Behind the Animated Tentacles
January 18, 2016 5:32 PM Subscribe
was a real-life, big-haired, poo-eating Baltimore drag queen named Divine. "Unearthing the Sea Witch" by Nicole Pasulka and Brian Ferree from Hazlitt.
Shrine to Divine has a design
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 6:08 PM on January 18, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 6:08 PM on January 18, 2016 [4 favorites]
Good grief! The article has a link to the song Sheridan Square in it, and I clicked through, and ended up utterly dissolving into tears. Such a monument to the AIDS crisis in NYC, buried in a musical based on a Kurt Vonnegut story. I had no idea this even existed, and I'm both destroyed and elated.
Ashman & Menken are the sort of song-writing duo that come along rarely, and they were with us for far too short a time. I'm so glad they left us with what they did, because it is all gems, every last piece they wrote.
And I had never made any connection between Divine and Ursula before, but now that I've read the article... I can only smack my forehead and say "of course"!
posted by hippybear at 6:14 PM on January 18, 2016 [17 favorites]
Ashman & Menken are the sort of song-writing duo that come along rarely, and they were with us for far too short a time. I'm so glad they left us with what they did, because it is all gems, every last piece they wrote.
And I had never made any connection between Divine and Ursula before, but now that I've read the article... I can only smack my forehead and say "of course"!
posted by hippybear at 6:14 PM on January 18, 2016 [17 favorites]
I guess this is one of those generational divides, because obviously I know who Divine is, but I had to click through to see who the Sea Witch was.
posted by escabeche at 6:24 PM on January 18, 2016 [7 favorites]
posted by escabeche at 6:24 PM on January 18, 2016 [7 favorites]
What hippybear said...everything about this article...just marvelous, and I wanted to keep reading when it ended. I would have read about this for hours more.
posted by lazycomputerkids at 6:30 PM on January 18, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by lazycomputerkids at 6:30 PM on January 18, 2016 [3 favorites]
I had noticed the resemblance, but had no idea there was a story behind it! Thanks for posting this
posted by TedW at 6:36 PM on January 18, 2016
posted by TedW at 6:36 PM on January 18, 2016
The link to Menken singing "Poor Unfortunate Soul" was amazing. I can see why Pat Carlson listened to his every note. Just an incredible talent.
posted by xingcat at 6:45 PM on January 18, 2016
posted by xingcat at 6:45 PM on January 18, 2016
Absolutely fascinating. We just took the kids to Disney World and there's this huge, amazing animatronic Ursula that comes on stage in the Little Mermaid stage show, at Hollywood Studios. I loved it. I also recently watched the doc Do I Sound Gay, which had a short but interesting section that notes all the not-so-hidden queer villains in Disney films. There are many.
Of course the villain in the last film was a cis white het guy. Maybe things are changing a little bit.
posted by Cuke at 7:33 PM on January 18, 2016
Of course the villain in the last film was a cis white het guy. Maybe things are changing a little bit.
posted by Cuke at 7:33 PM on January 18, 2016
Thank you for posting this. I have a very deep, loving, problematic, troubled and therapeutic connection with Disney's The Little Mermaid and this adds the dimension as to why this queer closeted kid from Texas took to that movie like er. A um. Fish to. Water. Yeah.
posted by Annika Cicada at 7:34 PM on January 18, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by Annika Cicada at 7:34 PM on January 18, 2016 [2 favorites]
Little Shop [of Horrors] played in New York for five years and during that time Ashman, a perfectionist, would go back frequently to give notes to the actors and stage manager. He especially hated when the performers camped up the roles for laughs. A lovesick nebbish store clerk, a sadistic dentist, and a man-eating plant may seem like comic characters, but “these people believe it, and they believe it wholeheartedly,” Munderloh recalls Ashman insisting. “They’re not trying to be funny.”
His sister concurs. “If you look at the director’s note, one of the things [Howard] says very clearly is, there’s humor in this, but these characters are sincere,” she told me. “The thing that made Divine work, and I think it made a lot of what Howard did work too, was his awareness of the freakishness of it and this utter sincerity.”
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 8:17 PM on January 18, 2016 [5 favorites]
His sister concurs. “If you look at the director’s note, one of the things [Howard] says very clearly is, there’s humor in this, but these characters are sincere,” she told me. “The thing that made Divine work, and I think it made a lot of what Howard did work too, was his awareness of the freakishness of it and this utter sincerity.”
