I love Lucy

[kenwashesmonday]

Desi was a star when he met Lucy. Let's not forget that he started the conga-line craze back in '39 and had a very succesful recording career with his band, which he gave up when he chose to move to television.

The 3 cameras were his idea, it was his idea to shoot on film, he hired the writers, and when Lucy is doing her shtick on camera, Desi is leading the off-camera laughter.

And, he was a hunk!

Ken D.

 

[jeffg]

Desi Jr ain't so bad either.. Woof!

 

[laundromat]

Lucy and Desi also decided to sell the films of their show to CBS.Desi decided to record them.Never before had anyone done that and instantly,reruns were born. Two positive things here

1) They could go on a 6 month vacation as a family and come back to record enough shows for the following season.This also allowed Desi and his orchestra to travil and do their own shows.But,Lucy hated Desi leaving out of town for weeks because she was well aware of his uninhibited infidelity. She was definately a home body,not a traviler. Lucy loved doing housework and keeping her home spotless using all Westinghouse appliances.

2) those who missed the original taping could see it at the end of the season when the reruns were being shown.

 

[appliguy]

Lucy was bigger star then Desi when they met Ken

Lucy had been in 40 films and shorts between 1933 and when she met Desi in 1940...and even then she was known as Queen of the B's. Desi was mostly known in New York and Miami with his orchestra at that time. The studios were originally going to groom him to be the ultimate latin lover bit when he got his citizenship in this country and joined the Army the studio's decided to groom Ricardo Montalbon as a latin lover instead. Also Desi DID NOT hire the writers and producer of I Love Lucy. Jess Oppenheimer, Madilyn Pugh, and Bob Carrol Jr. came on board at Lucy's request becasue they had served the same capacity on her radio show My Favorite Husband and she knew and trusted their talents. Lucy even wanted Gale Gordon and Bea Benaderet to play the Mertz's and the only reason they didn't is because Bea and Gale had already signed on to do other tv shows between the time My Favorite Husband went of the air in March 1951 and they shot the First I love Lucy show 6 months later.

Laundromat------I love Lucy was never recorded,I Love Lucy was FILMED!!!!! and before you accuse me of splitting hairs there is a difference. The first studio television tape recorder was introduced by Ampex in 1956 (did I get the manufacturer correct Danemodsandy?). Also from what I have read Desi and his orchestra never did shows during the Season Hiatus's they actually took a vaction and they were not 6 month try more like 3 months....... mainly because the Arnaz marriage was faltering (even though Lucy wanted to do TV becasue she thought it would save her marriage) and Lucy was never happier than hen she was working. As for your comments about reurns....Desi and Lucy did not sell their backlog of I love Lucy's to CBS until 1956. According to Jess Openheimer's autobiography, Laughter Luck and Lucy, CBS did not start showing reruns of I Love Lucy until the fall of 1955 when they ran them at 6:30 pm on Saturdays not during Lucy's monday time slot. In those days when a show went on hiatus a summer replacement show was put on in its place. In the early days of I Love Lucy it was My Little Margie that was its summer replacement (I have the First Season DVD and one of the extra's is the tag where Ricky and Lucy tell you they are going on vaction and reemind you to watch My Little Margie in their place while there gone and also not to forget to call for Phillip Morris Amreica's Finest cigarette). From what my research tells me that practice of having summer replacement shows went on into the 70's all though with less frequency as time went on.

Last off let me say I am not posting all this because I think I know more about the subject than anyone elese or that I am smarter than you guys. I am sure there is plenty I still do not know about Lucy. I posted this because beside being a Lucy fanatic, for better or for worse the Golden Age of TV is part of our history and our heritage and I just want to make sure it gets preserved properly. I also want you all to know that I got all this info from Lucy and Desi's autobiographies (Desi wrote his, in 1976 and it is long out of print and Lucille wrote hers, Love Lucy, in 1964 but it was not published until her daughter Lucie found it tucked away among her moms papers in the 90's) as well as Jess Oppenheimer's autobiograpy Laughs, Luck and Lucy.....

PAT COFFEY THE EVER LOVIN LUCILLE BALL-A-HOLIC!!!!!!

 

[perc-o-prince]

623 East 68TH street

Unless there was a flood recently, it shows up just fine on Yahoo! satellite maps (see link).

"Lucy had been in 40 films and shorts between 1933 and when she met Desi in 1940"

Hey appliguy- do you remember the 3 Stooges short she was in? Three Little Pigskins? Sing it: "B A bay, B E bee, B I bickey-bi, B O bo, bickey-bi bo B U boo, bickey-bi bo boo!!!"

