GOING PLACES

August 12, 1937

An interesting new portrait of Lucille Ball, RKO Radio player. Miss Ball’s career is a bit unusual for a young actress, for she is building a name on the stage along with carving out a niche in the screen world. Lucille, after playing a featured part in Lily Pons’ “That Girl from Paris,” went East where she played the lead In the play, “Hey, Diddle Diddle.” She is back in Hollywood to resume screen work in “Stage Door,” In which she has a highly coveted role next to the starring Katharine Hepburn and Ginger Rogers.

FOOTNOTES FROM THE FUTURE

Unfortunately for Lucille, her stage career was fraught with bad luck. She was fired from the road company of Ziegfeld’s “Rio Rita” while still a model in New York. Her leading man in “Hey, Diddle Diddle” got seriously ill and the show closed before ever getting to Broadway.  Ten years later she had slightly more luck with “Dream Girl”, which toured select cities, but as a revival of a recent success, never played Broadway. Nearly fifteen years later she tried again with the musical “Wildcat” which finally earned her a legitimate Broadway credit. It also seriously damaged her health, and she had to withdraw from the show, which closed shortly afterwards.  Thankfully, television was where she would really shine.