Update on the status of Eva Beale's book

This raccoon has been feeling a little guilty lately for having so strongly promoted the Edith Bouvier Beale of Grey Gardens: A Life in Pictures book (here, here, and here) that still has not yet materialized (here and here).

I have received word from Eva Beale directly and she told me that the December 1 publication date listed in the press release was a miscommunication. There most definitely was a delay in distributing the certificates of ownership, as they were mailed out after the holiday season--too late to appear under the tree.

However, an e-mail sent to prepaid buyers on January 12 says that they are "advanced discussions with a major US high-end magazine to launch the book in March 2008", and they request patience until the book is published.

Some of you have complained that your e-mails requesting refunds that you sent to the addresses on the official website were unanswered. I am told that writing to the first e-mail address on contact page of the website (Go to the site and click on "Info & Contact", and then click on the first e-mail address there.) will result in a response.

If your e-mails remain unanswered, I am told that your PayPal transaction is covered under the PayPal Buyer Protection: PayPal Buyer Complaint Policy. Disputes can be opened at the PayPal Resolution Center.

My deepest apologies to those of you who are unhappy with this situation. Please continue to check back here for more information about the book. This raccoon will post the publication date as soon as it is known.

Unofficial photo from the Grey Gardens Toronto filming

Thanks to the anonymous contributor who sent this in!

The filming seems to be all finished now. Does anyone have any news, photos, or stories they'd like to leak to a curious raccoon?

From IMDb

Photographs of Olivia Waldriff

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Exhibition of ''cinemagraphs'' by Albert Maysles, 15 Feb - 15 Mar

Sounds interesting!

Also, a book signing is listed in the press release below. Can it be that A Maysles Scrapbook will come out soon?

From Steven Kasher Gallery

ALBERT MAYSLES: Photographs/Cinemagraphs

February 15, 2008 - March 15, 2008

Exhibition:	February 15th through March 15th, 2008
Booksigning and Reception:	February 15th 6-8pm
Additional events:	Gracie Mansion, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Film Forum, and HBO

An exhibition of Albert Maysles’ photographs and “cinemagraphs” at the Steven Kasher Gallery and related events have been organized to celebrate the release of Albert Maysles, A Maysles Scrapbook: Photographs/Cinemagraphs/Documents, preface by Martin Scorsese (Steidl/Kasher, 2008). This 376 page book is the first comprehensive monograph on the pioneer filmmaking team that set the standards of contemporary documentary filmmaking.

The exhibition will include over 50 of Albert’s vintage black and white prints from the 1950s. Also on view will be over 20 large-scale limited edition cinemagraphs reproduced from the original footage of Grey Gardens, Gimme Shelter, Salesman and other films.

Related events are being held around the city. The Metropolitan Museum will host an evening with Albert on February 1 and a series of Saturday evening screenings of the Maysles major films on January 12, 19, 26, and February 2. Mayor Bloomberg will host a screening of The Gates at Gracie Mansion on February 13th. A brunch screening and booksigning will be held at the Film Forum on February 24. HBO will broadcast the premiere of The Gates on February 26th. The Studio Museum in Harlem will host a booksigning on May 11.

With Albert behind the camera and David on sound, the Maysles brothers were pivotal in creating the Direct Cinema movement of the 1960s and 70s, and are among the progenitors of modern documentary cinema. Grey Gardens (1976) spawned an award-winning Broadway musical and a soon-to-be-released feature film starring Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore. Gimme Shelter (1970) captured the infamous and fatal Rolling Stones concert at Altamont and is often called the greatest documentary ever made on the American 1960s. Salesman (1968) is widely credited as the first feature-length documentary to eliminate voice-over narration and the first to achieve wide theatrical distribution.

The recent discovery of a cache of original film negatives and hours of outtake film, numerous stills, production notes, and personal and business documents is the occasion for this retrospective exhibition and publication. The book is a long-awaited testament to one of the most important and influential filmmaking teams of our time.

