Lucille Ball

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Lucille Ball

Pin-up photo of Lucille Ball in Yank, the Army Weekly.
Born Lucille Désirée Ball
August 6, 1911(1911-08-06)
Jamestown, New York, United States
Died April 26, 1989 (aged 77)
Los Angeles, California, United States
Years active 1932–1989
Spouse(s) Desi Arnaz (1940–1960)
Gary Morton (1961–1989)

Lucille Ball (August 6, 1911 – April 26, 1989) was an iconic American comedienne, film, television, stage and radio actress, glamour girl and star of the landmark sitcoms I Love Lucy, The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour, The Lucy Show and Here's Lucy. Lucille Ball was one of America's favorite stars and had one of Hollywood's longest careers.[1] She was a movie star from the 1930s to the 1970s, and appeared on television for more than thirty years.

She received thirteen Emmy Award nominations and four wins.[2] She was the recipient of the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1979, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Kennedy Center Honors in 1986 and the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Governors Award in 1989.[3]

In 1929, Ball landed work as a model and later began her performing career on Broadway using the stage name "Diane Belmont". She appeared in many small movie roles in the 1930s as a contract player for RKO Radio Pictures. Ball was labeled as the "Queen of the B's" (referring to her many roles in B-films). In 1951, Ball was pivotal in the creation of the television series I Love Lucy. The show co-starred her then husband, Desi Arnaz as Ricky Ricardo and Vivian Vance and William Frawley as Ethel and Fred Mertz, the Ricardos' lovable landlords. After the show ended in 1960, Ball went on to star in two more successful television series: The Lucy Show, which ran on CBS from 1962 to 1968, and Here's Lucy from 1968 to 1974. Her last attempt at a television series was a 1986 show called Life With Lucy. The show proved to be a critical and commercial flop which was canceled less than two months into its run by ABC.[4]

Ball met and eloped with Cuban bandleader Desi Arnaz in 1940. On July 17, 1951, Ball gave birth to their first child, Lucie Desiree Arnaz.[5] A year and a half later, Ball gave birth to their second child, Desiderio Alberto Arnaz IV, known as Desi Arnaz, Jr.[6] Ball and Arnaz divorced on May 4, 1960. On April 26, 1989, Ball died of a dissecting aortic aneurysm. She was seventy-seven.[7] At the time of her death, she had been married to her second husband of twenty-eight years, standup comedian and business partner Gary Morton.[8]

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life and career

Main article: Lucille Ball filmography and television work

Lucille Désirée Ball was born to Henry Durrell Ball (September 16, 1886 – February 28, 1915) and Desiree "DeDe" Evelyn Hunt (September 21, 1892 –July 20, 1977) in Jamestown, New York and grew up in the adjacent small town of Celoron. Although Lucy was born in Jamestown, she told many people that she was born in Butte, Montana.[9] Her family was Baptist; her father was of Scottish descent, whose mother was Mary Ball.[10] Her mother was of French, Irish and English descent.[11] Her genealogy can be traced back to the earliest settlers in the colonies.[12]

Her father, a telephone lineman for Anaconda Copper, was frequently transferred because of his occupation, and within three years of her birth, Lucille had moved many times, from Jamestown to Anaconda, Montana, and then to Wyandotte, Michigan.[13] While DeDe Ball was pregnant with her second child, Frederick, Henry Ball contracted typhoid fever and died in February 1915.[14] After her father died, Ball and her brother Fred were raised by her mother and grandparents.[15] Her grandfather, Fred C. Hunt, was an eccentric socialist who also enjoyed the theater. He frequently took the family to vaudeville shows and encouraged young Lucy to take part in both her own and school plays.[16]

This content has an uncertain copyright status and is pending deletion. You can comment on its removal. Lucille Ball as a young model and starlet
This content has an uncertain copyright status and is pending deletion. You can comment on its removal. Lucille Ball as a young model and starlet

