I Love Lucy followed Lucy Ricardo’s outrageous get-famous-quick schemes, but in real life, no such schemes were required. Lucille Ball became one of the biggest stars in the world, not to mention one of the most powerful. And according to her daughter, Lucie Arnaz, Ball was unlike her on-screen persona in other ways, too. Lucie finally opened up about what it was really like growing up with Lucy and Ricky as parents, and the truth was just as wild as you'd expect.
Lucille Ball's babies
Six weeks after Lucie Arnaz was born, I Love Lucy premiered.
The show was so successful that “[my mother] was only out of work for 24 hours the rest of her life,” Lucie quipped decades later. But what about Lucille Ball’s other baby — Lucie herself?
A working mom
“My earliest memory of my mother was that she worked,” Lucie told the Television Academy.
This may not sound strange these days, but back in the ‘50s, a working mother — especially one as famous and in-demand as Lucille Ball — was far more unusual.
They weren't around much
Lucille Ball and her husband, Desi Arnaz, weren’t around much during Lucie’s childhood. They were too busy with their own skyrocketing fame and burgeoning production company, Desilu Productions.
Only on weekends did Lucie and her brother, Desi Jr., spend any significant time with their parents.
Feeling guilty
But when Lucille was home, she was the furthest thing from Lucy Ricardo. “[My mother] was a working mom and when she was home she was very business-like about running her house,” Lucie recalled.
The reason for this, Lucie suspects, comes down to something many women of the time period struggled with...
Giving them "normal" childhoods
Guilt. “I think because she was a working mom in the ‘50s, there probably was a lot of guilt involved in not being home with the kids because you’re supposed to be, I guess,” Lucie suggested.
According to her, it was very important to Lucille that her children live normal lives — well, as much as was possible, under the circumstances.
Lucy vs. Lucille
Though Lucie saw the clear differences between Lucy Ricardo and Lucille Ball, the rest of the world couldn’t.
“She played a very funny person in her show, very crazy, outrageous person, and all my friends used to think my mother was really like that,” Lucie explained. ”At home, of course, she wasn’t like that at all.”
Lucille went by the book
In fact, Lucille Ball was far more conventional than Lucy Ricardo. “She was very responsible, took care of business.
[She] worried a lot about the household, whether the kids were being taken care of, if the garage was being cleaned out, homework was being done,” Lucie recalled.
Lucille in real life
When she wasn’t trailblazing a path for women in entertainment, Lucille “fashioned herself as a homemaker of sorts,” Lucie said.
It’s hard to imagine Lucy Ricardo whipping up a dish or cleaning out the garage without something outrageous ensuing, but according to Lucie, that’s where her mother excelled in real life — and in one area in particular.
Like any other family
Though Lucy Ricardo couldn’t even bake bread without something disastrous occurring, Lucille Ball was much more adept in the kitchen.
In fact, some of Lucie’s best memories involve her parents cooking in the kitchen, just like any other family.
"Just being mom"
“Home and being together is a fond and favorite memory,” Lucie told Good Morning America. “If [my mom] made me a grilled cheese sandwich and we sat in the living room and we talked, that is a great moment in my memory.
She was just being mom, making sandwiches.” Most of the time, though, Lucille was busy changing Hollywood forever.
Lucille's lessons
Lucie also learned things about being a woman in show business simply by watching her mother at work. “Don’t come in whining. Know your lines. Be a team player.
Don’t blame other people for what you didn’t do right,” Lucie explained. Judging by her icon status, Lucille definitely knew what she was talking about.
Meeting Desi
Lucille Ball had a hand in just about every part of show business as she climbed her way to the top: she modeled in the early days of her career, worked on Broadway, and was a contract player for RKO before she met Desi Arnaz on the set of Too Many Girls.
And ten years later, Lucie was born!
Lucie's mother and father
Though Lucie is especially known for being the daughter of Lucille Ball — they share the same name, after all — she looks more like her dad, Desi Arnaz.
“I have a responsible side,” Lucie said, which she attributes to her mother. “But I’m also very much like my father.”
Fun-loving Desi
Before I Love Lucy, Desi Arnaz was known for energizing a crowd with his musical talents.
He’s credited with bringing the conga to NYC clubs in the late ‘30s, not to mention launching the successful Desi Arnaz Orchestra. And according to his daughter, he never lost his fun-loving side as he gained fame.
Different personalities
“[My mother] was very nuts and bolts,” Lucie explained. “[But] my father [would say], ‘Let’s have a fiesta.
Let’s cook and let’s have a good time.’” Even with his love of life, Desi was also a skilled businessman. “He was the best dealmaker in the world. I loved watching him do business,” Lucie recalled.
Trouble at Desilu
Desi’s business skills combined with Lucille’s industry experience made Desilu Productions a match made in heaven.
