Extracts from Chapter 13 and Chapter 16, ‘Emeralds in Tinseltown: The Irish in Hollywood’ by Steve Brennan and Bernadette O'Neill, published by Appletree Press. Gene Kelly Eugene Curran Kelly was born on August 3rd 1912, the third of five children. The Kelly family epitomised a buoyant, confident America that had not yet seen a World War and was more than a decade away from the Great Depression. They were a close-knit, hard-working, respectable American family who lived in the Sacred Heart Parish area of Pittsburgh’s Highland Park. Their father, James Patrick Joseph Kelly and his wife Harriet were the children of Irish immigrants. But they were American now and spoke only occasionally of the family’s roots – two hardy, happy-go-lucky, tough and enterprising Irishmen, one a Curran, the other a Kelly. But when James and Harriet did talk about their fathers, what stories unfolded. … Gene Kelly, a small boy in stature, dreamed of becoming a professional baseball player. But his mother had other ideas and packed him and his brother Fred off to music and dancing lessons, all laced up in Buster Brown suits and providing perfect targets for the local bully boys. The bloody noses and black eyes collected on those Saturdays became so regular a feature that their mother took to sending them to classes in a taxi. “I hated dancing… I thought it was sissy. (But) I bless my mother now for making me go…” … With a few hundred dollars and the offer of a small choreography assignment in a Broadway show, Kelly kissed his mother goodbye at the train station and charged off to follow his dream. The year was 1937.Broadway and the world would not have too long a wait before this brilliant young Irish-American would burst into their midst. Grace Kelly Grace Kelly was born in Philadelphia on November 12, 1929. Her heritage was pure Irish on her father’s side. Hollywood columnists and publicists would never let that drop – despite the fact that it had been several generations of Kellys before her who had actually come from Ireland. Nonetheless, she was the darling of the Irish societies and clubs in America and she herself rarely missed a chance to talk about her ancestry. … Kelly’s road to stardom and Best Actress Oscar began with dramatic classes at school as part of what can only be described as a privileged childhood, the daughter of a self-made millionaire. Upon leaving high school she auditioned for the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York, attending classes while moonlighting as a fashion model. Her graduation role at the Academy was in the play The Philadelphia Story. … Hollywood gossip columnist Hedda Hopper loved to spin a yarn that she said had come from Grace Kelly about [her father]. Having proven himself as a rowing champion in the U.S. he was invited to England in 1920 to participate in an important rowing event. ‘At the last minute he was rejected,’ wrote Hopper who went on to state that he had been thrown out of the race because he was Irish. Some time later after winning the Olympic gold Kelly – or so the gossip writer claimed – sent his ‘victorious green rowing cap to the King of England with his compliments.’ Tales of this nature seemed to swirl around Grace Kelly in her early Hollywood years when literally ‘no publicity was bad publicity’ for a starlet on the rise. … [In 1955 Kelly attended] the Cannes Film Festival, when she was invited to Monaco to meet Prince Rainier III, ruler of the tiny principality that lies just a short drive from Cannes. When Rainier came to the U.S. a short time later they would meet again… Read more about the lives of these iconic Irish-American Hollywood ‘royals’, and the major contribution of Ireland and the Irish to the history of movies: ‘Emeralds in Tinseltown: The Irish in Hollywood’ by Steve Brennan and Bernadette O'Neill, published by Appletree Press.

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