PHOTOS OF THE DAY: CANDID LUCILLE BALL

Here are some candid photos of the great Lucille Ball (1911-1989). I am in the minority. I think she was a better movie actress than television comedian...

PHOTOS OF THE DAY: CLASSIC HOLLYWOOD WEDDINGS

To commerate my 21st wedding anniversary today, I wanted to take a look at some classic Hollywood weddings...

Dick Powell & Joan Blondell, 1936

Frank Sinatra & Mia Farrow, 1966

Angela Lansbury & Peter Shaw, 1949

Audrey Hepburn, 1954

Judy Garland & Vincente Minnelli, 1945

Lucille Ball, 1940

THE LAST DAYS OF VIVIAN VANCE

On a summer day in August 1979, Lucille Ball came to Belvedere, California, to bid farewell to her friend and beloved costar Vivian Vance.

The two women had created comedy magic in the legendary '50s sitcom I Love Lucy, with Ball as Lucy Ricardo and Vance playing her sidekick Ethel Mertz. But now, two decades later, Vance was dying of bone cancer, and Ball had come to say goodbye.

"You could hear them laughing, and towards the end there was a lot of sobbing," says Paige Peterson, who'd grown close to Vance after the actress rented her mother's home in Belvedere. "It was an amazing thing to witness. The love of these two women."

Peterson shared the story of the stars' final meeting with us while discussing her new book, Growing Up Belvedere-Tiburon, which tells the history of the beautiful town located in Marin County, California.

On that day in 1979, Peterson remembers, "We had brought Viv down and she was lying on the couch in the living room. They ate lunch and they talked and talked. Viv knew she was dying." (The breast cancer she had been diagnosed with in 1973 had metastasized into bone cancer.)

Peterson, who was in an adjacent room in case Vance needed her, remembers seeing Ball as she left. "The pain on her face shook me to my core. She was in tears. She couldn't speak."

"I think Viv gave up after that," says Peterson.

Vance died a few days later, on Aug. 17, at 70 years old.

"She cried about losing Viv for months after that," says Lucie Arnaz Luckinbill, the daughter of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. "Viv was, in many ways, like a sister to my mother. She could talk to Mom like nobody else, and I don't think my mother could confide in many people the way she would with Viv."

According to Peterson, after Vance was first diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a mastectomy and grueling chemotherapy, she moved to Belvedere from Salem, New York, "because she wanted a lifestyle change. The first house they [she and her fourth husband literary agent John Dodds] rented was my mother's house."

At the time, Peterson's mother, an interior designer, told her daughter to bring some fabric swatches over to the new tenant (without telling her who she was). "I knocked and Ethel answers and I was stunned," Peterson says with a laugh. "She said, 'Come on in, honey,' and I did. It was just one of those connections. We loved each other."

Vance, who was about to go on the road for the touring show, The Marriage Go Round, invited Peterson, then working as a local actress, to audition. She got the part opposite Vance, and the two traveled all over the country and grew close. Afterward, Peterson would often help her out as a personal assistant. "She had become a mother to me and she loved 'little Lucie' [Lucie Luckinbill]," notes Peterson. "Lucie and I were the daughters she never had."

Vance, originally from Kansas, was already a Broadway star when she was asked to play Ethel Mertz. Together, the show's four stars — Ball, Arnaz (her real-life husband, who also played her husband Ricky Ricardo), Vance and William Frawley, who played Ethel's cantankerous husband, Fred Mertz — created a hit.

After the show ended in 1958, Ball and Vance reunited on the sitcom The Lucy Show, from 1962 to 1968. This time, Vance's character was named Vivian Bagley because as she once explained, "I was tired of people calling me Ethel."

Looking back, Peterson says, "Viv loved living in Belvedere. She moved to a home [the Farr Cottages] that was cantilevered over the bay and would sit and read for hours on the deck, where she could look at the most beautiful view in the world. She loved the simplicity and the quiet of living here."

In her final days, she says, "Viv was in the place she loved most. And that's how she left the world."

