Edith Minturn Sedgwick is most known famously for her time spent with pop-artist, film-maker, icon Andy Warhol, as his “Superstar,” and as “Girl of the Year, 1965.” Born from a prominent and important family, Edie seemed destined to be a star. After leaving Cambridge, Edie and friends fled to New York. Shortly after meeting Warhol, she seemingly rejuvenated his already hugely successful outlook in the art world by starring in his underground films.
The films, “Poor Little Rich Girl,” Beauty No. 2, “Vinyl,” and “Outer and Inner Space” made Edie a star, dubbed The Queen of the Underground. She appeared in numerous newspapers and magazines such as, Life, Time and Vogue.
Edie had beauty, wealth, and glamour. Edie, influential as a fashion icon during and after her short-lived life, flourished the New York scene with black tights, chandelier earrings, blackened outlined eyelids, and cropped silver hair. Each time photographed, the look, the fashion revealed different emotions Edie hid.
Being in the spotlight rapidly decreased for Edie, as did her relationship with Warhol in late ’65. Yet still associated with Andy and his Factory through the years, due to her desire to leave the underground and pursue modeling and obtain Hollywood status. She didn’t get the chance to become the actual next Marilyn Monroe, though she still did underground films with various filmmakers.
She began using drugs during her time with Warhol, and after. And while under the influence, she managed to burn down more than the wanted few apartments. Since the drugs she was using were highly addictive and personality altering, she succumbed to being commited to mental hospitals.
And in 1967, she began filming a new film, “Ciao! Manhattan,” which was the first above ground underground film. Shooting became unpredictable, eventually causing the film to stop altogether. During the break, Edie’s drug problem escalated and ultimately sending her home to Santa Barbara, California. Filming for “Ciao! Manhattan” was picked up in 1970, while Edie was seeking help and thought to have been clean of drugs.
While in Santa Barbara, she met, Michael Post, whom she would marry in August of 1971. Three months later, Edie suffocated to death as she overdosed on barbiturates.
The last official film Edie starred in for Andy Warhol, filmed during her final times with the artist in December 1965, was about actress Lupe Velez, whose suicide (According to urban myth, Velez overdosed on sleeping pills, and while regurgitating, died with her head inside of the toilet bowl) was notorious to be that of obscurity and to reach cult status. Much like Marilyn Monroe, and Lupe Velez, Edie’s death parallels Andy Warhol’s work, the repetition, the use of commodity repeated.
Edie’s everlasting memory lives on, not to be remembered just as an Andy Warhol commodity, but as a person who set standards for so many, both big and small. Through pictures, stories, myths and film she lives on – leaving more people wanting more.
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