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The Rocky Horror Picture Show Podcast Episode · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, and there's
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: Chuck and Jerry's here too, and it's a super awesome,
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: amazing last episode of the year episode. I can't think
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: of one that could have been better than this chalk.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: I guess people, it's a spoiler of what the show
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: is about already, because you've seen the title as a listener, right,
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: But this is courtesy of the Stuff you Should Know Army.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Came straight from them. We got emails that said, hey,
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: the Stuff you should Army is chattering about Rocky Horror
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: Picture show they have been shivering with and tsut patient.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: Very nice.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: And so this is it Stuff you should Know Army.
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Oh and also in return, you guys, if you
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: haven't already, go donate to co ed because we're running
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: out of time. These the last few days of the
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: year's right, and our pledge drive or fun drive, I
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: don't know what you'd call it, Our awesome drive fun drive. Yeah,
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: the d is in parentheses. Ends on January first or
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: December thirty first at eleven fifty nine pm, who knows.
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: But you can go to Cooperative for education dot org
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: slash sysk donate and we're going to reach that million
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: dollar goal. I just know it.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: I totally agree, and I'm super excited for this episode.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: Our year is winding down. Yeah, just so you know
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: in real time, you know, Josh and I always take
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: a nice long extended Christmas break from recording, and it
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: has gotten bigger and bigger every year, and this year,
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: I'm not gonna say how long we have off from recording,
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: but it's a nice, unprecedented break to chunk of change
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: and where we love doing the show. But that Christmas
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: December downtime is a wonderful thing for us.
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah. We work hard through throughout the year, so hard,
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: so you better treat us right. So let's go start
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: talking about Rocky Horror Picture Show. Quick question, Are you
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: a virgin?
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah? So I guess I should quickly go over we
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: should both kind of go over our history with this.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: I have never been to a live in the movie
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: theater Rocky Horror Picture Show showing, which includes, as you
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: will see, the shadow cast, all the fun of the
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: audience participation. I have seen it. I remember when it
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: finally came to home video. It took a long time,
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: it wasn't like one of those. It was just always
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: out there.
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: Oh I remember movies like that. Yeah.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, So there was like a lot of fanfare when
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: Rocky Horror finally came to home video, and I really
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: got into it for a while there, watching it with
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: friends and watching it at home. To the tune of
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: seeing it. I've probably seen the movie at home probably
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: six or eight times. Oh okay, yeah, so I am
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: technically a virgin, but I'm gonna go now, like I
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: have to go now because Atlanta has one of the
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: great sort of legendary theaters that still do this twice
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: a month.
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I think the group that puts on the shadow
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: cast is called Lips Down on Dixie the Plaza Theater. Yeah,
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: it sounds like a good time for sure.
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: What's your deal?
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: I have not ever been either, and I thought that
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: I wasn't a virgin. I thought if you had seen
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: the movie, you were not a virgin. No, you're right
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: if you have to go to a live screening of
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: it to not be a virgin any longer. So, yeah,
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: I've seen it a bunch of times too. I love
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: the soundtrack. Soundtrack is really good. To clean the house too.
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: I have to say, like you will be dancing with
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: your swiffer very quickly. But yeah, it's a great movie.
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: I watched it again this morning. It was really bizarre
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: to watch it in the morning. Yeah, you know, it's
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: not it just doesn't jibe with that.
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: I watched quite a bit of it today too, not
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: all of it, but I kind of wanted to make
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: sure I saw the musical numbers because I just love those.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: And I also, as many times as I've seen it,
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: it's been a long long time, so I couldn't exactly
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: remember the third act as well. I think it's one
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: of those films that the first two acts are a
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: little more famous than the third act. Yeah, I mean,
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: you know, the time warp is the second number, well third,
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: I guess if you if you count the beginning song,
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: which we're going to talk about the second but yeah,
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: you got to, you know, and then you know Tim
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: Curry's legendary sweet transvestite song and that entrance in that performance.
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: Oh just man believably granted. Yeah, come up.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: To the lab, see what's on a slab?
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: I mean, like he's just he couldn't have been more perfect.
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: And as we'll see in a second He was also
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: not an obvious choice to cast as doctor Frankenferter as
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: the character he played. So let's get into this. Okay,
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: For people who've never seen a Rocky Horror picture show,
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: it is a bizarre musical campfest that Dave, who helps
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: us out with this one, describes as a send up,
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: which I know intuitively what send up means, but I've
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: never seen like an actual definition of it. Oh yeah, yeah,
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: so I think it's mad. I made up my own
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: if if you don't mind me sharing it. Affectionate mockery.
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like an affectionate homage slash mockery, I think, right.
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: So it's a send up of fifties sci fi and
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: horror movies, like b movies, things like Forbidden Planet, The
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: Day of the Earth Stood Still, all of the Cannon
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: of ed Wood, all that stuff, and it's so it's
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: kind of a tribute to that. But it's also, like
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: I said, super camp and it's definitely its own thing,
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: so much so that it was made in nineteen seventy
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: five and it does not seem like something from the past.
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: It has a timeless quality to it. Weirdly enough.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I would agree with that. It's sort of in
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: that sort of same weird rock opera thing as Tommy,
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: where when you look at Tommy it looks sort of
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: dated in old fashioned, but also also somehow still sort
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: of of its time and futuristic or of today's time imputuristic, but.
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: Not at all anywhere near as serious or not serious
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: at all like Tommy took Itself. It's not serious. It's
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: just neat.
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I guess Tommy took itself fairly seriously.
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: So the plot, if we can talk about the plot, right.
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I don't necessarily think we should give
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: everything away, definitely, I think we can nutshell it. But
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: the idea is that there are these two characters, Brad
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: and Janet, who are very straight laced, sort of maybe rubes,
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: but sort of two young, naive characters that had been
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: to a wedding and are talking about getting married themselves.
