Grey Gardens
Encyclopedia
Grey Gardens is a 1975 documentary film
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...

 by Albert and David Maysles
Albert and David Maysles
Albert and David Maysles were a documentary filmmaking team whose cinéma vérité works include Salesman , Gimme Shelter and Grey Gardens . Their 1964 film on The Beatles forms the backbone of the DVD, The Beatles: The First U.S. Visit...

, with Susan Froemke, Ellen Hovde, and Muffie Meyer. The film depicts the everyday lives of two reclusive socialites, a mother and daughter both named Edith Beale, who lived at Grey Gardens
Grey Gardens (estate)
Grey Gardens is a 14-room house at 3 West End Road and Lily Pond Lane in the Georgica Pond neighborhood of East Hampton, New York, that is chronicled in the Grey Gardens 1975 documentary, 2006 Broadway musical and 2009 television movie. The mansion has been the topic of numerous other books and...

, a decrepit mansion at 3 West End Road in the wealthy Georgica Pond
Georgica Pond
Georgica Pond is a coastal lagoon on the west border of East Hampton Village and Wainscott, and was the site of a Summer White House of Bill Clinton in 1998 and 1999....

 neighborhood of East Hampton
East Hampton (village), New York
The Village of East Hampton is a village in Town of East Hampton, New York. It is located in Suffolk County, on the South Fork of eastern Long Island...

, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

. The film was screened at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival
1976 Cannes Film Festival
The 29th Cannes Film Festival was held on May 13-28, 1976. A new section, 'L'Air du temps', which is non-competitive and focuses on contemporary subjects, is introduced at this festival and discontinued after the next.- Jury :...

, but was not entered into the main competition.

In 2010, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry
National Film Registry
The National Film Registry is the United States National Film Preservation Board's selection of films for preservation in the Library of Congress. The Board, established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, was reauthorized by acts of Congress in 1992, 1996, 2005, and again in October 2008...

 by the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...

 as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Background

Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale
Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale
Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale , aunt of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, was an American amateur singer, known for her eccentric lifestyle, and part of the New York high society...

 (1895-1977), known as "Big Edie", and her daughter Edith Bouvier Beale
Edith Bouvier Beale
Edith Bouvier Beale was an American socialite, fashion model and cabaret performer. She was a first cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Lee Radziwill...

 (1917-2002), known as "Little Edie", were the aunt and the first cousin, respectively, of former U.S. First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
Jacqueline Lee Bouvier "Jackie" Kennedy Onassis was the wife of the 35th President of the United States, John F. Kennedy, and served as First Lady of the United States during his presidency from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. Five years later she married Greek shipping magnate Aristotle...

. The two women lived together at Grey Gardens for decades with limited funds in increasing squalor and isolation.

The house was designed in 1897 by Joseph Greenleaf Thorpe and purchased in 1923 by "Big Edie" and her husband Phelan Beale
Phelan Beale
Phelan Beale was a wealthy attorney and sportsman in New York City.Beale, who was married to Edith Ewing Bouvier, an aunt of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, is probably best remembered as the absent father chronicled in the Grey Gardens saga portrayed in a 1975 movie documentary, 2006 Broadway...

. After Phelan left his wife, "Big Edie" and "Little Edie" lived there for decades more, over 50 years in total for each woman. The house was called Grey Gardens because of the color of the dunes, the cement garden walls, and the sea mist.

In the fall of 1971 and throughout 1972, their living conditions—their house was infested by fleas, inhabited by numerous cats and raccoons, deprived of running water, and filled with garbage and decay—were exposed as the result of an article in the National Enquirer and a cover story in New York Magazine
New York (magazine)
New York is a weekly magazine principally concerned with the life, culture, politics, and style of New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to The New Yorker, it was brasher and less polite than that magazine, and established itself as a cradle of New...

after a series of inspections (which the Beales called "raids") by the Suffolk County
Suffolk County, New York
Suffolk County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York on the eastern portion of Long Island. As of the 2010 census, the population was 1,493,350. It was named for the county of Suffolk in England, from which its earliest settlers came...

