Grey Gardens-themed housewarming party

What a fun idea! Someday, I will have my own Grey Gardens!

By Sharon

Grey Gardens Housewarming Party Pictures

...We named our summerhouse Grey Gardens and we made special 'Grey Gardens invitations', Grey Gardens flags, Grey Gardens Food and Grey Gardens garlands. As well as lots of Quotes, old and new exclusive pictures in special frames and lots and lots of birdcages with candles in it! Every guest came in Grey Gardens style, since the theme of our Grey Gardens Party was: Vintage Chic!

Grey Gardens in Odd Twin Trading Company's store windows

The Odd Twin Trading Company is at 104 5th Ave, Brooklyn, NY in case you want to see these fab windows in person!

From Style Magnet, on August 19, 2009

Grey Gardens & The Drapers

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Images of Little Edie's grandmother: Mrs. Jesse Drew Beale

Many thanks to Sara for sending these in!

Carrie Phelan Beale (Mrs. Jesse Drew Beale) was Little Edie's paternal grandmother.

From Alabama Department of Archives and History

Mrs. Jesse Drew Beale, "honorary life regent of the First White House Association."

From Alabama Department of Archives and History

Mrs. Jesse Drew Beale.

And here's the obituary for her:

From The New York Times, on April 29, 1948

Mrs. Jesse D. Beale

Mrs. Carrie Phelan Beale, widow of Jesse D. Beale, died yesterday in her home at 34 East Fifty- first Street, after a long illness, at the age of 93. Born in Montgomery, Ala., she was the daughter of John D. Phelan, who was serving as an Alabama Supreme Court Justice in 1865 when Federal troops captured Montgomery and removed him from office.

Her grandfather, Gen. Thomas K. Harris, was with Gen. Andrew Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans in the War of 1812, and afterward, when a Congressman from Tennessee, was killed in a duel at Sparta, Tenn. Her Uncle, James Phelan, also a Tennessee Congressman, fought a duel at Memphis, Tenn.

Mrs. Beale, when honorary president of the New York Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1928, was one of a group of Southern women living in New York who signed a statement, circulated in the South, endorsing Alfred E. Smith, the Democratic nominee for President.

Surviving are a son, Phelan Beale, New York lawyer, a daughter, Mrs. Caroline B. McQueen, and three grandchildren.

Get your tickets to Atlanta production of Grey Gardens the musical while they're still available

Contact the box office at (404) 607-7469!

From AJC, by tsabulis, on August 24, 2009

‘Grey Gardens’ selling fast

About two dozen of Atlanta’s finest actresses tried out for the roles of Big Edie and Little Edie in the musical "Grey Gardens," which opens this weekend at Actor’s Express. "These were the cream of the crop," said director Freddie Ashley. The roles of the Edith Bouvier Beales—an eccentric mother and daughter who have fallen from high society to a life of squalor on Long Island, were awarded to Jill Hames and Kathleen McManus.

"It was a tricky casting challenge because the actresses have to be able to pass as the same person without being literal twins," Ashley said. The actress who plays socialite Big Edie in the first act (Hames, left) also plays the reclusive Little Edie in the second act. McManus plays Big Edie in Act 2.

"They have to be able to approach the characters with some degree of consistency. They have to be able to sing, and not just sing well, because the music is deceptively complex."

Why such demand for the parts?

"They’re so layered and rich and complicated," Ashley said, "and the emotional lives are so complex and deep."
"Grey Gardens" became a favorite of the new Fall season almost the moment it was announced—and the box office seems to back that up. Sunday’s opening night is sold out, as is Saturday’s final preview performance. Thursday and Friday preview performances this week are close to full. "That’s very unusual for us," Ashley said.

The show runs through Oct. 10. Tickets: 404-607-7469.

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Interview with Grey Gardens coloring books creator David Crotty

I am told that the coloring books will also appear in Time Out New York on the 26th.

From Phoenix New Times, by Lilia Menconi, on August 24, 2009

Arty Girl: Grey Gardens Coloring Books

When I discover something I absolutely love, I have this insatiable need to share it with the world. And, long before Drew Barrymore wore a bald cap and Jessica Lange put on an old lady face, I was spreading the word about Grey Gardens.

Grey Gardens is probably my favorite movie of all time. But I'm not talking about the recent HBO version.

I'm talking about the original 1975 documentary by Albert and David Maysles. If you haven't yet seen it, drop everything you are doing now and buy it from amazon.com or cue it on your Netflix. Oh, and then come back to my blog to read more about this amazing film and the series of coloring books based on the documentary.

The film follows the mesmerizing daily lives of a mother and daughter, both named Edith Beale. They were relatives of the prominent Bouvier family and were the aunt and first cousin to Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

At the time the documentary was filmed, the daughter, "Little Edie", was in her 50's and was living with her ailing mother (a.k.a. "Big Edie"). Having been abandoned by her husband decades prior, Big Edie resorted to limited family funds for survival. She and her unmarried daughter barely eeked by in a dilapidated house in the Hamptons.

The film documents an isolated life of two former socialites, washed up and alone. The house is infested with cats and raccoons, they cook their dinners in bed, they eat ice cream by the half gallon and sleep on stained mattresses. Little Edie spends her hours reminiscing about her faded beauty, diminished status and long list of rejected high class suitors. And, of course, we watch as she famously pieces together "revolutionary" costumes made from the designer clothes of her former life.

The Maysles show a stunning relationship between mother and daughter in the midst of a decomposing life.

That's the short summary. But the film creates so much intrigue, it's tough to stop there. That's why there are countless books about the Beales, a sequel and now the HBO movie with Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange.

Probably my favorite piece of Grey Gardens memorabilia are a series of three coloring books that I stumbled across thanks to a facebook post by local artist Mike Maas (thanks dude!).

