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How We Loved Lucy

The simple typewritten note from Desilu Productions in Hollywood is dated April 27, 1964, and is addressed to Mr. Haig Harris, President of the Rancho Mirage Chamber of Commerce.

“Dear Mr. Harris:

May I extend my sincerest thanks to you and the Chamber of Commerce of Rancho Mirage for the honor you have bestowed by electing me Honorary Mayor. It’s always nice to have such good friends near your home away from home. Warmest regards, (signed) Lucy”

The Chamber of Commerce had elected the much-beloved television icon and part-time Thunderbird Country Club resident as their Honorary Mayor almost a decade before Rancho Mirage was incorporated as a city.

The framed letter from Lucy is one of the Rancho Mirage Chamber’s dearest treasures and shares a special space on the visitor center’s wall along with a signed photo of President Jerry and Betty Ford; another photo of Mrs. Ford speaking at a Chamber event from the early 1980s and a signed photo of Dinah Shore.

My own interest in Lucy was sparked by the recent revelation that she is my fifth cousin (twice removed) on my father’s side of the family. Delving into the many books and articles written about Lucy’s life and watching hour after hour of shows from the 19 years of her television work, as well as some of her 88 motion pictures that are available on DVD, has been a rather daunting, but enjoyable task.

Why did America have a fascination with Lucy? Was it because the television show was a big ratings winner that was wisely put on film and then syndicated all over the world? Perhaps it was her incredible and relatable talent as a performer. Perhaps it is because the new medium of television was more intimate, being broadcast into America’s living rooms.

Lucy was born on August 6, 1911, in Jamestown, New York, the first child of 18-year-old Desiree (DeDe) Hunt and 23-year-old Henry Durell Ball. Ball was a telephone lineman who had moved from New York to Missoula, Montana, while working for Bell Telephone. DeDe wanted to have the baby in Jamestown, as her mother was an experienced midwife, so they traveled back east several weeks before Lucy’s birth.

After her birth, the family ended up in Wyandotte, Michigan, where the telephone company had stationed her father. However, tragedy would befall the young family when her father became ill with typhoid fever after eating unpasteurized contaminated ice cream. During Henry Ball’s illness, DeDe tried to keep three-and-a-half-year-old Lucy out of the sick house by harnessing her to a clothesline along the side of the house. Other times, she would have the local grocer take care of the little girl, where Lucy would dance and recite nursery rhymes for pennies or candy from amused customers.

Lucy didn’t remember much about her father, but remembered the day of his death, February 28, 1915, as a bird flew into their home, frightening her greatly. From then on, Lucy would have an unnatural fear of birds in paintings or wallpaper and would not stay in a hotel room with bird art on the walls.

DeDe and little Lucy escorted their husband and father’s body back to Jamestown by train. After Ball’s burial, they moved in with DeDe’s parents, Fred and Flora Belle Hunt. DeDe was pregnant with her late husband’s child, who was born in July 1915 and named Fred Ball, after his grandfather. DeDe suffered greatly from post-partum depression, so her parents bought her a train ticket to visit California to clear her mind. Lucy was farmed out to her mother’s sister and brother-in-law, Lola and George Mandicos. Aunt Lola worked at a busy beauty salon and brought little Lucy with her to work each day. Lucy remembered that as a happy time.

As World War I broke out, DeDe found work in a war assembly plant, where she caught the attention of a plant foreman named Ed Peterson. They dated briefly and soon announced their plans to marry. But Lucy’s hopes of having a complete family were dashed when she asked Peterson if he was her new daddy, and he told her to call him Ed.

Before long the newlyweds packed up and headed to Detroit for better-paying jobs. They left Fred with DeDe’s parents and left Lucy with Ed Peterson’s mother, Sophia, a stern, and elderly religiously-devout, Swedish immigrant. Sophia didn’t appreciate Lucy’s smart mouth or childish behavior and made the girl roll linen towels and wash dishes, sometimes over and over again, until “Grandma Peterson” would give approval. This was not a happy time of her childhood.

After a year or so, Lucy’s grandfather, Fred Hunt, whom she called “Daddy,” bought a larger two-story home in Celeron. Her mother returned with Ed Peterson from Detroit and they collected Lucy from Grandma Peterson’s to live as a family under one roof. Joining them was now divorced Aunt Lola and her daughter Cleo. The family seemed happy for a short while, until Lucy’s grandmother, Flora Hunt, became ill from uterine cancer. She passed away when Lucy was only 11 years old. With her death came the end of adult supervision in the household, as all the adults were working. It was up to Lucy to supervise her younger brother and cousin to get the daily household chores done before the adults came home from work. Lucy would spend most of their chore time play acting with her young charges and then rush to get the beds made before her mother came home.

