Audrey Hepburn Voted “Most Glamorous” by New Woman Magazine

New Woman magazine isn’t one of the must-reads at this journal. Foreign Affairs or the Economist are more appropriate. So, it took a story on the BBC’s website to draw one’s attention to the fact that the readers of New Woman voted Audrey Hepburn “Most Glamorous Star of All Time.” One’s opinion of the readers of that publication has risen accordingly.

Ms. Hepburn got her start in cinema in “Roman Holiday,” directed by Billy Wilder. Mr. Wilder explained many years ago what Ms. Hepburn’s appeal was, “After so many drive-in waitresses becoming movie stars, there has been this real drought, when along come class; somebody who actually went to school, can spell, maybe even plays the piano.” Of course, those are not the makings of a great actress necessarily, but they are the makings of a civilized and cultured human being. If a society doesn’t make stars out of such people, precisely what does it value? And is it a civilization or a barbarian nation?

Naturally, it didn’t hurt that she was daughter of John Victor Hepburn-Ruston and Ella van Heemstra, a baroness. Boarding school education in England in the 1930s most assuredly helped her aristocratic style. The late Queen Mother said to Queen Elizabeth after meeting Ms. Hepburn, “She is one of us,” which was more a compliment to the rather tedious, middle-class German family known as Windsor than it was to the actress.

“My look is attainable,” she told Barbara Walters in an interview a few years before her death. “Women can look like Audrey Hepburn by flipping out their hair, buying the large glasses and the little sleeveless dresses.” It wasn’t just the look, though, that made Audrey Hepburn the choice of New Woman’s readers, it was her character.

Living in Nazi occupied Arnhem gave the young Ms. Hepburn a dose of reality that many toffs today haven’t seen. Her work with Unicef on behalf of children all around the world was not just a salve to the conscience of an over-privileged brat, but rather the repayment of generosity shown her after the war.

Still, the world met Ms. Hepburn in a silly Cinderella movie, but what a movie. It is difficult to imagine a more perfect life than that of Joe Bradley (Gregory Peck) in “Roman Holiday.” What could be better than being a foreign correspondent in a place like Italy back when Americans were loved rather than loathed in Europe and spending all day with Princess Ann (Ms. Hepburn)? Second prize goes to Paul "Fred" Varjak (George Peppard) a writer in New York living in an apartment just below Holly Golightly (Ms. Hepburn).

For the record, the top ten in the poll were: Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly, Cindy Crawford, Sophia Loren, Marilyn Monroe, Angelina Jolie, Catherine Zeta Jones, Princess Diana, Halle Berry, and Scarlett Johannsen. Rather insightful, these New Woman readers, Ms. Hepburn ahead of not one but two princesses.

© Copyright 2006 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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