All of his movies featured an unforgettable ensemble cast of various grotesqueries, led by the multi-talented Divine, a 300-pound female impersonator (whose real name was Harris Glenn Milstead), actress Mink Stole and the inimitable Edith Massey, an overweight 60-something, snaggle-toothed woman with no acting ability whatsoever. When you went to see a John Waters movie, you would think to yourself, "What am I going to see THIS time?" So when Hairspray was released in February 1988, everyone was surprised and quite shocked that the "Sultan of Sleaze", "The Prince of Puke," had created a movie for the whole family!
Set in 1960s Baltimore (the locale of all of Waters' films), Hairspray is about the pleasantly plump Tracy Turnblad (Ricki Lake), a cheerful, dance-crazed teenager who aspires to be on her favorite local TV show, "The Corny Collins Show", a popular teen dance program. Using her charms and talent, Tracy wins a dance competition and quickly obtains a regular position on her beloved show. However, in the process, Tracy gains a new enemy in fellow co-star, the snobby and spoiled teen queen, Amber Von Tussle (Colleen Fitzpatrick). In addition to fending off Amber's malicious attacks, Tracy uses her local celebrity to rally her fellow Baltimoreans to fight segregation and foil the ignorant and racist attitudes of the TV station owners.
Hairspray was inspired by the short essay, "The Nicest Kids in Town" that Waters' wrote for his 1981 book, Shock Value, in which he professed his love and obsession with all of the dance crazes, behind-the-scenes drama and gossip that he saw on his local Baltimore television's "The Buddy Deane Show" (the real life equivalent of Corny Collins). His movie incorporates everything that he loves about American culture: the popular novelty dances like "The Twist", "The Mashed Potato" and "The Roach"; the idea of celebrity and being famous; people taking their disadvantages and turning them into an advantage. The latter theme is one that Waters introduces in all of his films and supports his statement, "In my movies, the loser will always win. It's the normal people that are the villains." But in case you were thinking Waters had gone mainstream, he still incorporates a few of his trademark gross-out moments in Hairspray for devoted fans of his earlier films.
Among the stars and supporting players of Hairspray - an oddball mix of real life musicians and comedians - are Sonny Bono and Debbie Harry (as the evil, scheming parents of the villainous Amber), R&B singer Ruth Brown, comedian Jerry Stiller (as Tracy's father), actress Mink Stole (a Waters regular), actor Michael St. Gerard (who has the distinction of playing Elvis Presley in four different projects, most notably on the short lived TV series) and cameos by Pia Zadora and Ric Ocasek (lead singer of the 1970s-80s band, The Cars). Finally, no John Waters' film is complete without a performance by Divine, the director's muse from the early days. In Hairspray, Divine takes on an ambitious dual role, not only playing the loving and supportive mother of Tracy (a role miles away from the monstrous and demented female characters he played in Multiple Maniacs and Female Trouble) but also the role of the lecherous and bigoted owner of the TV station. Sadly, Hairspray would be Divine's last major film role as he would die of heart failure a mere month after the premiere of the film. What makes it even more bittersweet is the fact that the film was a tremendous critical and financial success and Divine was, at last, receiving positive reviews and being respected for his skills as an actor and comedian. Without a doubt, Hairspray remains the most accessible of Waters' movies and what many consider to be his most polished, consistently entertaining film.
Hairspray was such a success that it ultimately spawned an equally successful Broadway play in the summer of 2002. As expected, a new film version of Hairspray is currently in production (based on the Broadway musical). The new version will star John Travolta (as Edna Turnblad, the role originated by Divine!), Michelle Pfeiffer (as Velma Von Tussle) and Queen Latifah (as Motormouth Maybelle).
Hairspray trivia: When John Waters appeared on TNT's Monstervision franchise with Joe Bob Briggs in 1999 to discuss Hairspray he made comments about the following topics:
1. Buddy Dean
Waters: Buddy Dean is actually in the movie - the disc jockey. He plays the reporter outside the governor's mansion that first puts the microphone into the car when you see them pull up. That is the real Buddy Dean.
2. The Madison
Waters: I can do the Madison. It's the only dance I ever do anymore and I when I go to these reunions that they have of "The Buddy Dean Show," I will only do the Madison and I usually do it in the front row, so they leave me alone [about] the other dances you know. And these things are kind of weird because you see a line of a hundred 50-year-old women doing the locomotion without irony. It's an odd sight.
3. John Waters' Original Pitch to the Studio
Waters: Basically, I got up and did the dances in front of startled movie executives, and I started doing The Bug, like I had a disease in front of them. But it seemed to work, because it was the only movie I ever made where a lot of 'em wanted to do it all at once. So, basically, that was the main way I'd tell the story, but then I would get up and do each one of the dances in front of them -- not the entire number, but a few steps of it, just to give them a taste of it and they were speechless, actually, from it.
4. Ricki Lake
Waters: [We found her] through a casting woman named Mary Calhoun, and Ricki had been turned down for a job at the Gap a week earlier. She was still in college and she came to us, and as soon as she walked in, I knew it was her. I mean here was a fat girl, and she was definitely fat then, I mean, she's not now - she was then. And she was up there... we use the term chubster...I needed a teenage girl that could dance and that's the thing. Very few people even tried out for the part because most of the big girls were afraid to dance. After Hairspray came out, when I was casting for Crybaby [1990], hundreds of fat girls showed up at the auditions when I wasn't looking for 'em 'cause I was like the pied piper.
5. Divine
Waters: Divine wished he could've played every role. HE wanted to play Ricki Lake's role in the beginning. And I said it's a little hard -- you're like 35, you know, to play a teenager I mean...Divine taught Ricki Lake how to walk in high heels. Not a lot of guys can say THAT, can they? ...you know girls these days they don't know how to wear high heels. They all need a drag queen in their life to give them beauty tips, really. Especially fat girls...Divine's high heels were special metal because they snapped under his weight always. He had to have them specially built out of steel so they weighed so much every time he had to pick up his feet, it was like ten pounds on each shoe.
6. Allen Ginsberg's "Howl"
Waters: I liked "Howl." That was a great poem. I had to call Allen Ginsberg and get his permission for Pia Zadora to read it, and I think the agent was totally thrown by that call. I had to pay him certainly...to read that great poem. But that poem -- when I was 15, (it was a) huge influence on me. And Pia Zadora, of course, is everything I believe in America. She's a great star. "Butterfly" was a great movie. What other movie has Orson Welles and Ed McMahon together at last on the silver screen?
7. John Waters' Cameo in "Hairspray"
Waters: It's the last time I'll ever be in my own movie. I hated it. Having to go into make up right before you're shooting. Then you can't watch the scene except on the video. I'll never do it again.
8. The Roach
Waters: That was definitely a real dance. Where you squirted the roach with a bug repellent and then you squish squash kill that roach. Yeah. It was a big popular song then. [The] Bug was real too. I used to see that on "The Buddy Dean Show." That's when you throw a disease to somebody and they, like, have it all over them, and they throw it to the next person. Yeah, that's a fun one to do.
Producer: Sara Risher, Robert Shaye, Rachel Talalay, John Waters
Director: John Waters
Screenplay: John Waters
Cinematography: David Insley
Film Editing: Janice Hampton
Art Direction: Vincent Peranio
Music: Rachel Sweet, Kenny Vance
Cast: Sonny Bono (Franklin von Tussle), Ruth Brown (Motormouth Maybelle), Divine (Edna Turnblad), Deborah Harry (Velma Von Tussle), Ricki Lake (Tracy Turnblad), Jerry Stiller (Wilbur Turnblad).
C-92m. Letterboxed.
by Eric Weber
