Edith Bouvier Beale

Early life Beale was born in New York City, the only daughter of Phelan Beale, a lawyer, and Edith Ewing Bouvier. Her mother (known as "Big Edie") was a daughter of Phelan's law partner, John Vernou Bouvier Jr. She was born at 987 Madison Avenue, New York City (now the site of the Carlyle Hotel). Beale had two younger brothers, Phelan Beale Jr. and Bouvier Beale, and a lavish upbringing as part of America's "Catholic aristocracy." She attended The Spence School and graduated from Miss Porter's School in 1935.

Known as "Little Edie," Beale was a member of the Maidstone Country Club of East Hampton. A debutante, she was presented to society during a ball at the Pierre Hotel on New Year's Day 1936. The New York Times reported on the event, where she wore a gown of white net appliqued in silver, with a wreath of gardenias in her hair.

In her youth, Little Edie was a clothes model at Macy's in New York During the 1961 inauguration of John F. Kennedy, she told Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. that if Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. had lived, she would have been First Lady instead of Jackie. Once, Beale ran away to Palm Beach, where she was found by her father and taken home.

In October 1971, police raided Grey Gardens and found the house "full of litter, rife with the odor of cats, and in violation of various local ordinances." The Suffolk County, New York Board of Health prepared to evict Beale and "Big Edie" due to the unsafe condition of the property. Following the publicity, Beale's family paid a reported $30,000 to refurbish the property, settle back taxes, and give Beale and "Big Edie" a stipend (the two women's trust fund income had run out some years before). The eviction proceedings were dropped.

Beale's cousin Lee Radziwill hired documentary filmmakers Albert and David Maysles in 1972 to work on a film about the Bouvier family. At the outset, the brothers filmed Beale and "Big Edie." The original film project was not completed, and Radziwill kept the footage that had been shot of the Beales. However, the Maysles brothers were fascinated by the strange life the two women led. After raising funds for film and equipment on their own, they returned and filmed 70 more hours of footage with Beale and Big Edie. The resulting 1975 film, Grey Gardens, is widely considered a masterpiece of the documentary genre. It was later adapted as a 2006 musical of the same name, where the characters Jackie and Lee Bouvier appear in retrospect as visiting children. An HBO television movie based upon the documentary and surrounding story of the Beales' lives, also called Grey Gardens, appeared in 2009.

The original 1972 footage, featuring Radziwill visiting the Beales, was released in 2017 as That Summer.

Life after Grey Gardens and death In 1979, two years after the death of her mother, Beale sold the mansion for $220,000 to Sally Quinn and Ben Bradlee, the former executive editor of The Washington Post.

Beale then moved to the coach home of a friend in Southampton, and then a year later to Manhattan. In both cities, she enjoyed a flourishing social life, though was at times reprimanded by her cousin, Jackie, for being too public with their family's intimate life. She then moved to Ormond Beach, and then Miami, where she would frequent Torpedo, a gay bar on the beach, due to the admiration she received from the patrons. Some nights, the bar would organize screenings of Grey Gardens, after which Beale would give a live performance. Though both Beale and patrons alike enjoyed these performances, Beale discontinued them at the instruction of an unnamed relative. She moved to Montreal after the deaths of Jackie and her brothers due to her fear that there was a conspiracy against her family; she claimed that the Kennedys were responsible. Beale later moved to live with friends in Oakland before finally settling in Bal Harbor.

When friends did not hear from Beale around the New Year, they called the complex she had been living in, who then sent somebody to check on her. Beale was found dead in her apartment on January 14, 2002, aged 84. It is believed she had died about five days earlier, either from a stroke or heart attack.

Legacy Interest in the Beales' story resulted in a variety of publishing and media projects, as well as various mentions in popular culture.

The original 1975 Maysles brothers' documentary Grey Gardens. Rufus Wainwright's 2001 album Poses features a song entitled "Grey Gardens". The track begins with an audio sample of one of Beale's lines from the documentary: "It's very difficult to keep the line between the past and the present. Do you know what I mean?" Grey Gardens: A New Musical debuted off-Broadway in March 2006, starring Christine Ebersole, and played on Broadway at the Walter Kerr Theatre November 2, 2006 – July 28, 2007 for 300+ performances. Little Edie was portrayed in the first act by actresses Sara Gettelfinger (off-Broadway) and Erin Davie (on Broadway). Ebersole played Little Edie in the second act. Ebersole and Mary Louise Wilson won Tony Awards. Grey Gardens, the 2009 HBO production starring Drew Barrymore as Beale and Jessica Lange as her mother. The Spring 2010 issue of the online literary journal BigCityLit features a pantoum by American poet Joel Allegretti called "The Belles of Grey Gardens", which is made up entirely of dialogue from the Maysles' documentary. In the 2011 episode of 30 Rock titled "Mrs. Donaghy," Liz Lemon (portrayed by Tina Fey) does an impression of Drew Barrymore's portrayal of Little Edie. A February 2013 episode of RuPaul's Drag Race featured drag queen Jinkx Monsoon imitating Little Edie during the Snatch Game challenge. Inspired by that episode, Jinkx Monsoon and Peaches Christ mounted a live 90-minute musical drag parody Return to Grey Gardens. The first episode of the IFC mockumentary series Documentary Now! spoofed Grey Gardens in 2015, with Fred Armisen and Bill Hader as mother and daughter in Sandy Passage. The 2017 documentary film That Summer featured the original 1972 footage of Radziwill visiting the Beales.