Grace Kelly’s beauty is legendary.But any assumptior that she was handed fame and success because o her looks would be a false one. In fact, Grace refused to use her beauty or sex appeal to get roles. She not only dressed plainly, even dowdily, at auditions, she hid her face behind horn-rimmed glasses and pinned her blond hair into a bun when not on camera. Especially in her early days, the off-screen Grace was far from the iconic princess Danny Peary defined as “criminally beautiful.”
In the pages of this book, an alternative story of Grace Kelly’s life emerges in photographs, quotes, and memorabilia from what was arguably the most exciting and empowered period of her life: her Hollywood years.Indeed, this may be the first book ever to present the story of Grace’s life as viewed through the lens of her film career. Here, her creative life takes center stage.Her passion for acting, her creative process, and the evolution of her screen persona are examined in detail.Grace Kelly-though she was born into privilege and blessed with enviable physical assets-did not appear fully formed on Hollywood’s doorstep and ascend to stardom overnight. She was made into the star that we know today.
A quiet, nearsighted child in a family of beautiful,robust overachievers, Grace was never considered exceptionally good-looking by her relatives. From her earliest days, she was forced to look inward and seek other ways to distinguish herself. She could never be the dazzling beauty of the Kelly family-that honor went to her older sister,Peggy. But Grace could be the most thoughtful, or the most creative, or the funniest, or the most dramatic, or the most tenacious. She aspired to attain inner qualities that would sustain her throughout her life. Flashy, fleeting glamour was never something to cling to.
The Kelly family from left to right: John B. Kelly (father), Margaret (mother), Peggy, John Jr., Grace and Lisa at the Jersey Shore in 1935
When she began auditioning for theater roles in New York, Grace could have wowed producers with her ice-blue eyes, chiseled bone structure, and lithe figure.Instead,she wrapped herself in cardigans, woolen skirts or slacks, and flat, sensible shoes. Her characteristic bun or ponytail gave the impression of a young schoolteacher or serious college student. Why did she deliberately dress herself down?
Because she had grown up emphasizing her internal qualities over the external. It was as simple as that.For Grace,displaying talent,sensitivity, and dedication to her craft was more important than displaying her legs.
She lost countless roles because she was considered too quiet,too reserved,or too plain-looking. Her black.and-white headshots were stark and unremarkable. A cameraman who observed Grace’s first screen test wa quoted as saying, “On film, she just didn’t come across.She generated absolutely nothing-no sex,no vitality,just a kind of subdued prettiness.”
Backstage of “Rear Window the Courtyard” from right: Alfred Hitchcock, Grace Kelly, James Stewart
But she persevered, and began to get small parts on TV and in films. In her early movie appearances and Hollywood photo sessions, the industry was still not sure what to do with her. She had a high forehead and a square jaw, and had to be photographed from the proper angles or she looked too severe.It wasn’t until Alfred Hitchcock and Paramount Studios got a hold of her in Rear Window that Grace the glamour girl was created.
The Paramount team,including costume designer Edith Head,makeup artist Wally Westmore, and still photographer Bud Fraker,were largely responsible for transforming the natural beauty behind the glasses into a stunning woman on camera.The most flattering hairstyles,cosmetics, and clothing were established for Grace. A perfect balance between glamour and simplicity had to be struck; she must be made up, but not too heavily or she looked artificial. “You can’t use trick lighting or hokey poses with the girl,” Fraker said in 1955. “The secret of her personality is naturalness.”
Photo from a High society Cary Grant and Grace Kelly’s film The Affluent
That same naturalness was also the secret to her Oscarwinning performance as Georgie Elgin in The Country Girl. By the time she got the role of the downtrodden Georgie in 1954, Grace had established herself as a symbol of glamour and sex, albeit reluctantly.Off camera, she still wore her glasses and casual slacks.On the screen, she radiated sheer splendor. That sparkling exterior is just what Hollywood mistook for the real Grace Kelly, and so the town was baffled when she discarded the makeup and evening gowns to play a plain-Jane hausfrau in an old dress and flats in The Country Girl. The irony was that Georgie Elgin’s look was closer to the real Grace than the public knew. To earn her Best Actress Academy Award, Grace had to strip away her newly acquired high-gloss facade and return to where she had started in the first place: a clean-scrubbed girl in a cardigan sweater that everyone accused of looking dowdy. It wasn’t so much a case of de-glamorizing herself as it was of being herself.
Once she had taken Hollywood by storm, suddenly Grace’s simple elegance became all the rage. A 1955 article in Modern Screen credited Grace for revolutionizing style.”Alone, singlehanded, and quite unintentionally, a bright new screen star is changing the tastes of Hollywood,”wrote reporter Marva Peterson. “Fashion experts find themselves promoting styles that de-emphasize the bosom and the tight skirt…. The swing toward genteel charm really started with
Deborah Kerr and Audrey Hepburn. It was Grace’s phenomenal success, however,combined with her genuine refinement, that really wrought the mild revolution.” Grace had always dressed
tastefully and conservatively, and had no intention of setting trends. “I’m merely being myself” was her only explanation for the phenomenon.
Marlon Brando kissing Grace Kelly after receiving the Academy Awards in 1955
Her on-screen image,however, was carefully molded by her own judgment, by industry experts,by Hitchcock,and by the guiding hand of influences like Oleg Cassini,who encouraged Grace to heighten and refine her natural style until it befitted royalty. “You don’t have to dress like a schoolteacher or please the headmaster at 3ryn Mawr,” Cassini told her. “Your beauty should be set ff
like a great diamond, in very simple settings.” Grace’s ame would eventually become synonymous with her style: the fresh ivory face, the lips delicately painted crimson, the short, sleek golden mane, the tailored dress, the single strand of pearls, and the signature little white gloves. For Grace, however, substance would always take precedence over style.
With hundreds of revealing images, this book offers a rare glimpse behind the scenes at both sides of Grace:the young woman yearning to express herself creatively and to be taken seriously, and the image she had to create in order to make her dreams come true. One purpose of this book is to illuminate all the hard work required to make Grace Kelly one of the biggest and most enduring superstars of cinema. After all, Grace was one of the few celebrities who not only attained the status of living legend in her own lifetime, but who remains an icon for the ages. Even icons have to start somewhere.