GARDNER, Ava

(24.12. 1922 - 25.01. 1990)

One day, Miss Gardner persuaded her friends to arrange a tour of the Tokyo brothel. Climbing one of the rooms, she asked a friend to stand near the entrance, zazyvaya clients: "You will own Ava Gardner!"

While prostitutes liked to call himself the names of movie stars. Some drunken American sailor, klyunuv to loud calls, got up in the room. Minutes later, he ran down a bullet, sober and white with fear: "Dear God!" There really was Ava Gardner! "

"You draw?" - Asked her heroine in the movie "The Snows of Kilimanjaro". "No," - she shook her head. "Lepite?" - "No". - "So what are you doing?" - "Just try to be happy". "You girl, Charles?" - Gregory Peck did not let up in another scene, and Ava again replied: "No, I'm the girl alone.

On the screen it was the same as in life, but of life never made any secret. Boredom and passion, melancholy and humor, loneliness, and noisy companies, the fear of having children, and almost manic desire to have a strong family - of these contradictions, it seemed, was spun all her life.

. - To say she can not, can not move, can not play - muttered Louis Mayer, when he was shown the first audition eighteen Ava Gardner
. - I do not know how ... But, damn, it is simply amazing!

... Great Depression did not spare Gardner - tobacco leaf is rapidly dropping, and the father of Ava had to sell the farm. It was a typical family of semi-literate peasants, who lived not far from forgotten by God, the small town of Smithfield. Seven children. Ava - the youngest. Her mother, Molly Gardner - lush yuzhanka strict puritanical views - all my life belonged to men with extreme caution and tirelessly repeated about daughters. The only book in the house was the Bible, the only entertainment - an old radio ... And all around - nothing but dismal gray-brown tobacco plantation in North Carolina.

When the girl was sixteen, his father died unexpectedly. After that, Molly, and without that who saw in every man a rapist and scoundrel, definitely crazy to own righteousness. It prohibited Ave to buy new clothes, use makeup and think about anything except school. Ava silently listened to her sermon on sin and virtue, and never argued with her mother. But in films, on which a young girl running around in secret, the triumph of benefactors looked slightly different - after all the tears and suffering for an honest girl always came a handsome prince and taken away favorite in the country of eternal happiness. That was the difference: Molly did not believe either in love or in the tale of a perfect man, Ava as they believed. And as soon as she turned eighteen, she moved to the town of Wilson - the same, we should note the hole, as well as Smithfield, and enrolled in courses secretaries.

Testaments mother, however, Ava did not forget. Playmates remembered that Miss Gardner was a girl nervous, suspicious, had an easy temper, sharp tongue and piously believed that the most important thing on the way to happiness - do not let all sorts of impudent to climb to her under her skirt.

. In the early summer of 1941, eighteen-Awa went to New York found out her sister Bappi, who was married to photographer Larry Terom
. Larry was going to decorate the windows of his studio portraits of languid beauties and nothing better to do decided to "click" Sister -. The result was stunning - from the photos looked real beauty: a high chest, thin waist, expressive eyes and alabaster skin ...

.
. Seeing the pictures, Ava was horrified - that she always tried to hide, there was now the property of street passers-by! However, "passers" thought differently
. Once pictures caught the eye of a young clerk with the studios "MGM" - a Hollywood career and a future superstar started. Under the contract signed with Louis Mayer, Ava got work for seven years and $ 50 per week.

"0'key, so I'm going to Hollywood. And that's what I did there in the first place: marry a most important movie star and I will be happy! "- Suddenly blurted out, Ava, on learning that it wants to sign a contract. It is not known whether she joking or talking seriously. God knows why Ava general said so - but his words proved prophetic. Unfortunately, only half.

At the time, "the most important star" studio "MGM" was a young Mickey Rooney пЎя?п°я€пЎп?п°я?п?п°. Faced with Ava in one of the pavilions, Mickey responded to it the same way as all other men - that is simply lost for words. He fell asleep girl notes, gifts, overcome with phone calls - all to no avail. Jump into bed with the famous hero-lover - what starlet not dreamed of such a brilliant future! But Ava Gardner felt differently - even a kiss outside of marriage seemed to her a sort of prostitution. When finally she agreed to have dinner with Mickey (in the company's older sister, of course), he was beside himself with happiness. But Louis Mayer, . opposite, . flew into a rage: that his main superstar married the starlet? But neither in life! Mickey, . however, . continued to persist, . spend crazy money on restaurants, . gave bouquets of roses and made a hundred suggestions Ave twenty times a day, . but every time I've heard in response continued: "Rooney, . you crazy ",
. Mickey literally on his knees begged Mayer marriage license and even introduced her mother, Ava. Hearing the word "bride", Mrs Rooney tore his eyes from the newspaper and looked curiously at the girl: "What, he did not get to climb into your pants?"

