She's New York State's best-known export: Lucille Ball, generally acknowledged as the greatest female slapstick comedienne of our time. If you can't get enough news about the wacky redhead, her co-stars, and her life, here's where you'll find it. Dig in and enjoy!
01.30.12 ”Oh, Lucy…I’m not home… And here’s why.” We’ve all read the many stories of Desi Arnaz’s very public philandering during his 20–year marriage to Lucille Ball. Much has been documented and written about his penchant for women other than his darlin’ red-haired wife, co-star, and co-owner of Desilu, including stuff by yours truly in my Lucy books (Kaye Ballard once told me that Desi would’ve “had” every woman on Earth, if he could have). You should also know that despite all of their problems, Lucy and Desi remained, by all accounts, very much in love with each other throughout their lives, despite each of them making very successful second marriages. (Gary Morton, Lucy’s long-term No. 2, referred jokingly to Arnaz as his “husband-in-law.”) Now comes another tiny wrinkle added to the tales of Desi’s devilish behavior, courtesy of the new memoir by Scotty Bowers, Full Service: My Adventures in Hollywood and the Secret Sex Lives of the Stars. Although the more salacious parts of Bowers’ book recount procuring male partners for such Hollywood stalwarts as Cary Grant, Spencer Tracy, and Tyrone Powers (and conversely, “more than 150 women” over the years for Kate Hepburn), Bowers was more than just a gay procurer. A recent New York Times article about Bowers and his tell-all notes, “Mr. Bowers quit pumping gas in 1950 [he reportedly ran a male prostitution ring out of his Hollywood gas station in the 1940s after his return from the service in WWII] and says he supported himself for the next two decades through prostitution, bartending and working as a handyman. Mr. Bowers writes that, in addition to his gay clients, he also gained a following among heterosexual actors like Desi Arnaz, who used him as a type of matchmaking service. Mr. Bowers says he never took payment for connecting people like Arnaz with bedroom partners. ‘I wasn’t a pimp,’ he said. (Mr. Arnaz’s wife at the time, Lucille Ball, apparently felt otherwise, according to Full Service.)” In fact, one source reports that Lucy gave Bowers a public face-slapping for helping out Arnaz in extramarital matters of the, er, heart. You should probably take it all with both a grain of salt…and a side of [at least partial] truth.
01.17.12 
Lucille Ball caricaturist Ronald Searle, described by the New York Times as a “slyly caustic cartoonist,” died recently at age 91. He was a British cartoonist and caricaturist known for his outlandishly exaggerated illustrations for books, magazine covers, newspaper editorial pages and advertisements. Searle began by satirizing the English class system, clerics, politicians and even other artists. He is perhaps best known in American for the covers he did for The New Yorker and TV Guide, beginning in the 1960s and running through the 1980s. Although he was spot-on when recreating a public figure, Searle knew just how far to take the whimsy and humor without being insulting (unless he meant to be!). As the Times noted, “With just a few well-placed lines, he pierced the facades of his targets without resorting to ridicule or rancor.” Searle’s signature method, called “a curious mix of minimalist detailing and rococo flourishes using a vibrant watercolor palette, exuded a modern air — sometimes realistic, other times abstract, occasionally phantasmagoric.” All of these properties are on view in the pieces he did of Lucille Ball that ran in TV Guide’s April 30, 1966 issue. I hold a great love for caricature, and especially those of Lucy, as any steady reader knows. Mr. Searle’s drawings of her (see picture) remain among my favorites to this day.