Albert Maysles: Photographs/Cinemagraphs will be on view from February 15 through March 15, 2008. Steven Kasher Gallery is located at 521 W. 23rd St., New York, NY 10011. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 11am to 6pm.For more info or press requests please contact Kat Jones at 212.966.3978 or kat@stevenkasher.com. Please visit our website www.stevenkasher.com

Update

I am told that the cinemagraphs are about $4000.00 apiece.

Update

I am now told that the cinemagraphs range from $400-$3,000.

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Al Maysles visits The Met

He'll be at the Met this Friday at 6:00, and he'll be sharing excerpts from our favorite documentary!

From The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Four Maysles Films

Albert Maysles, documentary filmmaker and photographer

Albert Maysles, who has been called the "Dean of Documentary" by The New York Times, has been making films for over 50 years. His core philosophy is that only by illuminating the real world can we understand each other and bridge our differences. Documenting experience is Maysles's way of making the world a better place. In this lecture, he discusses and shares excerpts of four of his nonfiction films (three of which are on Documentary magazine's 25 Best Documentaries list), Salesman, Grey Gardens, Gimme Shelter, and Lalee’s Kin.

Friday, February 1, at 6:00 PM

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Little Edie Beale (Christine Ebersole) to appear on LOGO's ''Big Gay Sketch Show''

What a cute idea!

From Kenneth in the 212, by Kenneth M. Walsh, on 21 January 2008

Laugh-Out

Look for lots of celebrity guest stars when Season 2 of LOGO's "Big Gay Sketch Show" premieres on Feb. 5 at 10 p.m. All eight episodes feature celebrity guest appearances including stage legends Elaine Stritch and Christine Ebersole (who appears as her character from "Grey Gardens"), as well as comedian Kate Clinton, Paul Vogt (Broadway’s "Hairspray"), Chastity Bono and Rosie O’Donnell, who also serves as one of the show’s executive producers.

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Publicity and concern surrounding Eva Beale's book about Little Edith Bouvier Beale of Grey Gardens

This is a great article about the Beales and Eva Beale's book. Almost more interesting than the article itself, is the comments.

By A fan, on 20 January 2008

"has just been published." ????

Warning to anyone pre-ordering this book. There are a bunch of us who did and the Beales and their French publisher have sat on our money for 3 months, with poor communication (no direct responses to emails) and no details or response on how to get a refund.

Where's the book?

By Sean, on 20 January 2008

It is MOST instructive to see now all these years later The Beale's putting out a book about their "beloved" Aunt and Grandmother, whose unfortunate misery was partially the product of their own callous indifference! I have to wonder here, are the proceeds of this book going into the pocket of the Beale's who did virtually nothing to help the women they are cashing in on, or are they donating all proceeds to some worthwhile charity in an attempt to make amends for their previously mentioned callousness? One charity that I can think of right now that would be appropriate is any one of a thousand rescue mission outreaches in their own state of California, or even better the Salvation Army who among other things help people who CAN'T pay their heating bills, to make it through the winter. The rush of people who DID know these women and who DID have interaction with them and did NOTHING to actually help them now coming out with CD interviews, photo books etc and cash in on their memories is most disheartening. I know I will never purchase them. What I WOULD be interested in is a book put out by someone with NO family connection, NO record of having encountered these women and supposedly having decades long friendships with them and yet did NOTHING to help them,. One has to wonder out loud, "When will we have such a book one that tells the whole, shameful story of the betrayal and cashing in on the Beales by their money grubbing family and "friends"?

Now THAT'S the book I am waiting for!!!!!

By Stanhope, on 20 January 2008

The publishing process seems very peculiar. the book is being published, it's been delayed, thanks for the money, here's a promissory note instead. It's almost as if this were some sort of ill conceived vanity operation. I'm very disappointed. Quite honestly I think the Edies' deserve better posthumous literary treatment than they received while alive. It just goes to show you art really does imitate life.

By A fan, on 20 January 2008

I think, after deducing your point by moving some misplaced commas around, I agree with you Elinor.

No one is saying that they don’t think publishing is hard work. And I am also looking forward to the book (I did order it after all) and have shown great patience through a few poorly-communicated delays. I also ordered the Maysles’ book, but may I point out that Amazon has not yet charged my credit card?

