Grace

by Thilo Wydra

  However, in 1953, Rainier quite abruptly broke off this long-term relationship. On the one hand, it had just come out that Gisèle Pascal had had an affair with Gary Cooper that year, just as Grace Kelly had in the fall of 1951 during the filming of High Noon. On the other hand, it appeared that the actress could not have children. “The Parliament advised the Regent, ‘to care for the future of the dynasty,’ by not marrying Gisèle Pascal.”239 The appeal to his duties as a monarch successfully motivated Rainier to take this step, even if it was against his personal will and feelings. Two years later, Gisèle Pascal married the actor Raymond Pellegrin. She had a daughter, Pascale Pellegrin (who also became an actress) several years later, a development that proved the erroneous conclusions of the medical fertility exam she had been given. Later, Grace Kelly also had to go through the same fertility test, to confirm that the prince’s chosen wife could bear children and continue the Grimaldi line.

  Since 1953, Rainier had been a bachelor, and he knew that he had to have heirs in order to guarantee the continuing ruling line of the small country: “The regular royal succession (as well as its famous casino, Monte Carlo, and tourism in general) is the basis for Monegasque independence. According to the treaty between Monaco and France (signed in 1918), Monaco will become a French protectorate ‘in the case of an unoccupied throne, due to a lack of direct or adopted descendants.’”240 This succession law was changed in April 2002. As an example of the altered statute, the Monegasque succession can now pass to a princess and not just to a direct male heir. The throne can also now pass through an indirect family line.

  For Grace’s first visit, Prince Rainier wore sunglasses, a simple, dark suit with outside pockets, a white shirt, and a tie. He seemed older and more sedate, with his mustache and his strong, slightly stocky stature. They were both about the same height, although Rainier was a little taller than Grace. They spoke English with each other. Thanks to the time he spent at two British boarding schools, he spoke fluent, unaccented English. (At the age of eleven, Rainier was sent to Summerfields in St. Leonards-on-Sea on the southern coast of England, not far from Hastings, and then he was directly transferred to Stowe in Buckinghamshire, where he stayed until he was fourteen.) He was a chain smoker and a sports enthusiast. Sports. Cars. Animals. These were three of his significant interests and hobbies. He was a committed amateur actor, and he had graduated from the Paris École Libre des Sciences Politiques in 1944. A pragmatist for the most part, however, “Rainier was not a man of the arts.”241 And he was temperamental, suffering frequent mood swings. Thus, it was difficult for him to maneuver interpersonal relationships. He was an introverted loner with a mind of his own. Later, his tendency to be hot-headed and strict would lead to familial problems.

  On December 15, 1955, Prince Rainier, together with Father Francis Tucker, one of his close confidantes in Monaco, landed in New York at the beginning of a multiweek trip across the United States. Of course, the ultimate unofficial destination was Philadelphia. Rainier was met by a mob of television reporters who asked about a potential bride and possible wedding. In front of the rolling cameras, the following dialogue ensued between the nosy press and the reserved and obviously cryptic prince:

  Reporter: “Your Majesty, according to many rumors, you are in contact with various women. It could be anyone. The latest rumor: Grace Kelly. Could you comment on this for us?”

  Rainier: “No. I simply met Grace Kelly. She visited the palace when she was in Cannes for the festival. That is all.”

  Reporter: “There are numerous reports that you are actively looking for a wife. Could you say something about this?”

  Rainier: “No, I am not. That was falsely reported . . .”

  Reporter: “But if you wanted to marry—what kind of girl would it be?”

  Rainier: “I don’t know. The best kind!”

  Reporter: “And what would that be for you?”

  Rainier: “We’re getting closer to the issue, right? Well, she would need many good characteristics because I have an awful character.”242

  Over these December days, Grace was at MGM Studios in Culver City in Hollywood to film The Swan, her next to last film. She knew that the plan was to meet the prince on December 24 at her parents’ house in Philadelphia. This would be her first private meeting with the prince. It had been seven and a half months since she first met him in Monaco.

