Ava Gardner #1

[scriptgirl]

affluent traveler

 

[scriptgirl]

ochs

 

[nmyngan]

I wonder if that was really her house.

i would like to know also
aaaawww..young Ava

ebay

 

[scriptgirl]

flickr

 

[Ziegfeld Girl]

Thanks for all the gorgeous pics.

 

[scriptgirl]

You are welcome

Amana

 

[Jeanne]

The question isn't addressed to me but I shall put in my $ 0.02 anyway.
They both had regal poise imo. Just not the same brand of 'regal'. I would have casted Ava as Cleopatra, or Nefertiti or some Russian mythological Empress. Grace was more of the English duchess type to me, or Park Avenue princess.
As you could expect, I do rate Ava's beauty infinytely higher that Grace's, and here's why:
Grace to me was the ultimate Haute Bourgoise. There was something matronly and careful controlled about her. She gave off that wholesome, demure and holier-than-thou aura (even though she was nowhere near demure in her private life, but that's another story). In the end, she was neither exciting nor mysterious: her only outstanding feature was her exceptional photogeny (I mean, she did not take a single bad picture, not a single one, that's extraordinary). Unlike many people, I never found her to be the most beautiful anything (actress, princess, woman,...) and to this day I think her beauty was mostly due to flawless styling and careful enhancement of her features with cosmetics. Didn't her own friends admit that without make-up, Grace was rather plain? Just watch Mogambo, it's pretty obvious there she needed the make up to look outstanding. However, as I said, the camera worshiped her, that undeniable.
Ava, one the other hand, was simply a goddess. A flesh and blood goddess of love. Beside the flawlessness of her features, there was a huge amount of character and life in her face and she had that raw sex appeal that drove people mad. Not only was she a world-class beauty but she was alive, if you see was I mean.
Also, she was probably the only Hollywood star who did not have any Hollywood make-over. She was born looking the way she did on silver screen. I have seen pictures of her at 15 and 18 as well as stills of her first test screen and believe me, she was a natural born stunner, the ultimate natural beauty.

Your commentary is very interesting and I agree with most of it, especially in that Grace and Ava had a totally different kind of regality. There is no doubt that Ava dominates, as a queen, empress, goddess, and that Grace is more of the quintessential princess.
However, I think that Grace is the one with the more flawless features, which in a way works to her disadvantage. It is because Ava's face is more assymetrical, is too wide in some places, too "big", that she can project more character and life.
I also don't understand how you can say that Grace's beauty is largely due to careful enhancement of her features with cosmetics and that you can't take a bad picture of her, that without the make-up, she is plain. From all the pictures in her thread, it is obvious that she was born a beauty. She grew into more beauty until about the age of 30, but just like Ava, she was born a natural beauty, just a different type. If she could only look good in photographs with the proper make-up on, then we'd see a lot of bad pictures of her (by the paparazzi). It's also a well-known fact, repeated in all the biographies, that the whole beauty business of cosmetics and clothing was a bore to her, certainly even more so when she became the Princess of Monaco. She was not matronly until she became older; she was far too graceful for that, and had a nice sense of self-deprecation in her acting which I think was not taken advantage of to its fullest effect. Carefully controlled, yes, wholesome and demure, yes. We'll never know what her range of acting might have been, although experts tend to see her as lightweight in terms of acting, but she just did not have the physique to be that "force of nature' scriptgirl refers to. (By the way, Bardot is another one that was famous for being impossible to take a bad picture of.)
I think they aged differently, although to their credit (just my opinion), they both decided to let the aging process take place without trying to alter it. I find that Ava's features coarsened as she grew older, while Grace's softened in the unfortunately rather unattractive way older ladies look.
I have read that whenever Grace entered a room, (and I think the anecdote had Ava present in it), everybody would stop and stare at her, no matter how beautiful and sexy other women in the same room were. That may just be part of the usual hagiographies, I have no idea.
Ava certainly burns the screen, has an incredible intensity and fire in her.
But in the end, like all women born with that gift of beauty, they peaked and then declined. Is a comparison between them fair ? I think we are lucky, as viewers, to have had the vision of both and I would not undermine one to elevate the other.

 

[scriptgirl]

I don't think you can compare Ava and Grace. Chalk and cheese and Grace comes out on the losing end. It is a more apt comparison to compare Liz and Ava. It makes more sense to compare Audrey and Grace, they are more of the same type. I think that Grace aged beautifully and was gorgeous her whole life. Ava did not age as well, but her inner beauty never went away.

zuma

 

[Jeanne]

Liz and Ava. I went to the Liz thread to make that comparison, because it was clear they had something in common. But again, apart from some pictures where they look very similar, (in the face, hairstyle, eyes) it's a different style. I absolutely adore Liz in most of her movies (Elephant Walk, Suddenly Last summer, the one with James Dean, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof), but in a way, it's because she is so small and can carry such power. Ava is (at least seems) tall. With Liz, it's all in her face (and of course the way she uses that body God gave her). With Ava, it's the whole "gestalt" so to speak, she always looks enormous to me (I don't mean it in a negative way, it's like she's always ready to burst out of the screen, she occupies so much space (psychologically, for the viewer, at least me). With Liz, she has to fight to get that space, and fight she does, and does very well. Ava is intimidating. With Liz, it is really like a cat, you know you better watch out, because she'll overcompensate (for her small size). At least that's how I see it. I love them both, I love them three (and many many more...)

 

[scriptgirl]

Ava was 5'7 or 5'5. Liz was about 5'4. To me, they have a volcanic sensuality that is out in the open. Grace is more submerged.

argenitic

 

[Jeanne]

I am not sure I'd say Grace was gorgeous her whole life. I guess it depends what one means by gorgeous. I guess I don't tend to think of middle-eged to elderly women as gorgeous. I think, when she didn't uglify herself with those stupid hairstyles and clothes to mask her weight gain, her face gained more inner beauty, became more thoughtful, revealed her complexity more, and her sadness, and she could have been given character roles, in the way Ingrid Bergman did. But the prince wouldn't let her, and reciting poetry really can't give an idea of your acting powers. But I am convinced her experience of life, combined with that interesting aging face, would have made her popular for roles adapted to that stage.

 

[Jeanne]

I thought Liz was 5'2. I know (at least that's what I always read) that Grace was 5'7. From her screen presence, it seemed Ava was taller than 5'5. At least 5'7.

 

[scriptgirl]

I think Liz is a bit taller than me and I am 5'2. Jeanne we will just have to part company on this. To me, Grace was perfect all her life.

IBL

 

[Jeanne]

I respect and admire your consistency. I'll have to look again at the pictures of the older Grace. I want to learn to see what you see. I suddenly get the feeling my views of beauty are too superficial and youth oriented. Again, it may just be the definition of "gorgeous" : I guess I give it the popular culture meaning. Anyway,all your pictures are gorgeous, whatever age your stars are !

 

[scriptgirl]

EVC

 

[Ziegfeld Girl]

Apologies if any of these are reposts.



Stewart Granger, Ava Gardner and David Niven in The Little Hut. Ava Gardner's costumes in the film were designed by Christian Dior.


source: doctormacro

 

[Ziegfeld Girl]

 

[scriptgirl]

webshots

 

[Ziegfeld Girl]

The source for these pictures and the above ones is moviemaidens.com

 

[scriptgirl]

ebay