Yuku free message boards

The original came out in the 70s, and the follow-up didn't come out until 2006 when renewed interest in the original sparked. They may as well have come out at the same time because it is hard to distinguish one from the other, because it was shot at the same time and was just leftover material, some of it as good as was used in the original. I noticed that some of the HBO movie borrows from The Beales of Grey Gardens as well as from Grey Gardens. The scene in which Big Edie tells the Maysles that when Little Edie returned from the Barbizon school in New York City she was "very sick" and "delicate," for example is straight out of The Beales of Grey Gardens.

Summary of the HBO movie:

The HBO movie started with the documentary already in progress, and relied on flashbacks to 1936 to Little Edie's debutante ball/coming out party at a swanky hotel in New York City. Little Edie tried desperately to escape the party but Big Edie chased her down and told her to come back. From there they went to the family summer home, Grey Gardens, and Mr. Beale went back to the city, presumably to get away from Big Edie and back to his secretary whom he would eventually marry. As the story progressed, they explained very well how Little Edie attempted to return to the City to audition for Max Gordon, but because of a sticky love triangle that broke her heart she returned to Grey Gardens at Big Edie's urging and missed the audition. By this time Mr. Beale had already abandoned the family and was on his way to getting a "fake Mexican divorce" so that he could wed his secretary. Big Edie was all alone when Little Edie returned and already she had begun to let the house go. The garden was unkempt and the dishes were piling up and some were still on the dining table. She had a mess of stuff in the living room where she presumably listened to music and gazed at memorabilia, never bothering to put any of it away. Time progressed until they essentially ran out of money for food, heat, electricity and water. The ladies were in very dire straits. A photographer for a tabloid stumbled upon the house and started taking photos. Little Edie invited him in thinking if their story became public it could somehow lead to salvation. Indeed, but not before they were basically publicly humiliated in many a newspaper and tabloid. It was revealed that Jackie O. had "turned a blind eye" as one paper had put it and that accusation led to Jackie visiting the ladies and offering assistance. Under the direction of Lee Bouvier (Jackie's sister) the house was cleaned up significantly to pass the next inspection but not nearly to the grandeur that it once held. It was after this clean-up that the Maysles approached the Edies about making a documentary about them. The Edies had met the brothers through Lee Bouvier, who The Maysles were trying to get a movie made with (about life in the Hamptons) but it didn't pan out. The Maysles told Little Edie that the Edies were the most interesting part of that project anyway so they wanted to pursue that instead. While the story was progressing there were cuts to the documentary in progress in which scenes were recreated. It was very interesting. The HBO movie ended with the premiere of Grey Gardens showing at the Paris theatre in New York City, with Little Edie in attendance receiving a standing ovation. Big Edie decided not to attend.

That's it in a long nutshell, but you gottta see it! It answered soooooooooooooo many questions that one gets from watching the documentary alone. I don't know what it would be like to watch the documentary after watching the HBO production. A lot of the mystery would be gone, regardless of how ficitonal the HBO production is or isn't.


PS...There are other parts of the story that I left out of the above: Gould's role in Big Edie's life, the love triangle, the death of Mr. Beale, the brothers urging Big Edie to sell the house, how the house looks as its being inspected (it will make you GASP!), how Big and Little Edie's tumultuous relationship was sorta resolved at the end, etc... YOU HAVE TO WATCH IT! IT'S SOOOO GOOD!

Jerry was left out of the movie completely, by the way.

Hmmm....maybe when cats have the run of a 28-room space they kinda get lazy too? I dunno...I've never had a cat. But there were also raccoons. Maybe it was raccoon poop.

Also, many of the cats were born in the house so that's the 'world' they knew. :: shrugs ::


OH! There is the one scene in the Grey Gardens documentary in which one of the cats takes a pee behind Big Edie's portrait...remember? So there you go...as Big Edie said "I'm glad someone around here is doing what they want." They changed it in the HBO movie by the way. Jackie entered the house and pointed out the cat pissing behind the portrait and the ladies just kinda shrugged it off. I kept waiting for Big Edie's famous line but no one said it.

They did add great tidbits like Jackie dropping her red and blue scarf in the garden and then Little Edie using it later for her infamous flag dance. And Big Edie wearing her infamous red/white/blue had while lounging in the garden with Gould sometime in the 30s.

Maybe it was poop that was tracked in on their shoes. They basically did not clean for about TWO FULL DECADES. Gah!



ETA: Somewhere I read that there were a total of 52 cats in the house, in addition to the raccoons. That's a lot of poop in two decades. In the HBO movie the health inspectors claimed that neighbours "down wind" of Grey Gardens were complaining about the property.