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NEW LIFE IN LUCY
July 20, 1952
By WILL JONES, Minneapolis Tribune Staff Writer
WITH HER SECOND BABY on the way and her second career in its peak, Lucille Ball is busy trying to make the facts of real life jibe with the facts of TV life.
The complications are going to affect all fans of the nation’s No. 1 TV star – particularly those in Minneapolis.
Her pregnancy may delay the return of her TV program, “I Love Lucy,” to the air this fall, for one thing.
And it has already meant, for sure, that she won’t be in Minneapolis for the Aquatennial. (1)
“I Love Lucy,” now off the air for the summer, is supposed to resume Sept. 8. Miss Ball and her husband and co-star, Desi Arnaz, are trying to stall the starting date until sometime in October. (2)
Exactly what good that will do when her baby isn’t due until January is one of those facts of TV life that will take some explaining. Miss Ball explained a few things to me in Hollywood last week, and I’ll try to pass them long.
Movie studios have been known to speed up shooting schedules of single pictures to accommodate motherhood. But Miss Ball can’t shoot 39 films (3) in a hurry, before her condition begins to show. It already shows.
BY THE TIME I had my talk with Miss Ball, the full Impact of the news had already hit her and her organization; They already had decided – with kibitzing from the Columbia Broadcasting System, the sponsor, and other interested parties – one big point:
Miss Ball’s unborn child, come winter, is going to have to be part of the act.
They were in the midst of working out some of the details. Scripts for all of next season’s “I Love Lucy” programs already had been outlined when Miss Ball discovered her condition. The outlines have been set aside, and the writers have been told to think up some funny new slapstick routines for an enceinte heroine.
Fortunately, “I Love Lucy” is a Mr.-and-Mrs. program. Its family comedy, while often outlandish, has been accepted by its fans as still being pretty true-to-life.
There should be enough funny situations involving expectant couples to keep the subject from getting tiresome.
IMPENDING PARENTHOOD isn’t a new subject for comedy, but there has been little of it on TV, there hasn’t been much on radio and it’s been rare in the movies.
And there’s never been an expectant mother quite like Miss Ball.
Even if it were possible to hide her condition – other actresses have accomplished it with the aid of special costuming, trick lighting and such devices as keeping partially hidden behind furniture and bushes – Miss Ball would be against it.
“If I turned up one week suddenly standing still behind some camouflage, it wouldn’t be me,” she said. “It’d be a fraud. I’ve got to move around."
Miss Ball had just come from a visit to her doctor when I saw her at her orange ranch in the San Fernando valley, about an hour’s drive from Hollywood. (4) She had been discussing her condition with CBS executives, as well as with her doctor, on the same visit to town.
"The doctor told me the baby’s going to come a little earlier than we expected,” she said. “He says about Jan. 15. (5) He also told me I could work as long as I feel all right.
"At first we thought I might have to quit work in October. Now I don’t know.”
WORKING BEFORE the cameras while with child isn’t entirely a new experience for Miss Ball. She was pregnant when she made the “I Love Lucy” audition film that won her and Arnaz their present contract with the network and sponsor.
But her year-old daughter, Lucie Desiree, was born before she had to go on the air with the new series.
Five of this fall’s programs are already filmed. (“I Love Lucy” normally is shot five weeks before it goes on the air, so Miss Ball and Arnaz were five programs ahead before they started their summer vacation.) (6) They plan to resume shooting in a week or so. That will put them 10 programs ahead by Sept. 8, the date they’re scheduled to return.
If they get to postpone the program a month they’ll have a 14-week backlog of films by the time it starts. Some of the best of last year’s programs will be rerun during the weeks Miss Ball won’t be able to work. (7) Just how much of a part the baby will play in “I Love Lucy” after it arrives is matter that hasn’t been decided.
“I ASKED THAT QUESTION down at CBS this afternoon, and all I got was blank stares,” said Miss Ball.
“I’m sure we won’t have a situation involving the baby every week, though."
"You could have a funny baby sitter for a character,” put in a her publicity man, Ken Morgan who also is her brother-in-law. “You could build a very funny program around a funny baby sitter."
"I’m sure we could,” said Miss Ball. She glared at him with mock ferocity: “And what do I do while the baby sitter is being funny?"
Arnaz, a real-life rumba bandleader, plays a rumba bandleader named Ricky Ricardo on "I Love Lucy.” The plots usually Involve the wacky things that happen when his wife, Lucy, tries too hard to help him get ahead.
Although the names have been changed, and the Amazes’ private life isn’t anything like the Ricardos’. TV life, followers still associate the performers closely with the roles.
As long as they’re forced to bring one child Into their TV world, I wondered If they might not try to get their TV life in line with their private life.
“That’s another question I asked at CBS this afternoon,” said Miss Ball. “They didn’t have an answer for that, either, "Everybody’s been on vacation. We haven’t even had a chance to sit down and talk these things over yet."
THEY’VE TALKED over a few things, of course. Miss Ball showed me an "I Love Lucy” baby – a doll set with clothes, feeding equipment, soap, gadgets, etc. – that has been put together by a toy manufacturer in anticipation of the event. The set includes a letter about the baby from Lucy and Ricky. (8)
“It blows bubbles, wets its pants, everything,” said Miss Ball proudly. She also played a record, “There’s a Brand New Baby at Our House.” (“…she’s changed our happy house to a home…”), sung by Desi. He wrote the music when Lucie was born. A friend, Eddie Maxwell, wrote the words. (9)
Desi hasn’t made any records for a long time, so nothing much happened with the tune. The recording companies are after him again since the success of “I Love Lucy,” however, and “Brand New Baby” may be his first new record. (10)
The sudden success of “I Love Lucy” – in one season, it topped Arthur Godfrey, Milton Berle and Red Skelton (11) in all popularity ratings – has left the Amazes amazed.
I was sitting in Morgan’s office when he got the news that “Lucy” had hit a rating of 70 – an unheard-of-high figure in one of the TV popularity-rating surveys.
Arnaz came into the office at that moment Morgan told him the news.
ARNAZ LOOKED WORRIED. “You’re kidding,” he said.
“That crazy Cuban is scared,” confided Morgan after Arnaz had left the office. “He doesn’t know what to make of all this. He thinks of all those people tuning in, and he worries."
In 20 years as a movie star, Miss Ball never had the acclaim she’s had in one year on television.
"People stop me on the street and talk to me now,” she said. "That never happened when I was in movies. I was in Ohrbach’s this afternoon, and I had to ride up and down four times In the elevator just listening to people tell me about the show.
“The only time people In the street bothered to talk to me before was when I made ‘The Big Street.’ (12) But It was nothing like what’s happened In the past year. And Desi and I are the two most grateful people in the world.
"You have no Idea what It’s meant to us. We’re real hams, you know."
BESIDES GLORY, "I Love Lucy” also has meant shorter hours and a happy home life for Mr. and Mrs. Arnaz. Before TV, Lucille had to get up at 5:30 or 6 every morning to go to the studio. She didn’t get home until 7 or 7:30 p.m. and she was exhausted. If Desi wasn’t on the road with his band, she had to go to a nightclub to be with him In the evening.