. ... In the first wedding night, when the husband solemnly entered the bedroom, the young lay there like a mummy: white from fear, from head to toe wrapped in a dark gown
. Mickey Rooney could not believe the stunning truth: his wife really was a virgin.

Ava Gardner was married to "the major stars in Hollywood, but now with happiness as something not kleilos. Mickey was always busy with work and in his spare time, the society of his young wife preferred the merry party. Or racing. Or poker with his friends ... Ava spent lonely evenings at home and fell asleep, leaving on the table prepared, but nobody wanted dinner. Several months of endless searching for the answer to the same question - will the husband home today or not? - Led to a nervous breakdown. After that, Gardner realized that with her enough.


Mickey every way opposed to divorce, but Ava had all agreed. Helps neither prayers, nor gifts, nor the threat. And when Mickey gently, as if embarrassed suggested that their marriage can save a child, his wife's reaction was clearly not the one on which he had hoped: "Just try. If you get pregnant, I'll kill you! "

May 21, 1943 Ava was divorced. "I was so stupid, that believing that marriage can change a person. We approached each other only in bed - and nothing else ", - said Awa many years later.

. The bitterness of the first failure quickly forgotten, and Ava has made another attempt to be happy: in her life, a new man - aviapromyshlennik and multimillionaire Howard Hughes
. This tall gangly man, which contained the entire staff of mistresses, did everything to make an impression on the Ava, - ex-wife of the chief kinogeroya the U.S. would be an excellent exhibit in the collection of the famous Playboy. And very Gardner did not have anything against: "He's a good and understanding friend. And then, you just imagine: he presses a button - and at my disposal plane, on! - And suites at the hotel. If I want to be alone, he instantly disappears. Howard - a lucky ticket for a girl like me, lazy yuzhanka ". Indeed, luxury gifts, flights on the weekend in Mexico - all this could not fail to please. Once Ava wanted orange ice cream - in wartime, it could not afford even the president - an hour later at her door stood a limousine and chauffeur in livery solemnly introduced to the house whole barrel goodies.

. But soon this "sweet life" revealed another side
. Hughes was not used to contradict him, and did not forgive, if they neglected. Comply with these rules Ava was not easy. First, she could not stand up when it disposed of, and no drums of ice cream, no diamonds could not dampen her desire for independence. Secondly, it simply did not like Hughes, but because the need to sleep with him seemed Ave matter unpleasant, if not - contrary. Hughes is such an attitude infuriated. He put her safety, but Ava has learned to easily overcome this trivial obstacle - to Howard's increasingly heard rumors about her hobbies on the side. Once appeared in the midst of a party that arranged for the Awa in his own mansion, Hughes dissatisfied mumbled something to her - and immediately got on the head with a heavy Oriental vase. The next day, Ava put out, and then begged for forgiveness ... Relationship seemed to be improved, but she knew: all this is quite different.

From homebody Miss Gardner became a frequenter of nightclubs and bars. "There is no routine - just jokes, humor and laughter" - became her motto. Such a life, among other things, helped to forget about sad: Ava continued to be the girl in the episodes, the nameless heroine of a film class "B". But soon everything changed ...

At the studio could not find a partner George Raft and Victor MakLagenu for the film "Stop the whistle". After another glance view producer focused on the Ave. It hangs there for days, doing nothing and the same damn sweet. Maybe try? "It was her first role, award reviews, and a very benevolent. Ava finally convinced herself that she still an actress, not a hanger for lingerie in the episodes - and a little calmer.

. At the same time during the filming, she met Artie Shaw - the world-renowned clarinetist, bandleader, an extravagant eccentric, over which ran an endless series of failed marriages
. Gardner was fascinated - such a clever man she never met even once in my life. They both were soon in bed, that did not even notice that it is absolutely not suited to each other.

