Comprehensive information and links about Lucille Ball

Lucille Ball . A 'B-grade' movie star of the 1930s and 1940s, she later achieved tremendous success as a television actress, and became one of the most popular stars in American history.

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Early life and career

She was born in August 1911, in the small town of Celoron, a suburb of Jamestown, New York to Henry Durrell Ball and Desiree "DeDe" Evelyn Hunt. Her father was a telephone lineman for the Bell Company, while her mother was often described as a lively and energetic young woman.

Henry Ball's job required frequent transfers, and within three years after her birth, Lucille had moved from Jamestown to Anaconda, Montana, and then to Wyandotte, Michigan. While DeDe Ball was pregnant with her second child, Frederick, Henry Ball contracted typhoid fever and died in February 1915.

After her father died, Ball and her brother, Fred, were raised by her working mother and grandparents. Her grandfather, Fred Hunt, was an eccentric socialist who enjoyed the theater. He frequently took the family to local vaudeville shows and encouraged young Lucy to take part in both her own and school plays. At the age of fifteen, Lucy dropped out of high school, In 1925, after a romance with a local bad boy (Johnny DeVita), Ball decided to enroll in the John Murray Anderson School for the Dramatic Arts with her mother's approval. There, the shy girl was outshined by another pupil — Bette Davis. Ball went home a few weeks later when drama coaches told her that she "had no future at all as a performer". Two years later, she witnessed the accidental shooting of a friend of her brother's, Warner Erikson, who found himself in the path of a .22 caliber rifle shot, severing his spinal cord. Her grandfather was sued and prosecuted, and lost the family home.

She moved back to New York City in 1930 to become an actress and had some success as a fashion model for designer Hattie Carnegie and as the Chesterfield girl. She began her performing career on Broadway using the stage name but then moved to Hollywood to appear in films. She appeared in many small movie roles in the 1930s as a contract player for RKO (including one movie with the Marx Brothers and another with the Three Stooges). She switched to MGM in the 1940s, but never achieved great success in films. She was known in many Hollywood circles as "Queen of the Bs" (a title previously held by Fay Wray) starring in a number of B-movies, such as 1939's . Macdonald Carey was designated as her "King".

In 1940, Ball met Cuban bandleader Desi Arnaz while filming the film version of the Rodgers and Hart stage hit . The two hit it off immediately and eloped the same year, to much press attention. When Arnaz was drafted to the United States Army in 1942, he cheated on Ball. Arnaz ended up being classified for limited service due to a knee injury. As a result, Arnaz stayed in Los Angeles, organizing and performing USO shows for wounded GIs being brought back from the Pacific. Ball filed for a divorce in 1944. However, shortly after Ball obtained an interlocutory decree, she got together with Desi again.

In 1948, Lucille was cast as Liz Cugat (later "Cooper"), a wacky wife, in , a radio program for CBS. The program was successful, and CBS asked her to develop it as a television program. She agreed, but insisted on working with Arnaz. This show eventually became . CBS was initially not impressed with the pilot episode produced by the couple's Desilu Productions company, so the Arnazes toured the road in a vaudeville act with Lucille as the zany housewife wanting to get in Arnaz's show. The tour was a smash, and CBS put the show on their lineup.

In 1953, she was subpoenaed by the House Committee on Un-American Activities, due to her having registered to vote in the Communist party in 1936 at her Socialist grandfather's insistence (per FBI FOIA-released documents). In response to these accusations, Desi quipped "The only thing red about Lucy is her hair, and even that's not legitimate." Lucy survived this unpleasant encounter with the HUAC, and named no names.

Lucy made friends in Hollywood, not very many perhaps, but life-long, including Ginger Rogers, Mary Wickes and Vivian Vance (her longtime costar on several series). Ironically all were childless (Wickes never married), but Lucy's instincts were always more professional and connubial, than maternal, which explained her strained relations with her children, and even grandchildren, especially Lucie Arnaz, her daughter, who, after her mother's death, called her "controlling".

show was not only a star vehicle for Lucille Ball, but a way for her to try to salvage her marriage to Desi Arnaz, which had become badly strained, in part by the fact that each had a hectic performing schedule which often kept them apart.

