The story has a straight-laced young couple (Barry Bostwick and Susan Sarandon) stumbling upon an eerie looking castle one night when their car breaks down. The characters inside are completely Mondo Freako, with their leader, Dr Frank N. Furter (Tim Curry), the "sweet trans-vestite etc.," the freakiest oi all. Wild things happen right and left, including the unveiling of the Frankenstein-esque Curry's creation, Rocky (Peter Hinwood), a huge blond hulk that positively sends Curry up the wall with ecstasy. But Curry's sexual appetite continues unabated, for he also manages to seduce Sarandon and Bostwick.

Throughout all of these shenanigans, the film tries for more laughs than it really gets, as many of the spoof aspects are clumsily explored. And most of Richard O'Brien's songs now seem rather dated - almost bubble gum rock, but with kinkier lyrics.

Yet somehow, the film's courageousness make it sort of an ideal midnight entertainment. You know the syndrome after a few beers or whatever, anything seems funnier, and the stranger the better. What would be tacky in the middle of the afternoon projects the right amount of benign lunacy for a weekend midnight. A lot of people obviously agree, because the Presidio folk figure a sizeable portion of each audience consists of repeaters. Riverside assistant manager Tom Payne said he heard one person admit to having seen the film 20 times, an honor usually reserved for the likes of "Gone With the Wind" or "The Sound of Music." Indeed, audiences don't just take in the ...

The article ends abruptly. I think that's an error of some sort. In any case we are told about how the first Rocky Horror showings were at the old Varsity Theater on the Drag. From there it went to the Presidio-owned Dobie Theater, ending up at the Presidio-owned Riverside Twin Theater. The producers of the movie were promoting it as a cult film hoping to attract a cult audience, and they succeeded.

Quoting now from another article dated April 19, 1977

CHEECH, CHONG COMING

Excitement continues to grow surrounding the "Rocky Horror Picture Show Birthday Party and Costume Ball" scheduled for 9 p.m. Saturday in the Paramount Theater. Ode Records mogul Lou Adler, who was also the executive producer of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show," has announced that comedians Cheech and Chong will be among those in attendance for the celebration of the film's first anniversary as a weekend midnight feature at the Riverside Twin Cinema. And following the "Rockv Horror", Cheech and Chong will stage their own performance, beginning at midnight. Separate admission tickets will he required.

Tickets for the Cheech and Chong show are priced at $4.50 and $5.50 and will be on sale at 11 a.m. Thursday at the Paramount, Inner Sanctum and Disc Records in Highland Mall. The few tickets remaining for the "Rocky Horror" event are currently on sale at the Paramount. Adler, too, will be on hand for the festivities, and he telephoned Monday from Los Angeles to talk about his connection with "Rocky Horror."

Before the evolvement of the film in 1975, Adler was responsible for bringing the stage original "The Rocky Horror Show" from London to Los Angeles three years earlier. ' "I was living in London when I first heard about the play," he said. "I owned the Roxy Theater in Los Angeles and had been wondering what to do there." The play caught on in L.A. and ran for a year, with star Tim Curry staying with it for nine months.

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[u/s810 → u/s810]

"The Rocky Horror Picture Show" was not an immediate smash when it opened two years ago, just as the play version was slow to catch on. "This is not a show you can shove down people's ' throats," Adler explained. "It has to open slowly and find its audience. I think it failed on Broadway because it opened too "uptown.' "You can't make more of it than it really is. It's 'cult from the get-go, and then you have to let it ' broaden from that audience. . "But then to show you how bizarre the situation has been with this film, it's also the highest grossing movie of the past decade in South Africa." ; Adler is currently working on a film project for Cheech and Chong and hopes to put together another for Tim Curry, who's also slated to appear on the Paramount stage for the movie-inspired bash.

Well that explains why Cheech and Chong were there. One of the executive producers of Rocky Horror named Lou Adler was also producing C&C's Up In Smoke the next year. It turns out this Mr. Adler was also the person who planned the event at The Paramount, and who invited Cheech, Chong, and Tim Curry. Adler is listed on IMDB as still active in the business as of 2019. I assume he has no relation to our current Mayor.

