Riches to Rags: Grey Gardens

If you haven't already heard of the documentary film about the hermit mother and daughter living in squalor in East Hampton, NY, you will probably want to rent the DVD after you read this. I stumbled upon this film a few years ago while desperately looking for something to stream from our beloved and oft-used Netflix account.

In my search, I was strangely drawn to a photo of a woman in front of a dilapidated mansion. The caption below it read that this woman was a first cousin of Jackie Kennedy Onassis, and that she and her mother were living a pauper's existence in the midst of opulent surroundings. Their names were Edith "Big Edie" Ewing Bouvier Beale and her daughter, Edith "Little Edie" Bouvier Beale (pictured).

The documentary film was released in 1975 by Albert and David Maysles, with Susan Froemke, Ellen Hovde, and Muffie Meyer. It is entitled Grey Gardens--the house where Big and Little Edie lived for 50 years-- a decrepit mansion at 3 West End Road in the wealthy Georgica Pond neighborhood of East Hampton. The house was built in 1897, and was purchased in 1923 by Phelan and Edith Beale.

The film follows these two ladies--Big Edie, then age 79, and Little Edie, 57, as they live amongst their many cats and the crumbling ruins of what once was a beautiful vacation home for the rich family. They survived for decades with limited funds, resulting in squalor and almost total isolation. The misfortune began when Mr. Phelan Beale, Big Edie's estranged husband, a rich and powerful attorney, left his family in the early 30s for another woman. Little Edie says in the doc that her father finalized the separation with a cheap Mexican divorce. Soon after, even Big Edie's own father, Mr. Bouvier, greatly diminished his financial support after she reportedly embarrassed him with eccentric behavior amongst the social elite of New York. Left with only the property of Grey Gardens (named for the grey sand dunes that led to the beach from the home), and no other family to claim them, Big Edie and her daughter did their best to live with what little money they had.

The documentary follows the ladies as they incessantly talk of glory years past--almost as if they are eerily dancing with ghosts of decades gone by. Watching the ladies dress up in make-shift costumes and sing old Broadway tunes from the turn of the twentieth century can be a bit disturbing, in a "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?" kind of way. Even the cats are often shown reacting to the strange behavior of their caretakers.

There is a cult following with this film--even Madonna is a fan. Little Edie has inspired many a clothing designer with her strange bath towel turban creations adorned with a golden broach (you'll have to see it to understand!). Even a Broadway musical and an HBO movie starring Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore have been produced in recent years.

The sad part is how, even as the neighboring homes on the dunes continue to display the excesses of the elite, these two ladies can live amongst cat and raccoon feces, crumbling plaster and wood--lost and forgotten by society. Watching this causes me to feel both amused and horrified (you can make your own judgements after you watch the film for yourself). I can't help but compare Grey Gardens with the 1950's movie, Sunset Boulevard. It's creepy how people can continue to live in the past--as if time stood still. I guess we all do that, to some extent.

Big Edie died in 1977 and Little Edie sold the house in 1979. Little Edie died in 2002 at the age of 84.