Theirs was the most famous mother-daughter relationship in recent American history. But what about Phelan Beale, husband of Big Edie and father to Little Edie? Before he faded from their lives and later obtained a Mexican divorce, Beale was a concerned if somewhat distant father, not unlike many of his time and social class.
In 1929, a perceptive—and perhaps prescient—12-year old Edie wrote in her diary, “Poor handsome, hardworking, tired Dad! I always feel as if Dad was a stranger—perhaps it is because I have been with Mother so long—yet still—because he is my father I love him.” The next year Edie happily joined him for a voyage to Europe aboard the SS Mauritania.
In a 1934 letter to his wife Beale painfully explained that the family law firm was failing and he was going broke. He asked her to remain at Grey Gardens and send their sons to school in Southampton to save money while he moved into a cheap “bachelor hotel” in New York. He would borrow enough for Little Edie to finish the year at Miss Porter’s School.
According to Eva Marie Beale, editor of I Only Mark the Hours That Shine, Little Edie’s Diary—1929, (available at www.greygardenscollections.com), “He was a very responsible father in caring for his children and his wife Edith. He gave his wife every luxury as long as he was able—and she had a lovely life in the earlier years.”
Had Phelan Beale continued as a wealthy lawyer, Grey Gardens would not be legendary and Little Edie would be remembered as—in a term she used referring to Cousin Jackie—“a nice society girl.”
