Grey Gardens News

Barbie visit Grey Gardens

2013-03-19T20:45:00.000-04:00

We've seen Barbie dolls dressed up as Little Edie before (here and here), and here's another great take on the concept!

From Historic Fashion for Modern Dolls, by Axel Storm, on July 29, 2012

Barbie Goes to Grey Gardens
We can sit on paper.
Grey Gardens is a documentary from the 70ies. It's about a mother an a daughter living together for 20 years. They where part of the high society from NY's upper class in the beginning of the 21st century, but lost everything, exept the house in the Hamptons, till the end. Edith Bouvier Beale, related to Jackie Kennedy, and her daugther called Little Edie became Hoarders over the time. They lived together with more than 20 cats and a raccoon. Little Edie lost all her hair due to illness and created her own fashion Style by wearing turbans. She inspires designers like John Galliano who did a whole collection dedicated to her. HBO made their story into a wonderful movie with Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange in the leading roles.
There is this one house in our street. Rumor has it that the people, who used to live there, left over night about 15 years ago. I found out that the neighbours have a key and i just asked if i could sneak in for an hour to take a few pics! So it turned out that it was not a rumor at all. Everything was exactly where the owners, who seem to have been Hoarders, left it. There is even a christmas tree. It`s very disgusting but the perfect Grey Gardens!
Enjoy!

If you've been to Grey Gardens before...

2013-02-19T20:34:00.000-05:00

If you've been to Grey Gardens before, did you document your visit?

From Flickr, by Brad Walsh, on August 17, 2012

#gpoy in Edie's bathroom at Grey Gardens

Cruising by Grey Gardens

2013-02-13T20:30:00.000-05:00

Can't visit Grey Gardens? Or miss driving by in the nice weather? Check out this video!

From YouTube, by snlkid, on August 20, 2012

Grey Gardens drive-by – August 2012

Want to live in Grey Gardens this summer? Here's your chance!

2013-02-02T16:10:00.000-05:00

And it'll only cost you about half of Sally Quinn paid to purchase the house in 1979!

From Curbed Hamptons, by Nick Leighton, on February 1, 2013

Enjoy Another Summer in a Summer Town at Grey Gardens
The legendary Grey Gardens estate in East Hampton is now available to rent this June and July for just $125,000.
Although the home was built in 1897, it was made famous by a 1975 documentary starring then-owners Edith "Big Edie" Bouvier Beale and her daughter Edith "Little Edie" Bouvier Beale. They went a little crazy and the film includes a famous pop in by one of their relatives, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. The former first lady was horrified to discover the Beales were hoarders and living with numerous cats, raccoons, garbage, decay, other detritus.
Eventually, the 6,000-sq-ft home set on 1.7 acres finally ended up in more capable hands and was lovingly restored and renovated. Today, it includes 10 bedrooms and 6.5 baths, a heated gunite pool, a Har-Tru tennis court, and of course, those famously lush gardens.

Little Edie in RuPaul's Drag Race

2013-01-22T09:56:00.000-05:00

Last year on RuPaul's Drag Race, we saw the infamous Sharon Needles take on the role of Little Edie Beale in a photo shoot.

It looks like Edie will be depicted again in the next season of the show! Jinkx looks good, too!

By Leonardo

Little Edie in RuPaul's Drag Race
Drag Queen Jinkx Monsoon as Little Edie, in the new season of RuPaul's Drag Race (Snatch Game episode, I believe it will be on episode 5). Get ready for Season five! Starts Monday, January 28th at 9/8c on Logo!

Little Edie Beale's appearance on The New Normal

2012-09-13T09:45:00.000-04:00

The new NBC comedy The New Normal features an adorable little girl (played by Bebe Wood) who has a fixation on our very own Little Edie Beale!

Apparently Bebe Wood was already a fan of Grey Gardens, and her impressions of Edie delighted the producers so much that they had it written into the script!

From NBC

Sofa's Choice

The NBC website also has a special feature about Grey Gardens.

Thanks to Sarah for the alert.

Wealth of Grey Gardens information on Facebook

2012-06-26T10:15:00.000-04:00

We've been aware of an upcoming biography of Edie Beale by Kent Bartram for quite a while now, but a new Facebook page for the book promises that it "is almost ready to be submitted to publishers." This page has also been sharing new information about the Beales and ultra-rare photos. Check it out!

