DICKINSON remembered seeing Audrey in Sauce Piquante and brought her in to test for the role of Nora. Although other girls tested for the part, Valentina Cortese fought for Audrey, and she was given her first dramatic role.

Secret People did not receive the warm reception everyone had hoped for, but Audrey got special mention in Variety: “Audrey Hepburn, in a minor role as the kid sister, combines beauty with skill, shining particularly in two short dance sequences.” In a Sunday Graphic article recapping 1951 film releases, The Stars Didn’t Shine in 1951, writer Jack Davies had at least one good thing to say: Audrey Hepburn arrived.

While still shooting Secret People, Audrey was told about a small role in a film being shot simultaneously in English and French entitled Monte Carlo Baby. The job paid well and Audrey’s character was to be outfitted in Christian Dior dresses. And, as if that wasn’t enough, filming would take place for one month in beautiful Monte Carlo. The French Riviera was a place Audrey had always wanted to visit. And on May 29, that’s exactly where Audrey found herself, standing in the lobby of the Hotel de Paris.

The film, which was not well received, gave Audrey 12 minutes of screen time. The New York Times nevertheless mentioned Audrey in its review and said, “It is rather astonishing how she stands out in that seared desert of mediocrity”.

If the film had no future, the same could not be said of Audrey. In what would turn out to be a classic case of being in the right place at the right time, Audrey’s future would play out without her ever having to leave the lobby of the Hotel de Paris.

Famed French novelist Colette and her husband, Maurice Goudeket, were staying at the hotel, as guests of Prince Rainier. Colette’s novel, Gigi, was being adapted for Broadway by Anita Loos, a prolific playwright, novelist, film producer and screenwriter. Two hundred girls had already auditioned in New York for the title role. Luckily, they hadn’t found her yet.

As soon as Colette set eyes on Audrey in the hotel lobby, she knew she’d spotted her Gigi. “What author ever expects to see one of his brain-children appear suddenly in the flesh?” Colette mused. “Not I, and yet, here it was. This unknown young woman was my own thoroughly French Gigi come alive!”

When Colette told Audrey she wanted her to play Gigi on Broadway, Audrey responded with her trademark modesty. Grateful and sincere, Audrey replied, “I’m sorry, Madame, but it is impossible. I wouldn’t be able to, because I can’t act.”

Colette, however, was completely charmed by Audrey and felt she already embodied so many of Gigi’s qualities that she sought a second opinion, arranging for Audrey to meet Anita Loos at the Savoy in London.

Audrey showed up wearing a man’s white shirt tied around her waist, a black skirt and flats. She read for Loos, who completely agreed with Colette’s assessment of Audrey. But there was someone else who would have to approve casting Audrey in the title role: producer Gilbert Miller.

Miller heard Audrey read and was not impressed. Colette still insisted on casting Audrey and Miller decided to trust veteran character actress Cathleen Nesbitt’s opinion. They put Audrey onstage and, unfortunately, she was barely audible. Nonetheless, Nesbitt was favourably inclined towards Audrey and offered to personally coach her in New York. Miller acquiesced and Audrey was cast in the lead role of Gigi at a salary of $500 a week.

By all accounts, it seemed that James Hanson was the only one disappointed in Audrey’s acceptance of the role. However, she pledged to marry him at the end of Gigi’s run and Hanson was appeased, at least for the moment.

An announcement placed in the December 4, 1951, edition of the London Times newspaper read: Mr J.E. Hanson and Miss A. Hepburn: The engagement is announced between James, son of Mr and Mrs Robert Hanson, of Norwood Grange, Huddersfield, Yorkshire, and Audrey Hepburn, daughter of Baroness Ella van Heemstra, of 65 South Audley St, London, W1.

But before she left London to begin work on Gigi in New York, Audrey was asked to do what would turn out to be a career-making screen test. The much beloved director, William Wyler, sought an unknown, non-American girl to play a princess in his new movie, Roman Holiday. Not available to do the screen test himself, Wyler asked Thorold Dickinson, Audrey’s director on Secret People, to conduct the test for him.

On September 18, 1951, Audrey arrived at Pinewood Studios ready to begin. She’d memorised her scenes and did a very capable, nice job with the readings.

But it was what happened after the screen test that got Audrey the role. Because Dickinson knew there was more to Audrey than what the screen test could deliver, he decided to keep the camera running after the test had concluded. Audrey came alive while she talked casually with Dickinson and he was able to capture for Wyler a much more authentic picture of her.

Wyler reviewed the test and was captivated by Audrey. She was offered a salary of $12,500 and an option for a second Paramount picture. “William Wyler came to London looking for an unknown,” Audrey quipped, “and I was fully qualified.”

Characteristically, she was worried about her abilities and hoped that the role of Princess Anne in Roman Holiday would not be bigger than what she was capable of handling.

This acknowledgment was reflected in the note she sent to Richard Mealand, chief of Paramount Pictures. “Heaven help me live up to all this,” Audrey wrote, not knowing that Paramount was thinking the exact same thing. The studio and everyone else was waiting to see how Gigi would be received. Only then would they know if heaven would answer Audrey’s prayer.

Audrey was immediately immersed in Gigi rehearsals and coaching lessons with Nesbitt, who had been cast as her great-aunt Alicia in the production. Rehearsals did not go well for a multitude of reasons, not the least of which was that the director, Raymond Rouleau, was French and did not speak a word of English.

Consequently, Anita Loos translated the script into French and the cast was forced to rehearse in French for a play being performed in English. The cast began to wobble and buckle under the rehearsal conditions. The strain was also getting to Audrey. She was wrought with doubts and misgivings. Was she in over her head?

Gigi previewed in Philadelphia on November 8, 1951, at the Walnut Street Theatre. The play had a shaky start, but the critics went crazy for Audrey. She was called the acting find of the year.

A Variety review said, “Miss Hepburn has real talent as well as a magnetic personality. Furthermore, in a wholesome and youthful way, she exudes sex.”

Three days before opening on Broadway, Gigi was previewed once again at the Shubert Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut. Audrey’s reviews were glowing.

On November 24, 1951, Gigi opened on Broadway with James Hanson and Ella in the audience. Because it opened on a Saturday night, the cast and crew had to wait through an interminable weekend before the reviews came out on Monday morning.

As it turned out, it was worth the wait. Walter Kerr of the Herald Tribune said Audrey “was as fresh and frisky as a puppy out of a tub. She brings a candid innocence and a tomboy intelligence to a part that might have gone sticky, and her performance comes as a breath of fresh air in a stifling season.”

Accordingly, on the following evening, the marquee at the Fulton Theatre went from having all seven cast members names situated below Gigi, to AUDREY HEPBURN in GIGI. It was Audrey herself who hoisted the A on to the bulb-laden marquee with press photographers snapping away.

The Fulton Theatre sold out every seat for the six-month run of the play.

James and Audrey still found time to see each other during Gigi’s run, as he had offices and an apartment in New York. Their intention to wed had been left informal with an understanding that it would take place sometime after Gigi closed and before Roman Holiday began shooting.

To make it official, James proposed to Audrey again and presented her with a beautiful engagement ring. Audrey was 22 and engaged to a wonderful, supportive man. And as if that wasn’t enough, she was also the toast of Broadway.