  At that first meeting on May 6, 1955, Grace had been twenty-five years old. The prince was six years older than her. After her death twenty-seven years later, the Paris journalist Pierre Galante had this to say: “The end was tragic. Everything had begun so beautifully. I could hardly believe that she had to leave life this way. That was very hard. My wife once said to me: ‘We, too, are guilty of her death because we introduced her to the Prince.’ And it was there in Monaco that she met her death.”243

  —Famous, Blonde, American:

  Marilyn or Grace?

  George Schlee, Gardner Cowles, and Aristotle Onassis. A trio of men who hatched a plan in the fall of 1955, a conspiracy of sorts. This plan involved the principality of Monaco as well as its yet unmarried, thirty-two-year-old prince. This plan was focused in particular on the increasingly sinking attraction of Monte Carlo (since the end of World War II) for Europe’s moneyed aristocracy as well as American tourists. The financial interests of the Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, who had invested millions of dollars in Monaco, were also a point of consideration. Onassis was concerned with the well-being of the small principality, but more than that he worried about the effect on his own finances.

  Since the early 1950s, Aristole Onassis (1906–1975), multimillionaire and owner of an international shipping company, had a special relationship with the almost ramshackle, money-strapped principality on the Riviera. Since 1951, the casino had operated at a loss. Onassis had invested in construction projects and real estate, in mansions and hotels and entire apartment houses in Monaco. Since 1953, he had held the controlling interest in the Monegasque Société des Bains de Mer (SBM), which had been established in 1863. Although Prince Rainier III had first welcomed the Greek’s investments, eventually he grew displeased with the way the public had begun to view Onassis as the actual Regent of Monaco. The SBM operated the casino (which had opened in 1863), the sporting club, and a variety of large, centrally located luxury hotels. These included the Hôtel de Paris, located diagonally across the street from the casino, and the Belle Epoque era Hôtel Hermitage, which was only a short distance away. Later, the latter hotel—Grace’s favorite—was threatened with demolition, and she personally intervened in its rescue. Both of these hotels belonged to Aristole Onassis, as did the casino. Essentially, this would be a completely untenable situation in the long-term. In spite of the financial support of the Greek shipping magnate, over time this could only result in the prince’s displeasure. In certain circles, Monte Carlo was even know as “Monte Greco” for a while. And the press often called Onassis “the King of Monte Carlo.” A thorn in the prince’s side.

  The undeniable reality, however, is that during the 1950s Monaco again became “the place to be” thanks to two individuals and their unique strengths: the financial power and jet-set popularity of Aristotle Onassis and the prominence and radiance of Hollywood actress Grace Kelly.

  Publicist Thomas Veszelits provided a colorful account of this time. “Onassis brought a fantastical life to Monaco. All of the yachts, his yacht and all sorts of other ones. As they said at the time, he was also very raffish, a typical Greek of Turkish heritage. He drank, likely to the point of it being a health condition. All of them loved to take short jaunts out into the Mediterranean. It is not far from Monaco to Mallorca. That is how it all started to develop. Mallorca was the summer residence of the King of Spain. At that time, Juan Carlos was quite young, and he was also a playboy. There is a photo of one of his parties on Mallorca, and on it you can see Onassis and Grace Kelly singing together, and Prince Rainier playing a drum set. That does not look like a bad mar
riage. It looks like a relatively relaxed one. Pictures reveal much. In archival photographs from the 1960s, they did not look unhappy.”244

  The tension between the prince and the shipping magnate grew, and it was noticeable to those around both of them. During the course of the 1960s, the situation heightened to a personal level. Whenever Rainier and Grace attended the same social events as Onassis and his companion, Maria Callas, Grace tried again and again, in a friendly and polite manner, to patch things between them. Nonetheless, the acquaintance between both men cooled noticeably. Separately, the financial issues, especially those involving the SBM, came to a head. In 1966 and 1967, the stage for a final confrontation was set. In order to again gain complete control of the SBM, Rainier authorized the recapitalization of the SBM’s capital stock into several hundreds of thousands of shares. Thus, Onassis would no longer possess the majority interest in the company. The proud, outraged shipping magnate filed a complaint at the highest court in Monaco. Of course, he was unsuccessful in his efforts. In reaction, Onassis eventually disposed of all of his investments, and for this, Monaco paid him a one-time sum of $10 million in March 1967. Again, Monaco was independent.

