DOYLESTOWN — “From Philadelphia to Monaco: Grace Kelly — Beyond the Icon” will make you nostalgic for a time before celebrities got rewarded for bad behavior, and when fashion wasn’t quite so disposable.
A quote painted on one of the exhibit walls from the Philadelphia native, movie star, fashion plate of the ’50s and ’60s, and princess of Monaco, speaks to the ladylike manner that Kelly carried herself.
“I would like to be remembered as someone who accomplished useful deeds, and who was a kind and loving person. I would like to leave the memory of a human being with a correct attitude and who did her best to help others,” she said.
That so many of Kelly’s classically elegant designer dresses, movie costumes, formalwear — even bathing robes — are available to display comes from what Kristina Haugland described as Kelly’s “attitude toward clothes.”
“She was as loyal to them as she was her old friends,” said Haugland, author of two books on Kelly, and the Le Vine Associate Curator of Costume and Textiles and Supervising Curator for the Study Room at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Kelly’s old friends included Cary Grant, Jimmy Stewart, Alfred Hitchcock — for whom she was the leading lady in three of his movies.
According to Haugland, Kelly agreed to donate her wedding dress to the Art Museum even before the wedding took place as a gesture to apologize for those disappointed that she chose to get married to Prince Rainier III in Monaco, instead of Philadelphia.
Drawing from a collection of Kelly’s belongings from the archives of the Palace of Monaco and the Grimaldi Forum, the exhibition illustrates her life through letters — including notes from her husband, Alfred Hitchcock, Cary Grant and — photographs, awards, designer fashions by the likes of Dior, Chanel and Givenchy, personal artifacts, film clips, playbills, home movies — including frolicking on the beach at the Jersey Shore — and souvenirs from her acting career.
Highlights of “Beyond the Icon” include the gown she wore to the Oscars in 1955 and dresses she wore in the movies “To Catch a Thief,” “High Society,” “Mogambo” and “The Swan.”
Kelly’s stage acting debut happened in New Hope at the Bucks County Playhouse, where she was in the plays “The Torch-Bearers” and “The Heiress.” According to the theater’s producing director, Jed Bernstein, even after she had made her way to Hollywood to build her film acting career, Kelly returned to the Bucks County Playhouse stage in 1952 for the show “An Accent on You.”
Kelly would go on to win a Best Actress Academy Award for the 1954 film “The Country Girl,” start philanthropic organizations in both Monaco and the United States, and became an international style and fashion icon that The Associated Press credited with “making good taste glamorous.”
But there’s a lot more to know about Princess Grace beyond her celebrity. This fall “From Philadelphia to Monaco: Grace Kelly — Beyond the Icon” opens at the James A. Michener Art Museum in Doylestown. It will be the only U.S. venue to display the exhibition.
A sample of special ticketed museum programming in conjunction with “Beyond the Icon” includes:
“Adorning Grace: Jewelry Fit for a Princess,” noon-5 p.m. Nov. 3.
“Grace Kelly: 1950s Fashion Star, 7 p.m. Nov. 7.
Thursday evening lectures by H. “Grace Kelly: Icon of Style to Royal Bride,” 7 p.m. Thursdays Nov. 7-21.
For more information, visit www.michenermuseum.org/events.
IF YOU GO: “From Philadelphia to Monaco: Grace Kelly — Beyond the Icon” runs Monday through Jan. 26 at the James A. Michener Art Museum, 138 S. Pine St., Doylestown. The exhibit will be open 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m. weekdays (until 8 p.m. Thursdays), 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturdays and noon-5 p.m. Sundays. The exhibition will be using a timed ticket system. Tickets are available at www.michenermuseum.org or by calling 800-595-4849. Cost is $18, $17 for seniors, $16 for students, $8 for ages 6-18. Advance tickets will not be sold at the museum. Museum members do not need timed tickets.
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