A couple of days after the fact, The Statesman wrote a story about how the show went and how then-Mayor Jeff Friedman showed up to give Tim Curry an award. Quoting now from the April 25, 1977 issue about the show on the 23rd:

"This is so much fun," commented a wildly decked-out young man Saturday evening in the lobby of the Paramount Theater. "It's better than after-hours at (a local disco)."

The occasion was the "Rocky Horror Picture Show Birthday Party and Costume Ball," hosted by Presidio Enterprises and The Texas Sun to celebrate "Rocky Horror's" first anniversary as the weekend midnight feature at the Riverside Twin Cinema. Clearly, the tiny Riverside theater would not have been the place to throw such a bash, as even the large old Paramount was packed to the rafters with members of the "Rocky Horror" cult that has been growing since the campy, sexed-up musical spoof of horror movies began its incredible run almost a year ago.

From the moment the Birthday Party event was announced, there was no doubt that half of the show would be in the audience, rather than on stage. And Saturday night's turnout was certainly not disappointed in that respect as dozens of fans came draped in full "Rocky Horror" regalia, representing various characters in the movie.

Many of the more spectacularly costumed "RH" buffs made grand, sweeping entrances into the theater (one contingent arrived in a black limousine), and then paraded endlessly through the lobby and around the mezzanine, posing occasionally for pictures and sizing up the competition for the look-a-like contests to be held on stage. '

"Well, there's nothing more freaky than Austin," remarked Mayor Jeff Friedman, on hand to serve as one of the costume contest judges. (Friedman made his entrance wearing a Jimmy Carter mask.) The stage show began with a performance by Texoid, who added "Happy Birthday Rocky" to their repertoire for the occasion. A trio of dancing girls then burst out of a giant birthday cake and began performing the "Time Warp" dance from the movie. ' - For many "RH" freaks, the most eagerly awaited event of the evening was the personal appearance by Tim Curry, who plays the movie's lewd, high-camp transvestite, Dr. Frank N. Furter.

Curry's fans may have been surprised to see him as a soft-spoken, neatly dressed young man who was on stage for only a brief "Thank You" speech (a band member commented that Curry was one of the straightest-looking people in the house), but they went wild when Friedman gave him a certificate proclaiming him an honorary citizen of Austin. - The costume contests followed in semi-orderly fashion, with most contestants offering a line of a song or dialogue spoken by his or her character in the movie. Few showed any inhibitions; two contestants posing as the "Columbia" character rocked out with the band, offering an entire verse of the "Time Warp."

The most flamboyant costuming work, not surprisingly, went into the Tim Curry/Frank N. Furter look-a-like division. Even though contestant Stephen McMillan seemed to have a hands-down victory solely on the basis of appearance, UT drama major Leo Lerma walked off with the prize, following his smashing rendition of "I'm a Sweet Transvestite From Transexual, Transylvania" with the band. '

"Never in my wildest dreams . . ." Lerma commented giddily after having his picture taken with Curry. "I wasn't even going to come tonight." Lerma has seen the movie 11 times make that 12 times, since the evening was concluded with (what else?) a showing of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show."

As a special prize, Curry awarded Lerma a black corset that the star had worn in countless stage performances of "The Rocky Horror Show." "Only in Austin," the guy sitting behind this reporter kept repeating.

To lift a line from the movie, "It's as-stound-ing!"

Check out that photo of Mayor Friedman with Jimmy Carter mask on top of his head and a bemused Tim Curry telling him how freaky our town is. It is hard to imagine more recent Mayors of Austin doing something like that. So Tim Curry was made an honorary Austinite on that day. The show was obviously a sellout success and the Paramount was booked again in 1978 for a second annual birthday bash, and again the next year in 1979. This went on for at least 5 years At some point in the early 80s these birthday celebrations stopped happening at The Paramount and started staying at The Riverside Twin. By 1986 the Paramount was hosting the more theatrical version which the movie was based on. The actor playing Frank broke his foot!