Artie considered himself an intellectual, while Ava was able to finish a single novel "Gone With the Wind Margaret Mitchell. He gave her serious book in which she do not understand, enrolled in English literature and psychoanalysis sessions. They even got married ( "There is no cohabitation! - Snapped Louis Mayer. - Either you get married, or running away! "), But the marriage did not solve the problem, by contrast, turned into a nightmare.

Her husband blamed Ava of idiocy, she also wore it to their simplicity. Snobbish conversation with friends Artie made one Ava anguish - she would gossip about who is sleeping with whom, or discuss the latest Hollywood scandals ... Glossy magazines tempt her much more than with Hemingway, Joyce, together. She strolled to the guests around the house barefoot and did not see anything shameful. "How can you be such a country bumpkin! - Hissed Artie. - Do you think that is still in the tobacco fields? "

Artie adored the body of his wife and hated her brains. Ava bored and increasingly attracted to a glass of whiskey ... By the summer of 1946 the couple no longer sleep in one bed. And on 16 August, 10 months after the wedding, Ava has filed for divorce. The motive was the same as in the case of Mickey - "abuse of her husband". "Living with Artie - such anguish, - cheerfully said Ava Lana Turner. - No matter what learning in college. It is better to leave itself, than to wait until you expel.

. One of her friends remarked: parting with Artie, Ava has changed: "She no longer trust men and seemed keen to repay them in the same coin: to sleep and quickly escape
. Her novels are becoming more like a short affair. It was absolutely not in the style of Ava, who had come some time in Hollywood with one dream - to get acquainted with good person and live with it happily. "

. In 1947, Ava starred in the movie "Assassins" on a story by Hemingway, and the magazine "Onions" called it "the most promising debutante of the year"
. Another successful film was "speculators", where her partner was Clark Gable. She still occasionally seen with Hughes, but soon abandoned it altogether - in New York, she met a young actor Howard Duff. He just called Hail to the room and said he wanted to meet her. Stranger's voice sounded easy and fun - and she agreed. The hotel arrived broken rattletrap, from which emerged the young eagle in jeans and a shabby jacket. Ava was delighted - after kinogeroya-lover, millionaire owner and the bore-intellectual, she needed just such a guy - easy and fun. "She could be charming, but a minute later - unbearable. I was completely intoxicated by it after the first night, "- recalled Duff. Their tempestuous affair lasted two years, they quarreled and reconciled every week. Ava refused to marry Howard, realizing that the love between them - only friendship and sex. But it still seemed to be happy this is too little ...

Romantic infatuation ended very sadly. Ava became pregnant, decided to have an abortion and asked the doctor from Beverly Hills, as it turned out, not to the best. Not only that, he operated on without anesthesia - Ava suffered serious complications, making it almost impossible childbearing. Roman with Duffy came to an end. Ava was plunged into depression.

But the horror to a happy one step. And Ava Gardner made the move in the same 1950, . When the time came for the premiere of the movie "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" and met there by Frank Sinatra, . dark hair, an Italian with a flexible strong body and blatant sexuality in all - voice, . view, . movements,
. "Once we were together, I just lost my head - admiringly recalled Sinatra. - It's like she told me something in a glass slipped ... "That night they did not become" lovers at first sight "- Ava said that it would be" cheap and wrong ". But for a long time to resist the surging feeling she could not. The dream finally came true - Ava met the man lives.


"Do not be a fool, he will break you heart" - a chorus testified against her, those who knew Sinatra well. Frank was considered a first-rate Hollywood heartthrob, and no one believed that he voluntarily abandon this "title". "In my life I want to experience everything, still young and strong - firm Frank Friend. - To then not have to regret that fact did not have time, do not you try ... "" That son of a bitch just do not know how to love "- a bitter sigh Lana Turner. But Ava and did not want to listen. A week later, Sinatra had carried it in a convertible on the outskirts of Palm Springs, singing songs and Pal revolver. They were very similar - cheerful, open, emotional, both were night life, loved the simple Italian food, whiskey, boxing matches. But doubts lingered outside the well-being, pain and fear - each has his own.

Their sudden affair soon turned into a scandal. In Frank had a wife and three children. Newspapers called Ava, and wanton destroyer of families. Ubiquitous reporters followed on the heels in love - Sinatra threatened slapped hacks in the teeth if they are not left alone. At the concerts the audience merrily whistled every time he appeared only in the hall Awa. From this, Frank, career matters which at that time were very bad, even more nervous.

