Edie Sedgwick

(I hope this is the right forum for this; it seemed appropriate.)

Okay, who wants to talk about Edie Sedgwick?

What do you think of her? Her relationship with Andy Warhol? Her relationship with her father? Her contributions, if any, to the Sixties Pop scene? Who was she really?

I’m interested in your thoughts, and will happily respond with some of my own.

Thanks,
Creaky B.

Wow. Up until this minute I thought I was one of about ten people on earth that even knew who she was.

I read the book “Edie: An American Biography”, by Jean Stein, about fifteen years ago. It was extremely interesting and delved quite deeply into her life and world. I’m a huge fan of Warhol and the Factory scene, although I do admit I’m not as up on reading about that era as I used to be.

Edie Sedgwick, in my view, could have probably been one of the bigger stars, but like so many, burned that candle with an acetylene torch at both ends, thus ending a light that could have flamed forever. I love the era she more or less ignited. I just think she could have done more. But I guess that could be said of many people.

I really need to re-read the book again, and would love to know (even though I have tried to find them online) if there are any more books about her, the Factory and the Warhol era. According to this site http://www.rams.demon.co.uk/books.htm there is really only one book about her that goes into such detail.

Poor little rich girl. Yeah, but she had it all while she had it. Great, great book.

Luckily there are several good sites online to see her pictures and brief biography.

I’m still flabbergasted that someone else besides myself is into this stuff! :slight_smile:

Silky Threat, thank you for answering. Yeah, the whole Warhol Factory Thing has been of interest to me since like high school!

I read the Jean Stein’s book too, and in my opinion, it’s a great Edie resource. I don’t know of a better book about Edie Sedgwick. I love the way that the book tells Edie’s story through interviews with those who knew her.

She really was a character, wasn’t she? It’s like, you look at those pics of her in the middle of those Factory parties, surrounded by noise and people and frenzy, and you see how often very alone she was.

I think with Edie it was all about wanting to connect, but not to wanting to get too close. And about being from just this fabulous family, but always feeling like she was somehow inferior or a disappointment or something.

She was sad, for sure… but, man, did she shine when she wanted to!

I often wondered why she never became “Twiggy”, because she was way before Twiggy herself. She really should have gone into modeling. Her eyes alone would have graced (and did, actually) many a magazine cover.

You asked earlier about her father and their relationship. I don’t know about that. I asked myself a million times while reading it if he really was incestuously in love with her, or just thought she was the greatest thing since sliced bread…like most dads are. It’s obvious he doted on her. He made it known she was his favorite. I tend to think that as she got older, she (and probably others) were more cynical and “worldly” and at that point cast aspersions toward the way he adored her. Of course, I could be wrong. It would be the first time in my life, though! :wink:

Have you (or anyone else) actually seen any of her films? I have been dying to see them for ages. There are a few sites that have clips, but I reallllllly want to see “Ciao, Manhattan”, and “Poor Little Rich Girl”. I wish I could have seen them at the theatres when they were new, however.

If you’ve seen any of them, please let me know. I’d love some insight as to her real (if any) acting abilities.

You do know we’re probably going to be the only ones talking in this thread, doncha? I’m waiting on a mod any minute to say, HEY! Take it to email! :smiley:

Yeah, the thing with her dad was always a mystery to me. That family had a lot of problems, because Fuzzy Sedgwick was quite typical of men of his class and generation. Fuzzy loved himself; he loved absolute control over a self-created “kingdom”; he loved bizarre tradition; he loved women; he loved to be loved by women.

He was alternately scholarly and profoundly barbaric. He was driven by his own inadequacies, and memories of being a weakling when he was a kid. I think that’s why he came down so hard on poor Minty; because Fuzzy saw a lot of what he hated about himself in his son. (My own grandfather was a LOT like Fuzzy: gregarious, fun-loving, handsome, and very cruel.) That combination can make a man’s wife and kids both worshipful and fearful.

Regarding the movies. I have never seen any of them. Like you, I’ve only seen clips, and also like you, I am totally dying to get my hands on video copies of Kitchen, Vinyl, Poor Little Rich Girl, and of course Ciao, Manhattan!. I have looked online and so far have had no luck, but maybe I’m not looking in the right places?? Apparently Ciao, Manhattan! is really something because the first part of the movie was shot when Edie was still flying high in New York, and the last part was done shortly before she died in California. According to reveiews that I’ve read, even though the film is accused of making no sense, it’s gripping and gut-wrenching because you can really see how Edie deteriorated really quickly within the span of a few short years.

As far as Edie being the first “Twiggy”… she may have, almost, except Diana Vreeland dumped her from the Vogue gravy train supposedly because of Edie’s burgeoning reputation as a drug addict. What a shame! I often think of what could have been, too. Have you seen the photos she did for Vogue? Really great!

Bah!

