| Lucille Ball Essay, Research Paper
Lucille Desiree Ball. The first thought that comes into many people?s
minds when this name is said would be ? Lucy? the well known funny
character she played on her popular TV series ?I Love Lucy? ( 1951-57).How
did she become a legend? With dreams of being on stage in musicals to being
the ?star? in the big screen. Just like ?Lucy?, Lucille yearned to be a famous
performer. Looking back now, anyone could say that her childhood dream
came true. Who would have thought that a Jamestown farm girl could
become a Hollywood legend. I guess you can say it all started on August 6,
1911 in Jamestown New York – when a ?star? was born.
Lucille was the first child of Henry Dunnell Ball and the former
Desiree Evelyn Hunt, both were teens when they were married and had
Lucille. She had ancestors from all over Europe. With roots from France
England, Scotland, and Ireland.(Harris 20)
Besides having the ability to make anyone laugh any time and in any
situation. Another unforgettable trait Lucille had was her red hair.
Unfortunately, she was brought into this world with blond hair, that darkened
to a brunette. However she still kept that ?little girl? quality, which became
one of her main appeals as a comedian.
Lucille despised being called ?Lucy? so her family nicknamed her ?
Lucyball?. Although she tried to avoid being called ?Lucy? after a certain
television debut in 1951, she was rarely called anything but ?Lucy?.
Lucille?s father worked for her grandfather, Jasper Ball as a electrical
lineman. As a result of his job, the family was constantly on the move.
Lucille ended up spending her childhood in places like Anaconda, Montana,
and Wyandotte, Michigan. Far from her birthplace in Jamestown.( Harris 20)
Even as a child Lucille possessed qualities similar to ?Lucy?. Her
mother always had to tie a rope around her waist and hook it to the
clothesline in order to keep Lucille out of trouble. Most of the time she did
anyway. One morning her mother looked out the window and saw her all
tangled up on a tree branch, begging the milkman to help her get free.( Harris
20)
Life seemed to go well for young Lucille. With a baby brother on the
way. It was supposed to be their happiest year. Until a tragedy happened to
the Ball?s. In February, Henry Ball came down with typhoid fever and died.
After her father?s death, Lucille and her mother moved to Jamestown to live
her grandparents, Frederick and Florabelle Hunt. Shortly after the move,
Lucille?s baby brother Fred was born on July 3, 1915. Certain that Fred was
her mother?s favorite Lucille hated her brother. Little did she know that her
mother dedicated her life to Lucille. Desiree had studied piano and wanted
Lucille to follow in her footsteps, but Lucille showed no interest despite her
mother?s efforts to teach her.( Harris 21)
Lucille was in care of her grandparents most of the time. Her mother
still young and wanting to find a husband made it difficult to watch over
Lucille and Fred. Lucille was very close to her grandparents, especially her
grandfather. She got her first taste of show business from Grandpa Hunt.
