LOS ANGELES (2UrbanGirls) – I had an opportunity to see this amazing theatre production of Twelve O’Clock Tales with Ava Gardner that is written by Alessandra Assaf and Michael Lorre.
Assaf plays Ava Gardner magnificently in this one-woman show. The setting is 1974 Hollywood as Gardner is in her bungalow in between takes of her film Earthquake where she co-stars with Charlton Heston.
Gardner multi-tasks between taking phone calls, chain-smoking, and reciting her memoirs into a tape recorder to her “Dear Readers” while talking to her dear friend and assistant, Mearene “Reenie” Jordan.
The duration of the performance is Ava reflecting on her three marriages to actor Mickey Rooney, who she married as a late teen soon after arriving in Hollywood. The marriage was short-lived. It was built on love, not respect as she recalls he was “mentally cruel” to her.
“Dear Reader…trust, respect, and loyalty = home.”
Artie Shaw, and Frank Sinatra, who she call Francis, were husbands #2 and #3. With each ring of the phone, sitting next to her recorder, she anticipates it is “Francis” calling to ask for her hand in marriage, again.
“He said if I say ‘no’ he will marry Lana,” Ava tells Reenie.
Her relationship with Francis was filled with scandal as he left his faithful wife and their children for Ava.
She goes on to discuss her friendships with the many Hollywood starlets who “shared” the same men, including Lana Turner, who was previously married to Shaw. Ava points out Lana provided her with the flowers in her bungalow. Despite their being courted by the same men, they were friends.
As she continues to recall her life to the “Dear Readers” who would ultimately read her biography, she wanted to tell her story, in her own words, after gracing the covers of magazines for scandals surrounding her love life.
She also speaks of her relationship with Howard Hughes which spanned two decades. Their relationship wasn’t about love, it was built on trust.
“Dear Reader…trust, respect, and loyalty = home.”
Besides being a “femme fatale” or “world’s most beautiful animal” Ava was groundbreaking in that she was an early supporter of the Civil Rights movement despite hailing from Grabtown, North Carolina, and being born to tobacco sharecroppers. She was very protective of Reenie and wouldn’t allow her to be mistreated in her presence because she was Black.
“Ava was a star in the ‘40s and ‘50s, but she had the sensibility and morés of today’s millennial,” says Assaf. “She enjoyed her sexuality and had agency over herself in a way that women were not permitted to at the time. She fought against racism and believed in the right to choose.”
She was the youngest of seven and the last to hit Hollywood with her eldest sister Beatrice in tow.
Despite being 19 years apart in age, they had a very close bond. Ava vividly recalls a fight with Francis led him to leave their home and head to his house in Palm Springs where Lana was staying. Ava and Beatrice hit the road and peeped through every window until they found themselves inside the home chatting with Lana and her agent. Once Francis arrives, all hell breaks loose and ends with her belongings and herself being thrown out onto the lawn.
“Dear Reader…trust, respect, and loyalty…” Ava believed that with those three things, you wouldn’t go wrong.
Ava was always searching for love. Home.
Twelve O’Clock Tales with Ava Gardner runs every Sunday at 2 p.m. from January 15 through March 5. General admission to all performances is $25. The Whitefire Theatre is located at 13500 Ventura Blvd. in Sherman Oaks, CA 91423. For more information and to purchase tickets, call (818) 687-8559 or go to www.whitefiretheatre.com.
