… OF THE DAY

I’ve been working on this Hollywood project and it is almost finished.  I decided to take a break and do a blind drawing of Edie Sedgwick….why not…

BOOK 95: EDIE: AMERICAN GIRL – JEAN STEIN

"Edie Sedgwick was the spirit of the Sixties, and these pages capture her power to dazzle us. I have read no social history to compare with it. While it is not a novel (although it reads like one) I still will say: This is the book of the Sixties that we have been waiting for" (Norman Mailer)

"Like all American stories, Edie's is about being born in paradise and then being ejected from it... in spite of the wealth and fame and catastrophe which seem to make it singular, it is everyone's" (Peter Conrad Observer)

Film 1093: The Beales of Grey Gardens

Trivia: Early in the film there is a conversation between Little Edie and the Maysles brothers in which they speculate on who might play the two Edies in a dramatized movie version of their lives. Little Edie says she doesn't want any actress to play her. Off screen, one of the Maysles brothers suggests Ethel Barrymore for the role of Big Edie. Ethel Barrymore was the great-aunt of actress 'Drew Barrymore', who ultimately played Little Edie in the 2009 dramatized movie Grey Gardens (2009).

On This Day…

Edie Sedgwick was born on this day in 1943.

Edith Minturn "Edie" Sedgwick (April 20, 1943 – November 16, 1971) was an American actress, socialite, fashion model and heiress. She is best known for being one of Andy Warhol's superstars. Sedgwick became known as "The Girl of the Year" in 1965 after starring in several of Warhol's short films in the 1960s. She was dubbed an "It Girl", while Vogue magazine also named her a "Youthquaker".

Trivia: Came from a wealthy family in Massachussetts, but was raised on her parents' ranch outside Santa Barbara, California, and privately schooled.

On the last night of her life, Edie attended a fashion show in her home city of Santa Barbara and even managed to get herself on camera one last time when the documentary crew for "An American Family" (1973) showed up to film Lance Loud. Later that night, at a party, a palm reader grabbed her hand and was taken aback by her very short life line - to which Edie sweetly replied, "It's okay - I know."

Edie burned down her Sutton Place apartment in October of 1966 and moved into the Chelsea Hotel. She burned down at least one more room at that historic residence before management placed her in Room 105 above the lobby - and just down the hall from the same room Sid Vicious would one day allegedly kill his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen.

Dated singer/songwriter Bob Dylan before he married Sara Dylan; his songs "Just Like A Woman" and "Like A Rolling Stone" came largely from their relationship. (Andy Warhol appears in the latter song, as "Napoleon in rags.")

Spent her entire trust fund from the Sedgwick family fortune in just a few months, promoting Andy Warhol and entertaining his clients and hangers-on. This never seemed to register with Warhol, who continued to deride her as a "poor little rich girl" (also the title of one of his movies with her), and wondered out loud when she died if her husband of a few months would "get her money." (Warhol was told curtly by a friend "Edie didn't have any money. She spent it all on you.")

Edie filmed the first part of Ciao Manhattan (1972) from April to August of 1967. Filming completely fell apart when she spontaneously took off to California to eventually hang out at the infamous "Castle" with Nico and sometimes guest Jim Morrison - among others. After a brief trip to Boston to film Lulu - a short film by Richard Leacock - she returned to Manhattan essentially homeless and, by early 1968, was repeatedly institutionalized in mental hospitals.

Was a self-confessed kleptomaniac who would steal from department stores, gift shops, and occasionally from friends and family. Though later it would be mainly to support her drug habit, she would also steal small objects like silverware, pens, lighters, and figurines. According to Andy Warhol, she was also compulsive hoarder (another kleptomaniac trait) and stashed copious amounts of drugs and makeup in particular.

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Film 797: Grey Gardens

Trivia: Drew Barrymore has stated in many interviews that she stayed very close to Little Edie's character throughout filming, shutting herself off from the outside world and from friends. 

Drew Barrymore's facial skin developed some allergies because of the heavy make-up she had to wear. 

In the original Grey Gardens, David Maysles asked Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale who she would like to portray her mother Edith Bouvier Beale if a movie based on Grey Gardens were made, suggesting Ethel Barrymore, Drew Barrymore's great-aunt, despite the fact that Ethel Barrymore had been dead since 1959. 

Little Edie's black bathing suit with yellow flowers is not a reproduction. Though it actually never belonged to Miss Beale, it is a vintage piece from the same batch of suits as the one that did. It had been collected by a fan of the original documentary and lent to the film's production crew for the shoot. 

While in New York, Little Edie lives in the Barbizon Hotel, which (despite its name) was not a hotel but rather an apartment building on East 63rd Street for young single women on their own in the city. One scene shows Little Edie having to sneak Cap into her room because the Barbizon had a strict no-male-visitors-allowed policy (parents would often choose the Barbizon as a living location for their daughters for just this reason). Other real-life, later-famous women who lived at the Barbizon while starting out in New York City include Joan Crawford, Grace Kelly, Candice Bergen, and authorSylvia Plath, who had her protagonist stay in a residence much like the Barbizon in her novel 'The Bell Jar'.