Dan's Papers - June 15, 2007 - Broadway's Grey Gardens Wins 2 Tony Awards

Six nights a week, the curtain goes up on Broadway on a piece of East Hampton history in the form of the hit stage play, Grey Gardens. Grey Gardens is also an old estate in East Hampton, built in 1901, presently owned by Ben Bradlee who, along with his wife, Sally Quinn, saved the home from years of neglect. The occupants that owned the home before the Bradlees were Jackie Bouvier Kennedy's aunt and cousin, Edith Bouvier Beale and her daughter "little Edie." These two people, mother and daughter, became the model for the characters in the Broadway show.

On Sunday night Tony awards were bestowed upon the two actresses who played the roles of Edith Bouvier Beale, (Mary Louise Wilson) and her daughter "little Edie," (Christine Ebersole). The show "Grey Gardens" is the story of a family rich in history that rode the wave throughout most of the twentieth century. Their home became the subject of a late 1970's film that the London Sunday times called, "Extraordinary, one of the oddest most beautiful films ever." Then over thirty years later, with the same title, Grey Gardens becomes the Musical on Broadway with the Tony award-winning actresses playing lead and supporting roles.

At first, Grey Gardens was a posh home of two merged Catholic but aristocratic families, the Beale's, whose ancestors actually furnished the first Confederate White House in Montgomery, Alabama and the Bouvier family of Further Lane and NYC. Edith Bouvier Beale was Black Jack Bouvier's sister. Black Jack Bouvier was Jackie Kennedy's father. The two Beales, mother and daughter, lived in this house less than a mile away from Jackie's childhood home while growing up summering in East Hampton. The reign of Big Edie was glorious with summer balls, a well-maintained garden, and teas with the finest of neighbors. However income tax and inheritance tax did not preserve the Beale's ability to grip the financial necessities to maintain a property such as Grey Gardens to the standards of East Hampton's summer colony.

In fact, when Sally Quinn went to look at the Grey Gardens before buying it, her real estate agent refused to go into the home. When Sally was greeted at the door by "Little Edie," and a few of her thirty cats, Edie actually told Sally that all the entire house needed was, "some soap and water, and some fresh paint." Ben Bradlee and Sally Quinn restored the estate to its prior glory. In fact, last August for Ben's 85th birthday bash, Sally had Christine Ebersole come out and sing some of the score from the then upcoming Broadway Grey Gardens Musical.

Many believed that over the years Little Edie's behavior became very eccentric. Life long friend Ann Dervy of Birmingham, Alabama, believes some of the crazy behavior was a ruse to keep strangers away and off guard. Receiving letters right up until Little Edie's death, the letters were factual, funny, and very political. Another friend, Lois Wright, who has a local TV show, believes the pressures of having the responsibilities for the estate without the proper funding eroded Little Edie's health.

Back in the early 1970's Lee Bouvier Radziwell, Jackie Kennedy's sister, desired a movie be made about her family. Upon the advice of then buddy Peter Beard, she was put in touch with David and Albert Maysles, two documentary filmmakers. When the financing did not materialize, the Maysles brothers took it upon themselves to make a film only about Grey Gardens because the Beale women were real and the story was filled with boundless volumes of fascinating twists and ironies. Through their lenses the Maysles brothers presented and preserved the essence of both Big Edith and Little Edie Bouvier Beale forever. Some felt seeing the movie is almost like going to the plantation Tara after the Civil War. Ann Dervy called them, "amazing wonderful charming women," and that's what the lens brings out.

Recently Frances Haywood, who actually rents Grey Gardens eleven months out of the year from the Bradlees (the Bradlees keep it for August for the family), invited both Lois Wright and a visiting Ann Devry to visit the home. Ann, a first time visitor to East Hampton at the age of 80, was fascinated by how the estate was extremely southern with its flowers, garden, and demeanor. The thatched roof playhouse in the back has been restored to its previous glory, and that brought her back to another time in our county's history. The next day Ann Devry was taken to Broadway to see the musical. From her home back in Birmingham she praised Christine Ebersole and Mary Louise Wilson for their portrayals of Little Edie, and Edith, the women she knew her whole life. She said the actresses really brought out the nugget of the magic of who the Beale women were; "Independent southern women."

Sometimes art imitates real life and real life inspires art but in this case it was the core essence of who these women were that poverty and circumstances could not strip away. They were and will always be icons of a time when East Hampton summered, while the rest of the country coped with the Great Depression.