Live, from New York, it's Grace Kelly! (Wonderful Grace Kelly Blogathon)

Her film career was a whirlwind. A supernova. A comet blazing across the night sky—blink and you might miss it, but Grace Kelly left an impact. And it started with television.

Because before she made it big in Hollywood—and after she became the Princess of Monaco—she appeared on television. A new medium when she was a budding actress and an established art form by the time she was doing promotional work on behalf of her new homeland. 

From A Look at Monaco in 1963
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Today, I want to talk about Grace Kelly’s foray into television, show how it made up the bookends of her life and career, and look back at some of her biggest appearances.

Before we get started though, this blog post is part of the 6^th Wonderful Grace Kelly Blogathon co-hosted by The Wonderful World of Cinema and The Flapper Dame. It runs November 12-14, so make sure you click the link to read all of the other posts.

Onward!

A STAR IS BORN

The first thing to know about Grace Kelly is that she wanted to be a proper stage actress. She had no illusions of going to Hollywood to be a movie star. She applied to Bennington College for its drama department (but failed to get in because of her poor math marks [Ed. Note: Same, girl]) and instead shifted focus to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City.

Her parents—honestly, the Kelly parents deserve their own post. But to sum it up: they were severe, they were exacting, and they never thought Grace would ever achieve anything because the rest of her siblings were ‘superior’ to her.

Her only brother had to bear the weight of their father’s dreams of an Olympic dynasty (he never achieved gold). Her older sister was the apple of her parents’ eyes—imagine winning an Oscar and that same night your father tells the press that he’s surprised because he always thought your older sister was more talented! And her younger sister had to act as chaperone for Grace when she went to Hollywood because, otherwise, her parents wouldn’t have let her go alone.

Grace in a television commercial advertising gowns,1949
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And when Grace told her parents that she wanted to be an actor, they weren’t supportive. John Kelly, her father, reportedly considered actresses a step above streetwalkers, and they weren’t close to his brother, George Kelly, a famed playwright.

But Grace would not be swayed. As she told it: “I rebelled against my family and went to New York to find out who I was—and who I wasn’t.”

Margaret, her mother, was more willing to let Grace go and make a mistake. The family remembered her saying that Grace wouldn’t amount to anything and “she’ll be home in a week.”

The only way they ultimately agreed to let her go was if she stayed at the Barbizon Hotel for Women, which she moved into in August 1947. And though she followed their commandment, she refused to live under their thumb: she wouldn’t accept money from home, instead turning to modelling and acting in television commercials to earn money.

“My still photographs were okay, but in the TV commercials, I was—honestly and truly—just terrible. I think anyone watching me promote Ipana toothpaste must have run out to buy Colgate, or if they saw my Old Gold commercial, they would have bought Lucky Strikes or Chesterfields,” she would later joke, with the benefit of hindsight.

She felt that she was stiffen and wooden, her delivery not believable, and when her biographer, Donald Spoto, told her that it was hard to find any surviving commercials, she told him: “Thank God for that!”

GRACE KELLY ON TELEVISION

Television commercials transitioned into television productions, and before long, Grace became a guest star on some of the era’s biggest shows. Shows like Kraft Television Theatre, The Philco Television Playhouse, Ripley’s Believe It or Not!, Studio One, Actors Studio, Somerset Maugham TV Theatre, Prudential Family Playhouse, Armstrong Circle Theatre, CBS Television Workshop, Hallmark Hall of Fame, Lux Video Theater, Robert Montgomery Presents, and the Goodyear Television Playhouse.

Grace in 'The Rockingham Tea Set' from 1950
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Not a lot of Grace’s television work survives. In those early days of the medium, they weren’t geared towards archiving their materials—some stations simply taped over programs to film new shows (The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson famously doesn’t have many of its earliest shows for this reason, and when Johnny found out, he hit the roof). But she was soon so busy with television that she had to give up modeling in 1950.

