Hot History - Grey Gardens

Episode Date: August 16, 2024

What's romantic about an American stockbroker?!?!? We deep dive into the lives of Jackie Kennedy's reclusive Aunt and cousin, 'Big' & 'Little' Edie. Former socialites and heiresses, this is a riches-to-rags story set against the backdrop of their crumbling mansion on the coast of East Hamptons, 'Grey Gardens'.

Hello, everybody and welcome back to Hot History, the Post, where we cover the things in history that you probably should know, but don't. My name's Ainsley and I am so excited to have you listening along as we dive into the scandals, people and moments that shape our past. And today, we are talking about one of the most fascinating stories of 20th century America, the former socialites turned recluses, big and little edie. Class is in session. Now, a big part of this season of hot history is covering some history that is generally unknown.

And so this week's topic may be entirely new to some of you and for others, not so much. But either way, we are going to break it down from the top. Now, the closest thing America has to royalty has to be, without a doubt, the Kenneth family. And the most famous Kennedy is, of course, John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States. Now, if you'd like to learn some more about JFK in detail, I have done an episode on him before, so feel free to dig deeper here. But the broad strokes are he was young, he was hot, he had a beautiful family, which he shared with his beautiful and stylish wife, Jacqueline Bouvier, and it is her side of the family that we are going to focus on today. So, the Bouvier family actually first rose to wealth during the gilded age, in which various new money families, like the Vanderbilt's, DuPonts, Rockefellers and more started big industry businesses

and tried to break into the old money scene in New York City, which is where we meet Michael Mouvier, a French veteran who served under Napoleon Bonaparte, who also happened to be a very skilled French cabinet maker. Now he immigrates to Philadelphia in 1815 and starts a cabinet making business, which is incredibly successful, and by the time of his death, he had become very wealthy, owning huge pockets of land, which just so happened to contain coal reserves. Now, his sons both worked on Wall Street and inherited the family fortune, growing it and eventually passing it on to one of their sons named John Veno Bouvier Jr, who lost a lot of the fortune in the Wall Street crash in 1929. But he was a successful attorney, so managed to

keep all the estates afloat, which he passed on to his own son, John Vano. Bouvier the third. These guys have to get more creative with the names. We're going to refer to this guy, Jean-Vin-au-Buvier-the-third, as J.V. So by this point, we're in the late 1920s, and J.V. Maree marries Janet Norton Lee, daughter of James Thomas Lee from the prominent Manhattan Lee family. So the two are married, and on July 28, 1929, the couple had their first daughter, Jacqueline, Jackie, Lee, Bouvier. From here we can put two and two together and jump ahead to Jackie Lee Bouvier marrying the young, handsome and rich John Fitzgerald Kennedy, and the two both entering the White House as president and First Lady in 1961. But the Bouvier family is oh so much more than simply Jackie and her parents. We do, of course, have her equally, if not arguably more stylish and celebrated sister Lee Radswell.

The It Girl of the 50s and 60s who travelled with the Rolling Stones was friends with Truman Capone. and shared a famous feud with her sister over a man of whom they also shared. But we'll leave that for another episode. Now, John Vano Bouvier Jr., so Jackie's grandfather, JV's father, had five children. We already know about JV., Jackie's dad. But arguably, the most intriguing child has to be his eldest daughter, Edith Ewing, Bouvier. Born in 1895, Edy, as she was called, was the very definition of 20th century American socialite. She was beautiful, charismatic, smart and most importantly, she had the right last name to make her the most eligible debutante of the late Gilded Age.

Now, Eid's emergence into the social scene was a near instant success and she secured a proposal to a man named Horace R. Bigelow Allen. Now, we're going to have to break this one down because it is so wild. So Horace and Edy are engaged, but decide to break off the engagement in 1916, after which Horace immediately leaves for France to join the Red Cross driving ambulances during World War I. Now, while in France, he becomes engaged and this time marries another socialite by the name of Kiki Gwynn. Now, Kiki Gwynn is one of those characters in history. that feels essentially made up because of how eccentric and drama filled her life was. So prepare yourself.