Lucille loved watching vaudeville with her grandpa on Saturdays. When they
got home, she would reenact the show for her grandmother. She also used to
play theater with her friend Pauline Lopus. They used the barn as their
theater, stage, mansion, ranch house. Lucille and her friends often put on
one-act plays and revues, for which they made their own tickets, props, and
advertising posters. She loved playing a boy in her acts and the audience
loved it too. Her grandfather saw her love for acting, and he encourage her to
get involved in plays at school and church.( Harris 22)
Like before whenever things seem to be going well for Lucille,
something had to go wrong. It did. In 1920 Lucille?s mom Desiree remarried,
and left Lucille and Fred temporarily. Later she sent for her kids where they
lived with her new husband Ed Peterson. Ed was really strict to the children,
Lucille felt frustrated all the time with his rules. The only way out of this for
her was to make people laugh. Things began to go bad in the Peterson home
Ed began drinking. That?s when Lucille and her brother were sent back to
their grandparent?s house. Once again tragedy strict, Lucille?s grandmother
died from cancer. With her grandmother gone, Lucille had to take care of
Fred. And at the age of 10, she began having part-time jobs. During the
summer, she sold hot dogs and ice cream from a little gazebo or on the
boardwalk. Lucille was in her teens when World War I and the Great
Depression.( Harris 25-6)
Lucille was the first girl in her neiborhood to get the bob hair cut, own
a raccoon coat, and to wear unbuckled galoshes. Like true ?flapper?. At 15,
Lucille was 5?6, as tall as she would ever be. Many didn?t know if she was a
woman or a child because of her mature looks. Some people were suspicious
of where she got that $125 raccoon coat. But it was a bribe from her mother
to keep Lucille from dropping school.( Harris 26)
Lucille didn?t really care about her education. She could have been a
good student if she wanted to. At 15, she wanted to quit going to Jamestown
High School and go to John Murray Anderson-Robert Milton School of the
Theater and Dance which she thought would lead her to a big career in
Broadway or in vaudeville. Desiree finally agreed to let Lucille go, but only
on a trial bases for 6 weeks. Her mom doubted she wouldn?t get any further
than that. Unfortunately her mother was right, Lucille was in and out of that
school in 6 weeks. The school even sent her mom a letter literally saying she
was wasting her money. Lucille did have a role model in her short time at the
academy. Ruth Elizabeth Davis, or as she was known at the school Bette
Davis. Lucille would follow her around the school in complete admiration-
trying to study her.( Harris 26)
It was back to Jamestown High. Lucille being a typical teenager, hung
out at Harvey?s Drugstore, dated boys, played on the girl?s basketball team,
and was a cheerleader. Typical teenager, except she was determined to
become an actress. ( Harris 28)
Lucille?s grandfather was forced to sell the house and possessions to
pay for medical bills for an accident that happened at his house to one of
Fred?s friends. So they had to move in with Desiree and Ed. Lucille couldn?t
stand living in such a small house with so many people. She often took the
train to commute between Jamestown and New York.( Harris 28)
Over the next few years Lucille tried and failed to land jobs in the
entertainment world. She even tried using stage names, she encouraged
people to call her ?Montana?. No matter what she called herself, Lucille
could get no further than auditions. She supported herself by getting
part-time jobs selling theatrical cosmetics at Grey?s drugstore and clerking at
Woolworth?s. Lucille even considered becoming a beautician, but she didn?t
have the money to take the course required to get a license. During this time
she lived with a family in Washington Heights while attending the
Anderson-Milton school again. Feeling homesick, she moved back to
Jamestown and went back to Jamestown High. Where she joined a group
called the ?Player?. Lucille got the part of the leading role in Within the
Law, a production of Bayard Veiller. She even dyed her hair to get more into
her character. Well the critics raved about Lucille?s performance. Although
no audience or talent scouts were in the audience. Positive responses sent her
back to New York for another try at fame. ( Harris 30)
Delayed but not discouraged Lucille was unable to find a acting career
there. However she did find a small modeling job which turned into a big
modeling job. At first it was modeling dresses for fashion shows. Which paid
only $25 a week. Then she got help from Roger Furse who got her modeling
hats at a ritzy salon for Hattie Carnegie. Things seemed to be going well with
her modeling, until she fractured her spine in a auto accident in Central Park.
She spent three years recuperating in a hospital. From wheelchair to crutches,
then finally she could walk again. Lucille couldn?t go back to her job, Hattie
Carnegie had died and left no record that Lucille had work for her. Lucille
still struggling, landed a job to pose for a billboard. ?The Chesterfield Girl?.
