For this episode of Conversations, Dwayne Butcher interviews George Figgs.
George Figgs was born in 1947 in Baltimore. He is a musician, actor, film historian, and visual artist. He grew up in Hampden, where the neighborhood movie theaters became his home away from home.
Figgs is one of the original “Dreamlanders” and appeared in a number of early John Waters productions including Pink Flamingos, Mondo Trasho, and Female Trouble. He later worked in film production and then, from 1991 to ’99 was the proprietor of Baltimore’s Orpheum Cinema, a celebrated art house theater that showed noir, foreign, cult, and underground cinema classics.
In this conversation, George talks about his eclectic career, including his early years as a musician, bohemian life in Fells Point, participating in John Waters films, and how his lifelong obsession with cinema began. George currently divides his time between Baltimore and Toronto, Canada. Recently he has announced a new monthly film series at the Ideal Theater in Hampden.
George, Age 6. 1953. At St Michael’s on the Eastern Shore with fathers side of the family, from Snow Hill.
Fells Point Gate. 1967.
Eddie Dixon Peranio’s Hot Rod shop where George and friends hung out and worked.
Located at 1724-6 Thames st. Fell’s Point next to the Cat’s Eye Pub. (where the Orpheum was later located)
Album cover for “Boa Constrictor & A Natural Vine” by psych-folk duo guitarists George Figgs and Ben Syfu who recorded their sole record, for Vanguard Apostolic. Click on this text to hear the full album!
George with Eddie Dixon Peranio (brother of John Waters set designer Vince Paranio). Eddie was another guitar player on the scene.
Playing harmonica at the Cambridge Commons in Massachusetts, with a number of well known blues bands.
Guitar man, 1970’s.
George Figgs as Jesus in John Waters’ film Multiple Maniacs.
Original Poster for Multiple Maniacs
George Figgs as “Dribbles” in John Waters’ film Female Trouble.
Painting by George Figgs. Baltimore Nocturne 1989,
acrylic on canvas, 5′ X 4′
Founded by George Figgs in 1991, the Orpheum was an arthouse movie theater in the Fells Point section of Baltimore. Located at 1724 Thames Street, you can click here to sample some of the films shown at the Orpheum.
George Figgs playing guitar in his current home in Woodberry.
George Figgs on the front porch of his current Woodberry area home. Baltimore. 2015
Ephemera from inside George Figgs’ current home in Woodberry. 
Ephemera inside George Figgs’ current home in Woodberry. 
Ephemera from inside George Figgs’ current home in Woodberry.
George Figgs at a reading at the Poe House, Baltimore. 2015.