Diana Vreeland. Jealous bitch. :wink:

Her (Edie’s) drug use may have been notorious, but Christ…we’re talking the sixties here. Who didn’t abuse/party with/whatever drugs? I think old bat Diana had a bee in her bonnet about Edie.

Yes, I have seen some of her Vogue shots. She was one of the most photogenic people I think I’ve ever seen. It always tickles me to no end that Andy Warhol was soooo smitten with her, given that he was totally gay. Of course, in the interviews I’ve read that he mentioned her, he always said she reminded him of a young boy. Maybe that was the attraction.

And, a slight distraction from the topic (very slight!), when I was in New York, I stayed a block away from the Chelsea Hotel where she caught her room on fire from falling asleep with a lit cigarette. I took pictures of it, simply to show my totally bored family at home that I had actually seen the place that Edie burned down. I also bored my friend to tears relating the story ad nauseum the whole time we were in New York. But for me, it was just about the highlight of my visit.

That and the multitude of pictures I took of the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis exhibit.

Yes, I live vicariously through dead folks.

If I do ever hear where we can snag the films you mentioned, I promise to let you know immediately. I especially would love to see “Ciao, Manhattan” because of her visual decline. I would think that, today, it’s probably gotten better with age.

Edie was okay I guess. But I do have a question–was there a guy named Billy Name or something like that in Warhol’s crowd, and has he come out with a book of photos from that era and place? I read about it and have always looked for the book in the photog sections of the bigger bookstores, but have yet to come across it. Just wondering if you’d run across it.

Silky Threat, I love your story about going to the Chelsea! I don’t even know where that is in the city, but maybe I can go see it someday. Do people still stay in the Chelsea? I remember that place was also where Sid Vicious stabbed Nancy Spungen. And lots of other weird things went on there as well. Yeah, I need to see that place sometime!

As far as the drug thing getting Edie kicked out of Vogue. You know, it never occurred to me that Diana Vreeland might have been jealous of Edie. Maybe she was. I suppose a lot of people were. That’s one thing I like about Patti Smith, as she tells about haveing a “crush” on Edie: she really admired Edie, but wasn’t jealous of her. I think that’s cool.

I will say that at that point in the Sixties (1963-1967),when Edie was flirting with Vogue, most young people outside of the Art Scene or outside of big cities did not do drugs… people were still mostly drinking then. It really wasn’t until the late Sixties and Early Seventies (mind you, from what I’ve read and heard; I’m a bit young for the Edie Scene), that kids from the burbs started getting into drugs. Maybe it just takes time for stuff to trickle down to the masses?? So who knows.

Anyhow, I am delighted to find another Edie fan! Same goes for me and the movies… if I come across any, or hear of any being screened in art theaters where I live, I’ll let you know. Thanks for posting!

Now, cleops, about your question about the Billy Name book. I’ve never looked for that book, and I honestly don’t remember seeing it in my travels. I’d try going on Google and seeing what you come up with. There are a ton of photographic books, as you probably know, about the Factory Scene. By the way, do either of you know whatever happened to Billy Name? I know a lot of those people either OD’d or just dropped out of sight.

My curiosity got going when you asked about Billy Name, so I hunted a little on the net and found this site
http://www.bway.net/~modcult/billyalixp1.html which seems to illustrate that he’s still alive and still very much into photography. Seems to be quite the hotshot in New Yawk.

I found another site, that I won’t list because I’m not sure if it’s even him, but let’s just say it’s a great big picture of a guy that looks like a geriatric Rumpelstiltskin.

It’s probably him, though! :slight_smile:

Yes, you can still stay at the Chelsea Hotel, creaky. I couldn’t afford it, or believe me, that’s exactly where I would have stayed. (We stayed at a place called the Chelsea Lodge, about one or two blocks from it.) From the outside, it looks rather seedy, but a lot of cool places in NY look crappy from the outside. The inside has obviously been redone, and is pretty nice. Not five-star, in my opinion, but I’d think people stay there for the reason I would have: it’s famous!

You’re correct about the part regarding drug usage in the mainstream sixties, too. But I was mainly referring to people such as Edie, Warhol, and their group. The ultra-rich, the jet-set, etc. got into the drug scene long before it became popular. Hell, these people were using cocaine like salt on french fries before mainstream America had discovered the fundamentals of marijuana! I remember thinking when I read the book that it seemed just about everybody at the Factory was so high, that no wonder they all thought Andy’s work was so great. (Which I happen to agree, and I happen to be quite sober!) Think about it, just about every page of the book mentions drug usage. Of course, Diana Vreeland came from upper echelons of society, and would publically frown upon such goings-on, regardless of her personal views.

In actuality, Edie probably couldn’t have handled the work, stress and attention of a mainstream supermodel. She didn’t last long at the underground level, as we have seen.

Silky Threat, check your e-mail! :smiley:

cool, Silky. thanks for link