I recently read the book "
Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations" by Peter Evans, published in July of this year. It's a fascinating look at what Ava was really like as a person (or at least what she was like in the late '80s). If you've heard of the book before then you probably have already heard the story behind it: Ava Gardner wanted Peter Evans to ghostwrite her autobiography, then after only part of it was written she backed out of the project, probably due to the fact that she realized she was being too open and honest with Evans, and possibly also because Frank Sinatra may have asked her not to go ahead with it. Twenty years after her death, Peter Evans got permission to publish what material he did have.
I'm not going to review the book, but I just wanted to say that I enjoyed it very much, but if you want a true biography then I suggest reading "
Ava Gardner: Love is Nothing" by Lee Server (I have yet to read this book but I've heard it's the best, and uses real sources).
A good portion of
The Secret Conversations focuses on Ava's relationship with her first husband, Mickey Rooney, whom she married not long after arriving in Hollywood, which inspired me to scan and share this photo:
Ava and Mickey at a party in Hollywood with Mickey's frequent
Andy Hardy co-star, Ann Rutherford, in November of 1941. I scanned this photo from the February 1942 issue of Modern Screen magazine. Ava was so unknown at the time that Modern Screen thought her name was "Ava Gardiner" (a spelling that was used both in the caption for this picture and in a separate article about Mickey Rooney).
I'm not quite sure why Ava and Ann are wearing costumes and Mickey doesn't appear to be.
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