As Lucy became a teenager, her interest in performing increased after her grandfather had taken her to traveling vaudeville shows. Lucy said that after seeing the shows all she wanted to do was work in vaudeville and make people laugh. Lucy would not give up on this dream. Finally her mother sent her to a dramatic school in New York City, but after three months the school sent her home, telling her mother that she didn’t have talent and that she should go home and get married.

Lucy returned to high school, but a few months later tragedy struck the family when, while Grandpa Hunt was teaching the children how to shoot a .22 rifle in the backyard, a young neighbor boy was struck and paralyzed by a bullet fired by a friend of Lucy’s brother, Fred. Since Grandpa Hunt owned the gun and was with the children, he was sued for gross negligence by the parents of the boy who was wounded. As a result, he lost the house along with every dime the family had. The family soon broke up: Grandpa Hunt went to live with some distant relatives further upstate in New York; Aunt Lola moved away to attend nursing school; Cousin Cleo was sent to live with her father and Lucy, her brother, mother and step-father moved into a basement apartment in Jamestown. This bitter indignity gave Lucy the dream and ambition to get the family all back together again.

She went back to New York City for another shot to get on stage and several times actually made it into the chorus lines. Those opportunities were always brief, however, and Lucy would end up taking any job she could get so she would be able to eat. After nearly a year, she heard that coat models were needed at Hattie Carnegie’s, a very upscale clothing boutique on Manhattan’s upper east side. Hattie hired Lucy on the spot, as she was slender and tall, but told Lucy that she needed to have blonde hair. Lucy came to work the next day as a peroxide blonde and was soon modeling very expensive gowns and outfits for Hattie’s well-to-do clients.

After a few years as a model, Lucy ran into an agent one day on the streets of New York who asked her if she wanted to go to California.

The agent told her that he had just come from Sam Goldwyn’s office. Goldwyn was making a film in Hollywood called “Roman Scandals.” One of the “Goldwyn Girls” scheduled to be in the movie dropped out and they needed a quick replacement. Lucy, with her blonde hair and lithe figure, fit the bill. She quickly accepted the offer and was soon on a train bound for Hollywood.

Lucy’s introduction to Hollywood was not easy. She worked long hours at the studio and achieved very little screen time in the early films she was in. Many times, she wasn’t aware of the film’s titles or who starred in them, as she was basically part of the scenery. Lucy was determined to stay in Hollywood and was encouraged to start saving her money. After her first year, her brother, Fred, graduated from high school in New York and came out to live with her. He got a job as a busboy at the Trocadero Club and they rented a bungalow in Hollywood that would be large enough for the rest of the family for $85 a month.

As soon as Lucy sent for her mother and grandfather to join them in California, she was fired by Sam Goldwyn. Desperate, she heard they were looking for showgirls at RKO Studios and talked herself into a job with a three-month contract that lasted for seven years. Lucy was happy that she was able to support and reunite her family under one roof. She felt that California brought new life to her grandfather and added 10 years to his life.

Lucy’s networking instincts and manner led her into many films in the 1930s. She didn’t mind playing slapstick or taking a pie in the face. It led to brief roles in a Three Stooges film and “Room Service” with the Marx Brothers. During this time, Lucy met Ginger Rogers and the two became lifelong friends. Ginger’s mother, Lela, managed her daughter’s career like a pit bull. She also took other young actresses under her wing with acting lessons in a little theater on the RKO lot. Lucy considered herself very lucky to be a part of this up-and-coming group and said it was where she learned how to be an actress and get rid of her stage fright. The experience also led to Lucy getting supporting roles in the films “Stage Door” (1937) and “Having a Wonderful Time” (1938). These supporting roles in “A” pictures led to leading roles in “B” films at RKO. She held the derisive title as “Queen of the B’s” during the early 1940s, but she was earning $1,000 a week and was quite happy.

Lucy met Desi Arnaz in 1940 at RKO Studios. Desi was a Cuban exile who left Santiago, Cuba, where his father had been a doctor and mayor of the city. The family had three homes, cattle ranches, boats, cars and all the other trappings of wealth. When Desi was 17, a revolution swept across the island and his father was imprisoned, forcing Desi and his mother into hiding. After six months, his father was exiled from Cuba. Desi followed his father to Miami, where he worked any odd job he could find, including cleaning canary cages.

