The Unraveling Lives of the Rich and Famous

Nov. 14, 2006 — -- Audiences are perpetually fascinated by stories about the glamorous lives of the real-life rich.

When over-the-top affluence fails to cushion an individual from a descent into madness, the resulting tales often prove even more compelling.

"Grey Gardens," the new musical transfer from off-Broadway currently in residence at Broadway's Walter Kerr Theatre, is a prime example of the always-intriguing rich-but-crazy biographical genre.

In 1975, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis' sister, Lee Radziwill, invited documentary filmmakers Albert and David Maysles to create a movie about Radziwill and her family, the aristocratic, high-society Bouvier clan.

The Maysles brothers' research eventually led them to Jackie and Lee's eccentric aunt and first cousin, 81-year-old Edith Bouvier Beale ("Big Edie") and Edith's 58-year-old daughter, "Little Edie."

In their heyday, Edith and Little Edie reigned as fashionable and elegant society beauties.

But then was not now, and when the Maysleses encountered them, the mother and daughter, their 58 cats, and an occasional raccoon visitor were living in squalor in the Bouvier family beach house, a decaying, 28-room mansion known as Grey Gardens in East Hampton, Long Island.

Reflecting the madness of its inhabitants, the house was littered with five-foot-high mounds of garbage, running water flowed only from the faucets in the kitchen sink, and the toilets had ceased to function, leading Edith and Little Edie to use a bedroom as a latrine.

One thousand large bags of garbage would eventually be extracted from the premises.

Grey Gardens also had a severe flea infestation, forcing the Maysles brothers to wear flea collars around their ankles during filming.

Seemingly oblivious to the wretched living conditions and longing for show-business careers, Edith and Little Edie proved more than ready for their close-up.

While Edith trilled romantic songs of yesteryear in a slightly wobbly, but still rich voice; boiled corn for everyone on a Sterno stove on her bed; and berated her daughter for a variety of transgressions, Little Edie gleefully modeled her distinctive wardrobe, featuring black fishnet stockings, high heels, daringly short skirts, and turbans fashioned from towels, sweaters and old drapes.

Little Edie also performed her "famous" Virginia Military Institute dance.