Lucille Ball And I Love Lucy Show

 Lucille Ball (1911-1989)

One of America’s and my, most beloved comedians, Lucille Ball is particularly known for her iconic television show I Love Lucy.

If you live on earth there is a pretty good chance you have seen the show.

Lucille Ball is best known as a comedienne, but her career didn’t start out that way. After working as a model in New York City, Ball came to Hollywood as a showgirl. She went on to act in a number of films, but didn’t become a household named until 1951, when she captured the nation’s heart as a flame-haired housewife named Lucy Ricardo. American Experience spoke with Kathleen Brady, author of Lucille: The Life of Lucille Ball, about the actress’s comic genius, and the revolutionary show that still has us laughing.

Lucy’s career began in 1929 when she landed work as a model. Shortly thereafter, she began her performing career on Broadway using the stage names Diane Belmont and Dianne Belmont.

She later appeared in several minor film roles in the 1930s and 1940s as a contract player for RKO Radio Pictures, being cast as a chorus girl or in similar roles. During this time, she met Cuban bandleader Desi Arnaz, and the two eloped in November 1940.

Ball’s popularity as a comedienne really took off with the radio show My Favorite Husband.

My Favorite Husband 109 Eps : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

(109 Episodes) (AFRTS Programs Listed) My Favorite Husband … was/is a 1948-1951, 124 episode, CBS Radio situation comedy. The star billings of this very…

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In the 1950s, Lucy ventured into television. In 1951, she and Arnaz created the sitcom I Love Lucy, a series that became one of the most beloved programs in television history. The same year, Lucy gave birth to their first child, Lucie Arnaz, followed by Desi Arnaz Jr. in 1953.

October 15, 1951, I Love Lucy made its debut, and to the television viewing audience across the country it was immediately apparent this was a sitcom like no other. Bombastic and daring, the show, which co-starred Vivian Vance and William Frawley, as Lucy and Desi’s two best friends, set the stage for a generation of family-related sitcoms to come. The program included story lines that dealt with marital issues, women in the workplace and suburban living.

Ball would appear in 72 movies during her long career, including a string of second-tier films in the 1940s that garnered her the unofficial title “The Queen of B Movies.” One of the earliest ones, a movie called Dance, Girl, Dance, introduced her to a handsome Cuban bandleader named Desi Arnaz. The two appeared together in Ball’s next film, Too Many Girls, and before the year was out, the pair fell madly in love and married.

Lucy and Desi divorced in May 1960, and she married comedian Gary Morton in 1961.

In 1962, Ball became the first woman to run a major television studio, Desilu Productions, which produced many popular television series, including Mission: Impossible and Star Trek.

 

More acting work followed, including a pair of sitcoms, The Lucy Show (1962-68) and Here’s Lucy (1968-73). Both achieved a modest level of success, but neither captured the magic that had defined her earlier program with Arnaz. It didn’t matter, though. Even if she had never done another piece of acting again, Lucille Ball’s impact on the world of comedy and the television industry in general would have been widely recognized.

In 1971 she became the first woman to receive the International Radio and Television Society’s Gold Medal. In addition there were four Emmys, induction into the Television Hall of Fame and recognition for her life’s work from the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

In 1985, Ball strayed from her comedic background to take on a dramatic role as a homeless woman in the made-for-TV movie Stone Pillow. While it was hardly a smash hit, Ball earned some praise for her performance. Most critics, though, wanted to see her return to comedy, and in 1986 she debuted a new CBS sitcom, Life With Lucy. The program earned its star $2.3 million but not much of an audience. After just eight episodes it was canceled.

It was to be Ball’s last real television role. Three years later, on April 26, 1989, she died from a ruptured aorta following open-heart surgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

– YouTube

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I Love Lucy

I Love Lucy is an American television sitcom that originally ran on CBS from October 15, 1951, to May 6, 1957, with a total of 180 half-hour episodes spanning 6 seasons (including the ‘lost’ original pilot and Christmas episode). The show starred Lucille Ball, her real-life husband Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, and William Frawley.

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