Published in 2007
220 pages
Lois Wright (1928 – 2023) was an American artist, author, and television personality. She was best known for her appearance in the 1975 independent documentary film Grey Gardens by Albert and David Maysles.
What is this book about?
Lois Wright was a lifelong friend of both ‘Big Edie’ Bouvier Beale and ‘Little Edie’, and she went along for the ride when the Beales were immortalized in the 1976 cinema verite documentary Grey Gardens. Most fans of the film (if they know her at all) think of Lois as the silent party guest who gave Big Edie a little index card box. Although her role in the documentary was minimized because it complicated the Maysles’ vision of the documentary, Lois played an important role in the Beales’ lives, including the little-known fact that she actually lived in the house.
Edith Bouvier Beale and her daughter Edie, known as Big Edie and Little Edie, were the aunt and cousin of former U.S. First Lady Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis. They led an unconventional existence in Grey Gardens, a mansion in East Hampton. Their home was surrounded by overgrown gardens, and filled with fleas, cats, raccoons, and old cans and rubbish. In 1976, the release of a documentary film also called Grey Gardens highlighted their unique lives among the East Hampton elite, and introduced the Beales to their cult fan following. In 1975, Lois Wright, a fellow artist and dear friend of the Beales, was invited to live with them in Grey Gardens. Wright kept a journal of her thirteen months with the Beales, and using those logs, has developed this book. My Life at Grey Gardens offers the reader an intimate look at the daily lives of the Beales, and chronicles the events from Lois’s arrival at the house through the passing of Big Edith Bouvier Beale in 1977.
