Edie Sedgwick

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Screenshot of Edie Sedgwick (center) from Ciao! Manhattan.
Screenshot of Edie Sedgwick (center) from Ciao! Manhattan.

Edith Minturn "Edie" Sedgwick (April 20, 1943 – November 15, 1971) was an American actress, socialite, debutante and heiress who starred in many of Andy Warhol's short films in the 1960s.

Contents

[edit] Family

Edie Sedgwick was born at the Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara, California to Francis Minturn Sedgwick (1904–1967), a sculptor, philanthropist and rancher, and Alice Delano de Forest. She was named after her father's aunt – his mother's older sister.

Edie's seventh-great grandfather, Robert Sedgwick, was the first Major General of the Massachusetts Bay Colony settling in Charlestown, Massachusetts in 1635. Edie's family, later, originated from Stockbridge, Massachusetts where her great-great-great grandfather Judge Theodore Sedgwick had settled after the American Revolution. Theodore Sedgwick was the first to plead and win a case for the freedom of a black woman, Elizabeth Freeman, under the Massachusetts Bill of Rights that declared all men to be born free and equal.[1] Sedgwick's mother was the daughter of Henry Wheeler de Forest (President of the Southern Pacific Railroad, and direct descendant of Jesse de Forest whose Dutch West India Company helped to settle New Amsterdam[2]). Jesse de Forest was also Edie's seventh-great grandfather.[3].

Her paternal grandfather was Henry Dwight Sedgwick III, historian and acclaimed author. Sedgwick's family has been long established in Massachusetts history, with members having been painted by the artist John Singer Sargent. Her great-great-great grandfather (not uncle as quoted in Factory Girl), William Ellery, was a signatory of the Declaration of Independence.[4]

She was a cousin of actress Kyra Sedgwick.

[edit] Modelling career

Sedgwick pursued a brief career in modeling, appearing in Vogue on March 15, 1966. She also appeared in the September 1965 issue of LIFE and was featured in Vogue as a youthquaker in 1965.

Although she appeared in magazines, she never became an accepted part of the fashion industry. According to senior Vogue editor Gloria Schiff: "she was identified in the gossip columns with the drug scene, and back then there was a certain apprehension about being involved in that scene... people were really terrified by it. So unless it involved very important artists or musicians, we played it cool as much as we could-drugs had done so much damage to young, creative, brilliant people that we were just anti that scene as a policy".[5] However, editor-in-chief of Vogue, Diana Vreeland, called her an exemplar of the era's youth culture.[6]

[edit] The Warhol days

In January 1965, Sedgwick met Andy Warhol at Lester Persky's apartment. She began going to The Factory regularly in March with Chuck Wein. During one of these visits, Warhol put her into Vinyl. She made a short cameo appearance in Warhol's film, Horse, when she and Ondine entered The Factory toward the end of the film.

On April 30, 1965, Warhol took both Sedgwick and Wein (as well as Gerard Malanga) with him to the opening of his exhibit at the Sonnabend Gallery in Paris. Upon returning to New York City, Warhol told his scriptwriter, Ron Tavel, that he wanted to make Sedgwick the queen of The Factory and asked him to write a script for her: "Something in a kitchen. White and clean and plastic." The result was Kitchen, with Sedgwick, Rene Ricard and Roger Trudeau. It was shot at soundman Buddy Wirtschafter's studio apartment.

Edie in 1966
Edie in 1966

After Kitchen, Wein replaced Tavel, being credited as writer and assistant director for the filming of Beauty No. 2, in which Sedgwick appeared with "Gino [Piserchio], a hunk in jockey shorts". Beauty No. 2 premiered at the Cinematheque on July 17 and her onscreen appearance was compared to Marilyn Monroe's.[citation needed] During this time she became Warhol's Girl of the Year. The pair would often dress alike, and Sedgwick frequently called herself Miss Warhol. The friendship did not last beyond 1966 when Warhol and Sedgwick made an acrimonious public split. As a result of her popularity, she was getting a lot of advice from people to leave him and become a real actress.

