The two down-on-their-luck NY society ladies who lived in a run-down hotel

I want that to be me but scratch the second woman part.

I remember something on DL about them. Not their names but they reminded me of the Beale's with their dysfunctional relationship.

You mean the ABC sitcom with Dina Merril and Kitty Carlisle?

They were in downtown LA not NYC, and they were more middle class than society, but one REALLY put on airs.

Royce and Marilyn.

Looks like a full on documentary was made.

That's them! THANKS!

They and the Grey Garden ladies scare me.

Dear god. I guess as long as they’re happy it’s okay... but there’s something so embarrassingly naked about their... issues being on full display.

They were both haughty pieces of shit

Here's the definitive article about them.

Marilyn died in 2011 and Royce in 2012. They were both in their 80s.

Watching it now. Royce's sex scandal from the 1950s was ... interesting.

Marilyn was a housekeeper for some well-to-do families. I guess she saved her money so she'd be comfy in her twilight years. But here came Royce and she was dazzled by her style and glitzy tales. They lived it up for a couple years then ran out of money. That's when the documentarian found them.

But did they end up facedown in a water tank?

I knew three sisters, all baronesses, in Kips Bay nyc. They were lovely faded gentility.

My mother’s friend’s sister-in-law is a Vegas countess (cuntess) who wears a tiara & dresses for dinner in full gown regalia, even though she looks like an old crone.

It was sad seeing the contrast in Marilyn at the hotel vs. the nursing home. I wonder how she became estranged from her children.

Royce's delusions and theatricality made her a great documentary subject, but I could tell she was probably a narcissistic nightmare in her prime.

Royce sounded like a real character!

[quote] I'm used to elegance, elegance,” Royce says of downtown. “This is not my home, this is hell on earth! The noise of the helicopters and sirens day and night — oh, my gawd, you'd lose your mind!” There's more than a trace of Norma Desmond in the voice and the eyeliner, and listening to her makes an interviewer feel more than a little like Joe Gillis. “I'm a clothes person, a fashion person,” Royce will tell you as she sips a sauvignon blanc. “I was raised by rich, rich, elegant people who bought only the finest, everything made to order. You cannot handle anything else, as a woman — it is your life.”

GOD on a WHEEL!

Were Royce and Marilyn lezzers?

Bumping this because I watched the 3-hour documentary this weekend and it truly is a work of art. Aside from how entertaining the two women are as themselves, the film provides a lens through which to think about how American culture has changed over the 20th Century and into the 21st, aging, society, and the extent through which people invent and embellish their histories. Are we who we want to be, especially if we can get people to believe it? There is a dignity in self-creation.

Or not.

[quote]They were both haughty pieces of shit.

I'm going to call my best friend tonight and lobby for side by side graves with this quote on a joint headstone.

[quote]GOD on a WHEEL!

What does that actually mean? Urban dictionary points back to these two ladies. But no definition.

R24 It's a modified "Christ on a cross." Interestingly, the wheel was a symbol for several pre-Christian Gods and Goddesses.

Thanks R25!