# Hairspray (1988)

### reviewed by
Seth Bookey

    The Times They Are A'Changing

    Review of Hairspray (1988)

Seen on 25 October 1998 with Laura at the American Museum of the Moving Image for $16 (part of missed double feature)

If you take John Waters's word as the Gospel Truth, and as far as I can see, there is no reason you ought not to, music was a lot more fun before the Beatles "came along and ruined everything." Hairspray is a homage to that era, when dances had names and watched them on local versions of American Bandstand. According to John Waters, all the dances you see in Hairspray were ones he "knew and did them drunk at home with his friends."

Because Hairspray is campy and a lot of fun, the teens are very clean cut, sober, and if they are addicted to anything, it's hairspray and mirrors, and yeah, dancing.

For those of you who have somehow missed the last ten years, or simply never saw Hairspray, its the simple story of the Turnblads versus the von Tussles. A hefty Tracy Turnblad (Ricki Lake in her movie debut) auditions for the Corny Collins show, much to the ire of bitchy Amber von Tussle (Colleen Fitzpatrick), who's on the Student Council and doesn't like too much competition, or fat girls.

It's also 1962 and segregation is still in high gear; the Corny Collins show still has a "Negro Day" and there is no interracial dancing. But as luck would have it, Tracy's best friend Penny Pingleton (Leslie Ann Powers) falls in love with Seaweed (Clayton Prince), a black boy. He's the son of Motormouth Mabel (played by Ruth Brown herself), who is determined to teach the white children how to dance the "Bird" as well as integrate NOW.

And so the fun ensues. Tracy becomes a celebrity, does ads for Mr. Pinky's Hefty Hideaway store for big gals, and even woos Amber's boyfriend, Link (Michael St. Gerard). The girls squabble, and eventually, so do their parents. Divine and Jerry Stiller are Tracy's parents, Debbie Harry and Sonny Bono are the von Tussles.

When it was made, Hairspray was the most mainstream and tame of John Waters's movies, with Female Trouble and Polyester being the most representative of his body of work. Hairspray still retained the "shocking" aspects that were Waters's trademark--close ups of zits being exploded, rats crawling over a foot during a makeout session in an alley, a time bomb in a up hairdo. It's all a lot of fun, though, if not a little unreal. In real life, integration didn't happen; the show was run off the air by parents who were "more racist than the kids," according to Waters.

Speaking of racist parents, Jo Ann Havrilla is a scream as the hyperracist mother or Penny Pingleton, who goes nuts in a black neighborhood and literally incarcerates Penny to keep her from her black beau.

Pia Zadora and Ric Ocasik appear as beatniks. Shawn Thompson as Corny Collins; Mink Stole as his sidekick Tammy. Writer and director John Waters appears as the doctor who tries, unsuccessfully to hypnotize Penny into only liking white boys.

    Ten Years Later

At the museum, John Waters spoke about Hairspray and his work in general, and took questions from the audience. One thing that shocks just about everybody is that Hairspray is now a staple of children's parties. Waters said that he is often recognized by children as "the doctor from that movie." He also says that Ricki Lake had just been turned down for a job by the Gap before he cast her in the movie, but he knew she was destined for greatness (or a least fame--have you seen Mrs. Winterborne? Not great, not at all).

He's also a little more than shocked to discover one of his movies on the AFI's Top 100 films-of-all-time list.

He also noted that Divine, who looked like a lot of the woman in the Baltimore neighborhood in which he grew up (also depicted in Hairspray), died shortly after the movie was released, and her fame was about to be fulfilled. He also told us that people leave donuts, dresses, and eyemake-up on Divine's grave.

On his years of working with Divine, he summed it up best: It was a combination of "Divine's extreme beauty and my mental illness."

Copyright (c) 1998, Seth J. Bookey, New York, NY 10021 sethbook@panix.com; http://www.panix.com/~sethbook

More movie reviews by Seth Bookey, with graphics, can be found at http://www.geocities.com/Athens/2679/kino.html

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