Warhol filmed Sedgwick for Chelsea Girls, but when she left The Factory, he edited her out of the film, ostensibly at her request. Her footage was replaced with a shot of Nico with colored lights projected on her face with Velvet Underground music in the background.

[edit] Bob Dylan and Bob Neuwirth

Following her departure from Warhol's circle, Sedgwick began living at the Chelsea Hotel, where she became close to Bob Dylan. She is rumoured to be one of the inspirations behind Dylan's seminal 1966 opus Blonde on Blonde, and the raucous stomper "Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat". It was also claimed that the phrase "your debutante" on the track "Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again" referred to her. Dylan's friends eventually convinced Sedgwick to sign up with Albert Grossman, Dylan's manager.

Their relationship ended when Sedgwick found out that Dylan had married Sara Lownds in a secret ceremony – something that she apparently found out from Warhol during an argument at the Gingerman Restaurant in February 1966.

Paul Morrissey: "She [Sedgwick] said, 'They're [Dylan's people] going to make a film and I'm supposed to star in it with Bobby [Dylan].' Suddenly it was Bobby this and Bobby that, and they realized that she had a crush on him. They thought he'd been leading her on, because just that day Andy had heard in his lawyer's office that Dylan had been secretly married for a few months - he married Sara Lowndes in November 1965... Andy couldn't resist asking, 'Did you know, Edie, that Bob Dylan has gotten married?' She was trembling. They realized that she really thought of herself as entering a relationship with Dylan, that maybe he hadn't been truthful."[7]

Several weeks before the Dec 29 2006 one-week release of the controversial film Factory Girl - described by The Village Voice review as "Edie for Dummies"[8] - The Weinstein Company and the film's producers interviewed Sedgwick's older brother, Jonathan, who asserted that she "had an abortion of the child she was (supposedly) carrying by Dylan[9]". Jonathan Sedgwick, a retired aeroplane designer, was flown in from Idaho to New York City by the distributor to meet the starlet playing his late sister, as well as give an eight-hour video interview with details about the purported liaison between Edie and Dylan, which the distributor promptly released to the newsmedia. Jonathan claims an abortion took place soon after "Edie was badly hurt in a motorcycle crash and sent to an Emergency Unit as a result of the accident, doctors consigned her to a mental hospital where she was treated for drug addiction". No hospital records or Sedgwick family records exist to support this story. Nonetheless Edie's brother also claimed "Staff found she was pregnant but, fearing the baby had been damaged by her drug use and anorexia, forced her to have the abortion[10][11]".

However according to Edie Sedgwick's personal medical records and oral life-history tape-recorded for her final film Ciao! Manhattan less than a year before her death, there is credible evidence that the only abortion she underwent in her lifetime was at age 20, in 1963. Throughout most of 1966 Sedgwick had in an intensely private yet tumultuous relationship not with Bob Dylan, but with Dylan's closest friend Bob Neuwirth. During this period, she became increasingly dependent on barbiturates. Although she experimented with illegal substances, including opiates, there is no record that Edie ever became a heroin addict or committed suicide. Neuwirth eventually parted ways with Edie Sedgwick in early 1967, unable to cope with her drug abuse and erratic behavior.

[edit] Later years

Sedgwick auditioned for Norman Mailer's play The Deer Park, but Mailer thought she "wasn't very good... She used so much of herself with every line that we knew she'd be immolated after three performances".[12]

In April 1967 she began shooting Ciao! Manhattan, an underground movie in which she starred. After initial footage was shot in New York, work on the film was continued by co-directors John Palmer and David Weisman over the course of next five years . Sedgwick's rapidly deteriorating health saw her return to her family in California and spend time in several different psychiatric institutions.

In August 1969, she was hospitalized in the psychiatric ward of Cottage Hospital after being arrested for drug offenses by the local police. While in the hospital she met another patient, Michael Post, whom she would later marry on July 24, 1971. Sedgwick was in the hospital again in the summer of 1970 but was let out under the supervision of a psychiatrist, two nurses, and the live-in care of filmmaker John Palmer and his wife Janet. Staunchly determined to finish Ciao! Manhattan and have her story told, Sedgwick recorded audio-tapes reflecting upon her life story which enabled Weisman and Palmer to incorporate her actual reality into the film's dramatic arc.

