All About Edie

Edith Bouvier Beale, a first cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, became a star at the age of 59 when she and her mother, Edith Bouvier Beale "Sr," became the subjects of a 1976 documentary entitled Grey Gardens. TCM aired this film on Sunday night and I watched it, like it was a train wreck.

"Little Edie," as she was known, was part of New York Society in her youth, but she and her mother became recluses when she was in her middle years. The two women lived together at Grey Gardens, their East Hampton, New York estate, from 1952 until the elder women died in the late 1970s. A series of unfortunate events led to the home falling into extreme dis-repair and leaving the Beales living in poverty.

As I watched the beginning of the film I was shocked and disgusted at the sight of the awful living conditions of the Beales and was even more shocked and disgusted by the fact that they seemed not to care about it. However, I soon forgot about all of that, as I began to discover the style icon that was Edith Bouvier "Little Edie" Beale. She lit up the screen with her elegant head coverings, held together by beautiful brooches. The coverings matched her dresses, sometimes exactly, producing a muted monochromatic look. In some scenes she wore black stockings with white kitten-heeled pumps. Sounds like a no-no but, Little Edie managed to pull it off and look utterly fabulous. She also wore a swimsuit at times, which looked liked a style from the 1940s. As the camera documented legs that brought Betty Grable to mind, I hoped I would look as good in a swimsuit as Little Edie did when I reached the age of 59.

Little Edie and her mother were very vivacious people who lived for the moment. Her mother once pursued a singing career and, in the film, could still sing beautifully. Little Edie was quite the performer herself, at time dancing around the house in shorts and reciting poetry. Though the appearance of her home was unimportant to her, her personal appearance could not have been more important. She lamented over an avocado-colored scale's reading of 145 pounds in one scene and complained that she had no makeup on when guests showed up for her mother's birthday party.

I suppose I was so entranced by Edith Bouvier Beale because I see so much of myself in her. As I get older it becomes harder and harder for me to keep my home clean. I care less and less about how it looks and more and more about how I look. I hope that I don't go as far as Little Edie did: dumping a loaf of Wonder Bread on the attic floor, for a raccoon who'd gotten in through one of the holes in the roof!

Buzzing off for now...