From Staunch Character on Facebook, by Kent Bartram

Staunch Character: Edith Bouvier Beale, Jr. of Grey Gardens
In the fall of 1971, officials from the Suffolk County Department of Health came to inspect "Grey Gardens", the home of Edith Bouvier Beale (and her adult daughter "Little Edie"). Once a jewel of a summer estate in the vacation hamlet of East Hampton, Long Island, Grey Gardens had fallen into utter disrepair.
“Little Edie”, the socialite first cousin of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, had been raised as Park Avenue debutante, but over time, withdrew from New York society, taking shelter at her mother's Grey Gardens. Behind the thick wall of ivy that clung to the Beales’ shakeshingled mansion, the inspectors uncovered exposed electrical wires, no running water, dozens of inbred cats, a family of raccoons who had taken up residence in the attic, and gaping holes in the rain-soaked ceilings and floors. As their wealth and contact with the outside world dwindled, so did their grasp on reality. News of “the raid,” as the Beales came to call it, hit the international tabloids and their story became fabled gossip. On the brink of eviction and utterly destitute, Jackie came to their rescue, providing minimal repairs to the house and a token stipend for her relatives.

Little Edie had been a star of the "glitter set" from her 1935-36 debutante season until her retreat to her mother's country estate in 1952. The social and fashion idol of her little cousin Jacqueline, their fortune's had completely reversed by 1971.
Little Edie's story was forever memorialized in the Maysles Brothers’ cinema-verité documentary classic—"Grey Gardens", which revealed a mother-daughter relationship echoing a Tennessee Williams drama filled with dashed dreams and faded glory. At first glance their lives seem a tragic sight, but beyond the human wreckage, the Edies are revealed to be highly entertaining personalities, sage prophets, and quotable conversationalists.
Edie's story became further cemented into the American psyche with a 2006 Tony-award-winning Broadway show starring Christine Ebersole. A highly-accurate and Emmy-award-winning 2009 HBO film starring Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange revealed more of the backstory.
Defying all predictions, Edie lived alone, successfully, for another 25 years after her mother's death. And with her, at every step of the journey was her archives—carefully preserved fragments of her family history and the true story of her life. Family intrigue and betrayal, shifting allegiances (and fortunes), mental illness, dashed hopes and dreams, and a close connection to the spirit world all played important roles in shaping this fashion and cultural icon.
Staunch Character is a book about secrets and, now, on the eve of what would have been Edie's 95th birthday, Edie's full story can be told.

Photos of Grey Gardens today

2012-06-22T10:05:00.000-04:00

The stories are familiar, but the photos are new! Click through to the original article to view them all.

From Cottages Gardens, by Michael Lassell, on May 2012

Grey Gardens Redux
Sally Quinn and Ben Bradlee restore East Hampton’s legendary Beale residence to its original grandeur
There is nothing I love more than a ruin,” says writer and Washington hostess Sally Quinn—so it’s no surprise that she and her husband, famed former Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee, wound up purchasing and then resurrecting one of America’s most storied derelict homes: East Hampton’s Grey Gardens.