Desi loved music and was fortunate that Latin music was then becoming all the rage in the U.S. He put together a small combo to play local Miami clubs. Eventually, Desi was noticed by the great Latin bandleader, Xavier Cugat, who hired him to play and sing in his band. The Cugat band was very popular, as was a new Cuban-inspired dance, the Conga. The Latin craze and Desi’s enthusiasm led to him being cast in the 1939 Broadway musical, “Too Many Girls”. The show was big hit, and after every night’s performance, the crowds followed Desi where he performed at The Conga Club in New York.

RKO Studios bought the film rights to “Too Many Girls” and hired Desi to reprise his Broadway role on film. Lucy was also cast in the film and the two met on Desi’s first day at the RKO lot. They were immediately smitten with one another and were soon exclusively dating. Lucy’s friends and colleagues did not think this was a good match – they said they were too different. Lucy was raised Protestant, Desi came from a devout Catholic family; Lucy came from a lower-middle-class family, while Desi was raised in a wealthy environment; he was hot-tempered and impulsive, while she was calculating; she was six years older than him, while he was six years younger than she.

It was harder for Desi to get steady work in films, mainly because of his thick accent, so he put a band together and spent a lot of time on the road performing throughout the country. Lucy would join him between her film roles when he was performing a multi-week gig in one location. She famously joined him in New York City in November 1940 when he was playing three weeks at the Roxy. When she got there, he told her they were going to go to Connecticut the next morning to get married. Desi and Lucy were married by a judge the next morning at the Byram River Beagle Club amidst the falling snow and honeymooned in New York while he finished his band commitment.

Lucy and Desi returned to Hollywood and began to look for a place to live, eventually settling on a new house on a five-acre plot in the then-pastoral San Fernando Valley town of Chatsworth. It was a 25-minute drive away from Hollywood’s hustle and bustle and it suited the country lifestyle they wished to live. Lucy was finally able to have all the animals she ever wanted: dogs, cats, chickens, horses – even a calf they dubbed, “the Duchess of Devonshire.” They named the ranch, “Desilu,” a combination of their first names, just as Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks dubbed their Hollywood home “Pickfair.” Lucy and Desi were happy out on the ranch, hosting many parties for their friends in the entertainment industry.

The onset of World War II disrupted the newlywed’s plans of a bucolic life together at Desilu. Desi enlisted in the Army Air Corps, but tore ligaments in his knee the day before he was to begin basic training. He spent weeks in a hospital to recover and found out that he was no longer fit for duty in that branch of the military. Eventually Desi was assigned to the Army Medical Corps to serve as an entertainer at a base hospital in Birmingham, California. The base was only five miles from Desilu and he was allowed to spend evenings and weekends at home. Unfortunately for Lucy, home was not where Desi wanted to spend his free time. He preferred the fast pace of Hollywood parties and starlets, while Lucy kept her nose to the grindstone making film after film.

Lucy had finally had enough of Desi’s indiscretions by 1944 that she went to court to file divorce papers. Desi found out that he was about to be sued for divorce the day before and he pleaded with Lucy to see him. She caved in and they spent the night together. Desi awoke the next morning to see Lucy dressed in a business suit, getting ready to leave. He asked her where she was going, and she told him she was going to court to file an interlocutory decree to divorce him. She promised that she would return after court, thereby nullifying the decree.

During the war, Lucy left RKO Studios and was signed by MGM, where the famous Technicolor studio dyed Lucy’s mousy brown hair a vibrant new-penny copper red and started giving her parts in comedies: “Du Barry Was A Lady,” “Best Foot Forward” and “Easy to Wed.” Lucy left MGM after the war and did several movies for Universal. She also found comedic parts on the radio, rising to some acclaim on the program, “My Favorite Husband,” (1948-1951) playing the slightly daffy housewife, Elizabeth, who was forever scheming her flustered husband to get ahead.

CBS programming executives wanted to adapt the program for the new medium of television. Lucy thought this might be a good vehicle for her and Desi, as Hollywood offered him few roles and he was spending much of his time out on the road with his band. CBS gave her a flat “no,” explaining that America would never believe that the two were a couple.

Lucy desperately wanted to work with her husband so that they could finally start a family. Desi’s mother believed that they were not blessed with children because they were not married in a church. Lucy took instruction in the Catholic faith and the couple remarried in church in 1949. Desi agreed to take only local jobs for his band so that he and Lucy could spend more time together.

