Welcome Friends
Bedside with Mrs. Beale and Edie
I’d like to welcome you all to my new site, I hope you enjoy your visits. I have always toyed with the idea of putting up a site like this with which to present myself and my work. I’ve decided the timing is right now for this site as there are many new developments in my life that I feel like sharing with others.
Sometimes I look back at my life and can hardly believe some of the experiences I’ve had. I have seen many countries, met and worked along side some incredibly colorful individuals and I feel blessed to still be in touch with many of them. The friendship of others was often times the only thing that got me through the toughest trials of my life. I’ve experienced as many vibrant highs as I have crushing lows, somewhere in the middle I stubbornly cleared myself a path.
I feel as though the time is right to add yet another new chapter to this incredible story of mine. This time you’re invited to come along and have a look over my shoulder. I promise I’ll tell you some wild tales and maybe, just maybe, there will be a lesson to be learned from all of it.
I invite you to subscribe to this blog, this way you’ll be notified each time I make a new post. I plan to enrich this site in many ways and I would love to hear your opinions on it. Feel free to comment on my posts and be on the lookout for some new material soon!
Regards,,, Jerry Torre, The Marble Faun
~~Prospect~~
Hello Jerry,
Glad to have found your site. I like you sculptures.
I had emailed you direct about a piece I wanted your thoughts on.
I’m wondering if you received it or not.
If you got my email I’d like to know what you think.
I’ll keep checking this site also.
Pat
LI,NY
Hello again Jerry. I have watched Grey Gardens so many times I cannot number them. I am interested in the complex dynamics of the two Edies’ relationship. I have often wondered why young Edie wore a wedding band on her left hand. Do you know the answer to that? When do you think your book will be ready? I really like this website, it is nice to have someone to discuss the Beales with who actually knew them. Thanks so much dear. Melody
Dear Jerry, I saw some scenes on youtube that were not in the original documentary. Where did those come from? Also may I ask, Did Edie go to her mothers funeral? I ask because there was a post I saw that said you,Jackies sister,and Lois were there but it didn’t mention her. Also did you ever visit Edie after her mother died?
Dearest Melody, fellow Grey Gardeners!
Yes Edie attended Mrs.Beales funeral.
Some time after ; I had seen Edie at the Pierre Hotel in New York City.
Edie was the boldest I have ever known her to be,wearing a golden snake jewelry a wrap around her head.
The footage you have seen may have been filmed after the origianl footage was made?
Ive nearly completed a book in which my experiences at Mrs.Beales mansion takes the reader in a room ,day by day account of the legacy of this magical time in my life.
thank you my dear friends, yours,,Jerry
Oh Dear Jerry thank you for writing the book you spoke of!!
I cannot wait to order and read it.
I can completely understand how you could love Mrs. bouvier beales. She was so kind to you. I got the impression that she was a good soul.
In one of the scenes I saw on youtube,little Edie spoke of you with affection. So I think those scenes probably were shot after the original as it seemed that she had known you longer. But that is just my impression. You were so cute in the scenes where big Edie was praising you in one youtube moment. She was right, you were handsome, but you were shy when she would express that. Thanks again “darling Jerry” for this site. I grew to love you all of Grey Gardens. Melody
Jerry, do you plan on including any of your adventures in the Middle East in this book, or are you saving those for another book?
I think they would be interesting but might take away from the Grey Gardens theme of the book.
Sean
Sean my dear friend,
This book is going to taake the reader on m a jouney through my past at Grey Gardens. It is very important that the reaader feel , see, through my words what I had lived.
It begins at Mr.Geddes estate and the first day when I finished my chores and rode down one narrow road.
Im at the point now where we three kindred spirits are living with under the same roof.How I loved the sound of closing the great front door, and throwing the latch to the outside world.
Wonderful! You know you had a tremendous life lasting experience in your youth, and it is a very compelling story! I mean every one has heard your story from LITTLE EDIES lips in the film, NOW you can tell your story AND their story through YOUR lips with your perspective.
I think if it does well you SHOULD think about a follow up book, You could describe your life AFTER GG and how it comes full circle in the Twenty First Century as you reconnect with Al Maysles, and the Play and all the fans OF the Beales on various groups! I mean you could even throw in the oddness and bizarreness OF some of those folks as well as the deeply irrational reactions of what I like to call “The Montauk Monster” I am thrilled for you Bro! We really will have to get together for lunch or dinner sometime! You know Ted was always someone I enjoyed reading on the net but never really wrote to, don’t know why, but lately I have really come to like the guy! (Not that I DIDN’T before, but just had no real back and forth there) Hope you all are enjoying the end of summer and beginning of Fall in beautiful New York City! It seems like fall here today, a nice crisp bright fall day! Love it!