Designed in 1897 by Joseph Greenleaf Thorpe and built several years later, the 14-room Arts and Crafts–style shingled cottage has long lived in the limelight. In 1924, when the home was owned by Robert C. Hill, president of the Consolidated Coal Company, its celebrated walled garden was included in that year’s edition of Louise Shelton’s Beautiful Gardens in America. The garden was created by Hill’s wife, Anna Gilman Hill, with the help of prominent landscape architect Ruth Bramley Dean. In the book, Anna Hill told Shelton, “It was truly a gray garden. The soft gray of the dunes, cement walls, and sea mists gave us our color scheme as well as our name.” In 1927, the four-acre oceanfront property was purchased by attorney Phelan Beale, a partner of John Vernou Bouvier, who was also Beale’s father-in-law. Beale moved into Grey Gardens with his wife and daughter, both of whom were named Edith, and two sons. “Big Edie” and “Little Edie,” as the mother and daughter bohemians were known, essentially never left.
To see the house today, with its naturally weathering shakes, robin’s-egg-blue trim, and well-tended plantings, it would be impossible to guess what a wreck the property had become by the early 1970s. In 1975 the highly regarded documentary Grey Gardens, by filmmaker brothers Albert and David Maysles, shocked the nation. What had sparked so much interest in the house was the discovery (by the New York and then the national press) that the pair of eccentric recluses who lived behind the untamed hedges happened to be the aunt and cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and her sister, Lee Radziwill. For 40 years Big Edie and Little Edie had been living on a miserly stipend provided by Phelan Beale when he abandoned the family in 1934. Once gowned, coiffed, and bejeweled, the two society women had become almost as feral as the scores of cats who shared their rooms.
In 1971, Suffolk County was about to condemn Grey Gardens, which Onassis and Radziwill had visited as children, because it no longer had heat, working plumbing, or a water-tight roof. Little Edie’s brothers had been trying to get the women to leave for years, but both Edies would have none of it. Onassis, then married to one of the wealthiest men in the world, and Radziwill came to the rescue of their disheveled relatives and had the worst of the mess cleaned up. They commissioned a new roof and had the interiors repainted. They also hauled away a 1937 Cadillac that had rusted to dust under a veil of vines. But before long the mother-and-daughter cat ladies let their home relapse into terminal decrepitude.
Enter Sally Quinn, who in the late ’70s was looking for a Hamptons home to replace her two-bedroom Amagansett house, which was too small for guests. “I’d looked at every house on eastern Long Island, but nothing seemed right,” says Quinn, who now spends the bulk of her time in a historic townhouse in Georgetown and a restored 18th-century farmhouse in southern Maryland. “Finally, my real estate agent said, ‘Well, there’s always Grey Gardens, but I’m not going to show it to you. It’s too disgusting.’” Naturally, this piqued the journalist’s interest. “The agent would have driven over her grandmother to sell a house, but she wouldn’t go inside Grey Gardens? I had to see it.”
So Quinn took herself to the front door one day in 1979, by which time Big Edie had died. “Little Edie opened the door in all her glory, and I stepped inside,” says Quinn. “‘How do you like the house?’ she said, and I said, ‘I think it’s the most beautiful house I’ve ever seen.’ She did a little pirouette and said, ‘Then it’s yours. All it needs is a coat of paint.’”
Perhaps just a tad more. The piano collapsed when Quinn touched the keyboard. The stove was falling into a hole in the kitchen floor. The sunroom’s ceiling had caved in on itself. “I cannot describe the squalor,” says Quinn, whose husband told her she was “out of her [bleep]ing mind.”
Little Edie made the sale on one strict condition, though: The house could not be razed. After the deal was finalized, she simply walked out the door, leaving everything behind. For the sum of $220,000, Sally Quinn and Ben Bradlee found themselves in the possession of an impossible dream.
That’s when Quinn discovered that the attic was full of family treasures: books, photographs, tableware, Louis Vuitton luggage, and much of the furniture that had graced the downstairs rooms at the height of the home’s glory, in the early 1930s. “Everything had to be repaired,” says Quinn. But after an intensive course of rehab, renovation, and reupholstering, much of it was returned to duty: wrought-iron bedsteads, painted bureaus, chaise longues, and wicker—lots of wicker.
Restoration work on Grey Gardens began in November 1979. By the following August, the Bradlees were able to move into a small area of the house. Working without a designer, Quinn created a period-inspired, laid-back summer getaway with lots of floral chintzes and no-maintenance coir rugs. “If we were going to be there year-round,” says Quinn, “I’d have furnished it differently—put down Oriental rugs and so forth—but we really do use it as a summertime house, so it’s light and informal.”
Quinn also set her sights on the garden, although the plantings were so overgrown that no one knew that its famed gray walls still existed, like a Mayan temple buried deep in the Yucatan jungle. The tangled growth that choked the place—Little Edie’s “sea of leaves”—was bulldozed to clear it. “The bulldozer had to be hoisted over the wall by crane to clear out the garden,” adds Quinn, who brought in landscape designer Victoria Fensterer to create an all-new garden inside the original walls.
Though Quinn was responsible for the bulk of the restoration, Bradlee wasn’t merely a silent partner. “She got some advice,” he says wryly, “and she listened.” Some of the couple’s discussions centered on whether to keep certain additions to the house, such as the sunroom (they saved it) and a second-floor balcony at the back of the house (they had it removed to bring more light into the living room). “It’s a warm and comfortable home,” adds Bradlee, “especially in the rooms overlooking the garden.”
Today Grey Gardens has groupies and even fan sites, and the Maysles brothers’ movie is now a cult film, but to the Bradlees it’s “mostly just a family place,” says Quinn. “We have a party most summers for Ben’s birthday. And there always seems to be 12 or 14 people around at any given time, so every night is something of a party.”
Public interest in the home—which now occupies two acres and no longer fronts the Atlantic, although it has a pool and tennis courts—was piqued again in recent years. In 2006 a musical version of Grey Gardens, starring Christine Ebersole, opened on Broadway, and in 2009 HBO aired the film Grey Gardens, with Jessica Lange as Big Edie and Drew Barrymore as Little Edie. So are there any ghosts walking the halls of Grey Gardens?
“Oh, yes,” says Quinn. “We’ve definitely got the ghost of Anna Gilman Hill, who put in the gardens. She came into my bedroom once. And of Little Edie. And of a sea captain Little Edie had an affair with. He came through her window for their assignations. At least that’s what she told me.” Bradlee is a bit more circumspect. “No ghosts,” he says, “but a lot of memories.”

