We Still Love You, Lucille Ball

[FOAnatic]

Posted: 4/26/05 at 12:42am

Today, April 26th, 2005, is the 16th anniversary of the passing of Lucille Ball, who is possibly the greatest actress to ever live in my eyes.

As a child, my parents would sit me in front of the TV and play me tapes of all the great classic shows: Mary Tyler Moore, All in the Family, Bewitched, I Dream of Jeanie...all of which I loved, but one show stuck out...I Love Lucy. I remember catching my first glimpse of Lucy on TV and I was immediately smitten. Her comic brilliance, her warm heart, and her beautiful face completely captured me and I was hooked. Today, I have probably seen every episode of "I Love Lucy" at least nine or ten times. It remains my favorite television show of all time.

"For more than thirty years, Lucille Ball was one of the most recognized and loved entertainers in the world. Known to all simply as Lucy, she portrayed a scatterbrained housewife with the ability to turn simple chores into unparalleled fiascoes. Clumsy and unsophisticated at nearly everything she tried (and she tried nearly everything), the television Lucy won the hearts of average Americans across all social and cultural lines with her wacky schemes. Ironically, it was Ball's wide range of experience and talents that made her such a success in this role.

Dropping out of high school at the age of fifteen, Ball moved to New York to study acting and found her first stage work as a chorus girl in 1927. She had her first break as a poster-girl for Chesterfield cigarettes and soon found herself in tinsel town as one of twelve slave-girls in the Eddie Cantor film, ROMAN SCANDALS (1933). By the mid-1930s, if you went to the movies (and in the 1930s everyone went to the movies) you would be certain to see Lucille Ball. Sometimes a nurse or a dancer, sometimes a flower clerk or a college girl, but always there. By the end of the decade she had been in forty-three films and was known as "Queen of the B Movies."

After two successful years of her well-recieved radio situation comedy,"My Favorite Husband," Ball moved her act to the new medium of television, bringing along her husband, the Cuban band leader Desi Arnaz, as a co-star. Together they created the most popular television show of the 1950s. I LOVE LUCY was the perfect home for Ball - a place where she could return to the physical comedy she was master of, while working alongside the man she loved. This love, of the work and the people, came through and created a unique, more personable kind of star, one unknown before television. For many Americans, tuning in every week was a way of seeing what an old friend was up to. Each new show looked at a different aspect of everyday life, finding humor in our dreams and frustrations. Ball had found the key to television-- she had made a character Americans could not live without.

More than her seventy plus films, her hundreds of television appearances, her work running a studio which brought us such major television series as MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE and STAR TREK, Ball's true legacy can be found in her understanding of the possibilities of television before it understood itself. She saw that it could have the excitement of vaudeville, the wonder of the movies, and come directly to people's homes with the intimacy of the radio. Since the premiere of I LOVE LUCY in 1951, Lucille Ball's oh-so-human character has graced the small screen, and it is a testament to her visionary talent that it is hard to imagine television without her." - PBS, American Masters

Ball also appeared on Broadway, along with Valerie Harper, in the short-lived musical "Wildcat" with music by Cy Coleman and Lyrics by Carolyn Leigh.

Lucy will always live in my heart as my idol and inspiration. She is the woman who inspired me to go into acting. I stand as living proof that she continues to affect and inspire people long after her show was brought off the air. I can't imagine where I'd be had my parents not exposed me to the classic tv shows as a child. While most children grew up on cartoons, I grew up on VITAMEATAVEGAMIN and the Chocolate Factory bit. She has brought so much joy to my life and it is a shame she's no longer here to share her genius with us. Lucille Ball will go down in history as being a true legend. Her ability to reach across time and continue to touch the hearts of so many people is a testament to her greatness.

We love you Lucy, and we miss you. May you continue to rest in peace. RIP, Lucille Ball, August 6th, 1911 - April 26th, 1989.

Updated On: 4/26/05 at 12:42 AM

[Chip1012]

Posted: 4/26/05 at 12:46am

well said...and may we all rush out on May 3rd to buy the 4th season of I Love Lucy on DVD!

[FOAnatic]

Posted: 4/26/05 at 12:56am

Yes, you must.

[Thenardier]

Posted: 4/26/05 at 12:57am

Damn, my Lucy DVD is at home!

Cable's out.

I LOVE LUCILLE BALL!

[FOAnatic]

Posted: 4/26/05 at 1:13am

GORGEOUS!

Updated On: 4/26/05 at 01:13 AM

[Thenardier]

Posted: 4/26/05 at 1:14am

yes, it is a nice box...

[FOAnatic]

Posted: 4/26/05 at 1:16am

[Thenardier]

Posted: 4/26/05 at 1:17am

MEOW

[Elphaba]

Posted: 4/26/05 at 1:22am

perhaps greates comedianne (did I spell that wrong?)......definately NOT the greatest actress

[Thenardier]

Posted: 4/26/05 at 1:24am

comedienne...I think

She was a great comedian - that's all that matters!