In 1927, Ball dated a gangster's son by the name of Johnny DeVita. Because of this relationship, her mother decided to ship Ball off to the John Murray Anderson School for the Dramatic Arts in New York City.[17] There, Ball attended with fellow actress, Bette Davis. Ball went home a few weeks later when drama coaches told her that she "had no future at all as a performer".[18]

Ball was determined to prove her teachers wrong and returned to New York City in 1929. She landed work as a fashion model. Her career was thriving, when she became ill with rheumatoid arthritis and could not work for two years.[19] She moved back to New York City in 1932 to become an actress and had some success as a fashion model for designer Hattie Carnegie and as the Chesterfield girl. She began her performing career on Broadway using the stage name "Diane Belmont" and was hired—but then quickly fired—by theatre impresario Earl Carroll from his Vanities and by Florenz Ziegfeld from a touring company of Rio Rita.[20]

She was let go again from the Shubert brothers production of Stepping Stones.[16] After an uncredited stint as one of the Goldwyn Girls in Roman Scandals (1933) she permanently moved to Hollywood to appear in films. She appeared in many small movie roles in the 1930s as a contract player for RKO Radio Pictures, including movies with the Marx Brothers and the Three Stooges. She can also be seen as one of the featured models in the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers film Roberta (1935), where she met her lifelong friend, Ginger Rogers.[21] She and Rogers played aspiring actresses in the hit film Stage Door (1937) co-starring Katharine Hepburn. Ball was signed to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in the 1940s, but she never achieved major stardom from her appearance in those films.[22]

from the trailer for Stage Door (1937)
from the trailer for Stage Door (1937)

She was known in many Hollywood circles as "Queen of the B's"—a title previously held by Fay Wray—starring in a number of B-movies, such as 1939's Five Came Back.[23] Like many budding starlets Ball picked up radio work to earn side income as well as gain exposure. In 1937 she appeared as a regular on the Phil Baker show. When that completed its run in 1938, Ball joined the cast of the Wonder Show staring future Wizard of Oz tin man Jack Haley.[24] It was on this show that she began her fifty year professional relationship with Gale Gordon who served as the show's announcer. The Wonder show only lasted one season with the final episode airing in April 7, 1939.[25]

In 1940, Ball met Cuban bandleader Desi Arnaz while filming the film version of the Rodgers and Hart stage hit Too Many Girls. Ball and Arnaz connected immediately and eloped the same year, garnering much press attention. Arnaz and Ball frequently argued, especially over his indiscretions with other women, but they always made up in the end.[citation needed] Arnaz was drafted to the United States Army in 1942. He ended up being classified for limited service due to a knee injury.[citation needed] As a result, Arnaz stayed in Los Angeles, organizing and performing USO shows for wounded GIs being brought back from the Pacific. Ball filed for a divorce in 1944. Shortly after Ball obtained an interlocutory decree, however, she reconciled with Arnaz again.[26] Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz were only six years apart in age but apparently believed that it was less socially acceptable for an older woman to marry a younger man, and hence split the difference in their ages, both claiming a 1914 birth date.[27]

[edit] I Love Lucy and Desilu

Ball as Lucy, Vivian Vance as Ethel on the "Job Switching" episode of I Love Lucy
Ball as Lucy, Vivian Vance as Ethel on the "Job Switching" episode of I Love Lucy

In 1948, Ball was cast as Liz Cugat (later "Cooper"), a wacky wife, in My Favorite Husband, a radio program for CBS Radio. The program was successful, and CBS asked her to develop it for television. She agreed, but insisted on working with Arnaz. CBS executives were reluctant, thinking the public would not accept an All-American redhead and a Cuban as a couple. CBS was initially not impressed with the pilot episode produced by the couple's Desilu Productions company, so the couple toured the road in a vaudeville act with Lucy as the zany housewife wanting to get in Arnaz's show. The tour was a smash, and CBS put I Love Lucy on their lineup.[28] The I Love Lucy show was not only a star vehicle for Lucille Ball, but a way for her to try to salvage her marriage to Desi Arnaz, which had become badly strained, in part by the fact that each had a hectic performing schedule which often kept them apart.[29]

