John Waters' Favorite Pink Flamingo: A Short History of Edith Massey

Early Life and Struggles

The details of Edith Massey's early life are somewhat murky. While some sources list her birthplace as San Francisco in May 1918, Massey herself claimed she was born in New York. According to John Waters' book Shock Value and Robert Maier's 1975 documentary short Love Letter to Edie, she was soon placed in a Dickensian orphanage near Denver. At 15, she was sent to work as a maid but ran away and ended up in a reformatory. Her dreams of a showbiz career led her to California, where she claimed to have made her screen debut as an extra in the 1940 Claudette Colbert romance Arise, My Love.

A Life on the Move

Over the next three decades, Edith crisscrossed the country, riding the rails and working various jobs, from chorus girl to tap dancer in a burlesque house to madam. Along the way, she married and separated from a soldier named Massey. Her wanderings eventually took her to Baltimore's seedy Fells Point waterfront district, where she became a barmaid. Her motherly, chatterbox demeanor caught the eye of a young filmmaker named John Waters and his oddball cohorts. Waters cast Edith as herself—and the Virgin Mary—in his 1970 dark comedy Multiple Maniacs.

Iconic Roles in John Waters' Films

Two years later, she landed the iconic role of Divine's "mentally ill mother, Miss Edie" in Pink Flamingos. Sitting in a playpen, clad only in a bra and girdle, and demanding that someone fix her a plate of eggs, Edith was at once bizarre yet strangely sweet. She also had a happy elopement with the beloved Eggman, Paul Swift. Waters' next mutant melodrama, Female Trouble, found Massey playing leather-clad Aunt Ida, who wished her hairdresser nephew Michael Potter would dump Divine and "turn nelly." As she explained to him, "I worry that you'll work in an office, have children, celebrate wedding anniversaries. The world of a heterosexual is a sick and boring life!"

By the mid-'70s, she moved out from behind the bar and opened her own thrift shop in Fells Point, Edith's Shopping Bag.

Later Career and Legacy

Following a villainous turn as Mortville's evil Queen Carlotta in the Waters-style fairy tale Desperate Living, Massey played cleaning woman-turned-heiress Cuddles, best friend to put-upon housewife Francine Fishpaw (Divine) in Waters' Douglas Sirk spoof Polyester. The line "Poor, poor Francine" came out—thanks to Edith's unique accent—as "Purr, purr Francine." Along the way, she also made a memorable appearance as John Cougar Mellencamp's dream woman in his video for "This Time" and co-starred in the sci-fi satire Mutants in Paradise. Edith also had a "singing" career as the "Queen of Punk," releasing covers of "Fever" and "Big Girls Don't Cry" and the original song "Punks, Get off the Grass."

Shortly after moving to Venice, California for health reasons, Massey passed away due to complications from cancer and diabetes in October 1984.

Interesting Facts and Stats

• Edith Massey's thrift shop, Edith's Shopping Bag, became a local landmark in Baltimore's Fells Point.
• Pink Flamingos was made on a budget of just $10,000 but has since become a cult classic, grossing over $7 million worldwide (source).
• Massey's unique line delivery and persona have made her a lasting icon in the world of cult cinema.

Edith Massey's life and career were as colorful and unconventional as the films she starred in. Her legacy continues to influence and inspire fans of John Waters and cult cinema to this day.