His Second Act The Atlantic Monthly Take a look at an interesting article we found.
Sex, Sinatra and the Women Who Fell for Him Times of London Take a look at an interesting article we found.
Future Clashes with Tower's Famed Past Washington Times Take a look at an interesting article we found.
Some people scoff at home remedies. But have they read the warning label on FDA-approved drugs lately?
 by DreadPirateRoberts |
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 by Jonathan Isles |
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 by rings90 |
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July 31, 2008
Ava Gardner isn't the first starlet that comes to mind when you think of Hollywood's Golden Age. But because she was the only woman to ever bring Frank Sinatra to his knees - and pull him back up - I think you'll agree that she's worth a second look.
Born on a tobacco farm outside Smithfield, N.C., "Ava Gardner" was actually her name. Discovered when her brother-in-law, an aspiring New York photographer, put her picture in his studio window, it didn't matter that she had an almost incoherent southern drawl and no noticeable talent. The studio system would fix all that.
Her first 17 films were little more than one-line bit parts. She didn't really garner any attention until "The Killers," the 1946 adaptation of the Hemingway story. But four years earlier, she'd caught Sinatra's eye.
Some accounts say it was at the Mocambo Club on Sunset. Others say the Palladium. Either way, she was still Mrs. Mickey Rooney (and not yet Mrs. Artie Shaw).
"Hey, why didn't I meet you before Mickey?" Sinatra supposedly asked. "Then I could have married you myself."
She was speechless. Sinatra was smitten.
According to legend, he'd often go out on the balcony of his infamous bachelor pad in the Sunset Towers, and look down into her neighborhood and scream out her name - "Ava!!!" - in a boozy voice.
It wasn't until 1949, at a cocktail party in Palm Springs, that she could no longer avert her gaze from Ole Blue Eyes. Why the hesitation, you may wonder? Two reasons.
Sinatra's star was falling. He was losing his voice, hadn't had a No. 1 record in years, and lost top billing to Gene Kelly in "On the Town." More importantly, he was married, and Catholic, with three kids. Divorce, even in Hollywood, was a big deal in those days.
Could she have simply been another one of Sinatra's paramours? Another conquest? Certainly. But Ava Gardner wouldn't settle for being anything less than Mrs. Frank Sinatra.
"If I'm in love, I want to get married," she wrote in her autobiography. "That's my fundamentalist Protestant background."
Frank left Nancy on Feb. 14, 1950, and married Ava on Nov. 7, 1951, six days after his divorce was final. But for all they went through to be together, it was a short honeymoon.
Summing it up, Gardner said: "We were great in bed. It was usually on the way to the bidet when the trouble began."
And while she would prove to be his biggest heartache, she's also responsible for what some consider the greatest comback in showbiz history.
Ava lobbied Columbia Pictures to cast Frank as Maggio, the tough-talking skinny Italian kid in "From Here to Eternity." The 1953 film - and Oscar - revived his career. If it hadn't been for that role, Sinatra might well have been just another flash-in-the-pan ‘40s torch singer who faded away.
He also had the good sense to sign with Capitol Records. According to The Atlantic, "The 16 concept albums that followed, his most remarkable achievement and among America's enduring cultural treasures, defied public taste and redirected it toward what would be known as the Great American Songbook."
But what of Frank and Ava?
They divorced in 1957, but never quite got over each other.
"We became lovers forever - eternally," Gardner said. "Big words ... But I truly felt that no matter what happened we would always be in love."
I think that's a fair statement, don't you?
Share the Eye:
A Tribute to Ava Gardner www.classicmovies.org Take a look at an interesting article we found.
I'm a Fool to Want You YouTube Take a look at an interesting article we found.
Assessing Ava Gardner lovegoddess.info Take a look at an interesting article we found.
I first saw Ava Gardner in Mogambo, a second rate remake of Red Dust, starring the same leading m...
Jul. 31, 2008 11:40 AM
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I just can't figure out why Frank married Mia Farrow....
AVA ~ one of the most beautiful women to come out of the Hollywood Studio System towards the end of their reign. She is most likely more remembered for being the "Other" women in Sinatra's marriage & the reason why he left Nancy.
Despite the "bad" publicity she was somehow still very intriguing to the general public on screen & off. Being Mrs. Sinatra could not have been a small feat at all, but I think what's more amazing about her is that she was mostly candid when talking about him later in her life. Sinatra however rarely discussed his marriage & his love for her, a sure sign that she was most likely the one that got away & but had kept his heart forever.
Ava passed away in 1990 right around the time I was beginning my own love affair with "Classic Hollywood Era" Because of her passing I had the chance to be introduced to her through her films "The Killers" & "Pandora & the Flying Dutchman" I went out & got her ghost written biography a little after seeing them. She was very candid in it, & even though she's rarely put on the same pedestal for her acting ability as Ingrid, Norma, Joan, Myrna, & Bette.
