Divine

About

Divine was the drag persona of Harris Glenn Milstead, and the name came from filmmaker John Waters, who sold the act as "the most beautiful woman in the world, almost". Together they built a cult empire out of Baltimore's counterculture. Divine starred in Waters's early features like Mondo Trasho and Multiple Maniacs, then exploded with Pink Flamingos in 1972, a midnight movie hit that cemented the legend. Female Trouble, Polyester and Hairspray followed, and Hairspray finally pushed things into the mainstream, earning an Independent Spirit Award nomination. In 1982 Divine also took up music, recording a run of hi NRG disco tracks, most of them written by Bobby Orlando. "You Think You're a Man", "I'm So Beautiful" and "Walk Like a Man" brought real international chart success, all delivered in full drag. Off Waters's sets, Divine did avant garde theater, played male roles in films like Lust in the Dust and Trouble in Mind, and later got dubbed the "Drag Queen of the Century" by People magazine. The cult following, especially in the LGBTQ community, has never gone away.