The studio, which combined the couple’s names, produced their own show (I Love Lucy, obviously), as well as shows like The Lucy Show and Star Trek. Still, there was trouble in paradise, which Lucie knew all too well.
Before her very eyes
It’s believed that Lucille Ball had hoped that I Love Lucy would repair her marriage to Desi Arnaz. But as time went on, Lucie watched as her parent’s marriage disintegrated before her very eyes.
“They didn’t have the benefit of therapists and things we have today,” Lucie said of her parent’s marital troubles.
Making it work
“In those days, if you said, ‘Well, we’re having troubles, we need to get some help,’ [gossip columnists] Louella Parsons and Hedda Hopper would have a field day and it would probably ruin your show,” Lucie explained.
So, they made it work for as long as they could, both for their careers and their children.
The good and the bad
Looking back, Lucie knows that her parents' problems were rooted in the same thing: passion. “They were two people who had a tremendous passion for one another. There’s good and there’s bad with that.”
One of the “good” results of it, though, was Lucie herself, who has gone on to craft a career of her own.
Just like mom
Lucille and her daughter had more in common than a responsible streak, according to Lucie: “[My mother] was always acting out, always pretending, always putting on little plays in the backyard, much like me when I was a little kid,” she said.
And all those years of watching her mom at work paid off.
Winning an Emmy
Lucie eventually got to star alongside Lucille in Here’s Lucy, the third of her mother’s self-titled sitcoms. Naturally, she played the role of Kim Carter, Lucy’s daughter, on the show.
And years later, Lucie ended up winning an Emmy in her own right with the documentary Lucy and Desi: A Home Movie.
Hard to comprehend
As time goes by, I Love Lucy’s influence has only grown, and Lucie is just as awed by her parent’s achievements as everyone else.
“It’s always been hard for me to comprehend the enormity of what I grew up in and [Lucille Ball’s] popularity,” Lucie revealed.
All in the genes
“I’m extraordinarily proud that this genius talent, this one-of-a-kind, unique, God-given comedienne is related to me.”
Being the daughter of the world's most famous TV star must have come with a lot of emotional baggage for Lucie, but at least she knows where her talents come from, although Lucille often got her own origin story a little muddled.
New York vs Montana
See, Ball was born in August of 1911, to parents Henry and DeDe in New York State’s Jamestown area. However, as an adult, she would sometimes claim she’d been born near to her grandparents in Butte, Montana.
Gossip columns would later suggest that the star made up this claim as she felt New York wasn’t as romantic a place of origin as Montana.
Moving around
However, there was some truth in Ball’s statement. Her family did, for some time, reside in Anaconda, M.T., while Henry briefly worked there. But as a lineman for the Bell Telephone Company, his job meant that the family moved around a lot.
As a result, they also settled in the Michigan town of Wyandotte, and New Jersey’s Trenton area for a while.
Early tragedy
But when Ball was just four years of age, disaster struck the family. In February of 1915 Henry passed away aged just 27, after contracting typhoid fever.
The day of her father’s death would have a lasting impact on the future star, who remembers that a bird flew into the house amid the tragedy. As a result, she developed a lifelong phobia of birds.
Headin back to New York
Following Henry’s death, his wife, DeDe – who was expecting a second baby – headed back to New York state.
Ball’s brother, Fred, was born in 1915 and the siblings spent the rest of their childhoods there, where they lived with their mom and her parents. And it was there that the little girl got her first taste of show business.
A taste of showbiz
Ball’s childhood hometown boasted the popular Celoron Park, at the time one of the country’s premier amusement attractions.
It featured a ballroom, bandstand, roller coaster and theater area, where plays and vaudeville shows often took place. So, needless to say, it was one of the future star’s most beloved locations.
Left alone
However, Ball’s childhood wasn’t all fun and games. In 1919, the little girl’s mother remarried. And when her new stepfather, Edward Peterson, went in search of work away from home, his wife went with him.
As a result, the couple put both of DeDe’s children into the care of Peterson’s parents.
Puritanical upbringing
Ball’s step-grandparents were puritanical in their beliefs and even banned mirrors from the household, bar one, situated in the bathroom. As a young girl, they once caught the future star admiring her reflection in it.
Consequently, they disciplined the youngster for her vanity. She later revealed that this period in her life had a profound effect on her.
Joining the chorus line
Peterson, however, didn’t appear to share his parents’ puritanical views. He was a Shriner, a sect of the Freemason organization with an emphasis on brotherhood, but also fellowship and fun.
So when the group were looking for female chorus line entertainers, Ball’s new step-father prompted the 12-year-old girl to audition.
Young and expolited
Ball very much enjoyed her first stint on stage, and soon realized performing could bring her the praise and attention she craved.