My point is that after taking people’s money, and initially promising a holiday release, the Beales and Verlhac are not communicating properly. And then, after not answering specific emails to the people who, in essence, loaned them the money to print this thing, to announce that it is already published in a news account…well, it’s understandable that we’d want to vent a little frustration. After all, how else can we make our point to them if they do not show the simple courtesy of a return email?

Furthermore, I feel the need to warn others that if you order this book online, without a guaranteed delivery date, consider yourself warned…it appears to be an unsecured loan to someone who only talks to the media in the hopes of getting more loans.

So, in a public forum I have to ask, when’s my book arriving? Or how can I get a refund if I don't want to wait until I know it's real?

And, finally, the article itself:

From San Jose Mercury News, by Jennifer Modenessi, on 20 January 2008

Riches of the Imagination

In 1971, National Enquirer headlines screamed out the news that Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale and her daughter, Edith Bouvier Beale -- otherwise known as Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis' aunt and cousin -- had been found residing in squalor in Long Island's East Hamptons.

Thirty-seven years later, a lot has changed.

Today, the Beales are the subjects of a Tony Award-winning Broadway musical set to open in London. An HBO film starring Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange is currently in production. Turbaned models in haute-couture homages to the younger Beale's fascinating costumes cuddle felines in Vogue fashion spreads, and a coffee-table book on the life of "Little" Edie Beale, conceived by Mill Valley residents Bouvier Beale Jr. and Eva Marie Beale, has just been published.

What is it about this mother and daughter duo that has captured the hearts of filmmakers, fashion designers, playwrights and fans?

"You've got a story of two early- and mid-20th century women who came from, supposedly, one of the 'better' and 'wealthier' families in America," Bouvier Beale Jr., grandson and nephew of the Beales, explains.

"I think the attraction for the public builds with the various creative people looking at the story originating in the documentary movie of the 1970s and figuring that, hey, compared to any historical personages that we can develop an entertaining story from, these were two that were high on the list."

Beale is referring to "Grey Gardens," Albert and David Maysles' atmospheric and endlessly quotable documentary film that premiered at the New York Film Festival in 1975. Shot in the bedrooms, porches, sundecks, wildly overgrown gardens and darkened attic of the Beales home, "Grey Gardens" introduced audiences to the highly unconventional life of the philosophizing, artistic and staunchly Democratic Little Edie Beale and her mother, Big Edie.

Although critically acclaimed, the film was less than popular with Beale family members.

"I'll be honest with you, a lot of the close family members didn't really take to it too much," Bouvier Beale confides. "After all, it does depict sort of a pathetic situation and not something people would want to wish on themselves."

That pathetic situation reportedly included no heat, little to no plumbing, piles of garbage, and holes in walls and ceilings in which other Grey Gardens denizens, like stray cats and raccoons, could enter and exit as they pleased. The Maysles film spared little detail, but it also artfully captured the Beales' creative and rebellious spirits.

"Both my relatives showed through their strong personalities and their intelligence in the documentary that they were able to overcome all of that," Bouvier reflects. "In fact, they actually did overcome that."

Life wasn't always a trial for the Beales, at least not on the surface. Little Edie, who had a penchant for wearing dark eyeliner, safety-pinned sweaters-as-skirts and headdresses fashioned with sparkling brooches, hadn't always spent her time spooning liver pate onto paper plates and defending her mother and home from the county health inspectors.

But it's hard to imagine their earlier existence if "Grey Gardens" is your only point of reference.

That's where the Beales' "Edith Bouvier Beale of Grey Gardens: A Life in Pictures" comes in.

"There's a whole different side of her that the public doesn't know," says Eva Marie Beale, who first met Edie at her wedding to Bouvier nearly three decades ago. "She's not just a reclusive that was locked up in a home, hiding from the world. She was somebody who had so much passion and so much talent and she had an amazing outlook on life and her dreams."

That passion and talent are evident in the boxes of scrapbooks, diaries, poetry and photographs that the Beales inherited upon their aunt's death in 2002.