Creator David Crotty made a limited edition, three volume series of coloring books with scenes inspired by the film. I was so jazzed about this project, I immediately ordered myself a set and emailed the guy for an interview.

What is your art background?

I grew up in what has become the oldest Art Gallery in the state of Maine Frost Gully Gallery, in Freeport, Maine. My father is a painter. Andrew Wyeth used to come over for dinner.

How did you first hear about Grey Gardens?

I was at NYU and started filming fashion shows for Marc Jacobs. He told me about Grey Gardens during a cab ride in 1986. I remembered seeing the news story about Grey Gardens when I was a teenager in Maine.

How did you get the idea for the coloring books?

It was four years ago and I was living in Kihei, Maui. I had been using Photoshop a lot and learning how I could take an old picture and restore it, or colorize an old B&W picture. One night I went to bed around 10:30. Suddenly the idea came to me to make a coloring book. It just came to me. I jumped out of bed and literally stayed up all night working on selecting the images for the first volume. Three days later it was done and I started working on the next two volumes. Once they were finished I sent a copy off to Al Maysles. He absolutely loved them and gave me his blessing.

Have you done coloring books for any other cult films?

No. I am doing one now about Hollywood. It's the "Landmarks of Hollywood" series. Volume one is done, and I'm working on number two and three now. I've also started getting images together for a Paris Hilton Coloring Book.

How did you choose the images?

All the images used were either from still of the film or from the internet.

What was the method to create them?

That's a secret!

What other Grey Gardens books/dvds/media do you own, if any?

I have EVERYTHING related to Grey Gardens

Here's a sample:

• "Grey Gardens 1975"
• "The Beales Of Grey Gardens"
• "Ghosts of Grey Gardens 2001"
• DVD: The Tony Award Winning Broadway Play "Grey Gardens the Musical
• Little Edie Live: A Visit to Grey Gardens CD-Walter Newkirk

Books & Written stuff:

• "The Bouviers: Portrait of an American Family"
• "Talk to Her"
• "The Direct Cinema of Albert and David Maysles"
• "Jacqueline Bouvier: An Intimate Memoir"
• "My Life at Grey Gardens"—Lois Wright
• "Intimate Nights: The Golden Age of NY Cabaret"(the newest version)
• "The Secret of Grey Gardens" by Gail Sheehy—New York Mag 2007
• Maysles Films Scrapbook
• MemoraBEALEia -Walter Newkirk
• Paradise Lost—A Gothic Tale of Wealth and Rebellion in East Hampton—Gail Sheehy New York Mag. 1972
• Sleeping Beauties (Rare)
• GREY GARDENS by Rebekah and Sarah Maysles
• Edith Bouvier Beale: A Life in Pictures by Eva Beale

I also have the Reno Sweeney poster.

How many times would you estimate you've watched the film?

At least a Thousand times.

Sheesh! And I thought I was obsessed...

To order the Grey Gardens coloring books, visit greygardenscoloringbooks.com.

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Grey Gardens meets Michael Jackson [video]: ''No one wants to be old Edith!''

I nearly died laughing when I saw this! Enjoy!

From YouTube, by GreyGardensEnt, on August 20, 2009

Just Edie

Uma homenagem à musa absurdinha Little Edie Beale (1917-2002)

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HBO's Grey Gardens with director Michael Sucsy screens in Quogue

It's on Saturday. Don't forget to RSVP (631) 653-4224 x4 if interested!

From 27east, on August 18, 2009

'Grey Gardens' HBO feature film to be screened at Qugoue Community Hall

The Quogue Library will host an off-site screening of the HBO film "Grey Gardens" on Saturday, August 22, at 8 p.m. at the Quogue Community Hall on Jessup Avenue in Quogue. Starring Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore, the film was adapted by writer/director Michael Sucsy from the 1970s documentary of the same name.

In 1973, filmmakers Albert and David Maysles entered the strange world of "Big Edie" and "Little Edie" Bouvier Beale, two charming, eccentric relatives of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy. Spending six weeks with the reclusive mother and daughter—who chose to live in squalor and near total isolation in a decaying, 28-room mansion in East Hampton—the Maysles captured their day-to-day life in its raw, uncensored and captivatingly honest moments for a documentary called "Grey Gardens."

More than three decades years later, using the documentary as his framework, Mr. Sucsy crafted his own version of "Grey Gardens." Mr. Sucsy’s original story offers a wry, behind-the-scenes look at the Beales and their unique mother-daughter bond.

Saturday’s screening will be introduced by Mr. Sucsy, and registration is required. For more information or to register, call the library at (631) 653-4224, ext. 4.

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Al Maysles and others interviewed at Staunch: The Grey Gardens Fesival [video]

Remember Stauch, the Grey Gardens festival put on by the Maysles Institute in Harlem? Here's a wonderful video of interviews at the event.

From YouTube, by shani, on August 17, 2009

Grey Gardens Albert Maysles Interview Documentary

The Maysles Institute celebrated the "Staunch Grey Gardens Festival" based on the 1975 documentary by Albert and David Maysles. The film depicts little Edie and Big Edith Beale who live in a decrepit Grey Gardens mansion in East Hamptons New York. Director Albert Maysles discusses how the two Edith Beales, who were relatives of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis became reclusive spinsters in their wealthy neighborhood. The Grey Gardens festival featured screenings, book signings and a burlesque sketch comedy performance inspired by the award winning film.

http://www.binsidetv.net
http://greygardensnews.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/GreyGardens
http://www.hbo.com/films/greygardens/ Distributed by Tubemogul.

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Big Edie Beale wasn't crazy, says actress Jessica Lange

I agree with Lange!

Be sure to go to the source article to actually listen to the interview!

