Lucille Ball in the News

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06.27.08 My dear friend, actress Marie Wallace, just notified me of several appearances she'll be making in the near future, and I wanted to share. (That's Marie at left, with her hair looking quite Lucy circa the mid sixties, eh?) Marie, a Broadway, TV and film actress who's probably best known for several of her roles on the cult soap favorite, Dark Shadows, has at least one Lucy connection: she was in the 1963 Broadway show Nobody Loves an Albatross, starring Robert Preston, which was written by a former Desilu employee and featured a character based on Lucy, played by Constance Ford. [You can read all about it only in the new 4th edition of Lucy A to Z: The Lucille Ball Encyclopedia.] Marie will be appearing, along with her friend, Larry Storch —who contributed a wonderful anecdote to my book, Sitcom Queens: Divas of the Small Screen, about a career boost Lucy gave him after WWII — Soupy Sales, and many other classic TV personalities at the upcoming Super Megashow and Comic Fest, July 12-13, in Wayne , N.J. Visit SuperMegashow.com for details. The fabulous Ms. Wallace will also be one of the stars at the Dark Shadows Fest, July 18-20 at the Marriott Burbank Airport Hotel, Burbank, Calif. She notes, "Besides the usual 'suspects' appearing there — [DS actors] Lara Parker, Kathryn Leigh Scott, Robert Rodan, John Karlen, Jerry Lacy, and yours truly — Jonathan Frid will do a rare dramatic performance and the actors will perform a Dark Shadows 'lost 1968 script.' ... Somehow they find a 'lost' script every year," she adds, wryly. If you see her at either convention, tell her I sent you! And pick up a copy of her book, On Stage & In Shadows, which I co-edited with our mutual dear friend, Craig Hamrick. It's a fascinating read for any show-biz fan.
06.24.08 Dody Goodman died today at the age of 93. The comedienne with the twitchy southern-tinged voice and ditzy personality was best-known as the mother on the seventies soap satire, Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, but had started out as a dancer on Broadway in the 1940s, and appeared with Vivian Vance on Broadway in the comedy My Daughter, Your Son, which ran from May 14 -June 21, 1969. Though not a hit, the two actresses became good friends during the run. It was a success in various stock productions; Vance and Goodman often toured with the show whenever either of them wanted a little extra cash.
06.15.08
At right, from 1944, the line king himself, Al Hirschfeld, created a "map" of the USA filled with then-current MGM stars, including Lucy, for the studio's publicity machine. Lucy is just below left of center, with William Powell to her left, Mickey Rooney to her right, Myrna Loy at top left and Katharine Hepburn at top right. I believe that's Hedy Lamarr at top center, but don't know who's depicted between her and Loy —though it sure looks like Sean William Scott! Can anyone help with the rest? Hirschfeld of course, drew Lucy many times throughout her career. This is from the book Hirschfeld's Hollywood. Thanks to Dave Woodman for the scan.
06.11.08 Several high-profile actors and others with Lucy connections have died in the past few weeks. I can’t do all of them justice with the full bios they deserve, but here’s a quick look at those who recently left us: Actor, director and producer Mel Ferrer died at the age of 90 on June 2. Of Cuban heritage, Ferrer was one of the founders of the La Jolla Playhouse, near San Diego, California, and lured pal Vivian Vance out of retirement (she’d had a nervous breakdown) to appear in The Voice of the Turtle there in July 1951. I Love Lucy director Marc Daniels took Desi Arnaz and Jess Oppenheimer to see Vance perform, and afterword Arnaz reportedly exclaimed, “We’ve found our Ethel Mertz!” ... Harvey Korman, best known as Carol Burnett’s variety show co-star, who, along with Burnett, Tim Conway and Vicki Lawrence, created some of television’s finest and funniest moments, died on May 29 at the age of 81. He won four Emmys for his TV work, and was inducted into the ATAS Television Hall of Fame (along with co-star Conway) several yers ago. Korman performed in three episodes of The Lucy Show that aired in 1964 and 1965. Burnett said through a spokesperson that she was “devastated” and “loved Harvey very much.” Korman was also known for his hilarious turn as comically corrupt politician Hedley Lamarr in Mel Brooks’ classic Blazing Saddles. … Finally, two people associated with Star Trek, a Desilu series that was one of the last greenlighted by Chairman Lucille Ball before she sold her studio to Paramount, recently passed away: Alexander Courage died May 15 at age 88; he composed the Star Trek theme song, one of the most famous and oft-played pieces of music ever written. Courage also orchestrated such musical films as Gigi, Bells Are Ringing, Hello Dolly, and Fiddler on the Roof. Joseph Pevney, who died May 18 at the age of 96, directed 14 episodes of Star Trek, including some of the show's most popular and best-remembered episodes, like “The Trouble with Tribbles,” “Amok Time,” and “The City on the Edge of Forever.” He also directed Lucie Arnaz in her 1975 TV movie, Who Is the Black Dahlia?
