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Clark Gable and Ava Gardner during the MGM 25th anniversary banquet (1949).

Ava Gardner and Frank Sinatra at The Snows of Kilimanjaro premiere, 1952

Ava Gardner presents Documentary Oscars in 1949 (video and photoset) Robert Montgomery says in the beginning: “When you speak of Ava Gardner, you have to start by admitting that Mother Nature certainly lingered over the job.”

Newlyweds Ava Gardner and Frank Sinatra arrive in London, England in December of 1951. Married on November 7th, 1951 and only in London for one day, Frank was accompanying Ava to Nairobi, Kenya where she was due to begin location shoots for the Twentieth Century Fox/Henry King drama The Snows of Kilimanjaro, which was released the following year.

Ava Gardner by Arnold Newman, 1949

Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner arriving in Sweden, 1953

Ava Gardner at the Ribbon Ball, 1951

Ava Gardner by Man Ray for Pandora and the Flying Dutchman, 1951

Ava Gardner, c.1949

Ava Gardner with Kirk Douglas from the 1949 Camel Screen Guild Theater performance of Flesh and Fantasy

Ava Gardner and Vincent Price during the filming of The Bribe, 1949

Ava Gardner at the premiere of All About Eve at Grauman's Chinese Theatre, 1950

Ava Gardner making pancakes at home, 1940s

"Ava and I had a great weekend. We cooked Southern feasts — the glory that was grease, we called them — fried everything, vegetables obliterated in pork fat, rich cakes made in Crisco, pecan pie. She was one of those rare women who could gorge on everything she wanted and never gain a pound, though somehow I sensed she wished she could get fat and bail from the business altogether."

-Mr S, The Last Word on Frank Sinatra by George Jacobs

Ava Gardner, LOOK Magazine Awards, 1947