(Music)
She was born into a prosperous
Philadelphia family.
Though she was a shy child,
she would live her life in the public eye.
"Don't try to be a hero!
You don't have to be a hero, not for me!"
"I'm not trying to be a hero..." - By the age of 23,
her beauty and talent
took her to Hollywood.
She made eleven films in three and a half years
and became one of the most sought-after stars of her time.
She worked with Hollywood's most important directors,
played opposite its top leading men.
"There's nothing quite so mysterious
and silent as a dark theater..."
Then, at 26, she turned her back on make-believe.
But make-believe came true,
in a fairy tale shared by the entire world.
Her name was Grace Kelly.
It became: Her Serene Highness,
Princess Grace of Monaco.
I don't think Grace really believed that she was going to give up acting when
she became Princess Grace of Monaco.
I think that the reality of that probably
struck her some place in the middle of
the Mediterranean after the honeymoon began.
She took everything so much in her stride,
nothing seemed to be too much for her.
Of any name, Grace, could not have been
more fitting,
and even her death, her tragic early death
made her enter even more into legend.
(Band plays)
Monaco, a principality of less than
five hundred acres on the French Riviera.
For centuries, the Monégasques
held on to their distinctive character,
and their pride.
But, to the world, this place was known as
a "playground for the wealthy"
who came to enjoy its beauty and its gambling.
Monaco became a home of a young American actress
who arrived in 1956 to be its Princess.
She brought her fame, her cool beauty,
her intelligence.
And she brought war,
a sense of purpose.
Well, this story of a Princess was firmly anchored in reality.
A reality that had its origins
back in Philadelphia.
Competition came easily to the Kellys.
Here along Kelly Drive
named after Grace's father, John B. Kelly,
they still race in the sport for which
Jack Kelly won an Olympic medal.
A statue erected by the citizens of Philadelphia
commemorates that achievement.
Jack Kelly's father was a bricklayer from
Ireland who went on to make a fortune.
Young Jack soon joined the family business:
construction and brick making.
He started his own business
and made his own fortune.
But he always professed pride in
his family's humble origins.
Jack Kelly believed the world
was what you made it.
Margaret Majer, who married Jack, had been
a model as well as a champion swimmer and athlete.
Margaret and Jack were determined
to raise their children their own way.
(Music)
If you're good enough, you're sure to reach the top.
It was drilled into the Kelly children from their earliest years.
(Music)
As a family, we were always very close.
Four of us; Peggy, my sister, the oldest,
my brother Jack, Grace and then myself.
She was the baby for three and a half years
and loved every minute of it.
Grace, when she was young, was very shy
and a mama's baby.
There were many times were we had pictures taken
that mother had to lean back
away from the camera so Grace would not cry
to be taken away from her mother,
she was very sweet and soft, and loved to be held
and cuddled and kissed, and loved.
I, on the other hand, and my brother
and older sister, were more
"don't get around me,"
we wanted to do our own things.
We always had a place at the shore when we were young,
and, at that time, I think we had our best times together.
We just had a marvellous time,
and Grace, all her life, loved being by the ocean and the sea.
Grace and all the family, we were a competitive family.
I think we got that, I know we got that
from our mother and our father.
They instilled into us a deep sense of competition
and the love of sports,
the will of winning,
but also taught us how to lose gracefully.
But the Kellys didn't intend to lose, and there never was a better
drillmaster than Jack Kelly.
It was fun, family fun, and it left a special kind of determination.
This determination didn't manifest itself in Grace
as much in the sporting field.
But her determination sooner took another turn.
She loved to sit by the hours and pretend
and create situations and say:
"Lizzie, you do this, and I'll be this,"
and, "I'll be the mother and you'll be the baby,"
of course, I gave her a hard time a lot of times because
I did not want to play her games.
For Grace, growing up wealthy
meant winter sport in Lake Placid.
It also meant the best private schools.
Working for causes you believed in started young.
With modeling, it's society fashion benefits.
But for Grace, these shows meant more than fundraising;
They were theater.
She got most of her love from the theater my uncle George.
He was a playwright and he directed plays.
Very gracious, highly educated person, well-read, and very witty.
And she just was fascinated with
all the tales of the stage and the theater.
