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SEPTEMBER 30 - OCTOBER 6, 2009 UCW 11 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM Gardner and Hemingway: The Celebration of Two American Icons At the Ava Gardner Festival by KIA SAMUELS The The FRESH CAFE Good Food...Naturally SM 21 2 Hay St. • 9 1 0-323-4 1 00 21 2 Hay St. • 9 1 0-323-4 1 00 The FRESH CAFE 21 2 Hay St. • 9 1 0-323-4 1 00 • Organic / Natural Salads, Sandwiches,Wraps, Quiches and Soups • Assorted Selection of Micro Beer and Wine Hours: Mon-Tue 1 1-3; Wed-Sat 1 1-9; Closed Sunday 84% of our readers use our advertisers. Why take chances? For Sales & Marketing CALL 484-6200 * * So where did cinema begin? During the 1920's through the 1960's cinema was perfected through fi lm, directing, and talent. The word talent in the show business refers to the actor. One of North Carolina's leading talents in the golden age of cinema was Johnston County native Ava Gardner. Each year the Ava Gardner Museum in Smithfi eld, N.C., celebrates Gardner's life and career with the Ava Gardner Festival. The annual exhibit includes heritage tours, screenings of classic Gardener fi lms and special exhibits. This year's festival is Oct. 9 -10, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. "The 2009 celebration of Ava Gardner will be a celebration of the relationship between Gardner and Hemingway," said Jessica Hammett, director of the Ava Gardner Museum. "The three movies she starred in will be shown. (The Killers, The Sun Also Rises and The Snows of Kilimanjaro were all based on Hemingway's books of the same titles). Also displayed will be exhibits of costumes, items from the set and the centerpiece of the festival will be a watch Gardner gave to Hemingway on his 55th birthday." Gardner was born in Smithfi eld to Jonas and Mollie Gardner, on Dec. 24, 1922. In the summer of 1939 Gardner visited her sister in New York City. There she was discovered by a man who was trying to impress her to go out on a date with him. Convincing her that he worked for MGM he showed her photos of his work and a star was born. Gardner soon signed a contact with MGM studios to work for $50 a week. Moving to Hollywood, she started in small roles such as being an extra and was usually type cast as a pretty face. It would take fi ve years for Gardner to make her big break as a starring role in a movie. Once that happened though, she found great success in the fi lms, Knights of the Round Table, Barefoot Contessa, The Sun Also Rises and On the Beach. Gardner has been described as a woman before her time, an independent woman, and a career woman. Pursuing these characteristics in the '50s, especially a woman in the public eye, was shunned because women were viewed as being housewives and not equals. Gardner created her own rules of living and broke all the laws of what she was supposed to be according to a male dominated Hollywood. She married three times, traveled the world and stood her own ground when working with some of the top directors of that time. Hollywood lore proves that Gardner set her own path. During the fi lming of Night of the Iguana, the cast and crew had to travel by boat to the fi lm location. Gardner wanted to water ski in the shark-infested waters just for the thrill of it. People who had the chance to work with her realized how much of a thirst for life she had. Perhaps it was her joie de vivre and thirst for adventure that endeared her to literary great, Earnest Hemingway. Ava called Hemingway "Papa," and he called her "Daughter." The accomplished author admired Ava's work in the fi lms based on his works, and considered her "the most exciting woman of her generation." Hemingway was never very pleased with the fi lm versions of his fi ction. He said Gardner was the only actor who portrayed his characters the way he envisioned them, and the only good things about The Snows of Kilimanjaro were Gardner and the hyena. Gardner and Hemingway didn't meet in person until seven years after two years after The Snows of Kilimanjaro, in which she played Cynthia Green, a young woman who died during the Spanish Civil War. In the spring of 1954, Gardner was in Madrid, Spain, having left Rome after fi lming her role as the tragic beauty, Maria Vargas, in The Barefoot Contessa. At that time, Gardner and her third and last husband, singer Frank Sinatra, had come to a parting of ways, although they didn't obtain a divorce until a few years later. In Madrid, she began attending bullfi ghts and drowning her Sinatra sorrows in the adoring company of handsome Luis Miguel Dominguin, the country's most famous bullfi ghter. Hemingway was in Madrid at the same time, and was a friend and admirer of Dominguin, who urged him to meet the actress who brought his female characters to such beautiful life on the screen. Gardner might have hoped for a better time and setting in which to meet the famous writer, because when it happened, she was in a Madrid hospital bed suffering from kidney stones. But the circumstance didn't matter at all. The bond between the movie star and the author was instantaneous, and it lasted until his death 17 years later. When the two met in the Madrid hospital room, it seemed they had known each other forever. He asked for one of her kidney stones to keep as a souvenir, and his wish was granted. Gardner purchased a 1906 Hamilton pocket watch, one of relatively few of its kind produced by the company. She saw it as a suitable birthday gift for the rugged Hemingway, and may have hoped it would be treasured as much as her kidney stone. She had the following engraved on the back of the watch: TO PAPA, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, FROM AVA, MADRID, JULY 21, 1954. The inscription is quite worn, which indicates that Hemingway may have carried it in his pocket for a very long time. Take a trip up to Smithfi eld to explore the connection between two American icons during the Ava Gardner Festival. For ticket information please call the Ava Gardner Museum at 919-934-5830. You can also visit the Web site www.avagardner. org. The Ava Gardner Museum is located at 325 East Market Street in Smithfi eld, North Carolina 27577.

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