Grey Gardens-inspired music by Aaron Robinson

2012-05-22T12:47:00.000-04:00

It seems quite lovely and appropriate!

From Amazon.com

Grey Gardens
From the album La Belle Epoque

Order a copy of Little Edie's hooded dress

2012-05-17T12:44:00.000-04:00

It's really quite beautiful, too!

From etsy, by LooseTeeth

Grey Gardens Replica Hooded Dress

This dress is a replica of the white hooded dress made famous by Little Edie Beale in 'LIFE' magazine. You can also see Drew Barrymore wear a version of this dress in the HBO movie 'Grey Gardens'. It's truly unique and beautiful.

Amazing vintage photograph of the gardens of Grey Gardens

2012-05-14T12:39:00.001-04:00

Such an incredible image!

From GardenHistoryGirl, by Arcady, on May 11, 2012

Garden History Giveaway: Gardens for a Beautiful America, Frances Benjamin Johnston

Grey Gardens in the Hamptons in 1914, later to be famous as the home of Big and Little Edie

Canadian premiere of Grey Gardens the musical

2012-05-05T00:02:00.003-04:00

Performances have already started! It runs through May 19 in Vancouver. Get your tickets now!

From Jericho Arts Centre

Fighting Chance Productions is pleased to present the CANADIAN PREMIERE of GREY GARDENS, based on the 1975 documentary about the lives of Edith Bouvier Beale and her daughter. Book by Doug Wright. Music by Scott Frankel. Lyrics by Michael Korie. The Beales were Jacqueline Kennedy's aunt and cousin, respectively. Set at Grey Gardens, the Bouviers' mansion in East Hampton, New York, the musical tracks the progression of their lives from their original status as rich and socially polished aristocrats to their eventual largely isolated existence in a home overrun by cats and cited for repeated health code violations. However, its more central purpose is to untangle the complicated dynamics of their dysfunctional mother/daughter relationship.

Starring Cathy Wilmot (Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd), Lucas Blaney (Blood Brothers, The Wiz, Bare: A Pop Opera), Ranae Miller (Sound of Music, Cinderella), Sue Sparlin (Lost in Yonkers), Carmen J. Price, Jack Rigg (Hay Fever, The Mystery of Edwin Drood), Hal Rogers (Rent, Hair), Angela Cotton (The Mystery of Edwin Drood) and Emma Cawood (The Lieutenant of Inishmore, The Mystery of Edwin Drood).

Grey Gardens the musical to hit Hayward, CA

2012-04-23T10:17:00.000-04:00

Auditions are next month, and the performances are in September!

From bayareatheatrebums, by George Ledo, on April 16, 2012

Auditions for "Grey Gardens" at the Morrisson Theatre
The Douglas Morrisson Theatre is happy to announce auditions for "Grey Gardens" by Doug Wright, Scott Frankel, and Michael Korie. This is the 2006 Broadway musical based on the 1975 documentary film of the same name by the Maysles brothers, which tells the story of the Beales—mother Edith (Big Edie) and daughter Edie (Little Edie)—who were aunt and cousin, respectively, to Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis.
The auditions will be on Saturday, May 5, 2012, from 12:00noon to 4:00pm, and on Sunday, May 6, 2012, from 6:00pm to 9:00pm.
The performance dates are September 6 thru September 30, 2012.

The auditions are by appointment only. Please schedule your audition by contacting director Michael Ryken at shufloff@att.net.
Please prepare one Broadway song, not from the show, scored in your key. An accompanist will be provided. Actresses auditioning for Edith/Little Edie are recommended to prepare two songs. Callbacks will be held on Monday, May 14 at 7:00pm. All performers need to be strong solo singers as well as capable of maintaining complex harmonies in an ensemble.
For additional information on the show, character descriptions, vocal ranges, and more, please visit our Upcoming Auditions page at www.dmtonline.org.
Douglas Morrisson Theatre, 22311 N. Third St., Hayward, CA.