Her uncle George Kelly was a great example to her.
He was sensitive and kind, and talented,
and I think of all the men she ever knew,
rather than going for the "athletic macho type,"
I think her ideal man was her uncle George.
My recollections with her father, John B, Jack Kelly
were of an enormous man with
a tremendous amount of gusto, everything up front,
everything in the open, move ahead.
A nice man, but not a tremendous amount of internal sensitivity.
Her father believed absolutely that Peggy,
the elder sister, was gonna be
the big star of the family and succeed,
and he never paid any attention
to basically the middle of the family and his four children,
and she was quiet, observant of
the others and adored her older brother too Kell,
John B. Kelly Jr., an also an athletic star, great racer,
her father thought he was great,
but Grace, he just accepted, and I don't think
he understood her at all,
but she adored him.
And yet, one wonders, when you don't
get from a parent, what it is
perhaps what you need, if that isn't what
creates a great deal of the drive in you
to go out and become the fullest part of yourself.
She decided to go to New York, and my
mother and father were especially surprised
because she was a shy and retiring girl.
My mother and father were a little wary of New York and on her own,
but mother said: "Jack, it's not as if
she is going to Hollywood or to California."
Grace knew that her father didn't think much of an acting career.
They allowed her to go, to get it out of her system.
"Let her go, it won't amount to anything."
Grace was accepted into the
American Academy of Dramatic Arts
and then housed in Manhattan's Carnegie Hall.
It was 1947 and Grace Kelly was 18 years old.
She supported herself by modelling.
She got her portfolio, and little by little,
she started getting jobs.
So that she didn't have to ask for the favor of being supported
in her efforts
so that she could justify her own existence
by her own earning power.
Grace also appeared in commercials.
She was the girl-next-door,
the girl a man hoped they could marry.
After graduating from the American Academy,
Grace found parts in stock companies
and her first professional role
in her uncle George Kelly's play: "The Torch-Bearers".
Then, came her first Broadway role
in a Strindberg play.
We all went up to Philadelphia to see the opening night,
and dad did not know that Raymond Massey was in the play.
Grace introduced her father to Raymond and he said:
"Oh! Jack! How are you?" And he said:
"Is this your daughter? I did not know that!"
So she did everything on her own and did not want any help
from any of the family
because she said: "If I don't do it myself,
I don't want to do it at all."
I was very taken by the way she looked,
and the way she walked,
and specially her lovely voice.
She had a beautiful voice.
Except for the speech was not yet
as an actress, blended with her posture
with that stately figure that she projected.
She studied,
she really applied herself to the characters
that she was working on.
I met Grace Kelly early in her career
back in 1950 when I was directing "Danger" for CBS Television.
Her mother came up, and I think her brother
came up to watch her rehearsal,
and when the rehearsal was over,
I heard her mother say:
"Darling, your speech is affected a little bit, can you, kind of, make it
more natural?"
and she said "Mother, I'm working on it."
"Your city is full of sounds, listen..."
"I don't hear a thing."
"There is an automobile going past, and a horse
and a boat in the harbor..."
She played the lead in the "Rich Boy" for me.
"I'll take you."
"Will you?..."
Under the pressures of live television,
no retakes,
no ability to go back and change.
Television when they had flats fall down on tea tables
and everybody was out there improvising.
She performed absolutely brillantly
and very quickly became one of the
leading members of the so-called
"stock company,"
those actors that we would tend to cast
over and over again.
"... basic I would say.
Oh, I must sound very snobbish about the west."
"Oh! No! I'm interested,
I just never thought about it that way."
"Well, people in the west are more open."
"I'm open."
"That's because you've had a lot to drink.
You drink a lot, don't you?"
"No!"
"I was watching you across the room, you kept filling your glass."
"You were watching me?"
"And so were the other girls.
"Some men are like that,
they compel attention."
"I didn't even see you until just a few minutes ago,
and I couldn't wait to be introduced."
"Some men are like that..."
The first time I saw Grace, I would be hard-pressed
to describe her as the glamour queen of the world.
During the rehearsal, she had a pair of glasses on,
and they were just a little bit down her nose,
and she had a terrible cold.
