Grace Kelly (Dead Blondes Part 11 Episode 103: 1 hour)

The podcast Grace Kelly (Dead Blondes Part 11) from the You Must Remember This Podcast told the story of Grace Kelly’s life and tragic death. After watching Grace Kelly in Rear Window as well as in some other films, knowing that she was a princess, and learning of her death, I thought that this podcast would be interesting to listen to and would give a greater insight into her life. In the podcast, the host Karina Longworth started the podcast by telling the audience that most “blonde” stories are that of the “suffering” blondes like Marilyn Monroe. Grace Kelly had a different story with a sad ending. Longworth described how Kelly grew up in an unsupportive family, how she started within the acting and modeling industry, and what occurred with the fame she received. Her career was a short-lived one after marrying Prince Rainier. I have always thought of Grace Kelly as an image of the classic, proper, Hollywood star who had little struggles. Of course, this was not the case because there were many things occurring behind closed doors. Longworth focused on many of the affairs Kelly had with the leading men she worked with, and the relationship with Prince Rainier that would bring honor to the Kelly family. I feel like a very common topic when discussing women and men in Hollywood is their love lives. I thought the speaker did a good job in telling the love stories that Kelly had were not just to “get ahead” in the industry because that is commonly assumed and also talked about the fear of aging. She was truly invested in the relationships and was constantly hurt by the lack of reciprocation in love. Longworth also discusses the way Kelly was viewed in Hollywood as an actress, as Hitchcock was one of the only directors to truly take her seriously.  

The story was organized by starting with the common facts that many people know about Kelly and then went through her life story. Something that I think would be useful to use when creating a podcast in the future is using soundbites from films. I really liked the fact that the snippets were from Kelly herself in films she was in or from actresses in the category of “Dead Blondes.” Even if someone did not recognize the voice, I think that they would know those are “common” phrases from blondes in classic Hollywood movies. The music that was used also fit the time period that they were discussing as it was classic. One aspect of this podcast that I did not like was the impersonations of Hitchcock and Kelly that Longworth did throughout the podcast and she even apologized for it at the end. I think it would have been more effective for her to just read the quotes than to impersonate the people because it felt as if she were mocking them. Overall, I thought the podcast was interesting to listen to and easy to follow. (497)