Grey Gardens

I finally watched a film I had wanted to watch for sometime, Grey Gardens. It's the story of Edith "Big Edie" Bouvier Beale and her daughter "Little Edie". Big Eddie was the aunty of Jackie Kennedy Onassis. Grey Gardens is a house located in East Hampton that Big Edie moved her family into in the 1920's. In 1934 Edith's husband left her and she let the house fall into ruin as she didn't have the means financially or physically to maintain the house. Big Edie continued to live in the house with her daughter Little Edie and her many, many cats!

The original Grey Garden house

An aerial view of the grounds of Grey Gardens

In 1972, a documentary was made of the Edie's. It documented the women who were facing eviction if they didn't clean up the house according to code. Jackie Kennedy Onassis and her sister stepped in to help repair the home and the Edie's were saved from eviction. At the time the house had no running water, no electricity and toilets that didn't work. It was also home to a large family of cats and raccoons.

The house almost hidden by the untamed, heavily overgrown garden


The real Little Edie standing in the dining room amongst thousands of piled up cat food tins

The same dining room shown before as depicted in the film
Love the red chinese Chippendale dining chairs

The HBO film Grey Gardens stars Jessica Lange as Big Edie and Drew Barrymore as little Edie. They, in particular Drew gave really great performances playing these eccentric, reclusive women who live their life out in squalor.

The house as shown in the film, an exact replica

Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange in the film Grey Gardens


The real Little Edie in her younger days before she lost all her hair

Drew Barrymore as an older Little Edie

Big Edie died in 1977 and Little Edie was forced to sell Grey Gardens. She sold it to Sally Quinn and Ben Bradlee of the Washington Post. Little Edie sold it to them as they were the only ones who promised not to tear down the house, instead restore it to it's former beauty.

It is a interesting film to watch, I recommend it.

images via google images, grey gardens news, grey gardens online