Edith Bouvier Beale Biography

Performer, documentary film subject. Born Edith Bouvier Beale on November 17, 1917, in New York City, as the eldest of Phelan and Edith Ewing Beale's three children. A first cousin to Jacqueline (Bouvier) Kennedy Onassis,  "Little Edie", as she was known, knew only affluence. The Bouviers earned their fortunes on Wall Street and in law, paving the way for a lifestyle that allowed Little Edie and her two brothers to have a childhood that bounced between Manhattan and the Hamptons. In the early 1920s, Edie's father moved the family into a new summer home called Grey Gardens, a spectacular 28-room mansion with water views.

Like her mother, a creative type who harbored dreams of becoming a singer, Edie Beale had artistic yearnings. At the age of nine a poem of hers was published in a local New York magazine, spawning a desire to become a writer. Yet her real love, despite her father's deep objections, was for the stage—something that was almost certainly fueled by her relationship with her mother.

At the age of 11, Edie Beale was taken out of school for two years by Big Edie for what was described as a respiratory illness. Instead of class work, Little Edie tagged along to the movies or the theater with her mother nearly everyday.

Blonde, blue-eyed, and tall, Edie Beale was a beauty, "surpassing even the dark charm of Jacqueline," recalled her cousin, John H. Davis. In 1934, the same year she attended Miss Porter's finishing school in Farmington, Connecticut, Edie Beale modeled for Macy's. Two years later, her debutante party in New York City was covered by The New York Times. She participated in fashion shows in East Hampton, too, and by her early 20s Edie Beale had earned the nickname, "Body Beautiful." She dated Howard Hughes, and reportedly turned down marriage proposals from John Kennedy's oldest brother, Joe Jr., and millionaire J. Paul Getty.

As a young adult, Edie Beale took up residence at the Barbizon Hotel in New York City, a residential hotel that catered to women who wanted to be actresses or models. As Edie Beale would later tell it, it was a time of opportunity for her. There was more modeling work to pursue and within time, Edie said, movie offers from MGM and Paramount studios.

The limelight, though, would have to wait. By the mid 1930s, Phelan Beale had left Edie's mother for a younger woman. The couple's eventual divorce gave Big Edie Grey Gardens, some child support, and not much else. To keep the household going, Edie Ewing Beale leaned on her father for financial assistance and sold family heirlooms.

On her own, without a husband to try and drag her to the Hampton cocktail parties she had no interest in attending in the first place, Big Edie's singing aspirations only strengthened. She frequented clubs, and even recorded a few songs. In 1942 she showed up late to her son's wedding, dressed as an opera singer. Her father, "Major" John Vernou Bouvier, Jr. was appalled and soon cut her out of his will.