From Gold Derby, by Tom O'Neil, on August 17, 2009

'Crazy? No!' Jessica Lange says of 'Big Edie' Beale in 'Grey Gardens'

At any time during her bizarre later years as she and her daughter dwelt among mountains of rotting garbage in a dilapidated, raccoon-infested house by the sea, "Big Edie" Beale could've sold the property and moved into a clean, comfortable residence, but she refused.

The Emmy nominee who portrays the oddball aunt of Jackie Kennedy in "Grey Gardens" doesn't think Beale was officially nuts, though.

"I don't think insane, no," Jessica Lange tells Gold Derby in our podcast chat. Lange does admit that Beale and her daughter were "eccentric to the point of (being) beyond the realm of what we can understand," but, she adds passionately, "You can't sum it up easily."

"I think she was extremely courageous at a time when women were cautious," Lange adds, particularly applauding Big Edie's decision to declare, "'I'm going to live the life I want to live and I'm going to live it my way—circumstances be damned—I'm going to do what feels true to me.' So I actually find her quite admirable."

However, some observers consider Big Edie to be not only crazy, but a cruel, domineering mother who kept her daughter (Drew Barrymore) living at home in squalor with her by crushing Little Edie's self-esteem.

While preparing for the role of Big Edie, "I read a lot things, letters from the family, certain diaries," Lange adds. "What became apparent to me is that everyone had a different opinion. Some people saw Big Edie as a pariah who sucked the life out of her daughter, but on the other hand I read letters from family members who understood Big Edie knew that Little Edie didn't have the wherewithal to function and flourish in the world she imagined" on Broadway stages and Hollywood sets far away from Grey Gardens.

Lange knows what it's like to hit it big in showbiz: she's won two Oscars—"Blue Sky" (lead actress, 1994) and "Tootsie (supporting actress, 1982). In our podcast, Lange revisits both victories and explains why they were extraordinary experiences. In the case of "Blue Sky," the movie rallied from doom and obscurity. "Tootsie" had been a hit comedy, but those rarely get the last laugh at the Oscars.

"Of all the films that I've done, that one will probably become the most classic," she says of "Tootsie."

But we began our awards chat with discussion of this year's Emmy derby and a question Lange would probably like to skip. I couldn't, though, since it was the buzz of the Internet and the TV industry before nominations came out...

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Mini Grey Gardens exhibit in Riverhead, NY

This store sounds like fun!

From Newsday, by Danielle DeBouver, on August 10, 2009

All things Grey Gardens

As you’ve probably noticed, Grey Gardens has taken the summer by storm and The Junque Shop owner Theodora Cohen is taking advantage of her location and Beale phenomenon.

Cohen set up a free exhibit of everything Grey Gardens a few weeks ago with the help of her friend, pianist Andrew Wargo.

The antique store’s exhibit features books, posters, newspaper clippings, photos and art relevant to Big and Little Edie including a life-size mannequin dressed in distinctive Little Edie garb.

Call (631) 334-8444 for more information or check out The Junque Shop and exhibit at 269 Riverleigh Ave in Riverhead.

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Grey Gardens the Musical hits Atlanta, GA

Previews start Thursday, August 27. Atlanta residents, let us know how this is!

From Actor's Express

Realm Advertising presents: Grey Gardens

Actor's Express is pleased to bring you the Atlanta Premiere of Grey Gardens, the hit Broadway musical based on the acclaimed film that documents the lives of Jacqueline Kennedy-Onassis’ flamboyantly eccentric aunt Edith Bouvier Beale and her daughter “Little Edie.” Mother and daughter cling to each other through hysteria, happiness and heartbreak as the beautiful home around them falls into ruin. Indulge in the lush music, mysterious glamour and “The Revolutionary Costume for Today” inside the dilapidated, 28-room mansion called Grey Gardens.

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Jessica Lange on Grey Gardens, gays and marriage

No new revelations here, but it's still a very nice interview with Jessica Lange.

From The Advocate, by Corey Scholibo, on August 10, 2009

The Couple That Works Together...

Jessica Lange talks gays, marriage, Big Edie, and parading around with Drew Barrymore like a happy lesbian couple while promoting Grey Gardens.

Jessica Lange is so sweet it makes you wonder what she is hiding. Certainly one of the most talented actresses of stage and screen of the last 40 years, Lange always seems to play women you don't want to completely trust, and she has been rewarded for doing so with six Oscar nominations and two wins, among a slew of other trophies. Maybe it's because her characters always seem smarter than you, or you feel her sexuality is something beyond control, but her heroines—be it Tamora in Julie Taymor's adaptation of Shakespeare's Titus, or Leigh Bowden in Cape Fear—are intimidating. And so it is a surprise to hear her sound so damn normal when we discuss the DVD release of her new film Grey Gardens.

Anyone would be intimidated about taking on one of the most iconic characters among gay fans, Big Edie Beale, mother of Little Edie Beale and costar of the documentary Grey Gardens, which follows two women—who just happened to be related to Jackie Kennedy—who are living in utter squalor in the Hamptons. Their story was so fascinating that it spawned books, a musical, and out director Michael Suscy's film adaptation for HBO. Lange tells me how she had always thought about one day making the film into a dramatic piece, why she doesn't have a high opinion of marriage, and what the chemistry between she and Drew Barrymore was really all about.

Advocate.com: Congratulations on your Emmy nomination.

Jessica Lange: Thank you.

Have you ever done an interview for The Advocate.

I don't think so. Oh wait. I think maybe I did for Normal. But I can't be sure because I have no memory myself. [Laughs]

In Tootsie the conceit at one point is that Dustin Hoffman's drag persona is in love with your character, and your character thinks she is a lesbian and rejects her. Do you remember how gays and lesbians may have reacted at that time?

You know, I don't. But there was a lot going on in my life at that moment and I might not have been paying attention. But I do remember a lot of reaction to Normal, which was of course a film about the transgender community.