Recent images of Grey Gardens

2012-04-19T13:39:00.000-04:00

Reader Brian sent in a couple of recent photos of Grey Gardens. I must agree with him about the house. Personally, this raccoon is quite a fan of what Edie referred to as "the overgrown Louisiana bayou look" as well!
The house was reshingled within the past few years. I'm pleased to see that the shingles have weathered a bit!

Obviously Spring hasn't really arrived out there...notice the gorgeous sparse tree to the left of the front porch! The house kind of had the old look to it as even the adirondack chairs were not in place. Actually it looked as though Little Edie would pop out at any minute as she would have spied us from an upstairs window with her binoculars.

What a magical place. I really felt transported back into time. The house really is a character.

Grey Gardens the Musical in Arlington, MA

2012-03-31T18:14:00.005-04:00

I'm a day late with this, but there are quite a few showings!

By John Waller, on March 30, 2012

'Grey Gardens' Opens Tonight

The Arlington Friends of the Drama production runs through Sunday, April 15, at the AFD Theatre on Academy Street. Showtimes and ticket information are at the bottom of this article.

Arlington Friends of the Drama (AFD Theatre) presents the greater Boston community theater premier of "Grey Gardens." Edith Bouvier and Edie Beale, the most unique, eccentric relatives of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, are brought to life in the riches-to-rags story of just how far American royalty can fall.

A documentary made in 1976 examined the women's remarkable personalities, simultaneously eccentric and electric. The women fascinated America and the documentary developed something of a cult following, who admired the women’s staunch insistence on being themselves in the face of adversity and non-acceptance. In addition, "Little Edie" had a unique and eccentric fashion sense, creating head dressings and costumes out of stray bits of faded clothing, developing her own style inimitable style that became irresistible to imitate in "Grey Garden" parties.

The musical was written in 2006, with book by Doug Wright, music by Scott Frankel and lyrics by Michael Korie, and won three Tony Awards for the Broadway production.

"Grey Gardens" was easily adapted as a musical, because the Beales loved to sing and dance, and were at heart, exhibitionists. The first act spotlights the social heyday of the Beales’ East Hampton mansion. Act Two shows the mother and daughter thirty years later after their trust fund has run dry, somehow able to persevere in spite of the dilapidation of their beloved home, "Grey Gardens."

For a community theater like Arlington Friends of the Drama, the production has many challenges. One of the important aspects of the production, says director Nancy Curran Willis, is to recognize that the house is a character in the show just as much the actors. Capturing the elegance of the original home as well as its decline is important in setting the tone of the play and telling the story. AFD Theatre has a small stage with little wing space. The solution involved creating a set which pivots precisely to allow the transition from elegance to squalor.

Equally important are the larger-than-life personalities, who many people already know of through the documentary.

"These women are fascinating, and I am lucky to have cast members who are brilliant. They bring so much to the table in capturing the essence of these characters," said Willis, something she wasn’t sure would happen when she took on the job of directing the play. But the community theater community holds some excellent talent, and she feels the leads are able to pull it off.

For Laura Espy, assistant director and choreographer, one of the challenges has been designing dance and movement in a play about real people. It is important to capture the unique physicality of each real character, and yet allow the actresses room to make their own interpretations. Another challenge has been the two time periods. The dancing in Act One needs to evoke the classic MGM movements of the 1940s. There is an entirely different feel to the 1970s dancing of Act Two.

Even costuming the show has been a challenge. "Little Edie" had a knack for wearing outlandish and original outfits. Because she is well known through the documentary, the iconic looks need to be recreated for the show. In addition, some costumes worn in the first act need to appear in the second act looking thirty years older. Working on a low budget with all volunteers, costuming sometimes requires a larger than average commitment.

The production team feels they are up to the challenges. Matt Stern is the musical director, Judy Forgione is stage manager. Carol Antos and Joe Stallone are on costumes; Eric Jacobsen is designing lights with help from Bruce Pennypacker on projections. Bob Pascucci is designing sound. The team of Charlotte Kelly, Evelyn Corsini Alcorn and Judy Weinberg are coordinating props. The set designer is Brian Harris, with Ryan Kowalczyl as first-time set technician. Susan Harrington is the production manager. The cast includes Margaret McCarty as Edith/Little Edie, Cheryl Carter-Miller as Edith, Heather Darrow as Young Edie, Michael Hogman as George Gould Strong, Kevin Cirone as Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr./Jerry , Dan Moore as J.V. Major Bouvier/Norman Vincent Peale, Chauncey Moore as Brooks Sr./Jr., Jessica Dagg and Sirena Abalian as Jacqueline and Lee Bouvier.

