Phelan Beale Jr.

Beale was employed with the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission in Tulsa and Oklahoma City for 30 years.[1][2] Following his retirement from the commission, he consulted on unemployment compensation law.[1][2]

Beale was well known as an accomplished speaker and writer.[1][2] He delivered speeches to numerous organizations on a variety of subjects and wrote magazine and newspaper articles.[1][2] Throughout his writing career, Beale won hundreds of writing contests.[1][2] He later appeared in television commercials for MCI Communications.[1][2]

In 1971, Beale wrote "The Maysley Brothers — is that their name?," an article that appeared in The Capital Times of Madison, Wisconsin.[2] In the article, he deplores the attention accorded his mother and sister at that time: "Such heartbreak and degradation…not the best publicity in the world for the family."[2] He noted that he would see Grey Gardens "out of curiosity."[2] Beale's younger brother Bouvier sent him the documentary's reviews, which Beale expressed made him decidedly unhappy about "those two people (who) made the movie."[2] In the article, Beale reminisced about "the entertainment, the parties" at the Grey Gardens estate and his sister's coming out party at the Ritz-Carlton in New York City.[2] He referred to all these activities as "all that Great Gatsby stuff."[2] He wrote that his father refused his mother alimony and that there was a trust fund but that "trying to keep up that white elephant Grey Gardens is what ruined it."[2]