Chuck (w/ a little help from Rich!!!)

http://maps.yahoo.com/#mvt=h&lat=40.624019&lon=-73.916013&zoom=18&q1=623 East 68TH street ny ny

 

[perc-o-prince]

Wait a minute- I think we combined two shorts in that last post. The song is from a short when they were mistaken for professors at a women's college IIRC, and not "pigskins!"

Pigskins was where they were mistaken for star football players. That one had Lucy.

Duh!

Chuck

<object width=425 height=344><param name=movie value=></param><param name=allowFullScreen value=true></param><param name=allowscriptaccess value=always></param><embed src= type=application/x-shockwave-flash allowscriptaccess=always allowfullscreen=true width=425 height=344></embed></object>

 

[danemodsandy]

Pat:

"The first studio television tape recorder was introduced by Ampex in 1956 (did I get the manufacturer correct Danemodsandy?)."

You did indeed. The first tape machine was introduced by Ampex as the VRX-1000 (later changed to the Mark IV); it was about the size of a large office desk, but taller - and it weighed a whole lot more. Remote or portable use was basically not possible; the machines were used in studios. Price was $50,000, enough to make even a television network flinch.

Both CBS and NBC were preserving shows on tape routinely by '57, mostly in black-and-white. Hollywood video editor Kris Trexler has one of the first colour videotapes, from 1958. Tape pretty much revolutionised television, and broke New York City's dominance in the industry - prior to tape, shows had to originate from the East Coast, because time zones go later from east to west. With tape (and improvements in the trancontinental coaxial cable inaugurated in '51), that wasn't necessary any more, and the networks' West Coast facilities became more important than their East Coast ones.

 

[westingman123]

Lucy exhibit in Orlando

Well, kids, we visited the Lucy exhibit some 10 years ago. I wandered, marveled, and read for hours. My eight traveling companions left me, until my dear friend Pam came looking for me. She found me bawling at the last kiosk where Lucie Arnaz said (in video) "We know you love Lucy, we'd like you to know she loved you, too.".

To say Lucy was a force of nature is rather an understatement, I think. Read the autobiographies of Lucy and Desi and I think you will determine that, while they were BOTH stars, Lucy was the pragmatic one. Desi was brilliant, yes, but without her fearless comedic skills I don't believe he'd have been as big as he was.

 

[laundromat]

623 E 68th St. Apt 4f

What is wierd about the map is,when I was in New York back in '91 and the Cooper Hewitt Museum was using a few of my appliances to show off in two different exhibits, I walked down E.68th st looking for 623 and it would have been out in the Hudson River. Two city blocks past the end of 68th St.

 

[MikeS]

On Lucy And Desi

As a television history buff and lover of all things Lucy, I have to say the success of "I Love Lucy" was a combination of factors--Lucy's brilliant comic skills and Desi's business savvy, making sure everything ran smoothly so that Lucy could perform at her best. Even after their divorce and until the end of their lives, both praised the other for their television success. In short, as Pat correctly points out, it was a mutual admiration society at its best--even when Lucy and Desi were at their lowest as a couple.

 

[appliguy]

Hey appliguy- do you remember the 3 Stooges short she was in

Actually Chuck I have never seen it....to be honest I have not seen most of Lucy's movies yet (with these exceptions: Best Foot Forward,The Long Long Trailer, Forever Darling, The Facts of Life, Yours Mine and Ours, and Mame).....but I would love to see this 3 Stooges short. I wish AMC would have a Lucille Ball Marathon and show a lot of her movies. By the way I am seethingly jealous of you and Rich. Your house is the kind of vintage house I hope to have someday. If you guys are ever going to be in Allentown again please let me know as my sister lives in Hershey and maybe I could work it so I could meet you in Adamstown when you are going to be there as I would love to meet you guys very much........PAT COFFEY

 

[appliguy]

Right on Mike S

you hit the success of I Love Lucy right on the head ... Desi once said upon being asked who was responsible for the sucess of I Love Lucy: "Well give Lucy 90% of the credit and split the rest between the rest of us" (meaning the rest of the cast and the crew, while Lucy always said Desi not only built the show but the whole Desilu empire which is very true....PAT COFFEY

 

[appliguy]

Oh and about Lucy's Westinghouse Electic kitchen

Lucy had an all Westinghouse Electric Kitchen (even her Mixer was a Westinghouse Food Crafter) until she and Ricky moved into the Benson apartment after little Ricky was born...that was the apartment where they had the Roper Gas range but the fridge was still Westinghouse but her mixer had gone from being a Westinghouse Food Crafter to a Sunbeam mixmaster

 

[appliguy]

and the loaf of bread that came out of the oven...

