Come on in, we’re not ready.

The Wainwright Coming Out Party | May 1968

By 1968, the eccentric behavior of Big and Little Edie had already begun to be the subject of gossip in East Hampton. Still, when the daughter of a childhood friend of Edie’s was to make her own debut, the Beales received an invitation to the party. Big Edie was hesitant, but Little Edie implored until she gave in. They would go to the party on one condition: Little Edie had to get someone to clean up the mess that had only just begun to accumulate in Grey Gardens. Edie hired two teenagers to help her - in her excitement, she wrote off their slightly shady behavior. She focused all of her energy into what was her first public appearance in years.

The Beales made a grand entrance. Big Edie wore a magenta wrap and thousands of dollars worth of jewelry, though she didn’t bother brushing her hair. Little Edie, trailed black lace over a black bathing suit and black fishnet stockings. She spent the entire evening dancing:

“I do terrific dances. I did one at the Wainwright coming out party and they didn’t know whether to send me to Islip, have me arrested, or… I thought I was very ladylike. The whole thing caused a commotion in three states [laughing]. You know, if I went in and got very social with everybody, I would not have done it. So I just beat it! I heard the music and I went right in, boy! They had three musicians - a three piece bongo band. God! I never left their side for two hours. I never spoke to one person at the party. I never had a better time. It was a very polite coming out party and everybody wanted to know what cooked - was I the star entertainer, was I drunk, was I full of dope, or what? So guess what happened. The head of the orchestra left very hurriedly to immediately contact the debutantes mother. Well, she was a pal. She said, “Relax. She’s just having fun.” So he went back pounding the keys. They didn’t like it at all, but he couldn’t get rid of me! [Laughing, pleased with herself] So I had a marvelous time. Oh boy, I never heard the last of that from Old East Hampton. They didn’t want me to have a good time there. The girl with the cats.”

Early the next morning, Big Edie was finally able to separate her daughter from the bandstand and drag her home - reprimanding her the whole way, “Your disgraceful behavior will release evil spirits, just you wait,” she scolded. When they arrived, they discovered that $15,000 worth of heirlooms had be stolen from Grey Gardens. From that moment forward, Big Edie refused to leave her home.

“This was taken for the tropical ball, in the late 1930s, in New York City. Shall I tell them where they put it? In Macy’s elevator! I wasn’t a professional model, but some people saw it and they said it was hanging in Macy’s elevator. So I called up Macy’s and they said yes it was true, and they apologized. But they said they couldn’t help using it, it was so good looking! 

And it was taken by a very famous photographer. I think his name was Arthur O’Neill. And he wanted me to become a model - a photographer’s model! And I was so terrified that I ran out of the studio. Because I wasn’t supposed to be going to the ball, anyway. You know, I was afraid of my father. He didn’t want me to go out alone, to dances.”

May | 1964

Debutantes headed by Miss Edith Bouvier Beale are taking an active interest in the plans for the Spring Fever fashion show… . .

New York Times | April 26, 1936

Al: If you had children, what would you call them? Have you thought of names?

Edie: Just one. I’d like a girl - I’d make her the most famous dancer in the world. Never wanted a son.

Al: What would her name be?

Edie: Edith. [giggles]

Al: [hysterical laughter] I should have known! I should have known!

David: Little or big? Little Edie! Then you could be Big Edie!

Edie: You can imagine how the husband would like it! He’d have other plans for his daughter, and I’d say “Listen dear, we’re gonna take her over to Russia to get the correct training.” And he’d say, “Are you crazy, that’s my child! She’s gonna go to Farmington,” or something. I don’t know.

Amazing color photograph of Grey Gardens by Frances Benjamin Johnson | 1914.

“When I first saw TV, I was ecstatic! I was up in somebody’s apartment. I was up in Eugene Vidal’s apartment, on 5th Avenue, with his wife and his brother-in-law. And they had this thing - and the brother-in-law said, “Guess what we’re going to see - we’re going to see living TV,” or something, and I said “What’s that?” I think it was as late as 1947, and I said, “What’s that?” Can you imagine? So I went in and sat down, and guess what I saw, for the first thing - a girl puffing a cigarette. And I almost went out of my mind. I said, “Are they really doing it? Are they really doing it?” You know, I’ve heard about television. And he said, “Yes, this is one of the first commercial ads.” I couldn’t figure the whole thing out - I remember I was terribly excited.

Now I don’t care for it at all, so what happened to that early enthusiasm? Will you kindly tell me? I think it was because it was an ad. I know cigarettes are terrible, and I don’t believe in advertising smoking, but that was the big thing, and that’s what they did first. I don’t like TV at all today! But I don’t like moonwalks, or spacewalks, or sky labs, or anything! Isn’t that funny?! And thirty years ago I was ecstatic about the whole thing!”

-“Little” Edie Beale 

“This is what drove East Hampton crazy. There was one vine that hung that way for three years. And they used to come in and say ‘But that vine was that way last summer!’ and then I’d say, ‘Yeah, I know it was.’ Then finally they’d come in and say, ‘But it was that way four years ago!’ And I’d say, ‘Yeah, it was!’ You know, you’re supposed to get a new husband every year, a new wife every year, a new vine every year, a new pair of shoes every year…”

As revealed by Michael Sucsy in the audio commentary for HBO’s Grey Gardens (2009), this picture of Little Edie and her father inspired the use of the grapefruit as Edie’s meal in the film’s restaurant scene.

Sucsy felt it did not only serve as an homage to this photograph, but it also depicted the control that Edie’s father, Phelan, had on his daughter, by ordering her such a light, slimming meal.