Category: John Waters & Underground Films

Up until Hairspray, John Waters’actors never signed releases or contracts, and no commercial entity permitted in writing its products or names to be used.  I just recently read a piece by James Egan, author of John Waters: Interviews, who first met John during Female Trouble after John had called his company to purchase a liability…

This short clip is from a wide-ranging conversation in the little-known 2007 documentary, On the Ecstasy of Ski-Flying: Werner Herzog in Conversation with Karen Beckman, shot and edited by Laura Hanna.  After I first met John Waters, it took me a few weeks to ask him what it took Herzog 30+ years: “Is this man…

I first met John Waters as a crew member on Female Trouble, his follow-up to his ground-breaking film, Pink Flamingos.  We hit it off well as young movie-crazy counter-culturists from the Baltimore suburb of Towson.  Working together nearly every day until Female Trouble was released, we also became Friday night drinking buddies in the “art…

Though his three previous films, Female Trouble, Desperate Living, and Polyester had New York premiers and national press coverage, Hairspray was John Waters’s breakthrough to the big time.  It was quite unexpected.  He had searched for years to raise money for a raunchy, never-produced Pink Flamingos 2, and out of desperation shelved it in favor…

David Lochary was the leading man in most of John Waters’ earliest films, beginning with the 8mm Roman Candles and ending with Female Trouble.  In many ways, from his bright blue dyed hair to his fanatic, original obsessions and perceptive wit, he helped shape the look and content of Dreamland.  Due to his death at…