Edie Sedgwick

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Edie Sedgwick

Sedgwick in 1966
Born Edith Minturn Sedgwick
April 20, 1943(1943-04-20)
Santa Barbara, California, USA
Died November 16, 1971 (aged 28)
Santa Barbara, California, USA

Edith Minturn "Edie" Sedgwick (April 20, 1943 – November 16, 1971)[1] was an American actress, socialite, and heiress who starred in several of Andy Warhol's short films in the 1960s.

Contents

[edit] Family

Edie Sedgwick was born in Santa Barbara, California to Alice Delano de Forest (1908–1988)[2] and Francis Minturn Sedgwick, (1904–1967)[3] a sculptor, philanthropist and rancher. She was named after her father's aunt, Edith Minturn (his mother's older sister), famously painted, with her husband, Isaac Newton Phelps-Stokes, by John Singer Sargent.

Sedgwick's family was long established in Massachusetts history. Edie's seventh-great grandfather, English-born Robert Sedgwick,[4] was the first Major General of the Massachusetts Bay Colony settling in Charlestown, Massachusetts in 1635.[5] Edie's family later originated from Stockbridge, Massachusetts where her great-great-great grandfather Judge Theodore Sedgwick had settled after the American Revolution. Theodore married Pamela Dwight who was the daughter of Abigail (Williams) Dwight, which means that Ephraim Williams, the founder of Williams College, was her fifth-great grandfather.[6] 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.[7] Sedgwick's mother was the daughter of Henry Wheeler de Forest (President and Chairman of the Board of the Southern Pacific Railroad, and a direct descendant of Jesse de Forest whose Dutch West India Company helped to settle New Amsterdam.)[8] Jesse de Forest was also Edie's seventh-great grandfather.[9]. Her paternal grandfather was the historian and acclaimed author Henry Dwight Sedgwick III; her great grandmother, Susanna Shaw, was the sister of Robert Gould Shaw, the American Civil War Colonel; and her great-great grandfather, Robert Bowne Minturn, was a part owner of the Flying Cloud clipper ship, and is credited with creating and promoting Central Park in New York City.[10] And her great-great-great grandfather, William Ellery, was a signatory of the United States Declaration of Independence.[7]

She was a cousin of actress Kyra Sedgwick, actor Robert Sedgwick - Kyra and Robert's father and Edie were 1st cousins.

[edit] The Factory days

Andy Warhol and Edie Sedgwick
Andy Warhol and Edie Sedgwick

In March 1965, Sedgwick met artist and avant-garde filmmaker Andy Warhol at Lester Persky's apartment. She began going to The Factory regularly in March 1965 with her friend, Chuck Wein. During one of those visits, Warhol was filming his interpretation of the novel, A Clockwork Orange, aptly titled, Vinyl. Despite Vinyl's all-male cast, Warhol put Sedgwick in the movie. She also made a small cameo appearance in another Warhol film, Horse, when she entered towards the end of the film. Although Sedgwick's appearances in both films were brief, they generated so much interest that Warhol decided to create a vehicle in which she would star.

The first of those films, Poor Little Rich Girl, was originally conceived as part of a series featuring Edie called The Poor Little Rich Girl Saga. The series was to include Poor Little Rich Girl, Restaurant, Face, and Afternoon. Filming of Poor Little Rich Girl started in March of 1965 in Sedgwick's apartment. The first reel shows Sedgwick waking up, ordering coffee and orange juice, and putting on her makeup in silence with only an Everly Brothers record playing. Due to a problem with the camera lens, the footage on the first reel is completely out of focus. The second reel consists of Sedgwick smoking cigarettes, talking on the telephone, trying on clothes, and describing how she had spent her entire inheritance in six months.

On April 30, 1965, Warhol took Sedgwick, Chuck Wein and Gerard Malanga to the opening of his exhibit at the Sonnabend Gallery in Paris. Upon returning to New York City, Warhol asked his scriptwriter, Ron Tavel, to write a script for Sedgwick. The result was Kitchen, starring Sedgwick, Rene Ricard, Roger Trudeau, Donald Lyons and Elecktrah. After Kitchen, Chuck Wein replaced Ron Tavel as writer and assistant director for the filming of Beauty No. 2, in which Sedgwick appeared with Gino Piserchio. Beauty No. 2 premiered at the Film-Makers' Cinematheque at the Astor Place Playhouse on July 17.

Although Warhol's films were not generally a commercial success and were rarely seen outside The Factory, as Sedgwick's popularity grew mainstream media outlets began reporting on her appearances in Warhol's underground films and her unusual fashion sense that consisted of black leotards, mini dresses, and large chandelier earrings. Sedgwick also cut her hair short and colored her naturally brown hair with silver spray creating a similar look to the wigs Warhol wore. Warhol christened her his "Superstar" and both were photographed together at various social outings.

