MYRNA LOY

August 2, 1905

Myrna Loy was born Myrna Adele Williams in Radersburg (near Helena), Montana.

When she was thirteen, Myrna’s father died of influenza in the great flu pandemic of 1918, and the rest of the family moved to Los Angeles. She was educated in L.A. and the Westlake School for Girls where she caught the acting bug. She started at the age of 15 when she appeared in local stage productions in order to help support her family.

Her first film was a small part in the production of What Price Beauty? (1925). Later, she appeared in Pretty Ladies (1925) along with Joan Crawford. She was one of the few stars that would start in the silent movies and make a successful transition into the sound era.

Moving to MGM she got two meaty roles: One was in the The Prizefighter and the Lady (1933), and the other as Nora Charles in The Thin Man (1934) with William Powell. Myrna would appear in five more in the series.

In 1946, she was seen in The Best Years of Our Lives, which went on to win 7 competitive Oscars, including Best Picture. Loy won Best Actress at the Brussels World Film Festival. “I Love Lucy” favorite Tennessee Ernie Ford appears in an uncredited role. “Lucy” extras who appeared include Harry Cheshire, James Conaty, Lawrence Dobkin, Harold Miller, and Bert Stevens. 

NAME GAMES!

When her father was travelling by train in early 1905, he went through a small station called ‘Myrna’ – he eventually named her after that station.

Changing last name from Williams to Loy was suggested by legendary pulp writer Paul Cain (aka Peter Ruric). Lucille Ball also flirted with a stage name, going by Diane Belmont for several years. 

FATHER FIGURES!

Lucille Ball initially claimed to have been born in Montana, while Loy actually was! Both Loy and Ball’s fathers died of illness while they were young girls. Ball’s father succumbed to Typhoid in 1914, while Loy’s was a victim of the Flu pandemic of 1918. Like Lucy, once successful, Loy returned to her hometown, Radersburg, Montana (above), posing in front of her parents’ home.

LOY & LUCILLE!

The only time Loy and Ball appeared in the same film was in Broadway Bill (1934), a Frank Capra film for Columbia. Broadway Bill was filmed between June 18 and August 16, 1934 at Columbia Studios in Hollywood, and on location at Tanforan Race Track in San Bruno, California. Lucille Ball was 23 years old at the time and was a blonde! 

Lucille Ball played a telephone operator, uncredited. Also in the film were future “I Love Lucy” cast members Charles Lane, Irving Bacon, and Bess Flowers. 

GINGER SNAPS!

Lucy wasn’t the only star in Hollywood to be a redhead. Myrna Loy managed to show off her red tresses in the 1929 Warner Brothers musical, The Show of Shows, which contained Technicolor sequences, one of which still survives. 

HOLLYWOOD ROYALTY!     

Loy was a big box-office draw. In 1936, she was named Queen of the Movies and Clark Gable the king in a nationwide poll of movie goers. Her popularity was at its zenith.  Lucille Ball, at the zenith of her television success, was dubbed the Queen of Comedy. 

GIVING A DAMN!

Both Loy and Ball (among many others) were considered for the role of Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind (1939).

SMOKE SCREEN!

In 1938, Loy signed on to do print ads for Lucky Strike cigarettes. 15 years later, it was Lucy who was hawking tobacco, for Philip Morris, who also sponsored “I Love Lucy.”  The competition for smokers loyalty was so fierce that the word “lucky” was banned from “I Love Lucy” scripts, causing the ‘Lucky Buck’ competition to be re-named the ‘Bonus Buck’ contest! 

GOING WITH THE FLO!

Loy appeared in the film The Great Ziegfeld (1938), which won an Oscar, while Ball was featured in Ziegfeld Follies (1946). Loy, who received second billing for this film, does not actually appear on screen until 2 hours and 15 minutes into the movie.

Coincidentally, Loy’s Thin Man co-star William Powell plays Ziegfeld in both films! This was the fourth of 14 films pairing William Powell and Myrna Loy.

In real life, Lucille Ball was actually fired by Ziegfeld from his touring production of Rio Rita in the early 1930s.

ARE YOU NOW OR HAVE YOU EVER BEEN?

Myrna Loy, Fredric March and Lucille Ball took a stand against being accused of Communism

when two radio broadcasts called “Hollywood Fights Back” protested the HUAC hearings in October and November 1947. 

LADY / WED!

The 1936 film Libeled Lady starring Myrna Loy and Spencer Tracey was remade ten years later as Easy To Wed (1946) starring Lucille Ball and Van Johnson. In the remake, Ball did not play the character originated by Loy, which was taken by Esther Williams. Lucy played the role originated by Jean Harlowe. 

MGM MURMURS! 

A New York Times item mentioned a collaboration between Lucille Ball, Myrna Loy and Clark Gable in 1944.  The film never came to pass. Gable’s first film after his military service was MGM’s Adventure (1945) with Greer Garson and Joan Blondell. Ball did Without Love (1945), also for MGM.

ANGEL / FOREVER!

Forever Darling was originally entitled Guardian Angel and had been written as a vehicle for Myrna Loy and William Powell. The script had been languishing unfilmed at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for several years. It was finally picked up and polished for Lucy and Desi. 

MOTHER(S) OF THE YEAR(S)!

Myrna Loy played the mother of 12 kids in Cheaper By The Dozen (1950). In 1968, Lucille Ball made a similar film titled Yours, Mine and Ours with Ball the mom of 18!  The two films have many common scenes: 

• The kids line up for their week’s ration of clean sheets and toothpaste;
• The older daughters have troubles with unbashful beaus; 
• The youngsters get in pillow fights; 
• There is a suspected case of the flu; 
• Jealousies grow between the two sets of children; 
• There are four small visitors (all under 5 years of age) who invite themselves to their parents’ wedding night and crawl under the covers. 

BROADWAY AMBITION!

Loy had ambitions to act on Broadway, and finally made her one and only appearance in a 1973 production of The Women. Lucille Ball also had Broadway aspirations. She finally made her one and only appearance in late 1960 in Wildcat. Both women had done regional stage productions that for one reason or another failed to transfer to Broadway. 

GREASE IS THE WORD!

In the opening shots of the 1978 film Grease, there’s a white statue of a girl outside Rydell High – filmed at Venice High School, California, where Myrna Loy was a student. She posed for it when she was 16!  Lucie Arnaz was the studio’s original choice for promiscuous Betty Rizzo (a role that went to Stockard Channing), but Lucy refused to let her do a screen test!  The film featured Ball’s friend and Desilu star Eve Arden (”Our Miss Brooks”) as the principal. The film takes place in 1959/1960, when “I Love Lucy” was wrapping up its history-making run on television.    

BIOGRAPHY!

Loy wrote an autobiography, Myrna Loy: Being and Becoming, published in 1987. Lucille Ball’s autobiography Love, Lucille, was published posthumously in 1996. 

HONORS!

Both Lucille Ball and Myrna Loy were honored at “The Kennedy Center Honors”; Lucy in 1986 and Loy in 1988. 

LAST LOOKS!

In 1991, Loy was given an Honorary Oscar In recognition of her extraordinary qualities both on screen and off, with appreciation for a lifetime’s worth of indelible performances. Loy was not present at the awards ceremony. She gave her acceptance speech live via satellite from her Manhattan apartment. This was her last appearance on TV. Similarly, Lucille Ball’s appearance as a presenter at the March 29, 1989 Oscar telecast was her last appearance on TV before her death on April 26, 1989. 

By the time Myrna Loy passed away, on December 14, 1993, at the age of 88, she had appeared in 129 motion pictures.