Performances are March 30, 31, and April 6, 7, 13 & 14 at 8 p.m., April 1 and 15 at 4 p.m. and Sunday April 8 at 7p.m. There is a talk-back after the April 1 performance. Tickets are $25. AFD is wheelchair accessible and has assistive listening devices available, and is accessible by public transportation via the 77 Bus from Harvard Square. AFD is located at 22 Academy Street, in Arlington.

Box Office: www.afdtheatre.org or 781-646-5922.

Grey Gardens the musical in Rochester, MI tonight!

2012-03-22T15:15:00.001-04:00

I don't have a lot of information about this production, but it starts tonight in Rochester, MI, and runs to April 1. Get your tickets here!

Edie Beale appears on Ru Paul's Drag Race

2012-03-17T14:52:00.004-04:00

Drag race contestant Sharon Needles drew inspiration from Edie Beale for the cover of her "dragazine" on Ru Paul's Drag Race. It's a real winner!

From iampreset, on March 12, 2012

Life-size replica of Grey Gardens for sale!

2012-01-13T17:58:00.003-05:00

And it's really quite nicely done!

From The Enterprise, by Brent Runyon, on January 10, 2012

Falmouth Home is Replica of Grey Gardens

The facade of a home on Elm Road, Falmouth, is a replica of the Grey Gardens mansion in East Hampton, Long Island, which was the setting of a documentary, a Broadway musical, and a feature film after it fell into disrepair in the 1960s and 1970s.

Unlike the Long Island version, the Falmouth version of Grey Gardens, at 485 Elm Road, is all new construction. From the street it is a near match for the late 19th-century mansion.

The home is on Oyster Pond, a short distance from Surf Drive and the bike path and is on sale for over $3 million.

"It's only the front of the house, but from top to bottom and side to side, it's almost exactly Grey Gardens," said owner Michael E. Jaye. Some exterior details and the interior layout do not match the original mansion, he said, which has an additional wing and is twice as big.

The original Grey Gardens was the home of Edith Bouvier Beale and her daughter of the same name, known as "Little Edie." The eccentric women were the aunt and cousin of Jacqueline (Bouvier) Kennedy Onassis and the subject of the documentary "Grey Gardens," which was released in 1975.

The film depicts the women discussing their lives and their relationship while surrounded by piles of old clothes and other refuse, while cats and raccoons roam freely through the house. The documentary became a cult classic and was adapted into a Broadway musical in 2006 and an HBO film starring Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore in 2009.

Learns of the Grey Gardens story

Mr. Jaye built the house without knowing anything at all about the story of Grey Gardens. He has never seen the films or the theatrical production.

"I was Googling shingle-style homes and up comes a picture of this house that was exactly what I was looking for, and I just loved it," Mr. Jaye said. He sent the photograph, which did not include the name of the home, to architect Leonard J. Baum of Cranston, Rhode Island, and instructed him to design the home around the front facade. "I had no idea that we were copying Grey Gardens," he said.

Mr. Baum went to work copying the front of the house from the photograph and designed the interior floor plan to Mr. Jaye's specifications. "Usually I work the facade with the plans together, but in this case I had a facade, and I had to work the plans to that," Mr. Baum said. "It wasn't until I basically had it pretty well rendered that we discovered it was a famous house."

Mr. Jaye discovered the fact when he came across another photograph of Grey Gardens taken after it fell into disrepair. In it,"Little Edie," in a fur coat and head scarf, stands in weeds up to her waist in front of Grey Gardens. In the background masses of vines climb to the second floor of the home.

"I saw this picture of my house in complete and total disrepair, and I said, 'Time out, this can't be my house,' " Mr. Jaye said.

After some more Internet searching, Mr. Jaye learned the story of how the Beale women lost their wealth and continued to live in Grey Gardens as it crumbled around them. "They lost their fortune and just became a couple of recluse lunatics who ended up living in a condemned house," Mr. Jaye said.

Director recounts filming of "Grey Gardens"

The Beales were more than reclusive eccentrics to Albert Maysles, one of the directors of the documentary. He counts "Grey Gardens" as one of his favorite films, because of what it reveals about the personalities of and the relationships between these two complicated women, he said in a phone interview yesterday.