[edit] Death

When she married Michael Post in July 1971, she supposedly stopped drinking and taking pills until October when pain medication was given to her to treat a physical illness. She remained under the care of Dr. Wells who prescribed her barbiturates, but she would demand more pills or say she had lost them in order to get more, often combining them with alcohol.

On the night of November 15, 1971, Sedgwick went to a fashion show at the Santa Barbara Museum, a segment of which was filmed for the television show An American Family. After the fashion show, she attended a party and was supposedly attacked by a drunken guest who called her a heroin addict. She phoned Post, who arrived at the party and saw that she was unwell.

He eventually left the party and took her back to their apartment. Before they both fell asleep, he gave her the medication that had been prescribed for her. When he awoke the following morning at 7:30, she was dead. The coroner registered her death as "Accident/Suicide" due to a barbiturate overdose. She was 28.

She was buried in the small Oak Hill Cemetery in Ballard, California in a simple grave named "Edith Sedgwick Post - Wife Of Michael Brett Post 1943-1971". The family attended her memorial service.

[edit] In popular culture

Sedgwick has been referenced in popular music, numerous times in addition to the works of her contemporaries described above.

  • The Cult wrote a song about her life called "Edie (Ciao Baby)" which was on their Sonic Temple album released in 1989. It was released as a single and video-clip starring an Edie-Double. The cover featured the famous "Ciao! Manhattan" cover shot.
  • James Ray and the Performance wrote a song about her called "Edie Sedgwick" on the b-side of the 12" version of their first single, Mexico Sundown Blues. A remake was recorded on the James Rays Gangwar LP, Psychodalek, titled "Edie".
  • Edie Brickell & New Bohemians wrote a song about her called "Little Miss S" which was on their Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars album released in 1988.
  • The Velvet Underground song "Femme Fatale" (on the album The Velvet Underground and Nico) was written about her at Warhol's request.
  • Just as Dylan's "Just Like a Woman" and "Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat" were purportedly written about Sedgwick, some believe that the song "Like a Rolling Stone" was also inspired by her, with "Napoleon in Rags" or the "Diplomat" on his "Chrome Horse" being Andy Warhol.
  • English indie band The Long Blondes mention Edie Sedgwick in the chorus of their song Lust In the Movies.
  • Philadelphia's bard of South Street, Kenn Kweder, recorded an homage, Edie Sedgwick, on his 1995 self-titled release.
  • The alternative rock band Dramarama used a photograph of Sedgwick on their album Cinéma Vérité.
  • Justin Moyer (formerly of El Guapo / Supersystem) has a solo project called Edie Sedgwick in which he dresses in drag.
  • French singer Veronica Antico has a song called 'Edie S.' on her first album 'Les Portes du Ciel'. A pop-rock ballade written by Elizabeth Anais, about the life of Edie Sedgwick. Veronica Antico MySpace page
  • Madonna in her video "Deeper and Deeper" showed the singer as an Edie-esque character, set in the early 70s with a Warhol mentor.
  • There is a bar on College St in Toronto called Ciao Edie named after her.
  • The DIY street takeover organization, Bianfra Inc., uses a black and white photo of Sedgwick on their stickers and shirts.

[edit] In film

In the 1980s, Warren Beatty bought the rights to her life story and was planning to make a movie with Molly Ringwald starring as Sedgwick. In 1988, Vogue reported a film entitled The War at Home was set to be loosely based on her life during The Factory years. Linda Fiorentino was to portray her. It was to be based on John Byrum's fictionalized account of a working-class man who becomes enamored with her. Neither was ever produced.

