When I was a boy, my family lived down the street from a reclusive old woman. She lived alone and no one knew if she had family who supported her. Her corner house had stood for so long that any paint originally on the shingles had long since faded away and had never been replaced. No lights ever emanated from her windows, no activity ever seemed to grace her rooms. Some nights, however, in the summer when our windows were open, I would awake with a start to hear a low, sustained moan that sounded like that of a wounded animal. My grandmother would tell me that it was the woman on the corner, crying with pain from the ailments of old age. Sometimes I would catch glimpses of her on the rare occasion she set foot outside her house — it was like seeing a ghost in the middle of the day. I rudely stared at her, even as a child aware of the fact that I might never see her again. The next thing I knew, I was twelve and was standing in the middle of her house, carelessly rooting through boxes of bric-a-brac. The old woman had died and the whole neighborhood had turned out for her estate sale to finally satisfy their curiosity.
Standing in that house was like being transported back to the beginning of the twentieth century. Gas sconces jutted from the gilt-papered walls, smoke still staining the ceiling above them. Brocaded, overstuffed chairs were tagged for sale, ancient antimacassars still clinging to their backs. The remains of a life spent in solitude were sorted into cartons and priced for purchase by the armful.
It was a startling moment for me in that this woman, though she had lived mere yards from me, was a complete stranger only now known to me through her meager possessions. It was a moment I had long forgotten until I watched Grey Gardens, the breathtaking and very moving film portrait of Edith Bouvier Beale and her daughter, Little Edie, by the Maysles brothers. The film evoked in me a similar sense of shame and amazement that I was looking in on a private life, a privilege I felt I had not earned. The difference is that the old woman who lived down the street from me never expected that I would be in her parlor one day, trespassing and fingering her brooches. The Beales, on the other hand, had practically invited me in and were performing, quite unguardedly, the pageant of their lives for my personal benefit.
Grey Gardens is a strangely alluring film that, like its subjects, fairly defies description. It can only be explained as a true cult film: once introduced to its mysteries and strange pleasures, the novitiate cannot help but become an evangelist for the film, begging friends and relatives to see it, if only so they don’t feel like a lonely addict when they watch it, alone, for the fifteenth time. The convert begins not only to care for the Beales as if they were beloved family members, but becomes fiercely protective of them as well. One surefire method of pissing off a Grey Gardens fanatic is to assert that the film is exploitive. At first blush, the film may seem like an invitation to mockery, but the more one uncovers of the vast history of the Beales at Grey Gardens, the more the film becomes a monument to the fiercely independent nature of these two staunch characters.
In 1972, in their January 10th issue, New York magazine published a personal essay by Gail Sheehy recounting her strange encounters with the ladies who lived at Grey Gardens. Events that are only hinted at or briefly mentioned in the film are detailed in Sheehy’s piece. For those of you who wonder why Mrs. Beale described her daughter’s younger days as wild (when it seemed Edie only wanted to be on her own for a while), Edie regales Sheehy with the tale of how she ran away from home three times before Mr. Beale abandoned her mother. And what of that abandonment? Apparently Mrs. Beale was so bored with the strictures of society that she hired an accompanist and started singing in New York nightclubs. This simply wasn’t done, especially by a woman from a prominent family with a husband and children. Instead of reining her in, Mr. Beale threw up his hands and moved out to his hunting lodge. Mrs. Beale’s father was less aloof. After threatening several times to disown her for her bohemian behavior, Major Bouvier finally cut her out of his will after she showed up, outrageously dressed, halfway into her own son’s wedding. Upon Bouvier’s death, she received the sum of $65,000 in a trust fund to be administered by her sons. Needless to say, the money was long gone by the time Sheehy or the Maysles got to Grey Gardens. The tragic fable of the Beale women is this: by turning their backs on society, they paid the price of their freedom by having society turn its back on them.
It’s tempting to laugh at Little Edie when she whines, “weah gonna get raided again,” but the sad truth is that the women really did live in fear that the Town of Easthampton and Suffolk County would kick them out of their house. It had been attempted before. On October 22, 1971, a posse of health inspectors, detectives, and ASPCA representatives forced their way into the house and discovered a stomach-churning spectacle of five-foot high mounds of garbage, floors covered in cat shit, and evidence that the Beales had been using a bedroom as a latrine. The family, including Jacqueline Kennedy (Mrs. Beale’s niece), refused any assistance. So inured were they to the Beale women’s stubbornness, they hoped that the house would be condemned if only to force the women to move somewhere else. The Beales remained, literally and figuratively, unmoved. They were, in Edie’s words, “artists against the bureaucrats.” They had survived months of harassment from the local authorities and could (and would) withstand years more. After all, they were Bouviers.