Kiki Gwyn is beautiful, hedonistic and wild, and soon became addicted to drugs, alcohol, and partying, earning her the very enigmatic title of The Girl with the Silver Syringe. Now, her amongst her group of companions was one very British gentleman, Prince George, the fourth son of King George the fifth. So Prince George was Queen Elizabeth the second's uncle. Now, Kiki Gwynn and Prince George had an affair, and all but confirmed had a son together, and his name was Michael Temple Canfield.

Now hold on to your hearts. Prepare yourself. Because Michael Temple Canfield was the husband, first husband anyway, of Lee Radswell. I just, I love it. history. It's literally the gossip and lies and dirty little lives of everyone. But back to Edie. Fresh off the heels of her failed engagement to Horace, Edie pursued an amateur singing career, which she referred to as the happiest time in her life, and she was actually rather good.

By the age of 10, Edie was known amongst her friends and family as an artistic talent and was considered to be somewhat of a singer and pianist prodigy. However, it was not considered a real career and her father resented the wasted time she spent on attempting and attending to her vocal career and appearance and as much pushed her to get married. So in the following year in 1917, she was engaged again and this time she marries a lawyer and financier who worked at her father's law firm, Phelan Beale. Now Feelein was 14 years her senior and where Eadie was theatrical, self-indulgent and often impractical, feeling was the opposite.

But with the hopes that opposites attract, the pair were married. Now, JV. was obviously thrilled. He spared no expense. The wedding, which was held at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York, was attended by over 300 associates and members of New York High Society. Now, Eadie really was nothing short of the perfect society bride here. The pictures of the wedding are breathtaking.

I've shared them a few times on the feed, go and have a look. And the couple soon took up residence at 987 Madison Avenue, which is now actually the Carlisle Hotel, where they had three children, a daughter, Edith, who was referred to as Little Eadie, and two sons, Phelan and Bouvier. Now, a year after the birth of their youngest son, Bouvier, Phelan and Edie decide they need a change. And as such, purchase a summer home located on the corner of Lillipond Lane and Wendie. West End Road in East Hampton, Long Island. The mansion named Grey Gardens was a mere block from the Atlantic Ocean,

and it was here that Edie would fully cultivate her bohemian ways. Utilizing her servants and staff, her daily routine included playing the piano, socializing with artists, and singing for her guest. She pursued a professional singing career hiring a companyist to end playing small venues and private parties, and she would dress in an unconventional style that drew critical. criticism from her fellow East Hampton elites. But her outlandish free-thinking attitude and her self-described gypsy-like appearance deeply embarrassed her incredibly practical and really

more or less sensitive husband. Eddie, on the other hand, could not care less for the opinions of others and she didn't mind letting it be known. A truly secure woman who really lived her life to the fullest at each and every turn. she did what she wanted and she did it without guilt or shame. Phelan, however, did not live his life in this regard and left Eadie in 1934. Now the couple lived entirely separate and in 1946 Eadie received a telegram from Mexico. Now I didn't really know this was a thing but the Mexican divorce was a common practice by spouses who wished to separate from their partners

as the marriage was not recognised by the Catholic Church there which is exactly. what Phelan did. So the settlement was quite severe. Eadie did not receive any form of alimony or cash, and she did receive child support, although it was very minor, and Grey Gardens. However, with no cash, she found it incredibly difficult to maintain on her own, which led to her father, JV, contributing upwards of three and a half thousand a year to assist her. But in 1942 at the marriage of her youngest son Bouvier, Eadie arrived 25 minutes late dressed as an opera star. Ever the drama queen causing her father to be completely and utterly enraged, so much so that the two had a huge falling out, and two days later, he changed his will.