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: And they go on a little road trip and it's
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: a very sort of classic trophy thing, you know. The
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: car gets a flat and the only thing around is
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: this creepy castle in the rain, and they knock on
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: the door and all sorts of crazy, funny, fun sexual hijinks,
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: sci fi hijinks ensue.
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so they start out as just as whitebread as
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: you can be, and then by the end of the
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: movie they're like they're they're both wearing garter belts and
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: stockings and bikini briefs and courses. Yeah, like they've just
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: gone through the sexual transformation. But also, you know, I
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: think a life transformation, I guess, and I want to
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: say also, there's plenty of analysis and like you know,
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: writing about subtexts and all that stuff. This has always
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: struck me as one of those movies that, like, it's
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: just not meant for that you're not supposed to like
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: try to look too deep into it. You're just supposed
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: to enjoy it on its face.
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: I totally agree. So again not to give too much
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: away if you haven't seen it, but the head of
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: this castle is doctor Frank n Furd, who is the
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: Tim Curry character who in that great song Sweet Transvestite.
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: The lyrics are sweet Transvestite from Transsexual Transylvania, as we
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: learn in the film, and it's just sort of goofy
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: that they through the sci fi element in there, which
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: is really fun. But Transsexual is the home planet of
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: franken Furter and Transylvania is the galaxy, right, and so
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: he's sort of Frankenstein, this uberminch on the slab, and
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: that's kind of the plot. I mean, all kinds of
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: seductions take place over the course of the movie at
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: various times, different characters seducing one another. There's a lot
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: of gender fluidity and sort of it was a movie
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: ahead of its time in a lot of ways in
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: that respect, and since it has become obviously a huge
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: movie in the LGTBQ community.
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure. So that's the movie. And it didn't
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: actually start out a movie. It started out a stage
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: play in London actually. So the guy who plays Riffraff
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: is named Richard O'Brien. Riffraff is doctor Frankenferter's like iglor
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: like assistant. He has a huge hunchback and like stringy
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: hair and like dark circles under his eyes.
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: And he was thirty one years old by the way
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: when this got kicked off. Oh really, he always just
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: struck me as looking super old. But then when I
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: kind of, you know, look today with more of a
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: critical eyes, like he doesn't look old old, but the
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: circles under his eyes, it kind of made him up
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: to look a little creepier, but I never pictured that
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: has been in his early thirties.
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: No, And actually, if you see later interview with them,
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: he stayed basically the same, ye, looking the same from
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: that point on, not dark circles under his eyes, but
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: he didn't seem to age at all. Ye. That guy
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: was named Richard or is named Richard O'Brien. He was
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: the creator of the whole thing and played a pretty
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: big role in the movie as well. And I believe
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: he played riff raff in the stage production too, right.
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so he was a New Zealander who moved to
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: London in the seventies in the early seventies, and you know,
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: didn't have great prospects for jobs. He was a stunt
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: man for a little while. He got some gigs acting
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: on stage, but not a lot of them, and was
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: basically bored. Like he's been on record saying like this
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: was sort of like me doing the crossword, was me
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: writing these songs. He's sort of kind of fun and
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: funny songs about those sci fi b movies that he
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: loved from the nineteen fifties.
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: This was before Netflix, by the way, This before Netflix.
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: So the whole thing that kick this off was really
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: auspicious there. There he was friends with some people who
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: were musicians and there was a EMI party, the record
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: label had a big party, and his musician friends said, Hey,
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: do you want to record a song to play at
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: this EMI party. This is like a truck driver stuntman
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: actor that they're asking, but I guess he had developed
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: enough of a reputation for writing cool songs that they
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: asked him, and he wrote science Fiction Double Feature, which
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: is the song that sung during the opening credits of
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: the movie Rocky Horror Picture Show, where, even if you
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: haven't seen the movie, I'm sure you're familiar with the
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: iconic disembodied bright red lips against white teeth on a
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: black background that comes from the intro of the movie.
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: And when he played this song, I guess he got
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: enough of a response to it that he decided to
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: kind of take that song and some of his other
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: songs and cobble him together into like a loose plot
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: that really never got more fleshed out, and ended up
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: writing a stage play out of the whole thing.
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it was called The Rocky Horror Show after I
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: think the working title was They came is it Denton
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: High or Denton High School?
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: Denton High?
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: Okay, they came from Denton High, which I guess the
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: idea was that Brad and Janet were from Denton because
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: the church at the beginning is Denton Episcopalian Church. Yeah, okay,
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: so they changed the title. I think his friend was
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: stage director. He showed it to Jim Scharman said, they
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: came from Denton High is not a great title. And
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: the name of the Frankenstein, like you know, model with
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: perfect abs that Frankenfurter has built, is named Rocky Horror.
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: So that's got a ring to it. Let's call it
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: the Rocky Horror Show.
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: And they did. Apparently it was just in time for previews,
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: so they were able to change the name at the
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: last minute. And that was man, that was a close
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: call if you really stop and think about it. So
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: Jim Sharmon and Richard O'Brien managed to talk their way
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: into a space above the Royal Court Theater in London,
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: and the Royal Court Theater was like a serious, legitimate playhouse,
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: and above it was an experimental theater that I think
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: sat sixty three or sixty eight people, and they started
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: performing this thing, and within weeks it was like the
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: thing to see in London. They sold out and again
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: it's not that tough to sell out sixty three or
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: sixty eight seats. It was more like the buzz around.
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: It was just so just so gripping, and it happened
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: so quickly that it just took off like a rocket
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: in very short order. They started touring. They sent a
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: touring company to cities all over Europe showing people this thing,
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: and everybody was going nuts for it.
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and in another turn of fate, I guess you
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: could say Tim Curry was an actor at the Royal
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: Court Theater, obviously not some you know, huge name at
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: the time, and was cast because of that association with
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: the Royal Court as doctor Frank Enfurd, who was originally
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: going to he was going to play at German because
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: Frank and Furter obviously is a German German word. But
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: I think in the interview he talked about it and
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: said that he was experimenting around with accents and he
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: found this the posh British thing really worked and said
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: the character should sound like the Queen.