01.01.12
12.14.11
11.29.11 Extra! Vivian Vance and William Frawley to be Inducted into the TV Hall of Fame!
Vivian Vance and William Frawley, aka Ethel and Fred Mertz, will join Lucille Ball (among the first six Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame inductees, in 1984) and Desi Arnaz, among the seventh group of inductees, along with his and Lucy’s beloved creation, I Love Lucy. I Love Lucy remains the only television series to be inducted into the ATAS Hall of Fame, and with the induction of Vance and Frawley, it becomes the only series plus all its major cast members to have been thus honored. It’s a distinction that will likely last for a long time. Anyone who’s reading this already appreciates the contribution Vance and Frawley made to perhaps the most popular TV series ever, but their induction is recognition by their industry peers that they are among the greatest TV performers ever. This brings the number of ATAS HoF members to a bit more than 120, a select group indeed. An extra bonus (for me): the induction ceremony honoring Lucy’s beloved friends, neighbors, landlords and fellow schemers will take place on March 1, 2012…my birthday! Their fellow inductees will include producers Mary-Ellis Bunim & Jonathan Murray; network executive Michael Eisner; game show host Don Francisco; actor Sherman Hemsley (The Jeffersons); lighting designer Bill Klages; and producer Chuck Lorre. What follows are short biographies of each taken directly from the ATAS site. For more on both, of course, visit just about any page on this website, or check out my books on Amazon, especially Lucy A to Z: The Lucille Ball Encyclopedia.
Vivian Vance (1909-1979) — Born Vivian Roberta Jones, Vance is probably the single most recognizable female sidekick in the history of television. Although her first love was the stage, her role as Ethel Mertz would forever endear her to television fans around the world. Vance’s talent took her from her hometown of Independence, Kansas, to a small theatre company in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and on to New York and Broadway in the early 1930s. She became a regular on Broadway after being cast in the hit musical Anything Goes as a chorus member and understudy to the show’s star, Ethel Merman. Several years later she won her first major Broadway role opposite comedian Ed Wynn, in the production of Hooray for What! One of her most successful stage roles was in the musical Let’s Face It! , in which she starred alongside Danny Kaye and Eve Arden for over 500 performances. In 1951, TV director Marc Daniels took Desi Arnaz and writer Jess Oppenheimer to see Vance star in the play Voice of the Turtle at the La Jolla Playhouse in California. By the end of the first act, Arnaz and Oppenheimer both agreed that they had found their “Ethel” for their new television sitcom, I Love Lucy. Vance remained with the beloved CBS series until it ended its run in 1957, playing best friend, neighbor, and partner-in-crime to Lucille Ball’s “Lucy Ricardo.” She was the first actress to win an Emmy Award for “Outstanding Supporting Actress” in 1954, and was nominated an additional three times for her role as Ethel Mertz. Vance returned to television a few years later to play Lucille Ball’s sidekick once again on The Lucy Show.
William “Bill” Frawley (1887-1966) — An American stage, screen, and television entertainer, Frawley is best known for his role as Fred Mertz on I Love Lucy, but appeared in more than 110 films and over a dozen major plays in his lifetime. Frawley’s career started on the road in vaudeville with his brother, and later with his then wife, fellow vaudevillian Edna Louise Broedt. Playing the prestigious Orpheum circuit, Frawley honed his craft and developed the comedic talent and timing that would be his trademark. His first major hit was in the musical comedy Merry, Merry in 1925, and he continued to act on and off Broadway until 1933. Frawley’s movie career lasted over 50 years, starting with the silent film Lord Loveland in 1916. Although he played mostly supporting roles, he appeared in major films such as Ziegfeld Follies, Miracle on 34th Street and The Lemon Drop Kid. In 1951, Frawley was cast as “Fred Mertz” in I Love Lucy opposite Vivian Vance. During the run of the series, he was often called upon to display his musical and dancing talents. His other true love, sports, was often incorporated into the show’s scripts. Frawley was nominated for five Emmy Awards for his supporting role as the penny-pinching best friend and landlord of the Ricardos. After I Love Lucy went off the air, Frawley debuted as live-in grandfather/housekeeper “Bub O’Casey” in My Three Sons and remained on the show from 1960 until 1965, until poor health forced him into retirement. Frawley passed away in 1966.
11.28.11 I love it when my various obsessions collide. You can click here for the story of how two of my favorite gals, one real and one fictional, Lucy and Lois Lane (Superman’s gal pal), intersect in a way that made me better understand why I loved both of them. And now, reading favorite author Stephen King’s newest book, 11-22-63, I find several mentions of my favorite comedienne. It’s a time-traveling plot, and in order not to spoil anything for those of you who might read the novel (it’s a daunting task, at over 800 pages, but trust me, it goes quickly, especially if you’re a King fan), I’ll just say that the Lucy references are related to an event from the past.