Along the way, she created a television dynasty and reached several "firsts". Ball was the first woman in television to be head of a production company: Desilu, the company that she and Arnaz formed. After buying out her by-then ex-husband's share of the studio, Ball functioned as a very active studio head.[30] Desilu and I Love Lucy pioneered a number of methods still in use in television production today.[31] During this time Ball taught a thirty-two week comedy workshop at the Brandeis-Bardin Institute. Ball is quoted as saying, "You cannot teach someone comedy, either they have it or they don't."[32]

When the show premiered, most shows were aired live from New York City studios to Eastern and Central Time Zone audiences, and captured by kinescope for broadcast later to the West Coast. The kinescope picture was inferior to film, and as a result the West Coast broadcasts were inferior to those seen elsewhere in the country. Ball and Arnaz wanted to remain in their Los Angeles home, but the time zone logistics made that broadcast norm impossible. Prime time in L.A. was too late at night on the East Coast to air a major network series, meaning the majority of the TV audience would be seeing not only the inferior picture of kinescopes but seeing them at least a day later.[33]

Sponsor Philip Morris did not want to show day-old kinescopes to the major markets on the East Coast, yet neither did they want to pay for the extra cost filming, processing and editing would require, pressuring Ball and Arnaz to relocate to New York City. Ball and Arnaz offered to take a pay cut to finance filming, on the condition that their company, Desilu, would retain the rights to that film once it was aired. CBS relinquished the show rights back to Desilu after initial broadcast, not realizing they were giving away a valuable and durable asset. Desilu made many millions of dollars on I Love Lucy rebroadcasts through syndication and became a textbook example of how a show can be profitable in second-run syndication. In television's infancy, the concept of the rerun hadn't yet formed, and many in the industry wondered who would want to see a program a second time.[34] In fact, while other celebrated shows of the period exist only in incomplete sets of kinescopes too degraded to show to subsequent generations of television viewers, I Love Lucy has virtually never gone out of syndication since it began, seen by hundreds of millions of people around the world over the past half century. The success of Ball and Arnaz's gamble was instrumental in drawing television production from New York to Hollywood for the next several decades.[35]

Desilu also hired legendary German cameraman Karl Freund as their director of photography. Freund had worked for F.W. Murnau and Fritz Lang, shot part of Metropolis (1927) and had directed a number of Hollywood films himself. Freund used a three-camera setup, which became the standard way of filming situation comedies.[36]Shooting long shots, medium shots, and close-ups on a comedy in front of a live audience demanded discipline, technique, and close choreography. Among other non-standard techniques used in filming the show, cans of paint (in shades ranging from white to medium gray) were kept on set to "paint out" inappropriate shadows and disguise lighting flaws.[37][38]

I Love Lucy dominated the weekly TV ratings in the United States for most of its run. In the scene where Lucy and Ricky are practicing the tango in the episode, "Lucy Does The Tango," the longest recorded studio audience laugh in the history of the show was produced. It was so long, in fact, that the sound editor had to cut that particular part of the soundtrack in half[39] The strenuous rehearsals and demands of Desilu studio kept the Arnazes too busy to comprehend the show's success. During the show's hiatus, they starred together in feature films: Vincente Minnelli's The Long, Long Trailer (1954) and Alexander Hall's Forever, Darling (1956).

Desilu produced several other popular shows, most notably Our Miss Brooks (starring Ball's 1937 Stage Door co-star Eve Arden), The Untouchables, Star Trek, and Mission: Impossible. Many other shows, particularly Sheldon Leonard-produced series like Make Room for Daddy, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Andy Griffith Show, and I Spy, were filmed at Desilu Studios and bear its logo.