 Health Department. With the Beale women facing eviction and the razing of their home, in the summer of 1972 Jacqueline Onassis and her sister Lee Radziwill
Lee Radziwill
Caroline Lee Bouvier Canfield Radziwill Ross best known as Lee Radziwill, is an American socialite, public relations executive, and former actress and interior decorator. She is the younger sister of the late First Lady, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis...

 provided the necessary funds to stabilize and repair the dilapidated house so that it would meet village codes.

Albert and David Maysles became interested in their story and received permission to film a documentary about the women, which was released in 1976 to wide critical acclaim. Their direct cinema
Direct Cinema
Direct Cinema is a documentary genre that originated between 1958 and 1962 in North America, principally in the Canadian province of Quebec and the United States...

technique left the women to tell their own stories.

Soundtrack

  • Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale - "Tea for Two
    Tea for Two (song)
    "Tea for Two" is a song from the 1925 musical No, No, Nanette with music by Vincent Youmans and lyrics by Irving Caesar. It is a duet sung by Nanette and Tom in Act II as they imagine their future.-Analysis:...

    " (Music by Vincent Youmans
    Vincent Youmans
    Vincent Youmans was an American popular composer and Broadway producer.- Life :Vincent Millie Youmans was born in New York City on September 27, 1898 and grew-up on Central Park West on the site where the Mayflower Hotel once stood. His father, a prosperous hat manufacturer, moved the family to...

    , lyrics by Irving Caesar
    Irving Caesar
    Irving Caesar was an American lyricist and theater composer who wrote lyrics for "Swanee," "Sometimes I'm Happy," "Crazy Rhythm," and "Tea for Two," one of the most frequently recorded tunes ever written. He was born and died in New York.Caesar, the son of Morris Keiser, a Romanian Jew, was...

    )
  • Edith Bouvier Beale - "You and the Night and the Music
    You and the Night and the Music
    "You and the Night and the Music" is a popular song composed by Arthur Schwartz with lyrics by Howard Dietz.The song was debuted in the Broadway show Revenge with Music. The show originally opened on November 28, 1934, ran for 22 performances, after which it closed. It then reopened on December...

    " (Music by Arthur Schwartz
    Arthur Schwartz
    Arthur Schwartz was an American composer and film producer.Schwartz supported his legal studies at New York University and postgraduate studies at Columbia University by playing piano before concentrating his talents on vaudeville, Broadway theatre and Hollywood.Among his Broadway musicals are The...

    , lyrics by Howard Dietz
    Howard Dietz
    Howard Dietz was an American publicist, lyricist, and librettist.-Biography:Dietz was born in New York City and studied journalism at Columbia University...

    )
  • Edith Bouvier Beale - "Night and Day
    Night and Day (song)
    "Night and Day" is a popular song by Cole Porter. It was written for the 1932 musical play Gay Divorce. It is perhaps Porter's most popular contribution to the Great American Songbook and has been recorded by dozens of artists....

    " (Written by Cole Porter
    Cole Porter
    Cole Albert Porter was an American composer and songwriter. Born to a wealthy family in Indiana, he defied the wishes of his domineering grandfather and took up music as a profession. Classically trained, he was drawn towards musical theatre...

    )
  • Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale - "People Will Say We're in Love
    People Will Say We're in Love
    "People Will Say We're In Love" is a show tune from the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Oklahoma! . In the original Broadway production, the song was introduced by Alfred Drake and Joan Roberts.-Plot context:...

    " (Music by Richard Rodgers
    Richard Rodgers
    Richard Charles Rodgers was an American composer of music for more than 900 songs and for 43 Broadway musicals. He also composed music for films and television. He is best known for his songwriting partnerships with the lyricists Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II...

     & Oscar Hammerstein II
    Oscar Hammerstein II
    Oscar Greeley Clendenning Hammerstein II was an American librettist, theatrical producer, and theatre director of musicals for almost forty years. Hammerstein won eight Tony Awards and was twice awarded an Academy Award for "Best Original Song". Many of his songs are standard repertoire for...

    )

Aftermath

"Big Edie" died in 1977 and "Little Edie" sold the house in 1979 to former Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee and his wife Sally Quinn
Sally Quinn
Sally Sterling Quinn is an American author and journalist, who writes about religion for a blog at The Washington Post.-Personal:...