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: I saw this, and was originally also supposed to be
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: more of a classic mad scientist, white lab coat kind
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: of doctor. And in another wonderful twist of fate, they
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: hired a woman named Sue Blaine to do the costumes
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: because you know, they needed to bring this They didn't
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: have a lot of money at first. We'll talk about
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: the movie budget too, but Sue Blaine basically said, you know,
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: I got almost nothing and came up with these ideas
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: for the riped fishnet hose. And I think she had
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: worked with Tim Curry before on a play in Scotland
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: where he played a character in drag and she was like,
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: you look good in heels and a corset. So if
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: it hadn't have been for all those sort of weird
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: things coming together, it might have been a German mad
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: scientist and a white lab coat, which is really hard
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: to imagine. Once you know, Frankenfurter, this movie wouldn't be
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: we wouldn't be talking about it right now.
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: They may have been a white lab coat. I'm sure
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: of it. No, really, I don't. I think Tim Curry's
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: character was such a huge part of the popularity of
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: it that, yeah, it just wouldn't have been the same.
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: And by the way, Sue Blaine's costuming budget for the
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: original stage version was four hundred dollars. Yeah, well is
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: peanuts even back in nineteen seventy three dollars let's say pounds.
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: All right, so maybe a few extra shekels.
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's another thing too. We should say there's a
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: lot of made up information about Rocky Horror and its
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: origins and like the real story of it. So it's
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: all fun, but you have to like really kind of
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: wagh through it, and if something sounds like no way,
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: you may want to stop and say, probably no way.
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: But it's still fun. So we'll mention things here there.
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: But I think we should kind of give like a
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: little caveat to them like that, how about that?
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And this is one of those fan centric pieces
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: of entertainment where I'm sure there are people out there
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: that would be fact checking us, right, that's the kindest
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: way to say it.
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: I'm literally sweating because I'm so nervous about that.
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: I think we should take a break, and then very
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: quickly when we come back, I will retell my Tim
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: Curry story from Los Angeles.
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: So softly, jawsh.
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: Soft, all right, we're back. No, I've said this before,
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: but I think I can't not say it again. I
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: actually had two rocky horror sort of run ends in
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: LA when I lived there, and when I got my
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: cat Lauran, who was dearly departed. Found Lauran in a
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: dumpster behind my apartment, took him in, took him to
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: the vet, and as I was checking out at my vet,
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: I look over and there's Tim Curry. And when I
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: say look over, he was like two feet from me.
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: Well, was he staring at you?
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: He don't know if he was or not. He was
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: shorter than I thought, which was kind of surprising because
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: I don't know. This character just seems so larger than life.
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: Well he was where like six inch platform heels.
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that as well. But when Tim Curry is like,
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: I think he's listed at five to nine, and that's
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: usually fudging a little bit. Like he was shorter than
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: I was. And I went to write a check to
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: pay for it, and I was holding the roan and
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: I said, would you mind holding my kitten? And he
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: was like absolutely. And Lauran was really funny looking. He
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: had these huge ears. He had a gray back and
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: the rest of them was black and he eventually grew
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: in all black hair. I have no idea. It was
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: kind of a silver back, but he picked him up.
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: That's why LA's so great. Man. The weirdest things happen
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: in the most unlikely places. He stared at him and said, Lauran,
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: you have very dramatic ears. And he went and look
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: at your back. You look like a baboon. And he
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: held Lauren while I wrote the check and I'd like
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: skipped out of there. It was like one of the
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: great days. So that's why I've.
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: Never heard that her story. Man, I don't really, I
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: don't know if you've told it before.
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: Oh, I don't see how I couldn't have held onto
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: that one for fifteen years, Like.
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: I really, it rings zero bells whatsoever. And there's enough
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: dimentions to it that something should be like, oh, yeah,
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: I've heard that one. This story has not been told before,
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: and it is a fantastic story.
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: All right, Well there's my Tim Curry story.
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: What's the other rocky horror running you had?
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: Well, I know I've talked about that. I was friends
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: with meat Loaf's daughter for a little while in la.
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: Oh yes, sweet Potato, I can't believe you're laughing like
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: that at that one. That's funny.
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: Oh that's a good one. Yeah. I was sort of
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: friends with her and her boyfriend for a very short
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: time in LA. That's just a weird crossover where my
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: friend's girlfriend worked for Meat's ex wife and he did
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: want to be called Meat by the way. But I
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: never met him. But I hung out at his house
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: a few times and he had a TV that came
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: out of a case at the foot of his bed. Oh,
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: I've seen that before via remote control, you know. I
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: was pretty astounded at the time.
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: I should say, I've never seen it in person. I've
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: seen it like on TV.
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah. It was cool though, walking around his house like
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: rock memorabilia and all kinds of stuff. I wanted to
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: meet him, but never got a chance.
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: I like the Tim Curry story better.
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: It's better, for sure.
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: So where do we leave off. Oh, the stage play
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: is on Fire.
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: It's on Fire, and they toured it and Tim Curry
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: played Frankenverter everywhere except Australia.
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: I think, oh, really, okay, So the original cast toward it.
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: They didn't have a traveling cast. That's amazing.
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: No, they were pretty as you'll see when they went
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: to make the movie. They were very loyal to that
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: original cast as much as they could be.
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure. So by nineteen seventy four, they moved
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: it over to Los Angeles, and I guess then, yeah,
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: that makes a lot of sense. Most of the cast
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: went over to Los Angeles, and including Tim Curry, but
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: one of the people they added in Los Angeles was
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: meat Loaf. Yeah, and I never realized, but you know,
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: Meloaf is pretty famous. He was not famous. He was
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: maybe a rising star at the time, but he really
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: gained his fame after Rocky Horror. And this is a
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: really weird choice for him, but he did it and
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: he's stuck to it, and it was a really good
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: move too, because he's got this whole other legend that,
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: like his actual other fan base probably couldn't care less
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: about mm hm. And then he has, like the Rocky
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: Horror fans, two separate fan bases because he made this
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: very smart choice back in nineteen seventy four.
