Grey gardens mansion biography sample

Grey Gardens, the seven-bedroom estate at 3 West End Road in East Hampton that once belonged to Jackie Kennedy Onassis’s aunt and cousin Edith Bouvier Beale and Edith Beale, is on the market for the first time since 1979. Big Edie and Little Edie, as the formerly well-to-do mother-daughter duo were known, lived in the palatial estate in total isolation and squalor, surrounded by raccoons and stray cats. A 1975 documentary Grey Gardens, shot by Albert and David Maysles, followed the daily life of this eccentric pair while also capturing the deterioration of their once grand home. The success of this documentary led to other takes on the story including the highly acclaimed HBO film of the same name, starring Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange, and a subsequent Broadway musical. Americans were, and continue to be, fascinated by the codependent mother-daughter dynamic, the fact that these were Jackie Kennedy’s relatives living in total destitution—Kennedy herself summered just down the street—and their epic fall from grace. It all amounted to what could arguably be an early signal of our later national obsession with reality TV, while the Beales’ style—who can forget those head wraps and the fur?—has influenced more than a few designers’ collections.

After Big Edie died in 1977, Little Edie sold the house to former Washington Post executive editor Ben Bradlee and his wife, journalist Sally Quinn. The Washington, D.C., power couple restored the 1897 estate to its former glory. Located only a stone’s throw from Georgica Beach, the mansion sits on a 2-acre lot, and the property boasts a tennis court, gardens, and a heated pool. Bradlee and Quinn went to great pains to get the restoration project right—they stripped the three-story shingle house down to its original paint colors and reinstated old Dutch doors, custom built-ins, wainscoting, and marble sinks. After Bradlee died in 2014, Quinn told the Wall Street Journal: “It just wasn’t the same without him.” She’s

Grey Gardens is a fourteen-room mansion that sits on four acres in the Georgica Pond Area of East Hampton, NY. Joseph Greenleaf Thorpe, the architect responsible for designing many of the grandest Hampton homes, planned the home in 1897. Two years prior, the property had been purchased by Stanhope Phillips and his wife, newspaper heiress Margaret Bagg Phillips. Before construction could get underway, there was a problem with the title of the land, which took years to untangle. Stanhope Phillips never lived to enjoy the property, as he died in 1901. His death was considered suspicious, and a family battle over his large estate ensued, igniting whispers of scandal among the New York society crowd. 

Once the dust settled from the court battles, the seaside house was finally built. Another society couple, the Hills Robert C. Hill, president of Consolidated Coal and his wife Anna, bought the house. Anna Hill named the property Grey Gardens. One of the finest additions to the home during the Hill’s residence is the gorgeous Spanish granite garden walls and ornate landscaping that help give the property its unique appeal.  The grand grey walls, plus the Atlantic Ocean view made this name quite fitting.

The Beale Family Moves to Grey Gardens

In 1924, Phelan Beale, a prominent attorney bought the house for his wife Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale. Edith was the daughter of Beale’s law partner, John Vernou Bouvier, and sister to John “Black Jack” Bouvier, would have two famous daughte

1975 documentary film by Albert and David Maysles

For other uses, see Grey Gardens (disambiguation).

Grey Gardens is a 1975 American documentary film by Albert and David Maysles. The film depicts the everyday lives of two reclusive, upper-class women, a mother and daughter both named Edith Beale, who lived in poverty at Grey Gardens, a derelict mansion at 3 West End Road in the wealthy Georgica Pond neighborhood of East Hampton, New York. The film was screened at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival but was not entered into the main competition.

Ellen Hovde and Muffie Meyer also directed, and Susan Froemke was the associate producer. The film was edited by Hovde, Meyer and Froemke.

In 2010, the film was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant", and in the 2014 Sight and Sound poll film critics voted Grey Gardens the tenth-best documentary film of all time. In November 2012, it topped the list of 100 greatest documentary films of all time by PBS through public voting.

Cast

Background

Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale (1895–1977), known as "Big Edie", and her daughter Edith Bouvier Beale (1917–2002), known as "Little Edie", were the aunt and the first cousin, respectively, of former US First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. The two women lived together at the Grey Gardens estate for decades with limited funds in increasing squalor and isolation.

The house was designed in 1897 by Joseph Greenleaf Thorpe and purchased in 1923 by "Big Edie" and her husband Phelan Beale. After Phelan left his wife, "Big Edie" and "Little Edie" lived there for more than 50 years. The house was called Grey Gardens because of the color of the dunes, the concrete garden walls, and the sea mist.

Throughout the fall of 1971 and into 1972, thei