05.27.08 Dick Martin Dies at 86 Martin, the nightclub entertainer, comedian, actor, and television director, passed away over the weekend from respiratory failure. Martin, with his older brother Bob, had headed to Hollywood in 1942 at the age of 20 to try and break into show business. After working sporadically as an actor, writer and comic for radio, Martin found himself bartending in 1952 when he met and partnered with Dan Rowan. With Rowan as the handsome, sophisticated straight man, and Martin as the goofy zany, the pair became ever more popular on the nightclub circuit. In 2007, Martin remarked that although he thought they never really made it big in clubs, the pair became well known and respected in the business, and were never out of work. He also said it was his favorite era in his career.
Martin and Rowan also worked separately when possible, and that’s where the comedian’s Lucy connection comes in: he was a semi-regular on the first (black-and-white) season (1962-’63) of The Lucy Show, playing Lucy Carmichael (Lucille Ball) and Vivian Bagley’s (Vivian Vance) bachelor pilot neighbor. He was a good foil for both women, and a potential boyfriend for Lucy’s character, but the show went in a different direction and he left after the first season. A few years later, after a successful summer stint subbing for Dean Martin, Rowan and Martin were offered their own variety show, and the groundbreaking Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In debuted in 1968 (and ran through 1973). A totally irreverent, satirical commentary on the then-thorny era of the late 1960s/early 1970s, the show was an immediate hit and brought him lasting fame (and eternal association with the various catchphrases the show spawned, like “You bet your sweet bippy”). It aired opposite The Lucy Show and then Here’s Lucy, and comedian Arte Johnson (one of a repertory company that included future stars Ruth Buzzi, Goldie Hawn, Jo Anne Worley, Lily Tomlin, and Judy Carne), often ended the hour-long show saying “Good night, Lucy, I love you,” or some variation thereof.
Rowan and Martin continued their nightclub act until 1977, when they separated amicably. Rowan died in 1987, but Martin continued as an actor and well-regarded television director, beginning on his friend Bob Newhart’s classic series, The Bob Newhart Show. Martin also appeared as an interviewee in the insightful PBS documentary Finding Lucy (2000).
05.13.08Memorial Day weekend approaches, and for Lucy fans that means lots of things to do in Lucy's hometown, Jamestown, N.Y., in the lower western part of the state. During May, for example, the city's James Prendergast Library "has a special exhibit of studio audience radio and TV show tickets related to Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz," reports the Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Center, also, of course, located in Jamestown. "The display is from the private collection of Joel Tator. It includes a ticket from 1951 to attend Desi’s radio show, Your Tropical Trip, tickets to attend filmings of I Love Lucy [like the one pictured at left, which allowed the bearer to see episode seven, "The Seance"], and a 1977 ticket that would have gained you admittance to Circus of the Stars," featuring our favorite redhead as Ringmaster. Tator has spent over 50 years amassing more than 40,000 tickets, only some of which are related to the Lucy and Desi.
