A Staunch Character Indeed
Representing for the homos, we felt the need to point out this nugget of amazing trivia from Gail Sheehy's NYMag article about the remaining secrets of Grey Gardens (the Broadway musical version of this genius Maysles brothers documentary opens on Broadway tonight, btw — but if you cared, you'd already know and have tickets, we suppose). It explains why Little Edie felt the need to wear the getups that make her such a perfect Halloween costume — especially the sweater-as-turban headwraps.
Little Edie's hair had begun to fall out in her twenties; the family now ascribes it to a stress-borne illness; hence the constant head-coverings. But cousin John told me about a summer afternoon when he watched Little Edie climb a catalpa tree outside Grey Gardens. She took out a lighter. He begged her not to do it.
She set her hair ablaze. And in that act of self-immolation, she sealed her fate as a prisoner of the love of her mother.
