Edie Sedgwick Would Be 80 Today

Edith “Edie” Sedwick (1943-1971) would be 80 years old today.

The educated class know who she is very well; most Americans have never heard of her. I hadn’t, until I began to get a little education. My ex actually wrote a theatre piece about her back in the ’80s; my current wife periodically screens her movies. On account of her, I feel like I’ve seen Ciao Manhattan (1972) about four times, and several of the early Warhol ones, like Poor Little Rich Girl, as well. Those who don’t know her likely know many songs inspired by her, including several on Bob Dylan’sBlonde on Blonde and (in a vague way) “Like a Rolling Stone”, as well as “Femme Fatale” by the Velvet Underground.

I didn’t become obsessed about her myself until I came across that book Edie by Jean Stein and George Plimpton about 20 or 25 years ago. It’s one of a handful of non-fiction books (like A Night to Remember and Helter Skelter) that I have read and re-read multiple times, the story is so well told. (I once had the mixed pleasure of speaking with Stein on the phone. Sadly, she left the earth in as spectacularly sensational a fashion as the deaths recounted in those three books I named).

The Sedgwick family roots in America go back to the earliest Colonial times. On both sides of her family, there are more distinguished ancestors than you can catalog. Her great-great-great grandfather Theodore Sedgwick (1946-1813) was U.S. Speaker of the House, Senate pro temp, and a Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Court, among other distinctions. Her maternal grandfather was president and chairman of the Southern Pacific Railroad. Her family tree is full of Minturns, Delanos, Posts, DeForests, on and on and on. Her great-aunt and namesake Edith Minturn Stokes was the subject of a famous painting by John Singer Sargent:

By Edie’s time the family (at least her branch of it) exuded a palpable whiff of the rotten and decadent. They were practically like the Addams Family. The Sedgwicks lived on a secluded ranch near Santa Barbara. Her father, known as “Fuzzy”, was a sculptor. Edie was the 7th of 8 siblings, all of whom Fuzzy tortured, controlled, and drove insane. By her own account, he molested Edie by the time she was 7. He beat the boys. Most of the kids wound up in mental institutions, committed suicide or otherwise died young as a result of reckless lifestyles. Edie had an eating disorder and was on a regimen of prescription medicines since her teenage years. She’d spent time in private hospitals for her various issues.

When she attained majority she moved to New York to pursue a career in modeling. In early 1965 she met Andy Warhol and became a key member of The Factory, appearing in about 20 of Warhol’s avant-garde films, several of them written by the influential Ronald Tavel. In one of them she played Lupe Velez! (One would have thought that a better role for Mario Montez). Edie made appearances with Warhol at his openings, and generally become an influential “It” Girl through her own original fashions, and constant photo coverage in magazines and newspapers. She was featured in Vogue, Life, Women’s Wear Daily, New York Magazine et al. She appeared with Andy on The Merv Griffin Show.

Before two years had elapsed she and Warhol drifted apart, largely as a result of her drug use and psychological problems. She lived in the Chelsea Hotel and grew close to Dylan, though accounts differ as to whether the two had a relationship. She ended up settling for his friend and road manager Bob Neuwirth. But drugs ruined this relationship as well, by early 1967. She also accidentally started a fire in her room at the Chelsea, suffering burns. Most of 1968, 1969, and 1970 were spent in mental hospitals, rehab, and at the family ranch in Santa Barbara. In 1971 she married a fellow addict she had met in rehab, and managed to shoot scenes to complete Ciao Manhattan, which had been begun in 1967. The movie is almost completely incoherent, and Edie seems like a complete wreck in it. She was only 28 years old when she passed away in her sleep from an O.D. of barbiturates mixed with alcohol.

In addition to her own films, Sedgwick has been portrayed by others, most notably by Sienna Miller in the 2006 bio-pic Factory Girl. Jennifer Rubin played her in The Doors (1991),and Michelle Williams played a fictionalization of her in I’m Not There (2007). There have been numerous other films in development about her, by the likes of Warren Beatty and Mike Nichols, though most died on the vine.

What’s the lingering fascination? I think, at least I hope, there’s something better at bottom than digging the glamor and rubbernecking at a car-wreck. Granted the spectacle is tawdry. She was never going to be Joan of Arc. But there is tragedy I think, in going from one toxic hellscape…into what seems to be salvation…but then right into what turns out to be another toxic hellscape. There were chances at redemption, moments were it seemed like she might have turned her life around. After the Factory she might have gotten clean and had a career in Hollywood. After marrying that dude, she might have found stability. Obviously, that was never in the cards, but one often follows stories, even true ones, hoping for better outcomes for the protagonist. It’s not rational, but it’s how stories work.