Tell me about how you got involved with Grey Gardens?

Michael Suscy came to speak to me about it before he really even had a script or anything. I had actually in the back of my mind been thinking of doing something with it myself for a while. When I saw the documentary it just fascinated me and I thought, What could you do here as a dramatic film? because you look at the two Edies and you think, Whoa would I love to play one of those [laughs]. So it was something that I had in the back of my mind, but never got anywhere with. And then, out of the blue, I got a call from a friend asking me if I would meet with this young director to speak to him about Grey Gardens, which was pretty amazing. He described how he envisioned it with moving the characters back and forth in time, covering a 40-year period, and he asked me if I would like to play Big Edie, which I hadn't really thought about. And then of course the process of the script and getting it financed took several years before we were actually shooting. But it's one of those great characters that comes along rarely, especially now, and I think Michael did a great job with it. It was a little bit of a risk, trying to adapt this story dramatically, but I think he hit just the right balance. We didn't try to say this is what happened, or, this is the reason this happened, which I think would not only have been risky but it would have been dishonest, because how do you presume to know exactly how they got where they got?

That is the main curiosity of this story—how does anyone get to that point in their life?

We certainly talked about it, but the fact that we didn't give any pat, easy resolution as to why it happened, I was glad about that. I think it would have been a mistake.

I think your performance of Big Edie is transformative in that in the scenes where you re-create the documentary you actually completely disappear and we forget we are watching Jessica Lange. Would you call this approach an impersonation?

Certainly that was a decision. I wanted to find as much as I could that I could do exactly as Big Edie. That is partly why I kept insisting that of all the documentary footage that was used—Michael was going through and picking and choosing which parts of the documentary to use as the touchstones in our film—that we use "Tea for Two," because it was such an iconic moment. So in that sense I guess you could say that it began as an impersonation. I worked on it literally millisecond by millisecond, every single movement of her hands, her fingers, her facial expressions, the tone of her voice. I felt it was really important to do it precisely, as precisely as I could. So there is that element. And then there is the element of filling in all the blanks between those moments. All we had was the footage of the documentary, but she clearly has such strong identifiable mannerisms and gestures and behaviors, and I would study that even when I was doing the younger character, so that it was organic. That certain gestures are with her throughout her life. I mean those are things that are just very obvious. I don't mind at certain times impersonating her because it was my way into the character. It was different from any way I had worked before. By watching the documentary every day when I came into my trailer, I could kind of feel when the character entered into me. I don't want to sound psychedelic or anything [laughs], but I could literally feel there was a moment when her voice, you know, I would say lines along with her and I would move with her and do all that, and then I could kind of feel the character settle down. Then I could work from there.

You obviously watched the documentary a lot. I mean, I find that film very hard to watch. It is emotionally grueling.

Yeah.

Do you become numb to it at some point?

I don't think so, but again I am watching it as an actor trying to nail the character. Once I started working on this project I was no longer watching it as an observer.

Did you stay in character throughout the shoot?

Yeah.

I mean, you took that makeup off.

Yeah to a certain extent when I went home. Unless I went home to see family or something, you couldn't stay as Big Edie [laughs]. But in the hotel I stayed immersed in her. I watched movies from the '30s and was dancing and singing and working on voice.

You and Drew were out promoting this movie like a lesbian couple. I mean, you were out at every event together as each other's dates. It was so cute.

[Laughs] We had a great time working together. Absolutely one of the best I have had. Her commitment to doing this part and getting it, I don't think we could have done it without each other. There was some kind of alchemy, some chemistry there.

You recently went to Italy with the film's director Michael Suscy. What was that for?

They were honoring me at the Taormina Film Festival in Sicily and I was so fascinated in going to Sicily. They invited Michael because they screened Grey Gardens. And it was nice because I hadn't really spent any time with Michael outside of the film since we finished.

Did you think at all about gay viewers when you were approaching Grey Gardens. Gay fans have to some extent kept this film alive all these years. Was it something that occurred to you at all?

I think we felt a certain obligation to get it right. We didn't want to disappoint their [Little and Big Edie's] most ardent fans. Which you could tell in the screening premieres in New York and Los Angeles because the audience cheered when they felt we had done it right. Obviously there are a lot of people who know every line, and every gesture, and every costume. On the other hand we were trying to tell this story to people who aren't familiar with it.

It is tricky. I think when it was announced there was like a collective feeling of, You can't remake this film.

I know. I know. And believe me, I think everyone on this film at one moment or another felt exactly the same way. But it worked. And it is a credit to everyone who worked on it.

You have had a gay following your entire career. I am curious if you were aware of that?

I think I have always known. It's great. I am honored actually and I find it a great compliment.

I think it is because you play these extremely passionate women—I wouldn't say "divas," but very, very strong female characters. I can't think of any of your characters who weren't.

I think you are attracted to what is going to challenge you and what's going to keep you interested. There are certain characters that are so normal or so thin or so regular that they don't interest me. It would be a waste of my time as an actor.

Were you ever close to playing a gay role.

No, there is nothing that has ever come up that was offered me. Normal was the closest thing, and that was about being transgender. But, hmm. Well I know I've never turned [a gay role] down, so I assume I have never been offered anything.

Well we've got to find one.

Yes, find one for me.

You once said, "I used to have a lot of political ideas about marriage that don't matter to me anymore." And I am curious, as you and your partner, Sam Shepard, have never been married, what you meant by that and what you think of the current political debate over gay marriage?

Hmm. I can't remember what that was in response to.

I read it on a blog that someone has about you.

Really?

Yes, JessicaLange.blogspot.com, which I of course thought was you and then quickly realized it was some fan who had pulled a lot of quotes from articles about you.

Good lord. Is that legal?