I recently got around to FINALLY seeing the "Barefoot Contessa" some say not the best film done by Joseph Mankiewicz at the time, somehow though Ava's performance as a reluctant star seems to speak volumes its as if for her it really was art imitating life.
Ava lived in another time in a parallel universe. The rules were different in those days. It makes me wonder what any of us would do if we were asked to life larger than life.
I first saw Ava Gardner in Mogambo, a second rate remake of Red Dust, starring the same leading man, now 22 years older. Gable had stolen the part from Stewart Granger (not as much of an icon, not as much of a star, but a better actor) who had campaigned to get the movie made in the first place. I barely noticed Gardner at the time because I was too busy noticing her co-star, a woman with far less sultry sex appeal (less important to me at that age) but a better actress, Grace Kelly. It was the first movie I saw any one of the three of them in and that is the only thing especially worthwhile about it. Check out the original instead; it's a better movie and it will answer any questions about the popularity of Jean Harlow.
I suppose we may all want something different from the actors we watch and we all have our own reasons for loving them or not. In my case, the actual work is the key, the ability to make me forget I'm watching an actor on screen and convince me that I have become completely immersed in the world of the story and that the characters are real. This can be done in different ways. Some actors accomplish a complete physical transformation and are virtually unrecognizable from part to part (Daniel Day-Lewis is a classic example). Others are always recognizable but attack their roles with such an intense emotional sincerity that the performance feels unfiltered by that screen that rises in between themselves and their audience (Kirk Douglas performed with his sweat in this manner). Some could provide a bombastic and effrevescent interpretation (Peter O'Toole) or quietly immerse themselves into the character's subtleties (James Mason). But, in every case, it was about calling attention to the characters they played, not to themselves.
Some actors, however, are all about calling attention to themselves. They play themselves in part after part and they bank on their own immense personalities and outsized charisma. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Many of these people are a pleasure to watch. Some of the personalities were glamorous (David Niven, Cary Grant) and some were gritty (Jack Nicholson). But they always bent the character to fit themselves rather than bending themselves to fit their characters.
Now here's the thing: All of the examples in the above paragraphs are men. Women in Hollywood are, shamefully, almost always judged according to their beauty. Today, the question may be "How does she look naked?" In the Golden Age, it was "How does she look in a ball gown?" But the notion of a woman putting forth the skill, the talent, or (as we say in the business) the "chops" is not considered as often. Sure, there were great character actresses like Flora Robson, Jane Darwell, Gale Sondergaard, and Anne Revere, but none of them got to be "stars" like the more beautiful icons they supported, none of whom was as strong in her craft. That is the category into which Ava Gardner fell.
Don't get me wrong; many of these beautiful icons were also great actresses. Greta Garbo studied Stanislavski and Vivien Leigh had a classical stage background and they were two of the most beautiful women of the 30's. Lauren Bacall and Grace Kelly both attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts (my alma mater, BTW) and there was great skill and craftsmanship to be found in the work of Ingrid Bergman, Olivia De Havilland, and Deborah Kerr. But, in every case, the craftsmanship was (at least in their own day) appreciated as a second priority to their beauty and their glamor.
In this respect, audiences have actually become more sophisticated in recent years. There are still plenty of stars whose fans love them solely for physical reasons. But the appreciation and demand for "chops" among women, as well as men, is considerably greater today than it was in the Golden Age.
I will probably talk your ears off more later, but this post is already turning into a book so I'm going to stop now.
more on the honor rollBogie and Bacall....an eternal couple.
I always liked Lana Turner and Barbara Stanwick (especially in Double Indemnity)
I, too, can't understand the Sinatra and Mia Farrow affair. Must have been some kind of late mid-life crisis for Sinatra. It must have been like marrying Rosemary's baby!
Now, back to Bogie and Bacall.....
All I can say is WOW to you DRP seeing Gable in Magambo BEFORE ever seeing GWTW.... GWTW was the FIRST classic film I EVER saw & have been totally sucked in by Gable as an actor ever since. Although I will agree Red Dust is far more Superior to Magambo, for many reasons ~ Ava & Grace not really the worst actresses in the world, just that Gable was a little to "weathered" to be replaying the same part with such young leading ladies, of course that didn't stop the studio form pairing him up 5 years later with Yvonne DeCarlo in Band of Angels in the same type of May, December romance plot again....
Ava may not have had the "chops" that Kerr, Bergman, or DeHaviland had but as you say she had the beauty & style. It's too bad that in today's world that's really what makes an icon. I can talk of Ingrid's other roles, but she is mostly known for "Casablanca" or her scandalous affair with Rossellini, DeHaviland is the one who fights with her famous sister & poor Deborah Kerr she's either remember as playing second fiddle to Yul Brynner or as the tragic woman from An "Affair to Remember" which most people seem to be able only to reference by talking about its referral within the film, Sleepless in Seattle. Yet all three of those other women did a larger body of film work than Ava in their careers.