"When we got the boxes, we started going through them," Eva recalls. "The family was always sitting around as I did this. I would find incredible photographs dating back from (Edie's) birth to her 50s. It was really kept in an organized and detailed manner."

After spending a year and a half poring over and archiving the material, and encouraged by the response they witnessed at the premiere of the Broadway musical along with the buzz they encountered on the Internet, the Beales decided that the time was right to launch "Edith Bouvier Beale of Grey Gardens: A Life in Pictures," and form a company that sells items inspired by the Beales.

"People want to know more and we want people to know more about her," Eva says. The book, which contains images like a resplendent 19-year-old Edie and her mother, will "give some insight as to how this young individual became what she became."

"I think the combination of the poetry, the diaries and the pictures themselves will give everybody a complete picture of Edie as a very privileged individual," Eva reflects. "Things didn't go as she had hoped, her dreams didn't all come true.

(People) want to know why, how things can change so much in somebody's life. I think a lot of people associate their own personal experiences with Edie's."

Source

Grey Gardens the Musical iPhone wallpaper

Cute! If anyone else has wallpapers they've made, feel free to post them in the comments of this post.

From iPhone Golden

Grey Gardens iPhone wallpaper

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Nathaniel Hawthorne on Grey Gardens

It seems that an adaptation of Hawthorne's "The Marble Faun" that incorporates part of the story of the Edie Beales is on the stage!

It will run on January 18, 19, 22, and 27 at the Metropolitan Playhouse at 224 East 4th St. in New York City. It's part of "Hawthornucopia: A miscellany of new plays celebrating the life and literature of Nathaniel Hawthorne."

From Metropolitan Playhouse

Little Edie and The Marble Faun

Adapted by David Lally

Handyman Jerry Torre was referred to as "The Marble Faun" by Edith Bouvier Beale (best known for her reclusive life with her mother, Edith in the East Hampton mansion, "Grey Gardens".) Here is Hawthorne’s story, “The Marble Faun”, featuring Miriam and Donatello and how their lives parallel the lives of Big Edie, Little Edie and Jerry.

If you've seen this, please post in the comments of this post to let us know how it is!

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Art from a young Little Edie Beale

She's quite the little artist!

From Grey Gardens Yahoo! Group, by lovethatfilm, on 12 January 2008

From a bedside table in an upstairs guestroom of the present day Grey Gardens is a book written in 1923, and in the front cover are two very interesting illustrated pages by our Dear One -from many many years ago.

From Grey Gardens Yahoo! Group, by lovethatfilm, on 12 January 2008

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Eva Beale's book is still not available

A number of you have written in to me about Eva Beale's book not having arrived. The official site for the book says that it won't be available until after the new year, but still does not give an actual release date.

I've received scans of some scans of the certificates of ownership of the books:

It's too bad that these certificates weren't sent out before Christmas so that they could have appeared under the Christmas tree.

The site for the book says:

Upon you placing your order we will send a note to you or the person you are sending it to - with a copy of the book cover, and a certificate of ownership.

For most of my correspondents, all that arrived was the certificate of ownership. No one received a copy of the book cover. One did receive a note that gives a possible release date of March 2008. Let's hope that more information comes in sooner rather than later!

Maysles book delayed

Remember how this book was supposed to come out on November 1? It was delayed until January, and now it's delayed until March.

A Maysles Scrapbook: Photographs/Cinemagraphs/Documents
by Steven Kasher, Michael Chaiken, and Albert Maysles

From Amazon.com

Unfortunately, the release date for the item(s) listed below has changed, and we need to provide you with a new delivery estimate based on the new release date:

Steven Kasher (Editor), et al "A Maysles Scrapbook: Photographs/Cinemagraphs/Documents" [Hardcover]

Estimated arrival date: 03/20/2008 - 03/22/2008

As much as I would like to have this, and as good of a holiday gift as it would have been, good thing we didn't try to give it as a present!

Canadian article on all things Grey Gardens

Nicely done! An easy read that gives a good snapshot of the world of Grey Gardens.

