High hopes for fast times next year
Shoot Your Shot
Image by Matthew Spencer
Born on 19 October 1945, American singer and actor Glen Harris Milston made his name as his alter ego Divine — the larger than life, outrageous transvestite, the self-proclaimed queen of bas tast and sleaze.
Though he was later to make his mark in music, the cinema was where Divine first made an impression — an no-one who saw him in 1972’s "Pink Flamingos" will ever forget it. Director John Waters, who first worked with Divine in 1966’s "Roman Candles", set him in a trailer home with pink plastic flamingos in the garden (hence the title) and a senile mother who lived in a playpen. As a contender for the title of Filthiest Person In The World he had to eat dog dirt, which ensured the movie notoriety (and eventually cult status).
The follow-up, "Female Trouble" (1975), saw Divine playing both sides of the gender divide as a teenage runaway (female) and an unshaven truck driver (male) who picks her up on the road. Six years later "Polyester" saw him co-star as frustrated housewife Francine Fishpaw who finds solace in Drive-In theatre owner Todd Tomorrow, played by clean-cut 50s heart-throb Tab Hunter.
It was in the early 80s that Bobby Orlando, otherwise know as Bobby O, realised Divine’s potential as a ‘disco diva’. Bobby O, who produced the Pet Shop Boys first single, was one of the leading producers oh Hi-NRG: fast-paced dance music that began in American gay clubs in the late 1970s. His first collaboration with Divine, "Shoot Your Shot", was a huge club hit but did not dent the charts. "Love Reaction" became Divine’s first Top 75 hit, but his commercial breakthrough came as a result of his collaboration with legendary songwriting/production team Stock Aitken Waterman in 1984. The result was "You Think You’re A Man", which reached No. 16 and was their first hit production (with many more to follow in the next decade).
As Pete Waterman recalls: ‘When we finished "You Think You’re A Man" we were told it was far too good and we had to remake it. Divine was at the airport but we had to get him back so that instead of singing the number he could shout the lyrics’. Waterman remembers Divine with affection: ‘He was lovely bloke and the records we made with him were our first major challenge’.
The follow-up "I’m So Beautiful" was a more modest hit, but the camped-up covers for the Four Seasons "Walk Like A Man" and Sam Cooke’s "Twistin’ The Night Away" fared better.
Divine then returned to making movies, starring in a dual role as housewife and Baltimore TV station owner in the classic "Hairspray". Sadly on 7 March 1988 Divine died in Hollywood of a hear disease, bringing to a premature end the life of one of the truly outrageous characters of the late 20th century.
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