i like how nobody paints lucy as the bad guy. they accept that she was the way she was because of her struggles. I think that’s the best way to be viewed ie, being told your flaws but your flaws don’t always make you a horrible person.
You DON'T save or improve a marriage by being in each other's way 24 hours a day, and under the pressures and time required to be responsible for a hit TV series and heads of a studio. Familiarity breeds contempt. Just like children won't save a marriage, in fact they can be the cause for dissolution of a marriage.
Seems like a whole lotta bitching over nothing. Damn. But no wonder Lucy defended Desi & never let anyone bait her into trash talking him. She put Merv Griffin in his place when he tried it.
What shame them Bitches wouldn't say that to her face! I truly hate when people bad-mouth people after they're passed away when they can't defend themselves!!! shame shame shame on them
Semantics. Desi Arnaz said for the entire run of the series, including the hour episodes, they called the program 'I Love Lucy'. You'll never read any of them calling it anything else. But, you're right, the named series never had that exact episode. According to the writing team they got the idea from the Marlon Brando movie filmed in Japan around that time.-+*
The documentary had the potential to be so good but detail re accoustics was .very poor:, so I missed a good deal. Pity! You often find all attention is given to the visual and the quality re accoustics is forgotten.
People make Desi out to be a horrible guy, but that's not fair. It's never one person's fault. Lucy sounds pretty mean in the interviews... I'm sure she'd be hard to live with.
That whole thing that was said about Jack Benny was sort of true. On another video titled "Behind the Scene Of Here's Lucy" Jack Benny did seem like he was ordered around by Lucy. I did read in TV guide though that she reallt went out of her way to treat Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton like royalty.
This is so typical of super successful parents. My mother always told us that the most important thing in our family was "the company", which was a huge concern. We all pulled behind my dad, bucked up while he was gone so much and supported that notion. I don't regret a moment of it--he was a great man, and we helped him get there.
Lucy hair colour was a bright orange not red headed, Lucy actually looked better as a blonde Desi jr resembles his father so much my gosh a very handsome man like his father Desi
My mother looked just like Lucy. My mother was gorgeous. I real head turner. My mother kept her hair the same color as Lucy, not because she wanted to look like Lucy it was just her preference. My mother also had beautiful blue eyes. Everyone told her she looked like Lucy. It was a shock when my mother passed away when she was only 44 and I was 10. It was so unexpected. My mother worked and had lots of energy. She never complained about her health. I have a really good memory of my past. I can remember back when I was 2 years old. I believe God gave me my good memory so I could always remember my mother. I miss my mother so much. She was so good to me and we had a very good relationship.
How beautiful. Thanks for sharing Lori. I bet your mother would be so proud of you. I enjoyed your comment very much. You are a good writer. What a special bond you and your mother had. I could almost see your gorgeous, red-headed mother in my mind's eye
Arnaz chased the ladies and drank a lot but he did love Ball very much in his own way. Even Ball admits that. But, she was a real load to him. Arnaz said once that she had a hard time expressing her emotions, which often left him doubting her love, for him or their kids. He said that he tried to compensate but failed being there for them in person, but was emotionally available to them where their mom wasn't at all. Desi Jr. said once that she never stopped being an actress, was always 'on', whereas their dad was the opposite and had a harder time being 'on'. He also said that Arnaz shouldn't have been where he was, with all the responsibilities and pressures which he could not deal with. At first he bluffed his way thru, then started acting out and started heavy on the booze. That gave him some relief but given his nature was like setting off a bomb. Lucie said her brother caught it from both parents. She said their dad was extra hard on her brother, thinking he was a 'sissy' and not much of a rugged male. Their mom often attacked him for being the thing she hated more than anything: lazy. Which she attributed to their father, who she said pushed them away from hard work and towards play. That was something she just couldn't do. Arnaz said she was a ball-buster and applied the same logic she did at work to their relationship. He said that she wouldn't let him near her emotionally. Guess it's a wonder they stayed together for 20 years.
Not even close! Christina and Christopher Crawford suffered horribly from Joan's "drunken rants" and "physical abuse", Lucy was only emotionally distant from her kids. If you heard what Lucie Arnaz said, she said that she had a understading to why her mother was like that, and still loved her regardless!
I have read Lucy’s & Desi’s autobiography’s & other books on their lives . Lucy told her cousin Cleo that the most important thing to her was her work. Desi gave her 2 options towards the end of I Love Lucy. He told her that they could Sell the studio, make enough money to retire & have time to spend with the kids & choose projects that interested them in doing, or in order to compete with the other studios, he would have to devote more time to the business. She told him that she did not want to quit. That is when she chose her career over her marriage & family. Even at the end of her life, she told friends that she was the happiest when she was working. Desi always had an eye for the ladies & Lucy knew that. But she said was that she could not handle the drinking because it changed him. His drinking worsened as the pressure of running Desilu became too big. Desi was the one who asked Lucy for the divorce & he told her to file for it.
Lucille Ball was and is a phenomenon. Of course, now that she is dead expose their personal lives and explain things that are nobodys busine2. Everybody has family problems and some are brutal. So for all of the critics, expose yours publicly first before going after these wonderfully entertaining human beings.