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: I would argue three fan bases, because he's got a
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: bunch of like creepy guys who only know him as
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: the guy from Fight Club.
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, Robert Paulson. Yeah, we have a friend who
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: listens with that name. I know, And he's heard it
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: all yeah, I know, I'm not gonna say it again.
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: All right. So the they go to La Meat comes
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: on board. It's a big hit everywhere they go. So
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: of course the movie industry comes sticking their nose into it,
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: and they say, well, why don't you make it this
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: into a film? And so the Rocky Horror Show became
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: the Rocky Horror Picture Show. And they did not have
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: a lot of money for a budget either. But the
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: kind of the cool part of the story is they
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: were offered more budget if they would put some sort
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: of bigger rock and roll stars of the time in
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: the major roles, and O'Brien said, no, I want to
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: keep everybody like basically the same, and I'll do it
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: for less money. And that's exactly what they did.
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, about one and a quarter million. I also saw
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: one point four million. And even today, this was Fox,
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: twentieth century Fox. That would be like twentieth century Fox
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: giving somebody six and a half million dollars to make
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: a movie today, like it was a shoestring budget. I
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: mean so shoe string and poor Sue Blaine, she had
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: a four hundred dollars budget for the stage play Originally
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: she had like a fifteen sixteen hundred dollars budget for
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: the movie.
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: Well used the same costume, so she had a leg
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: up there.
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but still you're not supposed to have to recycle
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: the stage plays costumes for the movie, you know.
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, So they have their meager budget, they
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: make the film. It's released in September nineteen seventy five
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: as in a limited release in some test markets. Reviews
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: weren't great. It is a very weird I mean, it's amazing,
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: but it's a very weird movie that critics I could
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: see not getting on board with right away before there's
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: like a cult established around it. But then it's remarkable.
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: It never got a nationwide release, but even Roger Ebertt
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: back then gave it a lukewarm review but said that
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: it belongs on a stage with the performers and audience
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: joining in and a collective send up. Because word had
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: trickled out that this was starting a little bit here
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: and there.
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know if he was aware of that
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: or not, but or if he was just pressing in
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: about it. But yeah, I think by nineteen seventy six
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: April first, nineteen seventy six. The tradition of showing Rocky
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: Horror Picture Show at midnight started in Greenwich Village, actually
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: at the Waverley Theater. And this, this is the thing
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: about Rocky Horror Picture Show. Up to this point, we've
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: been talking about a stage play, a movie, and it's
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: been following a pretty standard trajectory. The movie was just
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: panned and it got shelved, but they were still showing
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: it here there because it was weird enough that Greenwich
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: Village would have gone crazy for it. Where Rocky Horror
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: Picture Show differs is what happens at the midnight showings,
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: and that is the audience participation that Roger Ebert said
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: would really kind of make the movie better. And it
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: just it's what makes Rocky Horror Picture Show Rocky Horror
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: Picture Show, or at the very least, it's what has
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: made it continue on all these years.
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: I think, yeah, I mean, I think it's grossed over
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: one hundred and twenty million dollars now total, Yeah, over
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: the years. And this is a movie that did never
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: get a nationwide release, which is remarkable.
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: And I think it's also the longest running theatrical film
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: release in movie history too.
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: It's gotta be.
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's as far as I understand it is.
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the Plaza does it still twice a month. They're
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: doing it tomorrow, and I'm not gonna go tomorrow because
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: Emily's birthday parties tomorrow night. But I'm gonna I'm gonna
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: go soon. And they mercifully started at eleven o'clock because
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: when I was thinking about it, I was like, am
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: I really gonna go somewhere at midnight? Like listeners that
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: aren't fifty years old yet may not understand you don't
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: go somewhere at midnight anymore. When you're fifty years old.
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: You've been asleep for a couple of hours by then
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: on many nights that it's true, And like even the
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: thought of it makes me tired. It's like, I can't,
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: I can't do that.
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna pick out a nice time though, when my
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: daughter is like staying at my mom's and I'm gonna
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna make sure I do this. That's awesome because
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: I did watch a lot of the a lot of
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: YouTube videos of the participation, and it just looks like
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: so much fun.
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: So what's interesting about this is that audience participation and
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: everything that kind of you that you would experience when
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: you went to a Rocky Horror Picture Show live screening
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: today just kind of happened organically. Little bit by little bit,
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: people around the country and around the world started kind
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: of contributing, and those ideas would just spread and burgeon
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: and become part of the Rocky Horror Picture Show experience.
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: And the whole thing started because the Waverly showed this
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: this movie enough times and the manager would get the
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: crowd like ready for it by playing the soundtrack to
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: the stage show. So by the time people had come
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: a few times to see the movie, they had memorized
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: the lyrics generally because they're pretty catchy lyrics, and that
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: kind of created like this idea of people who really
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: kind of knew this movie and could sing along and
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: talk along and just they just kind of absorbed it
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: into their cells.
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so people are singing the song during the run
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: up to the showing of the film. And by the way,
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: big thanks to Dave got a lot of this stuff,
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: and we got a lot of our extra stuff from
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: the official Rocky Horror Picture Show fansite Rocky Horror dot
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: com founded by Salpiro. Just a wealth of information and
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: a love letter to the film. It's a fun website,
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: but they're pre showing it. They're singing these songs. And then,
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: according to the legend, on Labor Day of nineteen seventy six,
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: Labor Day weekend, there was a Staten Island kindergarten teacher
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: named I guess it's Louis or Lewis Ferreese. And this
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: person was the first person, as far as the legend goes,
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: to yell something back at the screen when something happened
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: on the screen, And that was when Susan Sarandon gets
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: out in the rain at the beginning of the film,
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: puts a newspaper over her head to act as an umbrella,
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: and supposedly he yelled out by an umbrella, you cheap expletive,
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: and supposedly that started the callouts.