Sienna Miller played Sedgwick in Factory Girl, a fictionalized film about her life and times released in December, 2006. Guy Pearce plays Andy Warhol and Hayden Christensen as Billy Quinn: an apparent conglomeration of various characters, but look-a-like of Bob Dylan. Dylan is apparently pursuing a defamation lawsuit, claiming the George Hickenlooper film implicates him as having driven Sedgwick to her ultimate demise[13] and eventual death.[14] Lou Reed condemned the film even before it was made.[15]

Although it was very brief, she was referenced in Oliver Stone's 1991 film The Doors starring Val Kilmer. During The Factory party scene when Jim Morrison meets Andy Warhol, Jim is being escorted by Andy's PR manager (Paul Williams) leading him to meet Andy. Jim wanders off, and finds a beautiful dancing girl. When she sees him, without missing a beat, she kisses him. Andy's PR sees this and says "Oh, not tonight Edie, thank you" (she is played by Jennifer Rubin) Also, when Jim is talking with Andy (Crispin Glover) he (Andy) proceeds to give him a gold telephone and says "Somebody gave me this telephone... I think it was Edie... yeah it was Edie... and she said I could talk to God with it, but uh... I don't have anything to say... so here... this is for you... now you can talk to God."

[edit] Trivia

  • Mystery Science Theater 3000 referenced her in their "Master Ninja 1" episode. Upon seeing a burning building, Joel Robinson and the robots comment: "Looks like Edie Sedgwick fell asleep again." She was also referenced in their "Warrior of the Lost World" episode. When a motorcyclist catches fire, Tom Servo says, "And now Edie Sedgwick goes on the road." Also in the "Touch of Satan" episode Mike remarks, "Man, never let Edie Sedgwick borrow your lake cabin" after a cabin bursts into flames. This pertains to an instance in October 1966 where Sedgwick fell asleep with burning cigarette in her apartment on East 63rd Street, causing a fire. She was rushed to Lenox hospital with burns on her arms, legs and back.
  • The Andy Warhol Story is considered one of Warhol's lost films that has been mentioned in a few sources, but generally unknown and unseen. Although Lupe is usually credited as Sedgwick's final Warhol film, The Andy Warhol Story is actually the last film that she made for Andy Warhol - almost a year after Lupe.
  • Warhol was often blamed for Edie Sedgwick's descent into drug addiction and mental illness. Before meeting Warhol, she had been in mental hospitals twice. She was close to Warhol for about a year, from approximately March 1965 to February 1966. Further, Warhol stated that he never once gave her any drugs and explained that her doctor prescribed her many of the drugs she became addicted to.[16]

[edit] Filmography

[edit] Bibliography

  • Victor Bockris and Gerard Malanga: Uptight - The Velvet Underground Story
  • Victor Bockris: Andy Warhol
  • Michael Opray: Andy Warhol. Film Factory
  • Jean Stein: Edie: an American Biography
  • Andy Warhol: The Philosophy of Andy Warhol
  • Melissa Painter and David Weisman: Edie: Girl on Fire Book and Film

[edit] References

  1. ^ A Sedgwick Genealogy, Descendents of Deacon Benjamin Sedgwick, New Haven Colony Historical Society, 1961
  2. ^ New York Times, article "Henry de Forest, Lawyer, dies at 82", May 28th, 1937
  3. ^ A Walloon Family in America, de Forest, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1914
  4. ^ A Sedgwick Genealogy, Descendents of Deacon Benjamin Sedgwick, New Haven Colony Historical Society, 1961
  5. ^ Stein, Jean, George Plimpton, ed. Edie: American Girl, Grove Press, 1982, page 301.
  6. ^ Stein, Jean, George Plimpton, ed. Edie: American Girl, Grove Press, 1982, page 301.
  7. ^ Stein, Jean, George Plimpton, ed. Edie: American Girl, Grove Press, 1982, page 284.
  8. ^ http://www.villagevoice.com/film/0706,lee,75716,20.html
  9. ^ http://www.nypost.com/seven/01022007/gossip/pagesix/pagesix.htm
  10. ^ http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2534786.html
  11. ^ http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2774-2540341,00.html
  12. ^ Stein, Jean, George Plimpton, ed. Edie: American Girl, Grove Press, 1982, page 314
  13. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6221163.stm
  14. ^ http://www.eog.com/news/full-article.aspx?id=14074
  15. ^ http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/384953p-326717c.html
  16. ^ http://www.warholstars.org/stars/edie.html

[edit] External links

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