. "Little Edie" died in 2002 at the age of 84.

According to a 2003 article in Town & Country
Town & Country (magazine)
Town & Country, formerly the Home Journal and The National Press, is a monthly American lifestyle magazine. It is the oldest continually published general interest magazine in the United States.-Early history:...

, after their purchase, Bradlee and Quinn completely restored the house and grounds (the sale agreement forbade razing the house).

Jerry Torre, the handyman shown in the documentary, was sought by the filmmakers for years afterward, and was found by chance driving a New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 taxicab. He is now a sculptor at The Art Students League of New York and a documentary is being made about his life by Jason Hay and Steve Pelizza of Aggregate Pictures.

Lois Wright, one of the two birthday party guests in the film, has hosted a public television show in East Hampton since the 1980s. She wrote a book about her experiences at the house with the Beales.

In 2006, Albert Maysles made available previously unreleased footage for a special 2-disc edition for the Criterion Collection
The Criterion Collection
The Criterion Collection is a video-distribution company selling "important classic and contemporary films" to film aficionados. The Criterion series is noted for helping to standardize the letterbox format for home video, bonus features, and special editions...

. It included a new feature titled The Beales of Grey Gardens
The Beales of Grey Gardens
The Beales of Grey Gardens is a documentary film by Albert Maysles, David Maysles and Ian Markiewicz, released in 2006.This film is a follow-up to the celebrated 1975 documentary Grey Gardens about Jackie Kennedy's aunt and cousin, "Big" Edie and "Little" Edie Beale...

, which also received a limited theatrical release.

Walter Newkirk, a longtime friend of Little Edie, interviewed her during his college days. A CD of the interview is titled Little Edie Live! A Visit To Grey Gardens. It was followed with a scrapbook memoir of their friendship entitled memoraBEALEia (2008).

Adaptations

  • The documentary was adapted into a full-length musical, Grey Gardens
    Grey Gardens (musical)
    Grey Gardens is an American musical with book by Doug Wright, music by Scott Frankel, and lyrics by Michael Korie, based on the 1975 documentary of the same title about the lives of Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale and her daughter Edith Bouvier Beale by Albert and David Maysles. The Beales were...

    , with book by Doug Wright
    Doug Wright
    Doug Wright is an American playwright, librettist, and screenwriter. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2004 for his play, I Am My Own Wife.-Early years:Wright was born in Dallas, Texas...

    , music by Scott Frankel
    Scott Frankel
    Scott David Frankel is an American composer and musical director.-Career:He attended Interlochen Arts Camp majoring in piano.He graduated from Yale University in 1985, when he was also inducted into the Skull and Bones secret society...

     and lyrics by Michael Korie
    Michael Korie
    Michael Korie is an American librettist and lyricist. Korie's works include Grey Gardens , Harvey Milk and The Grapes of Wrath . He also wrote the lyrics to Doctor Zhivago Michael Korie (born Michael Cory Indick) is an American librettist and lyricist. Korie's works include Grey Gardens...

    . Starring Christine Ebersole
    Christine Ebersole
    Christine Ebersole is an American actress and singer.-Early life:Ebersole was born in Winnetka, Illinois, where she attended New Trier High School...

     and Mary Louise Wilson
    Mary Louise Wilson
    Mary Louise Wilson is an American stage, film and television actress.-Stage:Broadway* Hot Spot — 1963 as Sue Ann* Flora, The Red Menace — 1965 as Comrade Ada* Lovers and Other Strangers — 1968 as Bernice...

    , the show premiered at Playwrights Horizons
    Playwrights Horizons
    Playwrights Horizons is a not-for-profit Off-Broadway theater located in New York City dedicated to the support and development of contemporary American playwrights, composers, and lyricists, and to the production of their new work....

     in New York City
    New York City
    New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

     in February 2006. The musical reopened on Broadway in November 2006 at the Walter Kerr Theatre
    Walter Kerr Theatre
    The Walter Kerr Theatre is a legitimate Broadway theatre. Located at 219 West 48th Street, it is owned and operated by Jujamcyn Theaters. One of the smaller auditoriums in the theatre district, it seats 975....

