![]() ![]() “I mean, at the end of Multiple Maniacs, the National Guard shoots him. “I wanted him to be the Godzilla of drag queens,” asserts Waters in My Son Divine (2001). Divine’s character “turns” lesbian after a sexual encounter with a woman in a church involving anally inserted rosary beads goes on a murderous rampage is raped by a giant lobster roams the streets of Baltimore, foaming at the mouth, growling and is gunned down by the National Guard to the tune of America, the Beautiful. Following his full-length feature film debut in Mondo Trasho (1969), Divine revs up the larger-than-life Divine persona as the monstrous Lady Divine in Multiple Maniacs (1970). Divine was possibly the very first person to portray Jackie Kennedy on film in Waters’ short film Eat Your Makeup (1968), which included a re-creation of the JFK assassination, another first on film, complete with a blood-soaked ensemble. Never shy from controversy or bad taste, Waters’ films are in-your-face rebuttals to popular culture and traditional American values. Milstead would soon be dubbed “Divine” by friend and filmmaker John Waters as part of Waters’ Dreamlanders, a group of misfits, queers, and artists who acted in his low-budget films (Dreamland Productions), which were antagonistic toward the hippie subculture, its cliches, and traditional ideals of beauty. Being bigger while wearing skimpy outfits made him stand out amongst the more conventional contestants. ![]() While others treated drag balls as pageants and expressions of traditional femininity, Milstead flipped the script and used his size to his advantage. Milstead, the drag queen and actor, made her debut.ĭivine would go on to subvert the expectations of drag. Milstead, with a push by his drag mentor and future fellow Dreamlander David Lochary, presented himself as a stunning Elizabeth Taylor. In 1963, Milstead and his then-girlfriend Diana Evans were getting ready to attend a Halloween costume part. ![]() The birth of Divine by Harris Glenn Milstead and his makeup artist Van Smith is intrinsically linked to Halloween costume pageantry. Both culminate spectacularly during Halloween as flamboyant and outrageous costumes fill West Hollywood, San Francisco, and Greenwich Village. My obsession stems from two factors: queer culture and horror films. Divine has not left my consciousness since, and I can safely say, I have become more and more obsessed with him throughout my adulthood. Turnblad, and they explained that the choice to do so is in honor of a man named Divine. When I was a kid, my parents took me to Hairspray on Broadway. “Without obsession, life is nothing.” – John Waters ![]()
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