How Princess Diana’s solo NYC trip put Brooklyn on the map in 1989

nypost.com:

visit to Harlem Hospital depicted in Season 4 of “The Crown,” where she held young AIDS patients.Yet the idea of a princess crossing the bridge to attend an event in Brooklyn was almost as shocking as her Harlem stop. “CBS Evening News” ran an incredulous segment about the outer-borough jaunt, juxtaposing Di’s glamorous image with shots of homeless people, dilapidated buildings and broken sewers.“We were so excited that we were getting national television coverage,” recalled Karen Brooks Hopkins, BAM’s former president and its chief fundraiser at the time, describing how the staff had pitched in to buy a little black-and-white TV so they could watch it at work. “Then the segment opens and [Dan Rather] is showing garbage on the streets of Brooklyn and asking, ‘Why is Princess Di coming here?’ We were shattered!”Brooks Hopkins details the moment in her new book, “BAM … And Then It Hit Me” (PowerHouse Books), out March 1, which looks back at her 36 years at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

Diana’s visit, she said, was an extra special memory.“For a princess, coming to Brooklyn was stepping outside the comfort zone of high society at the time,” Brooks Hopkins told The Post.

Her royal seal of approval “changed everything for us, for Brooklyn.” It started in 1988, with BAM prepping to launch its first opera season with a gala and performance of “Falstaff” by the Welsh National Opera.

Brooks Hopkins had to figure out a way to sell enough tickets to fund the ambitious production. “Brooklyn then was not the Brooklyn we know now,” she explained. “Getting people to cross the bridge to come to a show was a job.” That’s when the Welsh Opera’s general director told her Princess Diana was a patron, and he would invite her to the show..