Being related to one of the most famous and beloved women in the United States ensured that the resulting controversy over the Beales escalated into a public scandal. The American press, shocked by the inattention of this prominent family to the needs of their relatives, treated the Beales with kindness. Of the press, Edie remarked, “I don’t think we can live in America anymore. The only freedom we have left is in the press.” Unfortunately, the international press was considerably less kind and painted a portrait of the Beales as senile old biddies who needed to be put away. All they really wanted was to show the world that they were just talented, misunderstood artists. All they really wanted was a chance to tell their side of the story. Along came the Maysles brothers, their camera loaded with film and flea collars around their ankles.
Originally introduced to the Beales by Lee (Bouvier) Radziwill, who wanted them to make a film about her and Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis’ early years, the Maysles felt the Beales of Grey Gardens made the much more interesting subject (and who can blame them?). Though the Maysles acknowledge their own presence in the film from the first moments and converse with the Beales from behind the camera, they never stage or direct the action. The Beales are in charge of the whole show. Mrs. Beale sings her favorite tunes, boils corn for everyone on a Sterno stove on her bed, and generally berates Edie for transgressions large (being a difficult child) and small (singing the incorrect lyrics to a song). Edie shows off her eccentric outfits (including the fabulous “revolutionary costume”), moans about how she can’t bear another winter at Grey Gardens, and performs her famous Virginia Military Institute dance. By participating, nay, collaborating in the film, the Beales lifted a great middle finger to the village of Easthampton, to the press, to their disapproving relatives, and to anyone who would dare tell them how to live their lives. Every song, every dance, every “costume,” and every slice of Wonder Bread fed to a raccoon is a brazen act of defiance.
While the primary appeal of the film might be observing the Beales as a matched set of Miss Havishams, living their lives frozen in time, it is undeniable that there is a lot of pain, need, and regret between these women that remains unresolved. Arguments unsettled for thirty years continue on as if the outcome still mattered. Betrayals of decades past resurface as if they had been committed yesterday. The two women, united in their struggle against family and society, are divided by their own personal power games between each other. Mrs. Beale scared off every suitor Edie ever had because she didn’t want to be left alone. Edie resents her mother for having taken up with a drifter who was eventually found dead in their kitchen. The speed with which a loving exchange between the two can turn into a heated row is practically head-spinning.
One of the most shocking moments in the film comes, however, not from one of the many contretemps between the two women, but from a quiet moment of reflection as they look through old photographs. Edie holds up to the camera a few pictures of youthful, happy, stunningly beautiful women. It takes one a moment to comprehend that these pictures are of Mrs. Beale and Edie in the periods of their youth. After viewing this film several times and reading up on the history of the Beales and the Bouviers, I still cannot wrap my head around how the women in those pictures came to be the women in the film. I suspect that it is the result of living together, as they had, in complete isolation for decade after decade, but it is still one of the great mysteries of the film. Of course, Edie would not want us to dwell on it. “I hate it when people say I was beautiful in the old days,” she said to Gail Sheehy. “I want to detach myself from the past! Do you understand? I like to think I’m good now. I’m terrific now!” No one would ever deny that Edie was indeed terrific, but as much as she wanted to escape the past, she seemed trapped into reliving it with her mother day after day.
Edie, after years of threatening to get away from Grey Gardens, only succeeded when Mrs. Beale died shortly after the theatrical release of the Maysles’ film. She moved to Bal Harbour, Florida where she could finally live in freedom as she wished, swimming in the salty waves and sunning herself on the beach. Just as the film became a way for a larger public to hear Mrs. Beales’ story and a monument to her memory when she passed, so too did the Criterion Collection DVD become a platform for Edie and the lasting tribute to her. She died in January 2002, just months after the release of the DVD. I remember watching the 2002 Academy Award ceremony and its alternately touching and loathsome tribute to those in the film community who had died that year. When Edie’s face unexpectedly flashed on the screen in a scene from Grey Gardens, I was filled with a flush of emotion. She really was a star after all, and, by god, she outclassed every single one of the people in that audience.
Matt Bailey / © 2004 notcoming.com
a wonderful review. thanks. i did very much enjoy all the extra information surrounding this movie you have provided. i think it’s just the right thing to do – provide the case in point that this is not an exploative film, which makes it all the warmer. one you want to experiance without hesitation.
Maybe the best review I have ever read of this film. This should have been the liner notes to the DVD.
Thank you, for such a beautifully warm, articulate expression of love for Edith and Edie Beale, and the Maysles film. This reveiw is the most sensitive and informative piece I’ve had yet the good pleasure to read.
