Episode 105: Audrey Hepburn - Lovely Legend, Generous Heart

Profiles of Empowerment:

This Week - Audrey Hepburn - Lovely Legend, Generous Heart

Known for her svelte figure and gentle gracefulness, Audrey Hepburn's professional image did not belie her turbulent past.

Enduring the horrors of World War II, Audrey later empowered others through her work with UNICEF.

Beauty, brains and a golden heart!

#WomenEmpowerment, #WomenSupportingWomen,#WomenOver40, #FemaleEntrepreneur, #PerimenopausalWomen

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:52

Appearances can be deceiving. It's easy to look at someone and get, oh, an idea how they might be, good or bad. And yet sometimes we learn the backstory, it can change our mind. If I were to say to you, can you sing at least a few words or hum the melody to Moon River? You could probably do it. And you would remember that it's from the legendary movie Breakfast Etipanies. And you would remember that the star of that movie was none other than Hollywood legend Audrey Hepburn. Audrey Hepburn is who we're going to take a few minutes to talk about today. Though she's known in posters and books and magazines for her very glamorous and beautiful self, how she helped those who were not able to help themselves throughout her years with UNICEF is known almost equally as well. And so when you look at the elegant and beautiful Audrey Hepburn in all of the movies and magazines and pictures and posters, you may not know, or you may, the backstory. So let's take a few minutes and talk about the history of Audrey Hepburn. Audrey Hepburn was born in May 1929. She passed away in January 1993. She is regarded as the third greatest female screen legend from classical Hollywood cinema. She's also one of the few entertainers who has won Academy, Emmy, Grammy, and Tony awards. She was born into an aristocratic family. Her mother was from Belgium, her dad was from the UK, and that's where she spent her early years, including the Netherlands. She studied ballet during the war. Her parents divorced when she was fairly young. Both her parents early on were actually sympathizers to the Nazis, but her mother at least changed her mind when war broke out in September 1939. They moved from the UK to the Netherlands, hoping that because the Netherlands was neutral, they would be able to weather World War II without too much strife and problems. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. The Germans invaded the Netherlands in 1940, and they actually uh changed their names to more English-sounding names to help protect themselves. Then in 1942, as things intensified, her uncle Otto was executed as being a part of the resistance to the Third Reich. Her half-brother, one of her half-brothers, was deported to Berlin to a labor camp, and another one of her half-brothers was able to go into hiding. But things began to be very difficult because the Nazis cut off supplies to the Netherlands. And things escalated in 1944 to 1945, right before the Allies uh were able to bring relief and free the Netherlands from Nazi control, there was the Dutch famine, and the people they didn't have fuel, they didn't have food, things were very bad. In fact, books uh history says that 18 to 22,000 people uh in the Netherlands uh perished because of the conditions due to limited food and fuel supplies. To get by and to feed themselves, they actually made flour out of tulip bulbs. In fact, an interesting side note is many, many years later there was a tulip that was named in honor of Audrey Hepburn, since uh it was well known that she and her family and many of those in the Netherlands kept themselves alive by grounding up tulips and making bread and biscuits out of the flower. The Netherlands Flower Information Society named a white tulip Hepburn as a tribute for the actress's career and her lifetime work in behalf of UNICEF. And uh, of course, she expressed great gratitude for the honor. And she was able to give uh the first tulip that she was awarded to her elderly aunt. So that was very nice. Well, the good news is um through scrounging and and trying to get by, they did survive, of course. And after 1945, after the war ended, she was able to continue her studies in ballet. She ended up moving to the UK, and she did some commercials, she did some acting, her health was so bad. Uh, a lot of people, I don't think, knew this throughout the her Hollywood years, which would come from this point on in the future. Uh, she was envied for her very stealth figure, which she found gently irritating because she endured terrible pain and digestive problems because she survived starvation. And she died fairly young at 63, and she had terrible health problems, which could almost all could be related and traced back to the terrible conditions that they lived in Holland during the war. So that's kind of knowing the other side of the coin. She was able to do commercials and stage work, and because of her health being precarious, she was encouraged to go from ballet into acting, and that is what she did, and the rest is history, as they say. So she did continue her uh work, her humanitarian work during the war. She did ballet underground and collected funds to help support the resistance. After the war, for example, in the 1950s, she started working for UNICEF and she wanted to do everything she could to help, especially children in war-torn and famine areas because, of course, partly because she cared about others, but she knew what it was like to be hungry. She for the next several decades, she toured all over the world and said she was fluent in five or six languages. This certainly helped. But you, if you go online, you can easily find pictures of Audrey Hepburn surrounded by starving children, where she's doing everything she can to physically deliver uh food to children and medical supplies. And then, of course, she did fundraising. And thanks to her accomplishments in Hollywood, she was able to do a great deal of fundraising. So you don't always know by just looking at someone what their background was. Audrey Hepburn was glamorous and accomplished and beautiful, but she also knew what it was like to suffer. And instead of feeling sorry for herself, as her fortunes increased and got better, she extended mercies, kindness, generosities to people who could not help themselves. Audrey Hepburn, amazing world changer. So, my friend, um, I don't have anything funny for this week, so we'll pick that up next week. Of course, as bad as they are, that might actually be a relief. So I look forward to seeing you again next week. Enjoy the next few days and make the best life that you can and create a life that you love because you deserve it. Yeah. Take care. I'll look forward to seeing you again soon.