11.22.11
10.31.11
10.12.11
09.22.11
09.16.11
08.11.11
08.06.11
08.03.11
07.26.11
07.22.11 
I know I'm a little late on this (!!), but it deserves mention and I forgot to put it up in March... Hugh Martin, the arranger and composer of many hits, including, "The Trolley Song," "The Boy Next Door" and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" from the Judy Garland movie Meet Me in St. Louis, the latter of which became an evergreen, recorded by many and played consistently during each holiday season, died March 11 in California at the age of 96. He had several connections to the Lucyverse: he was a performer in, and arranged the music for, Hooray for What!, a 1937-'38 musical that gave Vivian Vance her first major supporting role on Broadway; he was the vocal director on the 1940 film Too Many Girls, the RKO musical often cited as where Lucille Ball met co-star Desi Arnaz, on-set; he did the choral arrangements for the Broadway musical DuBarry Was a Lady, which became a movie starring Lucille Ball (see pic, left); and he wrote the music and lyrics for the Broadway show Best Foot Forward (featuring the rousing fight song "Buckle Down, Winsocki"), which also became an MGM musical starring Ball. In fact, the latter two films were among Lucy's most successful efforts at MGM. A torchy ballad that Martin arranged called "Down With Love" was introduced by Vance in Hooray for What!, and over the past decade has become a popular cabaret standard.
07.15.11 The recent death of former First Lady Betty Ford hit home for several reasons. Ford was a real person, a mensch as we say in Yiddish, someone who wasn't afraid to stand up and say what she felt. That included talking about her own problems, including addictions to alcohol and pills. She not only got herself clean, she established one of the pre-eminent detox centers in the country, now best known as the go-to celebrity rehab facility. She was fearless about speaking out on any and every hot-button issue, including abortion, feminism, sex, drugs and gun control. Many of her opinions were not popular among fellow Republicans, but she didn't care. In her heart, Ford was bipartisan. In fact, many historians believe her impact on the popular culture of America was and will be far greater than her husband, who served only 896 days in office and spent most of that time trying to undo the damage created by Richard Nixon. Yes, Betty Ford was all that and more: she was Lucille Ball's friend. Gerald and Betty Ford lived in the same Thunderbird Heights neighborhood of Rancho Mirage, Calif., as did Lucy and Desi Arnaz (though not at the same time). But aside from both loving the Palm Springs area, Lucy and Betty were pals, as evidenced by a Jan. 13, 1980 article in Parade magazine that I discovered and wrote about in Lucy A to Z: The Lucille Ball Encyclopedia. Called "The I Love Lucy and Betty Show," the article documented a phone call between the former first lady and the first lady of comedy, one that was likely highly edited and just as likely padded by their PR people. Still, the two do reveal an innate affection for each other, and it's an interesting marker of a certain period in time. RIP, Mrs. Ford.
07.08.11
06.23.11
06.09.11
06.07.11 
The comedy Bridesmaids is a big hit, and that's a good thing. Funny females are my favorite type of entertainers, as any steady reader of this site knows. What's even better is that critics are comparing the physical comedy in the movie (which stars Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, and Melissa McCarthy, among others, as the funny ladies dealing with a friend's wedding) is being compared to the gold standard of female comedy duos: Lucille Ball and Vivian Vance. Not only are critics "going out of their way to assure their male readers that, despite the title, Bridesmaids is not just a chick flick," according to website Studio Briefing, some of them are astute enough to recognize and name the two women who basically started it all. Roger Ebert, perhaps our most astute living film critic, noted in the Chicago Sun-Times, after praising Wiig, that Wiig's "physical-comedy bit in an airplane would win the respect of Lucille Ball. Wesley Morris of the Boston Globe also points out a connection with the classic comedy of Ball and Vance. For much of Bridesmaids, he wrote, thoughts of "This is so ridiculous" are tempered by thoughts of "This is so Lucy and Ethel." Brava,Bridesmaids! Now that the film has made well over $100 million, maybe Hollywood will greenlight more of the same. (The picture of Lucy and Viv accompanying this comes from one of my favorite episodes of The Lucy Show: "Lucy and Viv Put In a Shower.")