Throughout 1965, Sedgwick and Warhol continued to make films together, namely, Outer and Inner Space, Prison, Lupe and Chelsea Girls. However, by late 1965, Sedgwick and Warhol's relationship had deteriorated and Sedgwick requested that Warhol no longer show any of her films. She asked that the footage she filmed for Chelsea Girls be removed. Sedgwick's footage was replaced with footage of Nico with colored lights projected on her face and The Velvet Underground music playing in the background. The edited footage of Edie in Chelsea Girls would eventually become the film Afternoon.

Lupe is often thought to be Sedgwick's last Warhol film, but Sedgwick filmed The Andy Warhol Story with Rene Ricard in 1966, almost a year after she filmed Lupe. The Andy Warhol Story was an unreleased film that was only screened once at The Factory. The film featured Sedgwick, along with Rene Ricard, satirically pretending to be Andy Warhol. It is thought to be either lost or destroyed.

[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 have been one of the inspirations behind Dylan's seminal 1966 opus Blonde on Blonde, his song "Like A Rolling Stone", 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. Sedgwick and Dylan's 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.

According to Paul Morrissey, Sedgwick had 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."[11]

Several weeks before the December 29, 2006 one-week release of the controversial film Factory Girl, described by The Village Voice review as "Edie for Dummies"[12], the Weinstein Company and the film's producers interviewed Sedgwick's older brother, Jonathan, who asserted that she had "had an abortion of the child she was (supposedly) carrying by Dylan[13]". Jonathan Sedgwick, a retired aeroplane designer, was flown in from Idaho to New York City by the distributor to meet the starlet, Sienna Miller playing his late sister, as well as to give an eight-hour video interview with details about the purported liaison between Edie and Dylan, which the distributor promptly released to the news media. 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." [14][15]

However, according to Edie Sedgwick's personal medical records and oral life-history tape recorded less than a year before her death for her final film, Ciao! Manhattan, there is credible evidence that the only abortion she underwent in her lifetime was at age 20 in 1963. Throughout most of 1966, Sedgwick was involved 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 evidence that Sedgwick ever became a heroin addict. In early 1967, Neuwirth, unable to cope with Sedgwick's drug abuse and erratic behavior, broke off their relationship.

[edit] Later years

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

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".[16]

In April 1967, Sedgwick began shooting Ciao! Manhattan, an underground movie. After initial footage was shot in New York, co-directors John Palmer and David Weisman continued working on the film over the course of the next five years. Sedgwick's rapidly deteriorating health saw her return to her family in California, spending 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, Sedgwick met another patient, Michael Brett Post, whom she would later marry. 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 Sedgwick married Post in July 1971, she reportedly stopped drinking and abusing drugs. Her sobriety lasted 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. Sedgwick often combined the medications 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. Sedgwick phoned Post, who arrived at the party and, seeing that she was disturbed by the accusations, took her back to their apartment around one in the morning. On the way home, Sedgwick expressed thoughts about the uncertainty of their marriage. Before they both fell asleep, Post gave Edie the medication that had been prescribed for her. According to Post, Sedgwick started to fall asleep very quickly, and her breathing was, "bad – it sounded like there was a big hole in her lungs," but he attributed that to Edie's heavy smoking habit and went to sleep.

When Post awoke the following morning, Edie was dead. The coroner ruled Sedgwick's death as "undetermined/accident/suicide". The time of death was estimated to be 9:20 A.M. The death certificate claims the immediate cause was "probable acute barbiturate intoxication" due to ethanol intoxication. Sedgwick's alcohol level was registered at 0.17% and her barbiturate level was 0.48mg%. She was 28.

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

[edit] In popular culture

[edit] In music

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".
  • Furious Apples, an English Indie band from Coventry (active 1981-1985), wrote a song about Sedgwick called "Girl on Fire", which was released on the 1985 compilation album "Something Stirs". The group also recorded an unreleased of the track which featured a backdrop of Warhol style screenprints of Sedgwick.
  • 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) sung by Nico is an ode to Edie.
  • Just as Dylan's "Just Like a Woman" and "Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat" were purportedly written about Sedgwick, there are supposedly many references to Edie throughout Dylan's 1966 album "Blonde On Blonde" including references in the songs "Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I'll Go Mine)" and "Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again." 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.[citation needed] She and Dylan had a (purportedly non-sexual) relationship prior to his marriage in 1965, the same year the song was recorded.
  • 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. On that album, the song "All I Want" makes a reference to Edith Sedgwick Post. Dramarama also recorded a version of The Velvet Underground's "Femme Fatale" on their first "Cinema Verite" and their debut EP Comedy.
  • Justin Moyer (formerly of El Guapo/Supersystem) has a solo project called "Edie Sedgwick" in which he dresses in drag.[17]
  • Chicago electronic duo Microfilm mention Edie in the lyric: "Edie Sedgwick/in my Warhols" of their track (Am I Ever Gonna Fall Apart in) NYC?, a b-side to their debut single Young Adult Fiction.[18]
  • British singer Will Young's music video for the remake of The Doors song "Light My Fire" features model Fanni Bostrom as Sedgwick. The video is loosely based on Edie's last film Ciao! Manhattan.
  • French singer and dancer Alizée Jacotey is releasing a song called "Fifty-Sixty", which centers around the relationship of Edie and Andy Warhol.
  • Lloyd Cole and the Commotions included a song about Edie Sedgwick called "Grace" on their 1985 Easy Pieces album.
  • The Dream Academy dedicated the song "Girl In A Million" to Edie Sedgwick on their Three Steps Past the Edge of Forever (1997) release.
  • London based artist and musician Peter Glam's EP "The Journey" was inspired by Edie's downfall, and her trademark makeup is referenced during his live performances.
  • Madonna plays a character inspired by Edie in the video for her 1992 single Deeper and Deeper.

