Hairspray (1988 film)
Hairspray is a 1988 American romantic musical comedy film written and directed by John Waters, and starring Ricki Lake, Divine in his final film role, Debbie Harry, Sonny Bono, Jerry Stiller, Leslie Ann Powers, Colleen Fitzpatrick, and Michael St. Gerard. Hairspray was a dramatic departure from Waters earlier works, with a much broader intended audience. In fact, Hairspray s PG is the mildest rating a Waters film has received most of his previous films were rated X by the MPAA. Set in 1962 Baltimore, Maryland, the film revolves around selfproclaimed pleasantly plump teenager Tracy Turnblad as she pursues stardom as a dancer on a local TV show and rallies against racial segregation.
Tracy Turnblad Ricki Lake and her best friend, Penny Pingleton Leslie Ann Powers, audition for The Corny Collins Show, a popular Baltimore teenage dance show based on the reallife Buddy Deane Show. Penny is too nervous and stumbles over her answers, and another girl, Nadine, is cut for being black there is a Negro Day on the show on the last Thursday of every month, she is told. However, despite being overweight, Tracy is a strong enough dancer to become a regular on the show, infuriating the shows reigning queen, Amber Von Tussle Colleen Fitzpatrick, a mean, privileged, beautiful high school classmate whose pushy stage parents, Velma Debbie Harry and Franklin Von Tussle Sonny Bono, own Tilted Acres amusement park based on Baltimores Gwynn Oak Amusement Park, where racial problems occurred. Tracy steals Ambers boyfriend, Link Larkin Michael St. Gerard, and competes against her for the title of Miss Auto Show 1963, fueling Ambers hatred of her.Tracys growing confidence leads to her being hired as a plussize model for the Hefty Hideaway clothing store owned by Mr. Pinky Alan J. Wendl. She is also inspired to bleach, tease, and rat her big hair into styles popular in the 1960s. At school, a teacher brands her hairstyle as a hairdont and sends her to the principals office, from which Tracy is sent to special education classes, where she meets several black classmates who have been put there to hold them back academically. The students introduce Tracy to Motormouth Maybelle Ruth Brown, an RampB record shop owner and host of the monthly Negro Day on The Corny Collins Show. They teach Tracy, Penny, and Link dance moves and Penny begins an interracial romance with Motormouth Maybelles son, Seaweed Clayton Prince. This horrifies Pennys mother, Prudence Joann Havrilla, who imprisons her daughter in her bedroom and tries to brainwash her into dating white boys and oppose integration with the help of a quack psychiatrist, Dr. Fredrickson director John Waters. Seaweed later hel
Source: Wikipedia
