Edith Massey
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Edith Massey (May 25, 1918 - October 24, 1984) was an American actress.
Edith Massey grew up in an orphanage in Denver, Colorado and later moved to Los Angeles, California in an attempt to start a career in show business. Her first acting debut was brought on by her part as an extra in the 1940 film Arise, My Love. Director John Waters met Edith while she was working as a bartender at Pete's Hotel in Baltimore, Maryland and the proprietress of a thrift store called Edith's Shopping Bag. She starred in five John Waters films: Multiple Maniacs (1970), Pink Flamingos (1972), Female Trouble (1974), Desperate Living (1977), and Polyester (1981).
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Massey capitalized on the infamy of Waters' films by touring as the lead singer of a punk band, (Edie and the Eggs). She also posed for a series of greeting cards. Later, when the Baltimore winters became too much for her to endure, she moved to Venice, California, where she opened another thrift store. During the year of her death, Edith starred in the film Mutants in Paradise. She died in 1984 of cancer-related illness and complications from diabetes and was interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.
Director Robert Maier made a documentary short about her in 1975 entitled Love Letter to Edie.
A sample of Edith Massey's voice as "Aunt Ida" from the film Female Trouble appears in the track, "The Days of Swine and Roses", on the album "Confessions of a Knife" by the band, My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult.
