Given the revival of John Waters’  Hairspray has passed without a reminiscence about the late Harris Glen Milstead, aka Divine, the three hundred pound transvestite, and the original Edna Turnblad, I thought I’d remedy the situation.  

Divine (1945-1988) was born in Towson, Maryland, before his family moved to Baltimore, where future independent gay film producer John Waters was a close neighbour and childhood friend.  Divine got her start in off-Broadway productions in the late sixties, namely Women Behind Bars (1970) (as a sadistic prison warden) and The Neon Woman (1976) as Flash Storm, owner of a burlesque show. At the same time, she was part of an ensemble John Waters cast called the Dreamlanders, which starred in his artisanal, low-budget celebrations of working class Baltimore camp, kitsch and exuberant homosexuality.

Invariably, Divine played tough as nails, violent, large working-class women in the early days, starting with Mondo Trasho (1969), in which Lady Divine almost runs over the “heroine.”  Waters reaalised a diva when he saw her, and Divine got headline billing in most of his subsequent seventies and eighties productions. In Multiple Maniacs (1970), she ran the Cavalcade of “Perversion”, complete with (gasp) gay kissing!!!… until she was waylaid by a naughty nun on the way to repentance, and then has it off with Lobstora, a giant mutant lobster, just after she’s resorted to cannibalism, and eaten David, her boyfriend.  In Pink Flamingos (1972), she plays Babs Johnson, the “filthiest person in the world” who lives in a trailer park with her dysfunctional family unit quite happily, until they fall afoul of the Marshes, who want their bad reputation. Murder and mayhem follow, as does coprophagy. Not for the faint hearted.

Female Trouble (1974) inspired Judith Butler’s Gender Trouble (1990), in which we follow the life of Dawn Davenport, a huge female bully prone to episodes of manic violence, her hapless relationships, jobs and family life, descent into petty crime, and ultimately, the death penalty. It’s not a pretty story, particularly given her makeup on that occassion. On the other hand, Divine never said she was a natural woman, which led Butler to intuit she may well have been deconstructing gender while performing.

In Polyester (1981), Divine left her violent days behind as Francine Fishpaw, a more sedate strughling housewife, tortured by her no-good husband Elmer, and reprobate children, as well as her evil mother, La Rue. Her only friend is the kind, intellectually disabled and rich Cuddles Kovinsky, until she meets Todd Tomorrow, who seems to be Prince Charming, but is actually conniving to dispose of Francine and her reformed offspring, so they can sell the house. Happily, the Fishpaws overpower La Rue and Todd, and Cuddles chaffeur Heintz runs over them.  Lust in the Dust (1985) saw Divine broaden her reportoire as Rosie Velez, in a comedy western, before she went mainstream as kind-hearted large mum Edna Turnblad, in Hairspray (1988).

Sadly, that proved to be Divine’s last production. In 1988, just as she was about to start a television series role as Peggy’s mum in Married With Children, she died of a heart attack, leaving grieving fans, including several Christchurch drag queens, who named themselves after her memorable past roles.

When one watches the Hairspray remake, remember- it is just that. And also remember- Divine was there first!