John Waters’ 1988 film Hairspray is about a heavy-set 1960s Baltimore teen named Tracy Turnblad. Tracy and her best friend Penny are huge fans of the local music and dance show “The Corny Collins Show” in which local teens show of the latest dances. Tracy auditions for an open place on the show and makes it on. Once there, her humdrum life is turned upside down when she begins to date the most popular boy on the show, becomes the spokeswoman and model for the Hefty Hideaway clothing boutique, and turns into the biggest female star on “Corny Collins”. Tracy’s fame and large hairdo get her sent to the special education class at school where she meets many of the school’s black students who are put in the class to hold them back. Among those students is Seaweed, the son of “Corny Collins” once-monthly negro day host Motormouth Maybelle. He invites Tracy, her boyfriend Link, and Penny to his mother’s record store in the Black part of Baltimore where they learn about the rich culture there. Penny starts a romance with Seaweed, much to the chagrin of her punishment-crazy mother who locks her in her room with a psychiatrist. The trio becomes aware of and opposed to the segregation going on in Baltimore and, specifically, on “The Corny Collins Show”. They become active protesters and work to get the show integrated, an idea only the station owner and former beauty queen of the show Amber Von Tussle. Tracy is arrested during a race riot at Amber’s parents’ amusement park and is therefore disqualified as a contestant of the Miss Auto Show contest (Amber is her chief rival). In the end Tracy’s friends rally around her and get her pardoned just in time to take the crown from Amber and see Amber’s parents get arrested for planting a bomb in Velma Von Tussle’s enormous hair.
When Hairspray opened many people were surprised because it was John Waters’ mildest film so far. It’s audience was also much broader because of the film’s PG rating. At the end of the film’s theatrical run it grossed an average amount.
Reading the articles for Hairspray made me think mostly about how much impact the media really has on people. At some level it seems like that is what Hairspray is trying to tell us more than anything. “The Corny Collins Show” around which Hairspray is centered is based on a real Baltimore television show in the 60s called “The Buddy Dean Show”. Both shows served as a kind of public playing field for the racial struggles of the time. Television was the place where people made things happen. In the article “Hairspray: The Revolutionary Way to Restructure and Hold Your History” Waters is quoted as saying of the real life “Buddy Dean Show”, “the NAACP targeted the show for protests… There were threats and bomb scares; integrationists smuggled whites into the all-black shows to dance cheek-to-cheek on camera with blacks.” The article also states that the “Buddy Dean Show” (and “Corny Collins” in the movie) allowed “historic moments in popular culture to supersede and actually change those in our nation’s political culture.” As a huge believer in the powers of television (not all television, I also think a lot of it is crap) it is amazing to see this written. It is not just dancing cheek-to-cheek, but doing so on television in front of the huge audience they knew the show had. And those trying to make the change weren’t the only ones who thought television could further their cause. The scene in which the race riot breaks out at the amusement park happens during an off-set episode of “The Corny Collins Show”. When the riot breaks out there are black protesters running to be in front of the camera for an impromptu mixing of white and black on camera. The station owner is so afraid of the effects of seeing simple integration, the black and white people on screen not even interacting closely, on television that he leaps to cover the lens and turn the camera away so viewers can’t witness the scene. The amazing part is that the schools were already integrated, but perhaps that wasn’t as powerful as an integrated television show because is was not easily seen by huge amounts of the city. After reading about the power television had and seeing how John Waters openly showed that power I was surprised to read that he almost never turns on his own television. Perhaps he likes to be the one making the media rather than taking it in.
Overall, this set of articles and the film Hairspray made me think even more about the influence television can really have on the culture around it. It reinforces my belief that those who say they “don’t believe in watching television” are not looking broadly enough.
The obvious winner of the new terminology battle in this set of readings was “zaftig”. What a wonderful sounding word and with a “z” no less! It makes me want to go play scrabble! The word comes from the Yiddish “zaftik” meaning juicy or succulent. The word refers to someone “having a full rounded figure” or being “pleasingly plum”. A great new word!
I sat down to do my responses and I remembered you talking about Hairspray so I snuggled up and took a gander. SURPRISE! You talked about something that I am going to talk about in my final project. I knew you were the perfect mentor.
ReplyDeleteYour main point was about the effect of media on people. It is such a powerful tool for social change! The topic within Hairspray was racism. In my final I am going to discuss media’s (including TV) effect on society’s view of sex (shocked? Nah).
Points you made that I greatly enjoyed
• “not all television, I also think a lot of it is crap”
• “The amazing part is that the schools were already integrated, but perhaps that wasn’t as powerful as an integrated television show because is was not easily seen by huge amounts of the city”
• After reading about the power television had and seeing how John Waters openly showed that power I was surprised to read that he almost never turns on his own television. Perhaps he likes to be the one making the media rather than taking it in.
• It [the influence of TV] reinforces my belief that those who say they “don’t believe in watching television” are not looking broadly enough.
I looked up “zaftig” too! I thought it was such a fantastic word. In my blog I wrote that it looked like the German word saftig, which stands for juicy. Amazingly enough I didn’t connect the definition “plump” to my German translation “juicy.” Now I find it funny☺ The word is actually Yiddish, eh? I agree with your declaration that “zaftig” is a “great new word.”