Is it true that Grace Kelly performed at the Edinburgh Festival? trends now
QUESTION Is it true that Grace Kelly performed at the Edinburgh Festival?
Grace Kelly's light shone brightly and briefly in Hollywood. She made 11 films in five years before retiring aged 26 to marry Prince Rainier of Monaco. In that time she won an Oscar for best actress for her role in The Country Girl (1954) and became world famous for her roles in three Alfred Hitchcock films, Dial M For Murder (1954), Rear Window (1954) and To Catch A Thief (1955).
Despite repeated offers, she steadfastly refused to return to Hollywood. In 1976, writer/director John Carroll was asked to create a programme for the Edinburgh Festival to celebrate America's Bicentennial. He was delighted when Gwen Robyns, the princess's biographer, recommended the princess. Robyns explained that she had a deep love of literature; poetry in particular.
Princess Grace was, in September 1976, one of three performers in a poetry recital. The audience in Edinburgh's St. Cecilia's Hall gave an enthusiastic reception to readings from American poets such as 17th-century Anne Bradstreet (who was actually born in England) through to more modern luminaries such as Ogden Nash and T. S. Eliot. Princess Grace's fellow performers were the US actor Richard Kiley and the mellifluously voiced British actor Richard Pasco, but there was little doubt who was the star of the show.
Grace Kelly's light shone brightly and briefly in Hollywood (pictured: Kelly with Frank Sinatra in the 1956 movie High Society)
She won an Oscar for best actress for her role in The Country Girl (1954) and became world famous for her roles in three Alfred Hitchcock films, Dial M For Murder (1954), Rear Window (1954) and To Catch A Thief (1955) (pictured: Kelly with James Stewart in Rear Window)
She made 11 films in five years before retiring aged 26 to marry Prince Rainier of Monaco (pictured: the couple in Monaco circa 1960)
Princess Grace was, in September 1976, one of three performers in a poetry recital. The audience in Edinburgh's St. Cecilia's Hall gave an enthusiastic reception to readings from American poets such as 17th-century Anne Bradstreet through to more modern luminaries such as T. S. Eliot (pictured)
These performances were followed by a BBC2 special at Edinburgh's Signet Library. The special featured other acts from the festival, including the English tenor Peter Pears, the Welsh harpist Osian Ellis, the American Brass Quintet and the Scottish Baroque Ensemble. The princess was praised in particular for her rendition of Elinor Wylie's poem Wild Peaches.
Princess Grace was tragically killed in 1982 following a car crash in the hills above Monaco, aged just 52.
Jayne Britten, Thorpeness, Suffolk.
QUESTION Did Princess Anne write to Elvis Presley asking him to perform in Britain?
In the early 1960s, music fans were desperate to see Elvis perform in Britain and teen magazine Serenade went as far as suggesting that 11-year-old Princess Anne should write to the king of rock 'n' roll. They ran an If Elvis Came To London feature, with a series of mock-up photos showing Elvis as a Piccadilly Circus traffic bobby, Elvis in a bearskin performing sentry duty outside Buckingham Palace, Elvis as a Beefeater, and Elvis as himself outside the London Palladium.
On September 25, 1962, Elvis was invited by the Crown to attend the 1962 Royal Variety
