STAYING YOUNG

July 29, 1941

HOLLYWOOD (UP) – Lucille Ball has worked out a system for staying young in Hollywood – keep busy and don’t worry. (1)

“One nice thing about the town,” she said, “is that when it keeps you busy you don’t have time to worry. And when you don’t have time to worry, you don’t have time to grow old.” (1)

Miss Ball is busy enough at the moment to keep from worrying about anything further away than tomorrow’s lines. She is making “Look Who’s Talking” in which she co-stars with Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy, Fibber McGee and Molly. (2)

It’s her 40th picture since she first came to Hollywood from Broadway eight years ago. (3)

Needed a Job 

Although her worries are few now, she had plenty for a time before she began to catch on In pictures. She says there were many weeks when she could find nothing to do, and needed a job desperately. 

If the pictures don’t come fast enough to keep her busy, she puts in time flying, playing polo, roller skating, and at her favorite hobby, woodcarving. (4) Since starting to work In R-K-O’s “Look Who’s Talking,” Miss Ball acquired a great urge to learn ventriloquism. Bergen’s been giving her lessons but progress has been slow so far. She still sounds more like Lucille Ball than anyone else. (5)

She hasn’t been too busy to fall In love and get married to Desi Arnaz, also an actor. They have a suburban home and Miss Ball says she is going to do all the decorating and landscaping herself. (6)

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FOOTNOTES FROM THE FUTURE

(1) As of this date (July 29, 1941), Lucille Ball was just two weeks shy of her 30th birthday.  ‘Young’ in Hollywood is a different thing than ‘young’ in the rest of the world! 

(2) “Look Who’s Talking” was the working title of what eventually became known as “Look Who’s Laughing”.  

Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy were a popular ventriloquist team. Bergen was the ventriloquist, and McCarthy his sidekick. McCarthy was an upper class character, with a cultured voice, wearing a top hat, black tux, and a monocle. They conquered most all forms of media: stage, screen, television, and – yes – even radio!  Bergen had other ‘partners’ but McCarthy was the most popular and successful. Bergen was the father of TV star Candace Bergen. Later in her career, Lucille frequently performed with ventriloquist Paul Winchell, who also performed without his puppets. 

Fibber McGee and Molly were characters from a popular radio show (1935-59 created by married couple Jim (Fibber) and Marian (Molly) Jordan. One of their most frequent gags was the over-stuffed closet, which always was opened at the most inopportune times. “I Love Lucy” director William Asher tried to create a television version of the series, but the Jordans declined to appear in it, and it quickly disappeared. 

(3) “Look Who’s Talking / Laughing” is said here to be Lucille’s 40th film since coming to Hollywood. Other, more reliable sources, number it as her 53rd. Those sources claim “Room Service” (1938) as her 40th film. 

Lucille did not come from Broadway, strictly speaking. In the early 1930s she had been employed in a road company (rehearsing in NYC) of Flo Ziegfeld’s “Rio Rita,” but was fired. In 1937 she did a play called “Hey Diddle Diddle” that was scheduled for Broadway, but closed out of town.  Her Broadway debut came in late 1960 with the musical “Wildcat”. 

(4) Along with the usual line of puffery about Lucille Ball being born in Butte, her hobbies are similarly made up by an imaginative publicist. There is no proof that Lucille had a pilot’s license although there are some wild stories about her shooting crocodiles from her plane while soaring over the jungles of the Amazon.  Lucille was photographed playing polo – on top of a donkey during an RKO charity stunt. Although she could ride a horse, she was not a competitive polo player.  Lucille could roller skate – but it was generally for a role, not as a pastime. There is no evidence of Lucille’s woodcarving hobby.  

(5) Having said all that, Lucille was game to try most anything – even ventriloquism – but generally it was for a role.  As she always said “What I am is brave.” 

(6) This refers to Desilu, the name given to Lucy and Desi’s Chatsworth Ranch in the San Fernando Valley.