Her larger-than-life personality and the mystery of how a woman born with so much promise came to such a sad, reclusive life make Edith Bouvier Beale’s story fascinating. Of course the shirt-tail tie to the Bouvier-Kennedy dynasty adds glamour and interest. Her story was recently told in a Broadway musical and won her new fans. Her persona seems like something out of a novel or a play, not reality. She makes me think of a lighthearted version of Charles Dickens’s character, Miss Havisham. After her death “Little Edie” is getting some of the attention and acclaim that she craved during her lifetime.
Edith Bouvier Beale was born into an aristocratic family. She was called “Little Edie” by everyone to distinguish her from her mother, who was Edith Beale, or “Big Edie”. Little Edie’s father was a lawyer. Her mother, a classically trained singer, dreamed of a great concert career and held recitals in their grand East Hampton home. Jacqueline Bouvier, future First Lady and wife of Pres. John F Kennedy, was Little Edie’s first cousin. It was an auspicious beginning.
Edith Bouvier Beale grew into a celebrated beauty and began modeling at 17 years old. She also acted and sang. Little Edie enjoyed the social scene and aspired to break into movies. These were her golden years. She claimed to have had marriage proposals from J. Paul Getty and Howard Hughes.
Edith Bouvier Beale’s father divorced her mother to remarry and start a new family. When he died his second family inherited the estate. Edith, the mother, retained the East Hampton mansion that Mr. Beale had given her while they were married.
At 35 years old, Edith Bouvier Beale’s career was going well. The way she told it, her dreams were almost in sight. She said she had offers from both MGM and Paramount studios. Suddenly Little Edie left Manhattan and her career in 1952 to take care of her ailing, head-strong mother who was living alone in Grey Gardens. Little Edie returned to the mansion home that she grew up in. At this point the ladies were living off of a $65,000.00 trust fund. They had few visitors and lived a reclusive life in the grand house. Little Edie’s life and the estate deteriorated around her.
In 1971 the health department brought public attention to the dreadful situation of Edith Bouvier Beale and her mother when they declared Grey Gardens unfit to live in. It was filled with junk and filth from the many cats and wild raccoons. Jackie Onassis brought in a crew to clean. Albert and David Maysles told the story of Big and Little Edie’s life in squalor in the 1975 documentary “Grey Gardens. It is a mother-daughter drama played out on a dilapidated stage. Their relationship, marked by affection, dependence, and conflict, is like something out of Greek drama. Little Edie blames her mother for running off any possible suitors and making it impossible for her to marry. She also talks repeatedly about running away to Paris or New York and finding the perfect Libra husband.
In 1978, after her mother died, Edith Bouvier Beale sold Grey Gardens and moved to New York to restart her career. She sang in a short-lived cabaret show. Critics panned the show which closed despite the fact that the audience enjoyed it. Many people who came to the show had seen the movie.
Edith Bouvier Beale had a creative and eccentric sense of style. She called her outfits “revolutionary costumes”. She pinned a skirt together with a decorative broach for one inventive ensemble that she wore in the documentary. Little Edie explained to the camera that it could double as a cape. In 1997 Harper’s Bazaar featured a fashion spread inspired by Little Edie’s styles. Italian Vogue did a similar spread in 1999.
The documentary inspired a 2006 Tony-award-winning musical titled “Grey Gardens. Many of the highly quotable lines in the dialogue and lyrics are quoted directly from the documentary. The play captures both the eccentric humor of Little Edie and the sadness of her life. It proves the unbreakable but painful bonds between this mother and daughter.
Edith Bouvier Beale died at age 84 on Nov. 14th 2002. She spent the last years of her life in Florida without a single cat. It is hard to understand a life that started with so much promise only to have grand dreams vanish like smoke. Little Edie fled to her dreams to escape the painful realities. At least that is how we see her in the documentary. Her imagination lifted her above the battles of her daily life. Ironically, the charming fantasy was also a trap that kept her from being able to solve the problems she faced with the house and her mother. I hope that once Little Edie was free from that she found some true peace and happiness.
Sources:
Guardian UK Obituary
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2002/feb/09/guardianobituaries
NY Times Article: The Lives They Lived
Goddess, a tribute page
http://members.tripod.com/~anxietyny/goddessedie.html
NY Times Obituary
Quotes from the movie Grey Gardens
http://allmyquotes.com/quote/movie_grey_gardens_1975/
A Return to Grey Gardens
http://nymag.com/arts/theater/features/23484/index1.html
