Thursday, May 27, 2010

The Diane Linkletter Story


A short experimental improvised film made in 1969 by Baltimore, MD filmaker, John Waters, starring Divine as Diane and David Lochary and Mary Vivian Pierce as Art and his wife Barbara Linkletter.
Somehow, today, this film seemed so appropriate.
UPDATE: Sorry to say, John Waters yanked the film from YouTube. It was posted only yesterday. Too bad, it was buried for years and now this bizarre and hilarious piece of work goes back to dusty obscurity. Big Mistake, Mr. Waters!

7 comments:

Engineer of Knowledge said...

Hello Microdot,
I have always been a big fan of John Waters since the early days of after closing the bars; everyone would go to the movies every Friday & Saturday in Baltimore to watch Pink Flamingos. This was also at the same time that Rocky Horror Picture Show was being played and what you went to see after closing up all of the bars. I did this too but never dressed up.

I never knew that this existed….thanks for passing this on.

microdot said...

Engineer, interestingly, if you go to wikipedia for info on this film, it claims it was never released until around 2000 on a video compilation, but I saw it in 1970 in Toledo in a program of experimental "underground" films.
There was a theater in Toledo which had a alternative cinema program on Saturday nights for years...
That really doesn't exist anymore...We have the internet as a venue for independant video, but I learned so much about the history of cinema and the experimental work.
There was a sense of community and alternative cultural cinema was a part of it.

I still quote lines from this film today.

microdot said...

Holy Cow! John Waters yanked the film from YouTube! It was up for about 24 hours.
Well the original was in color anyway...Too Bad!

mud_rake said...

I got here too late for the video. By the way, who is Diane Linkletter and is she related to the late Art Linkletter? Something about an odd story lights a dim light in the deep recesses of my brain.

microdot said...

Mudrake, I guess it's a case of you should of been there...
Briefly, the film was a recreation of Diane Linkletter's suicide. Seh was the daughter of the recently departed Art.
In the film, the transvestite actor Divine plays Diane. Her parents are concerned because she is hanging out with the "wrong crowd" and they think she is "on something".
Diane comes in late and is confronted by her parents who tell her that they are going to have a doctor come immediately...they forbid her to see her boyfriend who Divine claims "He's just a groovy guy doing his own thing in his own time."
She tells her parent s that she is on LSD. They send her to her room and she jumps out of the window...
Yews, a pretty sleazy little melodramatic tragedy of the 60's, especially when portrayed by an obese transvestite...But as an improvisatory piece of spontaneous film making, it was a great piece of social commentary and really quite hilarious.
Art went on to make a career out of his daughters suicide with a hit record called "Honey, Call Home Collect" and as a conservative anti drug crusader.
John Waters, in his truly twisted suburban American esthetic and I really mean that as a compliment, made a great little piece of art. Too bad that it will remain obscure because of the concerns of Waters' concern to protect his work from un authorized viewing, because unless it is known, nobpody will be interested in seeing it.
The original film was in color, and this version which was on YouTube for less than 24 hours was a bad black and white copy...
Maybe that was his concern.
Too bad because it really invalidates a lot of the freedom of expression that made the era of the work so vibrant.
I really like John Waters and have had the opportunity to participate in the production of 2 of his films. He is a great American artist.

Laci the Chinese Crested said...

Waters yanked the film from youtube? I've just lost any respect for the guy.

He should have left it up especially if it was a poor quality B&W version just for the exposure.

On the other hand, is he waiting for a hi-def, blu-ray compilation to come out?

I can't believe that he would e concerned about offending anyone.

Boy, has he changed his format.

BTW, there is a bootleg copy of skidoo on eBay. I wonder if the person selling that has a copy of this film???

microdot said...

Laci, have you seen it?
I agree that Waters should have left it up, but these days, these decisions are made by legal firms over the wishes of the artists.
I did work on Crybaby...I designed Johnny Depps Electric Chair tattoo, the classic art direction from Waters was when I submitted the first draft of the design..."More Mammy Yokum!"