What a rich review! Thank you. I appreciate your warmth for the Beales and completely understand when you describe them as “beloved family members,” what delightful aunties these two would’ve been to the right niece or nephew. Aren’t we all richer for watching bits of their lives flicker before us? They were so disarming in their innocence that it is compelling and refreshing.
Thank you for this beautiful piece about two “strangers” I came to love – and mourn in their passing. Somehow Big and (especially) Little Edie feel like family. Wonderful, wonderful piece.
Very beautiful and touching review.
I recommended this film to a friend of mine and she nor her boyfriend could get through fifteen minutes of it! I felt very sad but then happy that this was a film for me…
Ditto the writer who called this the best review he’d ever seen of the film. This is an uncommonly good review site, but the review here exceeds even those standards. Well done.
I’d like to know what happened to the sons- brothers of Edie – any info you could pass along
I saw a gray gardens on Turner classic movies last night . I have been reading about them all day on my computer. Where can I get information? Is the house still there? Where is the mother buried? Where is the daughter buried ? Is there a place or I can find all this information? This is all so captivating, every woman living alone sees herself in this documentary. I am they! Only ,upon my death, I will be buried here on my land. I will never leave my home. A wilderness alone woman.
Thank you. Your review endears these to women to my heart even more.
I also saw the documentary for the first time yesterday. I have been studying about the women all day and telling everyone how amazing the women were. I would also like to know about the sons.
Is the house still there?
Yes, Grey Gardens was purchased after Big Edie’s death and significantly renovated. It still stands today.
Where is the mother buried? Where is the daughter buried?
They are both buried together in the Catholic cemetary (the name of the particular church escapes me,) in East Hampton. Little Edie requested that she not be buried near her mother at her death, but I believe that she was.
Is there a place or I can find all this information?
www.findagrave.com is a helpful resource. Also the fans at the Grey Gardens Yahoo Group are fairly helpful, and also have a wealth of primary documents and photos difficult to find anywhere else.
Here is an obituary I wrote for www.findagrave.com…
Edith “Little Edie” Bouvier Beale: The eccentric, fashionable, “staunch character”, quotable screen goddess; an icon for the gay community and fashion industry, known for her “costumes”, subject of the provocative 1976 Maysles Bros. documentary film “Grey Gardens”. Born into a life of societal privelege in 1917. Daughter of an upper class Manhattan lawyer, Phelan Beale, and Edith “Big Edie” Bouvier Beale (also featured prominently in the film), aunt of Jacqueline Bouvier-Kennedy Onnasis. At a young age, Edith and her mother took to the arts, music, and fashion, something her father disapproved of. Little Edie was fond of fashion shows and modeled herself into a ravishing debutante, much to the discouragement of Big Edie, whom Little Edie would later blame for turning her suitors away. Their eccentricities unraveled the Beale marriage, leaving Big Edie and her daughter with a waning fortune and the estate of Grey Gardens in East Hampton, NY, purchased in 1923 by Mrs. Beale. The estate, once noted as having one of the finest gardens on the East Coast, fell into dilapidation and disrepair by the mid-1970s, prompting health authorities to raid the house who forced the Beales to clean-up or face eviction, documented in the film. Following her mother’s death in 1977, Little Edie finally left Grey Gardens for the cabaret circuit in New York City where she found little critical success, but was adored by fans of the film, thus establishing her cult following. Edie sold Grey Gardens in 1979, and lived in Florida, Montreal, and Oakland, CA through out the next two decades before settling in Bal Harbour, Florida in 1997. She refused most interviews and photos, with a few exceptions, but was quoted as saying that she looked not a day over 60. Died of an apparent heart attack in her apartment in January of 2002. She requested that she not be buried next to her mother, whom she had cared for almost 25 years. Cremated, a memorial service was held for her in East Hampton. An enduring and endearing spirit amongst her fans, family, and friends who knew her best. “It’s very difficult to keep a line between the past and the present. You know what I mean?”
I was clicking the channels as usual when I came accross Grey Gardens playing on TCM cult classics. I was put into a trance by the movie and kept talking to everyone about these ladys. Since I’ve watched the movie I have wondered how could this happen and spent the last several hours trying to research why. After looking at several website I came across yours. Thank you for giving us such an insight to these women and could you tell me more on her son’s?
Love, love, love this documentary. Every film fan should see it.
