America still loves Lucy. Decades after the famous red head helped make television popular, she is still going strong on vintage channels like TV Land and Nickelodean. In a time when many famous comedians like Charlie Chaplain and W.C. Fields are relatively unknown to the youth of today, those very same kids know and appreciate Lucille Ball.
Born Lucille Desiree Ball on August 6, 1911, in Jamestown, New York, Lucy’s early life was not all fun and games. Her father died before she was four and her mother worked constantly to support the family. This left Lucy and her brother to be raised by their grandparents.
A responsible teenager who willingly helped out by taking care of her brother, Lucy longed to do something creative with her life. She eventually decided to become an actress. At age 15 Lucy moved to New York to join the John Minto-John Murray Anderson School of Drama. Unfortunately, she did not excel there. She always seemed lost in the shadow of her classmate Bette Davis.
Lucy’s slim figure caught the attention of Hatter Carnegie, for whom she served as a model for a number of years. This helped her gain attention which led to her being chosen as a Goldwyn Girl in the 1933 musical “Roman Scandals.” From there she became a contract player for Columbia Pictures and then eventually for RKO Pictures.
Ball appeared in over 30 movies between 1935 and 1942. Most were extremely small roles in films such as “Top Hat,” however, she was able to star in a few B-pictures and one or two A roles in movies like “Stage Door” (with Katherine Hepburn and Ginger Rogers) and “Room Service” with the Marx Brothers.
Stardom continued to allude Lucy. But during a 1940 film entitled “Too Many Girls”, she met and fell in love with a young Cuban entertainer named Desi Arnaz. Despite their religious differences and age divide (Desi was six years her junior.), the couple fell hard for one another. Following an intensely passionate romance, they eloped in November of 1940.
In 1942, during the shooting of another musical – – “DuBarry was a Lady” – – Lucy’s hair was dyed an intense flaming red color. Little did she know at the time, that this change in her look would make a huge difference in her life. Due primarily to her lack of Hollywood success, Lucy decided to sharpen her acting abilities as well as explore avenues in which she might eventually excel.
In 1948, Lucy abandoned her hopes of becoming a movie star and turned her attention to radio. She was hired to do a show entitled “My Favorite Husband.” Her character, Liz Cooper, was the ditzy wife of a Midwestern banker. The hook for the comedy was her character’s inability to stay out of trouble. Once again, Lucy had inadvertently struck gold; although it wouldn’t pay off for her until 1950 when CBS came knocking with an offer to turn her hit radio show into a television series.
At first, Ball was extremely reluctant to enter into the new medium of television. However, when she and Desi started having serious marital issues, she felt that the new show might offer them an opportunity to work together.
It took every bit of her business savvy to convince CBS officials to allow Desi to play her husband in the new series. Once she had accomplished that task, she also set about getting them to sign over creative control and all rights to the series. This led to the development of Desilu Productions. What resulted was the most popular and universally beloved sitcom of all time in “I Love Lucy!”
For more than a decade Lucille Ball was America’s most popular comedian. She stared in five different television series during her career. They were:
- “I Love Lucy,” which ran from 1951 until 1957;
- “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour,” which ran from 1957 until 1960;
- “The Lucy Show,” which ran from 1962 until 1967,
- “Here’s Lucy,” which ran from 1970 until 1974; and
- “Life with Lucy,” which only lasted one year in 1986.
Lucy also made two movies with her husband, Desi: “The Long Trailer” in 1954 and “Forever Darling” in 1956. However, the two couldn’t hold their marriage together and divorced in 1960. In 1961, Lucy met and married Gary Morton who served as the producer of her later projects.
Oddly enough it was in her later years that Ball finally found the film fame that she had so long sought with winning performances in “Mame” and “Yours, Mine, and Ours.”
Always recognizable with her blazing red locks and comical facial gestures, Lucy prat-falled her way into the hearts of Americans as well as millions of people throughout the world. Her wit, warmth, and charm, as well as her willingness to make fun of herself in any and every situation endeared her to both television and film fans alike.
Although her talent was never totally recognized and she was often underrated as a dramatic actress, it really didn’t matter. Lucille Ball will always be remembered for breaking some major television boundaries by establishing a woman’s right to be in charge of her own life. She will also go down in history for breaking some TV taboos such as allowing a pregnant woman to be shown on the small screen as well as for the birth of television’s first child.
I know of no one who can outclass Lucy in terms of style, grace, wit, charm, poise, courage, and sheer comedic talent. I believe she is The Top Comedian of all Time.