To prove to CBS executives that they were believable as a couple, they took to the road with a vaudeville-type comedy act. They were wildly received in every theater they were booked into. Both Lucy and Desi performed best in front of a live audience. CBS reconsidered and gave them a shot at a situation comedy pilot.

In the early 1950s, most television programs were broadcast live on the east coast, and a crude form of video tape, called Kinescope, was rebroadcast three hours later on the west coast. While it was the most advanced method of live broadcasting at the time, the picture quality and sound were poor. Lucy and Desi had no desire to leave California to do their program in New York. Desi instead wanted to put the television program on motion picture film, in front of a live audience. Copies of the program could be shown on both coasts with no loss of picture quality. CBS balked at the added expense until Desi said that he and Lucy would pay for the film by cutting their salaries by $1,000 per week, with the caveat that after it was broadcast, it would belong to Desilu, their new production company.

CBS advanced them the funds to rent studio space for their first season and made Desi an Executive Producer of the program. As they worked with writers developing the storylines for Ricky and Lucy Ricardo, Lucille Ball was looking forward to the birth of their first child. She had suffered three miscarriages in her 10 years of marriage and was happy to finally carry a baby to term. Their daughter, Lucie, was born in July 1951, less than a month before they were to begin filming the “I Love Lucy” television show. In the beginning of the series, the rehearsals, blocking and lighting required them to work 12-hour days, six days per week, leaving Lucy precious little time to spend with her newborn. The show was scheduled to appear on CBS’s Monday night schedule at 9 p.m. From the start, the show was in the top 10, and by mid-season was television’s top-rated show, a position it would retain for the next three years.

Desi had a natural instinct for television – he developed a three-camera filming technique that is still used in today’s television sitcoms. His innate ability for storylines, timing and laughs was second to none. With this in mind, he and Lucy visited CBS executives in May 1952 to announce that Lucy was pregnant with their second child and Desi wanted it written into the show. CBS and the show’s sponsors were mortified – in mid-century America, you could not even say the word “pregnant” on television. Desi calmed the sponsors and network by gathering a committee of religious leaders to read the scripts and watch the tapings of the show. If they objected to anything, Desi would remove it.

Americans enjoyed the storyline and tuned in exponentially leading up to the birth of “Little Ricky.” The night that Lucy Ricardo gave birth to Ricky Ricardo, Jr., Lucille Ball gave birth to Desi Arnaz, Jr. Well-wishers from all over the country flooded the hospital with flowers, gifts, cards and telegrams. The birth of their second child knocked the Inauguration of President Dwight Eisenhower off the front pages the next day. The program stood as the highest-rated program for 30 years, until the finale of M*A*S*H in 1983.

After the 1952-53 season of I Love Lucy, Lucy finally got her chance to do a movie with Desi, when MGM hired them to star in the critically acclaimed and box office smash, “The Long, Long Trailer.” The year 1953 was a great one for the couple. Lucy won her first Emmy Award for Best Comedy Actress and “I Love Lucy” won the Emmy for Best Comedy. Desi had negotiated a $10 million deal with CBS and the show’s sponsor, Phillip Morris. That year Desi had acquired two lots at Rancho Mirage’s Thunderbird Country Club and they began building their contemporary, one-story, six-bedroom, six-bathroom ranch house on the 9th fairway designed by Paul R. Williams, one of the desert’s premier mid-century modern architects.

In the fall of 1953, just as Lucy and Desi were preparing for their third television season, gossip columnist Walter Winchell announced that the House Un-American Activities Commission (HUAC) was investigating Lucy for being a communist. The late 1940s/early 1950s were the beginning of the Cold War with the Communist Soviet Union. U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy was whipping up national hysteria by accusing members of the government and Hollywood of being Communists. Everyone who was called up before the Commission was asked to give the names of other socialist/communist sympathizers. People who refused to cooperate were blacklisted and their careers were ruined.

Back in 1936, Lucy had registered with the Communist Party, not because she believed in their cause or beliefs, but to placate her elderly grandfather. She never attended party meetings or voted as a Communist. Members of HUAC had taken testimony from her in 1952 and they were satisfied with her explanation and thanked her for her cooperation. During the summer of 1953, investigators from HUAC called on Lucy to confirm her testimony from the prior year and again, cleared her of being a Communist.

Lucy didn’t think much of it and assumed that her testimony would remain sealed as it was the previous year – until the press got a hold of the story. The Los Angeles Herald Express carried a banner headline: LUCILLE BALL A RED, and had a photo of her voter registration card from 1936. Lucy and Desi awoke at their Desilu Ranch to find a throng of reporters and photographers camped at their front door. Lucy was beside herself and feared that her career was over.