05.07.11
04.29.11 Lucy, Desi Cameo in film Soul Surfer
As I've often said, rarely a day goes by without some mention or view of Lucy in the media. This week was no different. Mid-week on Jeopardy, one of the categories was Lucille Ball's 100th Birthday. The five questions were too easy for me, but it was still a kick to see Lucy's centennial honored that way. And in a trailer for the new movie Soul Surfer, about a teen who loses her arm in a shark attack and goes back to surfing, one of the characters wears a zippered hoodie with two familiar icons on the front (see pic, left). Finally, in People's April 25 issue, Billy Gardell of Mike & Molly listed five memorable TV duos that influenced him; Lucy and Desi Arnaz (a.k.a. Lucy and Ricky Ricardo) top the list. Along with a picture of the classic couple, Gardell commented, "She was first strong woman on TV. When I watched reruns as a kid, it was like, 'Wow, this woman is going to do whatever she wants.' It was neat to see a progessive relationship; they were groundbreaking."
04.25.11
04.22.11
Madelyn Pugh, Who Loved Writing for Lucy, Dies One of the first, and most successful, female comedy writers in television, Madelyn Pugh, died April 20 at the age of 90. She was hired for Lucille Ball's radio show My Favorite Husband, along with partner Bob Carroll Jr. She wrote for Ball throughout that series and I Love Lucy, the first few seasons of The Lucy Show, and on and off until Ball's death in 1989, including Ball's final TV special and series. She will be missed, but remembered as a pioneer. As the Paley Center for Media (which honored Pugh in 2006) noted, "During the formative years of television, when few women were working behind the screen, Madelyn Pugh Davis wrote one of the most popular shows of all time." Following are excerpts from the Pugh and Carroll entries in Lucy A to Z.
Pugh was a native of Indianapolis. She edited her high school newspaper and majored in journalism at Indiana University, Bloomington. When she couldn't get a job as a foreign correspondent after her graduation in 1942, she landed at a local radio station, writing commercials and copy. It was WWII, and the shortage of men for jobs at home gave Pugh the opportunity she needed, as many jobs opened up in the male-dominated world of broadcasting and media. Her family moved to Los Angeles, where Davis became a staff writer for NBC's radio network before moving to CBS radio. That was where the Girl Writer (as she and other females in the business were called then) was teamed with Carroll.
Their partnership lasted more than 50 years, and included approximately 400 TV shows and 500 radio shows. Carroll and Pugh submitted a script and ended up writing for Husband for the entire three-season run, along with head writer and producer Jess Oppenheimer. The three then created the format for Ball's long-running sitcom (after helping to create the vaudeville act for Ball and Desi Arnaz that they took on the road to prove audiences would accept them acting together, and which became the basis for the I Love Lucy pilot).
Ball often marveled at how Carroll and Pugh could nail the antics of two married couples (the Ricardos and the Mertzes ) while they remained single. The writers used their instincts about relationships to help formulate scripts, and routinely acted out bits of business that Ball and company would be doing, to make sure they could be done.
Carroll and Pugh wrote (with Oppenheimer) 39 episodes per season for the run of the series, aided in the final years by "the two Bobs," Schiller and Weiskopf. They were nominated for three Emmys, but never won. In helping to create the "Lucy"character , which Ball played in one form or another for almost 40 years, Pugh's legacy can be seen and felt to this day on TV.
The pair insisted that Ball was the easiest person to write for because she never refused to do any bit that the two could create. "And this does not only refer to her great comedic talents," Pugh told a reporter in 1962. "There is almost nothing she won't attempt, and as a result, we can let ourselves go, in the knowledge that at least Lucy will give it a try. Ball returned the compliment by publicly crediting her writers for her TV success many times. According to one source, the writers sometimes thumbed through the phone book looking for ideas, landing one day on candy making. They went down to visit a local shop and from there, created one of the show's most famous episodes. A still from the episode autographed by Vivian Vance and Ball hangs behind Pugh in the picture that the L.A. Times used to accompany Pugh's obituary (above left).
