Despite their split in 1953, Frank and Ava never really got over each other. In the last episode of this season, we'll follow many of their reunions and moments of conflict throughout the following 36 years. When they were married, Ava was the one who rescued Frank from multiple crises. What we see when we take a bird's eye view of their post-divorce relationship is that Frank spent the rest of his life trying to rescue and take care of Ava. And then we ask the question: could they really have been lovers forever? What would it have taken for them to make their relationship work for real? Or was it all just an impossible dream?
Content warning: this episode contains descriptions of domestic violence/intimate partner abuse. Skip audio section 39:00-44:03 if that content is overwhelming for you. If you are in an unsafe home situation, know that help is available and you are not alone. Call the domestic violence national hotline 1-800-799-7233 to get help, or text 'start' to 88788.
Episode 10: The Song Is Over...
By Christmas of 1953, it's clear that Ava is moving on from Frank. But there are flashes of ambivalence--late night phone calls, confessions to journalists--that keep him hanging on. Meanwhile, she takes up with the world's greatest living matador, and Frank's career resurgence begins its final, stunning chapter--an Oscar campaign that just six months before would have seemed laughably out of reach.
However--this isn't the end for Frank and Ava. The song is over, but the melody lingers on...stay tuned to hear the rest.
Episode 9: From Here To Eternity
Summer, 1953. Frank's career is finally on the upswing--he is now enacting the greatest comeback story in Hollywood history. From Here To Eternity is a huge success--but the power dynamic between the lovers won't allow for a partnership of equals. In the flush of triumph, Frank decides to walk all over the woman who supported him through his lowest of lows, including taunting her with new evidence of infidelity. A decision, as we'll see, that he thoroughly comes to regret, as Ava finally confronts the painful reality of what their love has become. She suffers, she deliberates, and then she makes a choice.
Content warning: this episode contains a description of a suicide attempt. If that is overwhelming for you, please skip the audio section 32:55-33:10. If you are in crisis, please know that help is available. The National Suicide Prevention Hotline can be found here: 800-273-8255.
Episode 8: I'll Wait By The River
Today we embark on a far-flung journey to the hinterlands of Kenya for Ava's movie shoot, Mogambo. Frank is reluctantly along for the ride as Ava creates one of her best performances. All the while, he's plotting his career comeback, trying to land a movie role so perfect for him, it's like he was born for it. When opportunity calls on the other side of the world, Frank and Ava are separated again. Then their marriage faces its greatest test yet. Can you really be in love, if you aren't sure that love has a future?
Episode 7: Through All Disaster
Well, they finally made it...but what comes next? We follow the lovers on their honeymoon, and through their first tumultuous year of marriage. Frank's career gets even worse, if you can believe it, and Ava has her own rough patch on that front. Through it all, their cycle of fighting and making up becomes even more dramatic. Is marriage what they hoped it would be, or will they be disappointed? Join me as we recount the highs and lows of 1952.
Content warning: this episode contains a description of pregnancy loss. If that is too hard for you to hear today, skip the audio section 21:20-23:45.
Episode 6: Point of No Return
collage by me.
August, 1951. Frank has gone to Nevada to establish residency, so he can divorce Nancy himself. The future he and Ava have dreamed of is nearly within reach. And yet, both are faced with uncomfortable truths about each other, truths they've been circling around for a while, but are perhaps unprepared to fully face. These revelations unleash great chaos in an already volatile affair. How does their love survive? How do they make it to the altar? (This is a shorter episode this week as I had to have emergency surgery. My apologies if the audio is not as good as usual; I am not in the same recording space.)
Content warning: this episode contains a suicide attempt. Skip section 12:15-14:15 if that content is distressing to you. If you are in crisis, please call the National Suicide Hotline at 800-273-8255.
Episode 5: I'm A Fool To Want You
art by me.