Their marriage almost broke up because of the schedule. Lucille once filed for divorce, but never followed through. (13) In the movies, Miss Ball had to work five or six long days a week. Now she puts in four eight-hour days.
Arnaz, who Is president of their company, Desilu Productions, has to attend to production and business matters in addition to his acting. That usually means a 10- or 12-hour day for him. But he, too, insists on a three-day week-end.
“We don’t think about the show we don’t even mention it from Friday night to Tuesday morning,” said Miss Ball. “They wanted me to look at the scripts a week ahead, so they’d have more time to work on the clothes. I design all my own. But I wouldn’t even do that, for fear I’d start worrying about next week’s show over the week-end."
AS VICE PRESIDENT of Desilu productions, Miss Ball gets a chair on the set with "Veep” printed on back. Occasionally she signs some papers. “But may I say that I don’t know what I’m looking at?” she said.
Desilu now is producing the TV version of “Our Miss Brooks,” starring Eve Arden, which will go on the air this fall. (14) As executive producer, Arnaz has had to be on hand during much of the “Miss Brooks” filming this summer.
“But all I hafta do,” said Miss Ball, “is go over and pat Brooksie on the shoulder now and then and ask her where she got those clothes. She comes in with some wonderful things."
"Our Miss Brooks” is being filmed exactly the same way as “I Love Lucy.” It’s a combination of movies, TV and summer stock, a system worked out by Desilu.
The Amazes are especially proud of it because, before they started, everybody told them it wouldn’t work. Nobody figured a couple of actors could run a complex producing organization.
They film their shows in an independent movie studio that was all but abandoned before they moved in. (15) Now the place is bustling with other TV people, including Burns and Allen, who are copying the Desilu system.
BLEACHER SEATS for 300 people were built into one side of the sound stage. Part of one wall was cut out to make a street entrance for the audience. A small sign, “Desilu Playhouse,“ hung on a wrought-iron support outside, adds to the summer-stock atmosphere.
The schedule goes roughly like this: Tuesday is devoted to learning the script, which al ways runs more than 40 pages. Miss. Ball sketches her clothes and gives the designs to the dressmaker.
There are rehearsals Wednesday. The program is rehearsed straight through, like a play. Thursday there’s a full dress rehearsal, with cameras and lights. There’s a bull session afterwards, with the writers present, to weed out the weak spots.
When the program started audiences were invited to the dress rehearsals, but Lucille and Desi found they got all worked up and gave better performances Thursday night than they did on Friday, when the program is actually filmed.
NOW THEY RELY on the laughs of the crew on Thursday nights to tell them what to keep in and what to change.
Three movie cameras, moving in and out among the actors like TV cameras, record the Friday night performance. The program is played straight through, the only stops being for costume changes. The audience is allowed to whoop it up as much as it wants. Audience laughter is recorded and used in the final soundtrack.
The photographer, Karl Freund, a roly-poly man with a thick German accent, was all but retired when Miss Ball asked trim to film their show. She liked the way he had photographed her at MGM. ("We fought like cats and dogs, but when it came off on the screen, I never looked lovelier.”)
He spent a week in New York studying TV methods, decided everybody there was all wet, and dreamed up his own system. (Freund was the first Hollywood cameraman ever to move a camera during a scene, mounting it on a rubber-tired arrangement known as a dolly. Without his invention “I Love Lucy” now would take two or three times as long to shoot. Many inventions now incorporated in Hollywood studio cameras are his, too.)
ARNAZ’ STUDIO CHAIR has “Prez” painted on back. (When Freund wants him, however, he Just yells for “Young man with old face!” Arnaz’ black hair is shot with gray that doesn’t show on TV.)
William Frawley and Vivian Vance, the character actors who play the couple next door, have special chairs, too. Frawley’s is labeled “William Frawley, Boy Actor.” Miss Vance’s label is “Vivian Vance, Girl Actress.” Their work is admired so much around Desilu that they got a raise before they ever asked for it.
“I don’t know how long they’re signed up for,” said Miss Ball, “but by God if it isn’t for a long time, I’ll have to speak to Desi.” There’s a sign in the Desilu rehearsal hall: “anyone that enjoys work can have a hell of a good time in this institution.” Everybody, apparently, does.
There’s a board with names of the cast members painted on it. There are gold stars stuck behind the names. Anybody who gets off a good crack, goofs, or otherwise relieves the tension that, comes with the hard work gets a gold star.
ON SHOW NIGHTS, Arnaz, cook and gourmet, serves everybody in the crew a big dinner in the rehearsal hall. The Amazes have a bungalow on the lot in which they live during the day. The living room is decorated with water colors of and oil paintings by Miss Ball, who goes in for landscapes when she paints. (16)
There’s also a large dressing room and a bright yellow kitchen. They stayed there over night during Los Angeles’ floods a few months ago, (17) but otherwise they go home to the ranch every night.
“I hate to get up in the morning in the same place I’m going to work all day,” said Miss Ball.
An extra project is under way at the Desilu studios this summer. The TV show has caused so much talk that people in non-TV areas have demanded to see what all the conversation is about.
Three of the best “Lucy” programs from last season have been selected for showing in theaters in areas not yet reached by TV. They’re being tied together with a story about a couple who have trouble getting tickets to the program. (18) (That’s a real problem. Handling tickets got to be such a headache that Desilu turned over ticket distribution to CBS. Now the people at Desilu often can’t get their friends in.)
The “I Love Lucy” feature movie is being put together by Ed Sedgwick, a director who used to make some of Miss Ball’s movie comedies. I’ve never considered Lucille a comedienne.“ Sedgwick told me. "She’s a comic. There’s a difference."
SUCCESS OF "I Love Lucy” has opened the way for all kinds of other sidelines. Desi wears smoking jacket. Tailors want him to spearhead a campaign to revive the smoking jacket. Other clothing men spotted the narrow lapels on all his suits, and want him to endorse Desi Arnaz narrow lapels. (19)
Manufacturers want Miss Ball’s clothing designs. There’s a line of Lucille Ball blouses being readied. Now, of course they’re talking maternity dresses, too. (20)
Another outfit is ready to put out Desi Arnaz bongo drums. (21) “Ethel” (Vivian Vance) wore an old-fashioned kitchen garment known as a swirl on one program. Now there’s, a merchandising tie-up for “I Love Lucy” swirls. (22)
Even before word got around about Miss Ball’s upcoming maternity, doll manufacturers were proposing deals. So there’s going to be a red-headed Lucille Ball doll. (23)
Since one-third of the pro grams fans are figured to be small fry, the doll is expected to be a popular item. Morgan, a native of Devil’s Lake, N.D. looks after most of such details. And then there’s talk of an “I Love Lucy” radio program. Miss Ball was on the air with “My Favorite Husband” a few seasons ago, but radio acting is a new experience for Desi.
THERE’S A POSSIBILITY the sound tracks of old TV programs may be used for a new radio program, with some narration to fill in what the audience can’t see. (24)
So, with all the success, has come more and more yearning to get away from on week-ends.
The Amazes figure they see enough of each other during the week. So, although they’re homebodies, they do quite a bit of getting away from each other on week-ends.