    , and was acclaimed on more than 25 "Best of 2006" lists in newspapers and magazines. The production won a Tony Award
    Tony Award
    The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...

     for Best Costume Design, and Ebersole and Wilson each won Tony Awards for their performances. The Broadway production closed on July 29, 2007. It was the first musical on Broadway ever to be adapted from a documentary.
  • A Few Small Repairs by David Robson, a play loosely based on the women of Grey Gardens, premiered to good reviews in Philadelphia in March 2007; it was subsequently performed in the summer of 2009 at the annual Pick 'n' Mix Festival in Belfast, Northern Ireland by Skewiff Theatre Company.
  • Little Edie & The Marble Faun by David Lally, was a play written for The Metropolitan Playhouse's Annual Author Fest, "Hawthornucopia", which ran from January 14–27, 2008 in New York, NY. The play was inspired by the documentary and Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Marble Faun
    The Marble Faun
    The Marble Faun: Or, The Romance of Monte Beni, also known as Transformation, was the last of the four major romances by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and was published in 1860. The Marble Faun, written on the eve of the American Civil War, is set in a fantastical Italy...

    .
  • Grey Gardens
    Grey Gardens (HBO film)
    Grey Gardens is an HBO film about the lives of Edith Bouvier Beale/"Little Edie", played by Drew Barrymore, and her mother Edith Ewing Bouvier/"Big Edie", played by Jessica Lange. Co-stars include Jeanne Tripplehorn as Jacqueline Kennedy and Ken Howard as Phelan Beale...

    , an HBO film, stars Jessica Lange
    Jessica Lange
    Jessica Phyllis Lange is an American actress who has worked in film, theatre and television. The recipient of several awards, including two Academy Awards, four Golden Globes and one Emmy, Lange is regarded as one of the première female actors of her generation.Lange was discovered by producer...

     and Drew Barrymore
    Drew Barrymore
    Drew Blyth Barrymore is an American actress, film director, screenwriter, producer and model. She is a member of the Barrymore family of American actors and granddaughter of John Barrymore. She first appeared in an advertisement when she was 11 months old. Barrymore made her film debut in Altered...

     as the Edies, with Jeanne Tripplehorn
    Jeanne Tripplehorn
    Jeanne Marie Tripplehorn is an American film and television actress. She was brought to the public's attention through her supporting role in the 1992 film Basic Instinct, and since 2006 has starred opposite Bill Paxton in the HBO drama Big Love.-Early life:Tripplehorn was born in Tulsa,...

     as Jacqueline Kennedy, and Daniel Baldwin
    Daniel Baldwin
    Daniel Leroy Baldwin is an American actor, producer and director. He is the second oldest of the four Baldwin brothers, all of whom are actors. Daniel Baldwin is known for his role as Detective Beau Felton in the popular NBC TV series Homicide: Life on the Street...

     as Julius Krug. Directed and co-written (with Patricia Rozema
    Patricia Rozema
    Patricia Rozema is a Canadian film director and screenwriter.-Life and career:Rozema was born in Kingston, Ontario and raised in Sarnia, Ontario. Her parents, Jacoba Berandina and Jan Rozema, were Dutch Calvinists. Television was severely restricted and she didn’t go to a movie theatre until she...

    ) by filmmaker Michael Sucsy
    Michael Sucsy
    Michael Sucsy is a Golden Globe and Emmy Award winning film director, screenwriter, and producer. He is best known as the filmmaker who created the hit film Grey Gardens .-Early Life:...

    , filming began on October 22, 2007 in Toronto
    Toronto
    Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

    . It flashes back and forth between Little Edie's life as a young woman and the actual filming/premiere of the 1975 documentary. It first aired on HBO on April 18, 2009, won six Primetime Emmys, and two Golden Globes.

Music

  • Musician Rufus Wainwright
    Rufus Wainwright
    Rufus McGarrigle Wainwright is an American-Canadian singer-songwriter. He has recorded six albums of original music, EPs, and tracks on compilations and film soundtracks.-Early years:...

     wrote a song titled "Grey Gardens", which appears on his 2001 album Poses. The song's narrative is partly composed of references to both the 1975 documentary Grey Gardens, and to Thomas Mann
    Thomas Mann
    Thomas Mann was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and 1929 Nobel Prize laureate, known for his series of highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novellas, noted for their insight into the psychology of the artist and the intellectual...

