Starring: Divine, David Lochary, Mary Vivian Pearce
Written and shot in the days after the apparent suicide of Art Linkletter's daughter, Diane, under the influence of LSD (later disproven by medical records). Queer auteur John Waters shot this short film to test a new sound-sync camera he would use to shoot his next film, Multiple Maniacs.
To be fair, there's nothing in David Lochary's look or manner that evokes the real Art Linkletter or in Divine's that evokes the real Diane but then this really isn't that kind of short film.
One critic was quoted in Steve Yaeger's documentary Divine Trash as saying "As crude as it is, nothing could match the inapprorpiateness of the record that was released by Linkletter after his daughter's death." The record, "We Love You, Call Collect," (Linkletter's comment on the permissiveness of society and Diane's rebuttal 'Dear Mom and Dad') won a 1970 Grammy for "Best Spoken Word Recording."