HOLLYWOOD MOM: DEDE BALL

DeDe Ball, born on September 21, 1892, was an unwavering supporter of her daughter, Lucille Ball, who became a television icon. DeDe's dedication to Lucy's career was evident in her constant presence at the live shows, where she proudly occupied her designated spot in the audience. In 1975, DeDe shared her experience with Photoplay Magazine, reminiscing, “Oh, I may have missed one or two if I was ill, or up at Lucille’s condominium in Colorado of late, but I don’t think I’ve missed many. I had my own spot where I sat in the audience, my own cheering section. I’d bring my friends with me, and if they didn’t cheer, they didn’t get home!”

This heartfelt support extended beyond live performances. Even during projects without a live audience, such as the film "Mame," DeDe was a cherished visitor on set, contributing to the warm and familial atmosphere that defined Lucy's work. Her presence provided not just moral support but also a sense of comfort in the demanding world of entertainment.

DeDe’s role in Lucy's life highlights the profound bond between mother and daughter, showcasing the importance of family in the face of fame and success. Lucy often credited her mother's encouragement as a driving force behind her relentless pursuit of her dreams.

The relationship between DeDe and Lucille is a poignant reminder of how foundational support can shape one's journey, particularly in the competitive landscape of Hollywood. Their story continues to resonate, illustrating the power of love and encouragement in achieving greatness. DeDe died in 1977...

THE FAILURE OF LIFE WITH LUCY

I remember as a young boy watching Lucille Ball's last sitcom "Life With Lucy" on ABC, and even as a boy I realized how bad it was. The show aired for one season on ABC from September 20 to November 15, 1986. It is the only Lucille Ball sitcom to not air on CBS and the very last sitcom she starred in before her death in 1989. Only 8 out of the 13 episodes produced were aired before ABC cancelled the series. Unlike Ball's previous sitcoms, Life with Lucy was a failure in the ratings and poorly received by critics and viewers alike.

Ball plays a widowed grandmother who has inherited her husband's half interest in a hardware store in South Pasadena, California, the other half being owned by his business partner, widower Curtis McGibbon (played by Gale Gordon). Lucy's character insists on "helping" in the store, even though when her husband was alive, she had taken no part in the business and hence knows nothing about it. The unlikely partners are also in-laws, her daughter being married to his son, and all of them, along with their young grandchildren, live together.

During the 1984–1985 television season, NBC had experienced a huge success with its Bill Cosby comeback vehicle The Cosby Show, following it up the next year with The Golden Girls, which likewise revitalized the careers of Bea Arthur and Betty White. ABC, looking to stage a similar resurgence for an older sitcom star and to boost Saturday night ratings, approached 75-year-old, five-time Emmy award winner and cultural icon Lucille Ball. Producer Aaron Spelling had been in talks with Ball and her second husband Gary Morton since 1979 about possibly doing another series; the popular success of her dramatic turn in the television film Stone Pillow had proved she was still popular with audiences. Ball was initially hesitant about returning to television, stating that she did not believe she could top the 25-year run of success she had had with I Love Lucy, The Lucy Show and Here's Lucy, especially without Vivian Vance, who was deceased. She eventually agreed, conceding she had missed having a regular project to work on daily, on the condition of having total creative control.

ABC offered Ball the writers from the critical and ratings hit M*A*S*H, but Ball insisted on hiring her longtime writers Bob Carroll Jr. and Madelyn Pugh (credited as Madelyn Davis). Both had worked for Ball since her 1948 radio show My Favorite Husband and had written over 500 television and radio episodes for Ball, plus the occasional TV special and feature film. Ball also called in crew members who had worked for her since the days of I Love Lucy. The most notable was sound man Cam McCulloch, who joined the crew during I Love Lucy’s third season in 1954. By 1986, however, McCulloch was 77 years old and quite hard of hearing (he was still working actively in Hollywood at the time, mixing audio for WKRP in Cincinnati, Square Pegs and select episodes of Newhart). Ball also insisted on hiring her former co-star Gale Gordon, who by that time was retired from acting and living in Palm Springs. Gordon had worked with Ball on Jack Haley's radio show and more consistently on My Favorite Husband. He was the first choice for the character of Fred Mertz and had guest starred on I Love Lucy and The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour before becoming a main cast member on The Lucy Show in its second season and acting on all six seasons of Here's Lucy.