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and you can actually if you're watching the movie,
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: you don't even have to have gone to a live showing.
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: You can pick out the exact moment. Like the people
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: who made this movie were knew enough to make a movie,
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: but they also didn't know enough to make a movie
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: that like, you know, moved along really quickly. There's this
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: moment where you're watching Brad and Janet get out of
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: the car and then walk around the car, just stuff
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: that an editor normally would cut out. And so I
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: just the fact that that was left in and triggered
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: that guy to say that it's almost like the movie
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: they encouraged it itself. I just think that's so fascinating.
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it just definitely seems like a movie where just
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: fate had so many little hands in it, if you
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: believe that kind of thing. So people started dressing up
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: a little more and more, and this was mainly in
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: the lead up to Halloween nineteen seventy six. Then Halloween
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: came and went and people were still dressing up, and
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: people started bringing props. I think the original prop was
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: they would tear up their programs to use this confetti
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: in the wedding scene, and then they were like, why
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: don't we just bring rice? And then all of a
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: sudden they were bringing all kinds of props to use
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: during the film. So now you have people singing along,
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: you have people in costume, people shouting back at the
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: screen at various well timed points, and then you have
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: these props.
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: Right, and all of this is happening mostly at the
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: Waverley Theater, but there's theaters in other cities that are
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: showing the movie as well, And so somebody from New
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: York might go see a midnight showing in San Francisco,
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: and all of a sudden, all the stuff that they've
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: been developing in New York, this one New Yorker is
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: just schooling the San Francisco Rocky horror fans. And it
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: just spread very quickly like that, I mean like really quickly,
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: and again, like I was saying earlier, it just became
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: this cohesive whole that now if you go to one
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: of these shows, like, this is what's going to happen.
• 30:13
  Speaker 2: These are the props at these certain times, and all
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: of it just happened organically.
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, which is really remarkable in a pre internet age. Yeah,
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: that this can spread through word of mouth like that strongly,
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: But that's exactly what happened. And then so you've got
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: all these people dressed up, you have people knowing all
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: these songs and the movie by heart basically, and apparently
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: in the balconies of some of these theaters, people would
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: sort of be acting out the movie and then they
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: were like, why don't we just go down front under
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: the screen, or a lot of times there's a stage
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: under the screen in front of the screen, and let's
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: just do it down there. And then the literal re
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: enactment of the full film with full cast was born
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: via something that was dubbed shadow casting.
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, like beat for beat, there are people
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: acting out the movie in front of the movie screen.
• 31:06
  Speaker 2: That is like the just now of going to see
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: Rocky Horror Picture Show in the theater. And apparently Michael
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: Wolfson is credited for coming up with the Rocky Horror
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: Review the first organized shadow cast back in nineteen seventy
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: six seventy seven, and so he may have been the
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: person who thought of this at least putting it on
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: stage in front of the screen. But I mean it's
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: not just people going in their street clothes like acting
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: this out. Like people are in full costume, full makeup.
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: I think that depending on riffraff changes costumes. So some
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: people come as igor riffraff, other people come as sci
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: fi riffraff, right, so they'll be like they'll alternate who's
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: doing what depending on the scene. And by the way,
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: there is a sci fi riffraff statue in Richard O'Brien's
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: hometown in New Zealand. Oh wow, it's pretty cool looking too.
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: I'm curious how the hierarchy of this because it's obviously
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: all pre cast for the shadow cast. Like I don't
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: think I could just show up as a virgin dressed
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: like Brad and be like I want to be Brad tonight.
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know. I have no idea. That's a
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: fascinating question, Like how how does that evolve? Like in
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: a local, local place, like clearly in Atlanta it's organized.
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: There's like a group that does it. But I mean, like,
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: how do you how do you join that group? I
• 32:35
  Speaker 2: don't know.
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: I guess you know, you get on their mailing list,
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: you should, you show up at their meetings, right, and
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: you start agitating for a role.
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: Man, I foresee Chuck's future here. Oh that the good?
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: And of course it too. Uh So Richard O'Brien gets
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: wind of this in the seventies, that what's going on,
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: and it's just obviously as you would expect, completely knocked
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: out and flattered. And it was like, you know, this
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: movie has it all. It's fun, it's campy. You got
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: the audience up there, you've got the movie playing, you've
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: got these people acting it out I'm three for three
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: and not in a haughty way, but just super proud
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: I think. And then shadow casting spread. There's all kinds
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: of midnight movies now where people shadow cast, and one
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: that is a great one to check out if you
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: ever can, and very heavily influenced music wise too, I
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: think is Head Big and The Angry Inch.
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah. They also do Clue apparently, which is another Tim
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: Curry great film.
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: Oh god, it's so good.
• 33:37
  Speaker 2: So if you go, like we said, you are a virgin,
• 33:40
  Speaker 2: and at the very beginning of the show, somebody will
• 33:43
  Speaker 2: come out with a microphone and get everybody pumped up
• 33:47
  Speaker 2: and ask the virgins to all stand up, and once
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: you stand up, people around you will probably put a
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: V on your forehead with lipstick. That's the first thing
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: that's probably going to happen to you. I love it.
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: That's the worst thing that's going to happen. Yeah, just
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: say yes is what I recommend.
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah. So, yeah, that's a great way to put it, Chuck.
• 34:08
  Speaker 2: The thing to remember throughout all this is Dave puts
• 34:12
  Speaker 2: it really really well. They're not trying to scare you away.
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: They want you to come back again. This is just
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: part of like this ritual, this process that's developed over
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: the decades, and there's some things that you can expect
• 34:25
  Speaker 2: and can prepare yourself ahead of time. There's tons of
• 34:28
  Speaker 2: off color jokes, mostly sex jokes. They're almost exclusively sex jokes,
• 34:35
  Speaker 2: sophomoor sex jokes. You can't expect to hear the movie.