The Beales were very easy to work with, he said, but filming the documentary was difficult because of the condition of the home.

"The first thing you noticed was the smell from all the animals," he said. Mr. Maysles said he considered it a compliment that his film indirectly inspired Mr. Jaye to replicate Grey Gardens. "I think it's wonderful," he said.

The original Grey Gardens is no longer in disrepair. After the elder Ms. Beale died in 1977, the house was sold to Washington Post editor Benjamin C. Bradlee and his wife, writer and Washington hostess Sally Quinn, in 1979. "They bought it and restored it to its original brilliance," Mr. Jaye said, a process that took several years.

Mr. Jaye discovered one more case of life imitating art while doing research about the house. In comparing photographs from different eras, Mr. Jaye realized that the picture he copied was actually not the real Grey Gardens.

"Here's the funniest part," he said. "The picture I went by wasn't even the original house. It was the house that they built for the [HBO] movie." The picture that inspired him to build his house, was actually a set built especially for the film.

Falmouth's Grey Gardens goes on the market

Falmouth Grey Gardens was to be a seasonal residence for Mr. Jaye and his wife, Regina, who spend the rest of their time in Scottsdale, Arizona. But just months after it was finished the couple decided to sell, because they prefer the weather and lifestyle in Arizona, where Mr. Jaye is retired and owns a cigar shop. It did not make sense to hold onto such an expensive house, he said, but he is very proud of how it turned out.

In a tour of the home yesterday afternoon, Mr. Jaye pointed out the details he spent so much time and money on. Features include a large entryway and formal staircase, walls of built-in cabinets and closets tucked under the eaves, all to make the home feel like a relic of an earlier age.

Mr. Jaye said he hoped to make back the money he spent on the house. He purchased the property for $1,125,000 in March 2010. If it does not sell, Mr. Jaye said he will return to Falmouth occasionally to stay in the house.

Mr. Jaye is 66 and from Boston originally. He founded a women's apparel company called Cricket Lane Casuals and sold the company in 1990. Since that time he has been a real estate developer in Boston and Falmouth.

Mr. Jaye grew up in modest circumstances and did not attend college. He said yesterday that he plans to establish a scholarship at Falmouth High School. The $5,000 scholarship will be for a Falmouth High School senior from a low-income family who wants to further their education by attending a trade school or a college, he said. "They just have to be dirt poor and a really good citizen," Mr. Jaye said. He wanted to provide a scholarship for a student who might follow the same path he did, he said.

The home on Elm Road in Falmouth is listed with Robert Paul Properties for $3,195,000. The fact that the facade replicates Grey Gardens is a selling point. Realtor Paul Grover said the home could appeal to someone who wants a newly built seasonal home that feels like an old home. It could also appeal to someone who loves the original Grey Gardens, he said.

The Blythe doll as Little Edie returns!

2011-11-29T14:11:00.000-05:00

In 2007, a Blythe doll dressed as Little Edie visited Grey Gardens the musical. Now, another artist has dressed up Blythe as Edie again, and done another photo shoot with her!

From Flickr, by dastinkytwinz, on February 25, 2011

View the entire sideshow here.

Huge set of photos of Grey Gardens

2011-11-25T11:34:00.000-05:00

Blog reader Brian sent in some great photos of the interior of Grey Gardens. These photos come from a realtor's listing of the house before Celerie Kelble moved in. Compare these photos to photos used to promote the house as a 2-week August rental from earlier this year. Be sure to view them all!

Delightful Little Edie Beale papercut art

2011-11-20T14:34:00.001-05:00

Very clever, and very beautifully done!

From thenonsensegarden, by Jasmine Fiscus, on October 15, 2011

Little Edie's fashion sense is alive and well, thanks to Vanity Fair, Italy

2011-11-14T14:28:00.000-05:00

Model Rachel Alexander serves as Little Edie Beale for photographer Signe Vilstrup in the November 2011 issue of Vanity Fair, Italy.

From The Libertine

Le Freak, C'est Chic

Extraordinary interview with Al Maysles and Ellen Hovde, and the Beales

2011-11-10T14:19:00.000-05:00

An interview with Al Maysles and Ellen Hovde about Grey Gardens is now available to listen to online! And there's even a call to Little and Big Edie Beale in the audio! Visit the source page and click on the play icon to listen! (Edie comes in at 49 minutes.)