Sean
Sean my dear friend,
This book is going to taake the reader on m a jouney through my past at Grey Gardens.
It is very important that the reaader feel , see, through my words what I had lived.
It begins at Mr.Geddes estate and the first day when I finished my chores and rode down one narrow road.
Im at the point now where we three kindred spirits are living with under the same roof.How I loved the sound of closing the great front door, and throwing the latch to the outside world.
Hi Jerry! I recently saw “Grey Gardens” and “The Beales of Grey Gardens” and then stumbled across your site. It’s great to know that you have had such an interesting life and are now following your dream of being a sculptor. I pass the Art Students League quite often while in NYC and have often wondered what (if anything) still goes on in there, so good to see you’re getting on with your work there. Take care and Best of Luck with all your current endeavors.
Mary
Greetings Mary, The Art Students League will reopen for fall semester this 1st week of September. Im returning to full time stone carving class. Ive aactually a new rich stone ,, rich with hues and waiting to be freed.
Yes I have taken my life formulated some upbeat ideas,and how to carve subjects in stone. Our Christmas show is in December,please keep an eye out for the week of its exhibition. I may have up to two 2 stones displayed. Im honored to hear from you aand appreciate the time you have taaken in your message. Once again keep an eye out for upcoming exhibitions.
Plese do send my warmest regards to all those whom you hold dear,,your friend,Jerry
Dear Jerry,wishing you a very Blessed Christmas and Best Wishes for the New Year.Thank you for all your great work on your website and the pictures.You’re really becoming a very good sculptor and I love how you are going back in time,the ruins and columns.I hope you have a lovely Holiday and I think of Mrs.Beale and Edie too.Take care,Pattie
Hey Jerry I know I may never hear back from you but I have watched Grey Gardens twice now plus the movie with Drew Barrymore which I must say she did a great job as lil Edie but I wonder did you stay friends with lil Edie as she grew older and after her mother died did she ever have any kind of life? Is there ant memorbilia like orginal pics or anything left of the Beale women? Thank you.
Good Sunday morning Cathy M Parker!
Edie lived at the mansion for appx :2 years after Mrs.Beale passed away, we had not been in contact since this time ..you see Edie had chosen to stay in the mansion waiting for the house to be sold.
It was of course sold and has been renovated beautifully.
Edie did live in several locations one being Montreal,some residences in Florida.,and Manhattan.
There are familys members who have comprised a collection of items from the estate,
Grey Gardens hardcover book available here on my website.
This perticular book is a delightful account with a DVD included of our lives at Grey Gardens.
Please feel free to post your thoughts my friend,you see I have been intrigued by Grey Gardens from the first glance of the overgrown property, so many years ago.
yours
Jerry
The Marble Faun
Dear Jerry,I have been thinking lately that I find Mrs. Beale and Edie’s and your life to be a wonderful kind of art and music, clothes and food, animals and beach life where they seem to be quite happy and content and creative.Did it seem like that to you?Pattie
Jerry.. No matter what anyone says, a blind person could see that you adored those awesome ladies! I’m sure if their molecules are are out there somewhere that they are smiling. You’re Absolutely Terrific!!!!!!!!
Hi Jerry,
I am so happy when I came across your website today. We watched the Grey Gardens documentary (1979) this week in our English class and we will have an in-class essay exam on it on Thursday. In preparation for the exam, we are tasked to describe the characters: Big Edie, Little Edie, & Jerry. It’s easy to describe the Beales’ but I’m kind of worried about doing a description about. Is possible for you to describe yourself to me? How you came across the Grey Gardens? Why you like staying there? Do you really have eyes for Little Edie when you were staying there? Pardon me for asking these questions but your answers will help me understand more your presence in the mansion. Thank you so much and more power to you and your stone carving…
Hello Johna!
I was a runaway, I left an abusive home finished High School on my own, then sought employment as an assiatant gardener on Mr. Gerald Geddes Estate just a short distance from Grey Gardens.At first the very setting drew me in and I was completly drawn in by the over grown mansion. The very setting was so interesting that after days of riding past the mansion finally mustered up the courage to tresspass onto the front porch.Grey Gardens was much more shortly to me after the initial visit, here within the mansion was Mrs.Beale. Yes I was completly curious about everything Grey Gardens one might say I was the first fan of Grey Gardens. My interest was out weighed by my very concern for the safety of Mrs.Beale & her daughter Edie seeing the very dangerous conditions in which they lived.
