Wednesday 15 June 2011

Do you like cats? - 2

Last night, I watched 'Grey Gardens' for the second time in about 30 years - this time from a DVD that H.I. had borrowed from a friend.

As I'm sure you already know, it is a documentary on the eccentric life of the aunt and cousin of Jackie Onassis, who lived in an unbelievably squalid and run-down mansion in East Hampton, USA, and was made in 1975 by Albert and David Maysles.

Edie Beale and her mother were the US equivalent of royal family, and Edie was born at a time when the 'Deb' system was still running, though she never married any of the (two) rich suitors who are constantly mentioned throughout the film, and spent the last years of her life 'looking after' her ancient mother, who was the one with the remaining money. They were both - in their time - great socialite beauties, but by 1975, they lived in Grey Gardens surrounded by cats on the lower floors and raccoons in the attic.

Both the cats and the raccoons ate better than either of the women, and the raccoons had made holes in walls and ceilings, the better to steal the cat food, which was laid out indiscriminately around the house, including the bed in which old Mrs Beale spent most of her waking and sleeping hours. They need not have bothered, I think, because Edie went up to the attic every night and left a great pile of food for them, straight onto the floor below the roof where they lived.

Before this documentary was made, the local Health Department let themselves into the house with fire-hoses and washed the entire lower floor by force, but by the time the Maysles came to make the film, the smell of cat and raccoon urine was too strong for them to stay in the library, so they lodged in a nearby hotel.

It put me in mind of 1960s and 70s mother and daughter domestic set-ups that I had experienced as a young man, and made me realise that this particular combination of women and cats in a run-down house was not peculiar to Britain as I had previously thought.

The Beales had a regular visitor of a young man in his early 20s who just sort of hung around and did the odd job or errand, with a piece of corn-cob as payment - cooked in an open pan of boiling water on a Primus stove by the old woman whilst still in bed. It reminded me that there have been times in my early life when I too hung around eccentric mothers and daughters like this - usually for the sake of a place to stay without rent - and I have tried to recall whether or not I found the situation unusual or eccentric at the time. I think I just found it interesting, and try as I might - I could never actually put myself into their heads, which was probably just as well.

In the extras that followed the main feature on the DVD, there is some footage of the young man as he is today, walking around Grey Gardens and pointing out the recognisable features of the house from the outside. The house itself is now immaculate, and the jungle that used to be where the garden is now, has been cleared and re-planted into something more suitable to a multi-million dollar mansion. There are some clips of Edie leaning over the balcony of the place and looking down into the impenetrable and thorny foliage below, with the sea in the distance over the top of the Budlia and brambles. She bemoans the fact that her favourite scarf flew off her head once, and down to disappear in the jungle below. 'Once it is in there', she says, 'it is never found again'. Curiously, the Beales did employ a gardener, who can be seen wandering in and out of the undergrowth throughout the film, but what he actually did for his money is anyone's guess.

The young man - now in his late 50s and a taxi driver in NYC - sheds a tear when he remembers the 4 years that he spent in the house, and reminds us that old Mrs Beale actually loved him.

The one thing that really seems to impress itself upon him more than any other during his visit was how quickly time passes and how soon he will have passed himself, like Edie Beale and her mother.

19 comments:

  1. I think (the last I heard) that Edie lives in Miami.

    The movie version gave more background of the two with flash backs to their early days.

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  2. I don't know what is stranger, old women & cats or you hanging round mothers AND daughters.....ooer! xxxxxxxxxx

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  3. I didn't know Edie was still alive, Grouch. She must be pretty old if she is - she was 56 in 1975. I've never seen the movie version.

    I never shagged any of them, Tracey - including the cats.

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  4. I just googled her. She died in 2002. Drew Barrymore played Edie in the movie. She did her very well,I thought

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  5. Is it obligatory (in the USA) to end your life in Miami?

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  6. Up until recently, it was obligatory for Brits to end their life in Bournemouth, Cro.

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  7. The film of the odd couple is an interesting one and well worth a view....
    Their story, their banter and their co dependence is a moving one....

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  8. I'd love to see that movie. There are mother, daughter, cat stories in Australia too. One mob were recently evicted by the health dept from their own property after they'd moved out of the mansion, leaving it to the cats, and lived in tarpaulin 'tents' in the front yard.

    You know that story about how cats exude an irristable scent to prospective owners or prey? Sometimes I wonder if these cat people are under intoxicated by this scent.

    Cats have been a huge problem to our native wildlife. Everyone knows it and yet cat owners are traditionally blind to their sweet moggie's murderous rampages. If their dog killed a bandicoot or a possum, after torturing it on the living room floor for an hour or so, questions would be asked about that dog's future. Not so for cats.

    That said, I kind of respect the rights of people who take the 'living with cats thing' to extremes in their own place.

    nb. My Mum's English life ended in Bournemouth, as a ten pound migrant to Australia, after the war.

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  9. intoxicated ... not under intoxicated. Sorry.

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  10. Just watched the vid. Far out, she's good!

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  11. I think John has hit the nail on the head Tom when he speaks of co dependence. Often people who live like this are so needy and just happen to have found kindred spirits.

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  12. Surely, it's the bloody STINK. Eccentric or not, was the woman totally anosmic?

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  13. Ha! i KNEW you couldn't resist a critique, John!

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  14. I am suffering withdrawls from seeing a good film!!!
    just seen a brilliant one...review later!

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  15. I've seen both the film and the documentary and they were equally disturbing and fascinating. Slightly made my flesh creep.

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  16. Jerry Torre is the young man (you can get t-shirts that say "Jerry likes my corn") that lived with the Beales, christened by little Edie "The Marble Faun" He's now a sculptor & can be found on Facebook & also has a website...

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  17. That's interesting, Julie. I'll look him up.

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