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I just finished this book, which has an interesting backstory.
She found herself in need of cash. Sinatra helped a bit, but she hit on the idea of hiring a ghost writer to do her memoirs. Peter Evans agreed, and through many months of meetings, interviews and middle of the night telephone conversations, he had almost enough to finish.
And then she got word from Sinatra that he had once sued Evans and wouldn't trust him. Gardner called the whole thing off and forbid the book's publication, which her estate kept to after her death in 1990.
Fast forward to 2014, and Evans still has all these stranded notes and no book and hasn't received any money from the work. He asked the estate for the green light to publish a book about the process of creating the unpublished autobiography. They agreed.
The result is just plain weird. Bits of a bio, interspersed with lots of padding and stretching. We clearly see that Gardner had things she wanted kept private, yet here we are, reading about them. Not huge revelations, but certainly things a woman of her generation wouldn't normally discuss, even in a tell-all bio to raise quick cash.
Evans himself died suddenly before the book was finished.
Ava Gardner lived a fascinating life, and was a pretty strong woman-- "Sinatra in drag," as her sister called her.
In the late 1980's, Gardner had a series of small strokes, which left her seriously paralyzed. She spent a great deal of hard work in therapy and recovered most movement, except for one arm and one side of her face. For one of the most beautiful women who ever lived, it was an exceptionally terrible blow.She found herself in need of cash. Sinatra helped a bit, but she hit on the idea of hiring a ghost writer to do her memoirs. Peter Evans agreed, and through many months of meetings, interviews and middle of the night telephone conversations, he had almost enough to finish.
And then she got word from Sinatra that he had once sued Evans and wouldn't trust him. Gardner called the whole thing off and forbid the book's publication, which her estate kept to after her death in 1990.
Fast forward to 2014, and Evans still has all these stranded notes and no book and hasn't received any money from the work. He asked the estate for the green light to publish a book about the process of creating the unpublished autobiography. They agreed.
The result is just plain weird. Bits of a bio, interspersed with lots of padding and stretching. We clearly see that Gardner had things she wanted kept private, yet here we are, reading about them. Not huge revelations, but certainly things a woman of her generation wouldn't normally discuss, even in a tell-all bio to raise quick cash.
Evans himself died suddenly before the book was finished.
Ava Gardner lived a fascinating life, and was a pretty strong woman-- "Sinatra in drag," as her sister called her.
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