Some Terrible Thrills

Last Friday was Sal Piro's 1060th time.

Tonight will make it 1063.

And next week Piro will see the Rocky Horror Picture show for the 1065th time.

Every Friday and Saturday night, Piro--who holds the world record for seeing the film most often--emcees the midnight showing of Rocky Horror at New York's Eighth Street Playhouse.

To the 10 p.m. tenplex moviegoer, Rocky Horror may just seem like your ordinary rock musical about the corruption of a naive young couple whose car breaks down one dark and stormy night and are forced to take shelter with your average transvestite bisexual doctor who happens to live in a large and sinister castle.

But Rocky Horror is much more than just a bizarre movie. Although a flop when it premiered in 1976, Rocky Horror made a late-night comeback as the nation's ranking cult film. The film's followers, not content with memorizing the script, have devised a series of now-traditional audience responses.

Every Friday and Saturday at midnight, fans across the nation arm themselves with toilet paper, rice and toast in preparation for the bizarre ritual. When the film's crazy Dr. Frank-n-furter proposes a toast, the audience pelts the screen with--you got it--slices of toast. And when rain soaks movie characters Brad and Janet, audience members drench each other with water pistols.

Transvestites on the Rocks

The Rocky Horror phenomenon began and almost ended in April of 1976. After a disastrous premiere at New York's Waverly Theater in Greenwich Village, managers relegated the "flop" to the midnight run.

That was all it took. Midnight audiences soon formed a Rocky Horror cult that, over the past decade, has spread not only across the country, but across the world.

Piro, who was there when it all started, says it was an "amazing" phenomenon. "It was one of those right-time, right-place things. One day, somebody cracked a one-liner back at the movie. The next time, somebody tried to top it. Soon, people were dressing up as characters, and maybe getting up and acting a part or two. All these little things happened spontaneously and it grew. It really took off."

Rocky Horror might have taken off, but the viewers didn't, returning time and time again to throw toast, squirt water, and contribute to the film's $60 million success.

Today, few of the people who flock to the late-night spectacle are "virgins" or first-time viewers. "At every show, I ask who has seen the movie before," Piro says. "Usually, it's at least 90 percent of the people. What's more astounding is that about three-fourths have seen it at least 10 times. It's very remarkable."

As fan Scott D. Dailard '90 says, "Why not go to Rocky Horror? Where else can you dress up like crazy characters and throw Wonderbread at people?"

A Walk on the Rocky Side

For the diehard fans, Rocky Horror has spilled off the screen and into real life. Part of the canon is having a live revue act along with the film, word for word, line for line.

Professional actor Perry Morton, who began playing Dr. Frank-n-furter in the flesh when he was 12, says playing in a Rocky Horror revue is more than just another role. "People get really wrapped up into it," he explains. "I went through a stage a few years ago when I dressed up as Frank every day for six months. Even today, sometimes I'll use Frank as a defense mechanism. I'll never be able to get my life away from it."

"[The show] was always exciting, and it was usually different," says Morton, who quit the revue this summer after nine years of performing in theaters around the country, including the Harvard Square movie house.

Acting in the revue serves as an outlet for pent-up emotions, says Kara M. Walsh, who spent two years with the Harvard Square cast. "I used to live in a very small town, and I really hated it because you couldn't be what you wanted to be without people saying something," she says. "You went to Rocky, and the people there didn't say anything."

"When we see an audience enjoying us, looking at us, and not the movie, it's really a special feeling," says Karen M. Agostino who spent nearly two years with live revues in New York and Cambridge. "It's such a phenomenon. There's nothing like it."

Actors in the revue hypothesize that the show appeals to the fans' desires to be different. "People see a quality, maybe something hidden in themselves, in one of the characters," Morton says.

And some Rocky Horror fans may derive security from the show, wacky characters and all, Agostini suggests. "Some people need the stability of seeing the same people again. It's a lot like a club. We know each other very well."

Have Watergun, Will Travel

Putting together a live revue that is water- and toast-proof takes hours of work, says Mariann Diedrich, director of the Harvard Square performances. "When someone says they want to be in the cast, we first have to find their part, then train them, and then coordinate them with the rest of the show," Diedrich says. "There is a lot of planning and a lot of work."

Diedrich began her two-year stint in the revue working on the technical aspects of the show--operating lights and sound. "I went to see it a couple of times, and told the players I wanted to be a part of it. I started out as a techie, and then began playing parts. I kept getting bigger parts, as I kept learning more of the movie."

Despite the hours of work required, Diedrich says there always seems to be a steady supply of prospective actors. "Every weekend we have people who say they want to join the cast. People always have the desire to be funny and strange."

But doesn't the same show, however bizarre, get old after several viewings? Piro, who has seen more than a decade's worth of Rocky Horror, says that many theaters try to maintain interest by holding special event nights.

Two years ago, Piro's New York cast and crew threw a "We are the World" benefit night for African famine victims. And just last year in Cambridge, two members of the local revue were married at the show, in front of a sold-out audience.

"It was really neat," Agostini says. "They came in a limousine, rolled out the red carpet, and the crowd just went crazy. There was a justice of the peace there, and they had a really nice ceremony."

For true devotees, there are annual Rocky Horror conventions and members of the Rocky Horror Fan Club receive Piro's Rocky Horror Newsletter, which includes tidbits about cast members and Rocky-related events. Even the original cast members have stayed involved with the movie. Over the years, Piro has met most of the other cast members. "When I was over in London, I met Richard O'Brien, who wrote the movie and played Riff-Raff," he says.

Rocky Horror's popularity is not just an American phenomenon. Piro, who is president of the International Rocky Horror Picture Show Fan Club, says that the cult has spread world-wide. "Rocky Horror now plays all over Europe," he says. "It just opened in Greece, and it's been a big success in London for years. It's truly international."