A new Grace Kelly exhibit opens in her home area of Philadelphia this October. It will be called "Grace Kelly, Beyond the Icon."
The Irish American actress married her fairy tale Prince Rainier in 1956 and became a member of the Monaco Royal family but apparently never forgot her Philly roots. She died in 1982.
"She never lost touch with her family and the Philadelphians that she grew up with," said Kelly's nephew Christopher Le Vine, who remembered his aunt packing some Philadelphia scrapple — a loaf of pork scraps and cornmeal — and bringing it back to Monaco for the palace chef to recreate.
"She was going to tell him that it was a certain special pate from Philadelphia ... for petit dejeuner (breakfast)," Le Vine told the laughing crowd at a press conference. "She had her Philadelphia roots with her wherever she went."
The exhibit will open on Oct. 28 at the Michener Art Museum in the suburb of Doylestown.
Included in the exhibit, according to AP, will be ”personal photos, love letters from her husband Prince Rainier of Monaco, her 1954 best actress Academy Award for "The Country Girl," film clips and home movies, as well as iconic fashions from gowns and the Yves Saint Laurent "Mondrian" dress to the Hermes "Kelly" bag she made famous.”
Her son Prince Albert II, said via video that his mother "was indeed a talented woman who became an international fashion icon but that is just the surface of her life."
"Those of us who were fortunate enough to know my mother, her family and friends, knew her to be a genuine, warm and loving woman — a woman who always put her family first," he said. "I hope that through experiencing this exhibition you will be able to get a glimpse of the real Grace Kelly, the woman behind the icon, my mother."
Maguy Maccario Doyle, consul general of Monaco in New York, said her philanthropic work is more remembered than her movies in Monaco.
"There are many places in Monaco that today remind us of her presence," she said. "Her memory endures, and certainly the principality of Monaco will forever bear the imprint of her presence and the heartache of her absence."
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