[edit] Testimony Before the House Committee on Un-American Activities

In 1953, Ball was subpoenaed by the House Committee on Un-American Activities because she had registered to vote in the Communist party primary election in 1936 at her socialist grandfather's insistence (per FBI FOIA-released documents in a declassified FBI file).[40] Immediately before the filming of episode 68 ("The Girls Go Into Business") of I Love Lucy, Desi Arnaz, instead of his usual audience warm-up, told the audience about Lucy and her grandfather. Arnaz quipped: "The only thing red about Lucy is her hair, and even that's not legitimate." Then, he presented his wife and she received a standing ovation from the audience [16]

[edit] Children and divorce

On July 17, 1951, just one month before her fortieth birthday and after several miscarriages, Ball gave birth to her first child, Lucie Desiree Arnaz.[5] A year and a half later, Ball gave birth to her second child, Desiderio Alberto Arnaz IV, known as Desi Arnaz, Jr.[6] When he was born, I Love Lucy was a solid ratings hit, and Ball and Arnaz wrote the pregnancy into the show (indeed, Ball gave birth in real life on the same day that her Lucy Ricardo character gave birth).[6] There were several challenges from CBS, insisting that a pregnant woman could not be shown on television, nor could the word "pregnant" be spoken on-air. After approval from several religious figures the network allowed the pregnancy storyline, but insisted that the word "expecting" be used instead of "pregnant". (Arnaz garnered laughs when he deliberately mispronounced it as "'spectin'").[41] The episode's official title was "Lucy Is Enceinte," borrowing the French word for pregnant.[13] The birth made the first cover of TV Guide in January 1953.[42] Ball's instincts with business were often astonishingly sharp, and her love for Arnaz was passionate, but her relationships with her children were sometimes strained. Lucie Arnaz, her daughter, spoke of her mother's "controlling" nature.[43] Ball was very outspoken against the relationship that Desi Jr. had with Liza Minnelli. She was quoted as saying, "I miss Liza, but you cannot domesticate Liza."[44] She had a few very good friends in the business: Ginger Rogers, Mary Wickes and Vivian Vance. All were childless; Wickes never married.

By the end of the 1950s, Desilu had become a large company, causing a good deal of stress for both Ball and Arnaz; his increased drinking further compounded matters.[45] On May 4, 1960, just two months after filming the final episode of The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour, the couple divorced. Until his death in 1986, however, Arnaz and Ball remained friends and often spoke very fondly of each other.[46] Indeed, both Arnaz and Ball spoke lovingly of each other after the breakup. Her real-life divorce indirectly found its way into her later television series, as she was always cast as a single woman.[47][48]

The following year, Ball did a musical on Broadway, Wildcat, co-starring Paula Stewart.[49] It was Stewart who introduced her to her next husband Gary Morton, a Borscht Belt stand-up comic who was thirteen years her junior.[8] Morton claimed he had never seen an episode of "I Love Lucy" due to his hectic work schedule.[44]That marked the beginning of a thirty-year friendship between Lucy and Paula. Ball immediately installed Morton in her production company, teaching him the television business and eventually promoting him to producer. Morton also played occasional bit parts on Ball's various series.[44]

[edit] Later career

The 1960 Broadway musical Wildcat was a successful sell-out that ended its run early when Ball became too ill to continue in the show.[44] The show was the source of the song she made famous, "Hey, Look Me Over", which she performed with Paula Stewart on The Ed Sullivan Show. She made a few more movies including Yours, Mine, and Ours (1968), and the musical Mame (1974), and two more successful long-running sitcoms for CBS: The Lucy Show (1962–68), which costarred Vance and Gale Gordon, and Here's Lucy (1968–74), which also featured Gordon, as well Lucy's real life children, Lucie Arnaz and Desi Arnaz, Jr. Ball appeared on the Dick Cavett show and spoke of her history and life with Arnaz. She insisted that Mame was by far one of her most favorite "family" movies she had ever done. During that interview, Ball revealed how she felt about other actors and actresses as well as her love for Arnaz. She continued by telling Dick that the success to her life was, getting rid of what was wrong and replacing it with what is right. (Talking about her divorce from Arnaz and marriage to Morton) Lucy also reveals in this interview that the strangest thing to ever happen to her was after she had some dental work completed and after placing lead fillings in her teeth, she started hearing radio stations in her head. She explained coming home one night from the studio and as she passed one area, she heard what she thought was morse code or a "tapping." She stated that "As I backed up it got stronger. The next morning, I reported it to the authorities and upon investigation, they found a Japanese radio transmitter that had been buried and was activeley transmitting codes back to the Japanese." [32]