I happened to come across this documentary, while channel surfing and managed to see the last half hour of it. Completely caught up in it and so sad that I didn’t see it from the beginning. The very next day my husband, after much conversation about these two colorful characters, tried to rent the movie from Blockbuster Video and to my dismay was unable to obtain it for me. They said that they heard about it, but didn’t stock it. I went on line to find out as much information on these two women and why their lives came to such a disturbing and sad end. It was at the very least thought provoking and a story that one finds hard to forget and wishes to know more and more about. Like just knowing more about them, would change the outcome somehow. I can see why so many would get caught up in this film. It has been a few days now since I saw this few minutes of Grey Gardens and I can’t seem to forget it and have been discussing it with anybody who will listen. It sounds so like fiction and to know it actually happened is what makes it so unforgetable. What happened to there family and why were they left to rot in that house. The kind of money that surrounds people like that, their must have been someone that could have helped them in some way. It just seems so devistating that in the Hamptons of all places, people were going about their lives while dire poverty was alive and well in their comunity. Such a sad state of affairs that’s for sure. I wonder why Little Edie stayed for so many years, did her mother control the purse strings and it was more economic than anything else. She definitely didn’t take very good care of her mother, so what was the point of her being there. So many questions that will never be answered! Possibly Big Edie wanted to keep and eye on her wild and whimsical daughter, because she could have been attracted to a world that could have caused her grave harm. One will never know.
A wonderful, comprehensive and compassionate review. “Little Edie” attended the same girls’ prep school as myself, and I feel more than a little empathy with her! Saw the film on VHS at least 15 years ago, and have been longing to see it again. Now I know where to find it!
Grey Gardens was purchased and renovated by now-retired Washington Post Editor Ben Bradlee and his wife, Sally Quinn. They live there still and say that whenever it rains, they can still smell cats.
Have been wanting to see this film for ages, and finally Sundance Channel is running it. I saw the last half with my sister the other night and have been haunting every website devoted to it ever since, wanting to learn more.
I want to address the question of why no one (especially the wealthy family members) helped the Beales. I think many people tried, but they ultimately liked their way of life and didn’t want to change it.
For many years, I was friendly with a woman almost identical to Little Edie. Watching “Grey Gardens” was like visiting her again. She was endlessly entertaining, brilliant, well-read and totally quotable. While I was fascinated with this woman, and became close to her, I finally had to distance myself. As another essay describes, you can get sucked into the madness of these brilliant, cracked people. I had tried so many times to “save” my Little Edie, tried so many times to help her, but it was a waste of energy. She loved her decrepit home and wouldn’t have been any better off in an orderly, sane life. There is nothing to be done except let these gems stay in their world and enjoy them as they are.
Reminds me of another film “Pie In The Sky” about Brigid Berlin. Another fascinating woman…
Thank you Matt for so much more information on these dear women. I am anxious to know your opinion and thoughts on Grey Gardens the Musical…. Thanks so much Tasia
Wow….. I just finished watching this film and I feel pulled, no, torn, in so many directions that my head is spinning. It WAS like watching a slow-motion wreck of an exclusive, luxuriously appointed private train. I have SO much to accomplish right now (Don’t we all?) and mention it because it is remarkable to me that anything could force me to sit down and pay attention. I have never seen anything like it and I had to watch.
I just read your review of this film and feel you have the best take – the most critical, laser-eyed view cushioned with the kindness, affection and understanding it deserves.
Thank you for the review.
Susan
I saw Grey Gardens for the first time in 2003. Tonight I watched The Beales of Grey Gardens. When Little Edie first walked out on the stage (her broken down front porch) this evening, I had tears in my eyes. I really felt like balling! One on hand, I really do not understand why I find myself caring so much about these women (if I had lived next door to them I doubt we would have gotten along) – but on the other hand, I understand completely why I care so much: they are not neighbors, they are not documentary subjects – these women are family. I feel like they are part of my family. I feel like they are part of me. When I watch the film, I feel their problems are my problems (although I keep a much cleaner house). Their unfufilled potential is my unfufilled potential. Little Edie’s bitterness is my bitterness. Her flights of fancy are my flights of fancy. Her inability to escape her past…well, you get my point. I’m glad I found this sight. I never would have imagined that so many other people felt as strongly about these women as I. Ken
I was the Photographer who photographed Little Edie in 1978-79 My photos can been seen at islandbreezearts.com I suppose even the sales of my rare photos can be construed as exploitation, but I feel film depicted the womenas less than they were. He did not show Edies intelligence. He did not sit down with her and ask her what her hopes and dreams were. I feel the documentary was geared on showing what is seemingly in film the daek side of Kennedy family. The essentric outcast relatives. Edie was SWEET, kind, confused, scared,and mistrustfull of many. I enjoy watching film if only because It brings me back to my experieces of meeting and photographing her.FRANK BATTAGLIA
This is an article, apparently in the local Hamptons paper titled Dan’s Papers about Bouvier Beale, Jr., the nephew/grandson of the the two Edies and cousin to Jackie Onassis. I thought I’d pass it along:
“Bouvier Beale, Jr. Real Estate Investor
By Debbie Tuma
After spending many memorable moments visiting his grandmother, Edie Beale, at Grey Gardens in East Hampton, Bouvier Beale, Jr. and his family were back last week in this same historic house, recalling his childhood memories.
