Not Just A Sweet Transvestite

 Confession time: I saw The Rocky Horror Picture Show in a theater once. 

Once. 

I had friends and acquaintances in high school who made a weekly pilgrimage to the midnight showings at the UA Regency theater just off the Pearl Street Mall. They dressed up. They recited the lines. They carried in newspapers and toilet paper and squirt guns. Not unlike the way I absorbed The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy by listening to my brothers prattle on endlessly about them, I gained a rather thorough connection to all that went on during those late-night viewings from my friends. 

It was one of those friends who eventually became my roommate for several years who had not only participated in the Rocky shenanigans, but had taken note of one Tim Curry, who played Doctor Frank-N-Furter, having originated the role on stage back in jolly old England. And not just any brief connection, but went out and purchased the solo albums of Mister Curry. When I lived with him, I was able to become familiar with the "hits" he produced during his recording career. 

I Do The Rock. 

Working On My Tan.

Simplicity. 

And many more. 

But a world that already had a Freddie Mercury really needed a Tim Curry to be an actor. For me, most notably, he was the original Pennywise the Clown. And the butler in Clue. Mister Curry more than held his own on a pirate ship crewed by Muppets. 

And that voice. He made the noises of many an animated character, primarily villains. Like Hexxus, the toxic pollution spirit in Ferngully. Not quite so evil, but more confused was the pater familias of the Thornberry clan, Nigel. 

Now all those sounds have been silenced, but we can linger on their echoes, thanks to recordings and memories of fifty years ago, when there was a light - over at the Frankenstein place. Tim Curry stomped and pranced and made his way devilishly across the Terra. 

He will be missed.

Aloha, Tim.