Of course part of what makes Ava an Icon is the Publicity shot of her in the Black one Strap Gown form the Killers, to me it's a great rival to the Black Strapless Gown Rita wears in Gilda... (Put the blame on Mame Boys, put the Blame on Mame,....)
As for Bogie & Bacall I've read her Bio also & still don't get it, I get Ava & Frank, I get Woody & Mia, I got Rita & Orson, but Bogie & Bacall's chemistry & relationship eludes me greatly. I can see their chemistry on the screen but as a working marriage I'm still baffled by it... It does just go to show though that two strong personalities can be in love & make a marriage work & be happy together.
When I go out to a movie, I prefer to sit back, eat my popcorn as quietly as possible, a allow my mind to become a tabla rasa as far as the personal lives of the actors are concerned. I simply want to be transported by their performances into whatever world the director has envisioned and created on the screen.
It has always been a challenge to ignore the media's relentless and seemingly omnipresent broadcasting of the personal lives of celebrities and it just gets more difficult, if not impossible to avoid. This is unfortunate but it just means I have to make a more conscious effort to put all that aside and focus on the wonderful images and dialogue.
One of my failures at accomplishing this resulted in me having a very jaundiced opinion of the films starring Frank Sinatra. The rumblings of his mob ties, the Mia Farrow debacle, were hard to ignore. But it was the portrayal of the Johnny Fontane character from the Godfather, whom I believe was modeled after Frances Albert, "the Chairman of the Board" that did him in for me.
As far as famous screen romances, I totally agree with ExPat on Bogie and Bacall, as well as Spencer Tracy/Katherine Hepburn, and Clark Gabel/Claudette Colbert (It Happened One Night), as having something very special on the screen.
Spinner said...
I was thinking, but what about Tracy and Hepburn, and PeterLake came up with them! DPR, you must have had a great BBQ last night to have the endurance to write all that. I anxiously await the second installment. Who can add to that. And your comments about either becoming the character or having the character become you is right on. I do so enjoy a good Tracy/Hepburn movie, but that is because I know how the characters will act and how the snappy reparte will flow. Always the same, but so very enjoyable.
As far as having to have the female bod these days, of course on the starlett level, yes. And some really bad consequences have resulted. I won't go there. But as far as the A List is concerned, looks take a back seat to the chops. I just saw Mama Mea and was captivated by Meryl Streep's performance. Not your classic Hollywood beauty, but this part definitely gave me even more respect for her is that is possible because the part was SO different from anything else she has done. And she did it better than anyone else I could think of. Interesting that we don't hear much about her private life...
I can't say how Frank Sinatra's mind worked (or how his heart worked) but I've met Mia Farrow and she struck me as gracious, charming, a loving mother, a dedicated artist, an independent thinker, and an all-out real person. Can't say how much of that would have appealed to Sinatra but it sure appealed to me. Add to that the quality of her work in Death on the Nile, Hannah and Her Sisters, and her heartbreaking turn in The Purple Rose of Cairo, and it's clear that her craft is far more strongly developed than Turner's was or was ever expected to be.
In response to the comments on the different screen couples, all I can say is chemistry is a mysterious thing. I must disagree with rings90; I definitely do not get Rita and Orson. That strikes me as one of the oddest odd couples in Hollywood history and The Lady From Shanghai, which puts me to sleep every time I attempt it, seems to bear me out in this impression
When my wife and I first met, we bonded over our love of classic movies. The first song I ever sang to her was "You're Awful", the love song Sinatra sang with Betty Garrett in On the Town. Later, at our wedding feast, instead of table numbers, we had table names. Each table featured a silver-framed photo of a classic Hollywood couple; Astaire and Rogers, Olivier and Leigh, Tracy and Hepburn, Bogart and Bacall, Burton and Taylor, Cronyn and Tandy, Newman and Woodward, Eddy and MacDonald, and the head table was Powell and Loy. Three years later, when we were expecting our first baby, we agreed to choose a name that reflected our shared passion for the golden age of cinema. We said, if we had a boy, we would name him Douglas after Fairbanks. We had a girl so we named her after my wife's favorite actress... Vivien.
Spinner,
You are spot on about Meryl Streep, she's a wonderful actress with a seemingly infinite range.
Sorry. When extolling the virtues of Mia Farrow, I accidentally said "Turner" when I meant to say "Gardner" in the phrase, "her craft is far more strongly developed than Turner's was or was ever expected to be". My sincere apologies to Lana Turner who was, in my opinion, also a better actress than Ava Gardner. I guess I'm getting Artie Shaw's wives confused.