Princess Gracia Patricia (1929-1982)

[fogdancer]

Only a woman as beautiful as Grace could get away with wearing a monstrosity like that!

How true that is.  I also read that the morning of her meeting with Rainier, her hotel's electricity went out while her hair was sopping wet, so she had to pull it back like that and wear the floral headpiece also; it wasn't what she'd originally planned to with her hair, and she was very nervous about "looking terrible" to meet the prince of Monaco for the first time.

I do think Grace was among the most beautiful women of her day (and any day). But I think Paola of Belgium might even have been more beautiful when young. The photos of her back then take one's breath completely away.

The gown is a Gucci not even their perfumes are good.

[DowntownTO]

I simply don't know whether Grace ever became a good actor. The only films of hers that I have seen are "The Country Girl" and "Rear Window". I saw "The Country Girl" decades ago and don't remember anything about it except that I thought she did a competent job. In "Rear Window" I find her delightful, but that I think is because the role suits her so well that it doesn't demand much technique. I am interested in hearing the opinions of posters who have seen other films of hers.

[fogdancer]

Grace and Diana









A pity that they couldn´t meet more. Diana attended Graces funeral

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOESXqBczRo

The video makes me always so sad 

I've read many newspapers and magazines, and people said at the tim who was driving the car was stephanie, and she wore a collar at her neck for several weeks, some say even with a massive trauma at her head wich caused a edema and later astroke at her brain Grace switched positions in the car, and also the explanation was she confused brake and accelerator... come on..,  she was unhappy we know, at the hospital she had her head shaved, this sis why we see her in the coffin with an weird hair... it was a wig. sad

[Ugly Betty]

I also remember reading that Jack Kelly was at first unimpressed as he thought Grace had fallen in love with a prince from Morocco !!!

Was she really in love? I don't mean that as a critical response to your post, your words just got me thinking. For some reason I always had the impression that for all her Hollywood experience/travels/independence, Grace was really an old school Main Line girl at heart who knew a job didn't excuse her from marrying well. I remember seeing something about the courtship happening very fast and had the impression it was almost businesslike, but I've never read much about their actual relationship. She never seemed to have that 'desperately in love' look to her but of course she wouldn't have given away much anyway, she had such a polished (though charming) presentation. Were there ever rumors about their relationship? I recall mentions that it was sometimes rocky, but no specifics. Sometimes I wish we had tabloids back then    They just seem a curious pair.

Grace was not a Main Line girl.  She never lived on the Main Line.  The Kellys were city folk through and through.

I don't think it was a love relationship in the beginning because they really only met a few times before they married.  I think they liked and cared about each other and grew to love each other but I think it was more friendship and romantic love.  I think her true love was Oleg Cassini but her parents refused to allow her to marry a divorced, non-Catholic. 

[Ugly Betty]

I simply don't know whether Grace ever became a good actor. The only films of hers that I have seen are "The Country Girl" and "Rear Window". I saw "The Country Girl" decades ago and don't remember anything about it except that I thought she did a competent job. In "Rear Window" I find her delightful, but that I think is because the role suits her so well that it doesn't demand much technique. I am interested in hearing the opinions of posters who have seen other films of hers.

She was IMO a movie star more than an actress.  "The Country Girl" was her best work as far as stretching herself as an actor.

[DowntownTO]

I simply don't know whether Grace ever became a good actor. The only films of hers that I have seen are "The Country Girl" and "Rear Window". I saw "The Country Girl" decades ago and don't remember anything about it except that I thought she did a competent job. In "Rear Window" I find her delightful, but that I think is because the role suits her so well that it doesn't demand much technique. I am interested in hearing the opinions of posters who have seen other films of hers.

She was IMO a movie star more than an actress.  "The Country Girl" was her best work as far as stretching herself as an actor.

Yes, I think that's the case.

[bumbershoot]

I think that ``Irish Catholic'' and ``Main Line'' are self-contradictory terms.

[Ugly Betty]

I think that ``Irish Catholic'' and ``Main Line'' are self-contradictory terms.

The Main Line has always been very diverse and Irish Catholics have lived there since the beginning.

