BY LUCILLE BALL

July 4, 1972

Q. With both your children making successes in your field, you obviously have done something right. Did you nudge them, urge them or just let them come into your orbit on their own? Did they aim in the direction of the theatre from the beginning? 

A. No parent is ever 100 per cent certain that he did everything right in raising his children, but I do believe that if parents spend at least 50 per cent of their time working at it, the results can be gratifying. It’s a full-time job, though, equipped with responsibilities and challenges, any one of which could give you a migraine.  

I am reasonably sure that I did a few things right in raising Lucie and Desi. First, I spent as much time with them and on them as I could. Because our “I Love Lucy” schedule in those early days, Desi and I were able to devote almost as much time to the children as any other working parents. We had long weekends and spent them with the kids. We also had time off during spring and early summer, which gave us a chance to take regular vacations. 

I think sometimes I worried a little too much, loved a little too much or perhaps admonished a little too much. But that’s part of a parent’s job, isn’t it, and the time comes all too quickly when you’ve got to let them fly a little on their own. It’s not an easy time and you spend a lot of hours biting your tongue.

I did urge, nudge and encourage, but in slow stages. If they wanted to put on a backyard play, we helped. We built a playhouse, provided some wardrobe and props and let them go. I think it was those backyard performances that gave Lucie and Desi their first taste of show business. They always loved performing. 

Through the years, they watched all our shows on television and recreated some of the scenes I did with such per formers as Red Skelton, Maurice Chevalier, Jack Benny and Bob Hope. I was pleasantly surprised at their timing and mimicry. When I returned from New York after. “Wildcat” which Lucie and Desi saw 17 times, I decided to do “Here’s Lucy.” (1) Meanwhile, I had married Gary

Morton, executive producer of the current series. The format called for me to have two children. When time came to cast the roles of two teen-agers, Gary and I discussed using Lucie and Desi. We reminded the kids that school came first and warned them that if they did the series it meant having a special teacher and going to school on the lot. They voted to try it and their grades improved and both were able to graduate with their high school classes. 

Desi has since left the series and is pursing a motion picture career. Lucie is still with me on the series and, speaking as a fellow performer, I am proud to have her at my side. 

I’m happy to report that family vacations are still going strong. Last winter at our home in Snow Mass, Colorado, Gary and I were deluged with Lucie and her husband, Phil Vandervort; Desi and Liza Minnelli; (2) and mother DeDe, and all their friends. Vacations are like family reunions and I love it.

#   #   #

FOOTNOTES FROM THE FUTURE

(1) Lucy (or the editor) is conflating “The Lucy Show” with “Here’s Lucy” (1962), which didn’t come along until 1968.    

(2) Lucie Arnaz married Phil Vandervort on July 17, 1971.  They divorced in 1977.  At the time, Desi was engaged to Liz Minnelli, seven years his senior. By January 1973, the engagement was off. 

Headlines were not written by syndicated columnists, but by the newspapers.  Hence, when this same column by Cynthia Lowry appeared in different newspapers, it had a different headline.  Some of those headlines are above.