[FOAnatic]

Posted: 4/26/05 at 1:26am

Maybe not to you Elphaba, but to me.

That's why I said..."in my eyes."

Updated On: 4/26/05 at 01:26 AM

[IMsooHyprToday]

Posted: 4/26/05 at 1:27am

i <3 lucy is timeless, and will ALWAYS be funny. she is a genious.

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 4/26/05 at 1:28am

WILDCAT was not Lucille Ball's finest hour but the Cy Coleman-Carolyn Leigh score has its pleasures. RCA issued this briefly on Cd but it is now out-of-print. Ball never had a great singing voice and she does better in the livlier numbers (even throwing in the familiar "Lucy" wail at the end of "You're a Liar") but she and the rest of the cast do their best to sell the songs.

She is heard at her worst on the soundtrack album of the movie version of MAME. When Rhino issued this album on CD in a numbered, limited pressing the entire lot of 2500 copie sold out in just a few months. Collectables has re-released it but without the wonderful liner notes that made Rhino's release such a winner.

[FOAnatic]

Posted: 4/26/05 at 1:35am

Never said it was her finest hour. And I'd like to not celebrate her "sounding at her worst."

[Elphaba]

Posted: 4/26/05 at 1:35am

FOA, sorry...I didn't mean that the way it sounded, nor did I mean to offend......I probably could have said that better.
She was one of a kind.

and I am partial to the Long, Long Trailer

Updated On: 4/26/05 at 01:35 AM

[FOAnatic]

Posted: 4/26/05 at 1:38am

It's ok. She truly was astounding.

[MasterLcZ]

Posted: 4/26/05 at 8:24am

Lucy was far better an actress than she has been given credit for. She's a tough broad and heartbreaking as the gangster's moll in THE BIG STREET, excellent in the noirs THE DARK CORNER and LURED and she steals scenes left and right from Maureen O'Hara in DANCE, GIRL, DANCE (Her burlesque strip to "Oh, Mother, What Do I Do?" has to be seen). And (dubbed with Trudy Irwin's Voice) she's terrific in TOO MANY GIRLS (where she met Desi, her co-star).

What is so special about I LOVE LUCY is that at the time NOBODY had a clue that Lucy could be THIS funny. Sure, she was a comediene before in films - the 'Annabel' movies with Jack Oakie, her wise-ass turn in STAGE DOOR, but these were all great wise-cracking dame roles. Nobody could have imagined that inside this gorgeous MGM glamour girl was a pie-in-the-face slapstick master of comedy ready to bust out. Actually - check out her prom scene in BEST FOOT FORWARD for a taste of the Lucy-to-come.

A friend of mine put it best: "When Lucy died, it was as if our childhood died." I don't think I've ever been as depressed when any movie star died.

Updated On: 4/26/05 at 08:24 AM

[GYPSY1527]

Posted: 4/26/05 at 8:48am

I could not agree with you more FOAnatic!
What you said brought tears to my eyes...but joy and laughter to my heart (which always follows when I read, hear or see Lucy)

Lucy was one in a million and I'll always love her. Laughter is one of the greatest gifts God can give and she certainly made the most of it. I always say this and people don't usually want to admit it, but I believe I Love Lucy and the legacy of Lucille Ball will be around long after us and our children will be here on this earth! She's one of the those individuals that just won't be forgotten. All the female commideans on TV blatently imitate her....which is testament to her genuis as an actress. She WAS, IS and ALWAYS will be a forerunner in female tv sitcom stars.

[PB ENT.]

Posted: 4/26/05 at 9:09am

Ahhhhhhh........ Sweet!

[Glebb]

Posted: 4/26/05 at 9:10am

Gorgeous!

[Marquise]

Posted: 4/26/05 at 9:22am

She was an amazing talent and a true inspiration to many. A pioneer in television comedy and television production. I don't see why some members here feel the need to come here and rain on the parade. This woman's "GOOD" definitely outweighs whatever "BADs" there may be.

She will be with us forever through her television programs and films.

[magic8ball]

Posted: 4/26/05 at 9:33am

Ball was a comedic genius. Definitely one of my most respected stars.

[iluvtheatertrash]

Posted: 4/26/05 at 9:39am

I feel so blessed everytime I catch an old TVLAND rerun. This woman was an inspiration to us all.

The away message for the day: "I still love you, Lucy." (with a link to this discussion.)

[LouW95]

Posted: 4/26/05 at 9:48am

I highly recommend a visit to the Lucy-Desi Center in Jamestown, NY. It is a must for anyone who was a fan or ever enjoyed Lucille Ball's great body of work. Here's the website:

http://www.lucy-desi.com/

[OrdinaryJukebox1]

Posted: 4/26/05 at 9:56am

Amen to the original poster. Lucy will always be the best, at least, to me.

-Vincent