I don't know. You might look into it.

Yes. Well I think they are referring to the fact that I have never been a great believer in marriage. I was married once when I was very young. I have been with Sam for over 25 years now and the institution of marriage doesn't mean that much to me. I never felt that some legal document was going to make my relationship more meaningful or more valid. I have raised three children with him and have never felt compelled to get married. In fact I decided not to marry. But I think it is really such a personal choice, and if we are talking about gay marriage, if it is meaningful to somebody then they should be allowed to do it. Period.

You were obviously very critical of President Bush, and I am curious what you think of Obama now and how he is doing?

I was having a conversation with someone just yesterday because they were also incredibly passionate during the Bush administration and it was like, you know, I made myself so crazy for those eight years. I lived in such a state of rage, which is a terrible way to live. But I so objected to what this man was doing and how he was running the country, and his wars and everything, that I kind of made myself nuts. I campaigned very hard for Obama because, I mean, the choice between him and McCain and Palin [laughs], I would have had to leave the country. I don't think I could have done another eight years of that. Now I feel like I can kind of [exhales] relax a little bit. I don't have to be so maniacal. If they don't get bullied by this small, crazy Republican subset, I think there is a lot that can be done that needs to be done. I am really hopeful. The one thing I do know is that he is extremely intelligent and I also think he knows what he is doing. So hopefully he will get done what needs to be done.

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Digital Grey Gardens, from Apple iTunes Store

I'm not the most tech-savvy of raccoons, but I was just told that HBO's Grey Gardens is available digitally on iTunes. If you're tech-savvy and want to save a few bucks, try out this method of seeing the movie (if you haven't bought the DVD already!).

Buy from iTunes.

(And the original documentary is available digitally from Amazon.com.)

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East Hampton paper on Grey Gardens retail

Thanks to all who sent this in!

There are quite a few factual errors in this article, but I appreciate the author's attempt to catalog many of the items pertaining to Grey Gardens that have come out in the past few years. I also recommend digging into my own gift guide and suggestions on how to prepare for HBO's Grey Gardens.

From Dan's Papers, by Dan Rattiner, on July 31, 2009

Grey Gardens Everywhere

The Documentary, the Show, T-Shirts, the Book, the Movie...

There is a new book out about Grey Gardens. It is called Grey Gardens, and it is by the two daughters of the filmmaker Albert Maysles, Sara and Rebekah. A full color affair, it is a collection of photographs, tidbits and outtakes from the famous documentary by that name, and there's even an attached CD of conversations between the filmmaker and the Beale ladies themselves during the shooting of Grey Gardens. Call it a scrapbook companion for devotees of the documentary and the Beale experience. It is available on Amazon and at Bookhampton and other bookstores.

There is a lot out there. Several books, clothing, an Emmy-nominated made-for-TV-movie starring Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore, a Broadway show that won Tonys for performers Christine Ebersole and Mary Louise Wilson, a cutting room floor second documentary by the same filmmaker. It goes on and on. And it is just all because of an odd relationship between a mother and daughter in East Hampton, both of whom are named Edie Beale.

Big Edie, the mother, was a wealthy socialite who was in her heyday in the 1930s. Her husband left her. She wouldn't leave the mansion on the beach, though, even when she was broke. The mansion began to fall into ruin. And who remained there, to take care of her? Well, really, it was her daughter, Little Edie, who just never seemed to have the gumption to leave home.

By 1975, Big Edie was about 75 and Little Edie was 52. The place was a mess with floors caving in, rotting furniture and holes in the walls. It had been taken over by raccoons and about 22 cats. But the ladies stayed, all year round and they didn't go out. An upscale market would deliver food to them. The mail got put in a mailbox on the street.

The ladies cooked on hotplates and spent much of their time talking about the old days and sniping at one another. Nobody did any housekeeping. The Beales thought everything was just fine. Interestingly, their extended family, the uncles and aunts and cousins and nieces who all lived nearby, did nothing to help them, since the ladies wanted no help. This family was the Bouvier-Beale-Kennedy clan. Jackie Kennedy, the former first lady, had a summer place just four miles away.

Two filmmakers, David and Albert Maysles, heard about the situation and in that year made a gentle and moving documentary about what these ladies did every day, which was pretty much nothing. The documentarians were accepted into the household by the daughter and tolerated by the mother. The result was the smashing success Grey Gardens, one of the most highly praised films of that genre of the 20th century.

David Maysles died in 1987. Big Edie died in 1977 and Little Edie, gently nudged out of this mess by family and friends after her mother died, moved to Palm Beach, where she died in 2002.

But the documentary lives on. And not only does the documentary live on, but all manner of other creative work in a wide variety of other media have appeared, much of it to acclaim. And now there is this new scrapbook, really, by Albert Maysles' two daughters.

Here's other Grey Gardens stuff you can get.

If you want an Edie Beale t-shirt, go to the online t-shirt firm houdoolou.com. You can get a profile of Little Edie with captions that read either "Revolutionary" or "Communing With Raccoons." They are available in New York at the Starting Line, a store at 180 Eighth Avenue.

If you want a video of the HBO movie starring Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore, you can order it from Amazon or Blockbuster.

If you want a copy of the DVD of the very imaginative and very successful Broadway show that ran for a year and a half during 2006 and 2007, you can get a copy of the show itself or a CD of all the songs. Yes, Grey Gardens, the Broadway show, was a musical. But what a musical!

The show was in two acts. The first act takes place in 1941, at the glittering mansion with the servants, when Big Edie is about 45 and Little Edie 24. The second act is in 1975, when the place was falling down and the filmmakers arrive. Christine Ebersole plays—and this is the amazing part of this—Big Edie at 45 in the first act and Little Edie at about 45 in the second act.