Oddly, the only mention of the musical is its use as the soundtrack to the Galliano show, but none of the videos I've seen of the show actually have that as the soundtrack to the show.

From National Post, by Karen Burshtein, on 11 January 2008

This year's look: The wrecked socialite

Each year, the world of fashion seems to require a new It icon. Two years ago, it was pin-up girl Bettie Page. Last year, a doomed queen, Marie Antoinette. This season, it's Little Edie, the wrecked New York socialite and first cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy.

The subject of a cult 1975 documentary, Edith Bouvier Beale, led a bizarre Tennessee Williams-like existence at Grey Gardens, her family's crumbling, vermin-infested East Hampton mansion, where, after a brief stint as a model and aspiring actress, she spent decades taking care of her mother, Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale (Big Edie), with dozens of cats their only company.

An iconoclast in dress, as well as lifestyle, her "revolutionary costumes" have served as inspiration to the occasional eccentric designer, drag queen or Olsen twin. But today, Little Edie is all over the culture, like so many raccoons in the attic.

Her signature look would make Martin Margiela hyperventilate: old cashmere skirts worn upside down over torn stockings, cardigans worn back to front, ratty old fur coats worn with bathing caps and hot pants and turbans fashioned from sweaters or towels and fastened with an enormous brooch.

Designers Todd Oldham, Isaac Mizrahi and John Bartlett have all sampled Edie's style, and photographer Steven Meisel paid tribute to her a few years ago in an Italian Vogue spread.

But the recent Little Edie fever is due, in part, to a new HBO movie about the Bouvier Beales. Currently filming in Toronto, with a screenplay by Patricia Rozema, the movie will feature Drew Barrymore in the lead role. Barrymore bears a striking resemblance to the remarkably beautiful and well-connected young debutante (who claimed she'd once been engaged to Joe Kennedy Jr.), scurrying glamorously through the Royal York (posing as New York's Pierre Hotel, where Little Edie came out before she unravelled).

But the fever is also due to Paris designer John Galliano's Spring 2008 fashion show, which, to the soundtrack of the Tony Award-winning musical Grey Gardens, paid homage to Little Edie's style, with off-kilter sweaters and models' grey hair wrapped around their heads like a turban.

Marc Jacobs also pays tribute to Little Edie this season with lots of layered looks, as does Philip Lim, though the latter's "pedigree minus the prudence" theme was a looser interpretation, primarily dresses that looked like wrapped towels.

Not everyone is enthusiastic about the Little Edie look, however. Toronto fashion writer David Livingstone, for one, would prefer to "get this God damn tiresome phenomenon into a scarf shaped like a sweater and be done with it."

But the Edies are hotter then ever. Pop culture can't seem to get enough of the ladies who ate ice cream out of containers they shared with their cats.

Someone out there in YouTube land has done a mash-up, featuring Edie's most famous fashion statement, uttered in the opening sequence of the documentary Grey Gardens: "This is the best thing to wear for the day." She was referring to a tablecloth she had pinned into a skirt and wore over mesh stockings that she'd pulled over shorts. "The best thing is to wear pantyhose or some pants under a short skirt, I think," she says. "And you can always take off the skirt and use it as a cape."

Any fashion employee worth his or her Tods will spout Edie's motto at least once a day in the office. He or she will also be expert in the gnomic asides and high-camp statements Edie delivers throughout the movie: "I can't get the thumbtack in the wall ... I've got the saddest life."

Which may explain why Rufus Wainwright devoted a song to Grey Gardens on his Poses album and why Sarah Jessica Parker has been photographed recently wearing a ratty fur coat, sequined skull cap and pyjama bottoms. Kylie Minogue is said to have watched Grey Gardens 100 consecutive times. Try renting the DVD - chances are, it's been checked out by a teenager who covers her head with a stained Hermès scarf she found at Goodwill.

The Grey Gardens documentary was directed by Albert and David Maysles, of Gimme Shelter fame. Jackie Kennedy's sister, Lee Radziwill, hired the brothers to make a film about the Bouvier family, including their eccentric aunt (the sister of their father, John Bouvier) and cousin. But the two Edies proved to be the film's most enthusiastic participants.

