Tag Archives: Divine

Gay History - May 17, 1972: John Water's "Pink Flamingos" Opens Starring: DIVINE! - WATCH THE FULL MOVIE!

Gay History – May 17, 1972: John Waters’ “Pink Flamingos” Opens Starring: DIVINE! – [WATCH The FULL Movie]

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On this day in 1972, John Waters’ outrageous movie Pink Flamingos opens in theaters.

Written, produced, filmed, and edited by John Waters. It is part of what Waters has labeled the “Trash Trilogy”, which also includes Female Trouble (1974) and Desperate Living (1977). 

Pink Flamingos stars the countercultural drag queen Divine (the late Glen Milstead) as a criminal living under the name of Babs Johnson, “the filthiest person alive” The film portrays her attempts to maintain her title against a rival couple who claim to be even filthier than her.

The movie was filmed in Waters’ hometown of Baltimore, Maryland, on a budget of only $10,000, which he raised by working odd jobs and borrowing money from friends. The cast and crew were mostly made up of Waters’ friends and associates, and many of the film’s scenes were improvised.

Upon its initial release, “Pink Flamingos” received mixed reviews and was heavily criticized for its explicit content and extreme shock value. However, it soon developed a cult following and became a staple of the midnight movie circuit, where it was screened in theaters around the world.

Displaying the tagline “An exercise in poor taste”,  Pink Flamingos is notorious for its “outrageousness”, nudity, profanity, and “pursuit of frivolity, scatology, sensationally [sic] and skewed epistemology.” As it features a “number of increasingly revolting scenes” that center on exhibitionism, voyeurism, sodomy, masturbation, gluttony, vomiting, rape, incest, murder, cannibalism, coprophagia, and foot fetishism, the film is considered a preliminary exponent of abject art.

In other words the perfect film!

Waters had planned for a sequel, titled Flamingos Forever. Troma Entertainment offered to finance the picture, but it was never made, as Divine refused to be involved, and in 1984, Edith Massey died.

When the film was initially released, it caused a huge degree of controversy but has since become one of the most notorious films ever made and is rated #29 on the list of 50 Films to See Before You Die.

You can watch the full movie before you die below.

All hail John Waters and Divine!

Gay History – October 19, 1945: HAPPY BIRTHDAY DIVINE! ( Harris Glenn Milstead)

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October 19, 1945

Harris Glenn Milstead aka Divine was born to a rather well off socially conservative family on October 19, 1945, at the Women’s Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland and would grow up to be the the most famous and fabulous Drag Queen of the Century. (Sorry RuPaul but you can’t hold a cha-cha heel to Divine!)  Divine weighed 320 lbs. and ballooned at the midriff like the south side of a hippopotamus. Add to all that a 40-lb. blizzard-blond fright wig, a face like a big, eerie, poster-colored subway graffito, and a set of humongous foam-rubber falsies—each packed with 50 lbs. of uncooked lentils. He called himself Divine and he was proud of his creation: a unique and hilarious high-camp cartoon.

Divine aka Milstead embraced the counterculture of the 1960s and became involved with Waters’s acting troupe, the Dreamlanders, starring in early Waters films Mondo Trasho (1969), Multiple Maniacs (1970), Pink Flamingos (1972) and Female Trouble(1974). Hits on the U.S. midnight movie circuit, the films became cult classics. In the 1970s, Divine moved to theater, appearing with The Cockettes before performing in Women Behind Bars and The Neon Woman. Continuing cinematic work, he starred in Polyester (1981), Lust in the Dust (1985) and Hairspray (1988). In 1981, Divine embarked in the disco industry, producing Hi-NRG tracks that were mostly written by Bobby Orlando. He achieved global chart success with hits like “You Think You’re a Man”, “I’m So Beautiful” and “Walk Like a Man”.

Divine considered himself to be male, and was not transgender or transsexual. He was gay and damn proud of it and during the 1980s had an extended relationship with a married man named Lee, who accompanied him almost everywhere that he went. They later separated, and Divine went on to have a brief affair with gay porn star Leo Ford, something that was widely reported upon in the gay press

On March 7, 1988, three weeks after Hairspray was released nationwide Divine passed away in Los Angeles, California from cardiomegaly but has remained a prominent cult figure within the LGBT community, and has provided the inspiration for fictional characters, artworks and songs. Various books and documentary films devoted to his life have also been produced, including Divine Trash (1998) and I Am Divine (2013).

