Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner Shoot Out the Night
by Robert J. Avrech
Ava Gardner, publicity photo for The Killers
The love affair—and I’m using that term loosely—between Ava Gardner and Frank Sinatra was doomed from the start. Both stars were emotionally immature with little impulse control. Both were alcoholics, and both had a history of affairs with equally unstable partners.
And so The Voice and The Shape plunged into a tsunami of a relationship and a six-year marriage (1951 – 1957) punctuated by unbridled passion, threats of suicide, and metronomic doses of violence.
In Autumn of 1949 Gardner and Sinatra, not yet lovers, were both guests at the Palm Springs home of producer Darryl F. Zanuck. The liquor flowed, and the two stars locked in on each other like lethal missiles.
Ava said, “You’re still married.”
Frank responded, “No, doll, it’s all over. It is done.”
For hours they drank and flirted. Ava’s career was going through the roof. Her smoldering role as the femme fatale in “The Killers“—one of the best noir movies ever—catapulted her into the Hollywood stratosphere.
For a shoeless farm girl from North Carolina with no father and little education, Hollywood stardom was a dangerous perfume. In a few short years Ava went from being a sensitive, prim and proper virgin to a notoriously promiscuous, hard-drinking woman.
Sinatra’s career was in trouble. His records were not selling and MGM was anxious to drop his contract as his box office appeal faltered. Sinatra did not help himself by being obnoxious and hostile to the media.
Sinatra and Gardner exited Zanuck’s party with a bottle of booze in hand. They clambered into Sinatra’s Cadillac and putting pedal to metal, Sinatra roared into the night.
Driving along they passed the bottle back and forth.
Like two crazy kids, they were going nowhere fast.
Soon, they ended up in the small town of Indio. Sinatra pulled into the main street and parked. There he and Ava kissed and groped under the stars.
Taking a break from their make-out session, Ava tipped back her head for another long gulp of hooch. Sinatra leaned forward, opened the glove compartment and pulled out two .38 Smith & Wesson pistols.
Sinatra took aim at a street light and fired. Glass exploded. He aimed at another street light and hit it on the first shot.
Ava, a country girl who grew up around hunters, cried: “Let me shoot something.”
Sinatra grinned and handed her the second pistol. Whooping like a Confederate soldier Ava Gardner aimed at the twinkling stars and blasted away.
Frank stared at Ava, mesmerized, and he knew beyond a shadow of doubt that he had finally found his soul mate. Here was the most beautiful woman in Hollywood shooting up the inexplicable universe.
Ava downed more liquor, squinted down the barrel of the Smith & Wesson and fired into the window of a hardware store.
Ava shot the chambers empty and continued to shriek the rebel yell.
Sinatra put the huge Caddy into gear and headed back to Palm Springs. They didn’t get very far before they heard a police siren.
Two small town cops approached with guns leveled.
Sinatra said to Ava: “Christ, what do these clowns want now?”
A few hours later, as Ava lay unconscious on a wood bench in the police station, a publicist from Los Angeles arrived by chartered plane with a big black bag that he handed over to the cops.
Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner were released. There was no paper trail and no publicity.
Two small town cops enjoyed a comfortable retirement.
In the morning, back in Palm Springs, Ava Gardner’s sister, Bappie, was up having breakfast when Ava returned all rumpled and haggard and smelling like a speakeasy.
Bappie wanted to know where Ava was all night.
Ava replied: “I went out with Frank Sinatra. We had a wonderful time.”
Ava Gardner and Frank Sinatra party hard
My main source for this anecdote is Lee Server’s fine biography Ava Gardner, Love is Nothing.
Legal Disclaimer: Big Hollywood does not condone or recommend this style of dating. We strongly support meaningful conversation over coffee or tea, a night at the movies, respect for private property, and oh yeah, firearm safety.
Copyright © Robert J. Avrech
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67 Comments
This sounds like a great plot for a movie that someone should make…even without transforming robots, super-heroes and spacemen.
Ya gotta love what Ava Gardner said when Sinatra married Mia Farrow. "I always knew that someday Frank would marry a boy."
As an eastern N.C. native, I always see the billboards for the Ava Gardner Museum in Smithfield on I-95, but have never stopped by. There is a bbq chain called "Smithfield's Chicken and BBQ" that has all sorts of Ava Gardner posters and pictures around. When we dine there, my husband always remarks that their aren't women like her anymore in Hollywood. She is strikingly beautiful, but she sure made some bad decisions in her life. My grandma thought she was a harlot and said so on many occasions. My, how times change. Her behavior would seem tame now.
Sounds like Ava would have been better off with Howard Hughes! I am sure that her background – growing up – didn't help her in Hollywood.
Don't know how long Frank lived in Palm Springs, but I have a small tie in story. His house was surrounded by oleander bushes – seemed like a block long – so you couldn't see the house. But the wide boulevard was named appropriately Frank Sinatra Drive.
