Midnight Screening of Cult Classic Draws Smattering of Depravity Buffs

And now for something entirely different. Or: it’s gross to you but it’s Divine to them.

It is just before midnight Saturday and everything is normal.

At Sea World the Christmas lights burn with a hard-edged glow. In the coffee shops of Mission Valley, Iranian cabdrivers are talking with young ladies dressed in their finest MTV garb.

At an undisclosed location the sheriff and his burglar alarm have been put away for the evening.

I am at the Park Theatre where North Park melts into Hillcrest. I am buying a $6 ticket to see “Pink Flamingos,” the 1972 cult classic of gore, sex and excrement done in High Camp style.

I am here to see what sort of San Diegans attend a midnight showing of a movie that gives decadence a bad name.

An engaging pair of avant-garde entrepreneurs named Trevor Watson and Thaddeus Temple think San Diego is ripe for midnight movies.

They think San Diego has outgrown “Rocky Horror Picture Show” as its only midnight movie. They make it their business to know about these things.

Watson, 29, a graphic artist from Nottingham, England, and Temple, 26, a writer and graduate of San Diego State, publish “Revolt in Style,” a Pacific Beach-based magazine devoted to the cutting edge in arts and fashion.

Now they’ve branched out to midnight movies. The first was “Ziggy Stardust,” the David Bowie concert film done with a home movie camera.

On Dec. 16, Watson & Temple will present “Blue Velvet,” complete with a party where guests are invited to dress like Frank, the depraved Dennis Hopper character. In January, it’s on to “Sid and Nancy.”

The “Pink Flamingos” crowd is bright and chipper, lots of tiny earrings and hair dyed jet black: Students, film buffs, depravity buffs, the culturally alienated, people stultified by San Diego’s early-to-bed image.

An advertising executive is there alone because his date stood him up. A chief petty officer from North Island is there because he sometimes sees three and four movies a night; he rushed over from Chevy Chase’s latest.

A real estate appraiser and his girlfriend, an escrow officer, are there because they like Divine, the 300-pound female impersonator who stars in “Pink.” They dare not share their passion with co-workers.

Rainer Schottlaender, a folk singer and Gene Wilder--look-alike from East Germany, warms up the crowd with original work. “No Sex In Space” and “On the Highway to LA” are favorites.

“I hope people know how disgusting this movie really is,” mutters Temple.

Not to worry. Many are “Pink” aficionados.

Yvonne Hunt, 32, a hair stylist: “I look mild-mannered but I like sick stuff.”

John Contreras, 18, a Mesa College student: “John Waters (the director) is a genius. He’s so disgusting.”

John Smiley, 19, an office worker: “John Waters hates hippies and so do I. His movies are like scream therapy for me.”

When it’s over at 2 a.m., the audience fills out cards suggesting other midnight movies. Among them are Warhol films, silent films from the Soviet Union, sci-fi classics and Jane Russell’s “The Outlaw.”

One guy writes that he’d like to see autopsy films. I avoid eye contact as I hurry to my car.

Elvis Not Fit to Be King, Students Say

Here and there.

* The student council at UC San Diego rejected a proposed Elvis Week that would have included Elvis movies and impersonators.

Objections were raised to Presley’s supposed racial views.

* Airlines are careful about their in-flight movies. Times reporter Barry Horstman thinks maybe it’s time to regulate passengers’ reading material, too.

He admits being nervous on a recent trip from Tampa to San Diego. His seatmate was reading the novel “Final Flight.”

* Social activism 1989.

The planned march Friday night down University Avenue by Neighbors United Against Hate Crimes will have a twist. Marchers are encouraged to bring their dogs and other pets.

* If you think Aviara is an overly cute name for a massive land development, you only know the half of it.

The number for prospective home buyers in the Carlsbad project is 800-TAKEWING.