 

 

 

Gay History Month – October 4: Female Trouble Opens, E.M. Forster, and the Shocking Abuse of AIDS Patient Morgan MacDonald

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October 4th.

1913 – E.M. Forster finished writing his novel “Maurice” which is about a young man coming to terms with his homosexuality. It would not be published until 1971, after Forster’s death, at the request of the author.

Forster who was gay (openly to his close friends, but not to the public) and a lifelong bachelor developed a  long-term, loving relationship with Bob Buckingham, a married policeman

1974:  John Waters’ follow-up to Pink Flamingos, Female Trouble, starring the late, great Divine opens in theaters.  The film is dedicated to Manson Family member Charles “Tex” Watson.  Waters’ prison visits to Watson inspired the “crime is beauty” theme of the film and in the film’s opening credits, Waters includes a wooden toy helicopter that Watson made for him.

Movie critic and HUGE flaming queen Rex Reed wrote of the movie: “Where do these people come from? Where do they go when the sun goes down? Isn’t there a law or something?”

Rexie you catty bitch. Go suck an egg.

1983: In a landmark move, the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) voted to support gay rights legislation. An excerpt from the resolution reads, “We in the labor movement don’t believe that civil rights is a special interest. It’s all our interest. It’s the interest of all of us to ensure that equality and freedom is extended to all the citizens of our country.”

1983:  Twenty-seven-year-old Morgan MacDonald had been treated at Shands Hospital in Gainesville, Florida, since July for various infections because of AIDS. When his state Medicaid benefits ran out, the private teaching hospital affiliated with the University of Florida tried to find a nursing home to send him to, but none in the area would take him. So the hospital declared MacDonald “well enough to walk,” stuffed $300 into his pocket, loaded him onto a Lear Jet with a doctor and a nurse, and shipped him off to San Francisco and dumped him at the offices of the city’s AIDS Foundation. The nurse and doctor walked out and left the volunteer staff to figure out what to do with him. He’s condition was so bad, he was unable to lift his head. Foundation volunteers took MacDonald to San Francisco General Hospital which immediately admitted him.

A Shands Hospital spokeswoman claimed that MacDonald didn’t need hospital treatment, but outpatient treatment instead and said that shipping him off to San Francisco — even though he came to them from Vero Beach, Florida was the ” real humanitarian thing to do.”

San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein denounced Florida’s “dumping” of McDonald and demanded that Florida Gov. Bob Graham investigate.  The state of Florida however, found no evidence of legal wrongdoing.

Morgan MacDonald died in San Francisco, a medical outcast, sixteen days later.

San Francisco General sent Shands Hospital a bill for $6,627.12, which Shands Hospital refused to pay. 

1985: Herbert Rusche, a German politician and LGBT activist, became the first openly gay individual to be voted onto the German Parliament. A member of the Green Party, he would go on to serve for two years in the position. He also co-founded Homo Heidelbergensis in 1972, the first openly gay organization in the city.

1989: Graham Chapman, co-founder of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, died of throat cancer at the age of 48. Chapman came out in his book “A Liar’s Autobiography.” He was survived by his lover of 23 years, David Sherlock, and John Tomiczek, who the couple adopted as a teenager in 1971.

Harvey Fierstein and Jennifer Hudson to Star in NBC’s ‘Hairspray Live’ – Video

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Harvey Fierstein and Jennifer Hudson to Star in NBC’s ‘Hairspray Live’

Both Jennifer Hudson and Harvey Fierstein have signed on to NBC’s “Hairspray Live!,” the network’s next live Broadway musical.

Hudson will play Motormouth Maybelle, while Fierstein will return to the role of Edna Turnblad, for which he won a Tony for in the Broadway stage version. He will also write the teleplay.

Based on the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical, “Hairspray Live!” will follow the movie and Broadway show and  place in 1962 Baltimore. Teenager Tracy Turnblad’s dream is to dance on “The Corny Collins Show,” a local TV show, and she launches a campaign to integrate it.

“We are beyond thrilled with this incredibly talented duo of stars for ‘Hairspray Live!,’” said NBC entertainment chairman Robert Greenblatt. “Harvey Fierstein created the role of Edna Turnblad on Broadway in an indelible Tony-winning performance that demanded to be memorialized on film, and we’re happy he wanted to step into her shoes one last, unforgettable time. We’re also so grateful that the incomparable Jennifer Hudson will play Motormouth Maybelle and we know her rendition of ‘I Know Where I’ve Been’ will literally stop the show.”