At the taping for “I Love Lucy” that week, Lucy feared that she would be booed off-stage. Before the show Desi explained that Lucy was just being a good granddaughter when she registered as a Communist. He diffused all the fuss by famously saying, “The only thing red about Lucy is her hair, and even that’s not legitimate.” Instead of being scorned, Lucy was given a standing ovation from the audience and the crisis was quickly over.

Lucy and Desi used their Rancho Mirage home as a weekend retreat from the pressures of Hollywood. They worked 12-hour days Monday through Thursday, filmed their show on Thursday nights and then made the two-hour trip by car with their children for three days of relaxation here in our desert.

Desi, an astute businessman, began producing other television shows at Desilu. By 1956, Desilu was putting out 19 hours of programming every week. Desi sold the films of “I Love Lucy’s” first four seasons back to CBS for $5 million, which signaled the birth of television syndication. He and Lucy then bought their former place of employment, RKO Studios, for $6 million. The acquisition of the studio allowed Desilu to produce more television programs to sell to the networks. Desilu’s output of film dwarfed that of MGM studios in the late 1950s.

The demands of running a successful television production operation took a toll on Desi, as he began drinking more and coming home less. His once jet-black hair was quickly turning grey. He and Lucy were fighting more and more. Lucy became fed up with his drinking, gambling and womanizing and set up a room for Desi somewhere else in the house. Exhausted and bitter, she finally asked Desi for a divorce.

America learned of the divorce of their sweethearts, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, on March 4, 1960, the day after they wrapped what would be their last television show together. Disappointed fans sent cards and letters urging the pair to “patch things up.” In the divorce settlement, they split the ownership of Desilu Studios and the Great Western Hotel in Indian Wells (now the Indian Wells Resort). Lucy got custody of the children, the house in Beverly Hills, the house in Rancho Mirage, two station wagons and a cemetery plot at Forest Lawn. Desi walked away with his half of Desilu Studios and the hotel, a golf cart and membership in a country club.

The pair remained amicable after the divorce. Desi was always supportive of Lucy’s career, she often turned to him for advice; Desi built a house just outside of Thunderbird Country Club on Mashie Drive in Rancho Mirage, to be near the children on weekends. (He later sold the house to the actress Kaye Ballard, the co-star of his television production, The Mothers-In-Law.)

To escape the madness, Lucy made a film with Bob Hope, “The Facts of Life,” then took an apartment in New York City and threw herself into rehearsals for the Broadway musical, “Wildcat!,” set to open on December 1, 1960. Lucy was nearly 50 years old and, being the star of a Broadway show, performing eight shows a week was excruciating. The show was a sold-out success and critics pointed out that it was worth the price of admission to see Lucy on stage, even if the show was less than entertaining. After three months, Lucy had to leave the show to recover from a viral infection. She never returned and the show closed after running 22 weeks. Lucy would never again appear on Broadway.

Lucy may have lost Broadway, but she gained a new husband. Her co-star, Paula Stewart, set her up on a date with comedian Gary Morton. Morton treated Lucy deferentially and they soon married. Lucy was said to be very happy with her second marriage.

Lucy returned to television in 1962 with “The Lucy Show,” co-starring Vivian Vance. In it, Lucy plays a widow with two children who lives with her divorced friend (Vance) and her son. Vance only stayed as a series co-star for the first two years, but would guest-star occasionally until the show ended in 1968.

Also in 1962, Lucy bought Desi’s shares of their company and became the first woman to run a major film studio when she took over at Desilu. Lucy was happy to have great advisors and experienced men helping her run the studio. Before she sold the studio to Paramount for $17 million and stock in 1967, she had green-lighted the series, “Star Trek” and “Mission: Impossible.”

Her next television series, “Here’s Lucy,” was a modest success with celebrity guest stars every show. It ran on CBS from 1968-1974.

Although Lucy had gained much acclaim and was considered a television icon, she still sought out movie roles. She starred in the critical and box office success, “Yours, Mine and Ours,” in 1968 with her old friend, Henry Fonda. In the family comedy, Lucy played the part of a widow with seven children who marries a widower with eight children.

As Lucy’s “Here’s Lucy” show was winding down, she took the leading role in the film version of the musical “Mame.” The film was given much advance hype, and Lucy hit all the daytime chat shows to promote it. Unfortunately, the film failed to be a hit with both critics and audiences. It would turn out to be her last motion picture.

