I’m sort of watching Drew Barrymore and her eponymous talk show (which I enjoy) but it makes me think of Grey Gardes and big and little Edie.
I don’t have to tell you the story of the Beales. That story is well known. I find it interesting that people have such interesting reactions to it. Some embrace the camp aspect: it’s like a live action Whatever Happened to Aunt Alice except the overgrowth at Grey Gardens hides no bodies.
That we know about.
Although I am a lover of camp and hagslpoitation I prefer it knowing that Drew and Jessica (who both are scary good) I don’t find mental illness amusing.
We have to remember the world that was 1973. Never mind 1933 when big Edie married in 1973 when things were com8ng to a head that neither big nor little Edie would have had access to credit without a husband. Even as a homeowner. My mother went through the same thing when my dad died. American Express was big enough to invite my mom to apply under her own name and maybe they’d giver one.
Her answer was unprintable.
Now I am sure that these ladies were a handful. I’m sure that referring to it as a “mean, nasty, Republican town” didn’t endear her any more to the neighbors in tony East Hampton any more than the funk reaching out fr9m the decaying house on West End Road. I don’t doubt that some of them were feeling a sense of shadenfreude that the high and mighty Beales of Grey Gardens were brought low.
But it’s nuts that someone could be laid so low and so little was done to assist them. The town was more interested in just having them go away. Her cousin, Jackie Onassis became aware of the issue and paid to have the place brought up to code. Some people said it was out of embarrassment but I’m sure there was genuine affection and caring there. But these ladies didn’t fall through the cracks- they were ignored and left to their illness.
I’m glad there’s more of a social safety net now.