As a result, it was easy for her mother to exploit that desire to perform when, at the age of 14, the future star embarked on a relationship with 21-year-old Johnny DeVita, a local bad boy.
Going to drama school
DeDe disapproved of her daughter’s relationship. So when it showed no sign of fizzling out after a year, she somehow managed to pull together enough money to send Ball to New York’s prestigious John Murray Anderson drama school. She enrolled in 1926 and was a classmate of Bette Davis.
However, the future star’s experience at the school wasn’t a positive one. Indeed, her tutors believed she’d never make it in show business.
Turning to modeling
Nevertheless, Ball refused to give up her dream. As a result, in 1928 she began working as a model for fashion entrepreneur Hattie Carnegie. Carnegie then convinced the future star to go from brunette to blond.
And, as she later put it, “Hattie taught me how to slouch properly in a $1,000 hand-sewn sequin dress and how to wear a $40,000 sable coat as casually as rabbit.”
Two-year set back
Soon, Ball’s career was in full swing. However, she experienced a major set back when she contracted rheumatoid arthritis. The illness prevented the young star from working for two long years.
Never one to be defeated, though, in 1932 she went back to work for Carnegie, while trying to establish herself as an actress.
Trying on many hats
Under the stage name Diane Belmont, Ball enjoyed a brief stint on Broadway as a chorus girl. Around this time, she was also the Chesterfield cigarette girl. The actor, however, later left New York and headed west to the bright lights of Hollywood.
Here, she gained a number of small film roles throughout the 1930s while under contract at RKO Radio Pictures.
Almost Scarlett O’Hara
One of Ball’s most high profile auditions from this period was for Scarlett O’Hara in 1939’s Gone with the Wind. However, she ultimately lost out to Vivien Leigh, who would later win an Oscar for the part.
The future star did, however, go on to gain the leading role in the 1940 musical Too Many Girls. And it was on the set of this movie that she would meet one of the loves of her life.
Meeting Desi
Indeed, the actor starred in Too Many Girls alongside Cuban-born bandleader Desi Arnaz, who played a bodyguard in the film. The pair soon fell in love and eloped within a year of meeting.
And while Arnaz spent the majority of the war years entertaining wounded GIs, Ball continued her rise through Hollywood, signing to MGM during the 1940s.
Queen of the B’s
But despite MGM’s influence, Ball’s movie career floundered. Indeed, it was during this time that she earned the nickname “Queen of the B’s.”
So, in order to make extra money and increase her exposure, the actor would also take radio jobs, and it was one of these roles that proved her big break.
Moving to radio
In 1948 Ball began starring as Liz Cooper in My Favorite Husband on CBS Radio. The audio show proved a hit and the network approached the actor to develop the program for TV.
She accepted the offer, but had one condition. She wanted to star alongside her real-life partner and husband, Arnaz.
Taking matters into their own hands
At first, CBS was reluctant to cast Arnaz. For some reason, they thought that audiences wouldn’t accept American girl-next-door Ball with a Cuban husband.
The network’s concerns were exacerbated when a pilot for the show, produced by the couple’s company, Desilu Productions, failed to impress. So that’s when Ball and Arnaz took matters into their own hands.
Hitting the road
The couple then went on the road with their very own vaudeville act, featuring Ball as a kooky housewife desperate to get into Arnaz’s show. The tour was a hit. And as a result, CBS snapped the pair up for I Love Lucy.
The show would run for almost six years between 1951 and 1957. In addition, it became one of the most cherished TV shows ever produced.
Welcoming Lucie
I Love Lucy first aired in 1951, the very same year that Ball and Arnaz welcomed their first child, Lucie Désirée Arnaz. However, all was not well in the couple’s marriage.
In fact, the star had already filed for divorce from her husband in 1944, but they reconciled before the decree was finalized.
Becoming stars
With that in mind, I Love Lucy not only served as a vehicle to make Ball a star, but it also helped the pair salvage their marriage.
Their relationship had suffered over the years, partly as a result of their busy work schedules. However, the biggest obstacle to the couple’s happiness was reportedly Arnaz’s wandering eye.
Relationship boost
And it appeared that I Love Lucy did help to heal the couple’s relationship, at least for a while. In 1953 the couple welcomed their second child, Desi Arnaz Jr.
And in a groundbreaking move, the pregnancy was depicted on the hit sitcom, after CBS gained approval from a number of religious figures.
"Expecting"
Nevertheless, the title character’s pregnancy on I Love Lucy proved controversial.
CBS was not allowed to show a pregnant woman on-screen, nor could the show use the word “pregnant” in the script. As a result, the term “expecting” was used in reference to Lucy’s pregnancy.
Desi Jr.
The I Love Lucy episode in which the title character welcomed her child, Ricky, aired in January of 1953. And the landmark piece of television drew an impressive audience of 44 million.
