Grace Kelly
1949–1950: Beginnings

To start her career, she auditioned for the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York, using a scene from her uncle George Kelly's The Torch-Bearers (1923). Although the school had already met its semester quota, she obtained an interview with the admissions department, and was admitted through George's influence. Kelly worked diligently, and practiced her speech by using a tape recorder. Her early acting pursuits led her to the stage, and she made her Broadway debut in Strindberg 's The Father, alongside Raymond Massey. At 19, her graduation performance was as Tracy Lord in The Philadelphia Story. Her uncle continued to advise and mentor Kelly throughout her acting career.

At her father's insistence, she lived at the Barbizon Hotel for Women in Manhattan. She was hired as a model by the John Robert Powers agency, where some of her first modeling jobs were doing commercials for bug spray and cigarettes. Kelly was reportedly "fond of dancing to Hawaiian music down the hallways of the Barbizon, and given to shocking her fellow residents by performing topless". She later wrote that she had "wonderful memories of the three years I spent at the Barbizon".

Television producer Delbert Mann cast Kelly as the lead in an adaptation of the Sinclair Lewis novel Bethel Merriday; this was her first of nearly sixty live television programs. She was mentioned in Theatre World magazine as " most promising personality of the Broadway stage of 1950". Some of her well-known works as a theater actress were: The Father, The Rockingham Tea Set, The Apple Tree, The Mirror of Delusion, Episode (for Somerset Maugham 's tele-serial), among others.

Impressed by her work in The Father, Henry Hathaway, director of the Twentieth Century-Fox film Fourteen Hours (1951), offered her a small role in the film. Kelly had a minor role opposite Paul Douglas, Richard Basehart, and Barbara Bel Geddes, as a young woman contemplating divorce. Douglas commented: "In two senses, she did not have a bad side – you could film her from any angle, and she was one of the most un-temperamental, cooperative people in the business." Following the release of the film, the "Grace Kelly Fan Club" was established, gaining popularity across the country with local chapters springing up and attracting many members. Kelly referred to her fan club as "terrifically amusing".

Kelly was noticed during a visit to the set of Fourteen Hours by Gary Cooper. However, Kelly's performance in Fourteen Hours went largely unnoticed by critics and did not contribute to her film career's momentum. She continued her work in the theater and on television, although she lacked "vocal horsepower", and it was thought she would likely not have had a lengthy stage career.
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