  George Schlee, a New York financier and the husband of fashion designer Valentina Samina, represented well the ambivalent connection between the three men. Schlee spent the winter months with Valentina in New York, where she maintained her exclusive fashion salon in the Sherry Netherlands Hotel in Manhattan. During the summer months, together with Greta Garbo, he crossed the Mediterranean on Onassis’s luxury yacht, the Christina. Schlee and Garbo were involved with each other for many years, and sometimes Garbo, Schlee, and Valentina would publicly appear together. George Schlee was Garbo’s agent and adviser, as well as her constant companion until his death in 1964. At this time, Onassis had instructed him to promote the businesses in Monaco. A basically outrageous plot was thus hatched.

  The plan was risky, and if it had not been purely opportunistic in nature, it could have been considered quite naïve. George Schlee had just returned to the United States from his summer trip with Onassis, and he and Gardner Cowles met at Cowles’s house in Connecticut. Without previously consulting with or involving Prince Rainier III, the two men were considering to whom they could marry him in order to guarantee the return of prosperity to Monaco by increasing its appeal to the jet-setters of the Western world.

  Unanimously, the men decided that it must be an American woman. A famous American. A famous blonde American. Yes, it would be best if she was a famous, blonde, American actress!

  The list they supposedly created held the names of some of the later Hitchcock heroines, such as Kim Novak (Vertigo)245 and Eva Marie Saint (North by Northwest), as well as Deborah Kerr.246 However, Grace Kelly’s name was not included. Then came the final entry: Marilyn Monroe!

  Gardner Cowles, the publisher of Look magazine, was the one who allegedly came up with this brilliant idea. He knew Monroe personally. At this time, the curvy blonde star was at the height of her career. Since her screen debut in 1948, she had worked on such films as Henry Hathaway’s Niagara (1953), Howard Hawks’s Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), Jean Negulesco’s How to Marry a Millionaire (1953), and Billy Wilder’s The Seven Year Itch (1955). Already only a few years later, in 1961, she would make her final film, John Huston’s The Misfits with Clark Gable and Montgomery Clift. On August 5, 1962, Marilyn Monroe died at the age of only thirty-six in Los Angeles under circumstances that have still never been fully resolved. For years, the official theory has been that she committed suicide. However, for some years now, the theory that she was assassinated has also held some weight, considering Monroe’s connection to the Kennedy clan. The objective truth can no longer be established. Thus, another myth came into being—another legend was born.

  In fall 1955, Gardner Cowles and George Schlee could come up with no better candidate than Monroe. Behind the scenes, Onassis gave a green light to the plan, and Cowles immediately contacted the actress. At this time, she lived with the photographer Milton H. Greene, whom Cowles also knew. (On November 12, 1953, Grace Kelly’s twenty-fourth birthday, Greene had held a photo session with Kelly for Look, and he later shot a rarely shown series of photographs of her in April 1954.) They set an appointment, Cowles, Schlee, Greene, and Monroe, at Cowles’s house. Outside, by the swimming pool, the two conspirators finally outlined their plan to the oblivious actress: could she imagine being married to the Prince of Monaco?! Marilyn Monroe asked only two questions: “Is he rich?” and “Is he handsome?”247

  Marilyn was not interested in anything else, and naturally she did not even know where Monaco was, just like Grace Kelly’s parents who first confused Monaco with Morocco. After a brief series of questions by Cowles and Schlee as to whether the Monegasque prince would accept her as his bride, she answered on the spot: “Give me two days alone with him, and of course he’ll want to marry me.”248

  Cowles and Schlee seem to have not considered the fact that Monroe was not Catholic, that she had already been divorced twice—in June of the following year, 1956, she would marry for a third time, this time to the American playwright Arthur Miller—and that her image as a raunchy, seductive, curvy blonde was anything but suitable for her future role as a representative of one of Europe’s royal houses. When Prince Rainier III later learned about these matchmaking plans, he reacted, understandably, with great irritation.

