Exploring the influential partnership between John Waters and Divine
In 1964, John Waters created his first short film, Hag in a Black Leather Jacket. With an outrageous premise – as a black man asks a Klu Klux Klansman to officiate his wedding to a white woman – and a tiny $30 budget, the film epitomised Waters’ future oeuvre. The director was unafraid to shock his audiences, satirise serious issues, and attack American conservatism and traditionalism.
Two years later, Waters made his second short film, Roman Candles – his first to feature Divine. Born Harris Glenn Milstead, Divine was a neighbour of Waters’ who suffered severe bullying due to being gay and overweight. After school, he began a career as a hairdresser and, when he wasn’t working, threw massive parties where he dressed up in drag. Waters soon gave Milstead the name ‘Divine’, lifting the name from the pages of Jean Genet’s Our Lady of the Flowers. In an interview with David Letterman, Waters once explained: “I first saw Divine, and I thought: Raw beauty. […] To me, beauty is looks you can never forget, and I’ve walked down the street with Divine, and I’ve seen car accidents happen.”
Waters saw Divine as his muse – the perfect person to embody campiness and trashiness. They became an indomitable duo, consistently working together on bizarre slices of surrealist, low-budget cinema. The director was keen to challenge audiences and make them uncomfortable, and who better to front his movies than an overweight, outrageously trashy drag queen? Waters explained to Letterman: “I find humour in all the things that are terrible about America, and things that people have anxiety about, but the first step of getting rid of anxiety is to laugh at it.”
Throughout the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s, Waters and Divine indulged in all things subversive, creating a series of movies, such as Mondo Trasho, Multiple Maniacs, Female Trouble, Polyester and Hairspray. However, the pair became best known for their infamous collaboration Pink Flamingos in 1971, which remains one of the most controversial films ever made. Posters advertised the movie as “an exercise in bad taste” – and that was no word of a lie. The film, starring Divine as a criminal known as Babs Johnson, featured countless gross and offensive images, from incest to rape, murder, castration and even the consumption of dog excrement. Waters and Divine didn’t hold back – the sex was unsimulated, as was Divine eating dog shit – which resulted in the movie being banned in many countries.
In Pink Flamingos, Divine battled to be “the filthiest person alive,” and in Female Trouble, released three years later, her character Dawn Davenport attempted to be the ultimate criminal, equating crime with beauty and the electric chair with an Academy Award. Divine shone in every movie, lighting up the screen with an infectious presence, no matter how disgusting the character. Milstead’s lack of inhibitions allowed Waters’ filthiest ideas to come to life, and their legacy is monumental.
Divine was the drag queen, influencing the shape of drag artistry like no one else. Waters explained in an interview with Baltimore Magazine, “His legacy was that he made all drag queens cool. They were square then, they wanted to be Miss America and be their mother. He broke every rule. And now every drag queen, every one that’s successful today is cutting edge.”
From Waters’ low-budget, boundary-pushing approach to Divine’s fearless on-screen presence, the pair completely changed the landscape of countercultural cinema. Filmmakers such as David Lynch and Jim Jarmusch have cited Waters as an influence over their work. The latter told Rotten Tomatoes, “What is so particular and striking for me about John Waters is that no matter how perverse and weird his themes and characters may be, his films are never ever mean spirited,” he explained. “As time goes by, for me, John Waters becomes more and more important as his work echoes through our culture.”
Divine’s influence has spread to the most unexpected places, like the Disney animated musical, The Little Mermaid, with the drag queen influencing the appearance of the evil sea witch Ursula. Tragically, Milstead died shortly after the release of Hairspray due to heart failure in 1988. Luckily, his work with Waters means his influence and flamboyant, daring persona will never be forgotten. Although their films might not be the easiest to stomach, they’re certainly a lot of fun – an encapsulation of camp imbued with an undoubtedly punk spirit.
