Grace Kelly: Hollywood Dream Girl (2025)

I worked on this book, so i will admit some bias. I did the scanning for most of the photos in this book. I particularly loved doing the Edith Head costume original watercolors, was a priviledge just to see and hold them in my hand. I learned so very much about Grace Kelly and her motion picture career. The book's photos are just stunning! Every time I see the cover it makes me smile cuz it was so incredible to scan everything I did.

The book really should have two ratings. One would be for the photographs contained in it (5-stars) and one would be for the written content (3-stars). For fans of Grace Kelly, this is the ultimate coffee table display book.

The written content, while competent, was little more than a factual narrative. It does not acknowledge any of the licentious suggestions provided in one notable book, nor does it provide any real on-the-set details that this film fan would have particularly enjoyed. I felt as if I’d read little more than a magazine retrospective feature article.

Oh, but those photographs are another thing entirely. Printed on thick stock (the kind that usually causes me to think that I’m turning over multiple pages at once), the quality is never less than superb and is sometimes breathtaking. A large number are from REAR WINDOW, TO CATCH A THIEF, and HIGH SOCIETY. Those alone are worth the cost.

By many accounts (even in other books), Grace Kelly was a very private person who shared her emotions with a very limited circle. I doubt that the Reader will ever learn for certain how she viewed her life and the lessons it taught. For instance, it would have been fascinating to know if she realized before her storybook wedding that by becoming a Princess, she effectively closed the door on her beloved profession ... or did she harbor a feeling that she would return one day? (She almost did ... in MARNIE, of all things!)

If you want to know more about Grace Kelly, there are better books out there. If you want a “dream book” of Grace Kelly photographs, then look no further.

'Grace Kelly: Hollywood Dream Girl' by Jay Jorgensen and Manoah Bowman was an engrossing study of Grace Kelly's film and stage career. Beautifully presented with many not-seen-before photographs, the initial chapter covers her early life, then the following 10 chapters are devoted to her films, then a final brief chapter on her Monaco years. What I learnt from all this, is that her career was certainly not an overnight success and she worked hard for recognition. She was also a prolific bed-hopper, having romantic liaisons with all her leading men, but then, who could have resisted her? The photographs are gorgeous. Well written and with intimate behind-the-scenes stories this book will be welcomed by all Kelly fans.

A beautiful pictorial tribute to a woman whose name is synonymous with elegance and style. The accompanying text provides an overview of her life and career. The one shocking fact that I learned is that her father did not think she was the pretty one in the family, and appeared to be puzzled about the attention that she got. I hope he was happy going down in history for spectacularly poor judgement about his children. Grace fell in love a lot, but her parents didn't approve of her choices. (They were devout Catholics, and disappproved of divorce). It was almost comical as Grace broke up with some of the most successful men in Hollywood history - Ray Milland, Oleg Cassini, Clark Gable - until finally she got parental approval when she brought home Prince Ranier. Talk about a tough audience.
Anyway, back to the photos - a mix of colour and black and white, all reproduced with meticulous care. If you like the style of the fifties, this book will fascinate you. It includes fashion sketches by Edith Head's team and Helen Rose along with the finished product. Grace looked stunning in every shot. She knew how to wear clothes to the ultimate effect. She was a true superstar, who became an enduring icon after only a handful of movies. It's a cliche to say she was born to be a princess, but her elegance enriched the movies, and then she went on to enrich Monaco. One thing her parents did get right was her name: Grace.

“As the press fawned over the glamour of royal life in the Riviera, Grace probably never dreamed that life in Monaco would be tougher than any day in a movie set, and that she would need to create even more illusion than she had as an actress.”

This was a thoroughly enjoyable book about a Hollywood legend whom I've always liked. I enjoyed learning a few interesting details about her life (her sister was considered to be the beauty of the family, and Grace was actually rather dowdy as a young girl), but mostly I liked learning about the making of some of her great movies, especially REAR WINDOW, DIAL M FOR MURDER, HIGH NOON, and THE COUNTRY GIRL. This really isn't a regular biography, so the text isn't the big draw to the book. The photos are stunning, and there are lots of them! I loved the cool publicity photos and ads for the various movies and all the great 1940s and 1950s memorabilia. This book was just published a few months ago, and when I read about it in the newspaper, it looked like a fun one. Pure fluff, obviously, but rather classy and lovely fluff.

Grace Kelly not only lived up to her name but she was also every bit the Hollywood dream girl that the title of a new photographic book about her suggests. The volume is dedicated to the legendary actress and her legacy, and while it briefly touches on her years living in Monaco as a princess, the focus is instead on her short and significant Hollywood career where she won an Academy Award and a Golden Globe. Grace Kelly-Hollywood Dream Girl is a beautiful, coffee table book that would make a wonderful gift to anyone interested in Kelly, Alfred Hitchcock, or Hollywood cinema and costumes during the 1950s.