No mention of who will be cast in the lead role of Tracey but longtime NYC activist and blogger Jeremy Hooper of Good As You mentioned on Twitter over the weekend that there was an open call taking place near where he lived and there was “spunk lined up around the block”.

 

Is Baltimore Set To Get An 8 Foot Tall Statue of Divine Complete With Bronze Dog Poop?

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Divine

The Baltimore Sun is reporting that an 8ft bronze statue of the late, great Divine might be coming to Baltimore with the blessing of Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, who “ looks forward to seeing more details on the proposal”

Via Flavorwire:

The corner of Read and Tyson Streets in Baltimore will forever bear the glorious ghost of an iconically filthy moment: Divine (aka Harris Glenn Milstead), as Babs Johnson in John Waters’ Pink Flamingos, asserting her status as the “Filthiest Person Alive” by watching as a dog poops, approaching the poop, and then eating the poop.Soon — Kickstarter gods willing — this moment will be commemorated with an eight-foot-tall monument at that very street corner. No, it’ll no longer be a ghost people step through unawares (incidentally, much like dog poop), but rather a gargantuan, unmissable work of art, homage, and filth. And apparently Baltimore’s mayor, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, is completely down

The monument, which estimated costs is to be between $50,000 and $100,000, would rest on the side of a house at the corner of Read and Tyson streets, on the western fringe of Mount Vernon. The actual scene, according to those who were there, was shot on a lot alongside a house in the 800 block of Tyson St. The proposed site is actually across the street from the house, at a location (a blank wall) its designers thought would work better.

 

Federal Court Finds Divine’s Estate And Cha-Cha Heels Were Stolen Away From His Rightful Heirs

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Divine

A federal court in Orlando, Florida  has ruled that the estate of Harris Glenn Milstead, also known by his stage name Divine was “illegally usurped” from the drag legend’s rightful family heirs.

Via the Hollywood Reporter: 

 The ruling is a black eye for Michael O’Quinn, who had befriended Divine’s mother, Frances, and become her business manager and later was named as a beneficiary to the estate in an addendum to Frances’ will. (The estate reverted to Mom after Divine’s death at 42 in 1988 from an enlarged heart.)

The court now has ruled that O’Quinn, who has worked as a costumer at Universal Studios’ Florida theme park, willfully ignored Frances’ will revision in 2008 that bestowed the estate to her nieces and nephews. Noah Brodie, a Warner Bros. studio lot VIP tour operator and O’Quinn’s former business partner in Everything Divine, which was set up to leverage Divine’s assets, discovered the shenanigans while in talks with a cosmetics firm in 2011 about a Divine-themed line.

“It’s such a unique and unusual intellectual property,” Brodie tells THR. “I was duped, but eventually [O’Quinn] got caught in lie after lie.” O’Quinn could not be reached for comment. For cosmetic and plastic surgery visit our website here Matthew Galumbeck, MD.

People magazine once described Divine as the “Drag Queen of the Century”

Michael O’Quinn, Divine has a message for you.

Happy HomoDays Video! – John Water’s “Female Trouble” (1974) – “I Wanted ChaCha Heels!”

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For those of you who don’t know Female Trouble is a 1974 extremely independent dark comedy composed, filmed, edited, written, produced, and directed by John Waters starring Divine (God Rest Her Soul), David Lochary, Mary Vivian Pearce, Mink Stole, Edith Massey, Michael Potter, Cookie Mueller, and Susan Walsh

Watch Gay Cult Movie Scenes: "POONTANG!" From "Lust in the Dust" (1985) Starring The Late Great "Divine"

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Lust in the Dust is a 1985 gay cult favorite film starring Divine, Tab Hunter, Cesar Romero, and Lainie Kazan, directed by Paul Bartel

Dance-hall “girl” Rosie Velez (Divine), lost in the desert, is helped to safety by gunman Abel Wood (Tab Hunter). In the town of Chili Verde, at the saloon of Marguerita Ventura (Lainie Kazan), a word of a treasure in gold brings Abel into conflict with outlaw Hard Case Williams (Geoffrey Lewis) and his gang.

They don;t make em like this anymore.