“My father, Bouvier Beale, Sr., who was an attorney in New York City, used to drive us out here every year in February, to celebrate my grandmother’s birthday,” he said. “We used to take `Big Edie,’ as we called her, out to the best restaurants in East Hampton for lunch, and then drive her back home. Every time we went to a restaurant, she would sing a song at the table so everyone would hear. She was a trained opera singer, and she had a good voice.” Her daughter, “Little Edie,” who was Bouvier Beale Jr.’s aunt, also loved to sing and dance, but the two of them chose to remain together in Grey Gardens until Big Edie’s death in 1976, when she was in her eighties.
This was also the year that the famous cult film, Grey Gardens, produced and filmed by Albert and David Maysles, came out. These two renowned documentary filmmaker brothers had spent six weeks filming the two Edies, who were fascinating and colorful recluses and were also related to Jackie Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, whose family was from East Hampton.
“My Dad was Jackie’s first cousin, and I’m her first cousin once removed,” explained Bouvier Beale, Jr., as he sat in the sunroom on the original wicker furniture from his grandmother’s former house. “Jackie Kennedy’s father was Big Edie’s brother.” When asked if he’d ever met Jackie Kennedy, he said, “I spoke to her many times on the phone, and she sent a beautiful Cartier silver gift to my wife Eva and I for our wedding in 1980. Jackie also attended Big Edie’s funeral. She and my Dad were cousins and good friends, and they used to meet for lunch in New York several times a year.” Bouvier Jr. met his wife, Eva, on a blind date in New York City, where she lived. In 1980, a year later, Little Edie sang at their wedding, which was held at a church in Bridgehampton, followed by a reception at Gurney’s Inn Resort in Montauk. After studying communications at Boston College, Eva has maintained a career as an executive with Air France, taking the family around the world. Now she is working on putting her family’s collection of photos, letters and poetry into a coffee table book about the two Edies. “I was just amazed by the amount of letters, poems and diary entries written by Little Edie,” said Eva Beale. “I feel she is watching over me, wanting me to put these into a book for the whole family, and the public to enjoy. It will dispel many of the myths surrounding her and her mother, and tell their real story.” Bouvier Beale, Jr. explained that he, his wife Eva, and their two daughters, Tatiana, 21, and Maria, 17, were spending the month of July at their home in Amagansett, as they do each summer, and they had attended a party at Grey Gardens a few weeks ago to celebrate the 30th anniversary of this movie with Albert Maysles. Beale and his family flew in from California, where they live outside of San Francisco, and where he works as a real estate investor. “It was so exciting to come back to this house for a party, and to be part of all the buzz that is being recreated around Grey Gardens, from the hit off-Broadway show, to the new Broadway musical that is due to come out in November, to an upcoming movie starring Jessica Lang as “Big Edie,” and Drew Barrymore as “Little Edie,” he said. “It is hard to believe, after 30 years, that all this is happening now.” Beale looked around at his grandmother’s beautifully restored and redecorated turn of the century home, and out the windows to the magnificent pool and gardens of hydrangeas, wisteria and lilies. “I can’t believe the difference how this house has changed, and what a great job the current owners, Ben Bradlee and Sally Quinn, have done fixing it up,” he said. “I left the Hamptons in 1966 to go away to prep school, and then relocated to California. The first time I had stepped foot in this house was last year, at the invitation of Ben and Sally.” He said the second time he and Eva had been to the house was at the recent party, hosted by Frances Hayward, who has rented the house year-round for over a decade, except for when Bradlee and Quinn return. “At the party, it was great to see Albert Maysles again, and to see the screening of his movie at Guild Hall following the party. It was also good to see the screenwriter and director of the new movie, Michael Suscy, who may be consulting with us about some of the family history.” Bouvier Beale, Jr. explained a little of his own history. He was born in New York City, raised in Glen Cove, L.I. and he came out to East Hampton to visit his grandmother each year until 1966, when he graduated from Westminster Prep School in Simsbury, CT and entered Syracuse University, before moving out west. “This house looked much as it does now, but after that, it went downhill, due to lack of money after Big Edie’s divorce, and it hit its worst point about eight years later, when the Grey Gardens movie was filmed,” he said. He explained that although the house had been paid for and the taxes were low, the two Edies lived on the remaining money, but didn’t do any maintenance or upkeep on the house. “Back in the early 1970s, pre-women’s liberation movement, single or unmarried women were essentially powerless, and it was a combination of that and economic pressure that made them decide to choose an unorthodox, free-spirit life as recluses, which is the way they wanted to live,” said Beale, Jr. “Today, I don’t think that would happen, since women would go out and work.” During his visit, Frances Hayward was giving a tour of the house for the first time to Bouvier Beale’s two daughters, Tatiana and Maria. “We wanted them to see this house, since they’ve heard all our stories about it,” said Beale, who pointed out some old photos of his aunt and grandmother on the table, and to a sketch of Grey Gardens framed in the entrance hall. He and his family will be returning to California this week. His daughter, Tatiana, said, “I recognized the bedroom that Big and Little Edie shared from the movie, but it looks so much better now. I’m excited about the upcoming movie on Grey Gardens. Drew Barrymore is one of my favorite actresses.”