And she was quite withdrawn.
I remember we shook hands, but it wasn't a very hearty handshake,
it was the handshake of a little girl.
And I thought: "Ooh, what a nice school teacher!"
She's from Philadelphia, and that was my first impression of Grace.
Grace was given a small part in the movie "Fourteen Hours"
in which she was hardly noticed.
She returned to television and to stock theater.
Her big break came almost by chance.
I met Grace in 1953 actually, going through the receiving line
of my wedding to my then- husband Jay Kanter,
who was her agent.
I was intrigued by her looks in the photographs that Edie sent me
by her background, and probably more by the fact that
she absolutely would not accept the long- term studio contract.
He was a young agent, I was a young producer,
and he brought to me Marlon Brando,
then he sent me a photograph of Grace Kelly
at the time we were casting "High Noon".
Now, I wanted an unknown girl. I asked to see her.
She came in from Denver for an interview.
For an interview for a part in a Western with white gloves
no less.
That goes way back when we were children.
My mother insisted every time we went into town:
"You wore hats and gloves."
That's not only my mother, we were brought up at a convent,
and the nuns insisted that you wore white gloves
on special occasions.
I went overboard because she had that lady-like quality,
that kind of dignity, which was in contrast to the Western scene,
which works so well. These are the corporate.
"... Your lawful wedded husband,
to have and to hold, from this day forward."
The reason I think she was miscast is that
Cooper was much older than Grace Kelly,
he was too old for Kelly, actually, in the role.
She didn't believe that she did well in the film,
I didn't think so either.
There was a girl in the film named Katy Jurado,
who played the Mexican gal in the town,
Katy Jurado was dynamic and overpowering,
and yet, Kelly wasn't swallowed even in her miscast
because this lady-like thing came through.
"... they were on the right side, but that didn't help
when the shooting started.
My brother was 19. I watched him die..."
For Grace Kelly was her first big break,
and for me, it was my first American picture
making here in Hollywood.
I was two years older than she was,
I have seven years making pictures
in Mexico, but there was something
so different between Grace and I,
we could not really explain that we could not be very close,
but I could see a girl with a lot of dignity, and a lot of character
because she wants to be somebody in movies
and she worked very hard in that picture.
She looked weak and very tiny, but she was a very strong person.
I believe she was one of the strongest movie stars I worked with.
She knew what you want, and she did it.
(Music)
Gary Cooper went on to win an Academy Award for Best Actor of 1952,
but there were no laurels for Grace,
and she promptly headed back to New York for more study.
She was a Kelly, and she had to do better.
We both probably read the thing where she says that
"You can see everything in Gary
Cooper's eyes" but that her eyes were
"flat and dull, and dead" and that she didn't like them
she couldn't tell what the character was feeling.
She began to work harder on concentrating on her objective.
In other words, that would've
eventually be the cure for the way she
attacked her characters, to make them come alive
to make her eyeballs shine with meaning.
She always had this inner image of being an old-fashioned actress
with the kind of glamour that you have on Broadway.
Grace was eager for a lead role in
a New York production of "Cyrano de Bergerac".
I wanted to have Grace as Roxanne,
I wanted her, not because of her great acting ability, but
because of that discipline that she appeared to have.
Unfortunately, she never did realize that
every part she went up for on Broadway,
with the exception of "The Father", she lost.
And when she didn't get it, there
were mentions of it in the columns and so on.
She was very, very distressed
and she picked herself up, and went on.
"Mogambo" was a picture that Grace apparently
wanted to do very badly because she was willing to
sign a long-term contract with MGM to do the picture.
"Is that all you're going to do for him?!"
"What do you expect me to do, Mrs. Nordley,
crawl in bed with him and hold his hand?"
The thought of playing opposite of star-like Clark Gable
being directed by John Ford, a fellow Irishman.
And I also think she was intrigued with the idea of going to Africa.
On location for "Mogambo," Clark Gable described an incident
to Rupert Allan - then Look magazine correspondent.
Grace was alone and was discovered by Gable.
She turned to him and he saw that she was crying,
and he said: "Why are you crying, Grace?"