[edit] In movies

  • In the 1980s, according to an 1985 Interview magazine article, featuring Molly Ringwald, claims Warren Beatty bought the rights to Edie's life story and was planning to make a movie with Ringwald starring as Sedgwick. and in a 1988 Vogue article it was 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. The film portrays Warhol as a cynic who leads Edie to psychiatric problems and later death. He is played by Guy Pearce and Hayden Christensen plays Billy Quinn: an apparent conglomeration of various characters, but a 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 and eventual death. Michael Post, Sedgwicks's widower, appears as a taxi driver in one of the last scenes of the film.[20]

[edit] In television

  • Mystery Science Theater 3000 referenced Sedgwick 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 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." In the "Touch of Satan" episode, Mike remarks, "Man, never let Edie Sedgwick borrow your lake cabin" after a cabin bursts into flames. All of these pertain to an instance in October 1966 where Sedgwick fell asleep with a burning cigarette in her apartment on East 63rd Street, causing a fire. She was rushed to Lenox Hill Hospital with burns on her arms, legs, and back.

[edit] Other

  • There is a bar on College Street in Toronto called "Ciao Edie", named after Sedgwick.
  • The protagonist of British writer Sarra Manning's trilogy Diary of a Crush (also serialized in J-17 magazine), Edie (Edith Wheeler), is named for Edie Sedgwick. The object of her crush, Dylan, is named for Bob Dylan.

[edit] Filmography

  • Horse (non-speaking role, 1965)
  • Vinyl (non-speaking role, 1965)
  • Bitch (1965)
  • Screen Test No.1 (1965)
  • Screen Test No.2 (1965)
  • Poor Little Rich Girl (1965)
  • Face (1965)
  • Restaurant (1965)
  • Kitchen (1965)
  • Afternoon (1965)
  • Beauty No. 1 (1965)
  • Beauty No. 2 (1965)
  • Space (1965)
  • Factory Diaries (1965)
  • Outer and Inner Space (1965)
  • Prison aka Girls In Prison (1965)
  • Lupe (1966)
  • The Andy Warhol Story (1966)
  • **** aka The Four Star Movie (1966/67)
  • Diaries, Notes and Sketches (1970)
  • Ciao! Manhattan (1972)

[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
  • Steven Watson: Factory Made: Warhol And the Sixties

[edit] References

  1. ^ SEDGWICK.ORG - Edith Sedgwick (1943–1971)
  2. ^ COSMIC BASEBALL ASSOCIATION Season 2004 Cosmic Player Plate
  3. ^ Maiwandwal.com the Official Website of Hashim Maiwandwal - Afghanistan
  4. ^ CHS Sedgwick Family
  5. ^ SEDGWICK.ORG - Major General Robert Sedgwick (1613–1656)
  6. ^ In My Blood, Six Generations of Madnesss & Desire in an American Family, by John Sedgwick, HarperCollins Publishers, New York, 2007
  7. ^ a b A Sedgwick Genealogy, Descendants of Deacon Benjamin Sedgwick, New Haven Colony Historical Society, 1961
  8. ^ New York Times, article "Henry de Forest, Lawyer, dies at 82", May 28th, 1937
  9. ^ A Walloon Family in America, de Forest, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1914
  10. ^ CentralParkHistory.com<!Bot generated title-->
  11. ^ Stein, Jean, George Plimpton, ed. Edie: American Girl, Grove Press, 1982, page 284.
  12. ^ village voice > film > Factory Girl: Queen of the Factory Gets a Dull Biopic by Nathan Lee
  13. ^ 'My Sister Edie Loved Dylan' - New York Post
  14. ^ Warhol Muse 'lost baby by Dylan' - Sunday Times - Times Online
  15. ^ Gone in 15 minutes - Sunday Times - Times Online
  16. ^ Stein, Jean, George Plimpton, ed. Edie: American Girl, Grove Press, 1982, page 314
  17. ^ Justin Moyer's "Edie Sedgwick" project
  18. ^ MicrofilmMusic.com
  19. ^ A Fantasy You Can Bring Home to Mother - TIME
  20. ^ BBC NEWS | Entertainment |Miller denies Dylan 'defamation'

[edit] External links


Persondata
NAME Sedgwick, Edie
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sedgwick, Edith Minturn
SHORT DESCRIPTION Socialite, actress
DATE OF BIRTH April 20, 1943
PLACE OF BIRTH Santa Barbara, California, USA
DATE OF DEATH November 16, 1971
PLACE OF DEATH Santa Barbara, California, USA
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edie_Sedgwick"
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