Lucy stayed out of the public eye for the next decade. As she aged, she worried that the public didn’t want to see her anymore. She indulged in the game of backgammon and lived reclusively in Beverly Hills and Rancho Mirage. Venturing out only for infrequent Bob Hope television specials or guest shots on the Carol Burnett Show.

While Lucy was content to stay home and play backgammon, she allowed herself one last stab at situation comedy, this time with disastrous results. 1986’s “Life With Lucy” was touted at the time as a great comeback for the star. Lucy was in her 70s and her co-star, Gale Gordon, was in his 80s. They were let down by the poor writing and too much reliance on the Lucy-brand of physical comedy. The show was lambasted by critics and audiences quickly tuned out, leaving ABC to cancel the show after just eight episodes.

Desi died of cancer on December 2, 1986, at his home in Del Mar, just weeks after the show was cancelled. Days later, Lucy was in Washington, D.C. to accept a Kennedy Center Honor for her pioneering and enduring work in the field of film and television. Robert Stack, who starred in the Desilu Studio’s “The Untouchables,” read remarks that Desi had written for the ceremony. “I Love Lucy was never just a title.”

Lucy suffered a stroke in 1987 and became more reclusive. She refused a long hospital stay and opted for a private-duty nurse to recover at home. Her last public appearance was at the 1989 Academy Awards, where she and Bob Hope presented the Oscar for Best Picture. Several weeks later, Lucy was rushed to Cedars Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles for a ruptured aorta. She underwent nine hours of surgery and, for a week, it seemed she was well on the road to recovery, when early on the morning of April 26th she died when the aorta ruptured again.

The whole country mourned the passing of Lucille Ball. That evening, Lucy’s death was the lead story on every national newscast. Entertainment Tonight devoted their whole show to Lucy. CBS produced and aired an hour-long tribute to Lucy, hosted by Walter Cronkite. The next day, her passing was marked on the front pages of newspapers all over the world. The following Monday, her face was on the cover of People, Newsweek and Time magazine.

Lucy did not want a funeral. Instead she was cremated the day after her death and placed in a crypt beside her mother, DeDe. Lucie Arnaz arranged three memorial services for her mother, all on Monday, May 8, 1989, in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York.

Lucy was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom on July 6, 1989, as “The First Lady of Television” – one of America’s greatest comediennes. Her face was seen by more people, more often than the face of any human being who ever lived. Who can forget Lucy? She was like everyone’s next-door neighbor, only funnier. Lucille Ball was a national treasure who brought laughter to us all. This nation is grateful to her, and we will miss her dearly.

The U.S. Postal Service honored Lucy with a postage stamp, not once, but twice after her death.

As the end of the 20th century loomed, Time magazine named Lucy as one of the 100 most influential people of the century.

Michael Karol, the author of Lucy A to Z, states, “Lucy and Desi both loved getting away from L.A. to the desert oasis of Palm Springs and nearby Rancho Mirage. For the Arnazes, like many other celebrities, it was a welcome escape from ‘the business,’ where Desi indulged in golf and poker, and Lucy in her passion for games of all kinds at their Thunderbird Country Club home. Both kept homes in the area after they divorced in 1960. TV’s favorite couple helped give the towns their uniquely Hollywood cachet. I’m sure they both would have been honored to have streets named for them in Rancho Mirage, alongside friends like Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra, Ginger Rogers, Dean Martin and Jack Benny. Next year, which would have been Lucy’s 100th birthday, and is also the 60th anniversary of the debut of their historic sitcom, I Love Lucy, would be a most appropriate time to make that happen...”

Bibliography

Kanfer, Stefan, Ball of Fire: The Tumultuous Life and Comic Art of Lucille Ball, New York: Vintage, 2003.

Karol, Michael, Lucy A to Z: The Lucille Ball Encyclopedia 4th Edition, New York: iUniverse Star, 2008.

Arnaz, Desi, A Book, New York: Buccaneer Books, 1976.

Ball, Lucille, (with Hoffman, Betty Hannah) Love, Lucy, New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1996.

Tannen, Lee, I Loved Lucy: My Friendship with Lucille Ball, New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 2001.

Lucy & Desi: A Home Movie, Directed by Lucie Arnaz, Arluck Entertainment, DVD,2009.

Oppenheimer, Jess, with Oppenheimer Greg, Laughs, Luck – and Lucy: How I Came to Create the Most Popular Sitcom of All Time, New York: Syracuse University Press, 1999.


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