Other tickets on exhibit document Lucille Ball’s later series: The Lucy Show, Here’s Lucy, and Life With Lucy; Several Bob Hope television specials; and a ticket to the short-lived 1978 series, The Mary Tyler Moore Comedy Hour (with special guest Lucille Ball). Whenever possible, photographs from the TV shows accompany the tickets on exhibit, the Center notes. The Prendergast Library is located at 509 Cherry Street; hours are Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, 10 am-8:30 pm; Wednesdays, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; and Saturdays 10 a.m.-4 p.m. The exhibit is free and open to the public through May 31.
And while you're in Jamestown, you won't be able to miss the celebrating at The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Center. In addition to my friends — actresses Diane Vincent and Rhonda Medina, playing Lucy and Ethel, respectively, throughout the weekend; the lovely Wanda Clark (Lucy's personal secretary); and the equally lovely Dann Cahn (though I can only imagine what he'd say to that description!), I Love Lucy's film editor, among many other things — will be on hand, plus other celebrities and many special events. For information about the Lucy-Desi Days Memorial Day Weekend Festival, May 23-25, call (toll-free) 1-877-LUCY-FAN or visit www.lucy-desi.com.
05.12.08 On May 9, The Paley Center for Media Broadcast a special honoring TV’s All-Time Funniest in a variety of categories, including Dads, Moms, Kids, Neighbors, Friends, Relatives, and Coworkers. There were none of the typical categories like Best Sitcom or Best Comedic Actress, which explains why Carol Burnett, Carroll O’Connor, Jean Stapleton, Elizabeth Montgomery and many other television legends were not acknowledged. According to the Paley Center, “TV fans across the country were asked to choose their funniest characters in … eight categories,” with the results tabulated by Nielsen Media Research (the weekly TV ratings people). Lucille Ball, I guess, had to be mentioned one way or another, and Lucy was crowned TV’s No. 1 all-time funniest mom, though that’s not the first attribute we usually apply to Lucy Ricardo. But she was, indeed, a mother, and one wonders why, in that case, the Paley Center chose to illustrate her “Funniest Mother” honor with a clip of Vitameatavegamin, instead of one from “Lucy Goes to the Hospital,” i.e., the birth of Little Ricky (one of TV’s most-watched sitcom episodes, ever). Other good news: Fred and Ethel Mertz (William Frawley and Vivian Vance, above with Lucy and Desi Arnaz as the Ricardos) were chosen as the No. 2 All-Time Funniest Neighbors — behind Seinfeld's Cosmo Kramer (Michael Richards), No. 1.
By the way, in 2005, the Paley Center (formerly The Museum of Television and Radio) created the "She Made It" honor, recognizing female achievements in all areas of media. Among the first group of honorees was, of course, Lucille Ball, described as leaving her “indelible mark” on the media as a television producer, executive, director and actress.
05.06.08 Oh, for corn’s sake! Here’s a typical question about this subject: “Fred Mertz [William Frawley, left] on I Love Lucy always used to say “Oh, for corn’s sake!” whenever he was annoyed or exasperated at one of Lucy and Ethel’s crazy schemes. But I don’t remember ever hearing that phrase anywhere else, in the movies, theater, radio, or TV. Can you tell me what the origin of the phrase is and whether it was a popular expression of that era (the 1950s)?”

Well, I can tell you a little about where it came from, but not exactly when or where it was first used. The phrase itself does not come up when you search for it on any of the dozens of regular dictionaries and word usage sites, or even slang dictionaries. It’s as if it doesn’t exist. However, a general Google search will yield results, most of which lead to a book called Walter Tetley: For Corn’s Sake, about the character and voice actor who became best-known as Leroy, the nephew of The Great Gildersleeve on the popular radio show (1941-1954) of the same name. (Gildersleeve was actually one of the first spin-offs, focusing on a popular character from the hit radio series Fibber McGee and Molly.)