40 years ago I had a hot Camaro and a friend whose family lived in La Quinta. We were cruising FSD when my I asked my friend "wonder what this car will do?" – to which my friend replied "let's see – it's OKI":
I suppose more trouble has started in the world with a dialogue like that but never the less I floored it going through the gears. I was going 120 down Frank Sinatra drive which, at the time, was not much more than his house, palm trees and wide desert.
I am sure that with the 40 year anniversary the statute of limitations on speeding – or reckless driving – has elapsed but in any event seeing the same road a few years ago – and how built up it has become – needless to say I wouldn't try this today.
Still doesn't top Frank and Ava's shooting expedition though. And I suspect had I been caught and gone to jail there wouldn't be anyone coming with a black bag full of money!
"Legal Disclaimer: Big Hollywood does not condone or recommend this style of dating. We strongly support meaningful conversation over coffee or tea, a night at the movies, respect for private property, and oh yeah, firearm safety."
LOL! That was a fabulous story, but the disclaimer positively made it. Bravissimo.
Yeah the disclaimer had me honestly laughing out loud.
Gardner and Sinatra: "Both were alcoholics…" Jeez! Talk about your average 'functioning' alcoholic! These guys show us how it's done.
I read Ava's autobiography years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. And while I am not a big fan of Sinatra's wild life, I love LOVE his music.
Since I look like a dork, I confess that I enjoy stories of how stupendously beautiful women – Ava Gardner, Rita Hayworth, Lana Turner, etc. – were so miserable in their private lives. Still, even with wrinkles and my butt hovering closer to the ground than my knees, I feel sorry for these poor women. They deserved better. Ava certainly did.
i worked with a woman who used to stage manage shows in Vegas. She worked with Frank Sinatra a few times and said he was easygoing, professional and very nice to all the stage hands. He saved his vitrol for the press, gotta love him for that.
Say what you want about Ava Gardner, she's played her part .As far as I'm concerned she was one of the Most or maybe the Most Beautiful Women that was ever on the Silver Screen. I recommend the book "LOVE IS NOTHING" good read. The price of FAME and FORTUNE was very high for her, granted she brought most of her troubles on herself still it was high and sad. Rest In Peace Darling. Sweet Dreams.
now that's a date! With booze and cadilacs and guns and police sirens and…..
She was beautiful and poor. She lived hard and partied hard and she had fame and fortune. I heard she died alone in her apartment in Paris.I agree with All American. I always thought she was just wonderful. Her voice was something like velvet and her looks were so outstanding. She seemed sweet and vulnerable.
I believe Ava Gardner's comment upon Sinatra's nuptials with Mia Farrow was actually ….."I always knew Frank would end up in bed with a boy".
What an interesting, sad, funny story about a couple of people that the dweebs in entertainment today will never come close to in looks or talent. Even their sad, pathetic vices are uninteresting in comparison to those of some of the big ol' live outloud characters of Old Hollywood. Not that I'm saying that it was a good thing!
I'm still laughing over the "Legal Disclaimer" and "I always knew Frank would marry a boy someday". What a date!
You might want to correct the paragraph that says they were at Zanuck's Palm BEACH home. Otherwise, that's one looooong booze soaked road trip to Indio, CA
.
You might want to correct the paragraph that says they were at Zanuck's Palm BEACH home. Otherwise, that's one looooong booze soaked road trip to Indio, CA
.
Unfortunately, for most of us–yeah there's the fun, but then comes the running and screaming.
Call it: The Very Bad and The Very Beautiful:-)
But Ava also said that Sinatra was, um, well endowed.
Ava grew as a church goer and a pretty pious little back woods girl. Hollywood blasted that right out of her.
I don't think Ava was capable of happiness. And Hughes was just nuts, if he had not been so rich he would have been in an institution.
I don't think Ava was capable of happiness. And Hughes was just nuts, if he had not been so rich he would have been in an institution.
And I'm sure there was an entire social club here in San Francisco built around that.
We have to cover our butts. There are lawyers out there gunning for lawsuits:-)
Sinatra and Ava could only function in two towns: Las Vegas and Hollywood. No one else would tolerate such irresponsibility.
Talent, unfortunately, does not guarantee a well adjusted life.
And yet there are women like Irene Dunne and Loretta Young (her out of wedlock baby with Gable was well handled, she didn't have an abortion) who survived and prospered into old age. Of course, they were both committed Catholics. That makes a huge difference.
Sinatra left huge tips for waiters and other low-wage earners. Always admired that facet of his personality.
Amen.
…and a black bag filled with cash.
In the end, Ava was a sad and lost woman.
Yes, the older stars were larger than life. This is because they didn't cheapen their images by being guests on late night TV. When you shmooze with Jay or David or Conana, all the mystery is stripped away and stars are revealed as dopey mortals, and frequently worse.
