Edie Sedgwick, the woman who inspired some of Bob Dylan’s greatest songs, was born 78 years ago today
Andy Warhol and Edie Sedgwick
Edie Sedgwick, the woman who inspired some of Bob Dylan’s greatest songs, was born 78 years ago today.
An actress, socialite, fashion model and heiress, Sedgwick is best known for being one of Andy Warhol's superstars. She became known as "The Girl of the Year" in 1965 after starring in several of Warhol's short films in the 1960s. She was dubbed an "It Girl," while Vogue magazine also named her, "Youthquaker.”
Born in Santa Barbara, California, to Alice Delano de Forest (1908–1988) and Francis Minturn Sedgwick, (1904–1967), Sedgwick was named after her father's aunt, Edith Minturn, who was famously painted with her husband, Isaac Newton Phelps-Stokes, by John Singer Sargent.
Sedgwick's family was long established in Massachusetts history. Her seventh-great grandfather, English-born Robert Sedgwick, was the first Major General of the Massachusetts Bay Colony settling in Charlestown, Massachusetts in 1635. Her family later originated from Stockbridge, Massachusetts where her great-great-great grandfather, Judge Theodore Sedgwick, had settled after the American Revolution.
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 Jessé de Forest whose Dutch West India Company helped to settle New Amsterdam).
In 1964, Sedgwick moved to New York City. She lived at first with her senile grandmother, who had an apartment on 75th Street, but in late fall 1964 she took an apartment in the East Sixties between Fifth and Madison, which her mother decorated lavishly. Sedgwick embarked on a constant round of partying and spent her trust fund at an astonishing rate.
According to a friend, Tom Goodwin, she went through eighty thousand dollars in just six months and bought huge amounts of clothing, jewelry and cosmetics.
After her chauffeur crashed the gray Mercedes she had been given by her father, she began using limousine services constantly, moving from company to company each time she had exhausted her credit.
She also began experimenting with drugs and was introduced to LSD by friends from Cambridge who knew Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert (two prominent Harvard professors who advocated the spiritualistic value of LSD).
In March, 1965, Sedgwick met the 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 Vinyl, his interpretation of the novel, A Clockwork Orange.
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 could star.
The first of those films, Poor Little Rich Girl, was originally conceived as part of a series featuring Sedgwick, 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, 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 exhibition at the Sonnabend Gallery in Paris. On returning to New York City, Warhol asked his scriptwriter, Ronald Tavel, to write a script for Sedgwick. “Something in a kitchen — something white and clean and plastic,” Warhol said, according to Ric Burns' Andy Warhol: A Documentary Film. 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, 1965.
Warhol's films were not commercially successful and rarely seen outside The Factory circle, but as Sedgwick's notoriety grew, mainstream media outlets began reporting on her appearances in Warhol's underground films and her unusual fashion sense.
During this period, she developed her "trademark" look — black leotards, mini dresses and large chandelier earrings. She 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 making films together — 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 and it 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 Sedgwick in Chelsea Girls would eventually become the film, Afternoon.
Following her estrangement from Warhol's inner circle, Sedgwick began living at the Chelsea Hotel, where she became close to Bob Dylan. Dylan's friends eventually convinced Sedgwick to sign up with Albert Grossman, Dylan's manager.
Sedgwick and Dylan's relationship ended when Sedgwick learned Dylan had married Sara Lownds in a secret ceremony — something she apparently learned from Warhol during an argument at the Gingerman Restaurant in February, 1966.
Throughout most of 1966, Sedgwick was involved in an intensely private yet tumultuous relationship with Dylan's closest friend, Bob Neuwirth. During this period, she became increasingly dependent on barbiturates. Although she abused many drugs, there is no evidence that Sedgwick ever became a heroin addict. In early 1967, unable to cope with Sedgwick's drug abuse and erratic behavior, Neuwirth broke off their relationship.
Sedgwick married Michael Post on July 24, 1971, and under his influence she reportedly stopped abusing alcohol and other drugs for a short time. Her sobriety lasted until October, when pain medication was given to her to treat a physical illness.
She remained under the care of her physician, Dr. Wells, who prescribed her barbiturates. She would demand more pills or claim that she had lost them in order to get more, often combining the medications with alcohol.
Post was later put in charge of administering her medication. By his account, she took at least two 300 mg Quaalude tablets and two capsules of three-grain Tuinal every night, in addition to alcohol and whatever other drugs she may have been secretly consuming.
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 where (according to the accounts of her husband and brother-in-law) a drunken guest insulted her by calling her a heroin addict and repeatedly asserting that her marriage would fail.
Sedgwick phoned Post, who arrived at the party. Seeing her distress at the accusations, he took her back to their apartment around one in the morning. On the way home, Sedgwick expressed thoughts of uncertainty about their marriage. Before they both fell asleep, Post gave Sedgwick 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 her heavy smoking habit and went to sleep. When Post awoke the following morning at 7.30 a.m., Sedgwick was dead.
The coroner ruled Sedgwick's death as "undetermined/accident/suicide." Her death certificate was signed at 9:20 a.m. and states the immediate cause was "probable acute barbiturate intoxication" due to ethanol intoxication. Sedgwick's alcohol level was registered at 0.17 percent and her barbiturate level was 0.48 mg percent.
She was 28 years old.
Bob Dylan's "Just Like a Woman" and "Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat" from his 1966 album, Blonde on Blonde, are purportedly about Sedgwick. His 1965 #2 single, "Like a Rolling Stone," was also reportedly inspired by her.
Here, Sedgwick is interviewed about her lifestyle.
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