[tgb]

Beg pardon, I didn't even know whether Grace lived in the city or the suburbs when I mentioned the infamous ML. More than geography I just meant I think of her as old school girl -- her father was wealthy, she went to prestigious schools -- and I was assuming she might have been brought up more to marry than earn a living, which is what old money families of that era in the you-know-where were probably up to as well. Her father hated acting and essentially paid a dowry, so I was just guessing she either felt or had some pressure to marry herself well before she got much older. It's a pretty old family attitude, in its way, though I'm sure you found it as much in the city as the suburbs.

[Ugly Betty]

Beg pardon, I didn't even know whether Grace lived in the city or the suburbs when I mentioned the infamous ML. More than geography I just meant I think of her as old school girl -- her father was wealthy, she went to prestigious schools -- and I was assuming she might have been brought up more to marry than earn a living, which is what old money families of that era in the you-know-where were probably up to as well. Her father hated acting and essentially paid a dowry, so I was just guessing she either felt or had some pressure to marry herself well before she got much older. It's a pretty old family attitude, in its way, though I'm sure you found it as much in the city as the suburbs.

I see your point but I don't think Grace's father would have objected to her having a career but one that was more respectable than acting.  Her mother had a career of her own (the first female physical education teacher at the University of Pennsylvania) so if Grace wanted to work I doubt he would have cared on way or the other.  The old money folks on the more prestigious parts of the Main Line (and the city where the REAL money lived) may have bred their daughters for little more than marrying well but Jack Kelly was a very liberal, very new money character who marched to the beat of his own drummer.  The dowry that was paid was a tradition in European royal families and he was reportedly very unhappy that he would have to provide money for a son-in-law who should be able to provide for himself and thought that giving his daughter should have been enough for Rainier.  He didn't pay a dowry for Peggy or Lizanne.

[bumbershoot]

I didn't know that about the Main Line. I thought it was one of those snobby WASP enclaves like parts of Boston where no Irish need apply.

[Ugly Betty]

I didn't know that about the Main Line. I thought it was one of those snobby WASP enclaves like parts of Boston where no Irish need apply.

Nah.  That's just a bum rap.  Yes, there are some snobby WASPs but they are actually in the minority.  If you can afford the high price of living there, you are more than welcome.  That's the only requirement.

No Irish need apply?  In Boston?  Really?

[Curtains]

I didn't know that about the Main Line. I thought it was one of those snobby WASP enclaves like parts of Boston where no Irish need apply.

I can't even think of a spot in Boston since Honey Fitz was mayor that the Irish "need not apply" but I'm sure you'll be able to provide enlightenment on that.

Grace's family were not old money by any stretch, but their money and Grace's money were very welcome in Monaco.  IIRC, as negotiations began in earnest, the Kellys were required to put up a dowry for Grace ($2MM, or 16.8MM in today's dollars) which they found absurd and refused to enter into.  Grace, exasperated, took the money from her own savings from her Hollywood career for the half of the dowry, and the other $1MM was provided by the Kelly family as an "advance" against her expected inheritance. 

[bumbershoot]

Well, I'm talking about social attitudes from more than 50 years ago. And so much has changed since then.  I can remember going to a Junior League meeting nearly back then (no, I'm NOT a Junior Leaguer) and when someone''s (very obviously Irish Catholic) name was mentioned, heard this woman dismissed with a rather sniffy ``Oh, isn't she Irish or something . . . . .''

And I do think that there are some levels of blue-blood Yankee Waspdom where even now, being Irish Catholic is not to one's social advantage no matter how much money you have.  One of my friends who grew up in Boston said her family had that attitude about the Kennedys even after JFK's election, his having had a grandpa as mayor of Boston notwithstanding.

[Curtains]

I seem to remember an incident with Princess Grace in Ocean City from I guess the late 1970s or early 1980's.  Ocean City, New Jersey is a rather quiet seashore town.  You would *not* find anyone from that horrible show "Jersey Shore" there, particularly as it was founded and remains a dry community.  The Kelly family, in common with many families from Philadelphia, had a summer place "down at the shore;" some, more luxurious than others.

Her family had a place there, but she had not been even a part time resident for quite some time. When visiting family there, she and I think Fat Al and Stephanie went to the beach. They lacked the seasonal beach tags that permit one to be on the beach at Ocean City.  She and her family were challenged for the beach tags and they pulled a variation of DYKWIA....the response was, yes, and you still need a beach tag.

ETA:  Found this - it doesn't reference the incident but is more of a background:  http://jerseyshorejournal...mmered-in-ocean-city.html