was a real loaf of rye bread made by the Union Bakery in downtown Los Angeles.....they put it on a board, took off the back of the range and on cue slid out to make it look like the loaf was attacking Lucy...of course in real life had she used that much yeast the loaf would have rose up until it got all tangled in the bake element of the oven and caught on fire (hey it happend when a friend of mine tried to bake bread in a toaster oven so I just naturally assumed....).PAT COFFEY

 

[appliguy]

Speaking of Lucy's Westinghouse range (again)

Look what's for sale in Bridgeport CT. I find that ironic since Bridgeport is a GE Town....PAT COFFEY

http://newyork.craigslist.org/fct/app/1423295678.html

 

[dirtybuck]

A Few Things About Fred and Ethel

Because of the way they despised each other, I can see Vivian making that crack about Bill Frawley.

http://www.findadeath.com/Deceased/v/Vance Frawley/vancefrawley.htm

 

[appliguy]

and most of what he said about Vivian Vance was WRONG!!!!!

I am sorry to be so blunt but the dude who wrote that stuff on find a death.com about Bill, Viv, and Desi got most of it wrong.

In all my research on I Love Lucy I never heard or read about Lucy taking Viv's dressing room when she was pregnant. Lucy's dressing room was so close to the stage that on the night that they were going to film the first I Love Lucy the fire marshal almost shut them down because there was no lady's room with in the proper distance of the bleachers as persribed by the fir dept . When they realized the one in Lucy's dressing room was close enough Lucy told the firemarshal that any of the ladies in the audience were welcome to use hers if they needed it. I also find it hard to believe that Lucy said that nasty comment to Viv as everyone that ever knew them then said they were devoted to each other like sisters.

Vivian suffered from mental illness in the 1940's WAY BEFORE SHE EVER MET LUCILLE BALL and a lot of people who knew her at the time attribute her illness to her then husband Phil Ober who was a mental bully. By the time I Love Lucy started in 1951 Vivian had spent years undergoinbg pyscho analysis.

The Mertz's were ALWAYS meant to be MORE than just incidental characters and Lucy was NOT annoyed at the fact that the Mertz characters were added to the show nor that they were popular Both Lucy AND Desi wanted the the Ricardo's to have another couple as friends just as Liz and George Cooper on Lucy's radio show, My Favorite Husband, had in the characters of Rudolph and Iris Atterbury. You are correct that Lucy wanted Gale Gordon for Fred Mertz (who played Rudolph Atterbury) and Bea Benaderet (who played Iris Atterbury) for Ethel Mertz but between the time My Favorite Husband went off of radio in March 1951 and the first I Love Lucy was shot in September of the same year both Bea & Gale had already contracted to do other things (although both Gale & Bea made guest appearances on I Love Lucy, Bea as Missus Lewis in a first season episode that did not include Fred and Ethel and Gale appeared twice as Ricky's boss at the Tropicana, Mister Littlefield). When she first met Vivian Lucy WAS a little skeptical that Vivian was right for the part of Ethel because in actualality Vivian was one year younger than Lucy and had quite a figure. You have to remember the Mertz's were supposed to be apporximately 10 years older than the Ricardo's.

It is FALSE that there was a stipulation in Vivian's contract that she had to be 20 lbs overweight. that was just a rumor that went around for many years and Lucy herself stated many times that was not true.

 

[sudsmaster]

Lucy and Desi had great chemistry in those early shows, even though the plots were usually quite ridiculous and often revolved around Lucy wanting to horn in on Desi's nightclub act, or Lucy scheming to do something or other behind Desi's back.

I remember seeing Desi Arnaz host the SNL show not too long before he passed away. I was shocked at how much he had aged, but he still seemed to have that mischievous twinkle in his eye, especially when a young Gilda Radner played Lucy for him.

In my opinion the later Lucy shows never really equaled the caliber of the early I Love Lucy series. Lucy had nobody to play against, really, and the shows suffered for it.

 

[dirtybuck]

I was never a big fan of "The Lucy Show" or "Here's Lucy". It seemed that every other episode was on the basis of Lucy or the guest star coming up with the idea "let's put on a musical show". It got old after a while.

 

[nurdlinger]

I never liked *I Love Lucy* very much

and I hated the later shows with Lucy and Gale Gordon. So I read this thread with some interest, finding out so many posters liked Lucy so much. The other night, Turner Classic cable channel showed a 1947 movie called "Lured" starring Lucille Ball, Charles Coburn, plus others I like such as Cedric Hardwicke. Because of reading this thread, I watched the film and enjoyed it very much. Lucy played the part straight, none of the overacting as seen on the TV shows. She was very good in her part. I will have to make a point to see more films, and reevaluate my opinion regarding Lucille Ball.