After shooting pictures of "Lone Star" Frank and Ava went on vacation in Mexico. When the lovers returned to Los Angeles, they again met reporters. This time, Frank could not resist - a blow to the jaw he knocked one of the journalists and threatened: "The next time I'll kill you, you son of a bitch". The scandal has indeed rampant. Louis Mayer was furious. August 19 Frank had to publicly announce his intention to apply for a divorce and marry Ave.

They could not wait until handle all formalities. Ava even a month went to the hospital - not the best way jitters affected the health. Finally, on Nov. 7 in Philadelphia, Ava Gardner and Frank Sinatra became husband and wife. Frank gave her a mink stole with sapphire clasps it to him - a gold locket with his picture. To avoid the regular skirmishes with the press, the couple left town so fast that even Awa forgot your luggage. Waiting for him in Florida, they walked through the deserted, cold wind scavenged Miami Beach - a few surviving images show that this is the happiest couple in the world.

. In 1952, after painting "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" palms Ava Gardner appeared in Hollywood on the famous bridge in front of Chinese Theater
. Wedding anniversary was celebrated in Kenya. "I've been married twice before - told reporters Ava - but never this did not last the whole year."

Career Frank went to the mountain: he won a role in the film "From Here to Eternity", his concerts draw full houses. Now the husband has not seen - tight shooting schedule and separated from their tour for months, . a brief meeting more often ended in quarrels: it seems, . as "odnolyuba" Frank managed to stay only a year, . and newspapermen to revive, . regular reporting on the adventures of zealous Italian, . about a noisy party in Las Vegas, . about the infinite variety of long-legged dancers, . which Sinatra had a particular weakness,
. All this was a real shock to Ava. Love, jealousy, rage, hurt pride - the emotions overwhelmed her, it seemed, just about - and they will tear the soul apart.

. Frank swore that it was all a lie, Ava angrily demanded: "Choose - either I, or any other", but still quarrel ended in reconciliation and passionate embraces
. As a result of one such "reconciliation", she became pregnant, then she suffered a miscarriage. Ava again plunged into a depression - she began to feel that she will never be a normal life, one of which she dreamed. "Why me fame and money, if I am unhappy?" - Questions remained unanswered, and some did not have anyone who could answer them. She sought an explanation of his own failures - and even more tangled. But soon Frank admitted in an interview that their marriage comes to an end. All America knew that he had started an affair with Marilyn Monroe. Ava could not stand it: she decided to leave forever, America, where everything now seemed so sad and hopeless ...

. In December, a few days before his tridtsatitrehletiya, Ava Gardner moved to Spain, buying a house in the village Moraleja - Spanish Beverly Hills, not far from Madrid
. She had hoped that the bright cheerful Spain will help her finally get rid of the aching sense of sadness and loneliness. Ava went to the bullfight in Malaga and Seville, in the favorite Hemingway Pamplona, San Sebastian, with his head dipped into the nightlife of clubs and taverns of Madrid and often visited at the gypsies. Her Mercedes, galloping at great speed, often seen on the highway in the vicinity of Madrid, two times it gets in an accident (thankfully, without special effects).

. Once in Madrid on the shooting came Sinatra, technically it was still her husband
. "Yes, it seems, the dregs - my destiny. But this does not stop me in finding the perfect man "- Ava answered questions about his relationship with Frank.

. For three years Frank and Ava did not dare to complete the process of divorce - among them, it seemed, there was still something elusive, hindering put the final point
. Sinatra as if the chain broke: Marilyn Monroe, . Grace Kelly, . Judy Garland, . Kim Novak, . Numerous stars of one-day appearance a la Ava Gardner - he was tempted by rapidly, . as rapidly cast and each time tried to do so, . to the news of the new novel will certainly reached Ava,
. And she sarcastically commented on his adventures: "Frank just down the original, so he is content with pale copies.

Ava increasingly locked behind the tall gates of his house, talking with a few friends, and reading the scripts. One of them, on the future Conchita Kintron known female toreador, it is really interested in and encouraged the reckless act, which in the life of Ava Gardner became more. In October 1957 she arrived at the ranch torero Angelo Peralta and stated that she wants to fight with the bull. Peralta, this adventure is absolutely not like, but in the end he yielded to persuasion Ava: I gave her a better horse and led the bull. But it was enough to prick his lance, as the horse reared and threw rider. Ava jumped up, tried to escape, but the bull was too close. She put forth his hand, trying to somehow protect themselves from attack, but it did not save - bull stabbed her on the cheek.

