Similarities Between Big Edie And Edith Bouvier Beale

Grey Gardens is a documentary about two women, Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale, is known as Big Edie, and Edith Bouvier Beale her daughter is known as Little Edie these two women appear in what could be known as one of the first stars of a reality show. The lives of these women is shown unscripted and without any narration from the documenters (Hovde, Maysles, Maysles, & Meyer, 1975). The women reside in a disintegrating mansion located at 3 West End Road in the wealthy Georgica Pond neighborhood of East Hampton, New York (Cinnamon, 2014). “Big Edie was born October 5, 1895 in Nutley, New Jersey. She married one of her father’s law partners who was 14 years older than her named Phelan Beale in 1916. She was divorced 1946 and was notified through

Grey Gardens was the home Big Edie received in her divorce the settlement ("Edith Ewing Beale," 2016). “Little Edie” was born on November 7, 1917 in Manhattan, New York. Her child hood was full of a privileged lifestyle that her wealthy family provided her with. She always accompanied her mother to luncheons, tea parties, and high society functions. She was a cabaret performer, fashion model and a socialite (Martin, 2002). They are the aunt and first cousin of first lady Jackie Kennedy Onassis. While they were residing in Grey Gardens it had become a contentious issue in the community. The property 28 a room mansion had dangerous neglect. The once- well-designed grounds were amongst a tangled jungle of trees and brush; while the occupants lived in squalor conditions that were so unsatisfactory that the women were notified by the county's board of health with threats of eviction if the property was not brought to acceptable living conditions. After the publicity, Aristotle Onassis and Jacqueline Kennedy and other relatives helped the women to bring the house to property codes

The women most likely suffered from a fear of being alone, Big Edie expressed this more than Little Edie in the film. Both women express a great fear of losing the other, something many individuals will not admit to but experience this fear just the same as the ladies. While there are a number of possible mental illnesses displayed in this hoarding due to the filth and junkiness of the room in which the lived appeared to be a problem. This documentary may have portrayed the first filmed hoarders. Big and Little Edie were eccentric and reclusive residents that appear to be comfortable inside of their tiny junk filled room within their deteriorating mansion. In this film the Beales are reporting that they have about 300 cats with names (Hovde, Maysles, Maysles, & Meyer, 1975) It appears these women depend on the companionship of each other, the cats, the raccoons and the open air of the land and the ocean. When sanitation workers gained access to this residence, they found mounds of empty tin cans littering the floor, and fecal matter strewn everywhere. Passionately protective of their deteriorating collection of valuables and inheritances, the Beales gained increasing fame when national headlines reported that local officials were trying to evict them. The one and only intervention was that of the local officials, the mansion was brought up to code through repairs