W:      I'll have to do it in three days too to see it too.



E:      Yeah, you and I should go together. I never did get audience reaction. You know, slipping in by myself. At uh, Lincoln Center I sat in a box all alone. And uh, that was kind of scary.



W:      Your mother's been sick now for a year or something?



E:      Yeah, she got very weak. She can't walk. I don't know what it is. She had arthritis. She had doctors. They wanted to test her and she doesn't want to be tested. She was a Christian Scientist.



W:      Why is this house and property called Grey Gardens?



E:      Oh, because it was British. Uh, the people who bought it, uh Mr. and Mrs. Robert Connor Hill.  Uh, they weren't British, but I think Mr. Hill's uncle uh, Mr. Gilman was ambassador to Great Britain and they named it Grey Gardens because there's a Grey Gardens in Britain. I don't know where it is, but this is what I've read. Oh I hope I look alright.



W:      Oh you look fine.



E:      I could smile.



J:       You wanna smile for me?



E:      Yeah.



W:      Has Jackie seen the movie?



E:      I don't think so.



W:      Have you been in touch with her? When was the last time you were in touch with her?



E:      Last fall in September. Uh, she did mention it, you know, over the phone. And I said it's not a bad movie I said. I said it's just about a girl who loved her mother and how they lived together and fought and I said it's not a bad movie at all.



W:      So you haven't been in touch with her since then, since her husband Mr. Onassis died?



E:      I wrote her when he died. She wrote back. She said how much he liked us. We met him over the phone.



W:      Were you very close with Jackie?



E:      We lost track of Jackie. You know, she married Jack Kennedy and her father died twenty years ago. 1957 her father died.



W:      Your, what would that be. Your uncle.



E:      Yeah, my uncle, yeah mother's brother. And then she was married to Jack Kennedy and uh we sort of lost track of the girls. You know Lee lived in England.



W:      Didn't you go to the Inauguration or something like that?



E:      Yeah, I did, I was invited.



W:      How was that?



E:      Very exciting. I liked Jack Kennedy.



W:      Did you? Did you know him very well?

 

E:      Yeah, I knew all his friends. He was my age. I never went out with him. He never asked me to go out with him. He took out uh, actresses, models and showgirls.



W:      Who did you go out with?



E:      I went out with his brother.



W:      His brother?



E:      His older brother went to Harvard.



W:      Which one?



LE:    Joe, the one that died. He was absolutely the most marvelous boy. Because I didn't like young men.  I had a father complex. I was crazy about my old man.



W:      But he left and you didn't see him much?



LE:    Uh, he wanted me to be a woman lawyer and we had a big fight about it. He wanted me to go up to Columbia and get a masters degree in law. You know, I had college credits and everything. But I didn't want to do it.



W:      So you went to New York?



E:      Yeah on my own, finally.



W:      You went to Farmingdale?



E:      Farmington.



W:      And then you went to New York after Farmington?



E:      Well I had to come out in society. You know make a big debut.



W:      The debutante?



E:      Yeah, they did that in those days. I mean you just did it for your family. Well, you know you invited everybody you knew and had a good orchestra but they don't bother to do it anymore. Because really, you're just doing it for the uh, friends of your family, in those days anyway. You know, you got married for your family's sake and you made a debut to meet supposedly your family's friends and their children so you could pick a proper husband. I never did.



W:      Do you regret that now?



E:      No. Because I can't, I can't regret it because I can't uh, make my own judgment on uh, who I didn't marry because they all died in the war. You know, so I can't see somebody and say well it's a good  thing I didn't marry him and it's a good thing I didn't marry him because they all died. They were all heroes.



W:      What about Tom Logan? Who was he?



E:      Oh he was a uh, a uh, Texan that Mother hired as a maintenance man. He knew how to cook and paint and do electronics. He was a former rodeo star. He had a ranch in Texas but he lost all his money.



W:      You didn't go out with him?



LE:    He was too old. He was Mother's friend. He died here.



W:      How about Eugene Diskavich?



E:      Yeah he was a friend.



W:      You liked him, didn't you?



E:      Yes, that was in the movie, how Mother got rid of him in fifteen minutes. I think she, well he did say he'd like to get married.



W:      He was a composer or something?