Ball was originally considered by Frank Sinatra for the role of Mrs. Iselin in The Manchurian Candidate. Director/producer John Frankenheimer, however, had worked with Angela Lansbury in a mother role in another film and insisted on having her for the part.[50]

Ball at her last public appearance at the 61st Academy Awards in 1989 just four weeks before her death
Ball at her last public appearance at the 61st Academy Awards in 1989 just four weeks before her death

During the mid-1980s, she attempted to resurrect her television career. In 1982, Ball hosted a two-part Three's Company retrospective, showing clips from the show's first five seasons, summarizing memorable plotlines, and commenting on her love of the show.[51] A 1985 dramatic made-for-TV film about an elderly homeless woman, Stone Pillow, was well received. Her 1986 sitcom comeback Life With Lucy, costarring her longtime foil Gale Gordon and co-produced by Ball, Gary Morton, and former actor Aaron Spelling, was a critical and commercial flop which was canceled less than two months into its run by ABC.[4] The failure of this series was said to have sent Ball into a serious depression, and other than a few miscellaneous awards show appearances, she was absent from the public eye for the last several years of her life. Her last public appearance, just one month before her death, was at the 1989 Academy Awards telecast in which she and fellow presenter, Bob Hope, were given a standing ovation.

[edit] Death

On April 18, 1989, Ball complained of chest pains and was rushed to the emergency room of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. She was diagnosed as having a dissecting aortic aneurysm and underwent heart surgery for nearly eight hours. The surgery was successful, and Ball was recovering; she was walking around her room with little assistance.[7] On April 26, shortly after dawn, Ball awoke with severe back pains. Her aorta had ruptured in a second location and Ball quickly lost consciousness. All attempts to revive her proved unsuccessful and at approximately 05:47 PST, Lucille Ball died at the age of seventy-seven.[7] She was initially interred in Forest Lawn – Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles, but in 2002 her children moved her ashes to the family plot at Lake View Cemetery in Jamestown, New York where Ball's mother, father, brother, and grandparents are buried.[43]

[edit] Legacy and posthumous recognition

Ball has received many prestigious awards throughout her career including some that she received posthumously such as the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George H. W. Bush on July 6, 1989.[52] The Women's International Center's Living Legacy Award.[53] The Little Theatre in Jamestown, New York was renamed the Lucille Ball Little Theatre in her honor.[54] Ball was among Time magazine's 100 Most Important People of the Century.[55]

On August 6, 2001, on what would have been her ninetieth birthday, the United States Postal Service honored her with a commemorative postage stamp as part of its Legends of Hollywood series.[56] Ball appeared on the cover of TV Guide more than any other person; she appeared on thirty-nine covers, including the very first cover in 1953, with her baby son Desi Arnaz, Jr.[57] TV Guide voted Lucille Ball as the Greatest TV Star of All Time and later it commemorated the fiftieth anniversary of I Love Lucy with eight collector covers celebrating memorable scenes from the show and in another instance they named I Love Lucy the second most influential television program in American history.[58] Because of her liberated mindset and approval of the women's movement, Ball was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.[59]