Now, of his $825,000 estate, Eadie was to receive $65,000, and to add further insult, it would be placed in a trust which her sons controlled in time. In the end, JV gave Edy $300 a month to support herself and her daughter, who was now 25. So let's put a pin in Big Edy for a minute and look at Little Eady, arguably the shining star of this story. Born in 1917, Edith Bouvier-Beal was Big Edy and Fielan's only daughter and was brought up in what was described as America's Catholic aristocracy. Now from the get-go, little Edie was her mother's crown jewel. Dressed in velvet coats and lace-trimmed socks, she was attached to her mother's hand at all times, accompanying her to ladies' luncheons in East Hampton and on the east side.

And the attachment became even more intense when Little Edie attended the prestigious Spence School. Missing her daughter so deeply, Big Edie took Little Edie out of Spence and kept her from school altogether for two years, taking her to the theatre to see movies and plays nearly every day in an effort to inspire creative and musical admiration from Little Eadie. Remember, Big Eadie herself was an aspiring singer and musical enthusiast, but the attachment between the two Eadies would soon be threatened for Little Eadie soon discovered something that would change her life. men. Leaving a series of boyfriends behind her from as young as 11. Little Edie was constantly racked with guilt for feeling love for boys. In her diary, a 12-year-old Edie writes,

There are lots of 11-year-old children who think they know the meaning of love, when they honestly haven't any idea. She writes, I have two great loves in my life. First, I love my mother, which will always go on, never be forgotten or forsaken. Second, my buzzing love for a boy. No mere crush, but a true, steady love. Now she signs off by swearing her love for mother will supersede all others,

and discovering little Edie's fleeting romances, Big Edie decided to send her back to school, and she graduated from Miss Porter's school in 1935, where she obtained the finishing school accent of which she and her famous cousin Jackie Kennedy were famous for. Just have a listen here. Mother want me to come up about an American stockbroker. I don't want me hear about his Yale days and everything.

You understand. With her schooling done and her accent in tow, Edie joins the Maidstone Country Club of East Hampton once her parents purchased Grey Gardens and was presented to society during a ball at the Pierre Hotel on New Year's Day in 1936, to which the New York Times reported that she wore a gown of white net applications.

in silver with a wreath of Gardinia in her hair. Now I want to preface here, that little Edie was stunning. She was a classic beauty with that old money elegance which allowed her to move in all the right circles and she soon became one of the key young socialites of her time, appearing at her mother's parties and those of others in which she delighted men and women alike with her wit and storytelling. Now her beauty came in handy for her, both in New York and Florida, where she was a cloth model for Macy's doing countless other shoots and shows during this period as well. But she also occupied her time here with a few men.

Now, the dating life of Little Eadie is just as fantastic and enigmatic as she was, so you'll have to bear with me here. But at the top of her calling card, we have a relationship. with Howard Hughes, the American aerospace engineer and businessman, a supposed proposal from Jay Paul Getty, one of America's wealthiest oil heirs, and even a proposal from Joe Kennedy Jr., J.FK's eldest brother, who his father had picked and groomed to become the president of the United States, rather than his younger brother John.

However, following his death in World War II, John became the new candidate. Small world around here indeed. Now I want to go back to Big Eady and Feilin's divorce here, and we want to look at it from Little Eadie's point of view. Now, as I already know, Fieland was deeply embarrassed by his wife's theatrical lifestyle and didn't want Little Eadie to further shame the family, so tried his very best to keep her on his version of the proverbial straight and narrow, which is why he was so opposed to her modeling career. Now, it's also key to note here that Phelan's embarrassment and expectations were not in. entirely his own. He did, of course, work for his own father-in-law, J.V., Big Edie's father, whom he referred to as Major Bouvier, who found his own daughter's behaviour unacceptable, so he was really influenced by JV in his scolding of his wife and eventually his daughter.

But still, little Edie wants to be a model, and despite her undying, self-proclaimed love for her mother, she did take many an opportunity to escape her. Now in the early 70s, a close family friend recalled Little Edie inviting her to the beach away from the eyes of Big Edie and she would tell her about her many aborted attempts to escape. Here, Little Edie tells her friend that, I ran away from home three times.

