The Girl in White Gloves by Keri Maher: A Novel of Grace Kelley

I am a life-long lover of classic films.

It started when I was a girl watching old movies on our black and white television. In those days, I preferred Gene Autry, Andy Hardy, and Ma and Pa Kettle. When we moved to Detroit I discovered Bill Kennedy's Showtime. I was hooked all summer long. Jimmy Stewart became my favorite actor, but I watched swashbucklers, too.

My folks didn't have money to take us to movie theaters but we did go to the drive-in theater. When the sun went down, I was supposed to fall asleep on the back seat. Instead, I was riveted to the movie. The Incredible Shrinking Man, The Birds, and Marnie were some of the most memorable.

I became a Hitchcock fan, watching his television series, and I even had a book of scary stories with Hitch on the cover. Later in life, I watched every television broadcast of his movies. And that is how I first saw Grace Kelley--in Rear Window and To Catch a Thief.

My husband's favorite movie is High Noon, starring Kelley in her first movie role. And he was a Clark Gable fan back in the day, so I saw Kelley in Mogambo.

It was not until a few years ago that I saw Kelley in her Oscar-winning performance in The Country Girl. There was this beautiful, young actress made up plain and dowdy, her emotion so concentrated I could see the flames shooting from her eyes. Wowzer! This was not the elegant model offering Cary Grant a chance to handle her jewels.

I knew that Kelley was from Philadelphia. We had driven on Kelley Drive. And I knew that Kelley had died in a tragic car accident of unknown origin. And that she had married a prince and had two beautiful daughters who were sometimes the news.

That's it, folks. That was all I knew. And what better way to learn more than by reading Wikipedia and IMBD---kidding. What better way to learn more than by reading a historical fiction novel that imagines the hidden stories?

Several times I skipped over The Girl in White Gloves (PLEASE--no more 'girl' titles, people!) by Keri Maher when I saw it on NetGalley, but each time it caught my attention. I try hard to keep my requests in line as I am committed to doing justice to every title I get. I caved--what's one more book to the pile?

In the first chapter, I learned that Kelley had been offered the title role in Hitchcock's Marnie and was unable to accept! MARNIE! The movie that I watched from the back seat of the car, that disturbed me and made me return to it again and again to 'get it'. I read Winston Graham's Marnie a few years back after a chance to see the movie at a local repertoire theater when Tippi Hendron visited and told the audience about the movie. How could a princess accept a role about a troubled woman leading a double life, with a hatred of men and a penchant for theft? Who was made love to by a young Sean Connery?

Okay. That was enough to keep me turning pages.

In a few chapters, I learned that Kelley had played Tracy Lord in a musical remake of The Philadelphia Story! One of my very favorite movies! How did I get to be in my sixth decade without having seen High Society? Arrggh!

At the end of the story, I learned that at age forty-seven, Kelley became involved with poetry festivals, reciting poems! Including Maya Angelou.

I might also mention that Kelley was a knitter.

Maher admits to a dearth of sources for critical times in Kelley's life, like her long correspondence with Prince Rainier after their first meeting in Monaco. She 'took many liberties' for 'dramatic compression', which translates to providing a 'good read', and she speculates on the details of her relationships with men, her family, and the cause of her death. Hey, it's fiction. Get over it.

The story hits on all of the major events and films of Kelley's career. It also portrays Kelley as a woman driven to achieve excellence but conflicted by parental expectations that a woman's goal is to marry and bear children. You've had a bit of freedom, played make-believe, now it's time to grow up and become a responsible adult as a real June Cleaver, supporting your husband and bearing his children. Well, that role did not suit Kelley; Maher takes us into the marriage bed and it was positively Arctic.

Well, I gave up wanting to be a princess before I was five years old. Between Kelley and Princesses Diana and Sarah, it is quite clear the downsides far outweigh the perks.

