Its history, like its light and its shadow A fairy tale… though Sad ending. Grace Kelly has gone from being a Hollywood star to one of the most attractive and unforgettable princesses of European royalty. November 12, I will be 95 years oldBut as is known, a fatal traffic accident ended his life at the age of 52. Perhaps this is why his legend lives on more than ever.
Before becoming Hitchcock’s muse, receiving an Oscar or abandoning her film career to become the Princess of Monaco and an undisputed icon of the fashion world, Grace was a young woman trying to find her way.
© Getty ImagesRaised in an influential and wealthy family in Philadelphia, in the late 1940s she decided to move to New York to study acting and try her luck as an actress. The non-negotiable condition her parents imposed on her was that she stay at the Barbizon Hotel for Women on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. And from there the beginning of this story.
At this residence for young women, Grace Kelly shared a room with Sally Parrish, Carolyn Scott, and Prudence ‘Prudie’ Wisewho would become one of his best friends and personal secretary. The actress maintained an extensive correspondence with Prudie, the personal letters of which are part of a batch released last week. was up for auction Doyle Auctioneers & Appraisers, in the Big Apple. This rare collection, spanning 1949 to 1968, includes Handwritten and typed letters, postcards, telegrams, photographs and notes that Kelly Sent by his ex-roommate. Along with years of close friendship, the correspondence reveals the actress’s early ambitions, her rise, her relationship with the late fashion designer Oleg Cassini… the whole journey to becoming Princess of Monaco.
© Getty ImagesThe first important letter was postmarked in April 1949. Seven months before her Broadway debut With the Father, by August Strindberg. Over eight pages written in pencil on fine paper, Grace tells Prudy about a disastrous dinner at which she was introduced to her parents. Her suitor is Don Richardson. Appointment ends a Strong arguments with his parents and do The end of the relationship. On the plus side, she also told him, Richardson helped her communicate in the theater.
After some modeling work and her Broadway debut, Grace Kelly made her film debut, fourteen hoursIn 1951. They will come later Alone in the face of danger And Mogambo. Regarding the latter’s filming in Nairobi, Kelly noted in a letter to Prudie Kudner: “After leaving the camp two weeks ago, Frank [Sinatra]the glow [Gardner]Clerk [Gable] And I went to Malindi on the coast for five wonderful days… At Christmas I had a terrible champagne binge for about ten days… We all went to Rome. Ava and I are great friends now…” He also tells her that illness, injury and death plagued the production and that “old [Sinatra] He is very anxious to leave Africa.
A letter from the Savoy Hotel in London in 1953 while it was being edited MogamboGrace wrote that “Gable and Sam Zimbalist are tearing up the movie, which breaks my heart—I’m not talking to Clark these days and I’m not talking to Ava—but don’t tell anyone.” For her performance in this film, the actress won She was nominated for a Golden Globe and her first Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.
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© Getty ImagesBetween 1953 and her storybook marriage to Prince Rainier of Monaco in 1956, the actress played The pain of living, perfect crime, rear window And catch the thief. In July 1953, Kelly gave his friend a tip The obsession of suspense talent with blondes: “They are still debating my hair color. It comes in bright red in Warner colors and Hitchcock fits.”
In the following letter, Kelly says: “Saturday night I had dinner with the Hitchcocks. We went to Perrino’s, which was a nice place… There are really very few nice places to eat here; most of them are gorgeous places. Eat.” He ends by noting that, on the first anniversary of the Grace Kelly Fan Club, he took the time to talk to 15 girls who attended a party and called him on the phone.
Early next year, Kelly Ready to move into her new apartment in New YorkBut in a brief letter, on Paramount Pictures letterhead, presumably during its filming the agony of vivGo, he tells Prudy that he will settle first at the Bel-Air Hotel in Los Angeles. In the letter below, written on the hotel’s stationery, the actress mentions watching a screening of the film and a day of swimming in the famous costume designer Edith Head’s pool. In this letter he first mentions a new suitor, Designer Oleg Cassini —who would later dress First Lady Jackie Kennedy—Grace Kelly describes how she got the typewriter he used (“the only one in Beverly Hills”) and their spectacular outing together: “Last Saturday we went to a big party at Jack Warners.. .and the weekend before we went to Hitch’s Ranch… we had dinner with Bing [Crosby] One night… my father is not too happy about the prospect of having Oleg as a son-in-law… but now the plan is to get married in early October…” The union with Cassini—who was previously married to the actress as well as Jean Tierney—never came to fruition, But when Kelly left for Monaco to marry Rainier, Kelly wore a dress designed by him, whom she had met in May 1955.
© Getty ImagesIn April 1956, a few days before her wedding to the Prince of Monaco, Kelly wrote to Prudie: “I have no problem if you want to write an account of the wedding, as long as it’s not a report about the location and you write it later, since I’m on the guest list. No member of the press is supposed to be included.”
Once she became Princess of Monaco, she wrote many letters On actual letterhead. In August 1956, Grace asked Prudie, “Can you believe I’m pregnant?” and mentions buying maternity clothes in Paris before moving to the United States. About a week before Princess Caroline’s arrival in January 1957, Kelly expressed her anxiety: “I’m still not used to being a wife, much less a mother… It’s been so long since I’ve lived a normal life that I imagine I’m completely used to it.” It will take me a while to…
In early 1958, Prince Albert was born and the princess excitedly reported to her friend: “Our little one is too sweet for words. He’s gaining weight fast and will soon be a big fat boy. Carolina adores him.”But he gets very angry when he cries. Two such beautiful children and one of each!” Grace included several photographs of herself with the children in these letters. Later that year, the princess was in the United States and described a trip to California to meet with Metro Pictures. ; a trip to Jamaica with Colliers magazine and The new apartment he has on Fifth Avenue and he has decorated it with “a clock”. set of catch the thiefThat Cary Grant gave him.
In the later years of the correspondence, most of the Princess’s addresses are about her travels and instructions when Prudie should meet her; News of her children and her charity work with orphans, the Red Cross and other organizations.
In 1958, Prudie married – Grace was one of her bridesmaids – and settled on a farm in Maryland, where letters continued to arrive from Monaco, Switzerland, Spain and elsewhere. Around 1968 Prudy began to suffer from leukemia which ended his life in 1973. He was only 42 years old.
