(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 Monegasques
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 Kelly's.
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 harbour"
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 Toko-Ri' 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 that she had a nervous
system that was similar to ?
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
A film 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 courage 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
want to be seen in an old tacky
sweater with her hair pulled back
in a bun, looking haggard
She desperately wanted to be this
great actress
"You'll be in the strong, sober hands of
Bernie Dodd"
"Can you stand him up on his feet
again? Because that's where all my
prayers have gone; to see that one holy
hour when he can stand alone again"
"Listen"
"And I might forgive even you
Mr. Dodd, if you can keep 'em up long
enough for me to get out 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 believe 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 seemed she had it all
This is after Grace had enormous
success in films and bought a very big
posh apartment, and I have an image
of her father walking through the lobby
and Grace peering out saying:
"There he is, he's coming"
and it was as if this fictional character
the Great Gatsby, had come 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 latter part of her career
There were so many people that were
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 started to think about
"Well, I want to get married too"
I was married in June, and I think I
broke the news that I was pregnant
and am 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 of the cool beauty
who held it all back and then just
gave that just enough to be tantalising
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
this neckless is an invitation"
"Well, I'm not"
She had a lot of beau's 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 many
of us have about wanting that one man
in our life to be special and
really, to be the old prince on the
white ?
A French magazine had decided the
palace in Monaco would be a perfect
background for Grace or a publicity
layout
And then, Prince Rainier indicated he
was willing to meet the beautiful star
Though he was known 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 comment 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?"
"No, it shouldn't, I don't think it 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 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 a film that was
oddly prophetic
'The Swan'
It was 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's in my heart
all my secrets, I adore Napoleon too"
"Yes, Princess"
"I want to hear you call me by my name"
"Alexandra"
"Alexandra"
There was an innate aristocracy,
elegance about her
not only in comportment, 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
humour 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
nor passing it along
It just dissapeared, it went from one
to the other
I get back home one night, I'm playing
in a show, 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 do we need
the hot water bottle?"
She said "I don't know what you're talking
about." It was this 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 ?"
So, she ended up with the tomahawk.
She read in the papers in Europe
that he was being honoured by the Academy
of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
I stayed at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel
clasping my Oscar
got back at 3 in the morning or whatever
it was, and there in my bed
in the Wilshire Hotel was the tomahawk
Out of this extraordinarily withdrawn,
glamorous, glacial personality
poured forth this sense of the ridiculous
that only the British currently
appreciate, or a 5 year-old child
"? that finnishing school,
I think they finished her there"
"Come on mother"
Jessie Royce Landis played 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 your
greatest role'"
And one Monday morning she came into
LB Mayor's office
and said:
"Mr. Mayor I'm going to get married"
Well he 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 importance soared
"Grace Kelly, how are you feeling on this
occasion?"
"Needless to say that I am very
very happy"
"How about you Mr. Kelly?"
"Well, I think you can't interfere
with love if you're in love
with each other"
"I gave my blessing"
Reporters hung on every word
and were alert to every move
made by Grace or Prince Rainier
"Will you continue with your career
after your 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 Don and I had
our own little apartment, and we asked
them over for dinner
and he fit in very well
even helped with the dishes
When we first met him, he might have been
shocked, when we'd say: "Come on Raini"
you know, but he
just fit into the family beautifully
"George, lie down here please"
"Crazy!"
In 1956, Grace made her last Hollywood
film
'High Society'
In it, she proudly wore her new
engagement ring
The sense of style
"How do you do? I'm Tracy Lord"
High comedy performances
she gave in 'High Society'
vastly different from anything that she
had ever done before
"Did you get lost finding us?"
- "No, not at all, we had good directions"
- "Good"
- "You don't mind our being here for your wedding?"
- "Oh, I'm delighted
we have so much cake"
"What is your name dear?"
Grace's sense of fun would never again
be as publicly revealed
"My name is Elizabeth Imbrie"
"Elizabeth Imbrie"
"Oh! It sounds like a medieval saint who
was burned to death"
"And you?"
