Her Serene Highness is returning to Hollywood amid wild rumors; now one of her closest friends tells what’s really behind the comeback “that could never happen”.
By Elsa Maxwell
The news that Her Serene Highness, Princess Grace of Monaco, will return to Hollywood to make a movie — with Prince Rainier’s complete approval — came as a great surprise, especially to their friends.
When Grace sent me word of her plans in advance of the newspaper headlines, I was frankly incredulous. For a long time. I sat staring at her cable, reading over and over the words: “Looking forward very much to doing this picture with Alfred Hitchcock.”
Unquestionably, the fact that a Hitchcock production will mark her return to the screen was an influence on her decision to make another film. She always has enjoyed working with this imaginative and stimulating Englishman, who is well liked by Rainier, too. Several of her outstanding successes were made with Hitchcock: Rear Window, Dial M for Murder, and To Catch a Thief.
The Princess obviously was also intrigued by the script of her new Hitchcock movie, Marnie. It is a psychological suspense story in which she w ill play a working girl who is a compulsive thief until she marries a wealthy businessman and is reformed.
Obviously, it is an emotional need that brings Grace back to Hollywood — not a matter of finances, as some insisted. I have been told that Prince Rainier is on Monaco’s official civil-service payroll for several million dollars a year. In addition, he has whatever wealth the Grimaldis have built up over 900 years as rulers. And, what’s more, Grace has the fortune inherited from her father. In tax-free Monaco, all this should go a long way.
I suspect it was to silence all these money rumors that Grace announced she was donating the fabulous sum she will receive for Marnie to a charity for needy children.
There has been another rumor, too — that Prince Rainier might be considering abdication. Like any other head of state, the Prince has his political problems, but I would be amazed if he ever abdicated. He has a very strong feeling for the ancient dynasty of the Grimaldis.
No, it would seem that the reason Princess Grace is returning to Hollywood is that she and the Prince have at last so firmly established themselves as husband and wife and as rulers of Monaco that they can afford a little more freedom in their lives.
To understand this, let’s go back to the grave crisis faced by Princess Grace when she, a Hollywood movie star, married Prince Rainier, playboy of the European world.
Palace protocol required that these gaudy images be replaced by dignified ones of a dedicated sovereign and his devoted consort. For years, it was vital that Prince Rainier and Princess Grace use the greatest discretion as to where they went, what they did, what they said, and whom they saw.
During this time, they appeared at innumerable functions, he resplendent in uniform with sash and medals, she beautiful in a Dior or Balenciaga gown. The sensitive understanding they both brought to this important job and the finesse with which they executed it should endear them forever to their ministers, their people, and their many admirers around the world.
Without doubt, the Prince was relieved to stay at home and settle into his job. And as Princess Grace redecorated their private apartments, supervised menus, and made frequent trips to the kitchen and the housekeeping departments, the ancient Palace of Monaco began to change from a gloomy pile of stone to a warm, bright, lived-in home.
Their greatest salvation has been their love for each other. Many times I’ve caught them holding hands beneath the table. This remarkable attraction brought excitement to whatever they did. Working together brought them a closeness they might never have achieved in any other way.
Wherever they went, whatever they did, Grace was every inch the princess — far more a princess, I must say, than many who are born to this high estate. And Rainier, slimmer as a result of menus carefully planned with his girth in mind, became more and more the handsome prince.
Much of what they worked for in those first years is now a reality: the railroad tunnel through the hills, the priceless addition of 22 acres of land built with till from the tunnel, new public utilities and communications, and the motor races and regatta which cater to the tourism upon which Monaco depends.
In January, 1957, when Princess Caroline Louise Marguerite was born, the joy of the citizens of Monaco was great. She was their assurance that the House of Grimaldi would continue to rule, that they would not be absorbed by France and become subject to French income tax and military service.
Then in March 1958, there was more joyful news. A 101-gun salute proclaimed the birth of a new heir. Prince Albert Alexandre Louis Pierre. Yes, the image of Rainier and Grace as wise rulers and a happy, home-loving couple had been successfully created.
I thought of all these things one night last summer when Their Serene Highnesses were my guests at the fancy-dress dinner party I gave to celebrate the opening of the indoor pool at the Hotel de Paris. Prince Rainier arrived looking unlike any prince I’d ever seen. His heavy hair was covered by an artificial bald pate, and he wore a fierce black mustache. Princess Grace came in a rubber mask with big fat cheeks and thick braids under a floppy straw hat. She wore skin-diving flippers, and both dived and swam like joyful porpoises.
Certainly no hostess could ask for two gayer or more appreciative guests than the couple from the palace. I’m convinced that only those who are happy within themselves and with each other ever offer such warm response. It was obvious then that they were confident in their roles and able to unbend for the first time since their marriage.
Another example of their new zest for life occurred one night in Palma when we improvised a band. Maria Callas shook the maracas. Prince Rainier beat the drums. I played the piano. Aristotle Onassis sang French and Italian love songs. And Princess Grace led all of us with the greatest enthusiasm.
The next day at the Plaza de Toros, Rainier entered the bull ring, and the Princess applauded with the rest of us. But her hands flew to her face when her husband actually approached the bull. “Oh my!”, she whispered. “Oh, no! Oh, don’t go near him! Oh!”.
The story of Prince Rainier and Princess Grace could well be the theme of a psychological novel. He was a lonely child. Princess Charlotte of Monaco and Pierre de Polignac, his parents, separated when he was a little boy. He was brought up by nurses until he could be shipped off to schools in England, France, and Switzerland. No child with this background could escape the psychic scars which come from feeling unloved and unwanted.
Grace had the samechildhood problem, although in completely different circumstances. She grew up surrounded by a healthy, athletic family. But she was neither healthy nor athletic. Nor was she as attractive as the rest of her family. So she retreated into herself while the other Kellys made their boisterous way around her.
Her drive to get ahead as a model and actress was her compensation, just as the Prince’s love affairs, deep-sea diving, and gambling were his. Yet they remained two lonely human beings until they met and fell in love.
There is no lack of affection between this couple and their children. How Princess Grace adores them! One day, watching Prince Albert and Princess Caroline dog paddling in the palace pool, she turned to me and said, “I’m so blessed, Elsa. I have a healthy, happy husband and children. That’s the most precious thing any woman can have.”
When Grace arrives in the United States this July, both Prince Rainier and the children will be with her. They plan to lease a house, either in Beverly Hills or Bel Air.
It will be a delicate undertaking for Grace to make this movie and return to Monaco without harming the princess image she so skillfully created.
But I have no doubt she has already figured exactly how she is going to handle the radical step she has chosen. And I know no one with a greater sense of public relations or a finer knowledge of what will and will not please her husband’s subjects — and her own fans.
Family Weekly (May 6, 1962)
Grace&Family 