This Newport Mansion Was Used in a Classic Frank Sinatra Film

Have you ever watched a film and thought the background scenery looked familiar? You may recognize some of what you see if you download the Frank Sinatra-Grace Kelly-Bing Crosby classic film High Society.

High Society was a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musical comedy released on July 17, 1956, with some not-so-memorable tunes by Cole Porter. Crosby's version of "True Love" was nominated for an Academy Award but lost to Doris Day's "Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)."

The film was nominated for three Oscars but won none.

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High Society, a remake of the 1940 straight film The Philadelphia Story, is about life in the socially elite fast lane in Newport, Rhode Island. The film incorporates the Newport Jazz Festival, founded in 1954, and featured famed jazz trumpeter Louis Armstrong and his band as themselves.

Turner Classic Movies says filming occurred between January and March 1956, with location scenes shot mostly in and around Clarendon Court at 626 Bellevue Avenue in Newport. The mansion was owned at the time by Mae Cadwell Hayward.

Other scenes were filmed on Newport's Ocean Drive.

Socialite Claus von Bulow purchased Clarendon Court in 1970. Von Bulow, convicted on charges he attempted to kill his wife Sunny with insulin injections in 1979 and 1980, saw the conviction overturned at a second trial.

High Society was released to mixed reviews but made lots of money in the U.S. The film was the last by Grace Kelly, who retired from show business after marrying Monaco's Prince Rainier.

Sinatra was said to have had a thing for Kelly while filming High Society, fueling a rivalry between himself and Crosby, who was rumored to have had an affair with Kelly.