Along the way, she created a very early television sitcom (although the format had existed for decades in radio, and in fact other TV sitcoms predated her show), and was among the first stars to film before a live audience.

From a production aspect, the use of actual film, as opposed to the inferior-quality kinescope of other TV shows of the time, made the show far more visually appealing. The initial decision to use film was driven by the performers' desire to stay in Los Angeles. Sponsor Philip Morris didn't want to show kinescopes to the major markets on the east coast, so Lucy and Desi agreed to take a pay cut to finance filming. In return, CBS relinquished the show rights back to Desilu after broadcast, not realizing they were giving away a valuable and durable asset. Desilu made many millions of dollars on rebroadcasts through syndication.

Lucy and Desi also hired legendary Czech cameraman Karl Freund as their director of photography. Freund had worked for F.W. Murnau and Fritz Lang, shot part of , had directed a number of Hollywood films himself, and knew his business. For Lucy, Freund developed the three-camera setup, which became the standard way of shooting situation comedies. Shooting long shots, medium shots, and close-ups on a comedy in front of a live audience demanded discipline, technique, and close choreography. Among other non-standard techniques used in filming the show, cans of paint (in shades ranging from white to medium gray) were kept on set to 'paint out' innappropriate shadows and disguise lighting flaws.

On July 17, 1951, just one month shy of her 40th birthday and after several miscarriages, Ball gave birth to her first child, Lucie Desiree Arnaz. A year and a half later, Ball gave birth to her second child, Desiderio Alberto Arnaz IV. was in full swing by this time, and neither Ball nor Arnaz wanted to take a hiatus for the pregnancy. They planned to write the pregnancy into the show's story line, so that Lucy Ricardo would have her baby around the same time the Arnazes' own child was born. However, the network balked, declaring, "You cannot show a pregnant woman on television." They also declared that the word "pregnant" could not be uttered over the airwaves. Ball and Arnaz consulted a priest, a rabbi and a minister about the appropriateness of their plans, and all three said that none of it was in any way offensive. Finally, the network compromised: The pregnancy could be worked into the s, but the word "pregnant" was still taboo. Instead, the euphemism "expecting" was substituted, which made for additional laughs as Arnaz deliberately mispronounced it as "'spectin'." The birth made the first cover of the same year.

However, these blessings could not alleviate the pressures on the marriage. By the end of the 1950s, the Desilu company had gotten much bigger, and Desi was beginning to drink more heavily. On May 4, 1960, a few weeks after filming the final episode of , the couple divorced. One of television's greatest marriages had come to an end. However, until his death in 1986, Arnaz would remain friends with Ball.

The following year, Ball married comedian Gary Morton, a Borscht Belt stand-up comic thirteen years her junior. Morton told interviewers at the time that he never saw Lucy on TV, since he worked nights. Ball immediately installed Morton in her production company, teaching him the television business and eventually promoting him to producer. Morton also played occasional bit parts on Ball's various series.

After buying out her ex-husband's share of the studio, Ball functioned as studio head.

Following (1968-74), which also featured Gordon, as well as her real life children, Lucie Arnaz and Desi Arnaz, Jr. During the mid-1980s, she attempted to resurrect her television career. While a 1985 dramatic made-for-TV film about an elderly homeless woman, (which also costarred Gale Gordon), was a critical and commercial flop, and was canceled less than two months into its run. The failure of her series was said to have sent Ball into a serious depression, and other than a few miscellaneous awards show appearances, she was absent from the public eye for the final three years of her life.

Lucille Ball died on April 26, 1989, of a ruptured aorta at the age of 77 and was cremated. Her remains were initially interred in the Forest Lawn - Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles, California, but were later moved by her children, Desi Arnaz, Jr. and Lucie Arnaz to the Lake View Cemetery, in Jamestown, New York.

Lucille McGillicuddy

Considered by professional clowns to be one of their own, Lucille Ball's 'clown character' was "Lucy Ricardo" (nee "Lucille McGillicuddy" — an instantly recognizable clown moniker). Lucy Ricardo was a friendly, ambitious and somewhat naïve housewife, constantly getting into trouble of one kind or another.