Yes, the older stars were larger than life. This is because they didn't cheapen their images by being guests on late night TV. When you shmooze with Jay or David or Conana, all the mystery is stripped away and stars are revealed as dopey mortals, and frequently worse.
Done. Thanks so much.
Sorta comes under the "don't try this at home kids" disclaimer!
I've read from time to time regular casino customers coming to a blackjack table and seeing Sinatra and/or Dean Martin there playing – and they'd just sit there with them. Now that would be something to remember – or with the whole rat pack?
Yep.
you guys want to read about real drinkers and hell raisers. Get the book Hollywood Hellfire Club about the Bundy Drive Boys, John Decker, John Barrymore, WC Fields , Hartman, Errol Flynn, who was by the way the 'angel' in this group of madmen, Thomas Mitchell, John Carradine, Gene Flower, there are a lot of books about this group, the original rat pack in hollywood. When Errol Flynn died in 1959, his home was sold to a country and Western singer cowboy actor named Stuart Hamblin. There was a small ravine besides Errol's home up on Mulholland Drive and if was full of empty vodka bottles. THey took two dump truck loads empties out of that ravine. That was 15 years of drinking a quart of vodka a day and Flynn lost the house in 54 and he continued to drink until he died in 1959 at the age of 50.
John Barrymore when he was on the wagon and being watched by a bodyguard would drink the alcohol they use to put in the radiator in those days in his schooner. It was well known that Spencer Tracy would work and work then one day he would walk off the set, get into his car and drive out of Los Angeles down to some run down roadside hotel. He would have four of five cases of irish whiskey, he would sit in a hot tub and drink until all the bottles were empty. That is how they would find him. The would dry him out and he would work again, until the next time.
These guys were real drinkers bent on slow suicide that takes 30 years to kill the body. On top of this they would all be smoking 5 to 6 packs a day and Flynn got hooked on morphine because of the stunts he did when he was young, he found out that he would take a shot to kill the pain and the morphine would sober him up so he could continue to work, stay up, chase women, drink and days without sleeping.
There is a new book out on Amazon called ERROL FLYNN SLEPT HERE, its about that fabulous home he built up on Mulholland drive and those wild parties he had up there with the one way mirror ceiling and the one way mirror in the ladies bathroom that was behind the bar. His home was filled with women all the time, they would sneak into his home and he would find them in his bed when he got home from the studio. He even had Ava up there a few times in the 40s. He had them all and then some
you guys want to read about real drinkers and hell raisers. Get the book Hollywood Hellfire Club about the Bundy Drive Boys, John Decker, John Barrymore, WC Fields , Hartman, Errol Flynn, who was by the way the 'angel' in this group of madmen, Thomas Mitchell, John Carradine, Gene Flower, there are a lot of books about this group, the original rat pack in hollywood. When Errol Flynn died in 1959, his home was sold to a country and Western singer cowboy actor named Stuart Hamblin. There was a small ravine besides Errol's home up on Mulholland Drive and if was full of empty vodka bottles. THey took two dump truck loads empties out of that ravine. That was 15 years of drinking a quart of vodka a day and Flynn lost the house in 54 and he continued to drink until he died in 1959 at the age of 50.
John Barrymore when he was on the wagon and being watched by a bodyguard would drink the alcohol they use to put in the radiator in those days in his schooner. It was well known that Spencer Tracy would work and work then one day he would walk off the set, get into his car and drive out of Los Angeles down to some run down roadside hotel. He would have four of five cases of irish whiskey, he would sit in a hot tub and drink until all the bottles were empty. That is how they would find him. The would dry him out and he would work again, until the next time.
These guys were real drinkers bent on slow suicide that takes 30 years to kill the body. On top of this they would all be smoking 5 to 6 packs a day and Flynn got hooked on morphine because of the stunts he did when he was young, he found out that he would take a shot to kill the pain and the morphine would sober him up so he could continue to work, stay up, chase women, drink and days without sleeping.
There is a new book out on Amazon called ERROL FLYNN SLEPT HERE, its about that fabulous home he built up on Mulholland drive and those wild parties he had up there with the one way mirror ceiling and the one way mirror in the ladies bathroom that was behind the bar. His home was filled with women all the time, they would sneak into his home and he would find them in his bed when he got home from the studio. He even had Ava up there a few times in the 40s. He had them all and then some
It sounds a little like some dates I had with my fiancee, although with much better gun safety of course.
Lawyers, Guns and Money. Not such a great band, but I'm starting to see where they may have come up with the idea for the name now…
Too true.
In the summer I have a part time job working security at a music festival here in northern Illinois. I met Frank's daughter Nancy backstge at a show she was doing with some other female singers. (It was a tribute to Peggy Lee, and the audience was painfully tiny. Apparently, Illinois is full of Philistines.) Nancy was delightful and down to earth. Frank raised her right.
