Ava Gardner #1

[scriptgirl]

OCHS

 

[nmyngan]

love this shot

snap

 

[scriptgirl]

hulton

 

[nmyngan]

rrauction

 

[scriptgirl]

DMC

 

[Ziegfeld Girl]

love this shot

That is lovely. She has a really beautiful smile and looks great in a simple white shirt.

 

[nmyngan]

ya you are right, i love her pics circa 1940s

ebay

 

[Ziegfeld Girl]

source: corbis

 

[scriptgirl]

ibl

 

[Harumi]

The pictures posted recently have all been crazy beautiful. I used to complain about how difficult it was to find pictures that did Ava's beauty justice but obviously I wasn't looking hard enough. Thanks a lot everyone.

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 might be biased but Ava's face seem to me perfectly symmetrical. Even a great beauty like Christy Turlington has an asymmetrically face (one of her eye is bigger than the other) but I see no flaw whatsoever, either in features or in proportion, in Ava's face. If I was picky, I would say her chin was imperfect, because I dislike dimpled chins on a woman, but that's it. However, I'll say that Grace was the classic beauty and Ava the exotic one.

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.

All the pictures on this thread are of Grace with carefully applied make-up. And it was actually friends who saw her au naturel who have said that she is rather plain without it. Watch Mogambo, in certain scenes she is as natural as we will ever see her, and she is pretty but nothing remarkable. Especially next to Ava.

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 never let herself pictured unless she was done up. Yes, it did bore her, but she never was publicly without it. Please point out a candid in this thread where she isn't done up to the nine. However, you highlight what is my main source of admiration for Grace, that there is no bad pictures of her. Even Ava could take terrible pictures. Grace had no bad angles and didn't need a particular lightning. Really amazing.

She was not matronly until she became older;

I was saying matronly as in her style, not her face which was quite youthful. But she always looked middle-aged to me, because of the way she dressed.

I find that Ava's features coarsened as she grew older, while Grace's softened in the unfortunately rather unattractive way older ladies look.

Yes, Ava aged terribly, mostly because she lived hard all her life and was an alcoholic from her 20s. Eventually her face crumbled but she never lost that sparkle and intensity in her looks that tell you that she was one hell of a woman. Grace, afaik, started drinking quite late in her life, hence she aged better.

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.

I think you might be mistaken. That statement made by Oleg cassiny and was about Gene Tierney. Oleg was married to Gene and engaged to Grace and a Hollywood insider and always considered Gene the greatest beauty of them all. From what I have read, the consensus was that Gene, Ava and Liz were considered the three most beautiful women in Hollywood at the time.
In Server's biography, which is excellent and as objective as a biography can be, I cannot count the number of times someone who knew Ava would say: 'she was the most beautiful woman I have ever seen'. Liz was considered even more beautiful than Ava, especially as a teenager and young woman, but I never really got the hype with her. I guess you had to see her in real life.

 

[scriptgirl]

I have seen a few bad pics of Grace-the infamous pics taken by Howell Conant of Grace with the pared orange-you can really see the squareness of the jaw. In Mogambo, Grace was supposed to be the proper English lady-she was made to look plain. Check out the Grace thread-you will see tons of pics of her and realize that she was a natural beauty. Gene was gorgeous, but she didn't age so well.

ebay

 

[nel16]

I think EVERYONE can take a bad picture. You might have to do some digging with people like Grace that have very classic, small features, but it happens... that's funny that Howell Conant was the one who took infamous shots of her jaw because I think it was from him I read a quote about how he was always trying to hide her jaw.

To me Grace was very beautiful, but she wasn't without her faults. She does come off more natural than some of her contemporaries, but I think that's more because she knew how to have makeup applied in a way that looked very natural (and hey, more power to her for it). Otherwise she could look a bit plain sometimes, yes (younger, pre-Hollywood pics show her as a very pretty but sometimes plain girl imo, and that's more what Grace would've looked like naturally I think) and I do think Ava and Liz were more striking than her, regardless of how they aged.

The matronly thing I can see as well, I do like her style but sometimes it was a bit much, and a lot of her hairstyles give that feel too. Lots of people say Grace seemed a lot older than early to mid-20's (her age during her Hollywood years), and I think the combination of the way she held herself and her style and grooming had to do with that. All that said I think she was very beautiful, elegant and intriguing. It's just tiresome to hear how "perfect" she is from some of her more ardent fans, especially when they place her so highly above everyone else when Grace was far from perfect herself.

And, to be more on-topic, gorgeous Ava pics everyone!

 

[scriptgirl]

I have to say that I love these discussions!
Grace was not perfect, I agree, she had a lot of issues that I blame her family for. She and Ava lead very complicated lives, but Ava seems to be the more wholesome, innocent one when all is said and done.

evc

 

[Harumi]

Completely agree with what you said nel16.

She and Ava lead very complicated lives, but Ava seems to be the more wholesome, innocent one when all is said and done.

Agreed. There is something deceitful and hypocritical about Grace that puts me off. Especially the way she was so hard on Caroline considering what she was up to in her own youth. With Ava, what you see is what you get, and I love that candour and honesty.

Check out the Grace thread-you will see tons of pics of her and realize that she was a natural beauty.

I visit the thread regularly and I get to enjoy the many gorgeous pictures you gracefully post there. To set the record straight, I do not think Grace was unattractive, just a naturally pretty girl made gorgeous with make up and styling. nel16 expressed my thoughts much better than me.

 

[scriptgirl]

I agree with how deceitful Grace was, but I think she didn't want Caroline to make her mistakes and I think that Caroline for the most part, did not. She and Grace are very different. Grace arouses my absolute pity, because I think she was very tortured and led a most unhappy life.

 

[scriptgirl]

sipa

 

[nmyngan]

that's gorgeous

ebay

 

[scriptgirl]

zuma

 

[nel16]

^ That's so beautiful

I have to say that I love these discussions!
Grace was not perfect, I agree, she had a lot of issues that I blame her family for.

Yeah, I too think she lived a pretty tortured life... it seems like nearly everything she did was in attempt to please others (namely, her family).

She and Ava lead very complicated lives, but Ava seems to be the more wholesome, innocent one when all is said and done.

Which is so interesting too, considering Ava and Liz were the ones who had more of a reputation. Ava made a great comment in their defense, saying how they should be applauded with how honest they were with their relationships in contrast to others, rather than deemed whores as they too often were.

 

[scriptgirl]

Like I said, I feel so sorry for Grace. I think Ava was more wholesome than Liz, though