From ARTonAIR

Historic Audio from the Archives of Charles Ruas: The Making of Grey Gardens (1976)

Recorded at WBAI radio in New York in 1976, a treasure of a conversation illuminating the filmmakers' techniques, the participants' social game, and the ambient legal wrangles surrounding making of the brilliant American documentary. At the table with hosts Charles Ruas and Karen Achenbach are the directors of the film Albert Maysles and Ellen Hovde (with brother David Maysles hovering nearby) and a surprise appearance by "Little Edie" Beale. Plus an astounding phone call from the studio to Mrs. Beale in East Hampton.

The 1975 film documents the mundane drama of two eccentrics, the elderly Mrs. Edith Bouvier Beale and and her middle-aged daughter Little Edie, the aunt and cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, who live in a cluttered, decaying mansion overrun with cats and surrounded by overgrowth in East Hampton. Wisdom, futility, bittersweet sentiment, dreams, and fate all intertwine in this remarkable portrait of co-dependency and survival.

This program is provided by agreement with the Pacifica Radio Archives and has been re-produced for radio by ARTonAIR.org.

Grey Gardens on the iPad?

2011-11-06T13:42:00.004-05:00

A new iPad-only magazine features our beloved Grey Gardens!

The inaugural issue of HYLAND magazine, an iPad only magazine focusing on high end architecture, interiors, design, art and lifestyle, features a significant (30+ page) interiors and garden spread on Grey Gardens, where Christopher Hyland, our Editor in Chief, shot a segment for NBC/LXTV.

Download it from the iTunes Store here!

Australian fans of Grey Gardens, buy your tickets for the musical now!

2011-11-01T17:05:00.001-04:00

Grey Gardens the musical will reach Australia later this month. Be sure to buy your tickets now if you haven't already!

From The Production Company

Grey Gardens

Winner of 3 Tony® Awards

“…In a statement released today, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis confirmed that her eighty-year old aunt, Mrs Edith Bouvier Beale, and her adult daughter Edie are living in squalid conditions in an East Hampton Estate known as Grey Gardens.

Grey Gardens is the compelling story of Edith Bouvier Beale and her daughter, ‘Little’ Edie, the delightfully eccentric aunt and cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Once among the brightest names in the pre-Camelot social register, these two women became East Hampton’s most notorious recluses, living in a dilapidated 28-room mansion. Set in two eras – in 1941 when the estate was in its prime and early in 1973 when it was reduced to squalor—the musical tells the alternately glorious and heartbreaking story of two indomitable women, Edith Bouvier Beale and her adult daughter, ‘Little’ Edie.

Grey Gardens is many things: a fabled home in the elite seaside village of East Hampton, Long Island, a landmark documentary, a Tony Award-winning Broadway musical and a Hollywood movie. Of all things, Grey Gardens is a breathtaking and alluring portrait of a mother and daughter relationship through the years.

AFI Award Winner, Pamela Rabe returns to The Production Company in the virtuoso roles of Edith Bouvier Beale and ‘Little’ Edie.

Helpmann Award winner, Nancye Hayes plays the role of the aged Edith in turmoil with her daughter.

Roger Hodgman directs this Australian premiere and for the first time, The Production Company will be presenting a musical in The Playhouse.

Kellie Dickerson (musical director of Wicked and Doctor Zhivago) returns to conduct.

Cast and Creative Team

Book by Doug Wright

Music by Scott Frankel

Lyrics by Michael Korie

Based on the film Grey Gardens
By David Maysles, Albert Maysles, Ellen Hovde, Muffie Mayer and Susan Froemke

Starring

Pamela Rabe as Edith Bouvier Beale and ‘Little’ Edie

Nancye Hayes Oam as aged Edith

Director Roger Hodgman

Musical Director Kellie Dickerson

Choreographer Dana Jolly

Sound System Sound

Orchestra Victoria

By arrangement with Hal Leonard Australia Pty Ltd
Exclusive agent for Dramatists Play Service, Inc.

Show Information

Show Times – Evening

Fri 25 November at 7.30pm

Sat 26 November at 7.30pm

Tues 29 November at 7.30pm

Wed 30 November at 7.30pm

Thu 1 December at 7.30pm

Fri 2 December at 7.30pm

Sat 3 December at 7.30pm

Show Times – Matinee

Sat 26 November at 2pm

Sun 27 November at 3pm

Wed 30 November at 1pm

Sat 3 December at 2pm

Sun 4 December at 3pm

Location Details

The Playhouse
The Playhouse is located in Theatres Building [under the Spire].
View Location Map Here