Jamestown, New York on August 6, celebrated the 100th birthday of its most famous daughter, Lucille Ball, who died in 1989 at the age of 77. While Ball is known primarily for her comedic skills, she was a savvy business woman and a groundbreaker in the entertainment industry. Just consider this: Desilu, her production company with her first husband Desi Arnaz, retained the rights to all those episodes of I Love Lucy. CBS gladly relinquished those rights believing that after a show aired, who would want to watch it a second time? Ball thought otherwise. In succeeding years, Desilu made many millions rerunning Lucy’s antics on TV in the U.S. and abroad. As we now know, people love watching their favorite shows again and again. CBS gave away a valuable asset and the age of syndication was born.
One of the ongoing storylines on I Love Lucy centered on Lucy’s efforts to get into shows being staged by her husband, Ricky Ricardo (Arnaz) at his nightclub, The Tropicana. In reality, Ball was not only in the show, she was running it. The success of I Love Lucy was the result of her talent and vision. And we loved every minute of it.
In the days of three TV channels viewed on black and white sets, most sporting rabbit ears for better reception, families gathered to watch together and, for a stretch, from 1951 through 1960, Lucy, Ricky, Ethel, and Fred, provided the entertainment. Lucy Ricardo was not a poster woman for liberation. She never held a job and was totally dependent upon Ricky who could only be described as controlling. She was ribbed about dying her hair, wore dowdy clothes, and lived in a claustrophobic apartment. So what did we love?
We loved her comic genius, how she could make even the most ridiculous situation believable and hysterical. The plots often revolved around Lucy’s attempts to find a job, whether working in a chocolate factory (how we loved watching her hide all those chocolates in her hat and shirt) or acting tipsy as the Vitameatavegamin Girl. Uttering “I have an idea,” would often be enough to send Ethel and Fred running, knowing that what followed would be a disaster. Ultimately, the Mertzes would get sucked into Lucy’s plot and the result would make for another very funny show.
Celebrities these days love to nab guest roles on Glee or 30 Rock. But back in the 50s, big Hollywood stars signed on to appear with Lucy. When the Ricardos and Mertzes drove to California so that Ricky could film Don Juan, Lucy’s efforts to meet major screen stars was the ongoing storyline. Stars who appeared included John Wayne, Rock Hudson, Cornel Wilde, Harpo Marx, Richard Widmark, William Holden, Eve Arden, Van Johnson, and Hedda Hopper.
When Ball was pregnant with her second child, Desi Arnaz Jr. (a daughter, Lucie was born in 1951), her pregnancy was written into the show. (Although the network allowed the pregnancy storyline, the word “pregnant” could not be spoken on air. So Lucy was said to be “expecting”). The episode when Lucy gives birth was a ratings winner and the birth made the first cover of TV Guide in 1953.
Everyone has favorite Lucy episodes. It’s too hard to narrow it down to just one. Besides the Ricardos and Mertzes in Hollywood, we have all those episodes with them in Europe (remember Lucy trampling on grapes in Italy?), and later, when the show was relaunched as The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour, the shows followed the two couples on their move to the Connecticut suburbs. We often talk about the greats leaving behind a legacy. Lucille Ball left behind one for the ages and for all ages. She was a comic genius, a TV innovator, and a role model for generations of performers to follow.