Miss Ball usually sticks to the ranch, a quiet, five-acre place lush with vegetation. The orange groves are there because they look nice. “You know, I’ve never eaten one of our oranges,” said Miss Ball. “I tasted one once, and it was so sour I couldn’t finish it. We get our oranges at the market."
They have a deal with the Sunkist people, who tend the crop, harvest it and keep the place in shape in exchange for the oranges.
Arnaz, who has a mania for fishing, spends all or part of every week-end on his 35-foot fishing boat. He doesn’t shave when he’s fishing. He was away on the boat when I visited the ranch.
MISS BALL was out back, in a cluttered yard she calls "the farmer’s market,” sitting in a wooden lawn chair. She looked tired. Her face, in the evening light and against her shocking-pink hair, looked paler than it probably was. Her mother, Mrs. Desiree Ball, was looking after Lucie, who was toddling around the edge of the swimming pool. Three frisky spaniels bounded up to meet me.
Miss Ball called them away sharply. “They stink,” she said. While we talked, she watched nervously to see that they didn’t knock the baby into the pool.
Presently Mrs. Ball said good-by, and headed for the house with Lucie. “Tell Ethel I want a demitasse!” Miss Ball called after her. “And tell her I want it to get rid of the garlic she put in the meat!” (25)
After she settled down with the coffee, she said: “There’s one thing I really like about television. I don’t have to worry about glamor any more. Well, my hair is still combed. But I don’t have to worry if it isn’t."
From her chair, she started conducting a visual tour of the place, pointing out behind her an overgrown shelter with lawn furniture Inside. ("It’s some kind of a Cuban hut that Desi built. I think they call it a bohio.”) She pointed, too, to a huge outdoor fireplace. (“Desi built that, too. But we found out it’s too far from the house. We don’t use It any more.”)
Across the swimming pool she pointed out a strange lath structure, also built by Desi. “We never found out what he had in mind,” she said. “We’ve never used it for anything."
We walked across the lawn to inspect one of Arnaz’ more practical bits of carpentry: a place they call a bathhouse, which is really a huge cottage used for parties. It has a long rumpus room, finished in dark pine, with a film projection room at one end, and a behind-the-bar kitchen that’s exclusively Desi’s. It’s fitted with a large, black, old-fashioned gas oven, another barbecue and outsize copper utensils.
Miss Ball peered suspiciously into a huge copper kettle on the stove. "Desi uses this for soup, she said. "He spent three years getting the recipe from Antoine’s." (26)
When Arnaz cooks, he always makes a large mess. He never cleans it up.
"I enjoy spoiling my husband,” said Miss Ball, “and he enjoys spoiling me. I don’t expect him to clean up.” She thought a moment. “I don’t know what he doesn’t expect of me."
She pointed out a mounted marlin of which he’s proud, some built-in seats he designed and constructed, and then led the way to the house. It was dark outside now.
"Be careful,” she said. “There are wires on these trees, and people are always falling down.“
INSIDE THE HOUSE, in a long tile-floored room facing the yard, we came across a third barbecue.
“Desi isn’t happy unless he has a barbecue at his fingertips,” she said. Another thing the Amazes are well supplied with is TV sets. They have four, including the one in the bathhouse.
“We always watch our show,” she said, “usually with friends. Monday is our canasta night. Sometime we’re over at the Charlie Ruggleses, sometimes at the Dean Martins. (27) Wherever we are, we stop for a half hour to watch."
We took a fast walk through the house. "It won’t take you long to see this place,” said Miss Ball, leading the way through the long early-American living room, the bedroom, Desi’s study, Desi’s dressing room, and then down a long corridor, past an enclosed patio, to the nursery wing.
“Desi built this, too,” she said. “We keep a carpenter here full time to help him. Since we started the show, Desi hasn’t had any time for building, but we still keep the carpenter busy."
THE NURSERY – a three-room affair designed to accommodate two children – cost more than the house itself. The center room Is a gleaming-white, clinical-looking place Miss Ball calls "the laboratory."
It’s loaded with sterilizing equipment, kitchen equipment and laundry equipment. The Amazes keep a nurse, as well as a maid-cook and the carpenter. Desi’s mother and Mrs. Ball both live nearby, and look in frequently, so Lucie gets plenty of attention when her parents are at the studio.
Miss Ball has taken her to the studio for visits, but never takes her in for a day when she’s working. Arnaz’s band appears on one out of about every four "Lucy” programs. It’s pretty much the same one he started with in Florida. He formed it after he broke away from Xavier Cugat in the ‘30s.
The band doesn’t travel or make public appearances any more, but the musicians are as glad that Arnaz has settled down as he is. They have a family life now, too.
They work around Hollywood, playing at the movie and recording studios and at various clubs. And they’re always on call when they’re needed for “Lucy."
Miss Ball and Arnaz planned to come to the Aquatennlal on the way to New York for a series of magazine interviews. One of the things that had convinced them was a two-page wire from Arthur Godfrey singing the praises of Minnesota and of Cedric Adams, who would have been their host.
WHEN THEY found out about the baby, they still planned to come. Then Miss Ball’s doctor ordered her not to. He ruled out the New York interviews, too. They went to Sun Valley instead, for a rest, but cut their visit short when they found themselves the center of attention from other guests. (28)
The act they planned to do here was one they had to dream up in order to prove to CBS that they could do "I Love Lucy.” Before the program started, one of the big objections they got went like this: “Nobody will believe that Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz are husband and wife."
Arnaz had a simple answer: "We are.” But nobody paid much attention to him.
The two made a theater tour with a Mr.-and-Mrs. routine, just to see if audiences would accept them that way. It clicked. That’s what made CBS decide to go along with their first notions about TV.
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FOOTNOTES FROM THE FUTURE
(1) The Minneapolis Aquatennial is an annual outdoor event held in Minneapolis, Minnesota, during the third full week of July. Originating in 1940, the Minneapolis Aquatennial celebrates the city’s famous lakes, rivers, and streams.
(2) Instead of September 8th, the second season of “I Love Lucy” began on September 15, 1952, not in October as was first considered. It kicked off with the now iconic “Job Switching” (aka Candy Factory episode), which had been filmed in late May 1952, before this article was published.
(3) Although season one of “I Love Lucy” had produced 35 episodes (the most of any “Lucy” sitcom), season two only clocked in with 31 new episodes. If their original goal was 39, they were 8 short.
(4) Before her Beverly Hills mansion, Lucy’s dream house was in the San Fernando Valley. Desilu Ranch, as it was called, was a ranch-style home on five acres at the intersection of Devonshire Street and Corbin Avenue in Chatsworth. The home was demolished in the mid-1970s to make way for subdivision development.
(5) Lucille Ball gave birth on January 19, 1953. Because it was a Caesarean birth, Ball had some leeway with the date. Naturally, she opted for a Monday so that her real son and her TV son could be born on the same day, making television history in the process.
(6) The five shows that were already ‘in the can’ for Fall 1952 were:
“The Anniversary Present” (filmed May 9, 1952), “The Handcuffs” (filmed May 16, 1952), “The Operetta” (filmed May 23, 1952), “Job Switching” (filmed May 30, 1952), and “The Saxophone” (filmed June 6, 1952). Although “Job Switching” was filmed fourth of these five, everyone knew it was a knock-out hit, and it was aired as the season 2 premiere. This explains why the photos that accompany this article are glimpses from two as-of-then unaired episodes: “The Anniversary Present” and “The Operetta.”
