I hadn't brought Coco (see right sidebar under The Muses) out for a while.....she's been getting antsy for another photo shoot. She wants to dress up as famous people but I keep telling her how busy I am right now. Finally when there was a lull in the ring of incoming emails (a very SHORT lull) I asked her, "OK, who do you want to be first". She told me since she's seen me watching the DVD's (more than once) and reading all I can find about Grey Gardens.......she wanted to be Little Edie Bouvier Beale. AND she wanted me to first email her photo to my friend. So with a quick woosh of things I did the best I could to at least represent Edie Beales "style". Edie who despite her sometimes outrageous costumes (as she called them) set trends with famous designers then and now. She was never seen in later years without a scarf or at least what she made in to a scarf, on her head.
The Beales
A good friend of mine had first mentioned the title to me in a conversation one day but for some reason I must have been under a rock not to have known about it(I was already out of high school when the documentary was released).............NOW, well now I am hooked and wishing I could go back in time and find a a way to meet the Beales if only to get to the bottom of how they came to be. Big Edie Ewing Bouvier Beale (the Mother)(Aunt to Jackie Kennedy) and Little Edie the daughter and first cousin of Jackie Kennedy are long gone now but certainly NOT forgotten as there was not only the documentary made by the Maysles brothers in the 70's but it also became a broadway musical (there is sound in this link) and now a theatrical movie is being made starring Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange (a casting choice that truly gives me pause) and MANY things written about them.
To say I am truly fascinated/obssessed with these women is an understatement, most especially the daughter who was 56 at the time the documentary was made. She was a real piece of work. To say this mother and daughter shared a bond of profound love is an understatement.....twisted as it was.
This friend and I have embarked on discussions about these women..........many..... and we are certainly not done. I am currently reading one book and I'm anxiously awaiting the arrival of a book.Eva Marie Beale, the wife of Bouvier Beale, Jr. (Big Edie's grandson), has put together.... a different kind of beautiful and sentimental coffee table book about Little Edie, Edith Bouvier Beale of Grey Gardens: A Life in Pictures. Among her estate were "boxes filled with negatives, old newspaper clippings from her debutante days, and even the wedding invitation to Jackie Bouvier's wedding to JFK. Everything important in her life she saved in these boxes" said Eva Marie. The way these things were bundled it made it easy for Eva to develop a time line of Edies life. "This book is a collection that Edie herself left behind, and we edited it," said Eva. I await this book to see if there is more insight to this woman who at once appears fun loving and free and yet there is a manipulative quality to her as well.
Many who watch the documentary may think they are just a couple of riduculous eccentrics. I do not - but I do believe something wasn't 100%....shall we say...normal for sure. I haven't even touched the surface of what I feel about these women, who they were, how they lived their lives. All I know is they have my full attention in relation to what makes certain people tick.
The REAL Edie pictured above (Big Edie in the background)
In the meantime, here is Coco's rather lame version of Little Edie below: (Edie used a magnifying glass to read due to cataracts so Coco wanted that for affect) The dots under her eyes were left from a previous costume that I forgot to remove.
Coco is repeating something Little Edie said
"I am a STAUNCH character"
If you haven't heard of them or seen the DVDs or read about them.........do it, do it now!
I want to be clear that my fascination with these women is not that they are to be idolized but because they are a true psychological study. They did things and conducted their lives in a way that makes one wonder..........why?
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Don't forget to enter my One World One Heart giveaway HERE........and don't forget to check out all the links on the OWOH blog - it now has over 700 participating and counting....I am over the moon!!
Love,
Lisa
XOXOXO
The Beales
A good friend of mine had first mentioned the title to me in a conversation one day but for some reason I must have been under a rock not to have known about it(I was already out of high school when the documentary was released).............NOW, well now I am hooked and wishing I could go back in time and find a a way to meet the Beales if only to get to the bottom of how they came to be. Big Edie Ewing Bouvier Beale (the Mother)(Aunt to Jackie Kennedy) and Little Edie the daughter and first cousin of Jackie Kennedy are long gone now but certainly NOT forgotten as there was not only the documentary made by the Maysles brothers in the 70's but it also became a broadway musical (there is sound in this link) and now a theatrical movie is being made starring Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange (a casting choice that truly gives me pause) and MANY things written about them.
To say I am truly fascinated/obssessed with these women is an understatement, most especially the daughter who was 56 at the time the documentary was made. She was a real piece of work. To say this mother and daughter shared a bond of profound love is an understatement.....twisted as it was.
This friend and I have embarked on discussions about these women..........many..... and we are certainly not done. I am currently reading one book and I'm anxiously awaiting the arrival of a book.Eva Marie Beale, the wife of Bouvier Beale, Jr. (Big Edie's grandson), has put together.... a different kind of beautiful and sentimental coffee table book about Little Edie, Edith Bouvier Beale of Grey Gardens: A Life in Pictures. Among her estate were "boxes filled with negatives, old newspaper clippings from her debutante days, and even the wedding invitation to Jackie Bouvier's wedding to JFK. Everything important in her life she saved in these boxes" said Eva Marie. The way these things were bundled it made it easy for Eva to develop a time line of Edies life. "This book is a collection that Edie herself left behind, and we edited it," said Eva. I await this book to see if there is more insight to this woman who at once appears fun loving and free and yet there is a manipulative quality to her as well.
Many who watch the documentary may think they are just a couple of riduculous eccentrics. I do not - but I do believe something wasn't 100%....shall we say...normal for sure. I haven't even touched the surface of what I feel about these women, who they were, how they lived their lives. All I know is they have my full attention in relation to what makes certain people tick.
The REAL Edie pictured above (Big Edie in the background)
In the meantime, here is Coco's rather lame version of Little Edie below: (Edie used a magnifying glass to read due to cataracts so Coco wanted that for affect) The dots under her eyes were left from a previous costume that I forgot to remove.
Coco is repeating something Little Edie said
"I am a STAUNCH character"
If you haven't heard of them or seen the DVDs or read about them.........do it, do it now!
I want to be clear that my fascination with these women is not that they are to be idolized but because they are a true psychological study. They did things and conducted their lives in a way that makes one wonder..........why?
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Don't forget to enter my One World One Heart giveaway HERE........and don't forget to check out all the links on the OWOH blog - it now has over 700 participating and counting....I am over the moon!!
Love,
Lisa
XOXOXO
