Lucy & Desi: The Legendary Love
Story of Television’s Most Famous Couple (1991, this edition 2016) is about the
comedic married duo Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz in the 1950s. Romantic and
loving on screen, playing Lucille Mcgillicuddy and Ricky Ricardo for 8 years;
volatile and dysfunctional off screen in real life; they stayed married
for 19 years due to their two children, and their joint businesses, including equal
investments in the Desilu Productions (subsequently Paramount Studios and CBS
Television Studios).
This biography details their lives
from the day they met in June 1940 (when Desi was 23 and Lucy was 29) to the divorce proceedings initiated in
November 1959, and beyond, with all its laughter and tears.
From Cuba, Desi Arnaz (1917-1986) was
a band-leader and American Lucy Ball (1911-1989) was an aimless actress when
they first met. Together they had the ‘chemistry’ that produced one of the
greatest television empires of all time, with nearly 30 television shows on all
three major networks. For example, Desilu produced The Untouchables, Star Trek,
and Mission Impossible.
Never a redhead, Lucy became one of
the best known redheads in history. Her friend thought she should dye her hair
red for a week-long theatre role as a ex-shopgirl in 1927. ‘I had no talent … I
couldn’t dance. I couldn’t sing … I had no flair. I wasn’t a beauty, that’s for
sure’ so she acted as the ‘studio clown’ to get attention. After her rise to
fame, enough hair dye ‘to last her to age 110 at least’ was stored in a
disaster-proof safe.
Desi, on the other hand, had talent.
He had his own orchestra by the time he was 20, playing in Miami Beach. He
could sing and dance (even if it was only the conga, which he initiated at his
club to get audience participation). And he was charismatic. Desi was hired for
a part on Broadway as a singing-and-dancing actor in Too Many Girls in 1939 and
in the movie in 1940. Lucy was hired as one of the ‘too many girls.’
The first joint television appearance
of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz took place on Ed Wynn’s broadcast in December
1949. They performed separately, but took bows together.
This biography sets the historical
aspects of Broadway, the film industry, the radio industry, and finally, the
televison industry and the first use of Super Cinecolor (a cheap alternative to
Technicolor). Television was the new media. In 1948 in America 1.2 million people
had a television set, which rose to almost 4 million a year later. Manufacturers
were predicting additional sales of at least 5 million sets in 1950. Lucy and
Desi capitalized on this growing trend.
The biography concludes with the lives
of Lucy and Desi’s children, Lucie (1951-) and Desi Jr (1953-) and the legacy
of the television show: When I Love Lucy became a television program, it was a
slapstick sitcom. Added to the mix was the rarity – a female comedic lead. It
made history in audience domination and for being filmed in front of a live
studio audience. Success did not end when the 8-year program ended in 1957: I
Love Lucy continued an enduring legacy across the globe to the present day. In 2017
Gillian Anderson portrayed the Lucy Ricardo character in the American Gods
episode, ‘The Secret of Spoons.’
This biography is detailed in its
descriptions of work and home life, the highs and lows of show business, and
the volatile arguments between Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz (who started them and
what they were about). It is an incredibly interesting account of the private
lives of a public couple.
MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom
(2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest
Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The
Sudan Curse (2009).
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