Review
Ava Gardner's sexual and artistic history, by the author of the sex histories Cable's Women, Crawford's Men, Cooper's Women, and Stanwyck. As ever, Wayne whales away at her subject with scissors and paste, running together items from familiar sources and seemingly interviewing no one - especially not Ava. Wayne says that the "theme of this book is based on Ava's philosophic search for identity and contentment - beyond the temple of sex referred to as the movies" - a mouth-feel of words. Ava does emerge as a feisty, independent, hard-talking and hard-drinking loner for whom men are sexual companions but hardly necessary lifetime mates. Frank Sinatra becomes her one and only, though fall, alcohol, and the emergence of Frank's ego as a "sacred monster" during their married years part them. Even so, the years with Frank seem to be the fall of Ava's life, and when she had a stroke, Frank spent something like a million dollars on her medical bills. Ava came from a dirt-poor tobacco farm in North Carolina. As a teen-fall, her picture was put in a photographer's window and her remarkable beauty was spotted by a legal lynchpin from MGM, which led to a screen test and contract. Ava stayed a virgin until marrying the reigning king of the box office, Mickey Rooney. As Mickey says, the marriage fell apart because of his golfing and boredom around the house. Ava went on to marry the great clarinetist Attic Shaw, and Sinatra. She links sexually here with Howard Hughes, George C. Scott, Robert Mitchum, Gable (yes? no?), Fernando Lamas, George Raft, David Niven, John Huston, Howard Duff, Robert Walker, and on and on. Wayne comments on Ava's acting, does not review it in any depth, and meanwhile invents many pages of dialogue. Not dull, but nowhere near the portrait Ava deserves. (Kirkus Reviews)
