"That Summer" Peter Beard (and his then girlfriend Lee Radziwill) was the impetus for the June 1972 meeting of the Beales and the Maysles - culminating in Grey Gardens the documentary the impetus for the June 1972 meeting of the Beales and the Maysles - culminating in Grey Gardens the documentary (and later the musical and film). In 2007, a film lab accidentally returned a rough cut of 1972 Maysles footage of The Beales to Peter using an old label on a film cannister. It was part of the Maysles Films archives digitization project and was supposed to be returned to Maysles directly, but had been paid for by Peter and Lee in 1972 and had Peter's still-current address on it.

Maysles Films had insisted the film had all been returned or destroyed when Lee cancelled the project. The lie exposed, the film (now presumed very valuable) became the subject of a custody battle. The footage became the basis of the 2018 documentary That Summer, due to Peter's heroic efforts to get around litigious Maysles and Radziwill attorneys by adding new footage.