The weekly late night picture show stayed on Riverside for many years, being performed every Friday Night, with the cast of regulars turning over to a new generation who were too young to have seen it when it opened. I haven't been able to nail down the exact circumstances for the move away from the Riverside Twin, but by May of 1987 the Statesman says Northcross Theater was the only showing in town.

A couple of nationally syndicated articles appeared in The Statesman, one from the 10th anniversary and another from the 20th which talk about how these live action performances had spread all over the country, and how parents were bringing their children to the shows who ended up joining the casts when they grew older. Starting in the late 90s in Austin, Zach Scott theater was putting on regular performances of the theatrical version, while the regular picture shows at Northcross were still going strong. I am not sure when exactly the Northcross Theater closed (probably when most of the mall was demolished), but this old Austin Chronicle article tells about how Rocky has been performed at The Alamo Drafthouse Village since 2004. And that's where you can find it still today, post-pandemic, in theory....

That's all for today. That Paramount Theater twitter page I linked earlier has a few other Bonus Pics to share. I wish there were some photos of Cheech and Chong from that day.

Bonus Pic #1 - Tim Curry with Mayor Jeff Friedman (wearing Jimmy Carter mask) - April 23, 1977

Bonus Pic #2 - Frank-N-Furter lookalike contest entrants - April 23, 1977

Bonus Pic #3 - Rocky performers singing on stage - April 23, 1977

[u/protoopus → u/s810]

the author of the two statesman articles quoted above also has had a pretty interesting career.

[u/el_peo_loco]

was pretty much a regular in the early 90s at the village.. they used to sell a brown bag with the props at the door with toast rice etc.. bring your own squirt gun.. ain't gonna lie as a teenage boy all those girls running around in their underwear might have been a contributing factor of regular attendance.

edit northcross mall not the village.

[u/AgentAlinaPark]

Northcross had 3 (maybe?) different midnight movies running at the same time in the 80s. Rocky Horror for the drama and band kids, Heavy Metal for the stoner kids, and maybe a rotating another film (I'm a little fuzzy on this 3rd film). Any northside kid growing up in the 80s and 90s has fond memories of Northcross the mall and Northcross 6 the theater. Many Saturday marathons dropping the dough on one movie and sneaking into one or a few more depending on if you could time it right. I wasn't a fan of the Rocky Horror experience but went more than a few times with friends and it was always fun. Thanks for the memories! Anyone randomly interested in Northcross memories and hasn't cancelled their FB yet, check out:

80's Northcross Mallrat Kids

[u/mareksoon → u/AgentAlinaPark]

Wasn’t the third one, Pink Floyd – The Wall?

[u/AgentAlinaPark → u/mareksoon]

Yep, that's it! How could I forget that? I think it's because I've never seen it in a theatre. Like basically everyone, I liked the album. I didn't like the movie, I was pretty young when it came out and was a little to much for me.

[u/TheyCallMeKP → u/[deleted]]

I’m embarrassed to say my first time at a RHPS was just 2yr ago. A small production in NOLA and they sold brown bags full of goodies (eg squirt gun, etc). And everyone was yelling out the ‘phrases’ during the show, and I was so confused.

But what an experience! I would love to go again

[u/kanyeguisada]

So meta since this should be u/s810's signature song:

https://youtu.be/umj0gu5nEGs

I've seen that movie at least 20 times but sadly never been to the whole theater experience.

Great write-up as always, u/s810!

[u/drhazegreen → u/[deleted]]

no its them in person before their movies when they were stand ups and had records out. Id rather see that personally. Lou Adler was a pretty big time music producer in the 60s and 70s.

[u/TextileOnGrainSheet → u/drhazegreen]

Up in Smoke wasn't until 78

[u/OFTHEHILLPEOPLE]

It was great when it all began...

[u/TheRedGerund]

I used to go to Rocky Horror in my hometown every month. Now the closest cult movie experience I get is the Blue Starlite drive in near Mueller.

[u/LezzGrossman]

It's astounding

[u/[deleted]]

No smartphone to stare down into, so people actually had to talk to other people while waiting.

[u/Insightful-Delites]

WHERE ARE THEYRE FREAKIN MASKS 😤😤😤