Romance Central
"I have more sex appeal on the tip of my nose than many women have in their entire bodies. It doesn't stand out a mile, but it is there." -AH
Audrey's dating life was, like her,...both discreet and a heck of a lot of fun. By twenty-four she had already been engaged to (and ended it with) English businessman James Hanson, was on the fence about marrying uber male Mel Ferrer, was madly, madly in love with Hollywood's resident bad boy William Holden, and was going on the occasional date with Senator John F. Kennedy from Massachusetts. (Mary Gallagher, a secretary in his office, remembers that "the whole office was impressed when she walked in. She was as graceful as a swan and carried a long, slim, red umbrella.")
Still, like so much else, Audrey conducted her personal life with a great deal of elan. Did she ever question that the man in her life was not madly in love with her and did not want to marry her...like, yesterday? Did she sit around on Saturday night, waiting for the phone to ring? Did she ever try on an evening dress and ask her significant other, "Does this make me look fat?" Please.
She's Audrey.
For Audrey, love was very important. As she admitted, "I was born with an enormous love of people, of children. I love them when I was little! I used to embarrass my mother by trying to pick babies out of prams at the market." In a later interview with Vogue, she wondered, "What makes two people happy? It's like fingerprints: Each one is different. Personally, I need a lot of loving, being loved and giving love. Real love. After that, the rest takes care of itself."
But on the other hand, given her childhood, she already knew a great deal of loss and death, and the inherent uncertainty of the human experience. After her father left her mother, she knew one hard reality: "Whatever you love most, you fear you might lose."
This was Audrey's dichotomy - the princess who had experienced such heartbreak, such death and fear and loss, and kept going. The smiling graceful young woman with the old soul. The modest girl who seemed to have no sense of her beauty and her talent, who was on the verge of having the world and all its possibilities laid at her feet.
Although first known for her "style," that shorthand phrase that does little to convey the depth of a person, Audrey was a combination of vulnerability and strength of character. Perhaps this, even more than the ballet flats or cropped black pants she is known for, is the source of our lasting intrigue in her. Like many creative people, Audrey had deep reserves of emotional need that she was not afraid to tap into.
As she herself put it, "It always boils down to the same thing - not only receiving love, but wanting desperately to give it, a need to give it!"
And it is, perhaps, the emotional courage that draws us to her still.
But while we might not win an Oscar our first time out of the gate, or date Bill Holden (or who is his modern equivalent - George Clooney? Jamie Foxx?), there are still many lessons that Audrey can teach us in the romance department.
The Pregame Warm-Up
How did Audrey get ready for a date? As a single, twenty-four-year-old young woman about town, she admitted:
"I like to have a good hour [to dress for a party]. I take a slow bath, make up and dress. Then I go to the party and forget about my appearance. Later in the evening I go to the powder room, look in the mirror, and say, 'My God, this is what I've been looking like all evening.' I like parties if I feel like going. Nightclubs occasionally for dancing. It's fun if there's someone you want to spend the time with, I prefer quiet evenings."
**all information comes from the book: What Would Audrey Do by Pamela Keogh
