ENDORA YOUR ENTHUSIASM (1)
By:
July 4, 2025
One in a series of enthusiastic posts, contributed by 25 HILOBROW friends and regulars, on the topic of our favorite sympathetic villains. Series edited by Heather Quinlan.
DR. FRANK-N-FURTER
Hard to imagine that this was ever the case, but I first saw Rocky Horror Picture Show with no idea of what awaited. This was well before it was a cult phenomenon, before audiences sang along and shouted prompts and dressed up and brought objects into the theater, when it was just a stage musical-turned film that had sputtered on release and was screening late nights in only a few US cities.
All I knew was that a friend had seen it and insisted I go with him — to a theater in Austin, TX that would become one of the spawning grounds for the audience interaction. It was campy, intriguing and mind-boggling…
Until the elevator lowered, with glittering platform shoes marking the pulsing beat.
The first frontal glimpse of Dr. Frank-N-Furter was magnetic and seductive and commanding, encapsulating everything that followed. The Dracula cape signaled seductive, fatal danger. The Elizabeth Taylor makeup dazzled with gender-bending allure, presaging the sexual omnivorism that would conquer both Brad and Janet.
Singing his introduction, he strutted and prowled with predatory confidence, extending hospitality that tingled with complications. When he threw a drink into the camera, he claimed dominance over even that, and those of us who sat beyond.
Who could look away? Who wanted to? We bought into whatever he was up to, no matter than it unrolled more and more into the unsavory. Creating and imprisoning a muscleman. Lobotomizing and icing Eddie, then serving him for dinner. Who cared? Not with that velvety growl. Those fish-net encased legs. That pout. They drew us in and kept us as captive as Rocky, even the verifiably straight companion who’d dragged me to this weirdapalooza.
At the end, confronted by the failure of his mission, he switched tactics to ploys for sympathy. This did not work as intended, but it worked all the same. He may not have prevented his demise on film, but he succeeded on a grander scale, catapulting a brazenly seductive, glamorous transvestite into enduring cult status. No one can look away.
ENDORA YOUR ENTHUSIASM: INTRODUCTION by Heather Quinlan | Kathy Biehl on DR. FRANK-N-FURTER | Catherine Christman on ALEXIS CARRINGTON | Crockett Doob on M3GAN | Nick Rumacyzk on AURIC GOLDFINGER | Mariane Cara on MIRANDA PRIESTLY | Trav SD on PROFESSOR HINKLE | TBD on TBD | Lynn Peril on ENDORA | Adam McGovern on EDDIE HASKELL | Mimi Lipson on SUE ANN NIVENS | Heather Quinlan on HAROLD SHAND | Tom Nealon on SKELETOR | Matthew Hodge on BARRY LYNDON | Josh Glenn on JOEL CAIRO | Dan Reines on WALTER PECK | Mark Kingwell on HARRY LIME | James Scott Maloy on CLARENCE BODDICKER | Nikhil Singh on LOCUTUS | Carolyn Campbell on CARSON DYLE | Tony Pacitti on DENNIS NEDRY | Gordon Dahlquist on WALKER | Colin Campbell on RUTH LYTTON | Marc Weidenbaum on THE XENOMORPHS | Alex Brook Lynn on TOM POWERS | Mandy Keifetz on MACHEATH.
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