Carroll died on Jan. 27, 2007, after a brief illness. He was 88. One of his last writing jobs
was as co-author of Pugh's 2005 autobiography, Laughing with Lucy.
04.11.11 
In my real-world capacity as editor of Soap Opera Weekly, I recently had the chance to interview one of my faves, Susan Lucci (who plays Erica Kane on All My Children, in case you've been living under a rock for the past 40 years) on the eve of the publication of her autobiography, All My Life. You can see excerpts from the interview online at our newly redesigned Web site, www.soapoperweekly.com. But being the Lucy fan that I am, I couldn't resist taking the opportunity to ask Ms. Lucci about my favorite redhead, since, in her book, she compared her high school drama teacher to Lucy because she had similarly red hair. I asked Lucci if Lucy was a favorite of hers, and here's her response: "Absolutely! I don't know if I go into this too much into the book, but I did not like to sleep as a little girl, and I would be the first one up in the morning with my grandmother, actually. But I spent some time by myself. First thing I would do was turn the TV on, and when I was very little I Love Lucy was still on at night, and then early morning there were reruns. I would watch her whenever I could, and I think to this day, I Love Lucy holds up; her work holds up no matter what year it was made; her work is fantastic!" Obviously, I agree with her. I've had the pleasure of interviewing and meeting Lucci more than once over the past 20 years, and I must say, the woman is a class act all the way. Lovely and gracious. I'm not surprised she loves Lucy.
04/07/11 Lucy's Dress in Debbie's Auction! 
A suit and blouse worn by Lucille Ball (pictured, left) in her hit comedy The Long, Long Trailer (1954) is one of many items that will be auctioned off by Profiles in History on June 18, 2011, as part of Debbie Reynolds' Hollywood Memorabilia auction. Reynolds said, "My lifetime dream has been to assemble and preserve the history of the Hollywood film industry. Hollywood has been an enormous part of my life, as I know it has been for countless fans all over the world. This collection represents a lifetime of collecting Hollywood artifacts, and this is a rare opportunity to own a piece of Hollywood history for those who love the movies as much as I do. For the first time in nearly five decades, these iconic pieces will be made available to the public through a series of auctions presented by Profiles in History." The auction house adds, "This is a rare opportunity. Debbie Reynolds' collection represents the largest private compilation of Hollywood Memorabilia in the world." For more information, go to www.profilesinhistory.com. The catalog is already on sale, for $39.95; that alone should be a treasure, as Reynolds' collection is legendary.
Reynolds was apparently one of the few celebrities (hell, the few people, period) who gave a damn when, for example, MGM threw its entire lot on sale in May 1970. More damage was done in 1987, when MGM was sold to Ted Turner, who kept the film library and sold the studio lots to Lorimar. During the transitions, items as varied as correspondence from Louis B. Mayer, irreplaceable film stock, and set blueprints were lost or mistakenly thrown away. Other studios like Warner Bros. only found out invaluable costumes had been stolen when the items were spotted in a 1984 Sotheby's auction catalog! Reynolds had previously tried to set up her collection as a museum in Las Vegas, but that venture didn't pan out.
04.04.11
03.23.09 Liz Taylor Dead at 79
Hollywood icon, movie star bar none, and one of the most beautiful woman ever to appear on the silver screen, Elizabeth Taylor, has died after begin hospitalized for more than a month with congestive heart failure. Liz, as she was fondly called by the press and her fans, will be remembered for her cinema roles, her turbulent love life, her many surgeries and health problems, and her humanitarian nature and compassion for others, as evidenced by her commitment to AIDs fundraising. Lucy fans will remember her for an appearance in the premiere of Here's Lucy, Sept. 14, 1970, which featured Taylor and then-husband Richard Burton in a typical wacky plot: Lucy accidentally gets Liz's 69-plus carat pear-shaped diamond ring stuck on her finger. The high ratings for this episode helped make Here's Lucy the #3 show for that season. Ball bought in veteran I Love Lucy writers Bob Carroll Jr. and Madelyn Pugh to write the script, and they reused an old bit from I Love Lucy: when Lucy was handcuffed to Ricky (Desi Arnaz) and she had to perform, she stuck her hand through a curtain behind him which gestured independently of Ricky's (and hysterically so, to his chagrin). In the Here's Lucy episode, after Lucy Carter can't remove the ring, she ducks behind a curtain as the Burtons meet the press to show off the expensive bauble. Ball's "handiwork" with Liz is the best part of the episode. Taylor is charming as ever, and Burton basically plays it straight in what's now regarded as a classic episode. The picture at left shows Lucy and Desi chatting with a young Liz on the set of 1954's The Long Long Trailer; the TV Guide cover which spotlighted the 1970 episode; and a candid shot from the set. Elizabeth Taylor has been called "the last Hollywood star," and she will be missed.