The ad won her two screen tests, one at Paramount studio in Long Island and
the other at Vitagraph Brooklyn. But nobody wanted to develop her into a
movie actress, she decided to look elsewhere. One day while shopping for
underwear, she bumped into a agent Sylvia Hahlo. She had just lost a client
and she needed one more girl for a troupe that she was sending to California
to work for Sam Goldwyn. She was one of the twelve models selected to
glamorize Roman Scandals, a musical extravaganza. I guess that was her big
break, to become the ?star?. Little did she know it was only the beginning of
a life long career full of glamour, laughter, and tears.( Harris 34-6)
From there, Lucille went along with the other girls to Chicago where
she starred in her first movie ? The Old Maestro?. Another film she starred
in was Roman Scandal, it?s similar to ?The Wizard of Oz?. She started
playing walk on roles and from there she played bigger more important roles
until eventually she had parts in movies like. After she moved to Hollywood,
California in 1933,she appeared in dozens of motion pictures, including
Stage Door (1937), Five Came Back (1939) and Dance Girl Dance (1940)
where she met Desi Arnaz, which she fell in love with and was married to on
November 30, 1940 in Connecticut.( Harris 87-8) (Encarta 98 Encyclopedia)
Lucille?s unforgettable TV series ?I Love Lucy? was a big success
which starred her husband Desi Arnaz which she met while on the set of Too
Many Girls- a Broadway musical. The plot was simple for ?I Love Lucy? in
this series Ball and Arnaz play Lucy and Ricky Ricardo, a married couple
who lived in a New York apartment. It focused on their everyday family life,
especially Lucy?s attempts to become a stage performer and the efforts of
bandleader Ricky to keep her out of it. The hilarious show started in 1951
and ended in 1957. ( Encarta 98 Encyclopedia)
During her years of ?I Love Lucy? at the age of forty and ten years
after they were married she had her first child, Lucie Desiree Arnaz. Born on
July 17, 1951. Then in January 19, 1953 she gave birth to Desi Jr., which
made ?I Love Lucy? an even bigger success. Since they added ? Little Ricky?
into the script. ( Harris 168, 189)
Although on TV the supposed Lucille and Desi seemed to be the happiest
couple. But in reality things couldn?t be any worst. Constantly fighting on
and off the set. Their unstoppable arguments and temporally separations
eventually turned into a bad divorce in 1959. ( Encarta 98 Encyclopedia)
Fame and fortune. Isn?t that what Lucille wanted from the beginning?
Her childhood dream had become a reality. But, like reality not everything
was dreams. Ricky remarried, leaving Lucille all alone. But she got back on
her horse and she starred in lots of good TV shows, films and on Broadway
after ? I Love Lucy? ended. ( Encyclopedia)
In February 1989, Lucille received a call from the producers of
moviedom?s annual Academy Awards spectacular asking if she?d team up
with Bob Hope on the next telecast. It was an offer she couldn?t refuse. She
even bought a beautiful black beaded gown with a gold sequined collar
for the Awards. Lucille and Bob Hoped received a standing ovation when
they strolled out on stage of the Chandler Pavilion on March 29. The next
day Bob called her to see how she was feeling, claimed to be fine. She had
plans to fly to Jamestown, however she never made it back to her hometown.
Three weeks after the telecast while eating breakfast she felt a stabbing pain
in her chest. And was taking to Cedars-Sinai Hospital emergency room. She
had to have open heart surgery, at first she seemed to have been recovering
well. Then on April 24, 1989 she suffered a full cardiac arrest. Although the
doctors tried to get her heart started again, it just wasn?t enough. She was
declared dead at 6:04 a.m. at the age of 77. As soon as the news broke out
fans flocked to Lucille?s house in Beverly Hills leaving flowers at her
doorstep. To avoid a circus of a public funeral, she didn?t have one. Her
body was cremated and the ashes were buried in the Family plot at Forrest
Lawn. Gary Morton her two children and their spouses were the only
witnesses. ( Harris 328-32)
Whether if any one believes it, there is no question that Lucille Ball
will go on forever in the hearts of those who have seen her in ?I Love Lucy?
or in the dozens and dozens of other successful programs and movies she did
in her life. Because of the long reach of TV no other person in my opinion
has ever brought more laughter to the world. Her humor is universal and
timeless. Her work will seem even funnier as time goes on. She left us a
legend, proving that even your wildest dreams can come a reality.
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