Cinema: The Farmer's Daughter

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Enter Frankie. The Gardner legend flourished—and so did her box-office value. Just 19 months ago Ava ran into Frank Sinatra at a party in Palm Springs (they had met for the first time years before). Ava and Frankie left the party together and, in high good humor, rode along the main street of nearby Indio, firing a revolver out of the automobile window.

Their friendship continued to be percussive. When she was making Pandora and the Flying Dutchman in Spain, and seemed to be taken with versifying Bullfighter Cabre, Sinatra went charging to Spain and figuratively tossed the matador out of the ring (Cabre claims he failed to keep Ava because he did not speak her language, and is now fiercely learning English).

Last month, after Frankie and Ava (and a dozen reporters) finished a cozy Mexican holiday (TIME, Aug. 13), Sinatra went to work in a Reno nightclub to make some money toward his forthcoming divorce (Cracked one Hollywood wit:"He's earning while he's yearning"). Ava stayed at nearby Lake Tahoe and came to hear him sing. Sinatra meekly told the press: "I think you can safely say that Miss Gardner and I will be married."

Asked by a newsman last week to confirm a reported statement that she was through with romance, Ava replied calmly: "Why no, that must have been somebody else."

Damned Good Secretary? Ava bridles at any criticism of her conduct: "Nobody is going to run my life. Neither the studio or the press." She is indifferent to prospects of fame & big money: "Acting bores me. I have no need for money. Anyway I could always be a damn good secretary. This movie thing is not the end. This isn't what I really want. I like the simple life."

That indifference is part of her charm. Marlene Dietrich, who, at 48, is still one of the greatest glamor girls of them all, has set down three prerequisites for glamor. The first is that a star must not try too hard to woo the public, for the public reacts in the same way as a man who is chased too hard; indifferent Ava fulfills that condition. Prerequisite No. 2: a glamor girl must enjoy sex, rather than just pretend to enjoy it on the screen; Hollywood's enthusiastic consensus is that Ava Gardner fulfills that condition, too. Prerequisite No. 3: the glamor girl must have an inner authority and economy (i.e., poise). This quality Ava Gardner still lacks, but she may some day acquire it.

If she does, Ava Gardner may yet, in spite of herself, wind up bringing glamor back to Hollywood.

-*For other news of Marion Davies, see PRESS. **For her part of Julie in Show Boat, Metro dubbed in the voice of a trained contralto, used her own expressive but small voice for the M-G-M record album.

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