As many critics have noted, the kind of films John Waters makes are so ubiquitous now, it's easy to forget how ahead of his time the man really was. When Waters (born in 1946) was a kid, though, his future did not look all that bright. He was fascinated by violence as a toddler (!), became a neighborhood hooligan, got kicked out of college for doing drugs, and shoplifted from stores for kicks. I doubt anyone--least of all him--thought he'd be a major Hollywood film director.
Waters grew up in Baltimore, an area infused with a certain amount of craziness. It influenced his outlook and his films as much as the bad movies he took in at local grindhouses (not to mention the film works of Andy Warhol--yes, that Andy Warhol--and the tit-obsessed Russ Meyer, avante-garde filmmakers who had a certain amount of success in the late 1960s). Waters started to hang out with a group of kids that included drag queen Glenn Milstead, who would later be christened Divine. Divine was unique--Waters once mentioned that he stuck out because he stood on the street corner with different hair colors every day. But Divine was an outcast; so was Waters, for his weird world view. And they both got along swimmingly.
However, Waters' first film Hag In A Black Leather Jacket (1964) did not include Divine. It starred Mary Vivian Pearce (pictured above with David Lochary), who would go on to be in practically every Waters film since. The film is basically a wedding ceremony between a white girl and a black man, and that in itself was shocking in those days. (I saw the film when it played as part of a Waters exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art, and I can tell you, it wasn't that great.)
Waters made a number of small films after that--including one about Diane Linkletter, Art Linkletter's kid who threw herself out the window over LSD, or so the story goes. But Waters didn't really hit his stride until Pink Flamingos (1972), a major film to both his career and to cinema history.
Pink Flamingos is the story of two groups of people fighting to see who will ultimately be awarded the title of "The Filthiest People Alive." Babs Johnson and her family already have the title, but Connie and Raymond Marble want to snatch it away from them. And they are certainly feasible contenders. They're a couple who forces their help (and girls they've kidnapped) to have sex so they can sell the babies to local lesbian couples, and they give drugs--the bad kind--to local kids. (Raymond also likes to flash the locals when the mood strikes him.) But Babs Johnson and her family are awarded the title for a good reason--she has sex with her son, for starters.
Article comments
1 - Temple Stark
Eric Berlin picked this for an Editors' Pick of the Week. Go find out why here
2 - Natalie Davis
Yay! John is a Bawlmer treasure, hon, a treasure. And in addition to his cinematic art, he is one of the coolest people with whom I am privileged to be acquainted.
Thanks for big-upping him and for tipping the hat to the much-missed Divine and Miss Edie.
3 - marilyn
I wish John would read up on Maryann, the elephant at the Baltimore zoo and how the kids of Baltimore harassed the city fathers for an elephant. They had a club called the Jungle Club. There were over a hundred thousand kids in the club and the issue actually was responsible for causing a dark horse named Jackson to be elected Mayor of the city. This was in the 1920's and Jackson was still Mayor when Maryann died somewhere around 1944. The Pratt library has some articles on Maryann's death and her obituary giving her story. It's purely Baltimore and would make a hell of a Water's movie.