WHICH HUSBAND DO YOU MEAN?

January 3, 1962

Lucille Ball gave an interview to Dick Kleiner of Newspaper Enterprise Association that was printed in newspapers on or about January 2, 1962.  The article is reprinted verbatim below with added footnotes in parentheses for historical perspective and photos for editorial enhancement. Quotes by Lucille Ball are in bold italics.  

Richard Arthur Kleiner (1921-2002) was an American columnist whose question-and-answer column “Ask Dick Kleiner” appeared in hundreds of newspapers across the country. Kleiner wrote about Broadway for fifteen years, then switched to covering Hollywood in 1964. He was syndicated by Newspaper Enterprise Association, interviewing thousands of stars.

Lucille Ball’s blush clashed frightfully with her orange and lavender stretch slacks. 

But it was hard for her to keep from blushing after her remark, which is known, technically, as a “boo-boo." 

The question had been, "Do you plan to do any work with your husband?" 

Lucy sailed right into her answer. "I don’t think so,” she said. “You see, nowadays he’s more interested in producing and directing and isn’t acting as much as he—" 

Then she stopped and there was a slightly sick look on her beautiful face. 

"Did you mean Desi or Gary?” she asked. 

“Gary." 

"Oh." 

The blush started. "I was sure you meant Desi." 

*   *   *   *   *

The blush spread. It clashed with her coral lipstick, too. But she recovered beautifully. In fact, she burst out into that wild, ringing laugh which her fans know so well. 

"You know,” she said, “these things have been happening to me. Three days after Gary and I were married, l was in the elevator here in the apartment. And the operator said. ‘How is Mrs. Morton today?’ I said, ‘Well, you know I don’t get to meet many people in the building.’ And then realized he meant me. So I said, ‘Oh, I’m fine, thank you’. He gave me the oddest look.”  (1)

*   *   *   *   *

The blush began to recede. The tall redhead seemed to be part of the interior decoration of her apartment. She was the splash of color the room needed; her walls, carpet, furniture, are all in shades of pale green, and against that wan background her color and costume stood out like a well thumb. 

She was eating a bowl of prunes. "I’m on a diet, just grapefruit, prunes, meat and coffee; it makes me tired, but I feel great." 

And she was full of plans for her future. She ticked off the movies and TV specials she wants to do, starting with "The Good Years” on CBS-TV January 12. (2)

“I’ve had so many offers,” she said. “I can do almost anything I want to do and that s a nice feeling. Any TV series or spectacular I want to do. But I don’t think I’ll do a TV series again. It s too much work.”  (3)

She says she likes to keep busy, because she’s the kind who just can’t sit around on her pale green furniture and wither. 

"I don’t have any plans or desire to retire,” she says: “I’m going to die when I’m 69 of a cerebral hemorrhage and I’ll be working right up to then.” (4)

One thing she doesn’t want to do is go outside her own field. She’s had several chances to try straight dramatic parts, but she’s turned them all down. 

*   *   *   *   *

“I have no desire to do a dramatic part.” she says. “That would spoil the magic, and I don’t want, to do that.” (5)

By “spoiling the magic,” she meant that she has a place in the hearts of the public with her comedy. It’s a place she richly deserves and has long wanted to occupy. 

“Even as a kid,” she says. “I liked to be funny. At the time, I thought it was because I liked to be funny. But now, after reading all these autobiographies of show people, I realize it was because I was insecure and wanted to be liked. So I tried to make people laugh. It’s amazing what a great psychologist I was as a kid." 

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FOOTNOTES

(1) It is apparent that Lucille Ball is giving this interview in her New York City apartment. She resided at the Imperial House, located at 150 East 69th Street. 

(2) “The Good Years” was an adaptation of the book of the same name by Walter Lord about the first two decades of the 20th century. Ball co-starred with Henry Fonda. Billed as her return to network television, it aired on January 12, 1962. 

(3) As history knows, Ball was soon convinced to return to series television just a few months after this interview was published. The show would be titled “The Lucy Show” and aired until 1968. Although the workload never lessened, Ball immediately followed up with “Here’s Lucy.” Undaunted, in 1986, she made a third and final attempt at a sitcom titled “Life With Lucy,” which only ran for three months. 

(4) After her exhaustion while on Broadway doing Wildcat, Lucille Ball was keenly aware that her health was precarious. At the age of 50 in 1962, Ball here predicts her death at age 69, just 19 years later (1981). In fact, she lived until 1989, dying at age 77.  The cause of Ball’s death was listed as a ruptured abdominal aorta. A cerebral hemorrhage is most often associated with strokes.

(5) Lucille Ball was dubbed the Queen of Comedy, but she did tackle dramatic roles occasionally. Her biggest success in a drama was The Big Street (1942).  Despite her eloquent reasoning here, she succumbed to the allure of stretching her talents by acting in the dramatic telefilm Stone Pillow in 1985.  Once again, Lucille Ball’s health was pressed to the limit by the rigorous location shooting. Ball should have stuck by her initial instincts. The critics were unkind, expecting the same comic Lucy they had grown used to from 30 years of television.