John Waters’ 1998 film “Pecker” ends with an unlikely crowd carousing in a dingy basement bar/spontaneous photo gallery in Baltimore. Stripper and a loud-mouthed, enthusiastic art collector dance on tables as he watches a talking icon of the Virgin Mary. It’s a happy, chaotic and naughty party open to anyone with a sense of humor, just the way the director likes it.
Mr. Waters, 78, gained a cult following in the 1970s with delightfully shocking films like “Multiple Maniacs,” “Female Trouble” and, of course, the raunchy “Pink Flamingos” before breaking through with “Hairspray,” the 1988.
Since then, Mr. Waters has built a camp empire that now includes more than a dozen films, talk shows and several books, including his 2022 debut novel, “Liarmouth,” which has been optioned for a movie that Mr. Waters hopes will star Aubrey Plaza.
Mr. Waters, a native of Baltimore, grew up in Lutherville, Mediterranean, a suburb he described in a recent telephone interview as “everything upper middle class.” Longing to escape, he had his mom drop him off at a beatnik hangout in Baltimore called Martick’s, even though he was underage. “He said, ‘Maybe you’ll meet your people here,'” he recalled.
“I found my people – bohemians!” he said.
Since those days, Mr. Waters has become an unofficial spokesman for all things Baltimore, one of the New York Times’ 52 places to go in 2024. The city has embraced him, too. She honored him with an official day, February 7, 1985 (it was a one-off), and the all-sex restrooms at the Baltimore Museum of Art, the institution to which she has bequeathed her large art collection, are named after him.
Although Mr. Waters has apartments in San Francisco and New York and spends summers in Provincetown, Mass., he lives primarily in North Baltimore and has no plans to change that. “If I had to give up everywhere,” said Mr. Waters, “this is where I’d live.”
Here are his five favorite places in Baltimore.
1. The Charles Theatre
A neon marquee adorns the brick facade of the Charles Theatre. First opened as an all-news cinema, the Charles now mainly screens independent films and hosts occasional revival series. Mr Waters has a special place in his heart for the theatre, which was run for years by his friend Pat Moran. “That’s where ‘Polyester’ opened,” Mr. Waters said, referring to his 1981 film. A large Easter egg awaited those at the premiere after a scene from the film had been shot in the theater. In the film, the heroine’s philanthropic husband owns a porn theater and a flashback shows his exterior. ‘My Burning Bush’ was the headline on the marquee,” Mr Waters said, and people were “zipping up” out.
When he first started visiting Peter’s Inn, Mr. Waters knew it as Motorcycle Pete’s, from the owner, his friend Peter Denzer. “He was a biker and he was in ‘Desperate Living,'” Mr. Waters said, recalling his 1977 dark comedy. “He played one of Edith Massey’s lovers.” Mr. Denzer later sold the place to Bud and Karin Tiffany, who converted it from a dive bar to a local restaurant. Today, Mr. Waters said, “it still looks like a biker bar,” but “the food is absolutely amazing.” Behind the bar hangs a perched blue marlin (Mr. Tiffany caught it on his 16th birthday, Ms. Tiffany said) and Ms. Tiffany writes the menu by hand. But Peter’s also makes a mean martini and serves a pate — Mr. Waters’ favorite — that arrives in a lidded glass container, its smooth surface elaborately decorated with herbs and fruit.
With its Art Deco sign, neon-lit interior and well-curated jukebox (including David Bowie and Björk), the seven-decade-old Club Charles across the street from the Charles Theater is ‘still the coolest place in Baltimore’ . said Mr Waters. He loves the no-nonsense bartenders (“He’s been there forever and ever”) and the “unpredictable” patrons. Mr Waters started frequenting the bar in the 1970s when it was called the Wigwam and had a tough reputation. The owner, a native named Esther Martin, ran it, Mr. Waters said, humming only to people who didn’t look rich: “It was Studio 54 in reverse.” At one point, Mr. Waters recalled, “I saw someone bite someone’s nose in there. It was terrifying. But he was jumping!”
4. Metro Baltimore
Each night at the Metro Baltimore performance space — formerly known as the Metro Gallery — you never know what to expect. That’s why Mr. Waters loves it. In February, he attended the “gay anti-Valentine night,” a dance party filled with young LGBTQ people and heavy metal fans. “So the gays there are the ones who don’t belong in gay bars,” Mr Waters said. “I am one of them. The first time I ever went to a gay bar, I thought, ‘I might be queer, but I’m not,’ because I was looking for bohemians.” Metro, he said, looks like a modern bohemia. The schedule (think acts with names like LustSickPuppy and Pansy Division) is as diverse as the crowd and includes drag nights, record releases and film premieres.
5. Individual Books
As an author, screenwriter and former bookstore clerk, Mr. Waters knows his bookstores. Atomic Books stands out, he says, because it’s “one of the only places where you can find major fashion magazines from around the world” and also has “a huge true crime section.” In it, classics like “Helter Skelter,” about Charles Manson’s 1969 murders, sit alongside cult favorites like “Panzram,” about early 20th-century serial killer Carl Panzram. The shop, whose motto is “Literary Finds for Mutant Minds”, also carries a huge range of John Waters merchandise and takes his fan mail. A bar in the back serves local beer, cider and mead, including a Union Craft Brewing IPA called Divine. It might just be the perfect place to raise a glass and toast Mr. Waters’ movie diva who shares the beer’s name. And who knows who you might meet in the hallways? “If you ever want to score sexually, go to bookstores,” advises Mr. Waters. “You always meet smart people and they’re cute.”
