Grace Kelly: The American Princess | The Hollywood Collection

(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