I read a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

The Girl in White Gloves: A NOVEL OF GRACE KELLY
By KERRI MAHER
Feb 25, 2020
ISBN 9780451492074

Cosmopolitan Magazine, July 1957: A Glimpse into Our Addiction to Wealth, Fame and Scandal

Another vintage magazine I was given in December is a July 1957 issue of Cosmopolitan. I was in kindergarten when this issue came out. Mom did not buy Cosmo, preferring the more homey Women's Day, Family Circle, McCalls and Coronet.

Articles include "Princess Grace: Her Duties, Her Obligations;" "Nobility at Play Around the World;" and "The International Set--Who They Are and What They Do." There are also five stories and a murder mystery novel!

The cover story was on Grace Kelley, the beautiful actress who married Prince Rainier of Monaco.

The article asks, "What's it like to be a princess? Brushing up on her Philadelphia convent French, running a household staffed with 250 servants, playing hostess to foreign dignitaries, and being a mother are all part of Princess Grace's job."

The article includes a summary of typical her activities and photographs of Grace in her glamouros surroundings.

After the reader drooled over Grace, she saw an ad for a "An Affair to Remember." Movies mentioned in the movie guide include "Around the World in 80 Days", which I saw and never forgot; "Designing Women"; "Gun Fight at the O. K. Corral"; "Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison"; "The Ten Commandments"; "Desk Set"; "Twelve Angry Men";  "The Spirit of St. Louis"; "Saint Joan"; "Island in the Sun"; and "Funny Face". What a golden age of cinema!

If Princess Grace did not offer riches enough to lust after, the articles on the International Set and Nobility at Play would certainly fulfill that need. Marlene Dietrich, Aristotle Onassis, opera theaters, yachts, and "ennui escape" all appear in the articles. And fashion and food.

Audrey Hepburn and Mel Ferrer in their farmhouse near Rome. Audrey was the daughter of Dutch Baroness Ella van Heemstra. Later in life Audrey became involved with humanitarian efforts. In this article she is touted as hobnobbing with Roman nobles.

 

 

"Nobility" included Queens, artists, and heiresses as well as Europe's "ancienne noblesse." Gloria Vanderbilt, Queen Soraya of Iran, Aly Khan, Peggy Guggenheim, Elsa Maxwell, Begum the wife of Alga Khan (and one time fashion model) appear with Noel Coward, Brigette Bardot, Claire Bloom (appearing in Charlie Chaplin's "Limelight") and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.



An article on the Dominican diplomat Portfirio Rubirosa, "the darling of the international set and the scandal sheets" includes pages of photos of his five wives, including Barbara Hutton, and of his girl friends. The article states that "he has been hated by some of the best husbands in the world. Twice he has been named co-respondent in divorce suit...twice challenged to duels...once he was nearly killed by a woman who caught him with another woman...he was shot from behind in the streets of Paris." He makes Don Draper sound downright domestic.

His motivation for marriage is questioned. "I am not a millionaire. Most men's ambition is to save money. Mine is to spend it."

"What Makes Rubi Run?" The writer tried a Freudian explanation of the lady-killer as a man unsure of his own masculinity.

Both Grace Kelley and Portfirio Rubirosa died in car crashes.

The Cosmo reader of 1957 also had fictitious love stories to enjoy. "For Better or Worse" by Harriet Pratt is about a gal who marries a 'bad boy'. "Sisters of Divorce" by Stephen Birmingham concerns siblings talking about "what divorce had done to one of them." The warning is that "men swarm around divorcees...but don't marry them." "A Romantic Courtesy" by John MacDonald is about a man who meets the woman who had rejected him, and "The Lucky Strike" by Baird Hall is about a woman out to catch a man.

"Forever" by Harry M. Montgomery was a different kind of story all together. A doctor's life's work seems for naught when he reads that Salk has conquered polio before him. Then it appears his serum has revived dead animals... Sadly the last pages of the magazine are MISSING and I will never know what happened! I can find nothing about the story or the writer, and it appears he never had another story in Cosmo.

I love this ad was for Heritage Books. I always thought the books on one's shelves said a lot about them. And perhaps even one's magazines as well.