• 34:40
  Speaker 2: You're not going to sit down and watch a movie.
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: That's not what you're going to do. It reminds me
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: of remember I can't remember what concert it was on
• 34:49
  Speaker 2: The Simpsons, but everybody else is standing up and auto
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: sitting down. You know the rocker bus driver, Oh yeah, yeah,
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: and he goes sit down, sit down. You're ruining it
• 34:59
  Speaker 2: for the rest of us. I can just imagine somebody
• 35:02
  Speaker 2: going to a midnight screening of Rocky Horror Picture Show
• 35:05
  Speaker 2: and just expecting to sit there and watch the movie.
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, if you have hang ups and if
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: you're maybe a little prude about things like this may
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: not be the experience for you because there will be
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: people in various states of undress, like you mentioned, tons
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: of body body sex jokes, and it's just a sort
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: of a raucous good time. But again, my recommendation this
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: is what I'm gonna do is just go and say
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: yes to everything. If you're a virgin, they may drag
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: you up there and teach you the time warp during
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: that point in the movie. You might get sprayed when
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: it's the rain. I mean, I think everyone kind of
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: gets sprayed when it rains.
• 35:46
  Speaker 2: I think they tend to aim for the virgins.
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but just again, if you're not up for sort
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: of a fun, interactive multi media experience, then maybe just
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: don't go right.
• 35:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and if you are a prude, this is your
• 36:01
  Speaker 2: big chance to break out of your shell. Yeah, totally, So, Chuck,
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: I say we take another break and we'll come back
• 36:08
  Speaker 2: with more on the Rocky Horror Picture Show stoft We Josh,
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: we should probably say we've been using some antiquated terms
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: for transgender people, but it's because it's part of the movie. Yeah,
• 36:48
  Speaker 2: And I think the movie is so iconic and so
• 36:51
  Speaker 2: in favor of gender fluidity. And this is decades before
• 36:56
  Speaker 2: where we are today, when gender fluidity has really broken out,
• 36:59
  Speaker 2: and I mean it's basically become mainstream in a lot
• 37:02
  Speaker 2: of ways. This is forty five, almost fifty years before, right, Yeah,
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: So I think that the popularity and the iconicness of
• 37:16
  Speaker 2: the movie has actually kind of given it a pass
• 37:21
  Speaker 2: that no one's offended by the use of transvestite or
• 37:25
  Speaker 2: transsexual in the context of that movie.
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think everyone understands these were the terms of
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: the time. When they did the remake with Laverne Cox,
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: who is a new Laverne Cox from Orange Ise and
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: New Black, but a great transgender actress to play Frankenfurter,
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: I think she was even like, oh, you know, should
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: we update this a little bit, and then finally decided no,
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: the song is so iconic. These were the terms of
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: the day. And again, it's a it is a blatant
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: love letter. And I believe Richard O'Brien identifies as trans
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: if I'm not mistaken. So I mean it's it is
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: for this group of people, this group of people who
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: felt like they were outsiders, who maybe didn't belong in
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: mainstream society. And these are the people who got dressed
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: up and who went down there and were so creative
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: and sort of building this culture around it like it
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: is a very and always has been a very safe
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: space for that to occur. And so it's just a
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: great movie for a lot of reasons and that's certainly
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: one of them.
• 38:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I can't imagine how many kids in like Indiana
• 38:34
  Speaker 2: and Iowa and Kansas and Georgia were just had the
• 38:38
  Speaker 2: opportunity to find themselves when they found like midnight showings
• 38:44
  Speaker 2: of Rocky Horror Picture Show and like the people who
• 38:46
  Speaker 2: were there that were like them, that were and this
• 38:48
  Speaker 2: was the only place in their life that they could
• 38:50
  Speaker 2: go and just be themselves like that. It's really sad
• 38:53
  Speaker 2: to think of, but it's also really heartening to think
• 38:55
  Speaker 2: that they finally did find that place, you know.
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, and you know what it did was it was
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: like it created an excuse to put on the corset
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: and the high heels if you really need an excuse,
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: but if you were someone struggling with you know, in
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: the nineteen seventies, especially with your gender fluidity, and like
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: just to have a reason like no mom and dad,
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: like it's a movie thing, you wear these costumes and
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: like it gave them a reason to actually go and
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: be themselves. And Tim Curry over the years and Richard
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: O'Brien had both received you know, just hundreds and thousands
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: of letters and shout outs from people that said, you know,
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: that confirm all of this, they said, like I was
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: able to be myself and I was able to come
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: out because of you and because of this film and
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: what it did. So it's been a really sort of
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: heartwarming thing I think for the for the creators and
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: the actors.
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, no, for sure. And I again, one of the
• 39:55
  Speaker 2: other reasons that it gets to pass is because that
• 39:58
  Speaker 2: show is so reaffirming that one of Tim Curry's lines
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: is actually in one of the songs is don't dream
• 40:07
  Speaker 2: it be it, and people just latch onto that because
• 40:12
  Speaker 2: if you just stop and think about what it's saying,
• 40:14
  Speaker 2: like that's that's kind of all you need to know.
• 40:17
  Speaker 2: It's almost like the campy version of Yoda's there do
• 40:21
  Speaker 2: or do not? There is no try kind of thing.
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: You know, if you build it, they will come. There
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: are all sorts of classic movie lines.
• 40:28
  Speaker 2: There are, and that is one of them. For sure.
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: No, it is a super empowering statement, and you know,
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: it's the kind of thing where I don't think Richard
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: O'Brien really maybe thought about that specific line too much
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: at the time, but it ends up having so much
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: meaning later on. And you know, kind of a fun
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: side story that we didn't get to earlier, but Tim
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: Curry lived near the Waverley in Greenwich Village in New
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: York when this is going on, and apparently wanted to
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: go and like make an appearance and just knock everyone
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: socks off. Yeah, and called ahead to the theater even
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: showed up. They let him in, and then I guess
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: it was a couple of it sounds like a couple
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: of rogue theater attendants that hadn't let him in. We're like, no,
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: this guy's a fake, Like, let's get him out of here,
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: and they literally threw Tim Curry out.