So you’re lucky if you’re able to find Grace’s television work. I scoured YouTube, so I’ll link to the ones I found as we come to them. Let’s do an overview of Grace’s live television work, and I’ll offer notes as we go along.

Kraft Television Theatre

The Kraft Television Theatre was an anthology program that ran on NBC between 1947-1958 and featured stars like James Dean, Joanne Woodward, Paul Newman, Anthony Perkins, Jack Lemmon, Helen Hayes, and more.

Grace’s first live television appearance was on the Kraft Television Theatre in 1948. She appeared on the episode ‘Old Lady Robbins’, which does not survive, and which Grace apparently forgot even happened—she never mentioned it in interviews.

In ‘The Cricket on the Hearth’, a Christmas story by Charles Dickens, she recalled: “In one scene, a wonderful old English character actor and I were coming to bring a steaming hot pie to an orphan on Christmas Day. We were told to wave at the boy through a window, so I set it down for a moment—and the old actor stepped right into it. He came limping into the door of the ‘cottage’ with his left shoe stuck in a pie—and simply said to the other actors, as if everything was perfectly natural, ‘Here’s a lovely hot pie for all of you—Merry Christmas!’”

Her other episodes with the Kraft Television Theatre included ‘The Small Hours’, ‘Boy of Mine’ and ‘The Thankful Heart.’

Philco Television Playhouse

One of the best television anthology programs of the 1950s was the Philco Television Playhouse. It had a prestige to it, having won Emmys and a Peabody for its productions. Among the actors who appeared on the show between 1948 and 1955 include Melvyn Douglas, Zasu Pitts, Walter Matthau, Steve McQueen, Lillian Gish and Eva Marie Saint.

Grace’s first production with the Philo Television Playhouse was the title role in ‘Bethel Merriday’ on January 8, 1950. Its director, Delbert Mann, later said: “[Grace] did brilliantly, and immediately joined the kind of unofficial TV stock company we had in those days, made up of the actors we cast over and over again because they were reliable professionals.”

She also appeared in ‘Ann Rutledge’ as Ann on February 12, 1950. Other appearances included ‘Leaf Out of a Book’, ‘The Sisters’, ‘Rich Boy’ and ‘The Way of the Eagle.’ Grace appeared on Philco Television Playhouse productions through 1950-1953.  

Ripley’s Believe It or Not!

Grace made one appearance on this NBC documentary series, appearing in the 1950 episode ‘The Voice of Obsession.’

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Studio One

Grace’s earliest surviving television appearance came from Studio One, an anthology program on CBS that ran between 1948-1958.

In ‘The Rockingham Tea Set’, which aired January 23, 1950, Grace played a nurse-companion who is accused of killing a previous patient.

You can watch ‘The Rockingham Tea Set’ here.

Grace also appeared on ‘The Kill’, a western show aired on September 22, 1952. The appearance came on the helm of her appearance in High Noon, a movie she famously considered herself too wooden and remote in. But for ‘The Kill’ Grace had nothing but praise: “She seemed much more at home with a firearm than Amy Fowler did! I had fun with ‘The Kill.’”

You can watch 'The Kill' here.

Lights Out

Lights Out was another NBC anthology mystery and thriller program that aired between 1949-1952 and popularized using split-screen. Among the stars on this show were Eddie Albert, Burgess Meredith, Basil Rathbone, Boris Karloff and Billie Burke.

Grace appeared on two episodes: ‘The Devil to Pay’ on July 17, 1950 and ‘The Borgia Lamp’ ion March 17, 1952.

Notably, the NBC chiefs attributed Lights Outs’ ultimate failure to the ratings decline of being up against I Love Lucy when it premiered.

Armstrong Circle Theatre

Between 1951 and 1952, Grace appeared in several episodes of the Armstrong Circle Theatre on NBC (it would move to CBS after Grace’s tenure on the series). Among the stars that appeared on the show were Anne Bancroft, Peter Fallk, Elizabeth Montgomery, Gena Rowlands, Jason Robards and Jo Van Fleet.