(7) Desilu also came up with Flashback Intros (filmed without Lucille Ball) to introduce repeated episodes. Fred, Ethel, and Ricky would open the show with a “remember the time…” premise and then a repeat episode would be aired. These were not included in the syndication prints, but some have turned up as DVD extras.
(8) The ‘I Love Lucy’ baby doll was a big seller for Christmas 1952. The doll’s gender was deliberately kept vague until after the birth of Little Ricky in January 1953, after which a new infant doll branded “Little Ricky” was released. There was also a Little Ricky puppet baby doll.
(9) “There’s A Brand New Baby (at Our House)” was first sung on “I Love Lucy” in “Sales Resistance” (ILL S2;E17), the first flashback episode after Lucy went into the hospital to have the baby. The lyricist Eddie Maxwell was the real-life husband of Eve Whitney from
“The Charm School” (ILL S3;E15).
(10)
After the above episode aired on July 26, 1953, announcer Johnny Jacobs promoted that the song (he calls “The Baby Song”) was available on Columbia Records (a division of CBS, naturally) with the “I Love Lucy” theme song on the flip side.
(11) Arthur Godfrey’s show “Talent Scouts” was “Lucy’s” lead-in on Monday nights. Godfrey himself promoted the show, asking viewers to ‘stay tuned.’ Red Skelton had a variety show on CBS, competing with NBC’s “Ed Sullivan” on Sunday nights. Milton Berle hosted “Texaco Star Theatre” on NBC, another variety program. If Monday nights belonged to Lucy, Tuesday nights were owned by Uncle Miltie. All three performers guest-starred on “Lucy” sitcoms. The above 1953 TV Guide cover makes it clear who is top of the TV totem pole. Red Skelton is not depicted.
(12) The Big Street was released in August 1942. If people were stopping Lucy on the street, it may have been to compliment her performance in what was her favorite film. They may have also been curious about performing in a wheelchair.
(13) Lucille filed for divorce from Desi twice. The first time was in September 1944, citing infidelity and incompatibility. Ball returned to him before the interlocutory decree became final, nullifying the divorce. The second divorce, in April 1960, stuck.
(14) “Our Miss Brooks” had been a big hit on radio starring Eve Arden and Gale Gordon, who would repeat their roles on television. Although not formally produced by Desilu, it was produced at the same studio and used many of the same actors (Gordon, Richard Crenna, Mary Jane Croft, Frank Nelson) that would appear on “I Love Lucy,” including, in one episode, Desi Arnaz. The show started one year after “Lucy” and ran one year shorter.
(15) General Service Studios was located at 1040 North Los Palmas Avenue, in Hollywood. It started life as a movie studio in 1919, and was variously known as American Zoetrope, Hollywood Center Studios, and now, Sunset Las Palmas Studios. Desilu outgrew the location in 1953, and moved to larger digs known then as Ren-Mar, now Red Studios.
(16) Not much is known about Lucille Ball’s painting pastime. We know that she signed her paintings ‘Balzac’.
(17) From January 13 to 18, 1952 heavy rains hit the Southern California area. On January 18 alone, 3.17” of rain fell in Los Angeles in a 24-hour period. The storm was responsible for eight deaths due to flooding in Los Angeles.
(18) The “I Love Lucy” Movie consisted of three episodes edited together: “The Benefit” (ILL S1;E13), “Breaking the Lease” (ILL S1;E18) and “The Ballet” (ILL S1;E19). New scenes were filmed to help connect the three episodes into one cohesive whole. Also, new wraparound segments were filmed. The opening segment shows the studio audience filing in for the filming. Desi Arnaz welcomes the audience and introduces the cast as he typically did before every filming. In the closing segment, Arnaz thanks the audience and Lucille Ball and the cast take their final bows. The film was given one preview before it was shelved. It may have been pressure from MGM, who had their own “Lucy” movie in the works, The Long, Long Trailer, or it may have been felt that the film diluted the television programs value. Either way, it was Lucy and Desi’s final call to shelve the project. It has since been released on DVD.
(19 & 20) Merchandising was a big part of selling “I Love Lucy” to the public. When actual items were not mass marketed, patterns for the items were available. Advance had the license for “I Love Lucy” patterns.
(21) The Desi Arnaz Conga Drum (not Bongo drum) was made in 1952 by A & A American Metal Toy Company of Brooklyn, New York. It was nineteen inches high. It is one of the rarest of the original “I Love Lucy” collectibles valued at $2,000 to $5,000!
(22) Swirl was a brand of house dress that often buttoned up the back, had pockets, and a tie belt. Vivian Vance wore several designs by Swirl on the show, including one of her famous arrow Swirls advertised in magazines and newspapers.
(23) Long before Mattel made their Lucy Barbie, there was a Lucy Ricardo rag doll. The doll had orange hair, blue eyes, bow lips, and an apron with heart-shaped pockets, just like Lucy. It was given away by their sponsor Philip Morris in 1953.
(24) On February 27, 1952, a sample the “I Love Lucy” radio show was produced, but it never aired. This was created by editing the soundtrack of the television episode “Breaking the Lease”, with added Arnaz narration (in character as Ricky Ricardo).
(25) It sounds as though, quite coincidentally, Lucille Ball’s Chatsworth cook / maid was named Ethel! Either that, or Ball is joking.
(26) Antoine’s Restaurant was also mentioned in Eleanor Harris’s 1954 book The Real Story of Lucille Ball.
(27) Charles Ruggles (1886-1970) was a character actor who appeared in over a hundred films. Like Lucille Ball, he made the transition to television with a series called “The Ruggles” (1949-52). He was married to Marion LaBarba. Dean Martin (1916-95) was a singer and comic actor. He appeared as himself on “The Lucy Show,” in one of Ball’s favorite episodes. From 1949 to 1973 he was married to Jeanne Biegger, who appeared as herself on the “I Love Lucy” episode “The Fashion Show.”
(28) Sun Valley, Idaho, was a favorite getaway location of the Arnaz family. It is a is a resort city where tourists enjoy ice skating, golfing, hiking, trail riding, cycling, tennis and (of course) skiing. The world’s first chair lift was erected in Sun Valley in 1936. Lucy and Desi set a 1958 episode of “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour” in Sun Valley, and even went on location to film.
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MODELS’ GOAL ~ STARDOM!
July 19, 1940
Hollywood is the mecca of all beautiful models who sooner or later turn their pretty faces westward in search of fame fortune and cinematic stardom.
Few of the pulchritudinous legion however attain their goals and the majority of them — after various and invariable discouraging encounters with casting offices — return to the ways of toothpaste exploitation and cigaret ads.
So it’s news in Hollywood when an ex-model makes good, even though her success presages a new invasion of hopeful beauties determined to become stars.
Most famous of the modeling crew who have successfully bridged the gap between the still and the motion picture cameras are Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford and the current ‘oomphatic’ Miss Ann Sheridan. (1)
And now lovely Lucille Ball has joined their ranks. Sveltely glamorous in every respect and favored with a fortunate abundance of dramatic ability, Miss Ball steps into her first major starring role in R-K-O Radio’s “Dance, Girl, Dance” in which she shares leading honors with Maureen O’Hara and Louis Hayward.