    's novella
    Novella
    A novella is a written, fictional, prose narrative usually longer than a novelette but shorter than a novel. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Awards for science fiction define the novella as having a word count between 17,500 and 40,000...

     Death in Venice
    Death in Venice
    The novella Death in Venice was written by the German author Thomas Mann, and was first published in 1913 as Der Tod in Venedig. The plot of the work presents a great writer suffering writer's block who visits Venice and is liberated and uplifted, then increasingly obsessed, by the sight of a...

    (or to Luchino Visconti
    Luchino Visconti
    Luchino Visconti di Modrone, Count of Lonate Pozzolo was an Italian theatre, opera and cinema director, as well as a screenwriter. He is best known for his films The Leopard and Death in Venice .-Life:...

    's film of the same title
    Death in Venice (film)
    Death in Venice is a 1971 film directed by Luchino Visconti and starring Dirk Bogarde and Björn Andrésen. The film is based on the novella Death in Venice by Thomas Mann.-Plot:...

    ).

Television

  • In season 2, episode #9 of The Big Gay Sketch Show
    The Big Gay Sketch Show
    The Big Gay Sketch Show is an LGBT-themed sketch comedy program that debuted on Logo on April 24, 2007. The series is produced by Rosie O'Donnell and directed by Amanda Bearse. The program was originally titled "The Big Gay Show" but was renamed during production. As the name indicates, the show...

    , guest star Christine Ebersole
    Christine Ebersole
    Christine Ebersole is an American actress and singer.-Early life:Ebersole was born in Winnetka, Illinois, where she attended New Trier High School...

    , Kate McKinnon, Julie Goldman and others parody the dilapidation of Grey Gardens in a skit titled: "Extreme Sears Makeover: Home Edition: Grey Gardens".
  • In the season 3 Castle
    Castle (TV series)
    Castle is an American comedy-drama television series, which premiered on ABC on March 9, 2009. The series is produced by Beacon Pictures and ABC Studios. On January 10, 2011, Castle was renewed for a fourth season...

    episode, "Pretty Dead", Alexis mentions in a humorous tone that she and her dad could both never leave home and be like a father/daughter version of Grey Gardens. Castle replies, "Eew."
  • Two episodes of Gilmore Girls
    Gilmore Girls
    Gilmore Girls is an American family comedy-drama series created by Amy Sherman-Palladino, starring Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel. On October 5, 2000, the series debuted on The WB and was cancelled in its seventh season, ending on May 15, 2007 on The CW...

    refer to Grey Gardens. In episode 9 of season 3, "A Deep-Fried Korean Thanksgiving", Lorelai and Rory are seen watching the documentary and commenting on how similar they are to the Edies. In episode 7 of season 4, "The Festival of Living Art", Lorelai also mentions the film.
  • In the season 2 episode of "The L Word
    The L Word
    The L Word is an American co-production television drama series originally shown on Showtime portraying the lives of a group of lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people and their friends, family and lovers in the trendy Greater Los Angeles, California city of West Hollywood...

    ", "Lynch Pin", Jenny Shecter briefly discusses the Grey Gardens documentary with Mark Wayland, who has come to her house as a potential roommate.
  • In the Rugrats
    Rugrats
    Rugrats is an American animated television series created by Arlene Klasky, Gábor Csupó, and Paul Germain for Nickelodeon. The series premiered on August 11, 1991, and aired its last episode on June 8, 2004....

    episode "The Case of the Missing Rugrat", Tommy is accidentally taken from Grandpa Lou and put under the care of two sisters named Emma and Clarice in their crumbling estate called Grey Gardens; the episode also references Sunset Boulevard
    Sunset Boulevard (film)
    Sunset Boulevard is a 1950 American film noir directed and co-written by Billy Wilder, and produced and co-written by Charles Brackett...

    and What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
    What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (film)
    What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? is a 1962 American psychological thriller film produced and directed by Robert Aldrich, starring Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. The screenplay by Lukas Heller is based on the novel of the same name by Henry Farrell...

    .

External links

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