The Rocky Horror Picture Show Book
Dublin Core
Title
Subject
Description
The Rocky Horror Picture Show Book was released in 1979, four years after the 1975 release of the film, a science-fiction musical. This companion book, which traditionally details the making of the film, is in good condition despite being resold, as suggested by the pencil inscriptions on the inside cover of £11 and £4.50. By utilising the promotion of fan performances, cosplay, and fan magazines like The Transylvanian, the book is targeted at both pre-existing and new fans. This is a valuable resource for examining how artefacts are placed within, and reflect, the context in which they were published (Burton 18).
Originally a box office failure, The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Sharman 1975) is now known as a ‘cult hit’ that encourages audience participation and cosplay (Reale 137). The film is known for its subversion of cinematic and societal norms (heterosexuality and gender expression) so it is fitting that the glossy exterior of the book hides the thin, black and white pages in between. The anarchic structure and potentially offensive language within the book, reflects not only the disorderly nature of the film but also the fragmentary decade of the 1970s.
The film was released in the ‘disrupted decade’ of the 1970s, with economic, political, international, and cultural crises occurring in America, such as the oil embargo, inflation, Watergate and the Vietnam war (Brickman 14, 18). These events impacted the public’s view of American authority and leadership, which meant that the dominant American identity (white, middle class, heterosexual) became an unstable idea, allowing others to assert their presence (Brickman 18). The Rocky Horror Picture Show created a safe space for audiences to explore expressions of gender and sexuality (Reale 138). The companion book’s disruptive composition mirrors the turbulent decade in which it was created and continues the films legacy by drawing attention to the self-expression of the fandom. Whilst the language used can be deemed problematic today, it is important to interact with the artefact by understanding its significance to the 1970s. This artefact is placed within, and reflects, the context in which it was created, with the book providing insight into the societal norms of gender and sexuality in the 1970s (Burton 18).
The film’s disruptive nature, with its plot narration and audience participation, is mirrored in the book’s structure, which opens conventionally with an overview of the stage production and then shifts its focus between the fandom, the box office reviews, and the film’s music and lyrics. Furthermore, the book does not use a traditional numbering system, with pages of stills from the film not included in the number count, alongside some text being cut off mid-sentence, in favour of depicting images of fans. This disorderly structure not only reflects the subversive narrative of the film but also suggests that the book was made to attract and promote the fandom, with the images of fans dominating the artefact.
The first chapter of the book is called, The Rocky Horror Picture Show: It was great when it all began and informs the reader of the show’s progression from a stage production to a film adaptation. Each chapter title is a reference to the lyrics or dialogue from the musical, with Columbia singing “It was great when it all began” in the famous ‘Rose Tint My World’ song (Sharman 1975). This suggests that whilst an introductory chapter is conventional for a companion book, and informative for new members of the fandom, an existing knowledge of the film enables a deeper understanding of the artefact. The chapter title page includes an example of audience participation, with a hypothetical conversation between the narrator of the film and the audience:
“I would like” … you would, would you? … “to take you on a strange journey” … How strange was it? It was so strange they made a movie about it.
Even in the format of a written book, the artefact still manages to incorporate the participatory nature of the film and thus appeal to the fans.
The second chapter is titled, The Cast: Superheroes, and provides detailed profiles of each performer starting with Tim Curry. This is an example of conventionality within the companion book because it appeals to both the pre-existing and new fans, by detailing the making of the production. From here, the book starts to disrupt the expected linear structure of a companion piece, with the third chapter being called, The Cult: My Favourite Obsession, rather than perhaps exploring the film’s cinematic release. This chapter foregrounds the fandom’s importance in the film’s eventual success, with reports of cinemas covering the fans expenses when they arrived in costume. The book states that the attendance of these fans helped to promote the film for the cinemas, upholding Tim Deegan’s (the Vice President of Advertising at 20th Century Fox) idea that fans needed to discover the film for themselves.
Interestingly, the focus on the fandom within the book, through images, magazine inserts, and even letters of adoration for Tim Curry, suggests that while created for the fans, the artefact is also trying to entice new followers. The fragmented and illegible pictures of documents are displayed to declare that the fandom exists. However, whilst the content is disruptive to the conventional structure of a companion book, the format is quite traditional, evident by this collection being entirely based on books. The format of a companion book also allows fans to have ‘ownership of a tangible object’ which is associated with the film (Hastie 229) and thus encourages the fandom to invest their money and time in the item.
The fourth chapter is called, Rocky Horror and the Critics: I didn’t make him for you, and details how the film was unsuccessful with critics at the start of its release, thus prompting Deegan’s decision to introduce midnight screenings and attract a regular audience. The final section is titled, Music and Lyrics: The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which depicts the lyrics and participation prompts. As the normal viewing experience is ‘violated’ by the participation of audience members and the narration of a non-linear plot (Wood 158), it is appropriate that this book ‘violates’ the conventional structure of a companion piece.
Belonging to the collection at the Bill Douglas Cinema Museum, this book is one of many examples of artefacts centred on the 1975 film, from posters to promotional flyers and magazines. For example, The Official Rocky Horror Picture Show Audience Par-tic-i-pation Guide (14958) was released in 1991 by the Rocky Horror Fan Club. It contains a script of the film with suggested audience participation and a collector’s guide of merchandise, describing items such as this companion book, posters, and buttons. This book’s release sixteen years after the film suggests that it was created for pre-existing fans, as it favours the participation prompts over the processes involved in making the film.
In contrast, a more traditional companion book in this collection is the West Side Story book (31490) from 2003, with its structure presenting the production of the 1961 film in a linear fashion, compared to The Rocky Horror Picture Show Book’s anarchic structure. The West Side Story book, published 40 years after the film’s release, is evidently targeted at a specific pre-existing fan base. The Rocky Horror Picture Show Book is arguably made for new and existing fans, with the images of the fandom depicted to support the film’s status as a ‘cult hit’ (Reale 137).
Works Cited
Burton Antoinette. “Introduction: Archive Fever, Archive Stories.” Archive Stories, Facts, Fiction, and the Writing of History, edited by Burton, Duke University Press, 2005, pp.1-24.
Brickman Jane Barbara. Introduction. New American Teenagers: The Lost Generation of Youth in the 1970s Film, Bloomsbury Academic, 2014, pp1-24.
Hastie, Amelie. “The Miscellany of Film History.” Film History: Women and the Silent Screen, Vol. 18, Issue 2, 2006, pp. 222-230.
Reale Beverburg Steven. “A Sheep in a Wolf’s Corset: Timbral and Vocal Signifiers of Masculinity in The Rocky Horror Picture Show/Glee Show.” Music, Sound, and the Moving Image, Liverpool University Press, 2012, http://dx.doi.org.uoelibrary.idm.oclc.org/10.3828/msmi.2012.11 Accessed 15. Nov. 2023.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Dir. Jim Sharman, Fox-Rank, 1975.
Wood E. Robert. “Don’t Dream It: Performance and The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” The Cult Film Experience: Beyond All Reason, University of Texas Press, 1991, pp156-166.
Creator
Publisher
Irwin & Company Limited was the publisher for Canada.
Date
Contributor
Rights
Rights to the music within the book belongs to Hollenbeck Music.
Relation
Format
Height: 274mm
Width: 210mm
Thickness: 15mm
Language
Type
Identifier
BDC 36480
Coverage
Text Item Type Metadata
Original Format
Files