Gordon agreed to do the show with the promise of a full season's pay for all 22 episodes regardless of whether the show was picked up. According to cast and crew members, the then 80-year-old Gordon never once flubbed a line on the set during the 13-episode duration. Ball was reportedly paid $100,000 an episode. Ball’s husband Gary Morton, carrying the title of executive producer, negotiated for $150,000 per episode. The pilot was created and shot, all without network interference or even test screenings. ABC and producers believed Life with Lucy would be a critical and ratings success that would run for many years, just as Ball's previous shows had been.

Fourteen episodes were written, thirteen filmed, but only eight aired. On the day of the last filmed (but unaired) episode, producer Aaron Spelling learned of the show's cancellation by ABC; he decided to tell Ball's husband Gary Morton, who decided not to reveal the news to her until after filming ended. The last episode to be aired, "Mother of the Bride", featured Audrey Meadows, who was offered to be cast as a regular to give the show a new direction and Ball's character a comic foil and partner, similar to the role of Vivian Vance in Ball's previous series. (This was the only Ball sitcom in which Vance, who had died in 1979, never appeared.) Meadows turned down the offer. The show destroyed Lucille Ball, whose health went downhill after the cancellation. Lucille Ball died in 1989. Everyone always loved Lucy, just not the show "Life With Lucy"...

STORY BEHIND THE PHOTO: LUCILLE BALL AND DESI ARNAZ

After Lucille Ball (1911-1989) and Desi Arnaz (1917-1986) divorced in 1960, you did not see them together. They led fairly separate lives, but they always had a bond together. Here is a rare picture of the ex-Hollywood couple from their daughter's Lucie Arnaz's wedding day to 2nd husband Laurence Luckinbill on June 22, 1980...

PHOTOS OF THE DAY: CLASSIC HOLLYWOOD ON ST. PATRICK'S DAY

Everyone is Irish on St. Patrick's Day, and to celebrate the wearing of the green, here are some excellent pictures of classic Hollywood celebrating...

JUNE HAVER

CLARA BOW

ARLENE DAHL

OLGA SAN JUAN

MAUREEN O'HARA

LUCILLE BALL

CELEBRITY ADS: LUCILLE BALL

By the time Lucille Ball died in 1989, her voice was a raspy mess from years of cigarette smoking. She must have gotten a life time supply of Chesterfield cigarettes from doing this print ad for them while appearing in the RKO movie Easy Living (aka Interference) in 1949...

WHERE ARE THEY NOW: KEITH THIBODEUX

It's been 60 years since Keith Thibodeux won America's hearts as "Little Ricky" on "I Love Lucy."

Thibodeux, now 64 and one of the last surviving cast members of the show, said he is grateful to have been a part of the cult classic.

"It was an interesting show, but it was a very special show," Thibodeux told ABC News. "It seems to be very memorable and people of any different generation can appreciate it...appreciate the humor of it, appreciate the silliness of it."

Thibodeux said he still has fond memories of his TV parents Lucille Ball, who died in 1989, and Desi Arnaz, who died in 1986.

"Lucy was naturally very motherly to me and Desi kind of made me feel at ease--that was his role," Thibodeux said. "They were very generous towards me and I was best friends with their children. Whenever I was over there, and Desi would give his kids gifts and he'd never leave me out--whether it was customized bowling balls or L.A. Rams jerseys, he'd give me the same thing.

"Lucy would give me birthday presents on the set and make a big deal of it," he added. "She gave me an Indian Tipi one time. Another time she gave me my own dressing room and a set of drums. That same set I still have today."

Thibodeaux got his start in show business on the "Horace Heidt" variety show when he was 4 years old.

"They billed me the tiniest drummer, pound for pound, the greatest drummer around," he said.

Thibodeaux said he remembers the day in 1955 when his father brought him to audition for the role of Ricky Ricardo Jr.

"I walked on the set and there was Lucy, she was standing there and she was looking at me," he said. "She said 'OK he's cute, but what does he do?' My dad said, 'Well he plays the drums' and she said, 'Oh, come on--I can't believe that.' Then, she says 'Look, we have a drum set over there, go ahead and let him play.' Eventually Desi Arnaz himself came over and started jamming with him.

Years later, the former child star said he became severely depressed.

"I do kind of look at it like a time of my life where I wasn't able to fully be a kid, but that's a problem with child stars--that dynamic is always in the mix," he said. "I was very depressed and suicidal and got to the end of my rope and became a Christian in 1974. That kind of changed my perspective on the show. After that, I was able to appreciate the show much more than I did when I was a young adult."

