One of the most fun things to do was to create our costumes.
We would hit every thrift store in town for costume pieces. If we couldn't find it, we would make it ourselves.
We would buy vintage pieces of clothing and alter them, rip them, soil them, add and remove pieces from them.
We really strived to look as close to the characters as we could.
I'd spray my hair silver, and after I got tired of it sweating off me, I bleached and colored my hair.
David & Julie colored their hair, too.
Richard bleached his hair AND shaved his head. Richard WAS Riff-Raff.
We could look pretty freaky when we were out of costume, too.

We would rehearse a lot and develop props. EROTIC NIGHTMARES had their shit together.
We would buy things from the mail-order "ROCKY HORROR SHOP".
A&B Buttons, magazines, soundtracks from other versions of "THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW".
I still have Bill Heinken's "THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW BOOK".
My copy of "THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW PHOTONOVEL" ("C'mon Now!!!"...indeed!) was lost in transit.

EROTIC NIGHTMARES were soon the established cast for Riverside, and a regular, popular attraction.
We were a rather intimidating bunch when we were together.
We knew we had "that elusive ingredient...that SPARK that is the breath of life!"
We were good...very, very good.
Bill Gartley, the manager of the Tyler Mall UA Theater 4 deserves special praise.
Bill was really good to us.
He always encouraged us, and helped keep ROCKY HORROR alive in Riverside for years.

We hit all of the conventions.
On July 20, 1980, we attended the Second Annual Transylvanian Convention at the Holiday Inn in Hollywood.
Richard made a point of pinching every girls ass that he encountered.
The crowd adored him, and he took first prize in the costume contest.

RICHARD GIFFORD
WINNER - "BEST RIFF-RAFF"
Second Annual Transylvanian Convention - Hollywood CA - 1980

I bought a Limited Edition of Richard O'Brien's "THE ROCKY HORROR SCRAPBOOK" (#01809 of 2000).
Years later, Tim Curry signed it for me.
Once, we went to a convention in Anaheim and walked out with a bunch of ROCKY HORROR photos.
We send a telegram to Richard O'Brien on his birthday, and about a month later, he sent us a "Thank You" card.
We started going to other theaters in the "So-Cal Rocky Circuit", most notably, The Tiffany Theater in Hollywood,
The Balboa Theater in Newport Beach, Montclair and The Cove Theater in Hermosa Beach.
We enjoyed checking out the other ROCKY HORROR casts and making connections.

Richard had put together a "London Frank" costume to try out on the crowd.
Our friend Joe mentioned to Richard that the panties he was wearing looked pretty skimpy.
He suggested to Richard that he might want to wear another pair.
Richard simply replied, "If I don't wear these panties, the chicks can't see my balls."
Later that night at the theater, there was a guy named Colon already working the crowd out in front.
Colon was dressed in one of the lamest attempts of a "Sweet-T" corset every seen in all of Transylvania.
Two guys were in line and one them pointed at Colon and said "Hey look...there's Frank N Furter!"
His friend looked at Colon and told his friend "Nah...that isn't Frank N Furter."
He pointed at Richard and said, "Now THAT'S Frank N Furter!"

We soon had our first group experience of that nasty beast called "Rocky Horror Politics".
Another cast had sprung up at our theater. They called themselves SENSUAL DAYDREAMS.
They were not as "good" as we were, but none one really cared...until....
One night, Richard was at the theater by himself, and Adam, the leader of SENSUAL DAYDREAMS got rude.
He had insulted EROTIC NIGHTMARES. He said that we were washed-up (?!) and inferior (???!!!).
Richard kind of laughed it off, and he told us about it when he got home. We laughed it off, too.
But the next night, Adam insulted EROTIC NIGHTMARES again.
He also said that from now on, SENSUAL DAYDREAMS would be the "Exclusive Cast" for our theater.
And that all performances or input would have to be appproved by him and SENSUAL DAYDREAMS first.

We figured..."Hey, Fuck You!", and we decided the best way to deal with it was to put on "The Ultimate Show".
The idea was that if we focused and put on the better show, that would end the insults and bullshit.
We had 5 days to prepare, and prepare we did!
That was probably the most intense and creative week that we ever had together as EROTIC NIGHTMARES.
EVERYONE in the cast showed up for rehearsal every day that week.
We rehearsed and spent hours on the routines, costumes, and new props.
We called all of our friends to come out and support us.
And, we decided to do some of the things that we had seen other casts do.
We arrived at the theater, and Adam told us that we were forbidden from performing.
I simply said, "Try and stop us."
The color drained from his face, and he was unable to say anything.

Our intention was to pull out all the stops and electrify the audience.
We were very successful.
The house was full of people that were in the mood for ROCKY HORROR, so we gave 'em what they wanted!
Their enthusiasm was evident when they wents nuts as we made our entrance into the theater.
I started the show with a bit of banter, we did the pre-show, and then the movie started.
What drove the crowd insane was when we did one of the bits we saw done at the Tiffany.
We created, a large set of 3-foot tall black letters that spelled out: "J-A-N-E-T".
We held them up in sequence against the screen when Brad sings "Oh, J-A-N-E-T! I love you so!"
The reaction from the audience was fabulous! Still one of the best that I've ever seen!
We did our bits and then turned the stage over to SENSUAL DAYDREAMS.
Our show went great! We would shift in between EROTIC NIGHTMARES and SENSUAL DAYDREAMS.
We clearly out-classed SENSUAL DAYDREAMS in every way.
In the words of one guy that was there that night, "It's clear who's got the better show!"
Afterwards, SENSUAL DAYDREAMS never gave us a hard time again.
And we all decided that it was best if we all worked together from then on.
With everyone working together, ROCKY HORROR in Riverside was fun again.
We kept drawing bigger crowds, and got more innovative with our show.

Naturally, Hollywood Beckoned.