Grace’s four episodes include ‘Lover’s Leap’ on June 5, 1951; ‘Brand from the Burning’ on November 21, 1951; ‘City Editor’ in 1952; and ‘Recapture’ also in 1952, which would give her the first top billing of her television (and, I guess, entire) career.

Ted Post, the director of the episode, later said of Grace: “I thought Grace’s voice was not yet blended with her stately posture—it was still high, a little girlish and breathless. But I said nothing, certain that things would improve during rehearsals. Then one day her mother came to the studio and took her aside: ‘Darling, your speech sounds a little affected.’ And Grace replied, ‘I know, Mother—I’m working on it.’ And work on it she did. By the time of the broadcast, everything was much more natural.”

Hallmark Hall of Fame

Yes, it starred all the way back then (1951 to be exact), and Grace appeared in a January 20, 1952 episode called ‘The Big Build Up.’

She recalled in an interview later about the abruptness of live television and how they were still learning as they went along. “Once I had a scene in bed. I had to wear all my clothes beneath the covers, so I could leap out and run to the next scene on a nearby set. But the TV camera didn’t cut away—so there I was, leaping out of bed with all my clothes on and dashing off-camera to the next room. The viewers at home must have wondered what the hell was going on.”

I couldn’t find any information on her appearance on Cads, Scoundrels and Ladies, nor any details about what this show was. She appeared in a 1950 episode called ‘The Lovesick Robber.’ I also couldn’t find information about Comedy Theater, which she also appeared on in 1950 in the episode ‘Summer Had Better Be Good.’

Other television credits included episodes of Big Town, The Clock and The Web in 1950. She appeared as a high class girl who falls in love with a poor boy in an episode of Somerset Maugham TV Theatre. In the crime-and-mystery anthology Danger, Grace appeared in two episodes in 1950 and 1952: ‘The Sergeant and the Doll’ and ‘Prelude to Death’ respectively. In the Prudential Family Playhouse, she appeared in ‘Berkeley Square’ on February 13, 1951. Later that year, she’d appear in ‘A Kiss for Mr. Lincoln’ in the Nash Airflyte Theater.

Grace on Toast of the Town (also known as The Ed Sullivan Show) in 1953
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In the CBS Television Workshop, she played Dulcenia in a 1952 episode of ‘Don Quixote.’ She appeared on Lux Radio Theatre between 1952-1953, in the episodes ‘Life, Liberty, and Orrin Dooley’, ‘A Message for Janice’ and ‘The Betrayers’.

In Robert Montgomery Presents she appeared in ‘Candles for Theresa’; in Suspense she appeared in the episode ‘Fifty Beautiful Girls’ and in the Goodyear Television Playhouse, she appeared in ‘Leaf Out of a Book.’

And on Toast of the Town (what later became The Ed Sullivan Show) she sang a duet with Ralph Meeker: ‘The French Lesson’ from Singin’ in the Rain. The October 18, 1953 segment was later included in Sullivan’s 10^th anniversary special program. Watch it here.

HOLLYWOOD

In the midst of her thriving television career, Grace was being called out to Hollywood for bit parts. Her first film, 1951’s Fourteen Hours, isn’t much to write home about, but it caught the attention of fans, and the Grace Kelly Fan Club was borne out of a brief—elongated cameo—screen appearance.

She meant for it to be a brief detour from her stage career, and life in New York, but then the producers of High Noon were at her door for a role in the film. Again, it failed to move the needle, but she did eventually end up signing a contract—Grace was very committed: she had it in her contract that she could go back to New York to appear on the stage, and that she could still live there. And she wasn’t scare of threatening to abandon her contract at all if the studio displeased her.

