The Parrish Art Museum, Maysles Documentary Center, and Hamptons International Film Festival are presenting a conversation and excerpts from the cult classic documentary, Grey Gardens (1975, Janus Films, 95 minutes), on Thursday, August 11, at 6pm. In addition, following a long-standing tradition at Grey Gardens screenings, audience members are invited to dress in costume as “Big Edie” or “Little Edie” Beale. The “Edie Parade” begins the event, followed by the screened excerpts and discussion. Panelists participating in the conversation include: Harlem historian Michael Henry Adams, Grey Gardens subject Jerry “the Marble Faun” Torre, Grey Gardens editor and producer Muffie Meyer, and Sara Maysles (daughter of Albert Maysles and co-author of the book Grey Gardens).

Produced by Albert Maysles, David Maysles, and Susan Froemke; and directed by the Maysles, Ellen Hovde, and Muffie Meyer, Grey Gardens reveals moments in time in the lives of the eccentric Beales, a mother and daughter who were related to Jacqueline Bouvier and lived in squalor in their 28-room East Hampton estate on Georgica Pond.

The film shows the day to day existence of “the Edies” in conversation, singing, and dancing in their decaying mansion overrun with cats and occasionally raccoons. In 1971, after the Suffolk County Health Department inspectors cited myriad building violations in the house, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis provided funds to have it cleaned and the violations rectified. The Maysles discovered the Beales in 1973, when they visited the house with Onassis’s sister, Lee Radziwill, who wanted the filmmakers to create a documentary about her own storied youth in East Hampton. The Maysles decided instead to focus on the Beales. The film was screened at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival, and inspired a Tony-award winning musical and a 2009 Emmy Award–winning film by the same name.

Edith Ewing Bouvier (1895 – 1977) was a socialite and amateur singer who lived and raised her children on the Upper East Side before relocating in the 1930s to Grey Gardens, where she lived with her handyman and her accompanist. Edith “Little Edie” Bouvier Beale (1917 – 2002) moved to Grey Gardens in 1952 at the urging of her mother. Erstwhile socialite, model, and cabaret performer, Edie was raised in high society, attending the Spence School and Miss Porter’s School, making her social debut at the Pierre Hotel in 1936, and gaining entry into the exclusive Maidstone Club in East Hampton.

Event details: Thursday, August 11th
5:00pm Reception and Edie (costumes) parade
6:00pm Conversation and Screening of Excerpts from Grey Gardens
$10 | Free for Members **Includes Museum admission.