TALLULAH BANKHEAD

January 31, 1903

Tallulah Bankhead was born in 1903 in Huntsville, Alabama, and left home at the age of 15 to appear on the New York stage. Like Lucille Ball, she was considered for the role of Scarlett O’Hara in Gone With the Wind (1939). 

From 1918 (the same year she did her first film) she was the star of the Broadway and London stages, appearing in such hits as The Little Foxes (1939), Private Lives (1948) and A Streetcar Named Desire (1956).  In every case, Bankhead was passed over for the film versions of the plays. 

She was briefly married to John Emery who had appeared on “I Love Lucy” as Harold the Tramp in “The Quiz Show” (ILL S1;E5) and as angry neighbor Mr. Stewart in “Little Ricky Gets a Dog” (ILL S6;E14). 

Lucille Ball does her ‘darling’ Tallulah Bankhead imitation in “Ricky Asks for a Raise” (ILL S1;E35) in order to jam the Tropicana’s reservation lines. 

With costumes and make-up, she took on Bankhead’s persona in “Lucy Fakes Illness” (S1;E16). 

Tallulah Bankhead would guest star on “The Celebrity Next Door,” the second episode of “The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour” in 1957 and would prove to be one of Lucy’s most difficult co-stars. It was only her second television credit in a scripted show. 

Although Lucille and Desi feared the studio audience would not immediately recognize stage star Bankhead, her entrance applause was so enthusiastic that it had to be edited for time!

The writers must have cribbed from Bankhead’s resume for a list of her stage credits, but they neglected to notice that several of the plays mentioned were London productions only, not Broadway. The conversation then turns to the 1944 film Lifeboat, which Ethel says she saw in her hometown of Albuquerque.

For the scene in which Lucy serves Bankhead a Southern dinner, packages of frozen fried chicken (some of the first to be marketed) were used as food props. Bankhead, thinking it was homemade, raved that it was the best fried chicken she’d ever eaten! 

During rehearsal for a telephone scene, Bankhead proclaimed that it was the first time a stage phone worked and she could actually hear someone on the other end!

When the script called for Bankhead to get covered in paint by a paint sprayer, she surprised everyone by entering the scene wearing sunglasses and a head covering to protect herself from the spray. Physical comedy was not Bankhead’s forte. 

Bankhead later said about Lucille Ball: “She’s divine to work with! And Desi! He’s brilliant! He has a temper, however. But that’s because he’s fat! It worries him.”

Stories about the clash between Lucille Ball and Bankhead mostly center on work ethic. Kathleen Brady’s biography Lucille: The Life of Lucille Ball says that Bankhead rehearsed in a haze of alcohol and refused to learn her lines. Lucy was a stickler for rehearsals so naturally their styles clashed.

Bankhead died in 1968 at age 66.