She says, "So beautiful. I'm reading 'The Snows of Kilimanjaro'
by Hemingway, and I looked up and I was just reading about this
frozen leopard I think they found way up in the snows
of this highest mountain in Africa,
and I looked up from my book thinking about
what a beautiful picture it was inside Hemingway,
and then I saw a lion walking along the seashore.
It's just too beautiful."
She gave human personalities to her animals
and very often she gave animal personalities to humans.
She used to call some of her close friends bird and she called
Rita bird, Jay bird, this bird, that bird.
I mean, people and animals
became interchangeable with Grace.
Grace's role in "Mogambo" earned
her an Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting
Actress of 1953.
"What are you saying? You're drunk!"
"You know how it is on safari.
It's in all of us, a woman always falls for the White Hunter
and we guys make the most of it, can you blame us?
Oh, when you come along with that look in your eye..."
Some critics called her a star in the making.
Few realized how luminous that star would become,
and in how short a time.
Hollywood, as far as Jack and Margaret Kelly were concerned,
was no place for a girl on her own.
On Sundays many times, we used to go to church,
and then uncle George who lived in Southern California
would come pick us up
and take us for a ride around and take us to lunch,
and she enjoyed those rides with George so much.
That I would sit in the backseat and maybe take a little nap,
but the two of them would talk theater and books and poetry.
Some of the people in town, the studio heads,
were quite mystified by her, they didn't understand why
she didn't wanna go their dinner parties
and be seated next to all the 'A people' that young actresses
should want to be seated next to.
She didn't rush out effusively
and reach forward to make lots and lots of friends.
She got up five o'clock in the morning, went on set, came home
and grabbed something to eat.
Usually a hamburger which was Gracie's favorite food.
And then went to bed.
She was always charming, she was never cold, she was never icy to
anybody on the set.
She could give that appearance of coldness, of being sort of
above it all at all times, but inside, she was a very often seething.
And she was a volatile person but always under control.
Alfred Hitchcock used to say about Grace Kelly
with his usual wit that her apparent virginity was like
a mountain covered with snow,
but that the mountain was a volcano.
In 1953, director Hitchcock found in Grace his perfect heroine
It was a scene in "Dial M for Murder" where he wanted her to answer the phone
by putting on her bathrobe
and she said there was no reason for her to put a bathrobe on, just to answer
a telephone, with no one else in the house but her"
And he said: "What would you wear?" She said: "I'll wear a night gown"
He said: "All right". And it worked out very well
"Hello...
She seemed to know the movements before Hitchcock
had anything to say about it
and I think Hitchcock liked that
I think everybody liked it
In the picture "Rear Window" Hitchcock said to Grace,
"Now, you're going to go have to go across and get into the room"
and Grace without any direction, she just went over,
climbed up the fire escape
climbed in one of the windows and sneaked in through the door
and then, looked over across the way to Hitchcock and said:
"Is that what you mean?"
Well, everybody applauded, and she deserved it because
this was exactly what Alfred Hitchcock wanted
What Grace brought, as an actress, was, Grace brought the actual young
women of the '50s into a vision of glamour
It was a very proper era, in a way very premier
Underneath that, of course, there was always the sense of flirtatiousness
of young women, and the sense of fun
Grace had trully arrived
She appeared on the covers of national magazines
But success meant more time spent in Hollywood
She was really a family person, she didn't like to be alone
I remember when she first went to California to make films
she lived alone, and suddenly she asked Rita Gam to come and live with her
and Grace let me in, and there she was wearing the same Philadelphia skirt
same sensible shoes, the same tied back hair, except now, she was becoming
a very valuable property, I had no idea that her background was one of opulence
I thought of her as a coworker an actress
Then, out of the clear blue sky, and very directly, openly and warmly
she said: "Would you like to share the flat?
How would that fit in with your schedule?"