What’s more, that very same day in Los Angeles, Ball welcomed Desi Jr. via a scheduled cesarean section.
Topping the chart
I Love Lucy was, by this point, already dominating American ratings. As a result, Desilu Productions was now a major company.
And as the success of the show grew, Ball and Arnaz were pressurized into relocating from their home in L.A. to New York, in order to suit the East Coast prime time slot. However, the couple refused.
Buying back the rights
Instead, Ball and Arnaz agreed to smaller salaries in order to fund filming on the West Coast. But in return, they wanted Desilu Productions to have the rights to I Love Lucy episodes after their initial broadcast. This proved a shrewd business move for the couple.
Indeed, in 1957, following the success of the sitcom, CBS handed over $1 million to the company to get the rights back – a sum equal to just under $9 million today.
Falling apart
However, the success of I Love Lucy and Desilu Productions only put more strain on the couple’s marriage.
On screen, Ball and Arnaz continued to function as a double-act, even starring in two movies together, shot during breaks from their sitcom. But in real life, things were starting to fall apart.
Completing its run
I Love Lucy ended its run in 1957, while still at the height of its popularity. Since then, the sitcom has been translated into tens of languages and still attracts a total of 40 million viewers a year in the U.S.
The show is widely regarded as one of the most influential of all time. And it was named the “Best TV Show of All Time” in 2012.
Officially a star
Moreover, throughout I Love Lucy’s run, the Emmys honored it with five wins. It also wracked up a number of other nominations, accolades and honors.
Furthermore, in 1990 the sitcom received the distinction of being the Television Hall of Fame’s very first inductee. And it’s safe to say that the show made a superstar out of Ball.
Filing for divorce
After I Love Lucy wrapped, Ball and Arnaz went on to appear together in The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour. But the couple filmed their last scene as a double act in March 1960, after which Ball filed for divorce.
In the papers, she claimed that her marriage was “a nightmare,” in stark contrast to the happy union audiences saw portrayed on their iconic show.
Typecasted
The couple divorced in May 1960, but remained friends until Arnaz’s death in 1986. However, the split would have a lasting impact on Ball’s career. Indeed, from then on, she found herself typecast as a single woman.
The actor, however, did tie the knot again in 1961, this time to comic Gary Morton.
First female heads
Following Ball’s split from Arnaz, she bought out her ex-husband’s share of Desilu Productions. This shrewd move made the star the first ever female head of a television studio.
Extremely active in the running of the business, she is credited with pioneering some of the production methods still used in television today.
Pioneering vision
Indeed, filming before a live studio audience is one such innovation Ball is responsible for. To do so, production teams must use multiple cameras and adjacent sets. Furthermore, I Love Lucy was the first ensemble-cast TV show.
With that in mind, it’s hard to imagine moderns shows like The Big Bang Theory without the star’s pioneering vision.
Post-Lucy
After I Love Lucy, Ball starred in Wildcat, a Broadway musical, for a brief period in 1960. She also presented a chat show for CBS Radio called Let’s Talk to Lucy between 1964 and 1965.
Furthermore, the star enjoyed success with two more sitcoms, The Lucy Show, which ran from 1962 to 1968, and Here’s Lucy, which aired between 1968 and 1974.
Slowing down
Ball continued to star in comedy television specials up until around 1980. After that, she tried to revive her sitcom career. But by the end of the decade, though, her health was diminishing.
And in April 1989 the star underwent an aortic transplant at Cedars-Sinai hospital after experiencing chest pain.
Final bow
The surgery went well, but a week later, Ball lost consciousness after experiencing severe pain in her back.
She sadly passed away that same day, April 26, 1989, following an aortic aneurysm, which doctors determined was not directly linked to her surgery. The star was 77 years of age at her time of passing.
Powerful legacy
Though Ball was gone, she left behind a rich legacy. Throughout her career, the star received an impressive 13 Emmy nominations, bagging four of them. She also received not one, but two Hollywood Walk of Fame stars for her work in TV and film, respectively.
What’s more, she received the Cecil B. DeMille Award from the Golden Globes and the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences bestowed upon the actor the Governor’s Award.
Posthumous awards
And the accolades didn’t stop there for Ball. Following her death, she was awarded a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom by George H. W. Bush.
Meanwhile, in Jamestown, N.Y., there is a Lucille Ball Desi Arnaz Museum and Center for Comedy. And Time magazine named the star one of the 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century.
Encore
A month prior to Ball’s death, in March 1989, she made her final public appearance at that year’s Oscars ceremony. She co-presented with fellow comedy legend Bob Hope and both Hollywood greats received a standing ovation from the audience.
With that in mind, the star’s last moments on stage were spent how she’d have hoped – accompanied by a chorus of applause.