03.02.09 As Seen on Desi Arnaz I love The New York Times' headline (at left) on its piece in the antiques section announcing that one of Desi Arnaz's straw hats used in his act will be on display in New York City this spring. The Times noted, "During performances, [Arnaz] sometimes tossed around a honey-colored boater from the venerable menswear store F.R. Tripler, which stood for decades on Madison Avenue. This year, with a $3,000 grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the Raices Museum of Latin Music on East 104th Street has restored his hat for an exhibition opening in spring 2011."
The paper reported Raices received the hat from Joe Conzo Sr., a colleague of Tito Puente's, and that Arnaz gave Conzo the hat in 1970s "after it was shown in a Latin music exhibition at the Library for the Performing Arts in Lincoln Center." Handmade paper strip and wheat paste were used to fix a foot-long rip in the crown of the hat, and the hat was also cleaned of dirt. The museum noted it had restored the hat to display it in order "to attract non-Latinos to the little-known gallery," which shows only a fraction of its 15,000-piece collection. Along with Arnaz's Tripler classic, the exhibition will include photos and videos of Desi and his wife (you know her as Lucy) wearing boaters and performing "The Straw Hat Song." For more information, go here, or call (212) 427-2244, x578.
02.25.09 The Origin of "For Corn's Sake!" Revealed 
In my new book, The Lucy Book of Lists, in the Q&A chapter, which features questions from fans on various Lucy collectibles or on I Love Lucy or other topics related to the Lucyverse, I speculated that the expression "For corn's sake, which Fred Mertz used frequently on the show, came from a character on the radio hit The Great Gildersleeve. It was frequently used by the child actor who played Leroy, Gildersleeve's nephew and even became the title of the actor's biography. It made sense to me, because all of Lucy's writers started out in radio and had to have been familiar with the show. I also noted that corn was likely a sanitization of Christ, which would not have been allowed on TV in the fifties, and indeed, is rarely used even these days. Now comes word from a fellow fan whom I met in Jamestown, Neil Wilburn, that the origin of the quirky but funny expression was actually writer Bob Carroll, Jr. Neil wrote, "I used to visit Bob Carroll in L.A. when I'd go down. He would sometimes get exasperated by my questions, but every once in a while he'd give me a nugget. He told me 'For corn's sake!' and other Fred expressions came from a funny uncle who spent a lot of time at their house when he was a kid, which would have predated Gildersleeve, but I think you're theory about 'corn' being a Christ substitute is probably correct." Mystery solved! Neil astutely adds, "What was great about Bob and Madelyn [Pugh]'s writing is their choice of words: using something unique, when something ordinary would have worked. And that these words live on in Lucy fans' vocabularies... certainly mine." Neil, thanks for writing and clearing that up, though I still wonder whether Bob's uncle got the expression from someone else, or coined it himself (I can't help it - I'm obsessed with arcane Lucy trivia... lol.)