Ava was shocked not so much from pain as from the consciousness that her only apparent property - beauty - came to an end. The next day she came running in London, one of the best plastic surgeons. The doctor said he can not do anything - just wait until the injury will. At Ava did not stop hysterical, she canceled all filming and the release of. Cheek quickly healed, and only at the very gaze could notice a small swelling. But to convince itself that the actress could not have one.

Acted in several unsuccessful films, Ava Gardner was locked for two years in his house all day listening to records and rarely traveled to the city. Eventually she got tired of seclusion, she sold the house and bought a flat in Madrid, apartments directly above ousted Argentine dictator Peron. Regular gatherings with guitars and flamenco dancing so besili old disgraced general, that he once called the police. About the parties in the house of Gardner, where flocked the young actors, torero, musicians, students, gossiping the entire Madrid. There were rumors that because of her young flamenco dancer out of the window, during a quarrel with her lover Ava broke wrench his sports car ... All of Hollywood friends, with whom she ever met, Ava necessarily as casually and indifferently made inquiries about Sinatra. "I never could understand women!" - Shook his head, Humphrey Bogart. - Half of the girls of the world are ready to rush to the feet of Frank, . and you flirtuesh with the guys in some clown cloaks and ballet slippers! "Ava just sad smile:" Perhaps, . If I turned out to share with other women, Frank, . we really would have been happier. ",

. Her behavior became increasingly bizarre - Ava convene friends, . and she disappeared from home, and the journalists came to interview, . and Miss Gardner merely shrugged his shoulders: "Why?" Am I someone interesting? Let's drink! " Seemed, . nothing could remove her from the state of eternal ennui,
. "Being a movie star, believe me, so lonely. I do it for the money, that's all - it was recognized newspaper people. - Do you think I understand something in a movie? "

Allocation orders from Valentino and Dior replaced undemanding sweaters, knitted jackets and skirts English. She spent almost all the time at home, continued to maintain his sister Bappi and never refused to help friends.

In the mid-60's Awa tired of Madrid. Flamenco, tapas, and dark handsome toreador had not called it anything other than irritation, and she decided to move to London: "This is the only place on earth where you can walk unnoticed". "But in London there is no sun and the rain all the time!" - Surprised reporters. "And what do I need the sun?" I did and so never see. During the day I sleep. Night - that's my girlfriend. As a child I was afraid of the dark and weep. Now everything is different. I like London rain. Such wonderful to rain ... it calms me. "


Even there, in London, phoned Ave Sinatra: that day was scheduled his wedding to actress Mia Farrow. Frank's voice was quiet and uncertain - it seemed he was calling to ask her advice. "What is something you are unhappy, - said Awa - may be worthwhile to postpone the wedding?" "Too late, baby, - sighed Sinatra. - I gotta go. But know that whatever I had with this girl ... I still love you ... "

Ava hung up and burst into tears. The next morning was again normal Ava Gardner - a quiet, proud, deadly ironic. Seeing photos Suite, in which short haircut reminiscent of Mia thirteen years old teenager, Gardner disdainfully shrugged: "I always knew that he would finish in bed with a boy". By itself Mii nevertheless Awa treated with a strange tenderness. I once told her: "You are - a child, which we do with Frankie never been. And it never will be. "

It is increasingly moving away from the noisy world, communicating only with a narrow range of the most loyal friends, and occasionally appeared in films and telepostanovkah. Like Greta Garbo, Ava did not want people to see how it ages, as day by day withers her beauty. For shutters of a Victorian house in Kensington Av finally found peace and solitude - something that has so long sought.

Frank Sinatra frequently visited her in London, and perhaps there is still the only person whom she wanted to see the next. In his later years, when Ava was already seriously ill, Sinatra spent on its treatment more than a million dollars. They looked very touching together - white-haired Hollywood Casanova, aged kinoboginya hours sitting by the fire, and looking at the fire, thinking about something else.

Ava Gardner died quietly in London in 1990. Once when she was offered a role to play smart, rich, but lonely woman, she said indignantly: "Are you making fun?" Yes, I'm playing her all my life! " Maybe she really was too beautiful for this world. And perhaps a bit naive - in fact very difficult to be happy, living on an "all or nothing". By the end of Av down with it and left the world in peace. Is not that called a happy ending? ..

Source: Tony Randall, "Caravan of History", 1999, July.