Anyway, one of Leroy’s favorite phrases was…you guessed it, “For corn’s sake!” That’s as far back as I can go. Several further points: Lucille Ball’s writers — head writer Jess Oppenheimer, Bob Carroll Jr., and Madelyn Pugh — all had lengthy careers writing for radio before joining up on Ball’s radio show, My Favorite Husband (which, of course, served as the template for I Love Lucy). So they had all heard the phrase “For corn’s sake,” perhaps many times, and it’s likely they appropriated it as an expression to help define the Fred Mertz character.
It must also be noted that show business in the electronic age has a long tradition of substituting “normal” or like-sounding words for profane words that would not make it past the censors. “For corn’s sake” might have originally been a substitute for “For Christ’s sake.” On TV currently (2008), you can catch another bowdlerized word on Battlestar Galactica, first popularized on the original 1978-‘79 version: “frack(ing)” or “frak(king),” used as an acceptable (for TV) expletive instead of “f—k(ing).” The new version has expanded the use of the word to such expressions/words as “What the frak?”, “Are you frakking her?” and “motherfrakking.” (Another cult sci-fi series, Farscape — 1999-2003 — created its own substitute words: frell for f—k, and dren for s—t.)
That’s all I can come up with for the origins of “For corn’s sake”: a made-up expression by the Gildersleeve writers, taken on by the Lucy writers, as a saltier or funnier (i.e., instead of “For goodness’ sake”) and less profane way of making a point, or defining a character. (And for frak’s sake, I think it’s enough!)
But since I’d been led to investigate Gildersleeve, I couldn’t help notice the unusual amount of connections between that show and I Love Lucy, Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, and on and on. As fellow fans, I thought you might be interested. The following all had radio roles on Gildersleeve, followed by their Lucy connection (in parentheses): Richard Crenna (first TV appearance was as a guest star on the first-season episode of I Love Lucy, “The Young Fans”; regular on the Desilu series Our Miss Brooks; hit series The Real McCoys filmed at Desilu; talking head on The I Love Lucy 50th Anniversary special, 2001); Barbara Whiting (starred with her sister Margaret on a short-lived Desilu show called Those Whiting Girls, created and written by Bob Carroll and Madelyn Pugh; appeared on a TV Guide cover with Lucy and Desi Arnaz as a result); Shirley Mitchell (played Marion Strong, Lucy Ricardo’s friend with the unusual laugh on I Love Lucy; guest-starred on the Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse; semi-regular on the Desilu spin-off Pete & Gladys; guest-starred on Arnaz’s sitcom The Mothers-in-Law, Oppenheimer’s sitcom The Debbie Reynolds Show, and Carroll and Pugh’s hit Alice; Bea Benaderet (co-star on My Favorite Husband as Lucille Ball’s character’s scheming friend; Ball’s first choice to play Ethel Mertz, but she was already co-starring on Burns & Allen and couldn’t take the part; and guest-starred on I Love Lucy in its first season); Gale Gordon (co-starred as Benaderet’s husband on My Favorite Husband; Ball’s first choice to play Fred Mertz on I Love Lucy but was already playing the principal on Our Miss Brooks; guest-starred several times on I Love Lucy as Ricky Ricardo’s Tropicana nightclub boss; guest-starred on The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour; co-starred with Ball in all of her subsequent series: The Lucy Show, Here’s Lucy, and Life With Lucy, as well as the specials Lucy Calls the President, Lucy Moves to NBC, and Bungle Alley, a pilot that Ball directed). We now return you to your regular programming. (Whew!)

