25 September: Rocky Horror Picture Show

On this date in 1975 Rocky Horror Picture Show, starring Susan Sarandon, Barry Bostwick, Tim Curry and Meat Loaf premièred in the US. 10 things you might not know about it:

1. It was written by Richard O'Brien as something to do on winter evenings when he wasn't working as an actor. It was basically his hobby. Then, one tie when he was working, he showed his creation to director Jim Sharman, who loved it and decided to turn it into a stage show.
2. The cast of the movie could have been quite different. Sharman wanted Marianne Faithfull to play Magenta, but she wasn't available. Mick Jagger wanted to play Frank-N-Furter, but the production team chose Tim Curry. 20th Century Fox wanted Elvis Presley to play Eddie, and Elvis was actually interested in doing it, but eventually declined. Richard O'Brien wanted to play Eddie, too, but Sharman saw him as more of a Riff Raff and O'Brien respected his decision. Steve Martin auditioned to play the role of Brad. Everyone wanted the narrator to be Vincent Price but he wasn't available.
3. There were other tweaks and rejected ideas, such as the first part of the film being shot in black and white and colour only introduced when Frank-N-Furter made his first entrance. The idea being that Brad and Janet led a dull and boring life until they met him. The studio rejected that. Frank-N-Furter was going to have a German accent at first, as it was a German sounding name. However, thanks to a posh lady he overheard on a bus, he changed his mind on that one and decided Frank-N-Furter's voice should sound like a combination of his mother and the Queen.
4. O’Brien’s original script for the stage musical was only 40 minutes long. In order to make a film out of it, it needed to be longer. The song The Time Warp was written purely to fill up space.
5. The filming location was a decaying 19th century mansion called Oakley Court. Its owners actually wanted to tear it down, but is was a historic building so they couldn't. It had been a location for some Hammer Horror movies and when set designer Brian Thomson laid eyes on it, he knew it was perfect. Filming there, however, was no picnic because there was no heating or bathrooms, and the film was shot in winter. One "warm room" was set up for the cast to warm up in between takes, but it caught fire. The cold and damp meant that Susan Sarandon went down with either the flu or pneumonia (depending which source you read) during filming and was actually quite ill with a fever in one scene. Eventually, though, Oakley Court was sold to developers who have tuned it into a swanky hotel. It's possible, then, to spend the night in Frank-N-Furter's mansion.
6. Patricia Quinn's main motivation for accepting the role of Magenta in the stage show was that she got to sing Science Fiction Double Feature, because, she said, it was “the best song I’ve ever heard.” She was so miffed when told that in the film version, O'Brien would sing the song and almost dropped out. Even though she didn't get to sing the song on the soundtrack, they did use her lips in the opening credits. On the publicity poster, however, the lips belonged to Lorelei Shark. The floating red Lips were inspired by Man Ray’s 1936 painting The Lovers.
7. Meatloaf couldn't ride a motorcycle so a body double was used. In close ups, he was rolling around in a wheelchair. Underwear model Peter Hinwood, who played Rocky, couldn't act or sing so all his lines were dubbed. He'd been hired purely for his looks. “Little Nell” Campbell, who plays Columbia really could tap dance, though. She was working serving ice cream and would tap dance while doing so, which intrigued Jim Sharman who showed up at her workplace to watch. Suitably impressed, he offered her the role.
8. Dr. Frank-N-Furter’s make up was done by Pierre La Roche, who did the make-up for David Bowie’s iconic Ziggy Stardust. However, he took so long to do it, all of four hours, that Tim Curry eventually did his own make up. Magenta's iconic red hair wasn't dyed, but sprayed red every day. And talk about attention to detail. The make up department even created a special plug to cover Peter Hinwood's belly button, because as something created in a lab, Rocky wouldn't have had one.
9. There was a follow up film released in 1981 called Shock Treatment. Brad and Janet are in it and some of the actors appear in different roles (minus Tim Curry). It wasn't a success.
10. Neither was Rocky Horror at the start. The original 1974 release was a total flop. When the film first opened, Meat Loaf and Jim Sherman bought tickets for a screening in the Midwest. They were the only ones in the cinema. However, late night showings became popular and the film developed a cult following, especially once audiences started dressing up, throwing food and heckling at the screen. 20th Century Fox have never pulled it from theatrical release and it has been shown in cinemas across the world constantly since 1975, and in 2005 the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.

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