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EFORE HER eighteenth birthday that autumn, and after several auditions and interviews, the American Academy of Dramatic Arts accepted Grace’s application for enrollment and handed over a copy of their rating of her abilities:
Voice: Improperly placed
Temperament: Sensitive
Spontaneity: Youthful
Dramatic instinct: Expressive
Intelligence: Good
General remarks: Good, full of potential and freshness
    Founded in 1884 and still successfully operating 125 years later, the Academy was the first school to offer a professional education in theatre arts and was considered a prestigious institute for students and working actors in the United States. When Grace arrived, its alumni list included scores of successful actors, among them Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Edward G. Robinson, Ruth Gordon, Rosalind Russell and Kirk Douglas. Students enrolled in a two-year program, attending classes several hours for two or three days a week inthe cavernous upper floors of Carnegie Hall, at the corner of Seventh Avenue and 57th Street. 1*
    “As I remember, our lessons, exercises and rehearsals were rather loosely structured,” Grace recalled. “We read and analyzed scenes from the classics and from modern plays, we improvised and from time to time we presented fully staged plays for alumni and teachers. There were classes in voice, fencing, makeup, mime—nothing was omitted. And discount tickets were available to Broadway theatres.” During her first year at the Academy, Grace remembered seeing the New York productions of Finian’s Rainbow, All My Sons, Brigadoon, The Heiress, A Streetcar Named Desire and Mister Roberts.
    Tuition at the American Academy cost $1,000 a year, an enormous sum in 1947. Almost every student held down a job, and Grace was no exception, for she never wavered in her refusal to accept family support. That year, several residents at the Barbizon were working as models, and they insisted that she, too, could earn good money in print ads and commercials. She needed only some good photos to show to modeling agencies.
    In 1946 and 1947, peacetime prosperity brought an increase in leisure time and more disposable income for household appliances and entertainment. At once, there was an enormous upsurge in the production of television sets, as wartime manufacturing freezes were lifted. At the same time, the New York-based television networks pushed westward to cover the entire country, and the price of TV sets continued to fall with the boom in mass production. Whereas only 0.5 percent of U.S.households had a television set in 1946, 35 percent had one by 1947. This astonishing growth was accompanied by a proliferation of advertising agencies like BBDO and Young & Rubicam, and modeling agencies like those founded by Eileen Ford, which needed many more attractive young women to promote and publicize products. Ford, for example, had two clients in 1946 and thirty-four the following year. 2*
    Grace’s friends at Barbizon were on the mark. With her restraint and poise, her bright, blue-green eyes, her alabaster complexion, and a glorious smile that made everyone want to smile with her, she was precisely the image Middle America adored and wanted to replicate. Without any difficulty, Grace found work as a model from 1947 through 1949, signing with the John Robert Powers modeling agency. Founded in Philadelphia in 1923, the agency had briefly represented her mother, who frequently had Powers agents photograph her children. By 1947 the agency had a New York office, and along with Grace, the actress Rita Gam joined its client list. “I thought she was the most gorgeous creature I ever met,” recalled Rita. “She was also entirely unaffected, completely without vanity.”
    Grace began working at $7.50 an hour, and her pay rose quickly to $25.00 an hour—and then to more than $400 a week (approximately $4,000 a week in 2009 valuation). She thus became one of the highest-paid models in New York, and the income covered her