She had made this extraordinary
luminous climb to the absolute top
apex of the industry
A lot of people have this quality,
and have no electricity
She combined them
She could have called the shots
from then on, I mean
she was finally in a position
not to have to argue about the
films she wanted to do, people would
have bought things for her
they would have planned productions
around her, they would have done anything
and she fell in love, and she said:
"Bye! I'm going off to be
Mrs. in this case, the Princess of
Monaco
and, before we all knew it, she
was gone
Grace Kelly had never really enjoyed the
publicity that came with stardom
Now, she would feel the burden of true
international celebrity
I don't know how she was able to
protect that small
core that's so necessary,
that keeps you sane, but she did
She was able under the most
extraordinary mirage of the press
and personal need that people
had, I mean, people just
I don't know why they do it, but
they seem to want to get inside
particularly, the press, of a person's
soul, and Grace had the extraordinary
ability of not rising above it -
separating herself from it
It was almost a mystical kind of
ability she had to be the quiet
eye in the middle of a horrendous
hurricane
And, there she was, just firm and
sure and calm
"... exciting thing and I am
very very happy, sometimes a little sad
to be away from home, but I hope
to be back quite often"
She chose as any average young woman
would, her 6 best friends and her sister
to attend her at her wedding to the Prince
And then, Grace Kelly of Philadelphia
with most of her family, and many of
her closest friends, sailed away
to become a Princess
Prince Rainier's yacht bears his betrothed
into the harbour at Monaco
a few hours earlier, Grace Kelly...
Once we arrived in Monaco it was, of
course, all the madness that one has seen
over the years of what went on
They came by the thousands, to
welcome and to judge
She was rich, she was beautiful
but, she was an American
and, to some of them, just an actress
I think Grace had tough job being
a movie star from America
moving into the life of the symbol
of Southern countries
Constant round of parties and being part
of this glamorous and mythological event
and just simply being around royalty
was new to all of us
As Grace took up a totally new role,
some who did not know her watched
and waited for her to fail
It was like a fairy tale, all of it and
that's the part that we got to
be part of
It was not a fairy tale
Grace relaxed at her husband's side
but she knew to the Monegasques she
now had to prove herself worthy
of being the wife of their ruler
Prince Rainier III
The last time I saw Grace was in my own
imagination when she was on the yacht
chug chug chugging away into the
Mediterranean after the wedding was over
and I realized that there was no more
Grace Kelly
Grace Kelly was a memory, Grace Kelly
was history, there was only
Princess Grace of Monaco
Then we all went home and she stayed
there
This was a very hard challenge for her
because, not only the language barrier
but in a foreign world, foreign customs
and the principality, the formal way of
doing things
She kept studying things that would
enforce her position as Princess
She utilised everything around
her, she improvised on being a Princess
the way a really good actress would
improvise on a part
For example, she always tried to
simplify things
Alexandre, the hairdresser in Paris, fixed
for her a number of special pieces of
hair attachments
So, when she would travel with all
these fancy aristocrats
while they were making appointments
with hairdressers, everywhere we went
Grace was always ready with one of
these hairpieces that she was making
into some kind of a wonderful hairdo
Never took extra time
Since she was, fundamentally
a working woman
She did everything with a great
purpose, and sense of responsibility
On cultural or diplomatic occasions
with Presidents
or with Popes
she was expected to be perfect
in bearing,
and often, in her newly acquired language
(Speaking French)
It was something that I am amazed that she
could handle
I wondered so many times,
'Oh, I could never do that'
but she was determined
to make the best of it
"Can I ask you to explain what will
happen in the event twins are born
a boy second, and a girl first
Who would be the ruling monarch?"
"The successor would be the eldest
child, even if it's a girl
but that doesn't mean that
she will rule, because
she can always resign or abdicate
in favour of her younger brother
and he would then rule"
"Are twins expected?"
"Not that I know of"
"Princess Grace, is your life how you
imagined it would be before you became
a princess?"
