memoraBEALEia : A Private Scrapbook about Edie Beale of Grey Gardens, a new book by Walter Newkirk, celebrates and pays tribute to Edith "Little Edie" Bouvier Beale. Miss Beale was the first cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and is best known for her participation in the famous documentary Grey Gardens (1976).
The book was specifically produced for fans of Edie Beale and the film Grey Gardens.
On April 22, 1976 college journalist Walter Newkirk traveled to Grey Gardens, the Beale estate on Long Island, to interview Edie Beale about the movie documentary Grey Gardens, for his college newspaper, The Rutgers Daily Targum.
In the 1970s, Edie Beale and her mother Edith Bouvier Beale -- the respective cousin and aunt of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis — former society ladies — were living in a cat-infested, filthy, crumbling estate called Grey Gardens in East Hampton on Long Island. The film Grey Gardens about their reclusive lives together in that house inspired a Tony Award winning Broadway musical during the 2006-2007 season by Doug Wright, Michael Korie and Scott Frankel, also called Grey Gardens, which fictionalized the back story and decline of the women.
The interview for the Rutgers newspaper was conducted shortly after the release of the film. Newkirk and Beale kept in touch for several years, by phone and by mail. After the estate was sold and her mother died, Beale moved to New York for three years (1980-1983) and the author escorted her to luncheons, parties and special events. "Little Edie" later moved to Florida, and died in January 2002.
memoraBEALEia contains never-before-seen photographs of Edie Beale and Grey Gardens, the Rutgers Targum interview along with a few other obscure newspaper clippings, reproductions of letters written by Little Edie (and cards created by her, along with art inspired by Grey Gardens. There are also essays about Edie and Grey Gardens by photojournalist/paparazzo Ron Galella, former literary agent Pat Loud (An American Family, PBS TV series, 1973) and the artist Maria Manhattan.
The documentary Grey Gardens is now available on DVD. Little Edie Live! A Visit To Grey Gardens, a 72 minute interview with Edie Beale which was the basis for the Rutgers University newspaper article in 1976, is now available on amazon.com.
A new movie about Edie Beale and her mother, also called Grey Gardens, starring Drew Barrymore as Little Edie and Jessica Lange as her mother Big Edie is scheduled for release in Fall 2008.
The book will be available for purchase on authorhouse.com, amazon.com and in bookstores nationwide. It is a collaborative effort with Walt Radomsky and Jeff Holtzman, both alumni of Rutgers University and Rutgers Daily Targum.
The website for the CD Little Edie Live! is www.greygardenscd.com The CD is only available on amazon.com.
Title:memoraBEALEia
A Private Scrapbook About Edie Beale of Grey Gardens
First Cousin To First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
Author: Walter Newkirk
Pub. Date: April 15, 2008
Price: $37.00 softcover (retail); $25.00 softcover on authorhouse.com
Pages: 92 pages with b&w/color photos, color illustrations
ISBN: 9781434374493
For review copy requests, email newkirkpr@aol.com To purchase copies, call: 888-280-7715
