THE ROVING PECKER PRESENTS: "Ava Gardner, The Errant Goddess (Part Two)" By SpiceDong!

Greetings, Manor Hors! Periodically, "The Roving Pecker" presents urgent missives from filthy esteemed guest writers. Today's is from SpiceDong, the second in a three-part series! The first part is HERE.

By the early 1950s, Ava Gardner had become one of the top leading ladies in Hollywood. She was in high demand and even got an Oscar nod for “Mogambo” in 1954. On the personal front, her tempestuous marriage to Frank Sinatra, marred by jealousy, drunken fights and constant press, had disillusioned her, while also making her a gossip column staple. Ava’s career was on the rise while Sinatra’s was in the dumps. She was supportive of him, to the point of using her clout to get him the screen test for the Private Maggio role in “From Here To Eternity.” He got the part, won an Oscar for it and rose back to the top. But by then, Ava was already fed up with his antics and emotional manipulations, including his suicide attempts. She terminated two pregnancies while they were married, feeling their home was too dysfunctional to bring children into it. When he became unfaithful, that was the last straw. After leaving Frank, she would never marry again.

Despite her success, Ava never liked Hollywood, finding it provincial, imprisoning and superficial. And so in December 1955, she packed her bags and announced that she was moving to Spain.

Since her first visit to Spain, Ava had adopted a very nomadic lifestyle. She was spending and more and more time working abroad and traveling the world to promote her films. The projects she was assigned had her working in England, Italy and even Africa, so having a base in Europe made sense. Initially, her move to Spain was met with shock and skepticism. How was a thrice-divorced woman, with her independent and irreverent spirit, going to fare in a fervently Catholic country ruled by a fascist dictator? 

Yet Spain gave the fiery star a warm welcome. It was the ideal place for Ava to fulfill her passion for parties and nightlife without the Hollywood scrutiny. She immediately immersed herself in the culture, learned Spanish, a language she found musical and beautiful, and bought a ranch-style house on the outskirts of Madrid, filling it with records and books. It was named “La Bruja,” thanks to the weathervane shaped like a flying witch that could be seen on the roof. Fitting given the spell she seemed to cast on the whole country. 

Ava settled there with her Corgi, Rags, and her trusted friend and personal assistant, Mearene Jordan, an African-American woman who came to work for her as a maid in the late 1940s after Ava divorced her second husband, band leader Artie Shaw. They were the same age and hit it off right from the start. Their friendship was unbreakable - and defiant, even in the face of American segregation and discrimination. Ava was not afraid to use her star power to ensure that Mearene was treated with respect wherever they traveled, and allowed her to be in the same spaces with her in segregated establishments. Growing up in the South, Ava was keenly aware of racial injustice, and throughout her life was a staunch supporter of equality and civil rights. Miss Jordan’s memoir “Living With Miss G” is probably the most candid portrait of the real Ava and the years they spent abroad. Their friendship would last until Ava’s death.

Once settled in, Ava cultivated a group of friends that included writers, poets, musicians, dancers, couturiers, diplomats, nobility, gitanos and other expats who all became a part of Ava’s circle and mingled at her parties. There was a new boyfriend in the picture too. Luis Miguel Dominguín, at the time the world’s most famous bullfighter, seemed to be a perfect match. They met at a party and were immediately smitten with each other. He was tall and graceful, with piercing eyes, and a cultured gentleman who spoke four languages, his friends including the likes of Hemingway, Picasso and Dalí. His relationship with Ava was easy-going, with no drama, a very welcome change from Ava’s previous dalliances. However, their timing was off. Dominguín wanted marriage and a family, and Ava did not. They parted on friendly terms. He would later marry Italian actress Lucía Bosé while Ava moved on to other men.

It was through Dominguín that Ava met Ernest Hemingway. They first met when she was laid up in a hospital bed cursing up a storm while passing a kidney stone. Papa —as she called him— would become a fixture in her life and a surrogate father until his death by suicide in 1961. Interestingly, some of her friends were people that the Spanish regime spied on for being suspected communists, liberals, dissidents or having behavior outside the established norms, i.e. gay. There’s speculation Spanish dictator Francisco Franco kept tabs on Ava too. The hilarious miniseries “Arde Madrid” is based on this very premise.

Ava came alive at night and her stamina was legendary, drinking, chain-smoking and dancing until dawn. She still managed to show up to her sets on time and knowing all her lines when she was working. In those heady years, there were brushes with danger too. Mearene tells the story of how she and Ava came upon an authentic Romani cave on a trip near Granada. They spent days drinking and dancing barefoot with the gitanos just like Ava’s role in “The Barefoot Contessa.” However, by the third night Mearene caught a whiff of something sinister brewing. She noticed some of the men in the tribe were huddling and ominously whispering. What they were planning exactly, she never knew, but her limited command of their language and her instincts told her it was not good. She immediately warned Ava and with the excuse of going out to get more wine, they escaped, driving until they reached a Hilton hotel. 

There’s also the time they got invited to sail the Mediterranean by a high-society couple who turned out to be drug smugglers. Escándalo! Upon discovering the illegal cargo, and without letting their hosts know they’d seen it, Ava and Mearene quickly ditched them as soon as the yacht reached a port. They left only carrying their purses and Ava’s jewels. The “illustrious” couple —whose names they never revealed— later sent all their luggage left behind to Madrid. Given Ava’s reputation for unpredictability and spur of the moment adventures, they saw no reason to suspect her sudden change of plans. Needless to say,  Ava and Mearene ghosted them after that.

This stage of Ava’s life was not controversy-free. Sorelle Fontana, an Italian couture house helmed by the Fontana sisters, became Ava’s favorite when they did all the wardrobe for “The Barefoot Contessa.” Ava and the three sisters became fast friends. She was a muse for many of their creations, like the priest-inspired black dress called Pretino, a slick coat dress with a row of red buttons and matching trimming, accessorized with a rosary-style necklace and a monsignor tasseled hat. Many found the sober frock on Ava’s curves absolutely blasphemous. However, the Vatican did not take offense. The sisters, being practicing Catholics, had secured the Pope’s approval first, and it became part of their Fall 1956 “Cardinal Collection.” This look would later inspire Fellini to have something similar made for Anita Ekberg in La Dolce Vita. He actually based Anita’s role in the film on Ava herself after he saw all the paparazzo furor Ava caused whenever she was in Rome.

Legend has it, she also got banned from places like Horchers Restaurant and the Hotel Ritz in Madrid when her partying got out of control. Some of her favorite establishments are still around, like the stylish Chicote Cocktail Bar and the world’s oldest flamenco tablao, Corral de la Moreria. Ava’s love affair with Spain was not limited to Madrid. She traveled all over the country spending time in Barcelona, Sevilla and Málaga. It was during a trip to a remote bull ranch that disaster struck - and in a way that could potentially change her life forever. To be continued!

Photo Credits: Mary Edna Grantham/The Ava Gardner Museum; Getty Images; NY Daily News Archive/Getty Images; The Ava Gardner Trust; The Ava Gardner Museum; The Micol Fontana Foundation/Rome