Exhibition at the Palace : Monaco, 6 May 1955. The Story of a Meeting
https://www.palais.mc/en/news/h-s-h-prince-albert-ii/event/2019/may/exhibition-at-the-palace-monaco-6-may-1955-the-story-of-a-meeting-3450.html
/MAY 14 2019
On Monday 13 May, H.S.H. the Prince officially opened the exhibition "Monaco, 6 May 1955. The Story of a Meeting" which can be discovered as part of a visit to the State Rooms of the Palace of Monaco until 15 October 2019.
Organised by the Archives of the Palace of Monaco and the Monaco Audiovisual Institute, this unique and original exhibition will put into context and offer a perspective on the first meeting between the American actress Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier III of Monaco, in this, the year of the 90th anniversary of Grace Kelly’s birth.
Winning an Oscar for best actress in March 1955 for her role in The Country Girl, Grace Kelly had shot To Catch a Thief by Alfred Hitchcock on the Côte d'Azur the year before, which included one of the legendary scenes which took place on the heights of the Principality.
Guest star of the 8th edition of the Cannes Film Festival, Grace Kelly agreed to change her schedule for a last-minute meeting with the Prince of Monaco, on the afternoon of 6 May 1955. Set up by Pierre Galante, a journalist at Paris Match, this meeting, which almost never happened, was immortalised by the magazine's photographer, Michel Simon, as well as by the Irish photographer Edward Quinn, who had been working for a long time on the Riviera.
The photos taken by these two privileged witnesses will be exhibited together for the first time. Posed or taken on the fly, these pictures, of different formats, demonstrate the interest and the technical and artistic quality of the work of the press photographers.
Designed as a photographic journey through the State Rooms of the Palace of Monaco, the exhibition retraces the steps of Grace Kelly, in the very places where she met Prince Rainier, with the dress she wore on this occasion, along with personal items, letters, testimonials, newspaper excerpts and films. All this documentation shows how the article, which passed almost unnoticed at the time, has become legendary, with its memories and stories.
Less than a year after this fleeting but decisive meeting, Prince Rainier III married Grace Patricia Kelly in Monaco on 18 and 19 April 1956.
“Monaco, 6 May 1955. The Story of a Meeting"
Palace of Monaco Place du Palais – Monaco State Rooms visit
Until 15 October 2019
may 6 1955 grace kelly meets prince rainier
https://www.gettyimages.com/photos/may-6-1955-grace-kelly-meets-prince-rainier?sort=mostpopular&mediatype=photography&phrase=may%206%201955%20grace%20kelly%20meets%20prince%20rainier&license=rf,rm&page=1&recency=anydate&suppressfamilycorrection=true
The State Apartments
The Princes Palace is the private residence of the ruling Prince but the State Apartments are open for public visits part of the year.
https://www.palais.mc/en/museum-and-visits/the-state-apartments-1-26.html
Grace Kelly & Rainier III, Prince of Monaco Wedding (1956)
https://fromthebygone.wordpress.com/2012/12/24/grace-kelly-rainier-iii-prince-of-monaco-wedding-1956/
Invited at Cannes’ Film Festival, in 1955, Grace Kelly meets the prince of Monaco and in 1956, the American actress becomes a princess while she settles in Monaco after a sumptuous wedding. News of the engagement was a sensation, even though it meant a probable end to Kelly’s film career.
The Napoleonic Code of Monaco and the laws of the Roman Catholic Church necessitated two ceremonies – both a civil ceremony and a religious wedding.
The 16-minute civil ceremony took place in the Palace Throne Room of Monaco on April 18, 1956, and a reception later in the day was attended by 3,000 Monaco citizens. To cap the ceremony, the 142 official titles that she acquired in the union (counterparts of his) were formally recited.
The following day the church ceremony took place at Monaco’s Saint Nicholas Cathedral, before Monaco’s Bishop Gilles Barthe.
The wedding was estimated to have been watched by over 30 million viewers on live television, and was described by biographer Robert Lacey as “the first modern event to generate media overkill.”
Her wedding dress, designed by MGM’s Academy Award–winning Helen Rose, was worked on for six weeks by three dozen seamstresses. The bridesmaids’ gowns were designed by Joe Allen Hong at Neiman Marcus.
The 700 guests included several famous people, including Aristotle Onassis, Cary Grant, David Niven and his wife Hjördis, Gloria Swanson, Ava Gardner, the crowned head Aga Khan III, Gloria Guinness, Enid, Lady Kenmare, Daisy Fellowes, Etti Plesch, Lady Diana Cooper, Louise de Vilmorin, Loelia Lindsay, and Conrad Hilton.
She and Rainier left that night for their seven-week Mediterranean honeymoon cruise on his yacht, Deo Juvante II.
Grace Kelly Royal Wedding to Prince Rainer III (1956) | British Pathé
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiOKFzRHm14
The Princesses of Monaco ~ Intimate Portrait
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JC-xI80N5IM