Mysteries in the Archives

1956: Grace Kelly Wedding (2x2)

Air date: Jun 23, 2010

In April 1956, Grace Kelly, one of Hollywood's biggest movie stars, married the prince Rainier III of the small state of Monaco. The wedding drove the world press crazy. A host of photographers and cameramen were expected at Monaco Cathedral to immortalize the 'wedding of the century', the biggest media event since the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II of England. For months now, the romantic love story between young American actress Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier III of Monaco, the second smallest country in the world after the Vatican, has been in the press, radio, television and film on both sides of the Atlantic. But what was really behind the incredible media hype? How did French television manage to grab the broadcast rights for the event in front of American noses? And why did the MGM film studio pay for a movie star's wedding dress when she had announced that she would stop making films?