To read the rest of this review please visit: http://magazine.100percentrock.com/re...

Grace Kelly not only lived up to her name but she was also every bit the Hollywood dream girl that the title of a new photographic book about her suggests. The volume is dedicated to the legendary actress and her legacy, and while it briefly touches on her years living in Monaco as a princess, the focus is instead on her short and significant Hollywood career where she won an Academy Award and a Golden Globe. Grace Kelly-Hollywood Dream Girl is a beautiful, coffee table book that would make a wonderful gift to anyone interested in Kelly, Alfred Hitchcock, or Hollywood cinema and costumes during the 1950s.

To read the rest of this review please visit:
http://magazine.100percentrock.com/re...

Fantastic!

The image alone are with the price of admission. Many high quality, large images from her movies or movie sets. Print and paper quality is much better than most books today, especially for the price <$30.

Organized by her movies (framed by her life before and after), the text relates her life, especially as it relates to her family, her movies, and her romances. Perfect amount of text, enough to give you a picture of her life and what it was like to be with her on a movie set (apparently very pleasant as many costars wanted to marry her!).

A must have book if you are at all interested in Hollywood, Hitchcock, or true glamour. She was a flawless diamond - a gem who sparkles in every facet. If only we had more Grace Kelly’s.

Grace Kelly: Hollywood Dream Girl by Jay Jorgensen and Manoah Bowman is a biography of Grace Kelly, mainly focusing on her short but great Hollywood career. There is an article in this book written by Sloan De Forest about Grace’s iconic role in Alfred Hitchcock’s film Rear Window, costarring James Stewart.

Grace is one of my very favorite actresses. She had such a unique talent and appeal that can never be duplicated. It was very interesting to deep dive into each of Grace’s film roles and learn about her childhood.

Grace lived an influential and fascinating life as an actress, as a Princess of Monaco, and as a person.

- Raising children is more than just instilling displine, realistic idea of the world as well as audacity to dream: it's also really about understanding the children and their needs beyond the image of the parents. Kelly came from a sporty family (his dad won 3 Olympic metals), thus sports was hugely emphasized in the family even though Kelly doesn't excel in them. Kelly's father wanted to raise Kelly in his own image, which wasn't suitable for: she wanted to be cuddled and loved growing up. Whereas her other siblings don't and want to be left alone

This was a beautiful coffee table book. She is such a classic Icon like Audrey Hepburn.

Beautiful book!

“Grace Kelly: Hollywood Dream Girl” is a spectacular book on the life and career of Grace Kelly. One of the few books I have ever read in which so many of the photographs were simply breathtaking!

This book is worth the four stars for the photographs and reproductions of primary documents alone.

I liked how the book was laid out. Grace was a beautiful person whose life ended too soon.

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I just discovered Grace Kelly: Hollywood Dream Girl last year and had to read and look at it again. This is an over-sized coffee table book chronicling Grace Kelly's all too brief career in the movies as well as a brief biography of her life in Monaco.

The writing could have been better, a lot better, in fact. The text reads like a magazine article, and nothing untoward about Grace is revealed. It's as if Grace Kelly: Hollywood Dream Girl were authorized by her family, but obviously not because it mentions her frequent affairs with co-stars. This is not a very detailed biography by any stretch of the imagination, just an overview of her life and mostly, her career.

However, the text is not the reason to buy Grace Kelly: Hollywood Dream Girl. It is the more than 400 photos, sketches, and press sheets culled for this volume that make it a treasure to look at. There's a brief look at her life growing up and acting work prior to going to Hollywood. Then there's a chapter for each movie, some received more attention than others. The movies that got the most print were Rear Window, To Catch a Thief, and High Society, all favorites of mine. Then, there's a chapter on Grace's life in Monaco and her untimely death.

The Edith Head and Helen Rose sketches are fascinating to look at, as are the various press sheets and advertisements that Grace appeared in. The photos throughout are breathtaking, and they are all printed on heavy glossy paper. No expense was spared making Grace Kelly: Hollywood Dream Girl.

Any lover of old Hollywood would appreciate this book.

For anyone who's a Grace Kelly fan, the photographs in this book are just what they would want to see. They are amazing.

And for anyone who wants to know more about Grace Kelly the actress, the chapters here about her movies are an excellent place to start.

For anyone wanting to know more about her life after her marriage, there's not a lot in this book. This book only touches briefly on it in the last chapter. This book's focus is on Grace's development as a stage actress and then her successes in movies in Hollywood.

This really is a big, oversized book that shows her successes as an actress prmarily in photos, and there are lots of photos, some of them breathtaking.

A beautiful book. The pictures are wonderful. This makes a great gift to anyone who loves Grace Kelly. A wonderful memoir.