If you want a book about what life was like at Grey Gardens in 1973, buy Lois Wright's book My Life at Grey Gardens—13 Months and Beyond. Wright, a local lady, was a friend of the Beales and sometimes stayed there.

If you want the second follow up documentary to Grey Gardens, get Albert Maysles' two-DVD set called Grey Gardens, the Criterion Edition, which he released in 2001.

If you want to hear a song about Grey Gardens, buy Rufus Wainwright's 2001 CD Poses and you'll hear a track called, well, "Grey Gardens."

If you want a CD audio of an interview with Little Edie, get "Little Edie Live," produced by Walter Newkirk, who interviewed her at Grey Gardens for his college newspaper in 1975. More recently, he put out a second CD audio of interviews with her. It is entitled "memoraBEALEia," a wonderful title. And of course there is a website greygardensbook.com.

There have been several plays written entitled either Grey Gardens or something suggestive of Grey Gardens. One is A Few Small Repairs, which premiered in Philadelphia in 2007 and this year was reprieved at a festival in Belfast by the Skewiff Theatre Company.

Someone told me you can get potholders with Little Edie's image on it, but I have not found out where.

There are occasions when Grey Gardens is referred to on TV. Most recently it was mentioned in the shows "Gilmore Girls," "The L Word" and "Rugrats."

What remains to happen is that, a la Star Trek, everybody dresses up as "BEALEians" and, on a specific shows up en masse, at the Grey Gardens property, which is on West End in East Hampton, to make speeches and buy and sell Edie souvenirs and clothing on the lawn, which will be a great surprise to Francis Hayward, who rents the house 11 months of the year from the owners, ex-Washington Post publisher Ben Bradlee and his wife, reporter Sally Quinn. It is all fixed up to the nines today of course.

You might not think anything ever happened there.

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Videos of Grey Gardens on One Life To Live

I find this completely bizarre, and yet... completely engaging!

From YouTube, by kld0096, on August 3, 2009

OLTL Dorian, Blair, & the Grey Gardens spoof 8-3-09-001

Dorian & Blair are home alone because everyone else is at the wedding. Blair has a dream (or maybe nightmare) of life alone at La Boulaie with Dorian that spoofs the documentary Grey Gardens.

From YouTube, by kld0096, on August 3, 2009

OLTL Dorian, Blair, & Grey Gardens Spoof 8-3-09-002

Dorian & Blair are home alone because everyone else is at the wedding. Blair has a dream (or maybe nightmare) of life alone at La Boulaie with Dorian that spoofs the documentary Grey Gardens.

Interest in Grey Gardens, by way of The Times, London

Very interesting! And I hadn't known that the invented family crest said, "The hallmark of aristocracy is our responsibility."

From Times Online, by Jude Rogers, on August 1, 2009

Behind the walls of Grey Gardens

Why has the fashion world and Hollywood fallen for two high-society dropouts who were immortalised in a 1972 documentary?

The year has ushered in an unexpected star pair, the 79-year-old would-be singer Edith Bouvier Beale, known as Big Edie, and her 56-year-old daughter, Little Edie, an aspiring cabaret star. Both now dead, they once lived in a raccoon-infested, decaying mansion in the East Hamptons, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, and were the stars of Grey Gardens, a cult documentary made by the legendary film-making duo Albert and David Maysles. In the film, made in the autumn of 1972, the women, bicker outrageously, recite poetry dramatically, and wisecrack hilariously, as chaos reigns around them. But what really gripped at the time was the revelation that they were the aunt and first cousin of Jackie Bouvier Kennedy Onassis.

Now, three decades later, Grey Gardens has become the small cult film that roared, a byword for cool on the lips of many a style icon. It has inspired collections at Prada and Yves Saint Laurent, a Broadway musical, and pricked the interests of celebrity fans such as Kylie Minogue, who watched it obsessively with her mother while recovering from cancer. She memorably called it a film that shows us the love between family members "at its most obvious and mysterious".

This has been Grey Gardens’ most influential year yet, with a festival in honour of the film, a new book and an Emmy-nominated HBO dramatisation starring Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore. But what is the key to the film’s appeal? Their status as belated fashion icons is almost all down to Little Edie’s outfits, a selection of makeshift turbans (her hair is never seen in the film), upside-down skirts, and bathing suits with high heels; but it is the relationship between mother and daughter that is the real key. The pair behave like two Tennessee Williams characters coming to life on screen, scattergunning one-liners and barbed, witty comebacks. If you are Big Edie, you don’t have your cake and eat it, for instance—"you love it, chew it and masticate it". If you are Little Edie, you call your gardener the Marble Faun after a Nathaniel Hawthorne character, and refer to your favourite costume as your "revolutionary outfit". But how did these women end up as "high-society dropouts", their lives so far from that of their cousin in the White House? The biographies give us some clues.

First, we have Big Edie, born Edith Ewing Bouvier in 1895. She was the third of five children born to John Vernou Bouvier, a major in the US Army and successful lawyer, and Maude Sergeant, the daughter of a wealthy paper manufacturer. Her father was obsessed with the family’s position in society, going so far as to invent a royal crest, which said, "The hallmark of aristocracy is our responsibility". Big Edie, an artistic and eccentric child, was less enthused by this showiness. She pursued her interests in singing, theatre and photography instead, before marrying Phelan Beale, a lawyer in her father’s firm, in 1917. Her eldest child, Little Edie, arrived later that year, and two more sons—Phelan Jr and Bouvier—followed, although they were never as close to their mother as her first-born.

Then, in 1923, her husband bought Grey Gardens, the home that changed her life. This house, designed by Joseph Greenleaf Thorpe in 1897, was named after the colour of the nearby dunes, the cement garden walls, and the sea mist that surrounded it. But as Big Edie fell in love with this strange, characterful house, she fell out of love with her conservative husband and the couple separated in 1931.

