The Toronto Star article about the opening of the Montreal Olympics (Star Archive, July 117, 1976)
On July 17, 1976, Queen Elizabeth II stood in the Olympic Stadium in Montreal and officially opened the Summer Games, in both official languages:
Je proclame l’ouverture des Jeux olympiques de mille neuf cent soixante-seize, célébrant la vingt et unième olympiade de l’ère moderne.
I declare open the Olympic Games of 1976, celebrating the XXI Olympiad of the modern era.
It was the first Olympics to be held in Canada, the first to be opened in two languages, and the first of only two opened by Queen Elizabeth (the second was in London in 2012).
For the occasion, the Queen of Canada donned a bright pink outfit designed to make the monarch stand out against the crowds behind her. Its plain pink hue stood apart from the colours in the flags fluttering in the stadium, which is also why she wore peach in 2012 for the London opening.
The Montreal Olympics / Silver Jubilee outfit on display at the King’s Gallery of Buckingham Palace. No reproduction without the written permission of Write Royalty Inc.
“The softly tailored edge-to-edge coat was worn over a sleeveless dress with a French pleated skirt, a motif repeated on the matching stole,” is the description in Queen Elizabeth II: Fashion and Style, the companion book for the exhibition at the King’s Gallery.
The outfit was designed by Hardy Amies, who created many of her outfits in that era. The matching off-the-face hat featured a cascade of pink bell-shaped flowers, created by Frederick Fox.
She wore two strands of large pearls and a rather massive family brooch: the Duchess of Teck’s Emperor of Austria Brooch. It’s 10 cm in diameter (four inches) and made up of diamonds and pearls in a silver and gold plaited circular setting, with three detachable pearl pendants. It was given to Elizabeth’s great-grandmother, the Duchess of Teck, by Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria when he was godfather to one of her sons. (That son, Francis, would give his mistress a pile of family jewels he’d inherited from his mother, causing a huge royal scandal that his sister, Queen Mary, sought to contain. See my post below.)
EXCLUSIVE: A prince, his mistress, a hidden will, and priceless emeralds
The opening of the Montreal Olympics was part of a 10-day trip to Quebec and Ontario. For much of the visit, she and her family were based on the Royal Yacht Britannia. In addition to opening the Summer Games, Elizabeth and her family were in Montreal to see Princess Anne compete in the three-day equestrian event. That confluence of public duty and private desire created a truly unique royal moment: the their presence at the Montreal Olympics was the only time the Queen and her entire family would be together outside the United Kingdom.