Princeton WannaBe Blog
I'm not a real historian. I didn't grow up in Princeton. I don't have an Ivy League education.
I'm a total Princeton WannaBe.
Still, I gush about loving the heart of Princeton as much as I can!
Love Audrey Hepburn? Then You LOVE Princeton too!
Audrey Hephurn fell in love with Princeton student Mel Ferrer '38 in 1944 and they married later that year. (Later, they starred in King Vidor’s War and Peace together.
ANYHOO,
How do I know Audrey adored Princeton? Because she not only stayed here, she was almost ARRESTED here!
TRUE!
Way back when, women could only stay in the 3rd floor of the Nassau Inn and it was usually full. Widows who wanted to make a bit of money would open up their houses and rent rooms for $10 per night! (Entreprenuerial widows would post notices on a bulletin board in the U-Store on University Street!)
ANYHOO,
During Communiversity, I MET a relative of a widow who swore to him Audrey Hepburn stayed overnight for four days in his great aunt's house on Mercer Street.
Yes, I got the exclusive story about Audrey's 1950's midnight break in on the McCarter Theatre stage where she and Mel entertained the entire Terrace Club in secret!
(According to the elderly mystery man, the widow had been married to a prominent police officer and the arresting officer was nervous to take such a famous woman to jail so he delivered the non-repentent Audrey back to her house before dawn. The great nephew claimed it was his great aunt's well known pound cake paired with her quick wit that kept Audrey from going to jail! I wish you could have seen me try to hear the details of this eager, birght eyed informant of nearly 80 years old over the noise of the large crowds at Communiversity! Just as he walked away, the dapper gentleman whispered to me what his great aunt said to keep Audrey from 3 hots and a cot:,
"Y'know officer, some say the greater sin would be to keep theater types off the stage. Goodness only knows what they would be up to without the stage"
and then with a wink of an eye, my mystery man informant was gone!
(Did you know in 1937, Mel won the Theatre Intime award for Best New Play by a Princeton undergraduate; the play was called Awhile to Work and co-starred another college student, Frances Pilchard, who would become Ferrer's first (and third) wife! TRUE!)
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