The Ava Gardner Museum commemorates the life and achievements of the legendary actress of the classic Hollywood cinema, Ava Gardner.
Gardner (1922-1990) was born and raised on a farm in rural North Carolina. She loved watching movies in the local cinema but never had she thought she would become a worldwide famous movie star. After attending secretarial classes for a year, she visited her sister in New York City. An MGM talent scout spotted Gardner’s photo outside her brother-in-law’s photography studio. Despite her North Carolina accent and no previous acting experience, Gardner was offered a contract and moved to Hollywood, starting a 5-decade acting career.
When Gardner was a secretarial student in Wilson, NC, she was friendly to a local 12-year-old boy named Tommy Banks. When he discovered her life took a turn and she started a career in Hollywood, he became her fan, and they stayed in touch. Tommy grew up to become Thomas, and his wife, Lorraine, collected items about Gardner over the years. When they visited Gardner in 1978 in London, she expressed her wish that the collection would become a museum in her honor in North Carolina.
That same year, a community journalist named Doris Rollins Cannon wrote a newspaper column entitled: “Isn’t It Time That Smithfield Saluted Ava?” The Banks and Doris got in touch, which led to a temporary exhibition of part of the collection in downtown Smithfield. With Doris’ help, they operated the museum every summer between 1981 and 1989 at the old Brogden School Teacherage building, where Ava lived from ages 2 to 13.
Since 1991, the museum has been open in the historic downtown of Smithfield, a small North Carolina town close to where Ava’s childhood home once stood.
A visit to the museum starts with a 20-minute movie about Gardner’s life.
Exhibits are arranged chronologically, from her humble childhood in North Carolina to Hollywood glamorous life. There is a nice collection of personal items, such as artifacts, photos, jewelry, china, and clothing, as well as souvenirs of her professional experience of awards, costumes, scripts, movie posters, and fine art, including portraits by Bert Pfeiffer.
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