05.01.08The original newspaper caption to the picture at left reads, "The pretty brunette, Cleopatra, who gets kissed by John Hodiak during the Mardi Gras sequences in Time for Two is Cleo Morgan, sister of Lucille Ball, who gets Hodiak in the picture." If you know Lucy's film career, you're aware of the fact that she never starred in a movie called Time for Two. She did, however, co-star with Hodiak in 1946's noirish Two Smart People, along with Lloyd Nolan. Can we say title change? The two played con artists on the run shadowed by sympathetic cop Nolan. It's a neat little B pic, and Morgan is not even credited. She was actually Lucy's first cousin, who lived with the Ball family for a while in Jamestown, N.Y. during Lucy's childhood. Lucy felt so close to Cleo she often referred to her as "my sister." Morgan did a few other film bits and ended up as a producer on Here's Lucy; she also produced Lucy's 1966 special Lucy in London. Hodiak was a handsome leading man who appeared in more than 30 films and a smattering of TV, then died young, at 41 in 1955, of a heart attack in 1955. Miss Ball, of course, went on to become a legend.
04.25.08 Once I Love Lucy became a smash hit, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz were enlisted to sell everything from furniture to baby clothing to matching pajamas. Lucy herself was a sought after spokesperson for a variety of other products as well, during her movie and TV careers. Now, in 2008, "Lucy" and several other celebrity icons have been enlisted to make a pitch for Armstrong vinyl floors. According to Trendhunter magazine online, "In order to promote their realistic-looking laminate floors, Armstrong has come up with this witty 'It only looks like the real thing' campaign. The campaign utilizes great photography and art direction for a realistic portrayal of dead icons in new images. Four print ads feature James Dean, Marlon Brando, Lucille Ball and Dean Martin in authentic poses and outfits with the Armstrong laminate floors. It’s done in good taste and delivers a strong statement about the product itself. The campaign was created by BBDO New York with awesome art and creative direction by David DiRienz and photography by Norman Jean Roy." I say, there's nothing like having one of the best known (and most seen ever) celebrity faces endorsing your product. The ads are clever, and of course, use celebrity lookalikes, as evidenced by the note in tiny print at the bottom of the Lucy ad: "Likeness of Lucilel Ball used with the permission of Desilu too llc." The latter company is run by Lucie Arnaz and Desi Arnaz Jr. Lucy's kids have been very careful about allowing the use of their mother's image, especially in advertising, but I think this is a cool choice.
04.23.08 Yours truly recently had the pleasure of being interviewed by pop culture critic and television historian Dave White as part of his Talking Television Internet radio series on KSAV.org. Dave, his cohosts Wes Britton and Ron Turner, and I talked about Lucille Ball, naturally, and my book, Lucy A to Z. It was the first of two parts (next week I'm on Tuesday, the 29th, 11 p.m. to midnight East Coast time, 8-9 p.m. in L.A. Feel free to e-mail questions or call in.). An hour plus commercials is not really time enough to even begin to cover Lucy and her career, but we gave it a good shot, and the show is already archived at the KSAV site. Click on the link, then click Archives on the left menu when you get to the home page, then click "Talking Television with Dave White," and finally click the date 04/22/08 (Lucille Ball Part 1) or 04/29/08 (Lucille Ball Part 2). Note that there's a half hour or so before the interview where Dave and his co-hosts discuss other subjects, most of them related to TV, of course. And during the interview itself, don't skip the commercial breaks — the commercials are all nostalgia-related, and in this case you'll hear Dino Desi & Billy plugging RC Cola, and Vivian Vance as Maxine, the Maxwell House Coffee spokesperson, among others. I want to thank Dave, Wes, and Ron for having me, and yes, I had a Ball!
04.11.08 Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz loved Palm Springs, California. They had a house there together for many years, and after they divorced, each settled there with their new spouses, Gary Morton and Edie Hirsch. Desi was known for his carousing, and often Lucy had to send a trusted friend to go get him after a night out of gambling, drinking and God knows what else. Ball was content to enjoy the atmosphere and play games like tennis or backgammon. The 50th Anniversary collector’s edition of Palm Springs Life (its April 2008 issue, on newsstands now) features several pictures of Lucy (one with Arnaz, at left, from the 1950s, and one (below right) with Morton, Magda Gabor (Zsa Zsa and Eva’s mom), and George Sanders (who was married to Zsa Zsa for five years (1949-’54) and married to Magda (!) for one year—1970-’71, probably the period when this picture was taken—and co-starred with Lucy in the 1947 movie Lured). You can read much more about Lucy, Desi, and Palm Springs in the 4th edition of my book, Lucy A to Z: The Lucille Ball Encyclopedia under the entry “Palm Springs.”
