PEOPLE LOVE LUCY

July 26, 1952

PEOPLE LOVE LUCY

Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz daren’t go to their studio these days. It’s flooded with mail. Seems everybody wants to know why they stopped their “I Love Lucy” show through the Summer. 

Nothing on our TV these Monday evenings.“ writes one woman "Too bad if, it’s on account of the new baby,” sympathized another. “I can’t write to all these good people,” Lucille says, “but I want them to know we think it’s wonderful about the baby. Little Lucy Desiree is just one year old and our next bundle should be here by New Year’s. (1) What’s any family show worth without a family anyway?" 

Blessings suddenly poured on this couple. They once had fair breaks in films. Then they just coasted. Lucille did a radio program. (2) Out of it grew the "I Love Lucy” television series which they put on film, six weeks ahead of time. (3)

It went like a prairie fire. It has topped the American Research poll in New York for five consecutive months; holds first place on the Hooper poll and rates 72, the highest, on the Los Angeles Teleque rating. ‘It’s well ahead of other popular family shows like “Burns and Allen.” (4)

The Neilson report months ago showed that 11,055,000 homes see “I Love Lucy” every week. That pans out at over 30,000.000 people a time. 

Now the movie people, who didn’t think much of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, want them back for films. They’ll have to be satisfied with a feature picture which director-producer Ed Sedgwick is making out of three of the “Lucy” TV films. (5)

They just can’t turn out enough of this family entertainment, which ought to convince the Hollywood movie people that public tastes are on the up-beat and that too many sordid “down beat” films provide one reason why the movie box-office is so “beat-up” these days. 

Many have asked me whether Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz are Catholics. Well Desi is and Lucille isn’t although he tells me she has nothing against it; is Interested in fact.“ Desi, Jesuit-educated in Cuba, first took Lucille as his wife by civil ceremony, November 30, 1940. For nine years they hoped in vain for a family.  

On June 19, 1949, they were married by Father John Hurley, at Our Lady of the Valley Church, Canoga Park. Within the year Lucille lost her first baby. Then last July, little Lucy Desiree arrived. It seems she will have a brother or sister come January. "Some people may wonder,” he told me, “but to me there’s only one explanation. Our marriage in the Church meant we had been blessed." 

P.S. – "I Love Lucy” begins filming again August 1, ready for the next TV series starting September 1. (6)

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FOOTNOTES FROM THE FUTURE

(1) Desi Arnaz Jr. was not born before New Year’s, but on January 18, 1953. Ball’s caesarean birth allowed her to schedule the birth to coincide with the arrival of Little Ricky on “I Love Lucy.” 

(2) Although it is true that Lucille Ball did a husband and wife sitcom on radio (”My Favorite Husband”) it was not the same show that became “I Love Lucy.”  In fact, “My Favorite Husband” also become a television show, although Ball did not star in it, nor was it overwhelmingly successful.  

(3) This seems to suggest that the premiere of “I Love Lucy” was schedule for late November, not on October 15th, when the first episode was aired. 

(4) “The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show” (aka “Burns and Allen”) was another early sitcom that came directly from radio.  It featured the comedy team and real-life husband and wife, George Burns, and his simple-minded, yet kindly wife, Gracie Allen.  Bea Benadaret, one of Lucille Ball’s radio co-stars, played Gracie’s best friend (the Ethel Mertz character).  

(5) “The ‘I Love Lucy’ Movie” was simply three episodes (all Season One shows:

“The Benefit”, “Breaking the Lease”, and “The Ballet”) strung together by the premise that a family had finally scored tickets to a filming of “I Love Lucy.” The film included the in-studio warm-up and the cast’s curtain call, as well as footage of the Desilu Studios.  The film was finished and given one preview, when it suddenly was withdrawn and never shown again until it showed up on DVD.  There may have been some pressure by MGM for the Arnaz’s not to dilute their popularity with a feature film, as they had already signed a contract to make pictures for them.