The details are scant after this point. We know that she arrived halfway through her son’s wedding in 1942, dressed as an opera star, and that her embarrassed father reacted by cutting her out of his will; that she had eye operations around the same time that damaged her sight and required her to wear bottle-top glasses from then on; that Little Edie moved in with her in the 1950s; and that articles in New York magazine and The National Enquirer in 1972, by Gail Sheehy and Roger Langley, revealed their terrible living conditions. With little money in the bank, Big Edie’s quality of life deteriorated materially, but with the support of her daughter her life flowered in other ways. Grey Gardens, the film, shows us this in excelsis, what all of the new projects aim to do is unravel the strange story of the Beale women’s history, few aspects of which are explained in the original film.

Writer/director Michael Sucsy was a director of commercials, but after he saw Grey Gardens, in 2003, he was inspired to make a movie about how the women had reached that point in their lives. "I loved the way the film showed the women as they were, and not how they got there," he explains, his voice full of warmth. "I also liked the film’s boldness and its braveness. But it also concerned me that no one had filled the gaps in these women’s lives since, and I felt like we owed it to them."

And so, the next morning, Sucsy took this project on himself. He trawled through boxes of microfiche in public record libraries, tracked down Little Edie’s surviving friends, and even found her attorney, who gave him a box of her journals. He quickly found out two things: that Edie wore headscarves because she had lost her hair when she was young, and later pulled it out, and that she had also had an eight-year affair with Julius Krug, the US Secretary of the Interior under President Truman.

"Big Edie and Little Edie were women being themselves, at all costs, despite the situation they found themselves in, so the script took shape very quickly," Sucsy says. "They were such rich subjects."

He had firm thoughts about the cast, too, and wasn’t initially impressed by Drew Barrymore saying that she would love to play Little Edie. When he met her, however, she won him over with her passion for the role, and during the making of the film she corresponded with friends only by landline and letter, and watched only films that she thought Little Edie would like.

Sucsy loves the way in which his film has pushed the appeal of the Beales to a wider audience. "It’s about the story of two survivors going against society, and recognising how that fight is more important than conforming," he explains. "As society appears to be more accepting, the Edies will get only more influential, you know?"

Sara Maysles, who edited the new book and arranged the festival, Staunch!, knew she was also in a good position to answer some of the questions as daughter of the filmmaker, Albert. She knew that Albert, her father, and his brother first went to Grey Gardens as part of a family history project commissioned by Jackie Onassis’s younger sister, Lee Radziwill, who was a fan of the Maysles brothers’ classic 1970 film about the Rolling Stones, Gimme Shelter. She also knew that the project was abandoned on Radziwill’s request because she was so shocked at their living conditions, though she did provide the necessary funds to repair the dilapidated building. Still, the brothers couldn’t resist going back to the house, simply because they were drawn to the women within it.

"My father and uncle were just like the Beales themselves, in some ways," Maysles says. "They were complete hippies, real nuts, doing things that rebelled against society." Her father had motorcycled behind the Iron Curtain in the 1950s and always took risks, so this project came naturally to him, she says. She also knows that he enjoyed their eccentric behaviour. He loved the way Big Edie sat in bed every day, teasing out her wild, silver hair, singing popular songs from the 1920s, and how Little Edie would dance for the camera—especially in the film’s greatest scene in which she parades up and down the family staircase with an American flag. She had also been aware of her father constantly defending his decision to make a film from his material—as he had been since the release of Grey Gardens in 1975 when Walter Kaufman, The New York Times film critic, called the movie "exploitative".

"But it wasn’t," Maysles argues. "It was made with the Beale women’s blessing, and every scene was shot with respect. What’s more, they really loved the results." She brings up a letter that Little Edie sent to The New York Times in response to Kaufman’s review, in which she criticised him for making cruel comments about her body, and wrote glowingly about her and her mother’s unconventional relationship: "We love each other, and is that love so hard to take? So we don’t live conventionally; so what?" Maysles says the camera was always turned away when the Beales wanted privacy, and that Little Edie wrote affectionate letters to her father until her death in 2002. It was this emotional connection that prompted Maysles to go into her father’s archives in the first place. She found hours of audio outtakes, unedited film stock, and mounds of research—her father’s own literary litter, she says—and she then went with her sister to a lonely house northeast of Grey Gardens to sift through them. "We didn’t really make the connections between us and the Beales until we went out there."

The book reveals fresh facts, particularly about the ways in which the women often made up stories to cope with the past. In one interview with Albert, for example, Big Edie said that her brother William died in the Second World War. Sara learnt that he died of alcoholism in 1929. It is, Sara Maysles says, as if the women were trying to invent their own fictions to cope with their situation. Appearing in a film, therefore, would mean everything to them, because it meant that their own stories—the ones they had written for themselves—would become gloriously real.

As the mysteries behind the front porch of Grey Gardens start to unravel, however, what do the people think who actually spent time behind its doors? Jerry Torre, the Grey Gardens gardener named the Marble Faun by Little Edie, is particularly happy about the growing cult of the film. He attended the Staunch! festival, signed autographs, and spoke glowingly about his time in the house as a 19-year-old gay runaway who was himself in the closet. "Grey Gardens was my refuge," he says on the phone from New York. "I was isolated from my family, like the Edies were, for being who I was, but they gave me such strength to be who I was. I can never thank them enough for that."

He says that his employers would have loved being well known today—after all, they were aspiring performers, and fame, on their own terms, was something they dreamt about. He loved the 2006 Broadway musical that turned their story into song, and admired Barrymore’s attempts to capture Little Edie’s mannerisms: "She got it about 80 per cent right, and you’ve got to admire her for her effort."