Grey Gardens was my refuge from a cruel world.
Compassion was and is my strenght,it is what has driven me all my life ., enriched my life, and is my calling.
I did not have `
eyes` for Edie , I have been & still am attracted to men.
If I can be of any help to you, please let me know.
yours
Jerry
The Marble Faun
one more quick comment…
I just noticed it’s the 25th of January…
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JERRY!!!!!
Best wishes to you and yours, I hope you have something “special” planned for today!
Jerry…Mr. Torre…I’ve been looking over your website for about an hour now (and I really should get back to work!) but I have to say – I’m almost ashamed for not realizing LONG AGO that your own site was the most obvious, logical, and necessary way to go! AND YOU HAVE DONE A PERFECT JOB WITH THIS WEBSITE, TOO!!!
You’ll probably say something like: “The website happened when the time was right for it to happen” – and who could ever argue with that? But I still just want to say – GOOD JOB!!!
Jerry, I love reading about you and have for a few years now but I have a feeling in my heart that you would not be a fulfilled man if not for your experience with the Beales. I think you (like myself) grew up in a family with boundaries. The Beales taught you there are no limits. You have realized your talents because they taught you to believe in yourself. Thanks for sharing!!!!
Diana
Please know Diana,
There was no refuge on earth yet I had found Mrs.Beales Grey Gardens.
Long into the night I had the privlidge to be in the company of such a tender huamn being,oh the verse Mrs.Beale would recite to me,the virtues I had been taught.
Here in the madness of the outside world was our refuge, the winds of my life were inevitably and had to lead me to Grey Gardens.
One night at Mrs.Beales I had a vision that had changed my life, a vision to keep the promise I had been asked to keep.
It is without a doubt that my life could never have taken a better course , a miracle called friendship., brotherly love.
These virtues taught to a ragamuffin Marble Faun by a kindred spirit were and have been my reponsibility for and will be for my entire life.
Please know it fills my heart to be alive this night., and please except this `token` of my friendship!
most respectfully yours,
Jerry
Jerry,
Its so wonderful to see your work. What an inspiration my favorite piece is the Howling Dog. Your life sounds so interesting, and look forward to reading your blogs. My son is such an art fan, and as a student he’s like a sponge. I am sure to show my husband and son your wonderful pieces on your site.
My dearest Donna
Allow your son to venture into his own , art is for mans sake.
It is my belief that our soul soars when we create art.
The Howling Dog is very determined to pronounce his being. His song is ageless, it is from nature,we are all from nature.
It brings my heart life to be here with and share this life with you.
May I thank you for your time .
most respectfully yours,
please send my fondest regards to your `son, your entire family!OK
Jerry
How apropos that the Marble Faun would eventually come to coax creatures, fanciful forms (and more as we’ll see) from stone. Your creative side appeared and could not be denied. They are wonderful, Jerry- lots of life and movement in the lines. And how you’ve really embraced technology as well: wonderful that you are sharing with us.
If I may share…
The turning point and time that I came back to my creativity (that would not be denied after all) was during a weekend in NYC, seeing Grey Gardens the musical and meeting YOU, Jerry. A magical weekend. A very grand tour!!
(Also an unfortunate trip from a very high curb for my hubby Joe who sends his regards!)
It was a weekend that among other things found me at one point telling a street vendor selling his work that I bought a handmade necklace from that I made jewelry for many years. He said “you should again”. And -whoa- right then the stars aligned or something and I decided that to feel fulfilled, I should create again. So I did. I felt Edie had somehow led me to this as well, a muse of sorts. Lots of joy and challenge in the creative gift(s) we are are given. Can’t wait to see more of your work and hear more from you!
My dearset Pam,
With each word I write my best wishes for you and all great gifts of your journey.
My faith has never been stronger,it humbles me that ~Jesus ~has granted me this day to share with you.
Our Edie been so dedicated to Mrs.Beale. It was never understood by me why I had found the mansion or why I had been so readily befriended.
It had begun as a fascination with the very setting `oh the mansion, the timelessness of the interior. Then just a moment later I had found a refuge in which I could be of use, a place where i could protect something I loved.
