Skip to main content

December 24: Happy Birthday Ava Gardner!

December 24: Happy Birthday Ava Gardner!

Ava Gardner was a famous American actress born on December 24th, 1922. She went to Hollywood in 1941 on a contract with MGM, but she was originally unable to separate herself from the crowd of pretty girls working for the company. Gardner was called for some movies, but mostly as just a pretty face in the background.

The Killers was Gardner’s first real cinema hit. She played opposite Burt Lancaster, and her sexy role helped her to quickly establish herself as a femme fatale.

As a way to support her movie career, Gardner made many appearances on radio. Appearing on Suspense helped to solidify her new role as a sex icon, while her performance on Lux Radio Theater in the show Showboat brought many people into the theater.

Ava also did some work supporting the troops, hosting a post-war broadcast of Command Performance as well as a pair of shows with Bob Hope on base visits.

Ava Gardner's marriage life was certainly tumultuous. Her and MGM’s biggest star, Mickey Rooney, were married when Ava was just 19, but they were divorced two years later. Howard Hughes was then taken under the beauty’s spell, but she rejected his offers in favor of Artie Shaw. That marriage also ended quickly. Ava finally married the recently divorced Frank Sinatra in 1951, but even that marriage only lasted a little while. The pair split in 1957, but remained friends all their life.

Comments

  1. XOXOXOO The most beautiful actress, to ever grace the silver-screen. i first saw her in "ONE TOUCH OF VENUS", instant LOVE. A very lovely Lady, she died at a much too young age

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

1946 Great Crepitation Fart Contest

Not for the faint of heart, here is the remarkable 1946 Crepitation (Fart) Contest (part of the 1946 News Broadcasts Collection ). You'll enjoy the fart-off between champion Englishman Lord Windsmear, and  challenger, Australian Paul Boomer who had stowed aboard a cabbage freighter. The hilarious comedy recording was apparently created a spoof by two Canadian radio sportscasters in 1946, but this 15 minute recording definitely has some gems in it.  Apparently they made several copies, but it was not for distribution. The recording was copied again and again on disc and reel to reel tape. It was distributed underground and played in dark rooms and back alleys around the world. If you cannot see the audio controls, your browser does not support the audio element This recording is available with many other delightful treats on Random Rarities #7 available on   MP3 CD ,  Audio CD , and  instant download .

January 27, 1948: Wire Recording introduced the 'Wireway'

  January 27, 1948: The first magnetic tape recorder was introduced by Wire Recording Corporation of America.  ‘Wire Way,’ as it was called, had an integrated oscillator and was sold for $149.50 at the time.

October 28, 1922: The First National Radio Broadcast of College Football

October 28, 1922: A collegiate football game was aired by WEAF in New York City, coast to coast for the first time on this day. The football radio broadcast   saw Princeton matched against the University of Chicago. They played at Stagg Field in the Windy City with the of score 21-8 in Princeton's favor. The broadcast was transmitted via phone line to New York City where it was then transmitted by radio. The first football game ever broadcast on the radio was witnessed by 32,000 fans. The game was an important moment in history of broadcast because for the first time AT&T, the owner of WEAF, introduced advertising. In addition, college football games in the 1920s generally were aired without charge for airing rights even as the radio station collected funds from advertising that they aired during the games.  The WEAF broadcast of the game was one of the most important moment that affected development of radio and college sports. It was apart of the nationalization of foo