Thibodeaux, who still plays the drums, ditched acting and joined his wife Kathy, a professional ballet dancer, as the executive director of Ballet Magnificat! in Jackson, Miss. Thibodeaux's daughter Tara gave birth to a son a year ago. Thibodeaux calls his grandson Bryson his "little buddy."

And although he said he seldom watches "I Love Lucy," Thibodeaux continues to be proud of what it has become...

SOURCE

HOLLYWOOD LOVE: DESI ARNAZ AND LUCILLE BALL

I have to preface this story by saying I think Lucille Ball is overrated. I feel she is overrated as a funny lady. I feel she was more an actress doing comedy than an actual comedienne. I think her success as a funny lady was due to one person – her husband Desi Arnaz. Years later it would seem ironic that they met, in 1940, on the RKO set of a picture called Too Many Girls. She was a 28-year-old contract player with a string of forgettable films, he, at 23, a dashing, Cuban-horn nightclub bandleader. They married six months later. While she tended a soaring Hollywood career, but mediocre film career, he toured the country with his rumba band. 

By 1950 Lucy was starring on radio with actor Richard Denning in the popular CBS show My Favorite Husband. When the network launched a version of the show for the new medium of television, she insisted that Desi be cast as her spouse. The formula was magic. In its six-year run, I Love Lucy, making perfect use of Ball's vibrant talent and Desi's behind-the-scenes business savvy, would become the most successful comedy series on TV and earn millions for the couple's production company, Desilu. Each week 40 million viewers watched the onscreen antics of the Ricardo family. But off-screen, the Arnaz marriage, which produced two children before ending in a 1960 divorce, was a volatile interplay of alcoholism, infidelity—and a surpassing love that endured for nearly 50 years.

A lot of people though only knew the couple from what they saw on I Love Lucy, but there was a lot more to their marriage. Lillian Briggs Winograd, one of Lucy's closest friends once said: “Lucy had two or three miscarriages before she gave birth to little Lucie (on July 17, 1951. three months before the show's debut). She thought that having a baby would hold them together. Some of Desi's womanizing was alleviated from the moment little Lucie was born. I think he felt more sensitive about those things and stopped some of that. For a while, at least.”

Many people who knew them said Lucy was very bright, but Desi was the brains. He was the staunch one. He ran the whole thing. Lucy just deferred to him. When they were beginning I Love Lucy, Desi bargained for ownership of those 179 episodes, so they could show them to their children. There was no concept of reruns in those days. A few years later Desi sold them all back to CBS for millions. However, Desi always knew she was the star. While Desi had the affairs and drank, Lucy was tough on him. Family friend Bob Weiskopf had this to say: “There were a lot of occasions when Lucy insulted Desi—usually indirectly. She'd mention to someone else, Vivian [Vance, who played Ethel Mertz], for example, what had happened in a poker game over the weekend in Palm Springs. In front of him, she'd talk about what stupid plays he had made. I thought, "Jesus Christ, this guy's a saint." I would have punched her in the nose.”

In the mid-1950s, the magazine Confidential came out with a story saying Desi was a womanizer. A copy was given to Desi, and Lucy said, "I want to read this story." It was during a rehearsal day, and she went into her dressing room. Everybody was frozen on the set. She finally came out, tossed the magazine to Desi and said, "Oh, hell, I could tell them worse than that."

Veteran reporter Jim Bacon had this to say about the final straw: “Lucy put up with it quite a bit, but then it just became too embarrassing. Especially when he got arrested on Hollywood Boulevard. That was sometime in the '50s. The cops picked him up, drunk, standing in front of this whorehouse, singing Cuban songs.”

Desi was the love of Lucy's life. It was romantic, passionate, everything you could imagine in a love affair, and she was deeply hurt by what happened. They had tried like three times to get a divorce, but Lucy had always stopped it. Finally she planned to move to Switzerland, take her kids and get out of Hollywood. At the time, in 1960, she had one final commitment to do Wildcat on Broadway.