Let me completly honest with you my dear ~Pam~.
Mrs. Edith Bouvier Beale was my guardian angel, a second mother.
It has been over 35 years and still I leave pecans , walnuts at the place in which this woman rests.
It comforts me that in the place in which she rest as this woman may have company after my visit.
Yes little ones to hurry over and about , to seek out and find sustainance,just as I had sought and found in everyway any human being who had been lost and was found.
Forever in debt oh ~Jesus~ ,they do keep ~Mrs. Beale~ the least bit of company.
There is something greater then we see each day, we are part of the greater plan.
May Almighty ~God ~watch over you ever day of your blessed life!
most sincerly
most respectfully yours,
Jerry
your Marble Faun
Oh Jerry, just as Grey Gardens is once again an elite home for the very rich, and therefore out of reach to someone like me… I fear you will become so famous, that you too, will be out of reach… We are nearly the same age.. that’s part of the emotional connection I felt with you, when I first met you in the film.. I’m happy for all your popularity… but secretly wish you would just remain a regular person.. a person that I might meet one day.
Joan , my dear friend
I built the fence you see in the film The Beales of Grey Gardens. It was built from a split rail fence that once surrounded the property. It was my hope that I could stop the greater growing demands on Grey Gardens, the renovations that were demanded by the town. Yes I wanted to keep things just as they were, yet life does never stop .
Joan , I could never change the person whom I am today. Ive worked on being the best person I could be.
You candor touches me so much and during the course of this lifetime there will come a time when we shall meet!
Im honored by your affection;
Jerry
Jerry, Congratulations on having your own website!You are really coming along.You are so much more than The Faun at GG;you are an artist,a traveler,a writer,a man of the world!You have so many obervations about so many things,this is a great place to bring them all together.Thank you for inviting us into your world.Always love the pictures.Best wishes,Pattie
My dear friend Pattie
It is my pleasure to have you in my life.
What has begun as an idea has now begun to live.
May all your days be filled with life & great joy,dear one.
friends forever
Jerry
Best of luck, Jerry, with this beautiful and very professional looking website. I am delighted we have met and happy to call you a friend.
You are a very talented artist and I wish you all the best in the coming new year.
Marjorie
My dearest Marjorie,
Pardon my lapse in responding to you I’ ve been carving stone late into the past few nights.
I welcome you into my world with the continued entusiasm , your friendship is very dear to me,
I thank you.
Jerry
HI Jerry,
Congratulations on a wonderful blog page. I am so glad
you have done it. Keep up the good work both in stone and words.
Bill.
Hi there Bill
Ive lots of new stone, just about around 1000 lbs.
Im going carve an entire population of sculptures.
Please except my warmest regards, this Holiday Season.
your buddy
Jerry
oh wonderful wonderful and more wonderful
Gina my dear one!
We have missed you in the stone room., alot.
You need to take care and keep in touch .
Ill tell the stone carvers Ive heard from you.
We are always chipping away, warmest Holiday dear one.
Jerry
Thank you for sharing with us through your website. Best of luck. You have many friends that you are unaware of.
Greetings Diana,
Please except my warmset wishes for you and yours this blessed Holiday .
yours
Jerry
Hi Jerry! Looks good!
Hey Lee
Thanks for taking the time to stop in , I do appreciate that.
yours
Jerry
Jerry,
You are truly an amazing individual and character.I am so happy to have the pleasure of getting to know more about you and your story through this website. You are a phenomenal artist!
~Diana~
~Diana~
It is my pleasure to welcome you aboard!
Please extend my warmest regards to all those whom you love!
Jerry
Jerry the website looks really nice–very professional! I hope it will bring you many hours of enjoyment.
Charlotte
Thank you my friend,
This site will allow me to share my world with those whom care to be part of it.
fondly yours
Jerry
These last few years have united so many who have been touched by the life of Mrs.Beales & her daughter at Grey Gardens.
Film had captured the single most defining moment in this mans life.
Hats off to you Mrs.Beale,Edie!
Hi Kent
“He [Jerry]had a remarkable talent for going into a Fawn pose.” Lois Wright
Hi Jerry,
What is that quote from Lois on the Maysles pic on your home page?
Kent
SUPER new Marble Faun site Jerry^^
Hi there Denise!
Time has passed since we met at the Castro Theatre. That was a magical night.You know “We`re all in this world you know”
The Happiest Hoiday Season for you dear one,regards to Peter!