The Rocky Horror Picture Show verbatim at each screening. Performance groups became a staple at "Rocky Horror" screenings due in part to the prominent New York City fan cast. The New York City cast was originally run by former schoolteacher and stand-up comic Sal Piro and his friend Dori Hartley. Hartley who portrayed Dr. Frank N. Furter, was one of several performers, including Will Kohler as Brad Majors, Nora Poses as Janet, and Lilias Piro as Magenta in a flexible rotating cast. The performances of the audience was scripted and actively discouraged improvising, being conformist in a similar way to the repressed characters. On Halloween
The Rocky Horror Picture Show was able to talk distributors into midnight screenings, starting in New York City on April Fools' Day of 1976. The cult following started shortly after the film began its midnight run at the Waverly Theater in New York City., then spread to other counties in NYC, and to Uniondale, L.I. "Rocky Horror" was not only found in the larger cities but throughout the United States where many attendees would get in free if they arrived in costume. The western division of the film's release included the U.A. Cinemas in Fresno and Merced, the Cinema J. in Sacramento, California, and the