Celebrating 50 Years of the Rocky Horror Picture Show

Monday, August 18, 2025

When The Rocky Horror Picture Show premiered in 1975, no one could have dreamed that it would become the longest-running theatrical release film in history.

Posted by lamplighter at 10:31 PM | 15 COMMENTS | permalink | Comment on This Entry |

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Today marks the 50th anniversary of THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW. More than just a midnight movie, RHPS became a crucial gathering place for queers, punks, theater kids, and so many others looking for their place ... and each other. Irreverent? Yes. Wild? Always. Nonetheless: Don't dream it, be it.

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-- Michael Varrati (@michaelvarrati.bsky.social) Aug 14, 2025 at 7:31 PM

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More from the article...

... In honor of its 50th anniversary, Disney/20th Century Studios is releasing a newly restored 4K HDR version in October, along with deluxe special editions on DVD and Blu-ray. And the film has inspired not one, but two documentaries marking its five decades of existence: Strange Journey: The Story of Rocky Horror and Sane Inside Insanity: The Phenomenon of Rocky Horror.

(Spoilers below, because it's been 50 years.)

The film is an adaptation of Richard O'Brien's 1973 musical for the stage, The Rocky Horror Show. At the time, he was a struggling actor and wrote the musical as an homage to the science fiction and B horror movies he'd loved since a child. In fact, the opening song ("Science Fiction/Double Feature") makes explicit reference to many of those, including 1951's The Day the Earth Stood Still, Flash Gordon (1936), King Kong (1933), The Invisible Man (1933), Forbidden Planet (1956), and The Day of the Triffids (1962), among others. ...

#1 | Posted by LampLighter at 2025-08-18 01:57 PM | Reply

I saw The Rocky Horror Show in L.A. at the Roxy in 1974.

#2 | Posted by LegallyYourDead at 2025-08-18 04:23 PM | Reply

Is it any good?? I've never watched it before so I don't know.

#3 | Posted by LauraMohr at 2025-08-18 09:39 PM | Reply

The movie itself is a campy B movie and a pastiche of 50s Sci-Fi B movies, except Ed Wood was allowed to be openly homoerotic. It has some some surprisingly A list actors e.g. Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon.

The reason for going to see it is to be part of the audience, acting out scenes, yelling at the screen, and people dressed up like characters from the movie.

It's kind of like a Con, before conventions were a thing. And not really that big because

It's all bathroom humor and sexual references and everyone gets loaded and has a good time with their friends.

#4 | Posted by snoofy at 2025-08-18 10:00 PM | Reply | Newsworthy 1

It's just a jump to the left,
Then a step to the right ...

#5 | Posted by TrueBlue at 2025-08-18 10:45 PM | Reply

#3: Hi Laura: See if this version works on your system: cinego.tv

#6 | Posted by C0RI0LANUS at 2025-08-19 12:59 AM | Reply

I went to one as a drunken spectator. It was a fun environment

#7 | Posted by hamburglar at 2025-08-19 05:41 AM | Reply

#3: Hi Laura: I haven't used the cinego.tv website before, so perhaps watch Rocky Horror Picture Show on Tubi or YouTube, just to be on the safe side.

#8 | Posted by C0RI0LANUS at 2025-08-19 05:47 AM | Reply

Don't drink it, Frank peed in it.

#9 | Posted by DarkVader at 2025-08-19 09:51 AM | Reply

One of my most memorable nights ever happened because of The Rocky Horror Picture Show at the (now closed) Balboa Theater in Huntington Beach Ca.

It was so much fun we all got lost in it. It really revved up my date that night. Did all the hard work for me.

We did the Time Warp all night long.

Thank you sweet transvestite from Transexual, Transylvania, for some awesome memories.

#10 | Posted by donnerboy at 2025-08-19 10:42 AM | Reply

I prefer "Uptown Saturday Night".

#11 | Posted by fresno500 at 2025-08-19 12:21 PM | Reply

Cinema 812... Cannery Row... where the Aquarium sits today... in Monterey CA... it was the neighborhood cult spot... a little enclave in an old cannery building
There were no seats... only large pillows to flop on... scattered all over the floor... some people brought beach chairs... facing the screen with walls of speakers on either side...

definitely not your traditional sticky floors venue...

bic-lighters

hippy dippy fun

They cycled through Space Oddessy, Clockwork Orange and Rocky Horror assorted Andy Warhol movies... always packed...

#12 | Posted by RightisTrite at 2025-08-19 06:32 PM | Reply

#12

Loved Monterey in the early 80's. It was a great drive from where we lived near Stanford, either over to Half Moon Bay and down along the coast through Santa Cruz, or through great forests along the mountains on the windy backroads in the Alpha Romeo Spider.

I saw Rocky Horror, prolly in the little theatre in my college town in Texas. We thought it was hilarious, but we were pretty high. I've seen it since years ago, and it had held up well, but I don't know about now.

#13 | Posted by Corky at 2025-08-19 06:52 PM | Reply | Newsworthy 1

My buddy and me rolled up stoned into Monterey the only time we'd ever been there, and were awestruck by the beauty of that land. Then we checked out the aquarium and especially enjoyed the jellyfish art exhibit (where they illuminated jellyfish using lasers and black lights), the otters lazily swimming in circles on their backs, and the giant ocean sunfish

#14 | Posted by hamburglar at 2025-08-20 06:58 AM | Reply | Newsworthy 1

It was a great drive from where we lived near Stanford, either over to Half Moon Bay and down along the coast through Santa Cruz, or through great forests along the mountains on the windy backroads in the Alpha Romeo Spider.

Small world Corky.

My best friend had an Alpa Romeo. Actually it was his wife's. (Which was a bear to keep running ... . the car not his wife.. she ran just fine)

And I met my wife in Half Moon Bay. She was the chef at The San Bonito House at the time. She was so awesome that I stole her from Carol Michelson and took her home with me. Carol never forgave me.

#15 | Posted by donnerboy at 2025-08-20 02:16 PM | Reply | Newsworthy 1