Two Leading Ladies of the Screen Leave Behind Sweet Memories

“Ava Gardner Is Dead.” I read the headline, and as those things happen sometimes, my mind instantly printed out a freeze-frame moment, from long ago and far away: Ava Gardner as the goddess Venus, gazing at Robert Walker with eyes that sang and danced. Beckoned and promised. It’s a good thing the film was in black-and-white. Had it been in color, I don’t know what those sparkling green eyes would have done to me.

I earn my living as a television writer now. And I’ve had the good fortune of writing for some of the biggest actresses in the industry. Some better at their craft than Gardner. Some as beautiful. But none have ever affected me quite in the same way.

I’m sure it had something to do with being 15 in the 1950s. Teen-age sex was for the privileged few. Coke was something you drank out of a glass.

And something else--in the movie, the Robert Walker character was so far out of her league that it gave a skinny, cow-licked teen-ager hope. I mean, if she could love this bumbling fool, there was certainly a chance for me!

FRANK FURINO

Sherman Oaks