Finally, she was awarded the Legacy of Laughter award at the fifth Annual TV Land Awards in 2007.[60] and I Love Lucy was named the Greatest TV Series by Hall of Fame Magazine.[19] In November of that year, Lucille Ball was chosen as the second out of the 50 Greatest TV Icons, after Johnny Carson. In a poll done by the public, however, they chose her as the greatest icon.[61]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Lucille Ball Bio. tv.com. Retrieved on 2008-04-02. “Lucille Ball is one of the worlds favorite actresses”
  2. ^ Lucille Ball - Biography. punoftheday.com. Retrieved on 2008-04-02. “Ball wins four Emmy's and nominated for a total of 13”
  3. ^ Kennedy Center: Biographical information for Lucille Ball. Kennedy Center. Retrieved on 2008-04-02. “Ball honored at the Kennedy Center”
  4. ^ a b Life With Lucy. TV Party. Retrieved on 2008-04-06. “"Life With Lucy" turns out to be a flop”
  5. ^ a b Lucie Arnaz Filmography. Fandango. Retrieved on 2008-04-05. “Ball suffers several miscarriages”
  6. ^ a b c Lucille Ball Timeline and Biography. twoop.com. Retrieved on 2008-04-05. “Ball gives birth to her children”
  7. ^ a b c Lucille Ball. Morbid Curiosity. Retrieved on 2008-04-06. “Lucille Ball is recovering and dies”
  8. ^ a b Desilu: The Story of Lucille Ball ... - Google Book Search. Google Books. Retrieved on 2008-04-05. “Ball meets Gary Morton”
  9. ^ Time Life. Time. Retrieved on 2008-04-02. “Lucille Ball's relatives”
  10. ^ Ball of Fire by Stefan Kanfer, Random House, Inc., 2003, pg. 10 ISBN 0-375-41315-4
  11. ^ Ball, Lucille (1997). Love, Lucy. New York: Berkley Publishing Group, 168-169. ISBN 0-425-17731-9. 
  12. ^ Genealogy.com: Ancestry of Lucille Ball. Genealogy.com. Retrieved on 2008-04-14. “Ball's genealogy”
  13. ^ a b YouTube - Lucille Ball on the Dick Cavett Show part 3. Youtube.com. Retrieved on 2008-04-13. “Ball talks about her father”
  14. ^ Lucille Ball. edwardsly.com. Retrieved on 2008-04-02. “Ball's mother and father”
  15. ^ Lucille Ball Biography. Notable Biographies. Retrieved on 2008-04-05. “Lucille raised by her mother”
  16. ^ a b c 8/6 Lucille Ball - Classic Film Comedy. Classic Film Comedy. Retrieved on 2008-04-05. “Ball's grandfather; Ball was released from "Stepping Stones"; Arnaz address rumors of communism”
  17. ^ Entertainment Celebrities - Google Book Search. Google Books. Retrieved on 2008-04-05. “Ball dates Johnny DeVile and moves to NY to attend school”
  18. ^ Ball, Lucille. Museum TV. Retrieved on 2008-04-02. “Lucille Ball and Bette Davis attend School for Dramatic Arts together”
  19. ^ a b Lucille Ball Biography, Bio, Profile, pictures, photos. Netglimpse.com. Retrieved on 2008-04-05. “Ball stricken with arthritis”
  20. ^ Lucille Ball at Hollywood.com. Hollywood.com. Retrieved on 2008-04-02. “Lucille Ball's stage name”
  21. ^ Lucille Ball. Everything2.com. Retrieved on 2008-04-05. “Ball and Rogers are lifelong friends”
  22. ^ Crouse, Richard J. (2003). The 100 Best Movies You've Never Seen. Toronto: ECW Press, 196. ISBN 1550225901. “"Stage Door" gives Ball her big break” 
  23. ^ James Harvey. Biography: Lucille Ball - Celebrity Biographies. helium.com. Retrieved on 2008-04-02. “Lucille Ball and Fay Wray listed as Queens of the B rated movies”
  24. ^ The Wonder Show Episode 3. Retrieved on 2008-01-03.
