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Princess Grace: An Appreciation

Looking the part of a fairytale princess, Princess Grace arrives at the Centenary Ball with Prince Rainier at the Monte Carlo Casino in 1966. Inset: editor Celia Sankar.

On the 25th anniversary of Princess Grace's passing, Monaco Revue presents an appreciation by editor Celia Sankar, who is the founder of the DiversityCanada Foundation, which promotes equal opportunity employment in Canada and abroad.

Once upon a time, I was enarmoured of fairytales. However, “The Princess and the Pea” spoiled it for me. That was the story in which a young prince decries all prospective brides, then throws himself at the feet of the first lady who passes the indisputable test of a real princess: she detects a pea hidden under several layers of mattresses.

My emerging sense of justice rejected the notion that someone deserved to be elevated to an important role based solely on evidence that she came from a particular background. If an author wanted even seven-year-old me to suspend disbelief and embrace his fairytales, he had to tell me something about courageous actions, protection of the defenseless, and a higher understanding of life, all of which I associated with the title prince or princess.

******

I was 12 years old when Princess Grace died in 1982. Like many of my generation, I knew little of her life as consort to the ruler of tiny, far-off Monaco. I knew less about the 11 films from the 1950s which turned Grace Kelly into Hollywood's darling. The first time I came to know much about her, it was through music – and it wasn't even her one gold record, “True Love”, sung with Bing Crosby.

When, in my early twenties, I took French language lessons, I instantly was enraptured by the dulcet tones of a singer on the course cassette. “J'ais deux amour, mon pays et Paris,” thrilled the chanteuse. I was stunned to discover the voice belonged, not to a hazel-eyed Gaul with long curls as I'd imagined, but to an African American by the name of Josephine Baker.

The course book and my instructor explained Baker was an entertainer who rose to incredible fame and fortune around World War II with her exotic song and dance routine; that she was well loved by France not only for her talent, but because of her assistance to the Resistance; that, in later years, she fell on hard times, but was given a place to live and was encouraged to perform again by Princess Grace of Monaco; and that the principality was where her grave site was to be found. “How very nice of that Monaco lady,” I thought.

Last year, when I came to Monaco and visited Baker's grave, I decided to find out more about her. I discovered the beginning of her connection with Monaco was the most fascinating part of the story.

Stymied by the prejudices of the 1920s, Baker, the daughter of a Missouri washerwoman, fled to Europe, where she became the highest paid foreign entertainer with improvised dances (later lifted by Michael Jackson and generations of breakdancers) and questionable, though iconic costumes (read: little other than a skirt made of plastic bananas). Her triumphant return to the States in the 1950s was noted even by the then powerful pro-segregation gossip columnist Walter Winchell. Baker began making civil rights breakthroughs by insisting she would perform only at venues which did not bar African Americans from the audience.

One night, after performing at the famed Roxy Theater in New York, Baker, accompanied by friends, walked across to the Stork Club, the haunt of high society and those seeking to break into it through their performing talent. Baker had achieved critical and commercial success to rival that of several of the Stork Club's entertainment regulars, but when she sat down, the establishment refused to serve her.

John F Lehman, Princess Grace's cousin, told me that almost two decades later, after performing at a gala in Monaco, Baker sat next to him at the princely table and recounted the episode:

“She told me that [she and Grace] first met during a famous incident at the Stork Club in the fifties in New York. Josephine was sitting with some friends in the exclusive back room. Grace, whom she hadn't met but who was newly famous, was at another table, and the columnist Walter Winchell was at another table. Winchell called for the owner, and in a loud voice requested him to ask Baker to leave, as it was not the practice to welcome 'negroes' in the back room.

“Baker was asked to leave, and, instantly, Grace was so horrified, she rushed over to Baker and, taking her arm, announced that they would go to a far nicer place, and never darken the Stork Club door again.”

What transpired between Winchell and Baker that night contributed significantly to her ruin; branding her a communist, he embarked on a smear campaign that made it difficult for her to perform in the United States. Baker eventually went bankrupt and was evicted from her home, along with the 12 children she adopted.

What transpired between Grace Kelly and Baker that night ensured Baker's fall was cushioned. Princess Grace and Prince Rainier, whom she married five years after the Stork Club incident, not only gave Baker a place to live, but financed her 1975 comeback concert in Paris to celebrate 50 years since her start in show business. After 14 performances of the revue, the 69-year-old Baker slipped into a coma and died peacefully in her bed.

******

As my egalitarian sentiments burgeoned, not only did I lose interest in fairytales, I grew suspicious of the relevance of regal handles in real life, where we all are mere flesh and blood, here for a brief sojourn. Yet, if I go back to my childhood definition of what it meant to be a princess, I would not argue with anyone who said Grace Kelly passed the test that night at the Stork Club.

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Comments to date: 5. Page 1 of 1.

Amy, Canada	Posted at 2:22pm on Friday, November 2nd, 2007
I also lost interest in fairytales although I couldn't agree more that Grace Kelly definitely passed the test that night at the Stork Club.
Ellen Noghes, Embassy of Monaco, Washington D.C.	Posted at 3:51am on Tuesday, September 18th, 2007
Many congratulations to Monaco Revue, and in particular, Editor Celia Sankar, on this meaningful and eloquent tribute to Princess Grace. Ellen Noghes Wife of the Ambassador of Monaco to the United States Washington DC
gail, Manhattan	Posted at 4:49am on Saturday, September 15th, 2007
What a lovely story and thanks for recounting it so others will know. To read more about several hundred talents in theater, dance and film that were helped by HSH Princess Grace and her Foundation in the USA, please visit www.pgfusa.org
Betty M., Sydney, Australia	Posted at 12:06am on Saturday, September 15th, 2007
Thanks for the story. But this is just one of many such annecdotes I've come across over the years that show Grace was essentially a kind heart. This shone through in her beauty.
Miss Anne, New Jersey	Posted at 3:53pm on Friday, September 14th, 2007
I knew about that INfamous event at the Stork Club, but never knew Grace Kelly had anything to do with it. My esteem for her just went up a hundredfold.

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