First to Palm Beach. Everyone thought I'd elope with Bruce Cabot, the movie actor. I didn't even know him. I never did anything but flirt, you know, the Southern Bell. My father brought me back. He'd always thought my mother was crazy because she was an artist. Then I went into interpretive dancing and ran away to New York. While in New York, she says she moved into the Barbizon Hotel for Proper Ladies on the East Side, where she says, on the sly, a friend sent me to Max Gordon, the famous Broadway producer. She told me that the minute

he saw me, he said, you're a musical comedian. I was all set to audition for the Theatre Guild that summer. I modelled for Baccarac while I was waiting for the summer to audition. But someone squealed to my father and, do you know, he marched up Madison Avenue, saw my picture and put his fist right through it. So scandalised by Big Edits, theatrics and Little Edie's modelling and attempted runaways, he leaves the pair living separately. Again, we already know this. But while he showed little concern for his wife, I do want to make it clear, he did show a level of concern for his daughter, writing a sober letter to Big Eady in 1934, rather uncharacteristic for feeling to do, directing her to hide the truth of their divorce and situation from their daughter,

stating she will think we're at the poor house, he wrote. It will rob her of all joy. And it's not without some truth. You see, while JV, Big Eadie's father congratulated himself for not going under completely in the 1929 Wall Street crash, he did gradually run out of money. And when the Mexican divorce and the eventual disinheritance occurs, the financial situation for the Edies went from bad to worse, which only made the Gordian knot that had always tied Little Edie to her mother, Locke, for good. Now, by this point, Little Edie was in her mid-30s, and she had lost the majority of her hair to alopecia and wore a constant mix of fantastical head coverings from layered scarves to hats. Now her cousin John remembers one particular

summer's afternoon when he watched Little Edie climb a caterpillar tree outside grey gardens where she took out a lighter and set her patched hair ablaze which he said sealed her fate as a prisoner of the love of her mother. Gives you a bit of an idea as to the relationship and dependency between these two which we'll get to a little bit more later. Now while the pair faced their dwindling financial situation with a stiff upper lip, selling off their possessions and jewels to visitors and their former friends to keep themselves by, the house was well and truly becoming dilapidated. There were wild cats and possums that roamed free, overturned chairs and tables,

rubbish holes in the walls and roofs, cars that were broken down in the front yard, and the ever-growing weeds that entwined themselves with the home. Now the Edies lived in two of the 14 rooms, cooked corn for dinner while in their beds, sunned themselves on their upper deck and rarely ever ventured out of the bounds of their own state. They were, by all means of the word, recluses. At least that was until the 1960s, where the ladies of Grey Garden had a particular spotlight shown upon them, one from a very big white house. Yes, in 1961, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, husband of their aunt and cousin Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, became the 35th President of the United States, and the story of the First Lady's eccentric, destitute relatives and their crumbling mansion became front-page news. Now, the situation grew so bad that Secret Service cars were posted outside of Grey Gardens,

which Davis, a friend of the family, recalls in his book, thrilled at Little Edie. The Kennedy inauguration gave Little Edie a chance for her own theatrics, he says, and makes note of one particular occasion where Little Edie reminded Joe Kennedy, senior, that she was once almost engaged to his first-born son, and if Joe's plane hadn't gone down while he was bombing Nazis, she probably would have married him, and he would have become president instead of Jack, and she would have become First Lady instead of Jackie.

Now, Gray Gardens newfound interest in continuing state of dilapidation led to an article in which the National Inquirer and a cover story in the New York magazine about the property which revealed that their living conditions had worsened further, leading to a series of inspections, which the Edies called raids, by the Suffolk County Health Department at the insistence and pressure of their neighbours. So facing eviction and the raising of their house, it was Jackie Kennedy, now known as Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and her sister, Lee Radswell, who came to their rescue with a $25,000 check for a clean-up on the condition the town would let them stay. It was around this time in 1972 that Lee Radzwell had connected with two brothers, Albert and David Maisels. Now, the Maisel brothers had a long history of investigative research and experience in the film industry. Albert was a psychology professor who served in the US Army Tanks Corps during World War II, whose interest in the human mind drove him to Russia to photograph a mental hospital and eventually returned with a documentary team to film psychiatry in Russia in 1955.