The part is a culmination of nearly five years of toil in the cinema capital to which she was imported by Samuel Goldwyn to adorn his production of “Roman Scandals.” (2)
As the then-current Chesterfield girl, Lucille was among a group of famed poster maidens given bit roles in the film. Of all the proud beauties assembled for this picture, she is the only one still appearing on the silver screen, noticeably, at least. (3)
Film fans will remember the eye-filling Miss Ball for her captivating performances in such cinematic hits as “Stage Door,” “That’s Right, You’re Wrong,” “The Joy of Living,” “Having Wonderful Time,” and “You Can’t Fool Your Wife.”
Each part marked a step up the ladder to Hollywood heights in the course of a career that was everything but comet-like. Perhaps the secret of her success lies in the fact that Lucille aspired to be an actress before she became a model.
Born in Butte Mont. where her father was an electrical engineer (4), Lucille developed drama proclivities while a high school student in Jamestown N.Y. where the family moved when she was still an infant.
Her mother, a concert pianist, had high hopes that her attractive daughter would follow in her footsteps. So following her graduation from high school, Lucille was enrolled at the Chautauqua Institute of Music.
The lure of the footlights, however, proved too strong and, abandoning her music career, Lucille entered the John Murray Anderson Dramatic School in New York. She studied there for a year and a half.
Her first chance at fame in the theater came when she joined an itinerant stock company which presented its scanty repertoire in the hinterlands of the east. (5)
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FOOTNOTES FROM THE FUTURE
(1) Norma Shearer (1902-83) said about her modeling career: “I could smile at a cake of laundry soap as if it were dinner at the Ritz. I posed with a strand of imitation pearls. I posed in dust-cap and house dress with a famous mop, for dental paste and for soft drink, holding my mouth in a whistling pose until it all but froze that way." Shearer won an Oscar in 1930. She never acted with Lucille Ball.
Joan Crawford (1905-77) was born Lucille LeSeuer. Her early career goal was to become a dancer. Before acting took the spotlight, Crawford modeled fashions. She won an Oscar in 1945. She guest-starred as herself on a 1968 episode of “The Lucy Show.”
Ann Sheridan (1915-67) was born Clara Lou Sheridan. In March 1939, Warner Bros. announced Sheridan had been voted as the actress with the most "oomph” in America and tagged "The Oomph Girl" — a sobriquet which she reportedly loathed. Sheridan was a popular pin-up girl in the early 1940s. She appeared with Lucille Ball in 1934′s “Murder at the Vanities”.
(2) Lucille Ball arrived in Hollywood in 1933, so it was closer to seven years, not five.
(3) Of the seven ‘poster girls’ chosen in New York to appear in “Roman Scandals”, all were known for their print ads promoting products: Katherine Mauk (Lucky Strike), Rosalie Fromson (Pond’s), Mary Lange, Vivian Keefer (Listerine), Barbara Pepper (Gotham Hosiery), Theo Phane, and Lucille Ball (Chesterfield). Aside from Ball’s meteoric career, only her friend and colleague Barbara Pepper came close to achieving fame – much of it due to Ball’s influence. She would go on to appear in hundreds of films and television shows. Pepper became best known for playing Florence Ziffel on the TV series “Green Acres.”
(4) As most now know, Ball invented parts of her past during her early career. She was not born in Butte, but in Jamestown. Her father was a telephone lineman, not an electrical engineer.
(5) This is a very vague reference to the more shadowy aspects of Lucille Ball’s past. Except for school shows and backyard performances, there is no record of any legitimate theatrical performances before 1937.
The headline form July 19, 1940 was that Franklin Delano Roosevelt had accepted the nomination of the Democratic Party to run for an unprecedented third term as President. Henry A. Wallace was selected as his running mate. FDR also won a fourth and fifth term, although he died only a few months into his fifth term.
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BEST DRESSED
July 18, 1936
“There are few well-dressed women in Hollywood, avers Bernard Newman, de- signer-in-chief to RKO Radio. "There is no incentive to dress well because of the lack of functions, night clubs and theaters. Many of the stars, unfortunately, are not interested in clothes.
"Katharine Hepburn, for Instance, would far rather wear a shirt and a pair of slacks than the fanciest, most feminine creation in the world. She lives only for her work. Kay , Francis is not over-interested in clothes, but in spite of this manages to achieve a chic effect with everything she wears. Ginger Rogers is a little more dress-minded than she used to be and now spends several hours a day before her picture work discussing clothes with me. Carole Lombard stands alone in the fashion field with the exception of a dress discovery of my own Lucille Ball.
If duplicates of the same dress were given Miss Lombard, Marlene Dietrich, Kay Francis and Lucille Ball, the comparatively unknown Miss Ball would win first prize on the score of chic from Mr. Newman.’ According to the designer. Miss Ball will one day be the best dressed girl in Hollywood for the reason she has one of the best figures, coupled with that certain something that made the late Lilyan Tashman queen of Hollywood’s fashion kingdom.
Because of this belief, Mr. Newman has taken it upon himself to supply Miss Ball with all the evening gowns, furs, etc., she requires when dining, wining and dancing, from the lavish supply belonging to the studio.
New Frock Made of Crepe.
A GLIMPSE into the wardrobe of this paragon of dress-sense might be a profitable expenditure of time. Cleverly fashioned . collar and cuffs of starched white pique are used to trim Miss Balls newest street frock of satin-backed crepe. The entire skirt fullness of the simple dress is concentrated in the center front, as though caught in place by the gold and Jet belt buckle. The black felt hat is worn over the cap veil. Accessories are black suede, the handbag featured by gold initials and chain.
White fox, one of the most flattering and luxurious of furs, has been chosen by Lucille for her newest formal cape. The wrap is waist-length, fastening in front with an Intricate knot of white silk. With it she wears a wine red silk dinner gown printed in a pattern of stylized gold fans.
Hollywood’s best-dressed girl boasts a gown created of hunter green imported mohair taffeta printed with tiny rings of white. The three-quarter short-sleeved coat wean over it is white sharkskin and is the adaptable kind which can be worn either with daytime or evening frocks. Her gauntlet gloves are green suede. Faille sandals In the same shade and the tiny banding on her white pique off-the-face hat complete a stunning picture.
Cape Sets Off Gown.
A CLEVERLY designed sleeve cape features a striking evening gown of gold lame designed by Newman for Miss Ball to wear on ceremonial occasions. The cape is merely a pair of sleeves banded with sable.
The gown is styled with a high neckline, slightly cowled and straight skirt with gracefully draped train. At the waistline, a vertical row of tiny tucks creates the effect of a wide, gathered girdle. With the ensemble, Miss Ball wears two wide bracelets made of gold leaves, a coronet of gold leaves In her hair, and gold leather sandals.
“Money does not play as important a part as good taste in the well-dressed woman wardrobe,” Mr. Newman told your correspondent. “Some of the richest star here are the worst dressed. One of Lucille own self-designed dresses cost her $9 – the hat $7 or $8 – and the shoes – these have to be expensive to be good – $15. The complete ensemble, $30. I know many stars whose gowns cost $200 each without achieving for them the effect of Lucille’s inexpensive print.