  In looking back, this hastily cobbled idea seems quite absurd. Furthermore, at this time, other things were already working to influence the fate of the prince and the fortune of a famous, blonde, American actress, who had just begun her tenth and next-to-last-film: The Swan, in which she played—what else?—a princess.

  The Swan

  (1956)

  I want to be a queen.

  —Grace Kelly, as Princess Alexandra

  Some of the films that Grace Kelly made during her short acting career seem to foreshadow, in an almost fateful way, the actual occurrences in her life. Again and again, she had to choose between duty and feelings (High Noon; The Country Girl; The Swan) or, sometimes by extension, between two men (Mogambo; Dial M for Murder; The Country Girl; The Swan; High Society). Again and again, she had to maintain her composure, to remain committed to a moral or ethical stance, or to assume responsibility. Like a common thread, there is a similar conflict in almost every film she made—one that relates to a decisive, existential life decision that had both moral as well as societal consequences.

  Perhaps the clearest example, The Swan anticipated Grace Kelly’s later life as the Princess of Monaco. It is a uniquely prophetic film.

  Her final film, High Society, also mirrors events in her life, although it seems to align more closely with times prior to her engagement with Prince Rainier, as opposed to Charles Vidor’s The Swan, in which Grace Kelly portrays Princess Alexandra, daughter of Princess Beatrix (Jessie Royce Landis, who had already played Grace’s mother once, in To Catch a Thief). Alexandra is a woman who must choose between two men. Even though she really does not have the freedom to choose, she finds herself stuck between her tutor Dr. Nicholas Agi (Louis Jourdan) and his Royal Majesty Crown Prince Albert (Alec Guinness). Albert decides to visit the castle of his cousin Beatrix for several days, and Beatrix’s greatest hope is that Albert will discover Alexandra’s virtues and ask her to marry him. This would allow the family line to continue and would preserve the castle. And Alexandra would become the wife of the future king. However, as an inconvenience for everyone, Albert only cares about ball sports, duck hunting, and sleeping in. The increasingly despairing Beatrix then puts together a plan to turn Albert’s attention to Alexandra. The mother asks her daughter to invite the court tutor Dr. Agi to the evening ball being held in Crown Prince Albert’s honor. The idea is that this will make Albert jealous. Up until this point, Albert has only said that Alexandra “was like an icicle, and I was like a fish.”249 This humorous comparison reflects the “cool blonde” image long associated with Grace Kelly. On the other
hand, Nicholas Agi, whom Alexandra invited to the court ball in person, interprets the invitation as a returning of his deep feelings for her. And he will soon be proven correct.

  For the first time, completely unexpectedly, the young princess has discovered love, specifically for the modest and charming court tutor Agi, who has long been in love with the stylish, unapproachable, somewhat childish princess. However, the circumstances require that she marry Prince Albert and that she learn to love him—just as she would learn to love Prince Rainier. When Agi learns of this plan he leaves the castle, utterly heartbroken. Watching as he goes, Alexandra stays behind. She will marry the crown prince.

  There is another interesting parallel in The Swan. The principality in the movie is just as tiny as Monaco, whose borders do not even encompass two square miles.

  The parallels to Grace’s actual life are quite astonishing. Shortly before the official announcement of her engagement with Prince Rainier III on January 5, 1956, in her hometown of Philadelphia, Grace finally ended her relationship, albeit a loose one, with her lover, fashion designer Oleg Cassini. She did this on the Staten Island Ferry.

  The moment in which she severed their quite serious connection must have struck Cassini like a bullet. He was shocked; there seemed to be no emotional justification for what she had done.250 (According to his own statements, he considered his short time with Grace to be “the most magical days I ever had in my entire life.”251)