Polyester

Director Robert Rodriguez is making a big deal out of the fact that his movie “Spy Kids 4” with Jessica Alba, is featuring what he calls Aromascope. Each moviegoer is handed a card with a numbered set of smells. At certain points in the plot they’re instructed to scratch and sniff an appropriate odor. Kids will probably be charmed by this attraction. What Rodriguez keeps forgetting to mention is the fact that John Waters pioneered this technique in 1981 in ”Polyester,” which featured scratch n’ sniff Odorama. Polyester starred Divine and Tab Hunter – all this on a $300,000 budget! Those old Odorama cards have become highly collectible, by the way. Let’s give credit where credit is due! (FYI- back in the 70’s, Divine was between movies and applied for a job as cashier in our clothing shop on Sunset Strip. We were afraid he’d scare away the customers and turned him down. In retrospect, we should have given him a chance.)