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Sharon Barrow Wilfong's Reviews > Ava: My Story
Ava: My Story
by
by
I got this book in the free bin at my local library and, while I don't normally go for celebrity biographies I took a chance on this one.
This story started out strong. I especially liked the natural, southern slangy way Ava Gardner described her upbringing in rural North Carolina ("Honey, let me tell ya..."). Her home town is near my father's and he had a crush on Ava Gardner growing up. I thought when I finished the book I'd give it to him to read.
As I progressed I decided not. Why burst my dad's bubble of fond memories? He's 84. Let him die happy.
Ava seems to have a rare talent for combining beauty and class with a foul mouth and raunchy life style. However, I doubt if hers is an atypical Hollywood story.
She liked to drink, got into several passionate love affairs, including with Frank Sinatra, whom she considered the love of her life. They eventually married but just couldn't stop fighting.
It was strange. She had no problem cheating with other wives' husbands, but she was a tigress if any of her lovers or husbands dared cheat on her.
Her standards weren't very high either or maybe women back then didn't see anything wrong with getting slapped around. She rejected Howard Hughes' obsessive advances, although not his money or the trips, private jets and jewelry he poured on her. He also poured abuse on her, both verbal and physical. Both of which she returned. The worst was George C. Scott who was a psychopath and needed to go to prison. He beat her so badly she had multiple times to escape from him and once ended up in the hospital.
Her first husband, Mickey Rooney, spent their honeymoon playing golf and sleeping with other women. The marriage did not last long. She was 19. However as an unknown extra at MGM, being married to one of Hollywood's biggest starts probably didn't hurt the upward trajectory of her career. It may have even launched it.
The second husband, Artie Shaw, was abusive and unfaithful. Next was Frank Sinatra. I won't bother describing all the drunken brawls and broken furniture during their marriage.
However, Sinatra married Ava while his star was slumping and hers was rising. I can't help but think both of them saw the other as a career boost. At any rate it was. Ava married a legend, and Sinatra's star took back off.
Ava's biography gives the reader a view of the Golden Hollywood years were like behind the scenes. She describes the making of her movies and her fellow actors without gossip or rancor. She loved and was beloved by her fellow actors. There seemed to be no jealousy or pettiness between her and the other beautiful stars of the era, even when they sometimes shared husbands (serially, not at the same time).
Ava loved and was loved by "Papa Hemingway" as she called him. They met in Europe in a hospital room where she was laid up cursing out the nurses. They must have mutually respected their abilities to swear like sailors. Ava starred in a couple of Hemingway's stories made into movies.
Interestingly, Ava stated that she really wasn't an actress, that none of them were. They were simply gorgeous dolls hired to pose in movies. Probably not completely true, but not entirely false either.
And I agree with Ava that there was a look that the make-up artists contrived to make all of them look alike and frankly quite a few of them did. I personally have a hard time telling Ava Gardner from Rita Hayworth or Lana Turner or Jean Simmons from Audrey Hepburn. I feel the same about today's stars. I guess it's whatever the fashion look is at the time.
This book was interesting and Ava is an interesting person, but I wonder if, reading her biography, I haven't read most Hollywood glamour stars biography: Beautiful woman gets discovered, eventually lands leading roles, sleeps with a lot of men, marries and divorces. Dies from health related causes due to heavy smoking and drinking. The end.
At least I got it free.
This story started out strong. I especially liked the natural, southern slangy way Ava Gardner described her upbringing in rural North Carolina ("Honey, let me tell ya..."). Her home town is near my father's and he had a crush on Ava Gardner growing up. I thought when I finished the book I'd give it to him to read.
As I progressed I decided not. Why burst my dad's bubble of fond memories? He's 84. Let him die happy.
Ava seems to have a rare talent for combining beauty and class with a foul mouth and raunchy life style. However, I doubt if hers is an atypical Hollywood story.
She liked to drink, got into several passionate love affairs, including with Frank Sinatra, whom she considered the love of her life. They eventually married but just couldn't stop fighting.
It was strange. She had no problem cheating with other wives' husbands, but she was a tigress if any of her lovers or husbands dared cheat on her.
Her standards weren't very high either or maybe women back then didn't see anything wrong with getting slapped around. She rejected Howard Hughes' obsessive advances, although not his money or the trips, private jets and jewelry he poured on her. He also poured abuse on her, both verbal and physical. Both of which she returned. The worst was George C. Scott who was a psychopath and needed to go to prison. He beat her so badly she had multiple times to escape from him and once ended up in the hospital.
Her first husband, Mickey Rooney, spent their honeymoon playing golf and sleeping with other women. The marriage did not last long. She was 19. However as an unknown extra at MGM, being married to one of Hollywood's biggest starts probably didn't hurt the upward trajectory of her career. It may have even launched it.
The second husband, Artie Shaw, was abusive and unfaithful. Next was Frank Sinatra. I won't bother describing all the drunken brawls and broken furniture during their marriage.
However, Sinatra married Ava while his star was slumping and hers was rising. I can't help but think both of them saw the other as a career boost. At any rate it was. Ava married a legend, and Sinatra's star took back off.
Ava's biography gives the reader a view of the Golden Hollywood years were like behind the scenes. She describes the making of her movies and her fellow actors without gossip or rancor. She loved and was beloved by her fellow actors. There seemed to be no jealousy or pettiness between her and the other beautiful stars of the era, even when they sometimes shared husbands (serially, not at the same time).
Ava loved and was loved by "Papa Hemingway" as she called him. They met in Europe in a hospital room where she was laid up cursing out the nurses. They must have mutually respected their abilities to swear like sailors. Ava starred in a couple of Hemingway's stories made into movies.
Interestingly, Ava stated that she really wasn't an actress, that none of them were. They were simply gorgeous dolls hired to pose in movies. Probably not completely true, but not entirely false either.
And I agree with Ava that there was a look that the make-up artists contrived to make all of them look alike and frankly quite a few of them did. I personally have a hard time telling Ava Gardner from Rita Hayworth or Lana Turner or Jean Simmons from Audrey Hepburn. I feel the same about today's stars. I guess it's whatever the fashion look is at the time.
This book was interesting and Ava is an interesting person, but I wonder if, reading her biography, I haven't read most Hollywood glamour stars biography: Beautiful woman gets discovered, eventually lands leading roles, sleeps with a lot of men, marries and divorces. Dies from health related causes due to heavy smoking and drinking. The end.
At least I got it free.
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Reading Progress
May 11, 2020
–
Started Reading
June 4, 2020
– Shelved
June 4, 2020
–
Finished Reading
I was a child in the era of Ava Gardner and her contemporaries. They were just part of the landscape and I was too young to realize that they had off-screen lives. I enjoyed reading the tidbits in your review. They certainly lived it up — in the worst sense of the phrase!