After their divorce in 1960, Lucille went on to marry comedian and producer Gary Morton (1924-1999). He was a dependable guy but not the love of Lucille’s life. Ball would go on to have two more sitcom hits back to back – The Lucy Show and Here’s Lucy. Ball became a very rich woman, but Desi Arnaz did not fare as well. Arnaz buried himself in a life of booze, women, and gambling. When his good friend Jimmy Durante died in 1980, he was visibly drunk at the funeral and had to be walked out. He didn't know where he was. He was even bombed that day.

Desi died of lung cancer on December 2, 1986. Ball visited him two days earlier and was visibly shaken. Lucy loved Desi till the day she died [following heart surgery on April 26, 1989], and she never recovered fully after his death.. He was the father of her kids. Close friends said that even after she married Gary, she'd still run home movies of her and Desi and the kids when they were little. Everybody was in them, smiling by the pool, running up real fast, waving hello, Lucy walking knock-kneed and doing her Lucy faces. She'd sit there giving commentaries. She loved watching those movies.

Was Lucille Ball the funniest woman? Was the marriage of Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball the greatest marriage? The answer is maybe not, but he helped to make Ball the icon she remains to be 25 years after her death. Lucy was the beauty and the talent, and Desi was the brains. Fans remember the happy times of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz on the screen, and maybe that is what is most important...

PHOTOS OF THE DAY: A NEW YEAR WITH CLASSIC HOLLYWOOD

Hard to believe it is another year! It does not seem right that it is 2016! One thing that does not change with each year is our love of classic movies. Here are some pictures of the classic stars celebrating the New Year...

Dorothy Lamour

Bette Davis

Clark Gable, Van Heflin, Gary Cooper, and Jimmy Stewart

Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz

Betty Hutton

Shirley Temple

CATE BLANCHETT AS LUCILLE BALL

Cate Blanchett is hotly tipped to win an Oscar for playing the fictional 1950s heroine of Todd Haynes’s film Carol, but her next role could be one of the real life stars of the period: Lucille Ball.

The Australian actor is set to play the American TV sweetheart in a new biopic written by Aaron Sorkin of The West Wing and The Social Network, reports the Wrap.

The film will cover Ball’s 20-year marriage to Cuban bandleader Desi Arnaz, who also played her husband in I Love Lucy, the first show of its kind to be filmed in front of a live audience.

Ball won four Emmys as a performer and went on to become one of Hollywood’s first female TV executives when she founded the studio Desilu, which produced the original Mission: Impossible and Star Trek series.

Blanchett is no stranger to biopics, winning her first Academy award for her turn as Katharine Hepburn in The Aviator.

Audiences will next see her as journalist Mary Mapes in Truth, a newsroom drama about the controversial 2004 CBS report investigating George W Bush’s military service. Blanchett also recently completed films with directors Julian Rosefeldt and Terrence Malick.

The Lucille Ball project has the blessing of Ball and Arnaz’s children, Lucie Arnaz and Desi Arnaz Jr, who will produce the project with Escape Artists, the company behind the Jake Gyllenhaal drama Southpaw and The Equalizer, starring Denzel Washington.

While there was no confirmation from either Blanchett or Sorkin’s camps about the film, Blanchett’s husband, theatre director Andrew Upton, confirmed to Guardian Australia “they have been talking about it for a while”.

“It’s a project that is dear to [Cate’s] heart and a great story to tell,” he said at a theatre event in Sydney on Thursday...

SOURCE

PHOTOS OF THE DAY: MORE FINAL PICTURES OF THE STARS

Back in March of 2012, I featured the final pictures of famous stars. I was afraid that the post would be ghouslish and inappropriate, but I received positive feedback and over 300 people looked at the photos, so here are more final pictures of the stars. Some of the pictures are sad - and they just show you that no matter how much money or power you have, you can not stop the passage of time...

You can see the original photo post: HERE.

SOUPY SALES FROM 2008 - DIED 2009



JONATHAN WINTERS FROM APRIL 7, 2013 - HE DIED APRIL 11, 2013

LUCILLE BALL FROM MARCH 1989 - SHE DIED APRIL 1989



MARLENE DIETRICH - FOUR MONTHS BEFORE DEATH IN 1992



LARRY FINE AND MOE HOWARD FROM 1974 - BOTH WOULD DIE IN 1975

DEAN MARTIN ON SINATRA'S 80TH BIRTHDAY - DECEMBER 12, 1995. DINO WOULD DIE ON CHRISTMAS DAY 1995