THE FORGOTTEN PRINCESS …#nostalgia #hollywood #history

Added: 2026-05-10

[00:00:06]Whenever you use that phrase, you know, chums, Hollywood princess, there's kind of one person that really springs to mind and everybody looks towards 1956 and the beautiful international star that was Grace Kelly. And I was thinking about Grace Kelly the other day, you know, because you sort of look at Grace Kelly and you think, wow, you know, there was a woman who really looked sort of ageless. I don't know. I don't mean ageless in that sense, but you know, when you look at somebody's look, it's a bit like Greta Galo in Queen Christina from I think 1933. The hair, the makeup is today, you know, they managed to pick a look that really keeps them very modern, you know, whereas you look at certain things, you think, oh, that's definitely 1940s, that's 1950s. With Grace Kelly, of course, she was terrific in so many films, the Hitchcock classics and High Society with Bing and Frank Soninatra. And then she gave it all up, remember to become a real life princess, Princess Grace of Monaco. And in my era, I remember very well, but that being on the news when the very young Princess Diana uh met Grace Kelly and they had this chat and I read up on it afterwards and I asked Diana myself, you know, what was it like meeting Grace Kelly? And she giggled. She said, all right. You know, I think she was a bit shocked at like, well, what was it like meeting Grace Kelly? No. And she said she was absolutely delightful and gave us some advice and and I won't repeat it but you know she gave us some advice and what was interesting was you know like she said well she'd seen her in in pictures and stuff and she said of course even I you know you meet people you think wow this is Grace Kelly you know and it was a really sweet interaction that we had together because she said I'm guessing you love the old movies. said, "Absolutely." But of course, we think of Grace Kelly, but there was somebody before that who did it all. Some might say a little bit more spectacularly and a little bit more dangerously as ever.

[00:02:00]Let me explain. Hi, Toms. As I say, welcome back. Nice to have your company as ever. And thank you for taking the time out to join me on our channel. I know you're busy, so it's always lovely to have somebody to talk to, you know, genuinely mean that, you know, because sometimes you think, goodness, you know, where is everybody? And then you think, oh, here we are. So that's good, isn't it? Little bit of company. It's always nice to have somebody to just sort of chew the fat with as Sammy Davis Jr.

[00:02:25]famously said when we talk, of course, as I say, about royal princesses. Uh, you know, again, in this job, I keep saying it, I know, but I was so lucky to meet so many people who met or knew or worked with some of the greats. And one of the greats for me was none other than the very beautiful Rita Hworth. And Rita Hayworth, of course, shot to fame really in the 40s. All thanks to movies like You Were Never Ever Lovevelier uh Dancing with the Brilliant Fred a stair.

[00:02:50]I always thought they made a really good couple on screen. You know, I really did. They both sort of were in sync. It very nice. But of course, it was Gilda that put her on the map. There never was a woman like Gilda. Yes. Remember the tagline, girls? Oh, yes. Many women wanted to be Gilder in the 1940s. Of course, by the early 50s, well, a little earlier than that, in fact, Harry Cohen, the creator of Colombia Studios, was furious when Rita, who'd already married Awesome Wells, right? Basically, you know, she decided that um she wanted to do something a little different. And this time, she was going to become a real life princess.

[00:03:28]She was going to be known for marrying Prince Ali Khan. Right now, here's where the story gets really interesting for me because it was a usual thing. She was quitting Hollywood. The prince didn't want her to work. She didn't need to work. Actually, he wasn't as well off as she thought. Or was the story right girls? And the thing is things very quickly crumbled. But at this particular point in the early 50s, Rita was doing the social circuit in um Europe and she'd been invited to royal Ascot and there was the king, the queen, the very young Princess Elizabeth and of course Princess Margaret Rose. They were apparently very excited. And as I said, I met people who knew Rita well, and they said she was a lovely lady, very down to earth, and didn't really understand what all the fuss was about.

[00:04:13]Rita was staying at the Ritz Hotel in the very heart of Piccadilly in London.

[00:04:18]She invited photo plane to do a shoot to show them a beautifification desk. I mean, it was just glamour personified, right? However, she was hoping, like so many, to have a picture with the royals in the royal enclosure. She was in the royal enclosure. That wasn't the problem. However, there were stories just before Rita arrived to the United Kingdom that there were already problems servicing in her marriage, a new marriage to Prince Ali Khn.

[00:04:48]And here's the problem. You see, the royals sensing another scandal couldn't have, think about this, the Duke of Edinburgh pictured with the beautiful Rita, former Hollywood star, the woman Gilda, the goddess, right? They couldn't have that because suddenly if this exploded, then guess what? He's dragged into it.

[00:05:10]Totally different times. This is what I love about our channel, how you could explain, you know, like that. Nowadays, people rubbish. But of course the public really did believe what they saw and he had already you could there were fights shall we say there were fractions already when they were in London. Prince Ali Khan was apparently quite a difficult character and very much wanted his own way you know and Rita being Rita had already enjoyed international fame was already missing work. She was bored now being a princess. This is what happens. So consequently the picture with the entire royal clan as it were was best put on ice and apparently Rita was none too thrilled and this was another catalyst. But it's interesting to note isn't it that the royals even at that particular point and remember this is all bec all because of the Duke of Edinburgh and his friendship with the showgirl that was Pat Kirkwood the Gainesburgh star. They didn't want all of that repeating itself again on a bigger scale. This time with an even bigger international star. Hence the reason this was quietly put to bed. So now you know. Neil Sha, Kensington, London.