The April issue of Palm Springs Life is a must-have for any Lucy fan, or fan of Golden Age Hollywood in general. There are articles and pictures about every major star who ever vacationed, visited or lived in the desert playground. And if you visit the magazine’s website and do a search for “Lucille Ball” you’ll come up with more than a dozen articles, including one on I Love Lucy director William Asher and his wife, Meredith (Asher notes, “Lucy was a great talent and a great lady. And she worked for perfection in all she did.”) and one on Bob Hope’s film career in which he discusses his 1960 movie with Lucy, The Facts of Life. Writer Jill Borak reported in January 2000, "The Facts of Life was a daring picture for Bob. ‘It was the story of two handicapped people who fall in love. Their handicaps were his wife and her husband,’ Hope told her. “Hope writers Norman Panama and Mel Frank wrote the script. 'But not for Lucille Ball and me, the fools,’ Hope said. ‘Norman and Mel wanted to explore the adultery theme of Brief Encounter with an American story starring William Holden and Olivia de Havilland. The comedy in the last third of the film would have to go, unless … the writers brainstormed. Yes! We can save it by making it with Bob Hope and Lucille Ball!’ The deal was made. Recalls Bob: ‘Half of the profits went to a very worthy cause. And Lucille got the other half. It was a lot different from when Lucy and I made Sorrowful Jones and Fancy Pants together. Now she was the biggest star in television and owned her own studio. It was the first time I ever kissed a studio head.’ Pause. ‘Face-to-face.’" [I'm pretty sure Hope was joking about the money. In any case, he was perhaps one of the few in Hollywood wealthier than Lucy and the two were close friends.]
Finally, there’s another article you can find on the magazine’s site titled “In the Swing,” by Howard Johns from 1999, about the popular Palm Springs celebrity hangout, Chi Chi. Johns notes that, “The media described this giant supper club as ‘The second biggest nightclub west of the Mississippi,' where some of the brightest names in showbiz gathered for more than 25 years. Bigger than Ciro’s, better than the Trocadero, and more fun than the Mocambo that jammed L.A.’s Sunset Strip, the Chi Chi was a veritable shrine to live entertainment. Located on Palm Canyon Drive, it was the scene of many outstanding debuts, several exciting comebacks, and a few tearful farewells.”
Johns recalls one night in particular, October 10, 1950, after some refurbishing, when “The Chi Chi’s houselights were dimmed, and an amber spotlight illuminated the center stage of the newly completed Starlite Room, where 500 VIPs and celebrities sat shoulder-to-shoulder, white-linen-covered tables packed with bottles of Champagne, highballs, and Cuban cigars. A timpani drum roll hushed the excited audience as the curtain rose to reveal bouquets of tropical orchids, birds of paradise, stuffed green macaws, and the evening’s star attraction: Desi Arnaz, wearing a straw hat and twirling a cane, accompanied by his 17-piece orchestra.
“Arnaz welcomed the distinguished guests, many of whom had traveled by plane, train, and automobile for the special occasion. He then grabbed a conga drum, flashed a wicked grin, and launched into a pulsating rendition of his chart-topping song ‘Babalu.’
“The audience stomped and hollered their approval. ‘Busby Berkeley,’ Arnaz yelled over the microphone, referring to the movie director and choreographer of kaleidoscopic Hollywood musicals, ‘Eat your heart out!’
“Sitting in the front row on that unforgettable opening night was Arnaz’s wife, Lucille Ball, wearing a pink chiffon evening gown. Arnaz dedicated a medley of songs to his beloved redhead and blew her a kiss.”