Thank you for this beautiful, compassionate review. Nothing happens by accident. I was surfing Netflix, when this title, GREY GARDENS, caught my attention. I had never heard of it, but ordered it immediately not knowing why. After only a moment into the film, with deep mystical recognition, I saw my mother, myself, and my life, from an out-of-body perspective. This overview, illustrated the challenges of multi-talented women who long to express their spirits within the limitations and restrictions, of what is expected of them or projected upon them. Women who (for whatever reason) do not express their talents and divine expressions, eventually become unfulfilled, severely depressed, and seriously dysfunctional. Big Edie and Little Edie are elegant examples of gifted women who staunchly confronted and shattered the structures of illusions that threatened to repress the expression of their unique and special spirits. Little Edie had the greater challenge, to do this not only for herself, but for her mother too. In their extraordinary, quirky, eccentric, rainbow colored manner, they succeeded magnificently. There is a saying, “This dimension is so incredibly dense and dysfunctional, that if they call you ‘crazy’… Take it as a compliment.” Thank you Little Edie, and Big Mama Edie, for the gentle reminder.
Now, years later, when Tony Awards are given to the theatrical interpretation, I was happy to read your review. I was enthralled with the film, and hold an affection for the women that surprises even me. I wondered what became of them, and your review answers that. May they rest in peace, free and happy at last.
My husband is Bouvier, and he is the grandson of Big Edie and nephew of Little Edie. Two years ago I came across your essay and website and loved what your wrote- so I have been searching for you. I have a book now that is a tribute to the lovely Edie, and as she collected her story for years, this books is very special. After Edie died, she left boxes full of her poetry, diaries, and journals, art works etc. This book is her vision- a beautiful coffee table book . What I tried to do is to preserve her collected items and share it with all her fans. Title: Edith Bouvier Beale of Grey Gardens, A Life in Pictures. Take a peek at the website www.edithbouvierbealeofgreygardens.com
Thank you for those wonderful comments to everyone. My own story seems like “how could this happen” I have an original Enquire tabloid dated 1972 at the height of the health dept investigation. In 2005 a co-worker merely stated that she was having a poster framed for her daughter that recently moved to New York. Asked what kind of poster and the reply was, “oh, a picture of a women in front of an old, old house called Grey Gardens”….You can imagine my surprise! E-mailed the daughter and another surprise…the Oxford MS library had the DVD….Requested it from our local library and watched it over and over for 2 weeks……Was lucky to find Lois Wrights book and will probably purchase Eva’s book…The movie, I don’t know – after all Edie said she didn’t want anybody playing her! It just seems so strange that after 33+ years I was fortunate to learn more about the Beales all “by accident…….” Very Strange!
where were her two sons — what happened to them
I saw the Grey Gardens documentary on a cable channel today. And i was so intriged. Its just the constant empty chatter and endless songs and Big Edies astounding revelations take on life. I had very little sympathy or understanding for Mrs. Beales, (Big Edie hereafter,) at first. I mean, its not like Big Edie hid from the world because maybe her nerves were shot from working a hard 8-6 job and taking care of the house and kids, and a demanding husband, putten out sexually or whatever—-no she wasn’t. She was probably content yet indifferent to the whole thing. In fact, there’s even a comment from Big Eddie while she’s showing the camera the picture of the three kids and herself where she asks the camera “does it look like i didn’t feed my children”. This implies that family, and perhaps the illusive Mr Beal himself, was concerned for his children with Big Edie and obviously Big Edies mental health even then. I think Big Edie was probably an indifferent and terrible mother in part because of her mental illness and her inability to recognize that the spot light had come and gone for her and her heritage. Rather than be productive or even try to fit in her community she became convinced it was easiest to say she was artistic and theatrical. This method of thinking does two things—1, it clears her of any responsibility in the world in a normal sense by being theatrical and artistic. And 2, how else can Big Edie continue to relate to Little Edie and keep her attention.
