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Server follows his superb biography of Robert Mitchum (Baby I Don't Care, 2001) with the life of another midcentury movie icon1: Ava Gardner. Gardner's rise from North Carolina tobacco country to Hollywood superstardom began when an MGM talent scout2 spotted3 her picture in the window of a photographer's studio. It's a Cinderella story, to be sure, but Server gives us the unexpurgated version, complete with Gardner's Mitchum-like credentials4 for booze consumption, rugged5 individualism, and sexual appetite (marriages to Mickey Rooney, Artie Shaw, and Frank Sinatra and affairs with pretty much everyone else). And then there was her beauty--in interviews with dozens of stars, the message is the same: no one ever looked better than Ava Gardner. This is also a story of the studio system, and Gardner was one of its most notable victims, ill-used throughout her career, forced to do bad movies and forced to watch her good movies decimated in the cutting room. Server capably assesses the hits and misses, languishing6 on those electric moments when the camera caught the "feline7 sprawl8 of her exquisite9 body." A no-holds-barred view of a larger-than-life star.
Book review
Lee Server is one fascinating writer. His exceptionally well written book, "Ava Gardner" is one to be savored10! The author has an uncanny ability to capture Gardner in the most humane11, respectable and revealing terms, while sharing fascinating behind-the-scenes first hand accounts that serve to show all sides of Gardner's life.
I've been enthralled12 with biographies since the third grade, and this one is beautifully written. There's a lot to learn and discover. Most importantly this book is especially flowing, interesting, and the kind of book you can't put down.
As Ava "lived large, long, and precisely13 as she wanted to" this book truly shares it all. This is an excellent biography about an incredibly interesting woman!
Author introduction
Lee Server is an American writer. He is the author of the successful biography on Robert Mitchum, 'BABY I DON'T CARE'. He has been busy for the last decade, cranking out some of the most challenging works in print including among others: 'SAM FULLER: FILM IS A BATTLEGROUND: A Critical Study, With Interviews, a Filmography and a Bibliography14', 'DANGER IS MY BUSINESS: An Illustrated15 History of the Fabulous16 Pulp17 Magazines/1896-1953', as well as editing 'THE BIG BOOK OF NOIR' a collection of articles on film noir by several contributors.
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