David also studied psychology and in the mid-50s worked on Hollywood productions as an assistant on Marilyn Monroe's films, but became disenchanted with conventional filming, which is when he linked up with his brother to found Maisel's Films, Inc. Now, the pair will go-getters, with an obvious interest in human psychology, which is what made them the perfect candidates for a series on the Bouvier family. So in 1972, their friendly, Radswell hires them to make this film about her Gilded Age family dynasty, which is when Albert and David first meet big and little Edie at Grey Gardens. From this first meeting with the Edies, the brothers knew that the Bouvier documentary was dead, and their first meeting. focus and feature evolved solely on these two women and their eccentric, if not peculiar,

lives. Raising funds for equipment and securing the approval from the Edies to film, Al and David returned to Grey Gardens following the women around their crumbling mansion for weeks on end, resulting in the 1975 documentary film Grey Gardens, which has been ranked amongst the best of the documentary genre and for good reason. It was an instant success. Little Edy was a standout star by far with lines like what's romantic about an American stockbroker. This is the best costume for the day. Mother wanted me to come out in a kimono so he had quite a fight.

And of course the famous phrase amongst the American finishing school accentiers you understand. Now Little Edy was an icon and Grey Gardens was a hit, finally achieving some of the fame she sought her whole life and the possibility of some earnings to continue their lives at Grey Gardens was tantalizing. However, the pair never saw a penny, and while it did make them famous, it did not allow them to restore their crumbling home. But that was the charm of the pair for anyone who's watched Grey Gardens or met them, despite the situation, both socially and financially, and despite being one of the most famous, if not notorious, riches to rags the story in American history, they made the most of their life. From Big Edie boiling her corn cobs in her bed or being

happy that the cat took a dump behind her giant portrait to Little Edie's makeshift costumes and dance routines. There is still, however, the equally concerning side of the Grey Garden story, whereby both of these women became so deeply and concerningly codependent. They would bicker back and forth. And when Little Edie would get a moment from her mother, you could see this feeling and get this sense of imprisonment behind her eyes. At times, she would express this, saying that she felt stuck here and wanted nothing to do with the estate, but then, in turn, would look to her mother for affection and affirmation, stating that she was a true talent that could make her famous. It also didn't phase either women, as I said, that one of their many cats took a dump in their

bedroom and showed how they fed raccoons that will come out of the walls and out of their attic. And while there is a certain contempt for the situation they found themselves in, there is no desire by either woman to get a job or attempt to aid their living conditions. Now, since its release in 1975, many have expressed concern for the pair's mental state and in the film, Eadie herself calls out that someone accused her of being schizophrenic. Now, while there are no records of this nor any diagnosed mental illnesses, experts have expressed concern for the inability of both women to recognize the health hazards in their own home and take action to aid the unhealthy mix of what they describe as dependency, nostalgia and narcissism, which makes for great television, but ultimately produces a poor mental state. Now, in the end, we don't know if this is true. or if they did just live this artistic life, as Big Edie like to call it.

But would our fascination with Grey Gardens still be around today without the eccentricities and authenticity of big and little? Edie? And are we all perhaps too scared to ever truly be that free? Now those are big questions, which I certainly don't have the answers to. But from my point of view, I see two women who refuse to be beaten down by the world around them. And for that, I think we cannot have. help but tip our hats off to them.

But the allure of Grey Gardens could not last, and in 1977, Big Edie sadly passed away of pneumonia at Southampton Hospital in Southampton. Now, as Big Edie need her death, Little Edie reportedly asked if she had any final thoughts on her life to which she replied, there's nothing more to say. It's all in the film. And that right there is the appeal of Grey Gardens.

It is totally and entirely honest. and transparent. Now, Little Edie remained at Grey Gardens for two more years, and during this time, she was approached by multiple developers and private couples who wanted to purchase the estate for a tear-down, but she refused until 1979 when Sally Quinn and Ben Bradley visited the estate. Now, Quinn recalls the encounter, saying she walked inside and said, oh my God, this is the most beautiful house I've ever seen, to which Little Edie did this little pirouette in the middle of the hall and said yes, all it needs is a coat of paint.

