BALL at the PEAK

July 15, 1967

After 15 consecutive years on television, Lucille Ball was still receiving acclaim for “The Lucy Show”. In 1967, Ball won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series.

“Bold and graphic day-glow like colors are on full display in this ‘Groovy’ work by one of America’s great post-war illustrators. It’s the quintessence of the MOD Look. Lucille Ball’s striking resemblance is captured in a triple portrait with twisting, curving and undulating flat patters. It’s set against a TV screen test pattern that doubles as a hallucinatory background.”

Bob Peak contributed a total of 39 cover illustrations to TV Guide. Lucille Ball appeared (in illustration and photography) on 39 covers. This was Ball’s 17th appearance.  

Bob Peak (1927–1992)

was the father of the American Movie Poster. United Artists studio hired Peak in 1961 to design the poster images for the film West Side Story. The success of Peak’s work on that film led to work on posters for the big-budget musicals My Fair Lady and Camelot. In the mid-1970s Peak’s style would become familiar to fans of science fiction films when he created the poster art for the futuristic film Rollerball (1975), which was followed by the first six Star Trek films, Superman (1978), Excalibur (1981), Apocalypse Now (1979), The Spy Who Loved Me and other James Bond concepts. Peak received a commission from the U.S. Postal Service to design 30 stamps for the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles and the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia.

Peak and Ball collaborated again on Mame (1974).  

“The President Wore A Dress to the Stockholders Meeting” by Dwight Whitney. The article discusses Lucille Ball’s tenure as President of Desilu after her ex-husband’s departure in 1962. A year after this TV Guide, Ball sold the studio to Gulf + Western and the TV production arm of her company to Paramount.  

The issue also contained articles and features on Nichelle Nichols of “Star Trek” (a Desilu series), “Stage ‘67″, Miss Germany 1967, TV Reporters, Expo ‘67, and the All-Star Baseball Game.  

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