E:      I don't know what business Eugene went in. I think he went up to Westchester and went in the construction business. Because he asked Mother, when I introduced him to Mother, and he said uh, Mrs. Beale do you think your daughter would like Westchester? And Mother said Oh I wouldn't think of having Edith go to Westchester. There's nothing but gangsters up there, you know having heard these terrible things about Westchester. He left.



W:      So what are your brothers' names again? Bouvier and what's the other one?



E:      Phelan Beale. P-H-E-L-A-N



W:      And one's a lawyer, and the other one?



E:      Yeah and the other's out in the southwest, Oklahoma City.



W:      Phelan's the lawyer? Bouvier Beale's the lawyer?



E:      Yeah, he's the lawyer. He's had his own law firm for a long time.



W:      And do they have any children?



E:      Yeah, he has three sons.



W:      Do they ever come out here to visit you?



E:      Well he has a house in Bridgehampton in the summer so we do see a little of him, but the other boy in the southwest, he used to come here every summer, you know after the war but finally he stopped coming.



W:      Now which one do you think got the house to be raided?



E:      Oh I think they both got together on my mother. Because they thought that uh, if she didn't sell it they'd have to maintain the house for her, which they didn't want to do. And for years, they thought she should move out. I guess after they went away and got married after the war and you know, we were alone out here and I guess they couldn't figure out why she didn't sell. But she just loved it and she never wanted to sell.

 

W:      Was she angry? Was she angry at them?




E:      Well when you have children, you have to forgive them, even if they murder you. Meaning that they, you know, are murderers you have to forgive them. See I don't know all that because I never brought anybody into this world. But they tell me that mothers, um no matter how awful the children are, they like them forever because they brought them into the world.



W:      Have they seen the movie? Have your brothers seen the movie or do they know anything about it?



E:      They wouldn't go see it. They're very conservative, very straight laced.



W:      Do you feel that you're straight laced.



E:      Yes, I think I'm an old maid if you really want to know but don't tell anybody.



W:      What do you think is happening to marriage in this society today- and romance?



E:      Well you know the way I looked at marriage? It seemed very very difficult and I didn't dare get married. I didn't want to get a divorce and I just didn't dare get married. But all my friends died in the war. They went, went to war and were killed.



W:      You mean your men friends?



E:      Yeah, the ones I met at the debut, you know.



W:      How about your female friends. Did you have any close female friends.



E:      They got married, all of them. Some went to Farmington. I think, and got married. I guess they couldn't understand why I didn't. I'm the only one who didn't. I stayed three years, the graduating class, the 38 girls and they all got married and I didn't.  



W:      How do you feel about that, do you feel.



E:      Well, that was the way I was trained. My mother was interested in singing and my father wanted me to be a lawyer and go down to his office and get in with him, in his law firm. So I figure I didn't do anything wrong. That was the way they trained me. But nobody else understood it. In those days it was considered very uh, very queer if you didn't get married. You know, if you had a debut, came out in society and you didn't get married. They couldn't understand.



W:      So you went to New York, I want to get back to that, you went to New York. Where did you stay?



E:      Oh, on my own you mean, when I was trying to earn a living. I stayed at the Barbizon for women.



W:      Where's that?



E:      That's uh still there 63rd and Lexington. That's a women's hotel.



W:      And what did you do while you were in New York?



E:      Uh, I had taken the powers course down in Palm Beach but I got a job at Saks. I was the first model they ever had at Saks that was uh a society girl. I don't know what my friends thought.



W:      How long were you there?



E:      I wasn't there very long. I got very homesick. I was there about, I went down in November. I think I went back in February.



W:      I thought that you had stayed away for like five or six years.



E:      Yeah, but then I went back to New York. I had a little taste of freedom.




W:      And then what else have you done? Weren't you supposed to um audition for somebody?



E:      Yes.



W:      Do you want to tell about that.



E:      Max Gordon. He said I would be, so he sent me to the Theatre Guild.  And I was just getting up nerve to go around. I was going to do a lot of things that summer. And Mother started calling me up in March and she said you have to come home. Said I can't live here alone, I can't get along, said you have to come home. She called me for three months. She started in March. I held out April, May and June and the end of July I checked out of the Barbizon and came home. I had to obey her.



W:      And you've been here since then?