The setup of the show provided ample opportunities for Ball to display her skills at clowning and physical comedy. She is regarded as one of the best in the history of film and television at physical .

In the course of the television series, Lucy shared the screen with numerous famous clowns. Prominent among these were Red Skelton and Harpo Marx.

- a recurring and almost omnipresent theme on the show, was that "talentless" plain old Lucy the Housewife dearly desired a chance to perform, as anything: a dancer, showgirl, clown, singing cowboy — or in any role. The real joke here is that Lucille Ball, aside from being regarded as beautiful, was also quite talented in a variety of performance arts, as well as being a ground-breaking television director.

Perhaps the best example of this gag is when Lucy shows up unannounced at Ricky's club, toting a clown-modified cello and pretending to be a musician, asking to speak with "Risky Riskerdoo" (Ricky Ricardo) this classic includes Lucy winding the cello's tuning peg as if it were a watch (to the accompaniment of ratcheting sounds) and shooting the cello's bow at Ricky's backside.

- ("Speeeeeeed it Up a little!!") Lucy and Ethel attempt to get jobs — for which they are demonstrably unprepared — the classic candy-gobbling scene in this episode is an American cultural icon.

- now a classic improvisational acting exercise (with Harpo Marx), in which Lucy, dressed as Harpo Marx encounters the Harpo while hiding in the kitchen doorway. Perplexed at what he sees he confronts his reflection and Lucy is forced to mimic his every move. This scene was based upon the famous mirror scene in Duck Soup.

(aka 'Slowly I turned' or 'Niagara Falls!') in which a veteran clown introduces Lucy Ricardo to some basics of the clown art, and is schooled in this classic (and at that time quite familiar) vaudevillian routine ... complete with 'seltzer bottles' (a familiar clown prop) and slapstick.

- "Do you poop out at parties? Are you unpopular? Well, the answer to all your troubles is in this little bottle!", "And, it's so tasty too!" Mrs. Ricardo as a slick television 'huckster' pitching a foul-tasting and alcoholic concoction (the substance was actually apple butter, of which the actress quite enjoyed the taste)... the 'gag' being that, aside from tasting bad and having a name which only a clown would embrace, the product contained alcohol in large quantities, and in numerous repeated rehearsals prior to the live spot, Lucy gradually and inexorably becomes half-crocked... with the inevitable hilarious result, made only the more funny by the alliterative, tongue twisting product name and pitch. "Do you - another recurring theme, many popular stars were eager to appear on the show, and hilarity ensues in countless episodes as a result of the character, Lucy's obsession with fame and the famous.

The story arc. Lucy receives a letter informing her that her "Best Friend's Roommate's Cousin's Middle Boy" — of whom she has never heard — is coming to visit from "Bent Fork, Tennessee". 'Cousin Ernie' (played by "Tennessee" Ernie FordLucille Ball is a stereotypical Country Boy in the Big City, in awe of the sophistication (as he perceives it) of his new hosts. Cousin Ernie and the citizens of Bent Fork and its environs are encountered again during the course of the show's life.

This episode is part of the Hollywood story arc. Ricky, Lucy, Fred, and Ethel participate in a square dance called by Cousin Ernie to escape a Bent Fork, Tennessee jail in the course of which the sheriff and his two Rubenesque daughters are tied up with a handy piece of rope. Lucy gives a feminine kick into the officer's groin. Ricky, Lucy, Fred and Ethel make their escape to continue their cross country venture.

(1953) (unreleased) (A movie, which includes a handful of ILL episodes with actors playing audience members. It has rare footage of Desi Arnaz warming up the audience and introducing the cast. The film was finally shown at the 2002 Lucy-Desi Convention.)

Notes

Her cousin, Suzan Ball (wife of actor Richard Long), was an actress for several years, before dying of cancer, aged 21.

Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz founded Desilu Productions.

There is a Lucy-Desi Museum honoring Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz in Jamestown, New York. There are also Lucille Ball museums located in the Universal Studios Hollywood and Universal Studios Florida theme parks.

In the summer of 2005, Lucille Ball was voted America's most beloved deceased star.