And you know how the story plays out from here: Mogambo earns her an Oscar nomination. She begins appearing in Alfred Hitchcock thrillers—Dial ‘M’ for Murder, Rear Window, and To Catch a Thief—she wins an Oscar for a dowdy, dramatic performance in The Country Girl. She stars in a string of stinkers like Green Fire and The Bridges at Toko-Ri. She meets her prince, she makes The Swan, playing a princess before she becomes one in real life. And she makes the musical High Society before alighting to Monaco.

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And then, at the height of her stardom, she decided to step away from acting, from Hollywood, from her life in the United States and traveled to Monaco where she married His Serene Highness Prince Rainier and became the Serene Princess of Monaco.

And for nearly a decade, she lives in Monaco and acts as its first lady. She has three children: Princess Caroline, Prince Albert, and Princess Stéphanie. She teases a return to Hollywood with Marnie, but the Monegasque people won’t hear of it, so she abandons it.

But then she rediscovers television.

PRINCESS GRACE ON TELEVISION

The last the general American public had seen of Grace Kelly on their television screens—or in movie theatres—had either been the news items when she travelled as a royal, or via the wedding documentary The Wedding in Monaco in 1956.

But on February 17, 1963, Grace returned to American television screens in the CBS documentary special ‘A Look at Monaco.’

Jacqueline Kennedy’s 1962 televised tour of the White House allowed the American public into the ‘people’s house’ and so too did Princess Grace’s televised tour of the tiny European principality.

Princess Grace retained the rights to ‘A Look at Monaco’ and it was only aired once in America. She took viewers on a tour around the principality—but purposely did not include the world-famous casino in Monte Carlo, as she did not want gambling shown on television. She also put it in the contract that the program must be aired in colour and that there would be no commercials.

Grace from a 1981 appearance talking about the Nativity.
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Among the sights viewers saw were the Prince’s Palace of Monaco, the Monaco Zoo, a performance at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo, a mass at the Monaco Cathedral, and an engagement at an orphanage.

Three years later, Princess Grace was back to narrate the ABC 1966 spy/anti-drug film The Poppy is Also a Flower.

And two years later, Princess Grace appeared in Monte Carlo: C’est La Rose. The special aired on ABC on March 6, 1968, and featured the princess taking viewers on a tour of Monte Carlo as she bumped into European celebrities like Terry-Thomas, Françoise Hardy, and Gilbert Bécaud.

Princess Grace did her own hair and makeup for the production, and reportedly spent her time at the Prince’s Palace waiting for the weather to cooperate—she was wearing a Dior gown for a portion of the film and it couldn’t get wet.

One review, from Rick du Brow, said that Princess Grace “finally relaxed on television and was not only breathtakingly beautiful but quite charming as well.”

Was life as a princess fulfilling? Princess Grace spoke an awful lot about how you had to find happiness and work towards it; that life wasn’t all sunshine and roses and that she lived through harder periods before the clouds parted.

There were things she simply couldn’t do anymore once she became royal: namely, her acting career. Though she sort of left it open-ended throughout 1956, Prince Rainier and the palace made it clear that Grace would be done with Hollywood.

But then she found her way back, in the ‘60s, with television productions and promotional appearances. And the reviews were just as stellar as they had been when she was a budding actress back in New York. The medium had grown, her influence wider, and now she wasn’t fighting for bit parts in anthology programming; she could command entire productions, set her own contract terms, and ensure that the director only showcased what she wanted to.

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From Grace Kelly to Princess Grace, television helped define her profile. It helped her get discovered. It showed a side of American royalty the public lapped up. She sat for interviews throughout her royal life (listen to Barbara Walters discuss their '60s interview here). She made cameos in productions she was interested in, like religion, flower pressing, and poetry (here's her last filmed appearance that's not an interview, from 1981). And it was how she said goodbye. Her last television interview, for ABC’s Twenty/Twenty, came mere months before her untimely death on September 14, 1982.

For many, the television introduced them to Grace Kelly. And on September 18, 1982, with her televised funeral airing around the world, it was how the public said goodbye to Princess Grace.