Oh good Lord...here is the HBO promo for their version of the movie...
Big Edie Beale and her daughter, Little Edie Beale, were high-society relatives of Jackie Kennedy. Through a strange turn of events they ended up living in their East Hampton home, known as Grey Gardens, pretty much abandoned by their family and without any money. They lived alone, with about 50 cats and several raccoons, in filth and squalor until the tabloids in the 70s tracked them down and sensationalized their story as "Jackie's Shame." Jackie had no idea what conditions her aunt and cousin were living in until the stories broke. She sent a team of people to clean up the house and helped the ladies restore it so that their home wouldn't be condemned by the health department and so that they wouldn't be forced to leave.
After the clean-up, the Maysles brothers approached the Edies about making a documentary. They agreed. The documentary was released in the mid-70s and became a cult-classic. Then in 2006/2007 a musical based on the documentary became a Broadway smash, also called Grey Gardens, winning Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress Tony Awards for Christine Ebersole and Mary Louise Wilson. There were still many, many unanswered questions....just how did the ladies go from high society to filth???
In April of this year HBO released their version of the Beales' story, also called Grey Gardens. This version tells the complete story (as best they could from what information that was available--both ladies are now deceased) and it starts in the 30s and goes all the way through the fliming and release of the documentary in the mid-70s. This is the version that just won 6 Emmies. Drew Barrymore worked for over a year to capture the essence of Little Edie, whose personality and character are what has drawn people in to their story, and whose fashion sense has inspired many, many a designer since the 1970s.
Big Edie Beale and her daughter, Little Edie Beale, were high-society relatives of Jackie Kennedy. Through a strange turn of events they ended up living in their East Hampton home, known as Grey Gardens, pretty much abandoned by their family and without any money. They lived alone, with about 50 cats and several raccoons, in filth and squalor until the tabloids in the 70s tracked them down and sensationalized their story as "Jackie's Shame." Jackie had no idea what conditions her aunt and cousin were living in until the stories broke. She sent a team of people to clean up the house and helped the ladies restore it so that their home wouldn't be condemned by the health department and so that they wouldn't be forced to leave.
After the clean-up, the Maysles brothers approached the Edies about making a documentary. They agreed. The documentary was released in the mid-70s and became a cult-classic. Then in 2006/2007 a musical based on the documentary became a Broadway smash, also called Grey Gardens, winning Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress Tony Awards for Christine Ebersole and Mary Louise Wilson. There were still many, many unanswered questions....just how did the ladies go from high society to filth???
In April of this year HBO released their version of the Beales' story, also called Grey Gardens. This version tells the complete story (as best they could from what information that was available--both ladies are now deceased) and it starts in the 30s and goes all the way through the fliming and release of the documentary in the mid-70s. This is the version that just won 6 Emmies. Drew Barrymore worked for over a year to capture the essence of Little Edie, whose personality and character are what has drawn people in to their story, and whose fashion sense has inspired many, many a designer since the 1970s.