Speaking of which – Maureen O'Hara didn't get a divorce, even though her husband and she separated very shortly after her marriage. She was a devout Irish Catholic. She waited decades, until he finally died to marry the man she really loved. (And I believe Don Ameche also didn't divorce because he also was a devout Catholic.) You know, outside of James Caviezale, I can't think of a really devout Christian in the business today. (Sorry – Gibson doesn't count after that Russian broad.)
Ahh, Jack – I just think of one of those Hollywood weanies today even TRYING to do that – and I just can't do it. I mean, if widdle Jake Gylenhaal even tried, he'd flop (not of course that Reese would never give him permission, the wussie). I mean, the thought of those metrosexuals with their dewy lips and earnest eyes even thinking of trying that – just doesn't work.
The litmus test for a real man would be if he could strip a rifle and reassemble it in a minute flat – gut a moose – make a snare and smash a beer can against his forehead. You can't do that, don't even THINK of calling yourself a real man. (Uhh, that's just my opinion – but in my opinion, it counts.)
Carolyn, your standards are too high! You've ruled out a huge percentage of men in the lower 48.
Frank wasn't the kind of man a woman should end up with, but he certainly was the kind we dream about. (My first concert was a Frank Sinatra concert at Caesar's Palace — I was 16, he was 65…sigh…The other girls loved Peter Frampton and the BeeGees; I think I've been vindicated by history.)
Ava Gardner could teach some of today’s actresses about sex appeal. She looks smashing.
It's all giggles and laughs till someone shoots their eye out!
Mr. Avrech,
Where do you get these stories?!
My invitation stands! Please come east, bring the wife and let's eat! Think of this as a Master's / Ph.D class in film history with food (if only Robert Osborne could be there too).
I also agree on Firearms Safety, no drunk driving and minimal Police involvement.
Mr. Avrech,
Where do you get these stories?!
My invitation stands! Please come east, bring the wife and let's eat! Think of this as a Master's / Ph.D class in film history with food (if only Robert Osborne could be there too).
I also agree on Firearms Safety, no drunk driving and minimal Police involvement.
Carolyn, My dear lady. There are no more "MOVIE STARS". Today there just young hairless boys with Pouffy lips.
Burt Lancaster & Kirk Douglas (both Liberals) could command the screen. John Wayne..'nuff said!
The closest thing we have today is Samuel L. Jackson.
Thnak G*d for TCM!
I thought someone had gotten shot by Frank and Ava
That would explain the payoff
This is basically page 174 and 175 of the biography Ava Gardner Love is Nothing
by Lee Server lightly rewritten but with the same dialogue and Server's
punchline
No matter who wrote it, It's a great story……..
"The Voice"………."The Shape"…………Firearms! What's not to love! (sigh)
TLH:
I credited the Lee Server's fine book with a link.
I write at the end of the post that I am indebted to Lee Server's bio of Ava Gardner, "Love is Nothing," for the anecdote.
I read way too many Hollywood bios and memoirs.
The payoff was for property damage, and hush money so the story would not become public.
Mr A,
The story of Ava and Frank puts me in mind of the opening graphic of " Public Enemy " – something about "bottle rockets ".
By the by, "Public Enemy" is Cagney's second-best, IMHO.
" Yankee Doodle Dandy " is TOP SHELF.
Is there an unexplored Ava and Jimmy connection you could enlighten us on? Maybe she was a great inspiration for many in Hollywood? She appears to me as a true Hollywood goddess of love if you know what I mean…
Thanks as always for your perspective on stars and sinners and saints.
Much Respects
Sarge
Thank you for the ideal Saturday date night. Guns and ammo have become my new vice. I went Galt on smoking with 0bama S-Chip free health care for 30 year olds. It was no to buying a pack of smokes and yes to a pack of ammo. It took 2 weeks to turn into smoking the target at the range. Not sure if that's good or bad in terms of holding out but I feel confident I am well on my way to starving the government of more tax money. It is rather appealing to know I would be equally capable sitting in that Caddy. Ah, what girl doesn't dream of shooting for the stars.
Excellent post — as usual, Robert!
I cited the Server book and provided a link at the end of my post.
Avrech should have also posted the traditional introductory Hollywood Threat: We own everything and if you use it in any way except the way we tell you, you're dead meat. That coupled with the disclaimer: We have nothing to do with the content and are not responsible, always always crack me up.
[...] Ava Gardner had rich lustrous hair, but in this glamor photo from the 50’s, Ava is transformed into a sensual bird of prey. [...]
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The December 1951, issue of "Modern Screen Magazine" had the feeling that they were mis-matched from the very start. Red the article at OldMagazineArticles.com:
http://www.oldmagazinearticles.com/article.php?Ar...
Very interesting. Thanks so much.
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