02.18.11
Almost 37 years ago, Lucille Ball announced she was leaving weekly television, and unlike previous years, there seemed to be a similar report after every season of her sitcoms The Lucy Show, and Here's Lucy, this time, she meant it. The Montreal Gazette reported on Feb. 28, 1974 that, "Lucille Ball will end her weekly series with this season's shows after 23 consecutive years as television's queen of comedy." (Although there was technically one calendar year (1961) in which Lucy did not perform in a regularly scheduled TV series, I'm willing to give the redhead a pass.) Lucy said she would continue to perform in a series of specials for CBS, which she did, through 1977's Lucy Calls the President, which was also her final appearance with longtime co-star Vivian Vance. The Gazette reported that Robert Wood, then president of the CBS television network, noted, "I join 50 million fans when I express my disappointment over her decision." Happily enough, with reruns of all three of Lucy's weekly series over the 37 years hence, it really doesn't seem as though Lucy has ever left television. The picture at left is from the Gazette and accompanied the article. I realize it is half blurry and half pixelated, but that kinda adds to its charm, for me. The picture at right is Robert Amsel's famous TV Guide cover in which the weekly magazine celebrated Lucy's record-breaking run.
02.11.11 Character Actress Peggy Rea Dies at 89 
Rea, one of those TV/movie faces you saw and were like, "I know her," played a lot of down-home supporting characters on TV, but was surely best known for playing Boss Hogg's wife on The Dukes of Hazzard; she also played pivotal characters on the drama series The Waltons and the sitcom Grace Under Fire.
Rea was born and raised in California, and according to the New York Daily News, Rea started in show business as a secretary at CBS radio. She got to know the writers for Lucille Ball's show [My Favorite Husband] and quit to try theatrical acting. She played in the Cole Porter musical Out of This World on Broadway before joining the Streetcar tour.
She returned to Hollywood in 1953 and played four different characters on I Love Lucy that year, no doubt through her Husband connection.
The News added, "Her early TV work also included roles on Phil Silvers' Sergeant Bilko, and the rest of her resume reads like a history of the first 50 years of television, from Gidget through The Golden Girls. She was a member of Red Skelton's troupe in the 1960s." She appeared in at least 72 series, and more than 100 episodes of series TV. I Love Lucy, however, was her TV debut. In the pic above left, Rea is shown in her later years, and the I Love Lucy years.
02.08.11
01.28.11 Lucy's Stand-In Dies 
According to several midwestern online newspaper reports, St. Louis resident of many years Alice Broderick died at the age of 94 on Jan. 26. You might never have heard of her, but Broderick was an actress and stuntwoman in Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s. The St. Louis Examiner reported, "Born in Colorado, Broderick moved to Los Angeles after high school, where she began getting jobs working in B movies. She ended up being trained as a stunt double by Clif Lyons and Yakima Canutt, who went on to choreograph some very famous stunt-heavy scenes, such as the chariot race in Ben-Hur. Her biggest break came when she was assigned to be the stand-in for Lucille Ball. Together they made 40 movies [Broderick used the stage name Alice Eldridge and got small parts with Lucy in Top Hat and Follow the Fleet, That Girl from Paris and 37 others]. Ball and Broderick remained lifelong friends." Many of Broderick's other films were Westerns, in which she performed with the likes of Hopalong Cassidy, and learned to do stunts such as falling off a horse. She met and married businessman Johnyy Broderick, and left Hollywood to go with him in 1943 to St. Louis, because his business had received a Navy contract to make wire rope. The Examiner adds that, "Broderick was ready for the change. She had three children and became a travel agent, and while she didn't make any more movies, she conducted radio shows in St. Louis with some of her fellow Hollywood actors." That's Lucy with Broderick at left.
01.09.11
GIVE THE GIFT OF LUCY
That handsome chap you see at the left is...well, okay, it's me, hobnobbing with Lucy, Desi and Viv at the 1954 Emmys. Okay, not really, but...it's what I would have done had I been there. And when you can't be there, the spirit of Lucy is alive and well in the four books I've written about her and her cohorts in laughter (well, if I can't be shamelesly promoting myself on my own site, where can I ??) Pick up one or more of my books, especially the fourth edition of Lucy A to Z: The Lucille Ball Encyclopedia as well as The ABC Movie of the Week Companion, The TV Tidbits Classic Television Book of Lists, Lucy in Print, The Comic DNA of Lucille Ball, and The Lucille Ball Quiz Book by clicking here to order them online (at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Cathy's Closet) or at your favorite brick-and-mortar bookstore via special order.
