I'm just wondering how people who came to visit could even stand the smell. Or even David and Albert Maysles? How could they come into that house on a daily basis without passing out from the smell. And did these women not bathe at all since there was no running water in the house? How and where did they go to use the bathroom?
I Love....ME!!!!
i don't know how anyone could stand the smell at gg. i guess after someone was in the house for a while, they didn't notice the smell if that's possible.
there were big plumbing problems in the house, they didn't have running water on a regular basis. in the doc, little edie said she had just taken a bath at one point but i doubt that was a daily thing.
when big edie was near death she went to the hospital. before they could admit her to a room, they had to give her a bath because she smelled so bad.
i know someone who did go to gg to interview little edie. he asked to use the bathroom and she told him he'd have to go outside in the bushes!
WOW! I cannot imagine how the Maysles brothers stayed there as long as they did to make the documentary....maybe they just got immune to the smell. I do remember Little Edie saying that she was going to take a bath and I was wondering how she was going to do that with no running water in the house. Do you think maybe they caught rain water in a bucket or something? I loved both of the ladies, but they sure were a little eccentric.
I Love....ME!!!!
they didn't have running water on a regular basis
This is the thing, "on a regular basis". I think they had water most of the time, but not hot water.the same is true for heat, sometimes the furnace worked other times it didn't.Many times they had no money for fuel.
In the doc. Big Edie laughningly brags she had not had a bath in 10 yrs.
...Grace beats Karma
At one point in the doc, Lil Edie goes on about someone wanting to bring them a washing machine, what was that about? I didn't think their clothes look too oogie, but then again, nobody was wearing white. Must have been after Labor Day.
Knot2nite
"At one point in the doc, Lil Edie goes on about someone wanting to bring them a washing machine, what was that about?"
piano,
little edie said that jerry was going to bring a washer that another family was planning to give him.
who would give a 17 year old a washing machine? i think he said that to score points with big edie and it was all talk. he knew there was no water at gg.
i doubt he ever brought the washer anyway, he left gg as soon as the filming ended and wasn't seen again until 2001 driving a cab.
Jerry worked for Gerald Geddes, who lived on Lily Pond Lane near Ocean Avenue. He was selling his estate that Fall and that's how Jerry claims he had access to the used washer. In checking, Geddes did sell the property at that time. By 1973, there was running water at Grey Gardens and there is unreleased audio of the Beales discussing the washing machine as if it really exists. I have to believe Jerry on this one.
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there was running water at gg in 1973 and before that. if you recall in the doc, little edie had difficulty getting water for the fire scene. she brought out containers of water a few times but there were only a few drops of water to throw at the fire.
if water was so plentiful and she was so afraid of fire, why did she only bring out tiny amounts of water to douse the fire?
there was no water pressure at gg so all the water in the world wouldn't have helped if they couldn't be accessed.
the edies discussed many things in the doc but many of those were not even close to being true.
this is a youtube video of the fire scene, little edie and al maysles could get very little water.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQp-6mN3gl0&feature=related
Albert Maysles has said the smell in the house was overwhelming. I always wondered how the birthday guests sat and ate and drank in that kitchen or how David Maysles managed to choke down that liver pate or whatever it was Edie handed to him in Edith's bedroom. Staunch characters with even stauncher stomachs all around.
I think in '73 when the film was made they did have some running water. The washing machine the Marble Faun procured for them wouldn't have been of much use without it. Hopefully there was at least one working toilet, otherwise Little Edie must have been on chamber pot duty.
They put up with the smell because as documentary makers that is what you do, its that simple. I don't believe the mother ever bathed and little Edie probably only had water around her when she swam in the sea.
shareLitle edie tells how rigt in the film. They go to the bathroom in back of the oil painting JUST LIKETHE LITTE BLack CAT DID heh. Heh.
shareI'm not sure but I think the documentary was made after Jackie Kennedy "refurbished" the house. It still looked like a nasty pig sty; I wonder how bad it was before Kennedy intervened.
shareIf it's any consolation, you do see Little Edie down at the beach, and she supposedly loved to swim. So at least she had some regular contact with water?
You're a sexual Disneyland.share
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...There was running water! They were threatened with being thrown out because there wasn't, then Jackie O paid for the mess to be cleaned up, and for the plumbing to be fixed.
If anyone boos you off stage, that is simply applause from ghosts. ~Sharon Needles
More details here for those who can stand it: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073076/board/thread/161886163
shareYep, there was indeed water. Maybe they had water problems prior to Jacqueline's cleanup. But in the documentary--during the house fire scene, water was retrieved significantly faster than available in my own home. And I've got good pipes!
shareIf you've ever had your power turned off than you know how to get by.
Dammit Carol Sue, where is the vodka?!