I just returned from a holiday visit to my parents and other assorted family members in Baltimore.
These trips are precious to me because my mom and dad are 77 and 85, respectively, and although still in reasonably good health, seem to not be getting any younger. The trips also represent precious opportunities for quality time with my brother's only child, my nine year old niece, Christina.
Christina has been getting into movie musicals lately. My mom has been showing her classics like My Fair Lady, Camelot, and Singin' in the Rain. She loved the singing and dancing and Deborah Kerr's "big dresses" in The King and I, but she hated it when [SPOILER ALERT!] the King died at the end. "I like it better when they get married," she explained. But far above the rest, as far as Christina is concerned, is the musical adaptation of the John Waters classic "Hairspray," a gift we watched five times together in as many days. After the first viewing she exclaimed, "I love this movie! If I could I would watch this movie every day for the rest of my life UNTIL I DIE!"
Watching it with her four more times in recent days, I found myself trying to sort out exactly what it was about this picture that was pushing her buttons so effectively.
For those of you who haven't seen it, Hairspray takes place in mostly-segregated Baltimore in the spring of 1962. The protagonist, Tracy Turnblad, is a chubby girl who can dance better than anybody and has a positive attitude that would put the Rev. Norman Vincent Peale to shame. Her dad (Christopher Walken) owns a joke shop next to their house, and her mom (John Travolta, who ought to get an Oscar nomination for this) takes in laundry. Tracy's best friend Penny is the daughter of hyper-conservative religious fundamentalist Prudy Pingleton (Alison Janney), and unbeknownst to Prudy, the two girls are hooked on an after-school dance show on local TV. The show is strictly segregated, with "Negro Day" (hosted by Motormouth Maybelle [Queen Latifah]) taking place once a month. One day Tracy gets her big break and wins a regular spot on the show. She is an unapologetic advocate for integration, and when the villainous station manager (Michelle Pfeiffer) cancels Negro Day, Tracy takes to the streets with Maybelle and her family and supporters to march for integration, flees a confrontation with the police, and becomes a fugitive from justice. Finally, righteousness prevails. The show is integrated, and Tracy wins the love of the cute boy she has pined for.
I might attribute some of Christina's embrace of the film to its strictly parochial appeal to a Baltimore girl, except that the young daughters and nieces of other friends, in other places, are reportedly having the same reaction.
For starters, it's a musical, of course, with lots and lots of singing and dancing. Plus, as we've established, she's a sucker for a happy ending (defined as an ending involving the boy and girl getting together). But I think the movie's message has a lot to do with her response to it.
One of the sweetest songs in the film is called "Welcome to the 60s." Tracy sings it to wheedle her overweight mother out of the house, which she claims she hasn't left for 11 years, not wanting the neighbors to see how heavy she has become.
TRACY
Hey mama hey mama,
Look around
Everybody's groovin' to a brand new sound
Hey mama hey mama,
Follow me
1 know something's in you
That you wanna set free
So let so, go, go of the past now
Say hello to the love in your heart
Yes, 1 know that the world's spinning fast now
You gotta get yourself a brand new start
TRACY, DYNAMITES & ENSEMBLE
Hey mama, welcome to the 60's
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh
Oh mama, welcome to the 60's
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh
Go mama, go, go, go!
DYNAMITES & ENSEMBLE
Welcome to the 60's
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,
Hey mama
Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Yeah, yeah, yeah
TRACY
Hey mama, hey mama,
Take my hand
EDNA
First let's make a pit stop
At the wiener stand
TRACY
Hey mama, hey mama,
Take a chance
EDNA
Oh Tracy, it's been years
Since someone asked me to dance
TRACY
So let go, so, go of the past now
Say hello to the light in your eyes
Yes, i know that the world's
Spinning fast now
But you gotta run the race
To win the prize
TRACY, DYNAMITES &, ENSEMBLE
Hey mama, welcome to the 60's
Oh, oh, oh, oh. Oh, oh, oh, oh
Oh mama, welcome to the 60's
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh
Go mama, go, go, go!