  25. ^ "The Wonder Show" - 1938 Radio Series - Starring Jack Haley, with Lucille Ball & Gale Gordon. The Wonder Show. Retrieved on 2008-04-09. “Lucy and The Wonder Show”
  26. ^ Lucille Ball biography. Essortment.com. Retrieved on 2008-04-05. “Ball and Arnaz patch things up before divorce became final”
  27. ^ Lucille Ball: Biography and Much More from Answers.com. US Census Bureau. Retrieved on 2008-04-02. “Discrepancy in birthdates”
  28. ^ I Love Lucy, Ricky, Ethel, Fred & Little Ricky Too! / Series Information. Geocities. Retrieved on 2008-04-02. “CBS did not want Arnaz”
  29. ^ Lucille Ball Collection. Lucille Ball Collection. Retrieved on 2008-04-05. “Ball tries to save marriage with "I Love Lucy" series”
  30. ^ American Masters "Lucille Ball: Finding Lucy". PBS. Retrieved on 2008-04-02. “Ball first woman to head a major studio”
  31. ^ Desi Arnaz. Clown Ministry. Retrieved on 2008-04-02. “Arnaz revolutionizes television”
  32. ^ a b Karol, Michael A. (2004). The Lucille Ball Quiz Book. [United States]: iUniverse, Inc, 201. ISBN 0-595-31857-6. “Ball teaches at Brandeis-Bardin Institute” 
  33. ^ "I Love Lucy" Turns 50 - Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, background info on influential, groundbreaking TV comedy. USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education). Retrieved on 2008-04-05. “Arnaz did not want kinescope”
  34. ^ Sitcoms Online - I Love Lucy. sitcomsonline.com. Retrieved on 2008-04-05. “I Love Lucy was the first show to introduce reruns”
  35. ^ Stars of the living room. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved on 2008-04-05. “Arnaz and Ball bring tv show to Los Angeles”
  36. ^ Adir, Karin (2001). The Great Clowns of American Television (McFarland Classics). Jefferson, N.C: McFarland & Company, 4-10. ISBN 0-7864-1303-4. 
  37. ^ Desi Arnaz. Clown Ministry. Retrieved on 2008-04-02. “Arnaz revolutionizes television”
  38. ^ Tom Gilbert; Sanders, Coyne Steven (1994). Desilu : The Story of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. New York: HarperEntertainment, 72-81. ISBN 0-688-13514-5. 
  39. ^ Hofstede, David (2006). 5000 Episodes and No Commercials: The Ultimate Guide to TV Shows on DVD 2007. New York: Back Stage Books, 149. ISBN 0-8230-8456-6. “Longest laugh in television history” 
  40. ^ http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/B/htmlB/balllucille/balllucille.htm Museum.tv Retrieved on 05-10-07
  41. ^ CELEBRITY COMMERCIALS IN TV�S GOLDEN AGE. teletronics.com. Retrieved on 2008-04-05. “The word "pregnant" replaces with "expecting"”
  42. ^ Biography of Lucille Ball, famous TV clown. Clown Ministries. Retrieved on 2008-04-05. “Ball makes cover of TV Guide with pregnancy episode”
  43. ^ a b Lucille Ball's grave. Hollywoodusa.com. Retrieved on 2008-04-05. “Lucy Jr. speaks of her mothers controlling nature”
  44. ^ a b c d Kanfer, Stefan (2003). Ball of fire: the tumultuous life and comic art of Lucille Ball. New York: A.A. Knopf, 35-37. ISBN 0-375-41315-4. “Ball talks about her dislike of Liza dating her son” 
  45. ^ Desi Arnaz History. Desi History. Retrieved on 2008-04-05. “Arnaz' drinking problem”
  46. ^ lucilleinfo_.htm. Library.Thinkquest. Retrieved on 2008-04-05. “Ball and Arnaz remain friends after their divorce”