I said, "Well I get up at 5am"
She said "I get up at 5 too" I said: "We can both go to sleep at 9"
She said "Terrific! that's it"
I think, the thing that most people forget is that when all of this was happening
to Grace, this extraordinary excitement about her career being generated
and roles with the world's most famous leading men
and the world's most respected directors,
she was just a girl in her early 20s
One time in Hollywood, we were invited to what turned out to be
a dinner party with two bachelors
We thought it was going to be this grand party with a lot of people
and, there we were, and the lights were getting lower
and the wine was getting heavier, and I was getting very nervous
and I knudged Grace under the table
Grace had her glasses on, I think that was her protection
mine, was sort of chatting nervously and say "let's go, let's go Grace"
and she whispered back "Let's wait until after dessert, it might be good"
'The bridges at took a reek' gave Grace the opportunity to play opposite
an actor she admired: William Holden
"Harry, you've got to tell me about those bridges"
The kind of concentration that a good actor was capable of
would definitely infect her
"I know we're not going to fly above the mountains"
"We're going to fly between them"
It would make her respond, and in that way you could see to the chat of nervous
system that was similar to lookness paper
She reacted immediately
"You didn't want to tell me because you didn't want me to worry
well, I don't want you to worry either about me, I mean"
"I know what the admiral was trying to tell me,
I had to face those bridges too"
Director George Seaton was impressed by Grace's performance
and wanted her for the demanding role of the wife in "The Country Girl"
But, before releasing her, MGM insisted she appear in "Green Fire"
Which, wasn't one of her favorites films she was tired when she started
She had done about 6 pictures in a row and she had to go to South America
Some, like "Green Fire" that absolutely made her blazing mad
I mean, she said: "This is not what I wanted to be an actress for"
But she did do it in order to get the part in "The Country Girl"
"At the moment all I want is for you to get dressed so we can get out of here"
"Who is in New York?"
"Frank, I am warning you, I'm going to hit you with the first thing I pick up"
The greatest expression of her that Grace demonstrated was the throwing
away of her mask of beauty and of her elegance
Nobody understood at all, I mean why would this gorgeous creature
wanted to be seen in an old tacky sweater with her hair pulled back
in a bun, looking haggarded
She desperately wanted to be this great actress
"You'll be in the strong, so behind of Bernie Dodd"
"Can you stend him up on his feet again? Because that's where all my
praires have gone; to see that one holy owl when he can stand alone again"
"And I may have forgiven you Mr. Dodd, if you can keeping me long
enough for me to get up from under"
"All I want is my own name and a modest job to buy sugar for my coffee"
"Would you listen..."
"You can't belive that, can you? You can't believe that a woman is crazy
out of her mind to live alone, in one room by herself"
"Listen to me, listen to me"
"Why are you holding me? I said you're holding me!"
"How could you be so angry, someone who didn't even know?
In the single year of 1954, she had completed 4 major films
"Grace Kelly for "The Country Girl""
and won an Academy award
She was pronounced one of Hollywood's major stars
She was 24, but it semmed that she had it all
"This is after Grace had an enourmous success in films and what a very big
posh apartment, and I have an image of her father walking through the lobby
and Grace appearing out saying:
"There he is, there he is coming" and it was as if this fictional character
the Great Gatsby, came down to look at her apartment
and she really wanted to prove to him that she had accomplished a
great deal, and that was the first time I got a sense of an undercurrent
of something other than this picture of family
Grace dated, but no one really seriously until the later part of her career
There were so many poeple that have fall in love with her, most men were
She had that quality of, I don't know, turning men on
She was going to be my maid of honour and when I, baby sister
was getting married she had that to think about now
"Well, I want to get married too"
I was married in June, and I think I booked the news that I was pregnant
and was going to have a baby in May and she said: "Lizzie, you are going to
have a baby! Oh! I want a baby I'm missing things
In 1955, Grace would appear in a film that would change her life
Location worked for "To Catch a Thief" to a place near the ancient principality
of Monaco
Her co star would be Cary Grant, once again, she was directed
by Alfred Hitchcock
What he extracted from her combination was the cool beauty
who helded it all back and then just gave that just enough to be gentelizing
and just enough to make the leading man and the audience want a little more
"Ever had a better offer in your whole life?"
"One worth everything?"