And the same is true with Little Edie. She seems to adore her mother one minute as if Big Edie was the only survivng Astor from the Titanic for God’s sake. And threatens to leave her mother all alone at a drop of a hat the next. Its obvious the arguements, horrible insults, and deep rooted anger go way back—They go on as if someone has been taking a chalkboard tally on the rounds throughout the years and someday one of them will be decalared the victor and be finally vindicated by the other. And receive absolution from having to put up with this myer. As if that could even help or matter now. But with no TV, no books, no visitors, in a shit stained cheap as house, and the same worn out songs from yesteryear, who can blame them for going over the edge when they were both propelled towards that mental edge all along. things just appear normal when you live in filth long enough. My own aunt was so damn simular with my cousins. My mom would’t let us kids go over there and play ever because of the filth and lack of care of my cousins. That’s mental illness. And in one small way this film should be in the hall of fame of psychological evaluations for social workers or pschology students to facilitate their diagnosis.
This delusion of self importance is typical for the mentally ill. Edie says something like that “our aristocrary is responsibility” and looks at her mother for affirmation. Of course, while Big Eddies boobs are hanging out on her stench urine/fetis filled filthy bed; our Little Edie is standing in cat shit and eating from a can with a plastic knife. Its just a kind of self perpetuating fantasy that we the audience rarely see so its doubly fascinating to me how they both act so indignant to Jerry (the friend/handiman), They’re not even wanting to be nice to each other or even those damn cats. Any of those cats fixed or was givn a litter box? NO, they smile as they watch the cat shit behind her last remaining portaite (where is Little Edies oil brushed portrait by the way and her singing and piano lessons at 12years old—see, Big Edie wants all the attention even at the risk of alienating her only and biggest supporter). The berating of Little Edie and borage of insults so obviously rehearsed to perfection, over and over again begins to make us feel for poor little Edie. Its a real relationship of hate and annoyance and competition between the two. The old women was jealous of her daughter’s good looks and independant spirit and youthful freedom in New York. But, but i also think she was afraid that Little Edie would evenually fit in with some bohemium group or even a man perhaps (she loves David in the film, and of course she does because he respects her boundary’s and is filming her- a quiet compliance as it were). Something she needs up to the end wait- just as it seems all is lost, and than you realize that yes, all is really lost with this family/situation.
Big Edie finally gets out of her chair but only when Little Edie reminds her that she is singing Marlene Dietrick Love song and Big Edie hates Marlene Dietrick and the arguein ga nd scars that have built up come up to the surface again when Little Edie’s illustrious Polish Stravachiv suiter shows up. Big Edie shues him away in “15 minutes” a bauling Little Edie shouts and your heart breaks for her, (and we’re led to believe that [he] probably wanted to go anyway once he met the freaky and destitute mother and seen the decrepit house). But Little Edie acting defenseless and subserviant is a little too precious – For example, Big Edie says “you can’t dance a military dance” and Little Edie says “YES I can!…I can do anything I want to.” And she waves her 25 cent flag and performs weirdly but sweetly too. Little Edie was much more loveable than possessed an likable innocence. Big Edies constant criticing is so negative and obvious you’d think Edie would have set the old ladies bed on fire by than. Still, ou gotta feel for them both but especially Little Edie, who spent much of her life searching for happiness and an escape from her dull life- if only in one of her “fashion statement” outfits as she twirls and hums out in the sea of green leaves yard.
But I could really identify with the weirdness and intimidation the got from the town and their famous family connections. You have to laugh thinking of Big Edie breaking into song at a family reunion at the Jon Jon’s birthday party or graduation with Rose Kennedy sitting next to her at the garden club table when Mrs. Beals screams “shut-up” and continues to belittle little Edie. The way Mrs. Beal stole her daughters life with her delussions and supposid fraility and infinite insecurity really pisses me off at first glance. Its not until you are fully seated in your sleigh bed at home with a glass of wine, that one can appreciate the truly self demented opinion of themselves with regards to their “talent (or whatever)”and communial family mendacite with birdseye view of their relationship.
I was raised very simularily but on the west coast in Rancho Santa Fe with all the same snobatry and pompous of the “wealthy” (my neighbors were nobel prize winners, specialist’s and entertainer’s (Patti Paige lived up the street, as well as Tom Selic and recently Ben Stillers parents). Victor Mature use to golf with my dad and sometimes give me a lift up to the country club in his rolls royce golf cart. Its a place where hills and acres seperate everyone and from everyone and only hot air baloons reveal your location at the pool ( i use to be quite the ham and signal ever chance i got from off the diving board. It was fairly hard to rise up to their level in a small affluent community if your not the cookie cutter mold. I only wish I would have known about Little Edie before she died in 2002.
