Lucille Ball Biography
Lucille Désirée Ball, 6 August 1911, Celeron, near Jamestown, New York, USA, d. 26 April 1989, Los Angeles, California, USA. An actress and singer, with a trademark mop of red hair, Ball was one of the all-time great American comediennes. Her influence on US television, both as a performer and an executive, was immense. Her father was an electrician and her mother a concert pianist. Ball left high school at the age of 15 in order to join the John Murray Anderson-Robert Milton Dramatic School in New York, and subsequently worked in the chorus of several stage productions; she also featured on giant billboards as the Chesterfield Cigarette Girl, before becoming bed-ridden with rheumatoid arthritis for two years. In 1933, Ball secured the role of a Goldwyn Girl in the Eddie Cantor movie Roman Scandals, and she continued with Goldwyn until 1935, when she signed a seven-year contract with RKO. In addition to comedy and more serious assignments, Ball played numerous minor roles in movie musicals such as Broadway Through A Keyhole, Bottoms Up, Hold That Girl, Kid Millions, Broadway Bill, Roberta, Old Man Rhythm, Top Hat, I Dream Too Much and Follow The Fleet, before taking more substantial, and then leading roles, in other musical features, including Joy Of Living, Room Service, That's Right - You're Wrong, Dance Girl Dance, Seven Days Leave, Du Barry Was A Lady, Best Foot Forward, Meet The People and Ziegfeld Follies. After she met the Cuban bandleader Desi Arnaz in 1940 on the set of Too Many Girls, in which she was top-billed for the first time, they were married in November of that year. During the 40s, as well as working consistently in movies for a variety of studios, Ball guested frequently on radio and gained her own network show, My Favorite Husband, in 1950. This concept transferred to television as I Love Lucy in 1951, with Arnaz playing the role of the fictional bandleader Ricky Ricardo to Ball's scatter-brained wife. As part of the deal, Arnaz and Ball's company Desilu Productions attained ownership of all 180 episodes of the series, which it sold back to CBS for $4.3 million in 1956. Playing an important part in the success of the show, which topped the ratings and won five Emmys, were William Frawley and Vivian Vance as the Ricardos' neighbours. It continued to thrive in various formats during the next few years, but came to a halt in 1960 after Ball divorced Arnaz. Desilu, which had expanded rapidly, was split evenly between them. Two years later, Ball bought out Arnaz's holdings in Desilu, and in 1967 she sold the company, which was then producing several top-rated series such as Star Trek and Mission: Impossible, for $17 million to Gulf & Western. Shortly after her divorce, Ball appeared on Broadway in the Cy Coleman-Dorothy Fields musical Wildcat (1960), in which she introduced the exuberant "Hey, Look Me Over". During the show's run she met comedian Gary Morton and they were married in November 1961. Ball returned to television with The Lucy Show (1962-68), Here's Lucy (1968-73) and Life With Lucy (1986), without recreating the magic of that first series. She also co-starred with Robert Preston in the much-maligned film version of Jerry Herman's stage hit Mame (1973). As well as several Emmys, her many awards included membership of the Television Academy's Hall of Fame, the Academy's special citation as First Lady Of Television, and Kennedy Center Honours.
Ball's children, Desi Arnaz Jnr. (b. Desiderio Arnaz, 19 January 1953, Los Angeles, California, USA) and Lucie Arnaz (b. Lucy Désirée Arnaz, 17 July 1951, Los Angeles, California, USA) are both television and feature film actors. Lucie is also a singer and cabaret performer. In 1979, she co-starred with Robert Klein in the Neil Simon-Marvin Hamlisch-Carole Bayer Sager Broadway musical They're Playing Our Song, and released her first solo album, Just In Time, in 1993. In the same year she and her husband, Laurence Luckinbill, were executive producers on the NBC television documentary film Lucy And Desi: A Home Movie. Desi Arnaz Jnr. played his father in the movie The Mambo Kings (1992).
Source: The Encyclopedia of Popular Music by Colin Larkin. Licensed from Muze.
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