Ava Gardner, American Actress (1922 - 1990) Poem by Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar

On Christmas Eve 1922,
Jonas and Mary Elizabeth
Gave birth to their seventh child, a girl,
Who was Ava Gardner, in the rural
North California, her parents being
Tobacco and cotton farmers there.
Her younger age was not rosy at all
With his father dying at her fifteen. 1

Before starting college, Ava headed
up to New York City in 1939
to spend time with her older sister,
whose husband, Tarr, was a photographer.
He photographed her and displayed a large print
In his studio, which caught the attention
Of MGM talent scout, which landed
Ava Gardner at a Hollywood actress. 2

Ava incidentally met Frank Sinatra
In the early 40s on the MGM lot.
Sinatra, already a star crooner,
Admired the young starlet in the making
And her green eyes, her trade mark, from afar.
Gardner found him conceited, arrogant
And overpowering. He, however,
Should have left on her a lasting image.3

They met again in nineteen forty-eight
And spent a lot of time in privacy.
Ava,23, had already divorced twice,
The first from Micky Roony in her teens
The second from bandleader Artie Shaw.
Sinatra had been married to Nancy Barbato
For nine years and they had three children.
Many women made themselves close to him. 4

Gardner and Sinatra had many things common;
They were insecure and dreaded to be alone.
They had inclination towards liquor and sex.
They had their romance under the carpet
And yet were known as a fiery couple.
Often, they would fight over nothing at all.
Yet they had magnetic pull for each other.
Newspapers from London made public their love. 5

Sinatra's career took the biggest blow.
He fell out of favour from his vast fans
For his infidelity to his wife.
In nineteen fifty-one he divorced her
And married Gardner in Pennsylvania.
However, on the eve of their wedding,
Gardner got a letter from a woman
That he had affairs with her for months. 6

Gardner was not a satiated woman
And entertained one-night stand in between.
She moved to Madrid to pursue a love
With a Spain bullfighter, which pricked him.
A year later he and she divorced for good.
Years after the divorce, while in Rome,
Sinatra invited Gardner for dinner.
He was eager to rekindle their love.7

Gardner had become an alcoholic.
She only divorced and yet felt badly.
Years passing, her beauty was fading.
She withdrew from the public and camera.
A stroke rendered her unable to speak.
She was in receipt of bouquet from him
For new years and kept their photo with her.
She died at her 67 in nineteen ninety. 8

Ava Gardner was a virgin when she wed
Mickey Rooney, a coplayer at her nineteen.'
‘He went through the ladies like a hot knife
through fudge, " she said for her divorce of him.
Gardner went on to marry bandleader
Artie Shaw — another kind of bully;
He was always putting me down" said she.
She married him for a year at her twenty-two.9

"I wanted to f-k you the moment I saw you, "
Mickey Rooney told Gardner then 18
And innocent. "I was shocked, " she confessed.
. "I still didn't know he was the biggest wolf
on the lot... He'd screw anything that moved."
After a year courtship they wed. ‘At first night,
Still virgin. I caught on very quickly.' Said she.
The marriage could last barely for a year.10

Then, she married Shaw — who'd also left his wife
For her. But now Gardner was a heavy smoker.
After a year, Shaw dumped her for another.
‘The bastard broke my heart.'. she divorced him.
It is a pity that throughout her life,
She picked the wrong men to be her partner.
The love of her life was her third husband,
Her relationship with him tempestuous though11

After Gardner divorced Sinatra in 1957,
She went to Spain, where she began a friendship
With the renowned writer Ernest Hemingway
And acted in the film made of his story.
She had relationship with her live-in
Boy-friend Benjamin Tata, an actor.
She also had an affair with Robert Mitchum.
"I was crazy about him, " she said once. 12

Ava Gardner had acted in as many as
83 Hollywood film in the span
Of forty-one years from nineteen forty-one,
With 35 films in the first decade itself.
In 85,86 she did five TV serials.
Five times she had been nominated
For academic awards in her career.
She alone knew how happy her life was. 13
04.12.2020