• Wed, Aug 29 - 12:04 pm ET

Shelved Dolls: Little Edie Beale – What Went Wrong?

edie beale grey gardens

Edie Beale. Edie “Body Beautiful” Beale. Did you know that, before she became known for being the eccentric you probably saw in the documentary Grey Gardens, she was considered the ultimate East Hampton beauty? She was. You know, now. Was she a top player in the social scene? Baby, when she was young she was the social scene. Edie was supposedly proposed to by Joe Kennedy Jr. and  J. Paul Getty and was known to date Howard Hughes before he started urinating into milk bottles.

And then she ended up in a house that looked like something out of Hoarders, lurching around with a filthy turban on her head amidst the raccoons who took up residence there. With her mother.

How does that happen? 

I think some people idolize Edie Beale because they interpret her transformation as a voluntary rejection from the social scene. As though it became 1965 and Edie said “to hell with everything.” Someone once told me that Edie Beale was a hero because she didn’t buy into the trappings of society. While I would happily attribute a lot of agency to Edie if it seemed remotely realistic, this is the sort of sentiment that leaves me with a sneaking suspicion that those people are so envious of wealth that the only way they can deal with it is to rearrange their feeling to resemble pity. Suffice to say, I don’t think Edie woke up one morning and said “I’m really tired of dancing with Joe Kennedy, so I’m going to live in a crumbling mansion in soiled clothes. I love raccoon shit! I’m real!”

I actually think this is kind of insulting to people… everywhere. I think it’s especially insulting to people who were not great Hamptons socialites to assume that it’s somehow kitschy or fun or “real” to live someplace that is condemned. I think this is actually a really sad story, and there is a true element of instability to Edie, and it bothers me when people read it as cool or fun or something aspirational.

So. Now that we’ve covered that aspect, and we’ve decided that you should stay rich and beautiful forever, because I, at least, won’t judge you for it, let’s talk about the rumor as to how she got the nickname Body Beautiful Beale.

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  • Lindsey

    “And so Edie stayed their” *there

    • Jennifer Wright

      Ugh. Sorry.

    • Chantel

      Really now? Yes, that’s an obvious grammar mistake but to point it out with no other comment is kind of a jerk move! ha ha.
      Loving your articles Jennifer!

  • DebMoore

    Just wanted to let you know that I LOVE these Shelved Dolls series. All of them have been great (even the last one, which was not my favorite due to the “Doll”) I often read them twice. They have also casued me to research more “Interesting Women in History”. Thank you so much for writing this series!

  • KennyCherie

    I always look forward to the “Shelved Dolls”. Anticipating who will be next!
    Like I’m sure you have heard already, these would make for a great book.
    Another job well done! Really enjoyed it.

    • Jennifer Wright

      Working on the whole “book” thing! Fingers crossed someone who… makes books happen… also enjoys them.

  • Netochka

    Do Ninon De Lenclos :)

    • Jennifer Wright

      Want to hear my favorite story about Ninon? OKAY! Here we go:

      A group of young dandies were discussing Ninon’s considerable charms. While most spoke highly of her, one was less than impressed. “She’s old,” he said. (He said it in French.) “I don’t think she could tempt me.” Some debate ensued and he went off to meet with Leclos.

      After an hour with her, he begged to become her lover. She said that he could, but he would have to wait two months. Two months passed and, afterwards, as they lay together, he asked why they had to wait. She replied that the day way her 70th birthday, and she wanted to prove to herself that she was still capable of entertaining a lover.

    • Netochka

      Haha gorgeous! She’s a shelved doll if ever there was one.

      “Love with passion, but only for a few minutes” – Ninon

  • endn

    awesome as always! I’ve tried to google the story of big edie telling joe kennedy the story of how she got her nickname, and I can’t find it, I am super curious! anyone have the dish?

    • jjj

      I believe Big Edie was referring to how ‘Little’ Edie got Her nickname….”Body Beautiful Beale” and perhaps that offended Joe? How embarrassing for your own mother to go around…at parties, etc. and tell people (especially romantic interests) that you walked around naked at a public pool! I know my own mother loooovved to tell all kinds of stories about me when I brought a date home! Embarrassing Indeed.

  • Cate

    YES YES YES! I haven’t even read this yet, but I was hoping you’d do Little Edie eventually. I love the Beales

  • francie

    I believe that little edie had alopecia. it’s an auto immune disease where your body attacks your hair causing patches or complete hair loss. she looks like her alopecia progressed to being total body/head hair loss, she doesn’t have eye lashes or brows. I don’t believe she set her head on fire… sounds like a tale. People back then just had no idea what happened to her hair.

    • M.

      You’re right, Francie. Big Edie even accused her daughter of pulling her hair out, but when the follicle has died, how can you let it sit in you head like that? It was all blamed on her.
      The rumor of her hair being set on fire started with her cousin John H. Davis. He wrote a book about the Bouvier family and embellished it with tall-tales to sell more books. It’s also where the bathing suit story came from, but I’d like to think that one is true!
      Also, I run the Little Edie Tumblr, so thank you for featuring me!

  • Jenniwren

    Such a fascinating story. Which is strange because Edie’s life seems basically to have been an example of nothing much happening over a prolonged period of time. But she DID live in extraordinary times. It’s all about that crash, isn’t it? It’s as though neither of them could really come to grips with a world where they weren’t entirely secure and at the top of the tree (possibly more so with Big Edie- the refusal to answer that letter, the refusal to move out of the house, referring to her divorce as a “fake Mexican divorce”- this is a woman desperately denying her changing straits in life) and so carved out this little unchanging world for themselves.

  • Wray Serna

    so good!

  • Julimonster

    And I casually pass by the Gloss, peek to see if there is a new “Shelved Dolls” and eagerly sit down, cross my legs and settle in for the story…. What about Peaches and Daddy?

  • Emily

    I love the Shelved Dolls series on the gloss, such fascinating stories :) Thank you Jennifer Wright!

  • MR

    I liked in the film when Jackie-O came to see her (Drew Barrymore), and she was her usual koo-koo self. Old money, when the money runs out.

    • MR

      Don’t get me wrong. I felt sorry for her, her mother was to blame.

  • Amy

    Jen, you’re amazing and I love Shelved Dolls!

    I really relate to Little Edie – it’s so easy to lose your nerve and stumble and then not be able to get back up. Some people just don’t understand that – they simply can’t imagine sitting by as your life rolls past, but it can happen. It’s like falling off a carousel as it spins and never being able to find the right moment to jump back on. It must have been hard.

  • Chantel

    Jennifer you are such an interesting writer. I love how you word things and speak as though we are having a conversation with me. I like how you emphasize certain points in a very real, casual way “let’s think about this for a moment, she set her hair on fire” I am currently watching ‘Grey Gardens’ for my first time after coming across & researching it years ago. I look forward to reading more of your work : )