Even among John Waters' legendary cluster of freaks, misfits, pervs, and assorted miscreants, Edith Massey managed to stand out as a true original. Whether sucking eggs in a playpen in Pink Flamingos (1972), brandishing a whip as the vile Queen Carlotta in Desperate Living (1977), or teaming up with Divine as gal pals in Polyester (1981), Massey squished her own snaggle-toothed, benignly (and un-self-consciously) outrageous persona into each role she played, giving hope and inspiration to obsessive-compulsive grandmotherly fetishists everywhere.
Born in 1918, Massey had already spent over five decades plying her wares as a B-girl, tap dancer, thrift store owner, and barmaid by the time she made the acquaintance of John Waters. According to legend, Waters met Massey when she was working as both a Baltimore barmaid and the owner of the thrift shop Edith's Shopping Bag, and was taken in by her particular brand of charm. He subsequently cast her in his 1970 Multiple Maniacs as (naturally) a barmaid and (perhaps not as naturally) Jesus Christ's mother. True cult celebrity followed for the portly actress in Waters' Pink Flamingos two years later. Revered and reviled as the most disgusting movie ever made, Flamingos…  » Read more