Sunset Strip
The Sunset Strip is the 1 1⁄2-mile (2.4 km) stretch of Sunset Boulevard that passes through the city of West Hollywood, California.
A world-famous tourist destination, it played an important role in both the history and development of Rocky Horror.
The Sunset Strip was an entertainment destination beginning in the 1920s with a growing roster of bars and night clubs. The street later gained notoriety when the television show 77 Sunset Strip immortalized the fictional address in a catchy jingle and hit record that brought the area to global attention as a hip hot-spot in the early 1960s. The Strip hit a pinnacle of fame in the mid-60s as the youth culture of the time took to the streets of the area and more night clubs geared towards the folk and hippie generation cropped up, along with an art-house movie theatre in the 77 Sunset Strip location that attracted "that type" called the Tiffany Theater
Music producer Lou Adler purchased a club on the Sunset Strip in 1973 which he named the Roxy Theatre. Adler booked both musical acts and cabaret acts at the club, and imported The Rocky Horror Show after seeing it at the Theater Upstairs in London. The show was updated to fit the cabaret, and became a hit that ran from March 1974 to January 1975, and featured Tim Curry in the leading role for the first 7 months. On October 31, 1974, the audience was invited to come in costume to the show to participate in the first known official costume contest associated with Rocky Horror. In following years, the Roxy would host a number of Rocky Horror related events, and from time to time has displayed large LP covers related soundtracks coinciding with the events, reminding the passers-by of the location's history with the show and movie and its music
Early in the show's run at the Roxy, Tower Records on the Sunset Strip displayed a 6' x 6' rendering of the Original London Cast Soundtrack Album which was the only available record before the release of the Roxy Cast LP in August of 1974. In the early '80s when The Rocky Horror Picture Show Original Soundtrack Album was still selling in the top 100 LPs in the US, Tower Records had 6' x 6' covers of the movie and Roxy cast soundtracks on their outer wall for several weeks. In 1990, the tradition was revisited with a 6' x 6' cover of the The Rocky Horror Picture Show 15th Anniversary Box Set on the wall for the months of September and October.
In March of 1977, the Tiffany Theatre on the Sunset Strip was reopened under a new lease to movie aficionado Tommy Cooper. On June 10, 1977, the location once known as 77 Sunset Strip began running The Rocky Horror Picture Show as the 13th of The First 30 US Theaters with a regular, ongoing weekends at midnight booking. Within a year, the Tiffany was a highly sought out destination for fans of the film from all over the world until it closed on March 13, 1983 to become a live theatre. While The Rocky Horror Picture Show was growing as a cult film, the Tiffany developed a reputation as one of the most lively places to attend the film, and the Sunset Strip location added a unique ambiance including bumper-to-bumper traffic, hookers and various other night life immortalized in Donna Summer's 1979 song "Sunset People," making the show outside on the street as entertaining as the show inside the theatre.
In 1978, artist Jan Sawka painted a cover for Westways magazine, a nationally distributed publication of American Auto Club. Sawka had recently emigrated from Poland and he created a vibrant pop art image that captured the sometimes surreal and cartoonish scene along Sunset Boulevard. Rocky Horror is represented with a stylized illustration of the lips across from the 76 station that across the street from the Tiffany, and a small cross-section of the Tiffany marquee (referenced by the large "A N" surrounded by lights.
Various newspapers and magazines (including national titles Time and Circus) ran features on the Tiffany, and several crews from Japan to Scandinavia to Italy filmed news features on the growing cult with the Sunset Strip theatre as the central focus. In 1979, the local Los Angeles news magazine program Two On The Town hosted by Connie Chung and Steve Edwards featured a 30-minute episode on the Sunset Strip, which included a segment on Rocky Horror at the Tiffany Theatre as did the nationally syndicated That's Hollywood - "Cult Classics" in 1981. In 1999, a revival of The Rocky Horror Show came to the Sunset Strip at the Tiffany and was attended on more than one occasion by the show's author, Richard O'Brien.
Notable Locations
- Roxy Theatre - The original Roxy Cast production of The Rocky Horror Show, starring Tim Curry and Meat Loaf, debuted March 21, 1974 and played there for nine months to great success before moving to the Belasco Theatre on Broadway.
- Tiffany Theater - The legendary venue where The Rocky Horror Picture Show played from June 10, 1977 to March 13, 1983.
- Tower Records - Legendary flagship retail music store that had 6' x 6' Rocky Horror LP Covers on the side of the building at advertising various releases of the soundtracks.
Cast Affiliations
Notable Events
1974: The First ''Rocky Horror'' Costume Contest - Roxy Theatre - October 31
1978: Tim Curry - Read My Lips Tour (Opening Nights of Tour) - Roxy Theatre - July 14-15-16
1979: Tim Curry - Fearless Tour - Roxy Theatre - August 26
1983: The Rocky Horror Picture Show Halloween Audience Par-Tic-I-Pation! Midnight Screening - Roxy Theatre - October 31
1995: The Rocky Horror 20th Anniversary Celebration - Roxy Theatre - October 20
1999: The Rocky Horror Show - 1999 Los Angeles Revival - Tiffany Theater
2013: I Survived the Tiffany Reunion - Tiffany Theater - March 9
2016: The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let's Do the Time Warp Again Premiere - Roxy Theatre - October 13
2016: The Rocky Horror Picture Jam - Whisky a Go Go - October 18
2018: The Rocky Horror Picture Jam - Whisky a Go Go - October 30
See Also
Audience Participation
Los Angeles Rocky Horror
Rocky Horror Merchandise
Brad's Shorts (really!)
External Links
The Rocky Horror Picture Show Official Fan Site [1]
Rocky Horror At The Tiffany Theater [2]
