BUYING A DREAM, LUCILLE BALL’S GOAL

December 23, 1945

Below is an article by Philip K. Scheuer in the Los Angeles Times published on December 23, 1945, and reprinted verbatim. Except for the above headshot, photographs were added for editorial enhancement.  

Philip K. Scheuer wrote about film for the Los Angeles Times from the 1920s until 1967.

Bold Italics indicate quotes by Lucille Ball. Footnotes (bolded numbers in parentheses) are added for historical perspective. Words in [brackets] are foul language used by Ball, but not published by the Times. 

It was the first day of shooting on “The Dark Corner.” Lucille Ball, playing secretary to Mark Stevens, sat at a typewriter, typing. The more-observant noted, with surprise, that she used the touch system. When Director Henry Hathaway called lunch, an alert member of the crew salvaged what Mark Stevens’ secretary had written. 

“Dear Mr. Hathaway,” it read, “If you knew how [god damned] nervous I was today you wouldn’t dare shoot the picture and you would call the whole thing off and then you wou— ” The line ended abruptly, and Miss Ball was off on a new tack. 

“LUCY IS A SISSY,” she snapped, three times. 

First-Day Jitters 

When she got back from lunch, the sheet of paper was again in her typewriter. With grateful surprise Miss Ball read “Dear Lucy: Would it help you to know that I’m nervous as hell myself?" The postscript was signed, "Love, H.H.” 

First-day jitters are common in Hollywood, even with hard-shelled veterans like Hathaway. To Lucille Ball, beginning her debut as a 20th Century Fox star, it must have been an occasion in which triumph was not unmixed with her trepidation. 

More than a decade earlier, a Goldwyn Girl on loan, she had worked at the same studio in a “Bottoms Up” (1) number for $75 a week. Her pre-picture deal for “The Dark Corner”, is reliably reported to call for a flat payment of $75,000. 

Independence Earned 

It is quite a come-up for a girl whose occupations are listed in prosaic type as “showgirl, soda jerker, stenographer, fashion and commercial model, extra, stock girl.“ Lucille earned her independence the hard way; but there is no evidence that the experience embittered her or caused her, in turn, to slap people around. She is honest, she is blunt, and she can talk tough – but no more so than when she was dialing Central Casting and being answered, “Nothing today." 

Besides 20th, both R.K.O. and M.G.M., two of her alma maters, are begging her to sign contracts. "But frankly,” she said, “I don’t care when I do another picture. Desi is out of the Army and I want to be with him and I want to have a baby. In fact, twins." 

Double Nursery

Desi is her husband, Desi Arnaz; they have been married five, years, more than three of which he spent in service. His wife is so sure it will be twins that she is planning a double nursery. Seems it runs in the family her grandmother was one of five sets. Lucille has even predicted their sexes: the boy will be Desi Jr. and the girl Susan (2) for good friend Susan Peters. She’s buying that dream.

Besides the double nursery, the Arnazes are mapping other concessions to a rosy future: an enlarged playroom for their Northridge ranch, a helicopter (the landing field is already laid out); a modern electric kitchen in which Desi can indulge his penchant for Cuban dishes, and Lucille hers for American; and so I was calmly assured a PT boat "for going fishing.” I had a quick mental picture of the Arnaz family dashing about spearing the finny tribe, but said nothing. It’s none of my business. 

Excellent Portrayal 

Lucille Ball has given one fine, true performance on the screen. That was in Damon Runyon’s “The Big Street” in 1942. It was a distinctive tragicomedy about the blind devotion of a busboy (Henry Fonda) to a selfish, shallow showgirl who is crippled in a fall and Miss Ball gave it everything she had. Playing the part largely in a wheelchair must have had a special meaning to her, for Lucille was herself injured in an auto accident and told she would never walk again. By gritting her teeth and persevering, she was on her feet again in three years and four months. 

Laughton’s Advice 

“I’ve never had another part like that,” she admitted. “It was Charles Laughton who advised me, ‘If you’re going to play a [bitch], play one!’ and I did.” She brightened. “In spite of his illness, Mr. Runyon has told friends he is writing another story for me. I only hope I will get the chance to play it!” (3) Last seen as the wisecracking companion of Keenan Wynn in “Without Love,” Lucille still has three unreleased pictures at Metro. They are “Ziegfeld Follies,” “Easy to Wed” and “Time for Two.“ (4) That should hold people for a while, she thinks; meanwhile there’s Desi, and fun.

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FOOTNOTES

(1) In the Fox film "Bottoms Up” (1934) Lucille Ball was a Goldwyn Girl in the number “Waitin’ at the Gate for Katy”.  

(2) Lucille Ball never had twins. Her second child was indeed a girl, but named Lucie (aka Little Lucy) not Susan. Susan Peters (1921-52) was a film, stage, and television actress who appeared in over twenty films over the course of her decade-long career. In January 1945 she was critically injured in a hunting accident that left her paralyzed and in a wheelchair. This is likely why Lucille wanted to name her daughter after her. She died in 1952 at age 31, just 15 month after the birth of Lucie Arnaz.  

(3) Lucille Ball did indeed do another Damon Runyon story, “Sorrowful Jones” in 1949, but it was not written expressly for Lucy, but based on his 1932 story “Little Miss Marker,” which had previously been filmed in 1934. Damon Runyon died a year after this article was published, in December 1946. 

(4) MGM’s “Time for Two” was renamed “Two Smart People” and premiered June 4, 1946. It co-starred John Hodiak and Lloyd Nolan.