Over the years, Divine has become one of the most instantly recognisable drag performers thanks to her iconic performances in John Waters’s camp classics, Pink Flamingos and Hairspray. She also had a pop career that took her on UK tours, including two performances in Nottingham.
Divine was born Harris Glenn Milstead in Baltimore in 1945. At sixteen, he met future filmmaker John Waters, who lived down the road from him. Milstead became a hairdresser after he left high school, occasionally dressing in drag. Waters named her Divine, insisting she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.
The first films they worked on together were Roman Candles in 1966, followed by Eat Your Make-Up in 1968. Divine performed as Jackie Kennedy as they restaged JFK’s assassination, which had only happened five years before. Waters also helped create Divine’s signature look by shaving her hairline back to the middle of her head and pairing it with wild makeup and exaggerated brows.
When Pink Flamingos was released in 1972, it was incredibly difficult to see in the UK, as it was shown only at private film clubs to bypass national censorship. However, by the 1980s, it had been released on home video, gaining a huge fan base before it even hit screens. Eventually, it was cleared for screening as censorship softened. In Nottingham, The New Cinema on Carlton Street, run by the Midland Group of Artists, was the first to show it in May 1985, although only from 10pm.
Divine became a legend in the UK thanks to coverage in the gay press. She launched a music career with tracks like You Think You’re a Man and I’m so Beautiful. Author Simon Smalley recalled, “I read various articles on Divine in Gay News, and there was a mention in the US gay male porn mag called Blue Boy. When I went to Part Two (nightclub on Canal Street), and heard ‘Native Love (step by step)’, I was astonished. I blew a week’s dole money on the import 12” from Arcade Records in West End Arcade, which had an extremely credible Hi-NRG section.”
High energy (Hi-NRG) was an uptempo style of electronic dance music and disco that emerged in the late 1970s and 1980s. It originated in America, on gay dancefloors, but quickly spread. In Nottingham, La Chic Part Two opened on 4 July 1981, and it was unlike anything the city had seen before. The building on Canal Street had been a club before - also called La Chic from 1973 to 1977 but the new owners had given it an eighties-style makeover that saw it rival Heaven in London. Run by Ross Smith, the club also packed in the celebrities, including footballer Justin Fashanu (who credited the club with helping him to come out), ice skater John Curry, Su Pollard, and Marc Almond from Soft Cell. It was also known for its performances, including one from an (allegedly!) drunk Eartha Kitt and, of course, Divine.
She was lovely. She was Divine! She was very friendly. I asked her about activism, and she didn’t care about those things. I was disappointed because I thought she would be a fighter in that way. She fought her own fights, of course
Simon remembered queueing for the gig: “The night of the performance was a foggy November one, and Part Two was rammed, with an expectant queue outside. The performance was loud; Divine went through his routine in fine style, shimmying, licking his thumbs and wetting his nipples, wiping between his legs with a tissue and throwing it to the audience. It was filmed and, for some time afterwards, played on the drop-down screen.”
Fin Serck-Hanssen/ Bono came from Norway to Derby to study photography and convinced the club to let him interview Divine for the Norwegian equivalent of NME – the music magazine. He recalled: “She was lovely. She was Divine! She was very friendly. I asked her about activism, and she didn’t care about those things. I was disappointed because I thought she would be a fighter in that way. She fought her own fights, of course. But I had this view of how the fight for gay rights should be.”
Richard Jones, who DJed at her performance, appears in the photo. “I was DJing when Divine was on. She got changed in the office upstairs, and invited everyone in for a drink and was the sweetest, kindest, loveliest person in the whole world. Very unassuming, but as soon as she put that dress and wig on - wow! Everybody was gobsmacked because she was such an icon. People were just stunned to see her.”
The performance at Part Two was not Divine’s last here. The straight world became acquainted with the drag icon when she crashed into their living rooms on Top of the Pops for the first time in 1984 with the single, You Think You're a Man. The audience was…. confused. They flooded the BBC Switchboard with complaints, leading Top of the Pops to ban Divine. Fresh from that performance in July, she appeared at The Palais in Nottingham in November 1984 with tickets costing £3.50. The single flew to number sixteen in the UK charts, one of two tracks from Divine that stayed in the Top 40 for thirteen weeks.
Sadly, on 7 March 1988, Harris Glenn Milstead died in his sleep of a heart attack at the Regency Plaza Hotel on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles. He was 42.
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