Now, Quinn and her husband promised to restore the estate safely, paying Little Edie $220,000 for the crumbling monolith. Now, free of her mother and Grey Gardens, Little Edie moves back to New York, where she tried to make it as a singer. Here she performed six shows to a packed crowd of friends and fans of the documentary, and which she was described as never being a fantastic singer, but she was sure a great person. Critically, however, she was trashed and the New York Times even wrote that if anyone is being exploited here, it's the customer who pays a $7.50 cover charge to suffer a public display of ineptitude. It's horrific. But little lady, like all the years before her, didn't care what others had to say, and began what she called her second

debutante season. Now her most staunch supporters, no pun intended, in this period of her life, were the gay community, who embraced her and provided her with friends for the rest of her life. So when she got back to New York, it was party time, and she had become somewhat of a cult celebrity. She went out almost every night, and her apartment was as eclectic as she was, described by a friend as having walls that were covered with collage and pictures of cats. She slept on a cot. She had a huge seascape above this cot with parasols at the floor and at the head. She had shower curtains on top of the apartment's wall-to-wall industrial carpeting, and she had these plastic shower curtains with butterflies all over them, and the cot looked like a beach scene. Shane, this

friend, remembers asking her, Edy, what's the story here? To which she says, oh my darling, I can't go to the beach. The men come out and haunt me. So I've made it. my own beach. Now after New York, Eadie moved to Florida. Again, after so many years by the beach, the city was not to her liking. And here she could indulge her love of swimming. But she claimed that the water was too cold and there were sharks. So she moved to Miami Beach instead. Now, Miami was a natural fit for Eadie. She lived in a series of different buildings and found plenty of places to swim. However, during the 90s, Eadie began to struggle. She became convinced that the deaths of her brothers and Jackie Onassis, which occurred over a short period of time, suggested a conspiracy against them.

Direct quote here, a relative says that Edie got a little paranoid about that and thought that maybe somebody was killing them all. Actually, she thought the Kennedys were doing it, so she tried to get out of the country, and she decided to go to Montreal because they spoke French, and she liked cities, and it was cosmopolitan. A little paranoid in Canada, her life was pretty dull. She was stuck in this high-rise apartment. She felt cramped and eventually moved to California with Pam and Chris Beale, her nephew and his wife. Now, this was 80's first time to the West Coast and the Beals took her literally straight from the airport to a restaurant on Ocean Beach where she ate clam chowder for the first time. Now Pam could see that age was starting to take a hold on Edie who was nearing 80. She looked at the Pacific Ocean for the first time and it was just really exciting for her.

But she was frail when she came back from Montreal. She was pale and very thin, a little bit unsteady and showed her age to some degree, which I had not seen ever before. Pam says, after her stay in California with her family, Eadie did eventually return to Florida, living in Bell Harbour, where she could swim and see her friends, which she did every single day until January 14th, 2002, when at age 84, she was found dead in her apartment. Big and Little Edie and Grey Gardens instantly became a pop culture sensation, and interest in their story resulted in a variety of publishing and media projects. From Grey Gardens, a new musical, which debuted off-Broadway. in March 2006 to 2009's HBO movies starring Jessica Lang and Drew Barrymore.

There is also the spoof Sandy Passage with Bill Hader and Fred Armisen, and of course the 2013 episode of Rupal's Drag Race, featuring drag queen Jinks Monsoon, imitating Little Edie during the Snatch Game Challenge. Inspired by that episode, Jinks Monsoon and Peaches Christ mounted a live 90-minute musical drag parody, return to Great Gardens. All in all, the lives of the Bouvier-Beal women go down in history as some of the most fascinating, eccentric and everlasting tales in 20th century America. And that brings us to the end of another episode of Hot History.

Thank you so much, as always, for listening along with us and tune in next week as we get down and dirty with the fascinating story of Laurent Fontaine, the museum owner whose wife mysteriously died in his very own. Museum.