"I never had a crazier one"
"Just as long as you are satisfied"
"You know as well as I do that this neckless is an invitation"
"Well, I'm not"
And she had a lot of boys and boyfriends who were actors and
human beings, and dress designers, and this and that but there wasn't
this one person who could fulfill this childhood image that quite many
of us have about wanting that one man in our lives to be special and
really, to be old prince on the white chariot
A French magazine had decided the palace in Monaco would be the perfect
background for Grace or publicity layout
And then, Prince Rainier indicated that he was willing to meet the beautiful star
Though he was know as a shy and modest man, Prince Rainier III was called
Europe's most eligible bachelor
And his meeting with Grace immediately provoked interest
"Rumors linking you with, virtually everybody, and the latest one is
with Grace Kelly, would you coment on that for us?"
"No, I just met Grace Kelly, she came to the palace when she was
at Canne's, for the festival, and that's all of it"
"Although, many stories say that you are actively seeking a wife
would you care to comment on that?" "No, I'm not"
"What if you did meet a girl that you like? Would the publicity about it
prevent you from do anything about it?" "Oh! No, it shouldn't, and anything should
"If you were to marry, what kind of girl do you have in mind?"
"I don't know, the best"
Being the best is a lesson that Jack Kelly had drilled into his children
Grace had excelled, she had reached the top of her profession
But, for Grace Kelly there had to be more
MGM had no idea of Grace's future when they cast her in the film that was
oddly profetic
"The Swan"
It is based on a play by Molnár and the story was very simply the story
of a princess
"I want to be so good to you"
"Oh, I want a hundred things, I want to tell you everything that it's in my heart
all my secrets, I adore Napoleon too"
"Yes, Princess"
"I want to hear you call me by my name"
"Alexandra"
There was an innate aristocracy, elegance about her
not only in coportments, in manners but also in thinking, in being
It has been a cliché to say that Grace Kelly looked like a Princess
but, she did
There was another element in Grace Kelly that was all important
she had this extraordinary sense of human not only, and first of all
about herself
Never taking herself seriously
During filming of "The Swan" Alec Guinness had an Indian tomahawk
smuggled into Grace's bed, and she quickly returned the compliment
the joke would continue for years
They never spoke about finding it or passing it along
It just dissapeared, it went from one to the other
"I get back home one night, get into bed and I
say to my wife: "For God's sake, why on Earth do we need a cold hot water
bottle? Why isn't it the hot bottle water for?"
"I don't know what you are talking about" and it was his identical tomahawk"
Somehow, Alec Guinness got it into the Palace, at least once into
Grace's bed
"So, while she was downstairs, the tomahawk was put under the cavinet"
So, she ended with the tomahawk she read into paper in Europe
that he was being alert by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences
"I stayed at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel classy my housting
got back at 3 in the morning or whatever it was, and there in my bed
in the Wilshire Hotel was the tomahawk"
A lot of extraordinary, withdrawn, glamorous glaciar personality
put forward this sense of the ridiculous that only the British currently
appreciate or a 5 year-old child
Jessie Royce Landis played as Grace Kelly's mother in two films
and when Grace married Prince Rainier she said:
"I'm the one who advised her to marry him
and told her that would be her greatest role"
and one Monday morning she came into LB Mayors office
and said:
"Mr. Mayor I'm going to get married"
Well I said: "Jeez, that's wonderful I'll have a big reception for you upstairs
with everybody in Hollywood" "No" she says
"Mr. Mayor, you don't quite understand"
Grace Kelly had been news worthy as a movie actress
but now, her important source
"Grace Kelly, how are you feelling in this ocassion?"
"All I need is to say that I am very very happy"
"How about you Mr. Kelly?"
"Well, I think you can't interfere with love if they are in love
with eachother, will we?"
"I gave my blessing"
Reporters hung on every word and will alert to every move
made by Grace or Prince Rainier
"Will you continue with your career after you marriage?"
"That decision will be made by the Prince"
"Is Mrs. Kelly going to make any more movies as far as you know?"
"I don't think so"
He did come to the house that Christmas and Donald and I had
our own little apartment, and we asked them to come over for dinner
and he fit in very well even helped with the dishes
Rainier, when we first met him I think he might have been a little shocked
So we used to say: "Come on Raini" you know, but he
just fitted into the family beautifully
"George, lay down here please"
"Crazy!"
In 1956, Grace made her last Hollywood film
"High Society"
In it, she probably wore her new engagement ring
The sense of style
"How do you do? I'm Tracy Lord"