04.01.08 Vivian Vance, as some of you certainly know, had a long and successful Broadway and touring stage career before she landed on I Love Lucy. Her stage productions are covered extensively in the new Fourth Edition of Lucy A to Z: The Lucille Ball Encyclopedia, which also includes pictures for the first time, many of them rare and not seen for decades. This picture (at left) is one of those, when Vance was just beginning to make noise on Broadway; it's an artist's rendering of her, circa 1939, that ran in one of the New York papers. Around that time she was co-starring in her first non-musical hit, supporting star Gertrude Lawrence in Skylark.
03.01.08Why are Lucy and Desi brandishing a heart in the middle of a parade in New York City, circa the late 1950s? The Arnazes were very charitable people, and the Heart Fund was honoring them for the money they raised. This photo was one of literally thousands I went through for the fourth edition of Lucy A to Z: The Lucille Ball Encyclopedia at a wonderful archive in New York called Photofest (thanks, Ron and Howard!). I ultimately picked 50 for the new 4th Edition of the book, but it was a tough process, taking hours of sifting and deciding just which ones would be right. I had to limit the photo count in the book to 50, and this is one of the photos that didn't make it.
02.06.08 The New York Friars Club honored our favorite funny lady, Lucille Ball, renaming its second floor Celebrity Room after her. Lucy's daughter, Lucie Arnaz, was a special guest of honor at an invitation-only reception in the new Lucille Ball Room that marked the occasion. Comedienne Joy Behar (The View) joined Arnaz to pay tribute to Ball, who was feted by the Friars while alive on more than one occasion, including an infamous 1958 roast of Lucy and Desi Arnaz, during which comedian Parkyakarkus (Albert Brooks' father) died of a heart attack immiedately after delivering his routine. Lucy is the first woman so honored (with her own room) by the Friars.
02.01.08 Lucy was at the end of her MGM contract when the studio put her in its lavish, Technicolor spectacular, Ziegfeld Follies, in 1946. But instead of using her in one of the comedy sketches, such as the one future I Love Lucy co-star William Frawley did with Fanny Brice about a winning lottery ticket, our redhead was wasted in an opulent, but pointless, opening number, "Bring on the Beautiful Girls." In dazzling Technicolor, Lucy rode herd over a bevy of gorgeous chorus girls, some dressed as panthers, and wielded a whip to make them "dance." Although campy beyond belief when viewed today (and Lucy has rarely looked more beautiful), the role was a five-minute cameo, and a perfect example of how MGM, among many of the other big studios like RKO and Columbia, just did not know what to do with Lucy onscreen, a beautiful star who could also clown around with the best of them. But that's okay — Lucy found her medium several years later, a new-fangled thing called TV, for which she and husband Desi Arnaz (also woefully misused at RKO and MGM) created the sitcom as we know it today with I Love Lucy. Eventually, their studio, Desilu, bought their old studio, RKO. Yes, revenge can be sweet.
01.02.08 Lucille Ball’s 1940 movie classic, Dance, Girl, Dance, one of her finest films and best performances, was added to the U.S. National Film Registry in the Library of Congress in late 2007, along with several dozen other films. According to the LOC, “Although there were numerous women filmmakers in the early decades of silent cinema, by the 1930s directing in Hollywood had become a male bastion, with one exception. Dorothy Arzner graduated from editing to directing in the late 1920s, often exploring the conflicted roles of women in contemporary society. In Dance, Girl, Dance, her most intriguing film, two women (Lucille Ball and Maureen O’Hara) pursue life in show business from opposite ends of the spectrum: burlesque and ballet. The film is a meditation on the disparity between art and commerce. The dancers strive to preserve their own feminist integrity, while fighting for their place in the spotlight and for the love of male lead Louis Hayward.” Brava, Lucille.

(For Lucy "What's News" items from 2006 and 2007, news, see the Lucy Archives page.)
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 brand-new fourth edition of Lucy A to Z: The Lucille Ball Encyclopedia, just out — 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 or at your favorite brick-and-mortar bookstore via special order.

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