Princess Diana in Brooklyn: how the monarch visited a poor area of ​​​​New York and surprised the world

In February 1989 in Brooklyn Princess Diana has arrived. The 27-year-old royal traveled by motorcade to Fort Greene to attend a performance of the Welsh National Opera at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, says NY Post. It was part of a historic solo tour that included her famous visit to a Harlem hospital. It was shown in Season 4 of The Crown where she supported young AIDS patients.

Yet the thought of the princess crossing the bridge to attend an event in Brooklyn was almost as shocking as her stop in Harlem. The CBS Evening News ran an incredulous story about a country walk, juxtaposing Dee's glamorous image with footage of homeless people, dilapidated buildings, and broken sewers.

“We were so thrilled to be covered on national television,” recalled Karen Brooks Hopkins, the Academy’s former president and chief fundraiser at the time, describing how staff went about buying a small black-and-white TV so they could watch it. visit at work. “Then the segment starts and [Dan Rather] shows trash on the streets of Brooklyn and asks, 'Why is Princess D coming here?' We were shattered!"

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Brooks Hopkins details the moment in her new book YOU... And Then It Hit Me (PowerHouse Books), released March 1, which chronicles her 36-year service at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Diana's visit, she said, was a special memory.

"Changed everything for us, for Brooklyn"

“For the princess to come to Brooklyn at that time was a way out of the comfort zone of high society,” said Brooks Hopkins. Her royal seal of approval "changed everything for us Brooklyn."

It started in 1988 when the Academy was preparing to open its first opera season with a gala concert and staging opera "Falstaff" performed by artists of the Welsh National Opera. Brooks Hopkins had to find a way to sell enough tickets to fund an ambitious production.

“Brooklyn then was not the Brooklyn we know now,” she explained. “Getting people across the bridge to come to the show was not easy.” task».

It was then that the CEO of the Welsh Opera said that Princess Diana was her patron and that he would invite her to the performance. Brooks Hopkins didn't quite believe she could get the most famous woman in the world to Kings County, so she was shocked when a few weeks later she got a call telling her to get ready for a royal visit.

“It was an invitation that came to the right girl at the right time,” Brooks Hopkins said of Diana, who married Prince Charles in 1981.

“I think she was ready for her solo trip, where she could be the center of attention and do things her own way,” recalls Brooks.

Princess Diana required to install metal detectors

On February 2, the day of the gala, Diana's personal service, along with the FBI, Scotland Yard, and the NYPD, arrived at the Academy, bringing bomb-hunting dogs with them and demanding metal detectors be installed. The princess was given her own dressing room with her own bathroom and shower. (The troupe discovered someone "escaped with a royal toilet seat" a day later from her room, Brooks Hopkins said. The culprit was never found.)

When the princess's car finally arrived, Diana stepped out, stunningly beautiful, in a strapless white silk dress with a brocade corset and matching corset skirt.

"She was great"

“We were stunned,” recalls Brooks Hopkins. “She was so gorgeous.” Brooks Hopkins greeted her, curtsied and ushered her in through the staff entrance and then up the backstage elevator to be greeted by other employees."

"She was so nice to us and asked us questions about the Brooklyn Academy of Music," said Brooks Hopkins, adding that she showed an enthusiasm and zeal that is so rare in celebrities.

“We had walkie-talkies and she wanted us to show her how they work and thought it was funny. I knew the event would be a success,” Brooks added.

Outside, protesters were shouting about the riots in Northern Ireland, limousines lined the street as elegant guests entered the theater and took their seats. Mayor Ed Koch donned a suit instead of the mandatory tuxedo. (“He was obviously on his way to a Democratic Party fundraiser at Waldorf,” writes Brooks Hopkins.) Even Donald Trump showed up, though Brooks Hopkins said her staff later had to go after him for his money.

As the curtain rose, the orchestra played "Star Banner" and "God Save the Queen" and Diana solemnly stepped onto the stage. “Everyone is standing, everyone is dressed in black, and then she enters her royal box, dressed in white, and the crowd sighs. Drama!" Brooks recalls.

All tickets for the opera for five evenings were sold out

"I don't want to give up on a production that was great, but thanks to Princess Di, it was number one [in terms of sales]," said Brooks Hopkins. The gala raised $1 million in one evening, more than double the amount raised by the Academy's biggest fundraisers at the time.

In August 1997, when she heard the news of Diana's death, Brooks Hopkins and her colleagues were devastated.

“We all felt we had lost a friend — we felt such a connection with her,” she said. - It's so great that she came to Brooklyn; another person might have been more snobbish about it, but she wasn't. She wasn't going to just do the traditional stuff, and that was all of her."