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Bernard Newman (1903-1966) spent twelve years at Bergdorf-Goodman in New York, initially as a window dresser. He eventually worked his way up to chief designer. He then moved to Hollywood, working at RKO from 1934 to 1936, designing gowns for several musicals starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. He returned to Bergdorf-Goodman afterward, but continued working for film occasionally. Newman designed for five films starring Lucille Ball between 1935 and 1936.
Julie Carter (1913-1991) was an actress best known for The Boys from Syracuse (1940).
Gloria Stuart (1910-2010) appeared with Lucille Ball in 1933′s Roman Scandals. She is perhaps best known for playing Old Rose in Titanic (1997).
Priscilla Lawson (1914-1958) was crowned "Miss Miami Beach” in 1935 and found work as an Earl Carroll chorus girl in an area casino. Her pageant title caught the eye and attention of Universal Pictures and earned her a contract. Her uneventful career ended in 1941 with an uncredited role in Billy the Kid.
An ideal travelling outfit of hunter green mohair taffeta, printed with tiny rings of white. The three-quarter, short-sleeved coat is white sharkskin and can be worn either with daytime or evening frocks. Gloves are green suede and sandals are the same shade.
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TV GUIDE: TACKLING MOVIES!
July 17, 1953
During the summer of 1953, “I Love Lucy” was replaced by “Racket Squad” on CBS’s Monday night line-up.
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BACHELOR GIRL
July 17, 1960
When Lucille Ball divorced Desi Arnaz last spring, her friends were convinced that, for all practical purposes, her public life had come to an end.
Life with Lucy, they whispered, would mean seclusion, or at least partial retirement.
But Lucy surprised everyone, including herself.
Partly because she needed to be busy to forget her heartache, partly to show Desi she could get along without his guidance, and mostly because acting is so much a part of her, it took only one clay to talk her into the starring role opposite Bob Hope in United Artists’ “The Facts of Life."
Soon after she finishes this movie, she’ll head for New York with her children, Lucie Desiree, it, and Desiderio Arnaz IV, who is 7, to star in a Broadway play, "Wildcat.” Being on her own again after 19 years of marriage took a great deal of adjustment on Lucy’s part although during the past two years she had ample preparation for a lonely existence because.
Desi was rarely at home. But as shown in the accompanying pictures, taken exclusively for Family Weekly and captioned by Lucy herself, she has demonstrated a tremendous resilience. In the best theatrical tradition, not only the show but life goes on.
According to one of Lucy’s closest friends, Desi is trying his best to effect a reconciliation.
“But,” says this friend, “unless Lucy feels this is best for her children’s sake, there isn’t a chance that it will happen!"
In fact, Lucy seems to have adjusted so well to her new status that she not only looks better, but clowns around the set again with all the vigor of a teen-ager.
She even managed a kiss for Desi when he visited the "Welcome Back” party which Bob Hope threw for her on the first day’s shooting of “The Facts of Life.”
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GO FOR FUN!
July 21, 1955
The “I Love Lucy’’ addicts will soon see the whole TV show gang — Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance and Bill Frawley together in a movie that has nothing to do with the “Lucy” series.
Instead, another coined “Go for Fun" by Madelyn Pugh and Bob Carroll Jr. has been bought to reunite the quartet and it will be made by the Arnaz’s independent company for MGM release. In this, Lucy and Desi will not be married – which is a switcheroo.
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FOOTNOTES FROM THE FUTURE
As fascinating as it is, this film was never made. In fact, this is one of the few mentions of the project. This news item comes just after the completion of principal photography on Forever Darling, which wrapped in June 1955. The ‘independent company’ referred to was Zanra Productions (Arnaz spelled backwards), which had also produced Forever Darling for an MGM release. It is possible that MGM could have nixed the project after Darling failed to score the prestigious Radio City Music Hall for its premiere. Lucy and Desi were disappointed and may well have decided to concentrate on television. It is also possible that they realized that America was not going to accept them as different characters, especially in the company of Bill and Vivian. For the rest of their careers, the actors were typecast and identified with Lucy and Ricky and Fred and Ethel.
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INDOMINATABLE LIFESTYLE
July 16, 1972
HOLLYWOOD – Indomitable funny girl Lucille Ball, with a messy scoop hair the color of an orange popsicle, flashes on the scene in a sad predicament.
She’s got a lame leg.
Lucy hobbled from her sleek silver Rolls Royce and into the yellow cubbyhole dressing room which is a sunny retreat near the Lucy set which Is crawling with rehearsal activity.
On the surface, everything’s ha-ha-ha. But the fact is that surgeons have inserted pins into the shattered leg bone suffered last year in a Snowmass Peak, Colo., skiing accident. The leg brace is a semi-intolerable ball and chain. But, as always, crippling situations must be mastered. Lucy’s inextinguishable spirit pulsates despite the physical handicap.
Lucy Is showing a smiling color photograph of herself in a flowing white hooded cape coat rimmed in fluffy fox. The picture, radiating exterior happiness, doesn’t reflect the inner pain. Lucy’s leg, in a hip cast, is disguised under a blanket.
You know the familiar Lucy grin? She’s grinning it and saying hell no, baby, she’s not ever going to ski again. She couldn’t stomach another goddam ordeal like that. Besides, on the immediate horizon is an operation to remove the pins.
Lucy, being Lucy, bears the cross with humor: “Honey,” she says, “skiing is just getting into those nice winter clothes and being a show off.” The burdensome subject of broken bones is dismissed with frivolity.
Brainy Lucy, now 60 and president of a $30 million corporation, is an American institution.
But, like all super-successful females, she vibrates complex contradictions. The fashion plate – who initiated her career as a Hattie Carnegie hat model – is a winsome dumb broad on the tube. In reality she’s tough executive who barks orders left and right. Staffers instantly do like the lady says. God has spoken. Lucy runs a tight ship, but she is more respected than feared.
Yet Lucy is softie with a heart of spun sugar. Trappings, which she has in predictable abundance, aren’t a psychic crutch.
“Success is knowing that if everything were wiped away tomorrow, it wouldn’t really matter. I wouldn’t die if I lost my things,” she says. Then the awesome simplicity: “Dear, I still go home and let the cat out"
Lucy has always run her home life with a liberal hand.
Desi Arnaz, Jr. is currently Involved in well-publicized liaison with Liza Minnelli. There was a previous Desi scandal regarding Patty Duke. People gossip a lot here because they live in a city where the major industry is make-believe and fact and fiction become blurred.
Lucy isn’t deaf to the talk about her son’s romances:
"What the hell, they’re having a fine spree. I just hope it lasts for Desi and Liza. They don’t have time to get married. Their scene is the world and they’re swinging in there. I’m the one who talked marriage to them. One night I said: Look, kids, don’t get married too soon. They were upset. Desi countered with the observation that you don’t have to settle down when you get married. So I go – well, that’s true son! The subject of marriage just never came up again. They’re a nice couple. They present themselves well without becoming asses. I’ve told the kids to do as they wish."