FOR EVA..Have you come across any of the photographs I took of Edie in 78-79? I had given her some copies. Was curious if it ever showed up and I have not seen your book yet. Could any of my images possibly be in your book? Contact me islandbreezearts@netscape.com thanks
saw only last hour of this wonderful documentary on sunday, july 27 on sundance channel, i think. will documentary be shown again, and when. would like to order a copy of documentary, dvd copy, if not going to shown again on television. thank you.
Just finished reading Lois Wright’s, “My Life at Grey Gardens”, long time friend of Big Edie and Little Edie. Was wondering if anyone knows what the Maysles’ paid the women, if anything? The book eludes that they were promised a “big payment” from the movie but it seems they were never actually paid. Anyone know anything about an actual payment? Seems to me that they may have been taken by the Maysles’. Thanks, Snow
I am trying to find the same information: Were the women paid for the documentary. I do not see anything that indicates they were. If they were not, then I do believe they were truly exploited because they desperately needed money. Please provide some answers.
To the best of my knowledge the Maysles paid the Beales $10K in advance for their participation in Grey Gardens ($5K for Big Edie and $5K for Little Edie). This was the only remuneration the Beales were to receive from the film as like most documentaries it did not realise a profit. Apparently Little Edie had some (not surprisingly) unrealistic expectations about seeing a huge windfall from the film and after its theatrical release checked the pages of Variety to see how the film was performing at the box office. Alas, no such windfall materialized, for the Beales anyway. It would be interesting to know how successful the sales of the Criterion DVDs have been.
While the passage of time has caused these two women to be viewed in a somewhat romanticized light, it is clear that they suffered from mental illness. If someone that didn’t have a famous last name lived in a rundown home overrun with cats and raccoons, no running water, feces everywhere (including their own), without question we would day they were crazy! It’s Little Edie’s personality that endears her to so many (me included). It’s hard not to wonder how the came to be as they were depicted in the film. You also wanted them to be OK.
Good analysis, Mr. Bailey. I revel in the thought that these two, wonderful ladies were simply giving society folk the finger; but I suspect that, in addition to their independence, there were some underlying psychological disorders that may have complicated their situation.
That having been said, I’d love a t-shirt emblazoned with the words, “Staunch Character.”
I loved -loved the movie about the amazing Beales.I had never heard of these two intriguing women. But after seeing the movie I went on the internet and read all I could about them. The more I learned about their lives together and the bond they had the more I wanted to know about these fasinating women.
SAW the “Grey Gardens” HBO special on the documentry. It was wondedrful yet duplicitious. I’ve been a fan for over 15 years (ever since i heard about this story from an old aunt of mine). i just wish they would have made it a bit not so mushy- keep it gritty and real——isan’t that us humans really are? Lets not placate the audience about the beautiful tradegy of life…. We (the audience) can take it all and probably would relish in it even more. The perfect bautiful picture of an opportunity (being as beautiful as eddie was and affluent) being lost or worse, squandered away when the rest of us not so desireables are still picken shit with the chickens-as they say. its almost an insult t us mediocre people ya know!!!!!! I welcome your thoughts —-anyone, no… ddn’t think so- were all such sheep then.
Excellent information. It’s nice to find a real source of information. Lend credibility to the film and review. Your warm hearted.
What a beautifully written review. I adore a perfect sentence; a sentence that speaks volumes with very few words. I have a new one to put in my book of favorites. “Arguments unsettled for thirty years continue on as if the outcome still mattered.” I scrolled to the bottom expecting Joan Didion to be the author of this review. I greatly admire your deeply perceptive and honest style of writing. Have you written any books? Anything else of yours I can read? I love Edie. It breaks my heart that I fell for her 7 years after she left this earth. I search for any new little trace of her I can find on the internet. This article was very satisfying. Thank you.
There seems to be an insinuation regardinng Big Edie’s fall from “rolling chair” (see below) in Wright’s book .. does anyone know what she meant by this? The fall from the rolling chair happened at the time Little E was leaving GG more and more. In Wright book she says, “For reasons known only to the Beales, Big E had tumbled with unusual force from the rolling chair. I was puzzled, as I certainly knew it to be quite safe …” And then she makes a few more references about the chair being safe as the book progresses.
Loved the movie and just saw pictures on TV of a small portion of what the house looks like now. Very beautifully renovated. I was very curious as to what the current owner paid for the house? If anyone knows, I’ll be checking this website to see.
Does anyone know why the VMI march song was so special to Edie?
Directed by
David & Albert Maysles
Source
The Criterion Collection DVD
Posted on
11 July 2004
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22 April 2005
11:38 AM