This week's episode finds Frank and Ava locked in something of an uneasy holding period. Their career commitments continue to separate them geographically, and Nancy still won't grant Frank a divorce. Frank's long-simmering troubles with organized crime and the FBI finally come to a head, while Ava enjoys her most prestigious and high-profile role to date. In the midst of it all, Frank lays down one of his greatest recordings of all time. What does the song "I'm A Fool To Want You" have to teach us about Frank as a man, and as an artist? And how will he convince an increasingly skeptical Ava that she's who he's singing for?
Listen to "I'm A Fool To Want You" here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOKdDwMxfOc
Episode 4: Gunshots and Emeralds
collage by me.
In this episode, we follow Ava to her new movie shoot on the windswept coast of Catalonia. Frank, meanwhile, is stuck in New York, missing her terribly. It's the first time they've done long distance, and it....does not go smoothly. When they reunite in Spain, Ava has a new rival for her affections.
Content Warning: suicide attempt and related triggers. Skip the section 5:12-7:15 if such content is hard for you to hear today. If you are in crisis, please call the 24-hour National Suicide Hotline at 800-273-8255.
Episode 3: Conflagrations
art by me.
Frank and Ava's affair starts out as "magic" in Ava's words. But before the new relationship can even get off the ground, it turns into a national scandal and press sensation. Will their uncanny bond survive the strain? And what does the national reaction tell us about America in the spring of 1950?
Episode 2: Then Suddenly Love
This episode details Frank and Ava's lives leading up to their first real date in 1948/1949. She's flying high as a newly minted movie star, a twice-divorced party girl who believes love has led her astray. At the same time, Frank's on the outs--his records aren't selling, the FBI may be watching him, and the American public has started to turn on him. Then they meet in Palm Springs, and drive off into the desert together, beneath the stars. After this night together, their lives will never be the same again.
Episode 1: Polka Dots And Moonbeams
Welcome to the first episode of Lovers Forever! This season tells the story of Ava Gardner and Frank Sinatra. Theirs was a Romance Of The Century--but before we get to that, we have to learn a little bit about their lives before they met, so that we have a strong sense of who each of these people were when they fell in love.
Sources! These are the sources I used for the whole season.
Books:
Brady, John. Frank & Ava - In Love And War. St Martins Press, 2015.
Friedwald, Will. Sinatra!: The Song Is You. Scribner, 1995.
Gardner, Ava. Ava: My Story. Bantam, 1990.
Grobel, Lawrence. Conversations with Ava Gardner. 1st ed., Lawrence Grobel, 2014.
Hamill, Pete. Why Sinatra Matters. Little, Brown and Company, 2003.
Jordan, Mearene. Living With Miss G. Ava Gardner Museum, 2012.
Kaplan, James. Frank: The Voice. 1st ed., Anchor, 2011.
Kaplan, James. Sinatra: The Chairman. 1st ed., Anchor, 2016.
Longworth, Karina. Seduction: Sex, Lies, And Stardom In Howard Hughes's Hollywood. 1st ed., Custom House, 2018.
Petkov, Steven, and Leonard Mustazza, editors. The Frank Sinatra Reader. Oxford University Press, 1997.
Server, Lee. Ava Gardner: Love Is Nothing. St Martin's Press, 2006.
Films:
(these are just the films I referenced for the podcast, it’s not a complete filmography of either Frank or Ava.)
Ford, John, director. Mogambo. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1953
Huston, John, director. The Night of The Iguana, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1964.
Kelly, Gene and Stanley Donen, directors. On The Town. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1949.
Lewin, Albert, director. Pandora And The Flying Dutchman. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1951.
Mankiewicz, Joseph, director. The Barefoot Contessa. United Artists, 1954.
Moguy, Leonide, director. Whistle Stop. United Artists, 1946.
Pevney, Joseph, director. Meet Danny Wilson. Universal Pictures, 1952.
Sidney, George, director. Anchors Aweigh. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1945.
Sidney, George, director. Show Boat. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1951.
Siodmak, Robert, director. The Killers. Universal Pictures, 1946.
Whelan, Tim, director. Higher and Higher. RKO Pictures, 1944.
Zinnemann, Fred, director. From Here To Eternity. Columbia Pictures, 1953.