' Ava Gard ncr (continued ,
woman who comes in about three times a week.
Amazingly, she's turned quite domestic. Often
she cooks her own dinner, and occasionally she
does her shopping as well.
Ava always needs people around her to keep her
busy. She loves to go to cafes and watch the
Flamenco, the fast, vibrant Spanish dance that
provides the excitement she craves. In fact, she is
looking for excitement constantly and finds it in
the frequent parties at her house, the fast cars she
drives (two of which she's wrecked completely,
once nearly killing herself), and in fighting young
bulls, although her mishap last year has kept her
from it since then.
From what Ava told me, I had the feeling she
was running away in Spain just as much as she
did in Australia, or Hollywood. But why? And
from what?
The answer was given to me by a close friend
who insisted Ava has become afraid that life is
passing her by, that if she doesn't get the most out
of every minute, there'll never be another one to
take its place.
Also, Ava is 36, and the time is approaching
when she will have to switch to character parts.
In this respect, life has been kind to Ava. She is
still strikingly beautiful and creates more excite
ment on the screen and off than ever before.
Yet instinctively she knows it can't last forever.
Moreover, she doesn't have much financial secur
ity. "I was under contract to MGM for 17 years,
and, believe me, I couldn't save anything from
what they paid me!" she confessed. "Now that I'm
on my own, I can put something aside."
Unlike Gregory Peck, who gets a percentage for
his role in "On the Beach," Ava is on a flat salary
of close to $400,000. As a resident of Spain she is
exempted from American taxes which should
leave her a good-sized nest egg for a rainy day.
Nevertheless, in the past she's never been
terribly smart about financial deals. Her divorce
settlement with Frank Sinatra, for instance, is one
of Hollywood's best-kept secrets, but it's believed
that she got very little out of it. On the other hand,
she tediously keeps track of her smallest expendi
tures. David Hanna recalled how he gives her $50
in change whenever they go on a personal-appearance
tour. Invariably Ava can give an exact ac
count of what she's spent, and returns whatever
change she has left.
Most of her own savings are tied up in her house,
which she values at about $70,000. Not much to
show for 17 years in show business.
Although Ava claims, "I would like to quit work
as soon as I can afford it," she admits, "but if I
did, I wouldn't know what to do with myself."
This was borne out by producer-director Stanley
Kramer, who told me, "When Ava's on the set, she
wants to know how quickly we can get through so
she can go home. When she's home, she calls me to -find
out how soon I can put her to work again."
" Nobody close to Ava thinks she'll ever retire of '
her own accord, whether she needs the money or
not. She's too restless to stay idle, has too many
memories to let her rest.
She equates her three unsuccessful marriages
to Mickey Rooney in 1942, to Artie Shaw in 1945,
and to Frank Sinatra in 1951 with Hollywood it
self. She thinks the atmosphere, the rumor mills,
the mode of living excludes personal happiness.
Ava's future undoubtedly will consist of more
running away from Hollywood, from people, from
herself. She's a woman without attachments, with
out a country. And she's not happy about it.
In spite of her dislike for Hollywood, Ava misses
the United States terribly. 'That's obvious, par
ticularly on holidays," Hanna told me. "She'll fix
typically American dishes and invite all her Ameri
can friends to join her. And if there are none
around, she'll ask others."
She misses her own family, too. Her father, Jonas
Gardner, a North Carolina cotton and tobacco
farmer, and her mother, Mary Elizabeth, are dead.
Her sister, Beatrice, more mother than sister' really,
spends half her life with Ava, though she has a
home of her own in Los Angeles. But there are still
dozens of aunts, uncles, and cousins in Smithfield,
N. C, whom she visits whenever she gets to the
States, no matter how brief her stay.
But mostly she misses Frank the times they've
had together, the hours they should share right
now, the future as husband and wife they will
never have.
Ava didn't say it in so many words, but anyone
who has known her as long as I have can tell by
her reaction when I told her I'd seen Frank just a
short time before, in Florida. Her eyes grew big
and moist and her voice sentimental as she looked
right past me at a vision visible only to her.
"Florida," she whispered, "it seems so terribly
far away, doesn't it?"
Any place is far away, I thought, if it separates
two people who are so fond of each other that the
mere thought of the miles between them makes
them miserable.
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