Grace Kelly: The American Princess | The Hollywood Collection

She was born in a prospers

Philadelphia family.

Though she was a shy child,

she will 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..."

At 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 reallity 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.

Monaco, a principality of less than

five hundred acres on the French Riviera.

For centuries, the Monégasques had held on

to their distinctive character,
and their pride.

But, to this world, this place was known

as a "playground for the wealthy"

and came to enjoy its beauty
and its gambling.

Monaco became a home of young
American actress

who arrived in 1956 to be its Princess.

She brought it fame, her cool beauty,

her intelligence, and she brought war

a sense of purpose.

Well, this story about the Princess
was firmly anchored in reality.

Reality 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 elected 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 that the world

was what you made of.

Margaret Majer, who married Jack, had been

a model as well as a champion
swimmer athlete.

Margaret and Jack were determined

to raise their children their own way.

If you are good enough, you're sure
to reach the top.

It was drilled into the Kelly children
from their earliest years.

As a family, we were always very close,

four of us, Peggy, my sister, the oldest,

our 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, she
was very shy

and a mama's baby.

There were many times
were we had pictures taken

that our mother had to lean back

away from the camera so Grace
would not cry

and taken away from her mother,

she was very sweet and soft, and
loved to held

and cuddled and kissed, and loved.

I, on the other hand, and I think my

brother and older sister, were more

"don't let me," "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 marvelous time,

and Grace, all her life, loved
being by the ocean and the sea.

Grace and all the family were
a competitive family.

I think we got that, I know we got

that from our mother
and our father.

They stilled 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 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 sports 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,
Jack Kelly,

were of an enormous man with

a tremendous amount of gusto,
everything up front,

everything in the open, moved ahead.

A nice man, but not a tremendous
amount of internal sensitivity.

Her father believed absolutely to Peggy,

the elder sister was going to be

like the big star of the family and
succeed,

and he never payed 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 Kell,

John B. Kelly Jr., an also athletic
star, great racer,

her father thought he was great,

but Gracie just accepted, and I
don't think

he understood her at all,

but she adored him.

And yet, one wonders, what 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

you to go out and become the
fullest part of yourself.

She decided to go to New York, and my

mother and father 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 mount 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 modeling.

She got her round 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.

And 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
for myself,

I don't want to do it at all."

I was very taken away for 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 was 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."

"Because there is no automobile
'going pass in the road'

and the 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 get
changed.

Television when they had to flat
full 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 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!"

"When I was watching you from
across the room,

you kept filling your glass
every few minutes."

"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
on 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
schoolteacher!"

She's from Philadelphia, and that's
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

at my wedding to my then-
husband Jay Kanter,

who was her agent.

I was intrigued by her looks in the
photographs that he sent me

by her background, and probably
more by the fact that

she 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 as 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.