"Well I became Princess before I had
much time to imagine what it would be"
With the birth of a daughter, Caroline,
on January 23rd 1957
The line of succession was secure
Just 15 months later, a male heir, Albert
arrived to even greater celebration
I think the major thing came
when she had the children
and they did come very quickly
She wanted the children, she loved them
and we had so much fun
rough-housing together
Her children and mine are the same age
and they've gone to camp together
Don and I have been to Monaco
several times with the children
and they've come here to Ocean City
Their needs were the same
for closeness, and for family
In addition to her own children
Grace would always have the Kelly's
Prince Rainier soon found himself
an accepted part of that family
Grace always adored
children, and she almost
over-adored her own children
she was the typical loving
sometimes too disciplining
but always giving, mother
Private time was essential for them both
family life was a retreat
from the formalities of state
Grace was determined
to keep her family a success
No matter how demanding
her official schedule
there was always time for her children
There were the trips home
often with Prince Rainier
There was the anniversary
for Margaret Kelly
and her growing brood of grandchildren
For Prince Rainier, cruises on his yacht
meant he could indulge
his passion for fishing
Then, there was the time set aside
for enjoying the palace pool
with children and friends
I think she held on to her old friends
in those beginning years because
they were her reality as Grace Kelly
and she didn't want to lose Grace Kelly
There was never any loss of the sense
that she was Gracie from Philadelphia
She was
a girl with an American soul
and heart, and she brought that
to Monaco with her, and she never
she never chipped away at that at all
In the back of Grace's mind was always
the possibility of going back to being
a film star
I think she kept it there for those rainy
nights
I would occasionally read a script
that would intrigue me
I'd call her and send it on
The opportunity arose to do 'Marnie'
I think she leapt at it
I couldn't understand why she would
want to do it, and why Hitchcock
would want to do it
The Monegasques were absolutely,
completely undone because
they thought that she had abandoned
them
I think, that the thing that convinced her
that she couldn't do it was that she was
the Princess of the Church
once she believed that
dignity of being the Princess of the
capital Church was more important than
being an actress
she accepted it, but I think it took a
long time
In 1965, seven years after the birth of
Albert,
Stephanie was born
Once Grace's life as a performing artist
seemed to come to a close as she became
Princess of Monaco
She didn't discard her feelings for the
arts, any part of them
I got a letter from Grace saying that
she was going around doing poetry
readings for
a theatre in London that was being built
So, basically, Grace was an artist
and she did it through poetry
she wanted very much to have Monaco
be a cultural centre
Grace established a foundation to
further her goals
The Monegasques had been without
a playhouse for many years
a new one was built
Today, this theatre draws drama
companies from around the world
Once, the famous Ballet Russe of
Montecarlo danced here
Grace was determined to bring those
great days back
A ballet company must have a school
Through the Princess Grace foundation
a small school
run by one of ballet's foremost teachers
has been transformed into a
world-class academy
Both Caroline and Stephanie had
studied here as small children
Grace was frequently more of an onlooker
I remember a particular
general rehearsal when she asked me
"Do you think I could make them up?"
And all the little children gathered
around her
all the faces stood towards the Princess
and she was putting a little bit of rouge
on the
cheeks, and a little bit of lipstick
on the lips
It was a love of children and of
ballet that led to one of Grace's
few returns to film
The 1979, Earle Mack documentary
'The Children of Theatre Street'
about young dancers in Leningrad
They are the protagonists
but as their predecessors have
demonstrated
perhaps the greater protagonist is
the school they go to
"Angelina has practised these movements
hundreds and hundreds of times"
In the next 6 years, she will repeat them
thousands of times"
What makes it worth it is this"
Grace knew the demands of great
performance
but for the Monegasques, Grace herself
had gone beyond performance
Through the years, by her diligence, her
constancy
she trully was her Serene Highness
Princess Grace of Monaco
I don't wake up in the morning
thinking I'm living a fairy tale
I have a job to get done and children to
raise
and a lot of responsibilities and
obligations
I like to think that they would
consider me a professional at my job
no matter what it would be
If I take on something, I like to do it
well, and I like to do it completely
As some people often say that Grace
made a great sacrifice of her career
in becoming the Princess of Monaco
I don't think she ever felt that way
Well, I say
she made a
she made as good as princess as if she
was a movie actress
even better
You know, in fairy tales
one has to invent the prince and
the princess
but here, we have them
we had them
"It was in the rugged hills along the
border with France that Princess Grace's
car went out of control in a curve that
has seen many accidents"
"According to the official version,
princess Grace was driving her
17 year old daughter, Stephanie
when the brakes failed"
"A young Monegasque woman put her
feelings about princess Grace this way
"She was never a problem for us, there
were no ?, no scandals
but she was, after all, a lady"
I think she won the hearts
and the love of the Monegasque people
because, when she died I have never
seen such true sorrow
(Choir sings)
For me, I just had a great sister
and had a loving sister
(Choir continues)
Before she was a Princess
she was an actress
and before that
a girl from Philadelphia
a family girl