• 41:19
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: He gets incensed, gets his passport and shows them, and
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: I think it was like the manager or somebody who
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: had the authority to let him back in was like,
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: I'm so sorry you come back in, and he was like,
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't dream of it, and he left.
• 41:31
  Speaker 2: Oh really, yes, Wow, that's how you show him, Curry.
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: I got so He's like, I've got a kitten to
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: hold in Los Angeles.
• 41:40
  Speaker 2: That's right. There's some other pretty neat little things about
• 41:44
  Speaker 2: the movie too. One of the ones that I love
• 41:47
  Speaker 2: is Easter eggs. There are actual Easter eggs hidden in
• 41:52
  Speaker 2: the movie unintentionally because apparently they had an Easter egg
• 41:55
  Speaker 2: hunt on the set and they didn't find them all.
• 42:01
  Speaker 2: So if you really know what to look for, I
• 42:03
  Speaker 2: didn't see him, but you can find three different Easter
• 42:06
  Speaker 2: eggs throughout the movie. And that's not actually the term
• 42:10
  Speaker 2: or where the term Easter egg comes from. Right, Strangely enough,
• 42:13
  Speaker 2: apparently that was from an Atari game developer from nineteen eighty.
• 42:19
  Speaker 2: That's who really coined that term and where it came
• 42:22
  Speaker 2: into use from.
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: I think, if I'm not mistaken from our Nintendo episode,
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: that was Warren Robinette, who wrote the game Adventure and
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: that had the first Easter Egg.
• 42:32
  Speaker 2: Oh is that right? I'm pretty sure I saw a
• 42:35
  Speaker 2: guy named Steve Wright. Oh really yeah, coined the term. Yeah,
• 42:41
  Speaker 2: oh okay, I think the first Easter Egg was an
• 42:44
  Speaker 2: adventure though, But maybe I got to coin the I gotcha,
• 42:46
  Speaker 2: I got you? Yeah?
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah?
• 42:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah? What else?
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: Chuck Well, Susan Sarandon, who was They were all very young,
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: They're on their sort of late twenties, early thirties when
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: they were making this. She got pneumonia not too long
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: after she got there. And they shot this movie at
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: a real old English castle named Oakley Court, which is
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: now a luxury hotel, even though I think at the
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: time it was falling apart such that the owners wanted
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: to raise the place. So they shoot it in this legit,
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: drafty old castle. She gets there, she's got pneumonia. She's
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: half undressed for half the movie. There's a scene in
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: a swimming pool. She's freezing to death and feverish, you know,
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: those cold chills, And apparently just had a pretty rough
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: go but was like game through all of it.
• 43:32
  Speaker 2: Well even worse, and I saw this confirmed by her.
• 43:36
  Speaker 2: She's like, you have to get me some heated place
• 43:39
  Speaker 2: to be sick in between takes. So they gave her
• 43:43
  Speaker 2: a trailer and it did in fact have heat, there
• 43:47
  Speaker 2: were space heaters in it, but they ended up burning
• 43:49
  Speaker 2: the trailer down. It was that kind of shoot.
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: That's amazing. Another bit of trivia that all rocky horror
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: fans know. But those disembodied lips at the beginning where
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: the lips of Patricia Quinn, who played Magenta and Usharette,
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: but and signed on with the idea that she was
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: going to sing that song, and she said she loved it.
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: I think she said it was like the most beautiful
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: song she'd ever heard at the time. But when it
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: came time to actually sing the song, Richard O'Brien sang it,
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: and Patricia Quinn, I think, somewhat disappointedly lip synced it.
• 44:25
  Speaker 2: She was really mad about that. She had basically joined
• 44:29
  Speaker 2: the cast originally for the stage show because of that song,
• 44:35
  Speaker 2: and so she thought she would have the opportunity to
• 44:38
  Speaker 2: do it in the movie, and I guess he had
• 44:41
  Speaker 2: her sing, and she didn't find out until the movie
• 44:44
  Speaker 2: was released, till she saw it that she wasn't the
• 44:46
  Speaker 2: one who was singing it at the beginning. Not cool, no,
• 44:51
  Speaker 2: but I think it was a good move because if
• 44:53
  Speaker 2: you listened, I don't think it would be the same
• 44:55
  Speaker 2: with her singing.
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think it definitely like you said with
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: meat Loaf, was he had been in Hair right before this.
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: He had a duo album with this woman, and he
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: was sort of around, but he definitely was not a
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: big star at all. And Rocky Horror his role as Eddie,
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: and especially the great great song Hotpituity Bless My Soul,
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: such a good song. I think people saw that and
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: they were like, there's something to this guy.
• 45:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure, because he plays the part really really well.
• 45:27
  Speaker 2: I mean, that does a great job. There's a lot
• 45:30
  Speaker 2: of lore around it too, that those people that the
• 45:33
  Speaker 2: producers offered a bigger budget to Richard O'Brien and Jim
• 45:37
  Speaker 2: Sharmon to make the movie. Another thing, too, Chuck, that
• 45:41
  Speaker 2: I found fascinating. You mentioned before that the producers had
• 45:45
  Speaker 2: wanted to kind of stack the film version with like
• 45:48
  Speaker 2: rock stars. Yeah, there's tons of legends about who those were. Chaer,
• 45:52
  Speaker 2: David Bowie, Mick Jagger as doctor Frank Nfer.
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: It would have been pretty good actually, yeah. But yeah,
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: he's the only person that could see doing justice to
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: that role. Let me just say that, I'm not saying
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: better than Tim.
• 46:06
  Speaker 2: Curry, but it'd be fascinating to go see for sure. Yeah.
