The weekend before "SHOCK TREATMENT" opened, an employee of The Vista Theater showed up in line at
The Tiffany to distribute flyers advertising the opening of the film at The Vista the following weekend.
Dave, the manager The Tiffany, came outside and confronted him. I had never seen him so angry before.
He got in the guy's face, and told him that he could not distribute the flyers because it would take away "his"
business from The Tiffany on the weekends. The guy from from The Vista said that he had every right to do so.
He also reminded Dave that he was standing on a public street.
It was a genuine First Amendment moment.
Until Dave started shoving him...and the guy shoved back.
Then Dave started punching him...and the guy punched back....and then...and then...

Their fistfight was a precursor for what was to come.
"SHOCK TREATMENT" and "THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW" would be competing against each other.

I saw the film on it's opening weekend at The Vista Theater in Hollywood.
A second viewing only re-affirmed my original thoughts and feelings about the film.
Although no one else said anything, we all knew that it was a major disappointment.
I haven't seen it in a theater since.
The film eventually found it's audience. I'm not one of them.
I still have my original vinyl LP of the soundtrack, and I did buy the DVD.
I will always LOVE the music from "SHOCK TREATMENT".

At that same time, things were changing rapidly for me, and not at all for the better.
The Tiffany dropped both the Friday and Saturday 2 AM shows at the end of Summer 1981.
The crowds had really wound down, and we were seeing empty rows in the theater during the Midnight shows.
There was just too much hype and overexposure regarding "SHOCK TREATMENT".
ROCKY HORROR was now very "mainstream". It wasn't the same anymore.
Audiences were burned-out on all things related to ROCKY HORROR, and it really showed.

"ROCKY HORROR Politics" again raised it's ugly head.
It made the petty bickering of EROTIC NIGHTMARES seem like child's play.
Bad energy had infiltrated The Tiffany, and it was pervading itself into every aspect of our lives.
I didn't know who to trust anymore.

I never thought that it was possible, but for the first time, ROCKY HORROR was NO FUN.

In October 1981, Van Nuys Freight & Supply Co. was evicted from The Crossroads Of The World.
The business aspect of things was a total failure.
The parties had gotten WAY out of hand, and we all ran out of money.
I wound up in an office at Victory Boulevard & Woodman Avenue in Van Nuys.
I got separated from my friends, and the woman I loved. I felt that I had no control over my life.
I was drifting in a dazed, downward spiral.
I started cheating on my girlfriend.
I knew it was wrong, but my new friend was awesome in bed, and her oral skills were exceptional.
It wasn't long until she moved on to the next guy or girl. And I felt like a fool.
The next thing I knew, 6 months had passed, and I was living in the back of a pickup truck in Torrance.

The only high point of this time was appearing in another Rick Sloane masterpiece.
It was called "The Sins Of Prostitution", and I played a pimp.
I was very much influenced by Wings Hauser as "Ramrod" from "Vice Squad".
We filmed on location at Crossroads and "down at the Sunset Grill".

"THE SINS OF PROSTITUTION"
LIZ PACELA, TROY MARTIN
DIRECTED BY RICK SLOANE
Hollywood - 1982

In April 1982, my life came crashing down within 2 hours at the "Rocky Alive" convention in Hawthorne.
The convention was being run by a self-styled ROCKY HORROR impresario/mail-order business owner.
I had paid for an advance ticket with a money order, but it never arrived in the mail.
I knew most of the people that were there that day .
Security was handled by a nasty little group of quasi-tyrants from out of town. A bunch of jerks.
"They didn't like me...they never liked me!"...and they could not find me on the list.
I realized that I had been ripped off.
So they threw me out and tried to have me arrested "for trespassing".
The cops knew it was all bullshit and a waste of their time, so they left and I waited outside in the van.

And then came one of the worst moments of my life.

She came out to the van to talk to me. And she was really pissed-off at me.
She cried only for a moment, and then very quickly regained her strength and composure.
She made no qualms about pointing out how much I had hurt her, and how much of a loser I was.
And she was right. I had let her down. She deserved better. And I had completely fucked up.
Someone like her only comes around once in a lifetime...beautiful, smart, classy, and creative.
And I had been a puerile, self-absorbed, fool. I was a loser. And I had no one to blame but myself.
In that moment, I felt for the very first time, a new, powerful, and very painful emotion.
The pain of realizing that I had really hurt someone that I loved without even trying.
I was ashamed of myself and my behavior. I hated who I was and what I was doing.
For the first time in my life I knew what is was like to hit rock bottom.
I had lost everything...my self-respect, my honor, my home, my job, friends, and now, real love.

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