When the Sultan of Sleaze, the Baron of Bad Taste and the Pope of Trash decided to make a small movie about his hometown (Baltimore) and pay tribute to a real-life 1960s era dance program (The Buddy Deane Show), the results was the 1988 movie, Hairspray.

John Waters not only had his high school friend, Harris Millstead--the female impersonator Divine--play a leading role, he recruited Ricki Lake for her first movie role and featured pop icons Deborah Harry and Sonny Bono.

The resulting film feels cheap and tacky, but has a sweet moral center. Set in 1962, a time when big hair wasn't a derogatory term and women could add a few inches to their height by overteasing their hair, the film follows the plump Tracy Turnblad (Lake) who breaks the mold of teen popularity by making it on to the Corny Collins Show (Shawn Thompson as Corny) despite being fat. She also gives the tall, thin, spoiled and scheming Amber Von Tussle (Colleen Fitzpatrick) stiff competition as the most popular girl and eventually wins Amber's hunky boyfriend, Link Larkin (Michael St.Gerard), while protesting segregation.

Tracy becomes a model for the local full-figured speciality shop and she and her mother becomes models of tacky (this is John Water's) full-figured fashion. When Amber accuses Tracy's highly teased hairdo of housing cockroaches, Tracy turns it around in the final scene with a roach patterned cocktail gown.

Tracy's best friend, Penny (Leslie Ann Powers) falls in love with a black schoolmate, Seaweed (Clayton Prince), who not only teaches Tracy some cool dance movies, but is the son of Motormouth Mabel (Ruth Brown), the DJ for the monthly black dance show.

Divine played Tracy's mother, Edna, and the racist station manager, Arvin Hodgepile, while Jerry Stiller was Tracy's father. Bono and Harry were Amber's parents.

When low culture camp goes Broadway, a lot was lost to glam the production up. Neither of the elder Von Tussles get the star-draw of a famous name rock star. The role of Amber's father was deleted. Her mother, Velma, becomes part of the TV station management, partially taking over the role originated by Mink Stole in the film.

Penny still has her illicit cross-cultural romance, but she's less a vocal supporter for desegregation. Link Larkin's role as a protester is also diminished in order to focus on Tracy as the main mover.

Some of the songs and dances are lost, notably "The Roach." And the ending doesn't feature a hilarious hairdo for Velma, Amber's mother, and the infamous hair bomb. Talk about bad hair days!