• 46:10
  Speaker 2: So the one that does seem to be actually legitimate
• 46:14
  Speaker 2: that the producers actually did float was Elvis as Eddie,
• 46:17
  Speaker 2: replacing meat Loaf with.
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: Elvis seventy six Elvis. Wow, Yeah, that was an Eddie end.
• 46:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was basically it would be a cool cameo
• 46:27
  Speaker 2: for him.
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: That would have been. Oh man, I'm just trying to
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: wrap my head around what that would have been like.
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: I mean, he would have been great in that role
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: and singing that number. But can you imagine what kind
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: of like upheaval that would have thrown that production into.
• 46:43
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I mean Elvison completely imbalanced the movie too.
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 46:50
  Speaker 2: You know, you've got all these people who are doing
• 46:52
  Speaker 2: this thing because they love it. And there's Elvis too,
• 46:56
  Speaker 2: you know, yeah, like Vegas Elvis. Yeah, exactly did you
• 46:59
  Speaker 2: see that movie yet? Delvis movieh No, another bos Lerman one. Yeah, No,
• 47:05
  Speaker 2: I haven't seen it.
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: It's we're seeing it's it was. I think I might
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: have even mentioned it before. It's a bit much, but
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: the actor does such a great job in recreating those performances.
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: It's it's worth it for that.
• 47:17
  Speaker 2: There's also a little known sequel, the Rocky Horror Picture Show.
• 47:21
  Speaker 2: I did not know this until a couple of days ago.
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I knew about it. I've never seen it.
• 47:27
  Speaker 2: It's called Shock Treatment, right, Yeah, and it was sort
• 47:30
  Speaker 2: of a loose sequel.
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: Did not catch on obviously like Rocky Horror did at all.
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: It was it was basically a big flop. Yeah. I
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: just remember seeing when I worked at the video store
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: an Athens at Vision Video. I remember seeing the cover
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: of Shock Treatment and kind of was like, what is
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: this even and then found out later that it was
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: a sequel.
• 47:53
  Speaker 2: Gotcha you got anything else?
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: I got nothing else. I'm gonna go. I encourage everyone
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: else to go that. Maybe they'd be fun to get
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: some stuff. You should know local listeners to all go
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: on a certain night.
• 48:05
  Speaker 2: That's a great idea. Also, if you want to find
• 48:08
  Speaker 2: you know where you can see one by your house.
• 48:13
  Speaker 2: The Rocky Horror site rocky horror dot com actually has
• 48:18
  Speaker 2: a pretty good list around the country and I think
• 48:21
  Speaker 2: around the world too, because they do it in England.
• 48:23
  Speaker 2: But I've heard they are way more reserved than one
• 48:27
  Speaker 2: you would go to in America.
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think so.
• 48:32
  Speaker 2: So that's it for Rocky Horror Picture Show. I hope
• 48:36
  Speaker 2: you enjoyed it. Hope it was worth it. Stuff you
• 48:37
  Speaker 2: should know. Army, thanks for the idea. And since I
• 48:41
  Speaker 2: said thanks for the idea, it's time for listener mail.
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Before we get into that, though, we always like
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: to give our end of the year well wishings yea
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: to everyone who got us through another year. And I
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: believe your lovely wife has a birthday coming up.
• 48:58
  Speaker 2: Too, right, Yeah, when this comes out, it'll be right
• 49:01
  Speaker 2: around Umi's birthday. Happy birthday and really coolly in real
• 49:05
  Speaker 2: time it's right around Emily's birthday, So happy birthday Emily too.
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: That's right, her birthday is in a few days. Yeah,
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: so thanks everyone. You know, it's been a rough few years,
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: but I think twenty twenty two shone a little light
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: on us all and we hope that continues. And thanks
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: for hanging in there and letting us keep our jobs again.
• 49:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, said Chuck.
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: You could all fire us.
• 49:27
  Speaker 2: Please don't, though, I have to do.
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: Stop listening and we're gone.
• 49:31
  Speaker 2: You should stop putting ideas in people's heads.
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: Agreed.
• 49:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, from us and from Jerry and all of
• 49:38
  Speaker 2: the gang who work on stuff, you should know. Happy
• 49:42
  Speaker 2: New Year everybody.
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: All right, so we will do a listener mail from
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: the Shakespeare episode about whether Shakespeare really wrote all that stuff?
• 49:51
  Speaker 2: That is maybe one of that's my new favorite episode.
• 49:54
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I loved that episode. I thought it was
• 49:57
  Speaker 2: so fascinating. It was just a really good episode.
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: Awesome. I love that. Hey, guys enjoyed the podcast. I
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: have to admit I am an ox Fordian believer that
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: the seventeenth Earl of Oxford was the real Shakespeare.
• 50:10
  Speaker 2: Oh.
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: Many facts about the Earl's life and its reflection in
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: the plays are very convincing, but I also was intrigued
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: by the Earl's own family crest being a lion brandishing
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: a spear. The history of the Earl being a part
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: of the Elizabethan court life, as well as his travels
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: to Italy and his family life mirror so much in
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: the plays. I had the bad form when visiting Stratford
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: upon Avon, the Shakespeare family home there, having a discussion
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: with another visitor about Edward de Vere possibly being the
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: true Shakespeare, and the tour guide was rushing us out. Wow,
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: thanks for the fun discussion. That is from Dana B. Goward.
• 50:47
  Speaker 2: Dana got booted from Stratford upon Avon. I love it.
• 50:51
  Speaker 2: Run out of town. I could see that being a
• 50:54
  Speaker 2: bad place to mention that.
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I was hoping we would hear from some oxfordy instead.
• 50:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Thanks a lot, Data, Thanks for getting in touch,
• 51:02
  Speaker 2: and if you want to be like Dana everybody you
• 51:04
  Speaker 2: can get in touch with us as well. Send us
• 51:06
  Speaker 2: an email to Stuff podcast at iHeartRadio dot com.
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: Stuff you Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: more podcasts Myheart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,