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 8:17 PM on January 18, 2016 [5 favorites]
James Adomian's affectionate bit on Gay Villains includes a section on Ursula. It is fantastic.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 8:39 PM on January 18, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by Jon Mitchell at 8:39 PM on January 18, 2016 [4 favorites]
That was a great article. I've been loving Hazlitt for these consistently sharp pieces.
I was too old and reflexively anti-Disney to like The Little Mermaid, but this makes me want to give it another try.
posted by latkes at 10:33 PM on January 18, 2016
I was too old and reflexively anti-Disney to like The Little Mermaid, but this makes me want to give it another try.
posted by latkes at 10:33 PM on January 18, 2016
You Think You're A Man was a Stock Aitken and Waterman powered hit in the UK in the 80s and always stuck in my head. Sung with gusto and a textbook 80s Hi NRG production. It got to #16 in the charts and Divine performed on Top of the Pops.
posted by memebake at 2:32 AM on January 19, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by memebake at 2:32 AM on January 19, 2016 [1 favorite]
Thanks so much for this informative article. I was a long-time fan of Divine, having a close friend who was in the Baltimore arts scene for years, read his biography, and also a big mermaid fan (I have a tee shirt that says "I'm really a mermaid") but must admit I have never watched "The Little Mermaid" as my kids were too old when it came out and my grandkids too young. Also love "Little Shop Of Horrors". Seeing the Ursala character I instantly recognize Divine. Now I have to watch "Little Mermaid." Also agreeing that recent articles on Hazlitt that I learned about here have been excellent.
posted by mermayd at 3:58 AM on January 19, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by mermayd at 3:58 AM on January 19, 2016 [2 favorites]
Doesn't Divine deserve a little better than Ursula? A queen who specialized in explicitly shocking you so that you could feel her own discomfort, sanitized into yet another "let's make the queer into subtext, never text" story, seems unfair. Must we always be carefully-hidden symbols? Must those gorgeously extensive eyebrows covering half her forehead leave only a winking echo as a legacy?
posted by mittens at 5:37 AM on January 19, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by mittens at 5:37 AM on January 19, 2016 [1 favorite]
The Male/Female statue in front of Penn Station should have been a 51-foot monument to Divine instead.
posted by Faint of Butt at 5:47 AM on January 19, 2016 [5 favorites]
posted by Faint of Butt at 5:47 AM on January 19, 2016 [5 favorites]
Must those gorgeously extensive eyebrows covering half her forehead leave only a winking echo as a legacy?
We have a whole slew of films and performances by Divine herself that aren't Disney cartoons but are actually Divine on camera. That she also inspired Ursula is just a cherry on the top of the dog poop cake.
posted by hippybear at 6:07 AM on January 19, 2016 [7 favorites]
We have a whole slew of films and performances by Divine herself that aren't Disney cartoons but are actually Divine on camera. That she also inspired Ursula is just a cherry on the top of the dog poop cake.
posted by hippybear at 6:07 AM on January 19, 2016 [7 favorites]
What a lovely article. The best of queer history. It's there if you look for it, even in a Disney film. It transcends simple identity politics to being something more universally relatable.
Now I'm curious if anyone has channeled Edith Massey for more mainstream entertainment.
(I'm with hippybear in feeling strong grief about the AIDS crisis part of the story. I can't even bring myself to listen to Sheridan Square.)
posted by Nelson at 9:04 AM on January 19, 2016 [1 favorite]
Now I'm curious if anyone has channeled Edith Massey for more mainstream entertainment.
(I'm with hippybear in feeling strong grief about the AIDS crisis part of the story. I can't even bring myself to listen to Sheridan Square.)
posted by Nelson at 9:04 AM on January 19, 2016 [1 favorite]
This seems like as good a place as any to mention the excellent documentary The Celluloid Closet, which explores gay and lesbian subtext in movies. It's available on youtube.
It's a bit dated but the cast list is a who's who of gay and lesbian talent.
posted by the uncomplicated soups of my childhood at 9:34 AM on January 19, 2016 [2 favorites]
It's a bit dated but the cast list is a who's who of gay and lesbian talent.
posted by the uncomplicated soups of my childhood at 9:34 AM on January 19, 2016 [2 favorites]
This is just an amazing article on many levels.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 9:39 AM on January 19, 2016
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 9:39 AM on January 19, 2016
What a good article. I knew there was some link between Ursula and Divine, but had heard it as Divine having been considered for the role of Ursula. (and wouldn't *that* have been magnificent?)
posted by rmd1023 at 9:49 AM on January 19, 2016
posted by rmd1023 at 9:49 AM on January 19, 2016
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posted by jonp72 at 5:54 PM on January 18, 2016 [2 favorites]