Lucille Ball was born in Jamestown, New York, in 1911. She had a passion for performing and always dreamt of building a career in show business. Unfortunately, Lucy was not that successful as a drama school student, so, then she started a brief career as a model, along with having minor film roles. Eventually, Lucy Ball got the lead role in the radio comedy ‘My Favourite Husband.’
Speaking of Desi Arnaz, he fled from Cuba to Miami with his family after Batista’s rise to power. The man started to work as a musician and bandleader, eventually, these gigs led Desi to getting roles in movies. In 1940 Arnaz got acquainted with Ball at the RKO studios, where he was filming ‘Too Many Girls’ at that time. Five months later the couple got married.
One day, CBS thought of making a TV version of ‘My Favourite Husband’, and, of course, Lucy offered Desi’s candidacy for the role of her TV husband. However, people in charge would not agree to having a Cuban playing one of the lead roles. Yet, Lucy and Desi didn’t give up easily, the two decided to fight against this discrimination and, as a result, they were cast as Lucy and Ricky Ricardo in ‘I Love Lucy.’
In 1953, Lucy Ball further broke barriers in television, when her second pregnancy was worked into the storyline of the show. Both CBS and Phillip Morris, the show’s sponsor, had objected to a pregnant woman appearing on television. Interestingly, at the beginning, even the word ‘pregnant’ had to be changed to ‘expectant’ in the scripts.
The novelties of the ‘I Love Lucy’ production induced drastic changes in the television industry, since most TV shows at that time were filmed live. Ball and Arnaz offered to pay out of their own pocket in order to record episodes on high quality film in exchange for getting ownership of those films afterwards.
The profits from syndication were, eventually, used to create Lucy’s and Desi’s own production company called Desilu Studios. The studio is famous for producing hits like ‘Mission: Impossible’, and ‘Star Trek’. When Lucy Ball bought out Arnaz’s interest in the company after the couple got divorced, she became the first woman in charge of a Hollywood studio.
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There are several books available about Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, while their shows are available on DVD and Hoopla. After Lucy Ball’s death in 1989, an autobiography written in the 1960s was discovered among her belongings. It was later published under the title ‘Love, Lucy.’ The book includes family photos along with Ball’s reflections on her early days and stories of navigating the business.
‘Desilu: The Story of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz,’ by Coyne Steven Sanders and Tim Gilbert is a look behind-the-scenes at the professional and personal partnership of Lucy and Desi. Among the very popular ‘Who Was?’ series of illustrated biographies for children, you will find ‘Who Was Lucille Ball?’ by Pam Polack and Meg Belviso. This book combines the story of Lucile Ball’s life with some fascinating bits of trivia.
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