Yummy vintage 8x10-inch black and white portrait, boldly signed with her name alone in black felt-tip marker in the late 1980s. In good condition, with a few minor handling dings. While working as a model and M.G.M. contract player, gawky, unsophisticated Ava Gardner was completely made over by the studio, transforming her into an impossibly beautiful, glamorous leading lady. After she was lent out to Universal for The Killers (1946), she established a bad girl persona which studio heads struggled to tidy up in wholesome films like The Hucksters (1947), Show Boat (1951), Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (1951), and The Snow of Kilimanjaro (1952). Fans yawned and M.G.M. got the hint: Gardner was allowed full reign as wicked or emotionally complex sexpots in Mogambo (1953), The Barefoot Contessa (1954), Bhowani Junction (1956), Seven Days in May (1964), and Night of the Iguana (1964).

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