Lucy, who was a good friend to Judy Garland, makes no bones about her affection for Liza. And once Lucy loves, the feeling lasts. After 20 years of marriage to Desi Arnaz, there was the divorce. Still Lucy looks people straight in the eyes and says the present Mrs. Desi Arnaz is a "wonderful woman.” And she can see it in her heart to rent ex-husband Desi studio space on her lot so that he can work in the shadow of a success they initiated together.
When Liza Minnelli was a child, Lucy kept a scrapbook of Liza’s activities at play, in ballet school, attending birthday parties. There, in a battered old photo album, are the precious pictures. Liza didn’t know about the book until recently. Desi brought Liza home and Lucy accidentally-on-purpose left the book on a coffee table. “Oh! Wow!” exclaimed Liza through a flow of uncontrollable tears.
Lucy; "And I said to Liza, honey-baby, I told you I’ve known you for a long time. Didn’t you believe me?“ Lucille Ball speaks in an affectionate aside about Liza and the loyalty is simultaneously visible and audible:
"That kid is liable to explode any minute. I just hope I’m around to pick up the pieces. No one knows why she works so hard. She’s made it her objective to clear her mother financially. Those b— lawyers took her — really took her. But she’s paying back every damn cent herself."
Life is, of course, an inexplicable mixture of tears and laughter. Buoyant Lucy can see the funnies in everything. Love, she says, is looking beyond someone’s minor faults and caring passionately despite the irritations. Lucy’s 80-year-old mom, Dede (Desiree Ball) lives near Lucy’s sprawling colonial house in Beverly Hills. Dede has a longstanding idiosyncrasy which used to drive Lucy wild but is now an amusement.
In that familiar screechy scratchy soprano voice oozing feigned stupidity, Lucy sing-songs the dialogue;
"I say to Dede: Hey Dede, I’ve got a pain in my elbow. Dede always says: ‘stupid, it’s because you’re not eating right!” Honest to God, if you’ve got a pain in your big toe, it’s not because someone stepped on it it’s the food. Drives you nuts! Dede really has a thing about food. The other day I went home and cooked a batch of chicken. ‘Chicken!!“ says Dede, ‘you know it’s gonna make me sick.’ Of course Dede eats more chicken than anybody. Next day I say: Dede you been up all night throwin’, huh? Naw,” says Dede, the chicken wasn’t half bad.’“
The ridiculous story illustrates two things Dede taught Lucy early in life. One: That without good health you’ve got nothing. Two; That without a non-pliant, thoroughly independent attitude, you’ve got less than nothing because show business kills the weak.
Lucy is in constant awe of Dede. When Lucy built the five-story ski chalet 9,800 feet on the side of a Colorado mountain she was certain Dede couldn’t take either the long trip or the altitude. Besides, once you get to Lucy’s place, there are a million icy steps to climb before you make the front door. "Even the dogs stop to get their breath,” says Lucy. “But when I start huffing, Dede looks over her shoulder and sorta snaps: Aw, Lucy, you’re a sissy!’ That woman is my challenge."
Does Lucy ever get down? Do the burdens of crushing disappointments halt her enthusiasm even temporarily? "Jesus,” she says, “I cry. I cry a lot. Then anger sets in. When I’m angry, I become a fighter. And I always fight to win."
When Lucy talks to you, she taps your knee in a natural gesture of intimacy. Her gaze is through black fringed x-ray eyes that sear through trivia. She smokes her cigarette twirled ceremoniously between her thumb and forefinger. Lucy always spews gut honesty:
"Love is a great peace of mind. There’s no panic in the relationship. It’s never having to prove yourself. Love is not playing games. Baby, some women have to put up with mysterious absenteeism. That’s always a sign of hanky panky-ism. Christ, I never have to worry where Gary is."
Gary is Gary Morton, Lucy’s husband and executive producer. Suddenly he bursts into the dressing room and asks for the afternoon off. Lucy’s going to work the full day. Her answer is affirmative, but she doesn’t use the word "yes”; “Just don’t forget to tell the cook to get out the steaks and have a big salad ready."
The show is all in the family. Lucy’s sister, Cleo Smith, is another producer. Lucy is having the talk-about twosome of Desi Jr. and Liza written into a script. Little Lucy, who has been Mrs. Phil Vandervort for a year, is a regular. She, too, bursts into the dressing room to use the john. The jeans are already embarrassingly unzipped. As she whizzes by she comments only to her famous mama: "Jeez, I though you were alone!"
But an emergency is an emergency. Lucy, quick to seize the humor, quips: "Our togetherness is only occasionally splintered."
In retrospect, Lucy is pleased with her real-life mother role. "I’ve been one hell of a mom,” she says. “I always knew where they were every minute." Lucille Ball is a profound woman who often uses great simplicities to get her points across.
Once, when the kids were small, a nurse observed to Lucy that Little Lucy was calling Desi Jr., "fatso,” and jabbing him in the stomach-when no one was looking. Desi didn’t hit back because mama had said never to hit defenseless little girls. Lucy relives the old conversation with her daughter, first announcing each “part” and changing voices to portray the back-and-forth swing of conversation:
Big Lucy: “Got a problem, Little Lucy?"
Little Lucy: "Me? No."
Big Lucy: "Let’s talk. Whose fault is it? No, actually it doesn’t matter whose fault it is. Next time one of you is hurt, I’m going to hit the one who is hurt."
Little Lucy: "What does that mean, ma?"
Big Lucy: "You’ll see."
Soon there was another battle. As usual, Little Lucy elbowed Desi in the stomach and he howled, Lucy illogically whacked Desi hard on the rear and his screams got louder. Little Lucy immediately became hysterical: "Mom, don’t hit him! For God’s sake, why are you hitting HIM?"
Lucy delivered the punch line which is the credo of their life: "I hit Desi because you let things go too far. Never let things go too far. Someone innocent always suffers. Do you understand?"
That was the end of sibling squabbling. Forever.
Once, before her chorus girl days, New York-born Lucy worked as a fashion mannequin for various Seventh Ave. houses. She’s still got a clotheshorse figure but she won’t splurge on couture: "I’m just one of those normal working women who doesn’t go in for hifalutin’ fashion."
Lucy haunts three fabric shops in Beverly Hills and has local movie set seamstresses make all her clothes. "I’m not the type who dresses and goes out,” says Lucy who long ago graduated from the silly-but-necessary movie star game of being seen in the right places.
“Once when I was in Paris, I bought a designer dress grey flannel, I think and wore it out from the salon to my car. When I sat down the damn thing was so strictly constructed that the neckline popped up to my nose. I was on my way to Switzerland and I mumbled to my driver, God, did that designer expect me to stand up on the plane?” Lucy can afford emergencies. When she got to Orly, she bought a dress from an airport boutique and changed in the ladies room.
And, so, the sweet saga of Lucy continues, there are no plans to quit. The word – retirement – isn’t in her vocabulary. “I can’t imagine doing nothing,” she says. “If you don’t keep moving, you’re buried."
The beauty is still there. The complexion is like alabaster. Lucy confesses that she washes her face with Ivory soap, colors her own hair and occasionally gives herself offbeat facials."
"Honey, the idiot who said to put honey on your face never explained that it has to be mixed with cream,” she says. The face melts into that wonderful famous grin. “I put honey on straight from the goddamn jar and it closed my pores for a month."