The Bouvier Beales had already known notoriety. In 1971 the National Enquirer broke the story that Jackie's cousins were living in squalor, camped out together in a single bedroom in the crumbling 28-room mansion where they also kept a fridge full of cat food. The house stunk of feline urine and had no running water.

Jackie and Lee intervened cheque-wise, before the Suffolk country Health authorities made good on their threat to have the beach-front dwelling condemned.

Five years later, by the time the Maysles started filming, the house had fallen back into a state of decay. The documentary that was meant to be about the Bouvier family ended up being a film about the two Edies, which Jacqueline and Lee, mortified, tried to have burned. Watching the film is like watching a train wreck - you can't take your eyes off the Edies' folie à deux.

Drinking cocktails from a jam jar in her twin bed, the 79-year-old mother, all sagging breasts and straggly hair, tosses jabs at her then 54-year-old daughter. They bicker and talk about the past, yet seem at times to sweeten to each other's flea-bitten company.

Amid the squalor are moments of trenchant wit. "Oh look, the cat's going to the bathroom on my portrait," Big Edie says. "I'm glad someone's doing what they want."

The film could also serve as a pre-feminist-era metaphor for missed opportunity. Like a Chekhovian sister, Little Edie still mourns the few years she lived in New York. ("I was going to have an audition with Max Gordon, the famous producer! He discovered Judy Holliday!").

By the film's end, though, you have one foot on their side, if only because they are so damn unapologetic about their life (quite Jackie O, come to think of it).

So what is it about this Little Edie style? It's not just the fleas that make us scratch our heads. We have to wonder: What exactly is so important and, for that matter, so "now" about it?

Well, Edie does, as Todd Oldham points out in an interview on the DVD, possess a hallmark of the truly stylish: Consistency. "She knew what suited her. Those turbans, for example, were perfect for her face," he says. (She was also, reportedly, bald, afflicted with alopecia.)

But the real importance of Edie's style, as another designer once explained, "is not so much the clothes as the spirit, the utter originality of them. Edie Beale's look goes beyond fashion. It's like the true meaning of the word style."

In fact, her utterly nutter style has had an impact on how we dress. Let us count the ways:

Edie helped introduce the notion of styling a look, rather then merely wearing clothes. And layering: Onion dressing has, so far, been the defining characteristic of this decade. Recycling: The third-life fur coat is a big trend - now that grandmother's ratty mink is environmentally green, the Fur Council of Canada tells us.

Edie was also a pioneer of high-lo chic and the dishevelled rich-girl look, best exemplified by the Olsen twins. Fashion bloggers, who say "That's so Little Edie" about a look, explain: "The point is that once upon a time, you had all the money in the world ... and look at you now."

There's something pretty existential about that. Not only does Edie's style challenge aristocratic notions of acceptable eccentricity, there's also a foreboding subtext about privilege - that it's not going to last any way.

Of course, what's troubling is that it's hard to tell how much of the ratty sweaters is pure provocation and how much is poverty. In which case co-opting Edie's look might be exploitative.

There's something inherently contradictory about aping the Little Edie look, since the whole point of her style was that it was truly original. She'd want you to create your own revolutionary costume. The question is: Do you dare?

Epilogue: Little Edie died five years ago, aged 84. Big Edie died one year after the Maysleses' film was released. Little Edie finally returned to New York, where she had a brief run in a cabaret show, then spent her final years comfortably in Florida, where she swam in the ocean every day and, instead of cats, had hordes of fan mail for company.

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Vera Wang and Edie Beale, at Kohl's

Surprisingly (or not so surprisingly), the holidays have meant there's not very much Grey Gardens news out there! Thanks to Sara for sending this in!

The Simply Vera Wang line at Kohl's stores is carrying a skirt that seems to have a waistline around its hem, as if the wearer had the skirt on upside-down. Kudos, Vera!

From Kohl's

Simply Vera Vera Wang Satin Crinkle Skirt

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