Most movie critics and fanatics can tell you the longest run-time a movie has in a theater. They can tell you how much money it made the first week in the box office, they can tell you how people reacted (good or bad).

However, one movie is continuously on the big-screen, steadily making money, and catching a variety of reactions: “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”.

RHPS first originally premiered on Sept. 1975 and was considered a failure. Due to the initial reaction being less than satisfactory, the producers shelved the movie and moved on to bigger and better films.

A year later on April Fools Day of 1976, a young executive at 20th Century Fox convinced Bill Quigley, the head of Walter Reade Organization, the head hunter of film and theater companies,  to replace the originally scheduled midnight movie with  the “Rocky Horror Picture Show”.  Reactions greatly contrasted the film’s original release the previous year.

After the April fools run, the owner of the theater, Denise Borden, fell in love with the movie beginning her own advertising for the film. She continued to play the film on a weekly basis, every Saturday night starting midnight – thus sparking the Midnight Mayhem phenomenon.

New traditions began to arise as the film played on. During the opening scene, a wedding takes place, and regulars who came for the film would bring rice and celebrate with their onscreen counterparts.

People began to scream the lines of the movie during the show, even calling characters names. Rocky Horror  fans eventually started to wear costume replicas to the film as a commemoration. The fishnets of Dr. Frank N. Furter, the trench coat worn by Brad, the skinny gold speedo worn by Rocky, and even the purple sparkly tights that Magenta, the alien, wore throughout the movie.

The film sparked a spectacle of costumes. Racy outfits showing a plethora of skin, crazy hair productions (often of multiple colors and styles), and over dramatic, unrealistic makeup that darkens the face to make a person look “other-worldly”.

But not only were the costumes a hit, the cast played a major part of making the Rocky Horror a major production.

Cast as the lead villain, Tim Curry brings life into the character of Dr. Frank N. Furter. Being the misunderstood transvestite who only wants someone to love, he takes the role of “evil doctor” to a whole new level. The character even has a ‘play on words’ name from Dr. Frankenstein, the ultimate evil doctor.

The lead roles of Brad and Janet are played by Barry Bostwick and the legendary Susan Sarandon, with other cast appearances by Richard O’Brien, Meat Loaf, and Jonathan Adams.

With the second release being a hit with the public, the movie continues to play at midnight all across the country.

No one can deny the Midnight Mayhem Phenomenon that is Rocky Horror. Not the die hard fans or Rocky Horror “virgins” ( those who haven’t seen the movie during a midnight showing), and certainly not the “one and done” viewers. The movie, as the say in show business, will go on.