Still, his voice aches with tenderness as he tries to sum up how he remembers the real Edies now. "You know, it’s a real funny thing. I’d been tortured by my memories of that time for so long, and thought no one else would care. So to see it become a fascination to many... it’s incredible. It makes me sad that they aren’t around to see everyone love them so much."

This is a sentiment with which Albert Maysles, the man who brought Grey Gardens to the world in the first place, agrees. He has also been involved in all the 21st-century Grey Gardens projects—giving advice to the makers of the musical, and to Sucsy, who asked for Maysles’ advice to make his film as realistic as possible. He is happiest, however, about the book that his daughters made together, because to him it continues the legacy of the Maysles as much as the Beales. This has a particular poignancy, he says, when he remembers his brother David, who died in 1987, and who would have loved the Staunch! festival more than anyone.

Albert also wishes that David was alive to see people finally grasp how heartfelt their intentions were when they were making Grey Gardens. "Things are changing for the better, though," Albert says. "There used to be the idea that if you allowed people the chance to open up, they were going to get hurt. This is nonsense, of course. It’s healthy to open up; it’s healthy to be yourself." There is no crime either on the director’s part, he says, by trying to humanise humanity, and people are recognising that at last—from the celebrities who clamour around his film and try to recreate it, to the ordinary people who will love the HBO movie and buy his daughters’ book.

He wishes only that the Beales were around to see their legacy. "For this to happen to two people who were never accepted, and didn’t leave their home for 20 years, is something properly magical—and it’s all to do with them being themselves. How wonderful it is that they have finally left their home in the most beautiful way."

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Grey Gardens wins TV Critics Association award

HBO's Grey Gardens won the Television Critics Association Award for "Outstanding Achievement in Movies, Mini-Series, and Specials" on Saturday in Los Angeles. Congratulations!

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Meet Bob Garrett, voice coach for HBO's Grey Gardens

A wonderful interview from the Los Angeles Times.

From LA Times, by Cristy Lytal, on August 2, 2009

Voice coach Bob Garrett finds the key of 'Grey Gardens'

He helped Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange find their characters through song in the HBO movie.

In the 1970s, Bob Garrett performed at Reno Sweeney, the same New York cabaret where Jackie Kennedy's eccentric cousin "Little Edie" Bouvier Beale sang. More than three decades later, Garrett gave Drew Barrymore vocal training needed to simulate one of Little Edie's performances for "Grey Gardens," the HBO film based on the 1975 documentary of the same name.

"Reno Sweeney was a legendary place in New York," says Garrett, who also coached Jessica Lange, who portrays Little Edie's reclusive mother, "Big Edie," in the film, released on DVD in July.

Born in the shadow of the Great White Way, Garrett set his sights on Broadway when he was only 5 years old and saw his first show, "Peter Pan."

"My mother was an actress on Broadway before she was married, and she took me to the theater because she loved the theater," he said. "The story is that I looked at her and I said, 'What is this?' She said, 'This is Broadway.' And I said, 'Well, that's what I'm going to do!' "

At 13, Garrett began studying voice with Rose Allen and Sue Seton—who also trained Luciano Pavarotti and Bernadette Peters, among others. He landed his first Broadway role in "Fiddler on the Roof" in 1970.

"I worked with Jerome Robbins, who was a complete genius," Garrett said. "He taught me that songs are really monologues, and they have to be approached that way, not as technical steps from one note to another."

After booking himself at Reno Sweeney and other popular New York cabarets, Garrett was spotted by executives from Motown Records, who hired him as a staff songwriter.

After years of composing for record companies, writing for TV and directing for theater, he began vocal coaching on projects including 2001's "Life With Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows," the 2004 film version of "The Phantom of the Opera," 2007's "Lucky You" and "Grey Gardens," which recently received 17 Emmy nominations.

"Singing is not just notes, and it's not just having a great voice," Garrett said. "It's about being able to emote and tell that story."

Do-re-mi

Barrymore and Lange always began their sessions with 10 exercises based on the methods of Garrett's legendary teachers, Allen and Seton.

"My voice teachers' technique was a very simple one that addressed four things—breath control, being in the mask of the voice, sending the sound out instead of pulling it back, and relaxation," Garrett said. "You've got to be emotional; you've got to tell a story. In other words, the technique helps the emotion, and the emotion helps the technique."

What's my motivation?

Garrett approaches each song from a character perspective. "Because I was an actor, I understand how to work with other actors," he said. "My whole concept with Jessica was totally based on one line in that beautiful script, which was: 'I was never happier in my life than when I was singing.' She felt that that informed the character for her in a very profound way. Drew's character was different. She was about dreams and wanting attention and recognition. So her material was much broader and bigger and sort of shocking, in a way, because she wanted that attention."

Tipping the scales

Garrett has a special system to accommodate actors who don't read music. Traditional notation "is very complicated for somebody who's not used to looking at music—to see staffs and flats and sharps and all that," he said. "So I created this visual dot system for Drew on 'Lucky You,' and I have used it since with Jessica. At the end of the first week, I was working with Jessica, and she said, 'I love the dots!' "

Witchy woman

Lange performed several numbers in the film, including the jazz standard "Tea for Two." "She said, 'We have to do it exactly like it was done in the documentary, because it's too iconic a moment,' " Garrett said.

"So I took the DVD and put it in my computer and reflected it in the mirror of the rehearsal room. We worked for months on this. And I put Jessica next to the DVD reflection and me next to her. I said, 'We won't have this until the three of us are doing exactly the same thing, and I mean down to the fingernails.' And one day—it was so hilarious—I said to her, 'We haven't really worked with a hat yet.' Well, it was Halloween in Toronto, and I found a store that sold costumes, and I bought a witch's hat. I brought it into the rehearsal studio, and she put it on, and we worked with the witch's hat! A really important thing with actors in this process of vocal coaching is humor."

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