That’s lovable Lucy.
[Ed. Note: The original photographs were degraded by copying so similar shots were substituted as close to the originals as possible.]
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LUCILLE WINS 10 YEAR FIGHT
July 15, 1943
By ERSKINE JOHNSON
It took Lucille Ball 10 years to travel five miles to stardom.
There’s a smooth, concrete highway all the way with only an occasional boulevard stop.
“But its the toughest five miles,” Lucille said today, "that I’ve ever traveled in my life.”
With, she added, plenty of stops and detours and barriers and tears.
The story of Lucille Ball’s 10 year fight along those five miles – between the RKO studio in Hollywood and the MGM studio in Culver City – is the type of success story Hollywood doesn’t like to talk about. Sort of a skeleton in the closet.
No overnight acclaim. No ballyhoo. Just hard work, determination and one disappointment after another. A talented actress fighting, a phantom which regularly would sneak up behind her and smite her down.
Lucille was looking back at those 10 years in her dressing room at MGM, where she’s receiving the years greatest star buildup. In less than six months she’s been starred In three $1,000,000 pictures, "Du Barry Was a Lady, "Best Foot Forward” and "Meet the People.”
Looking back, Lucille said, without bitterness: “Those 10 years were good for me. A wonderful apprenticeship. But sometimes I wondered.
Ten years ago Lucille Ball arrived in Hollywood as a chorus girl via Butte, Mont., where she was born, the John Murray Anderson dramatic school and modeling in New York. If you have a good memory, you’ll remember her film debut as a showgirl with Eddie Cantor in “Roman Scandals”, which won her a short-lived stock contract at Columbia studio. When Columbia’s stock company was dissolved, Lucille went to work as an extra.
Then came a minor role In "Roberta,” a long term contract at RKO and Lucille began six of the dizziest years of her life at a studio where they turned out more executives than pictures.
With every role at RKO, most of them small, Lucille’s performances drew more and more praise from the critics. The pictures were terrible, but Lucille was good. Studio executives were just about ready to elevate her to stardom, when the bankers in New York fired every executive on the lot. Lucille figured it was the end, but she was wrong.
The new regime called me in and said “Miss Ball, you’re going places with us. Just give us time to get organized. A few weeks, perhaps. l have some wonderful ideas. And we’re raising your salary just to prove that we have faith in you.”
Lucille was walking on air. This was what she had been waiting for. She gladly played more unimportant roles in unimportant films but the few weeks dragged into months. Then, just as studio executives said they were ready to give her the kind of roles and films she deserved, the New York bankers again let the ax fall on RKO. All the studio executives were replaced.
“The new regime called me in,” Lucille said, “and gave me the same routine and a raise in salary. Just give us time to get organized, they said. You’re going places with us."
Well, after all, thought Lucille, this Is Hollywood. You have to expect such things. After all, she had another raise. Maybe this was it. Again she gladly played small roles and waited patiently for her new bosses to "get organized.”
If the insane history of the RKO studio wasn’t a matter of record – six sets of executives in six years – we might have difficulty in believing Lucille’s story. Not once, not twice, but five times she was on the threshold of stardom when her studio bosses were ousted. And five times in six years Lucille was called to the front office, assured she was RKO’s most valuable property, given a raise and promised stardom just as soon as "we get organized.”
On her sixth visit to the RKO front office, the new boss behind the desk was Charles W. Koerner, who had come up from the RKO sales ranks. "I know what you’ve been going through, Lucille,” he said. “What do you want?"
"I want to get the h— out of this studio!” Lucille said. Koerner understood. A few days later Lucille Ball signed a long term starring contract at MGM, just five miles across town from RKO. But as Lucille says, “It was the toughest five miles I’ve ever traveled!“
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TOO MUCH KISSIN’
July 14, 1957
It was Desi who suggested Keith Thibodeaux go by the stage name Richard Keith. Despite this name change, Thibodeaux was never billed by either name on “I Love Lucy” or “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour” – simply as ‘Little Ricky’. Another plus is that boys named Richard are often nicknamed Ricky, which not-so-coincidentally is also the name of the the character he played! Sadly, this also contributed to the loss of identity for both Thibodeaux and Desi Arnaz Jr. This confusion is still a source of frustration to this day.
Although serious ‘kissing’ was not a problem Ricky Ricardo Jr. would ever face on “Lucy”, it did come up briefly on “Lucy Goes To Mexico” (1958). After his big number with Maurice Chevalier and Desi Arnaz, the men are surrounded by girls, who kiss them on the cheeks. Thibodeaux is noticeably uncomfortable with the smooches from the pint-sized chorines, while the grown-ups glory in it. After the buss, Keith tries to strike a cool and disinterested pose! He can’t wait for the director to yell ‘cut’ so he can wipe his mouth!
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SOME SOUND ADVICE
July 14, 1964
Hollywood (UPI)
Just a short while ago I was invited to speak to the student body of the University of California at Los Angeles as part of the presentation ceremony at the 10th annual Samuel Goldwyn creative-writing awards.
What is a former Goldwyn girl supposed to say on the subject of creative writing to an auditorium filled with June graduates? Well, the one thing I felt I could do was give these youngsters an idea of what has helped me in my own life and just hope they wouldn’t think me too square.
Being in the position I am today I certainly know some of the pitfalls that young people worry about. They are just a little bit apprehensive about the world outside the gates of their alma mater.
I feel sincerely that one of the most important things to do is to recognize all the small successes along the way and not let that one big goal be so bright and shiny that it blinds everything on the way to it.
Wouldn’t it be nice if I could say to a graduate that because he did so well in college, “You just walk right into a studio, join a union, get yourself representation, find work, and make a fine living.” Unfortunately it’s just not possible.
On the other hand, no one should get taken up in the undertow of pessimism in our lives. Don’t accept it. There’s room for everybody, and don’t forget it. Pessimism is not worth wasting time on.
It’s better to put time on writing or whatever endeavor is the goal. There’s room for any one who wants to survive in any business. Just don’t be overwhelmed by all those people out there doing all those big things. Remember the starting point, and meet just one wave at a time. An individual should develop enough self-awareness to recognize every little success that comes his way.
Another thing I feel very strongly about is that a writer – or any individual – must have an interest in people. I don’t think it can be stressed too much. Next to you right now may be the most interesting human being in the world – even in your own home.
Every day that we live there are interesting, stories all around us. It’s all in the way the writer looks at it and is able to transmit it to paper.
Writing a story about that little incident that happened today is just as important as that big, big novel to be written sometime in the far distant future.
But don’t make it too tough. Don’t make it any tougher than getting up every day and being interested in everything and everybody around you. And, above all, each one should keep up his interest in himself – his love of himself.
My final point – as a Goldwyn graduate – is this: There’s only one way to write. How? You take your pencil in hand and apply it to paper. There’s no other way.
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Lucille Ball was not a writer herself. She had a brilliant team of writers by her side throughout her career. Ball speaks in general terms about the power of positive thinking, a motivational strategy espoused by her friend and mentor Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, who performed her marriage to Gary Morton. In the 1970s, Ball would return to UCLA as a guest lecturer in comedy.
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