E:      Yes, there wasn't one day that I didn't want to get out of here, not one day.



W:      You haven't been on any trips or anything?



E:      Well all ___.



W:      That was the only time?



E:      No I did take a room in a hotel. For about a week, I was going to write a book. And I left Mother and I went in there and my God, I called her up and she was hysterical. And she got my brother to call me.



W:      What was the book going to be about?



E:      I was going to write the story of my life. I couldn't do it here because I have to keep my eye on the house and twenty thousand things and I'm tired at night and I can't stay up at night anyway.



W:      Have you had any offers to do a book?



E:      No, I don't like to write.



W:      The Maysles, I heard that you had an offer to do a book with the Maysles?



E:      Well they do them anyway. Well they put it down, you know, what I say in the film.



W:      Did they put out a book like that?



E:      They always do. They did for Gimme Shelter, well The Bible Salesman because they handed me the book.



W:      Did you see those films.



LE:    I saw Gimme Shelter.

 

W:      Did you like it?



E:      I was amazed, I thought it was so good.



W:      Do you ever listen to the Rolling Stones at all?



E:      Yeah, I'm crazy about them.



W:      Do you?



E:      I'm a rock dancer!



W:      Really? Oh wow, you should play some rock music.



E:      I haven't got any.



W:      You don't have any?



E:      No, I don't know how to you know, to find out.  I can dance to the Rolling Stones, because I bought Sticky Fingers and a couple of things from that band. I mean that were right for me.



W:      What other groups do you like?
LE: Well I tell you what I tried to find. I tried to find a Latin rock band. And I couldn't find one, you know out here, I didn't have any contacts. My God, then I found something had come out called Salsa... S-A-L-S-A. What is it for God's sakes tell me? There's a movie called S-A-L-S-A.  Is it Latin rock?



B:      Well you know reggae music is a type of Jamaican.



E:      Yeah but that's Calypso isn't it?



B:      Yeah, Salsa is more Caribbean and Mediterranean.



E:      My God I don't know where I fit in. I can't get out of here to find out.



B:      It's very popular dance music.



E:      How am I gonna find out?



W:      You listen to the radio don't you?



E:      I don't have much time when Mother's not well. I have to do the cooking. I have to take care of all the cats.



W:      How many cats are here?



E:      We don't have many cats but we did have some kittens.



W:      Do you like cats?



E:      I'm crazy about all animals. I like dogs.



W:      Do you still have the raccoon?



E:      Yeah. I still like raccoons.



W:      How did they get here?



E:      I don't know. They come in the woods.



W:      And you just found them here one day?



E:      I think they smell food. You know this became an animal sanctuary. Birds, and we didn't take any strays. All our cats were bred. You know, we had five kittens in the cellar and that's how it all started.  Somebody dropped them in the cellar that's how this all started.



W:      So the raccoons just appeared.



E:      Yes, I don't know how the raccoons got. So don't you think my taste is sad, I mean how am I gonna get.



W:      Who have you met since the film, anybody interesting?



E:      Yes, but you'll laugh when I tell you.



W:      No go ahead.



E:      You will roar.



W:      Who have you met?



E:      I met Andy Warhol. I think he's absolutely darling. Have you?



W:      No I haven't. I know people that work for his magazine.



E:      I think he is adorable.



W:      Where did you meet him?



E:      At his place, The Factory in Union Square yes, he took pictures.



W:      How long ago was that?



E:      Not long ago two or three weeks ago.



W:      Have you kept in touch with him since then or anything?



E:      You know, it was business, you know. He was snapping all these pictures. I don't know what for. I went there with Albert Maysles. You know the Maysles are supposed to be handling everything.  But I don't know, I think he's going to paint a picture.



W:      Oh that would be great! You'd be immortalized like Marilyn Monroe.



E:      I saw Elizabeth Taylor's that he did. Did you ever see that?



W:      Yeah.



E:      I liked it very much.



W:      So what other music, have you heard any other groups that you like? Or you just don't hear any music here.



E:      I don't, listen I'm just so busy. I tell you what I used to dance to, Spanish music. My brothers went to Mexico City for two summers and they brought me back all this Spanish stuff and that's how I began to like Spanish music.



W:      Did you ever have any formal dance training or just the desire to be a dancer.