  47. ^ Powell's Books - Review-a-Day - Ball of Fire: The Tumultuous Life and Comic Art of Lucille Ball by Stefan Kanfer, reviewed by The New Republic Online. Powell's Books. Retrieved on 2008-04-05. “Ball's real life divorce makes it into her new shows as showing her as a single woman”
  48. ^ Kanfer, Stefan (2003). Ball of fire: the tumultuous life and comic art of Lucille Ball. New York: A.A. Knopf, 72-84. ISBN 0375413154. “BAll and Arnaz remain friends” 
  49. ^ "Wildcat" - Original Broadway Cast. Geocities. Retrieved on 2008-04-05. “Ball does "Wildcat"”
  50. ^ Frankenheimer's DVD audio commentary
  51. ^ TV Land March 2007 --To Be Continued Free Fridays; Three's Company 30th Anniversary - Sitcoms Online Message Boards. TV Land. Retrieved on 2008-04-06. “Ball hosts Three's Company reflective”
  52. ^ Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient Lucille Ball, "I Love Lucy". Medal of Freedom. Retrieved on 2008-04-09. “Ball given the Medal of Freedom”
  53. ^ Welcome to Women's International Center. Women's International Center. Retrieved on 2008-04-09. “Living Legacy Award”
  54. ^ The Lucille Ball Little Theater of Jamestown, INC.. Designsmiths. Retrieved on 2008-04-09. “Renaming of the "Little Theater" in Jamestown, New York”
  55. ^ TIME Magazine: TIME 100 - People of the Century. Time. Retrieved on 2008-04-09. “Ball named one of Times 100 People of the Century”
  56. ^ USPS - Stamp Release No. 01-057 - LEGENDARY HOLLYWOOD STAR LUCILLE BALL HONORED ON U.S. POSTAGE STAMP. US Post Office. Retrieved on 2008-04-09. “Ball honored on a Postage Stamp”
  57. ^ Lucille Ball - Photos, Bio and News for Lucille Ball. TV Guide. Retrieved on 2008-04-09. “Lucy appears on thirty-nine covers of TV guide”
  58. ^ TiVo Community Forums Archives - TV Guide's 50 Best Shows of All Time. TV Guide. Retrieved on 2008-04-09. “TV Guides second most influential show of all time”
  59. ^ National Women's Hall of Fame. Great Women Organization. Retrieved on 2008-04-09. “Ball inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame”
  60. ^ TV Land loves Lucy. Los Angeles Times (April 15, 2007). Retrieved on 2007-05-10.
  61. ^ Associated Press. "Carson tops list of 50 greatest TV icons", MSNBC, 16 November 2007. Retrieved on 2008-03-19. 

[edit] Further reading

[edit] External links

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Awards
Preceded by
Red Skelton		 Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award
1979		 Succeeded by
Henry Fonda
v • d • e
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress - Comedy Series

Gertrude Berg (1950) · Imogene Coca (1951) · Lucille Ball (1952) · Eve Arden (1953) · Lucille Ball (1955) · Nanette Fabray (1956) · Jane Wyatt (1957) · Jane Wyatt (1959) · Jane Wyatt (1960) · Shirley Booth (1962) · Shirley Booth (1963) · Mary Tyler Moore (1964) · Mary Tyler Moore (1966) · Lucille Ball (1967) · Lucille Ball (1968) · Hope Lange (1969) · Hope Lange (1970) · Jean Stapleton (1971) · Jean Stapleton (1972) · Mary Tyler Moore (1973) · Mary Tyler Moore (1974) · Valerie Harper (1975)
Persondata
NAME Ball, Lucille Désirée
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lucy
SHORT DESCRIPTION Actress
DATE OF BIRTH August 6, 1911(1911-08-06)
PLACE OF BIRTH Jamestown, New York
DATE OF DEATH April 26, 1989
PLACE OF DEATH Los Angeles, California