Author: Ava Gardner
Year: 1990
Rank:
Rating:
Original Rating:
Pop Rating:
Genres/categories:
Biographies, Non Fiction, Memoirs
Purchase/reserch links:
ISBNs:
9780553071344
0553071343 |
| 
Hardcover Edition of Ava Gardner's own story with no hold barred. Like a novel but Ava really lived it.
In this chatty autobiography, Gardner tells of her upbringing in a poor but proud Southern family, her sudden success in early-'40s Hollywood--mainly because of her beauty--and rails against MGM, which played up her cheesecake potential. She neatly sums up the problems in each of her three short marriages: Mickey Rooney was a blatant womanizer; Artie Shaw was cool and overbearing; Frank Sinatra (the two were the loves of each other's lives) was as jealous as she, leading to drunken marathon fights. Gardner also sketches a creepy portrait of Howard Hughes, who for years stopped at no machination in an unsuccessful attempt to bed and marry her. A shy woman who used drink to feel comfortable socially, Gardner seems very likable, down-home, spontaneous and sadly derogatory toward her intelligence, acting abilities--and even her beauty. Of the seven included "eulogies" from friends and colleagues, Stephen Birmingham's best captures the joy and tragedy of Gardner's life.
Similar books:
|