DYNAMITES & ENSEMBLE
Welcome to the 60's
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,
Hey mama
Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Yeah, yeah, yeah
DYNAMITES
Welcome to the rhythm of a brand new day
TRACY
Take your old-fashioned fears
TRACY & DYNAMITES
And just throw them away
MR. PINKY'S STAFF
You should add some color and a fresh new "do"
DYNAMITES & ENSEMBLE
'Cause it's time for a star
Who looks |ust like you!
JUDINE
Dontcha let nobody
Try to steal your fun
'Cause a little touch of lipstick
Never hurt no one
KAMILAH
The future's got a million roads
For you to choose
But you'll walk a little taller
In some high-heel shoes
SHAYNA
And once you find the style
That makes you feel like you
Something fresh
Something new
DYNAMITES & ENSEMBLE
Step on out
Hear us shout
TRACY, DYNAMITES & ENSEMBLE
Mama, that's your cue!!!
ENSEMBLE
Yeah, Yeah, Yeah
EDNA
Hey Tracy, hey baby,
Look at me!
I'm the cutest chickie
That ya ever did see
Hey Tracy, hey baby,
Look at us
Where is there a team
That's half as fabulous?!
EDNA (& ENSEMBLE)
I let go, go. Go of the past now
Said hello to this red carpet ride
Yes 1 know that the world's spinning fast now
Tell lollabrigida to step aside!
EDNA & ENSEMBLE
Your mama's welcoming the 60's
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Oh, oh, oh
Oh your mama's welcoming the 60's
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh
Go, mama, go, go, go!
ENSEMBLE
Welcome to the 60's
Open the door
For the girl who has more,
She's a star...
Tracy, go, go, go!
ALL
Oh mama, welcome to the 60's
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Oh, oh
Oh mama, welcome to the 60's
Oh, oh. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Oh
Go mama. Go, go, go!
Hey mama welcome to the 60's
I was only a little girl myself in 1962, but I vividly remember the sense of unlimited possibility that seemed to suffuse the very air we all breathed. Everything was modern and new. Christina, barely born in the 20th century, is a postmodern child, soaking in the history like a sponge, without taking it on as a burden.
The idea that there had ever been a time when people who looked different, or were different, felt crippled by that -- that seemed to be news to her. And the idea that that time was long past, well, that was good news. (I only hope that within her lifetime it turns out to be true.) It's hard to say whether she's really that sheltered, or whether her matter-of-fact acceptance of our diverse world is truly a harbinger of better things for future generations.
The film does provide a great opportunity to teach an innocent child about an ugly aspect of all-too-recent American history. The concept of "Negro Day" amused her. I spent some time explaining segregation and Jim Crow laws as best I could. She was dumbfounded. This stuff was for real?
"You mean you couldn't dance with a black person?"
"Separate restaurants?"
"SEPARATE WATER FOUNTAINS?!"
It was very satisfying to hear the incredulity in her voice. I found myself wishing and hoping, once again, that in her lifetime the residue of the Jim Crow era would fully and finally disappear. In the film, Penny falls in love with an African-American boy named Seaweed Stubbs, the son of Motormouth Maybelle.
Motormouth Maybelle: [to Seaweed and Penny] Oh, so this is love?
[pauses, then smiles]
Motormouth Maybelle: Well, love is a gift, a lot of people don't remember that. So, you two better brace yourselves for a whole lotta ugly comin' at you from a neverending parade of stupid.
Penny Pingleton: [deadpans] So, you've met my mom?
Hairspray teaches many lessons, and its relentlessly upbeat worldview is just the tonic that I need in times like these. I'm grateful to Christina for making me watch it over and over these past few days, and I'm indebted to John Waters for his original vision and the team that brought Hairspray to the musical stage, and then back to the movies in musical form. As Waters said when Hairspray first opened on Broadway, he was glad that it was now a musical, because when high schools put it on, now there would be some good parts for the fat girls. Including the heroic protagonist: encouraged first by her father, then by both her parents, Tracy instinctively knows, and shows everyone around her, that it's important to stand up for what's right, no matter the personal cost. You could do a lot worse for a role model for a teenaged girl, even if she could stand to lose a few pounds.
Hairspray: it's the gift that keeps on giving!