Desi was a louse. He cheated, gambled, womanized and drank like a fish. A hard worker at work. yet, when fun came. He did it obsessively. Lucy, enjoyed her later years with Gary. However, Desi and Lucy stayed close friends.
+RetroGuy76 ......of course she loved Desi! but, she would stay with Gary if her life depended on it, because the louse would stray again. Gary and Lucy truly proved the ultimate live in the end. Interred means nothing.
I think this is what happens when a person puts everything into their work , the home life suffers , this does not make a bad person though , just the way it goes in Hollywood
Lucy was raised in very difficult circumstances - beloved father died before she was 4; mother was away to find work up to a year at a time. She was responsible for her younger brother and cousin Cleo at an early age. MGM died early, as did her aunt, Cleo's mother. Etc. much else too. By age 15 she left home to find work in NYC to help support the family. Work was all important to her whole world - in Hollywood, worked hard to rent a house and reunite the family - mother, grandfather, brother and cousin, which she did. Again - had to work hard to do this.
Lucy became allegedly "mean", according to the book, "Desilu," because when Desi had her to buy him out of the company in the mid-1960s, she found herself having to deal with the corporate "mucky-mucks" and, according to Lucie Arnaz, Desi had always done well in this area but Lucy dreaded it and just wanted to be a comedienne; also, losing Desi "hardened" her; she seemed "mean" when she meant no malice. Still, she coped, a true professional, feeling she had to be strong for her company's staff.
Also, had it really tough in the marriage, being married to Desi who was an addict: sex, alcohol and gambling which he had issues with it before their marriage, but as time went on and pressures increased - everything got worse, no matter what Lucy did. She got hardened by Desi's sexual exploits known to everybody. How painful that must have been and she admitted to becoming hardened so it did not hurt so much.
I agree with you, Karen. In reality, Desi was the one who built the Desilu ranch in Chatsworth, set up his and Lucy's social calendar, prepared the guest list and all the food and entertainment, and believed his wife's talent a form of genius; hardly "Ricky Ricardo!" He was also a tender, unconditionally loving parent with his children, not afraid to demonstrate his "feminine" side in this regard; hardly a "machista," whatever THAT means! In their home, whomever could, did---no gender biases.
Dear Ted: With all due respect, you could do well to take "refresher" courses on "the 'typical' Hispanic man"; most that I know are not the patriarchal fiends that you describe, but loving, caring, kind, and protective of their wives and children. You're "talking," but your "dogma" seems to be leaving skid marks over your "karma"! (Re)research your mindset on the issue a bit more. And, not to be mean, it seems to me an "educated" man would know your spelling "probabbly" is wrong: 1 'b' only.
Dear Angie: Yes, it is heartbreaking. Lucy and Desi lived in an age when "appearances" and "denial" were oddly synonymous with one another; but it seems to me that few married couples tried as hard to "make the dream come true," and as the world's most famous couple, yet! Whew! Not something many of us would want to take on!
Dear Rachel: I had the same kind of problem with my dad---my mom had to be both father AND mother, and that takes a LOT of woman! But take heart---my dad mellowed, and still is mellowed---people change for the better. My best wishes for your relationship with your mom. God bless!
Dear Rachel: As Lucy is quoted as saying in the book, "Desilu," "Hell, yes I believe in nepotism! If a member of my family can do the job, I'll hire 'em!" She showed her love for her kids and relatives by drawing them into her professional world---it was just her way of saying, "I love you." In Lucy's generation, this way of showing of "love and caring" was not uncommon; a.k.a.: "The Family Business!"...wish it would come back into vogue...!
Dear Bethany: The lady is question was a member and true intimate of Lucy's, along with show biz historian, Robert Osbourne, of the Desilu Playhouse Workshop. Carole (nee Mildred) Cook, was an original 1959 member of DPW, which was a smallish but prestigious "acting school" that Lucy developed in the late 1950s to help young, struggling talent get a foothold in a business that was over-run with competition. Lucy was Matron of Honor at Carole's wedding and were devoted friends till Lucy's death.
this is heartbreaking. i'm not going to lie. i've heard parts of this but i've never known the true story. i feel sorry for both Lucille, and her children. my mom never takes the time to even go outside with me either, never did- not even when i was younger. i mean, you can't take 10 minutes out of your day to spend time with your kid? i just never felt the bond. i'm not close with my mother and i wish i was
lucille is sort of like my own mother. she never really has time for me, and cares about other things. like lucille's friends said, "she never had the TOOLS to be a mother." and my father is always there for me, and he makes time for me. and my parents are divorced also, so i can relate very well and i understand what they mean
I realize I am 8 years late (lol) in commenting but I can totally relate to this section about Lucy not being very maternal as my own mother did not have the tools to be maternal with me. She is gone now and I miss her terribly but she was always interested in issues going on within her own life instead of focusing on me and the chapters I was going through (within my life).
i knew they always appreciated their father more. i can tell because they talk about him more frequently then her. if you mention their mother to them, i can tell they don't like to bring up the subject. i love lucille and i knew she wasn't the perfect mother, but i didn't know all of this. i've never heard them say these things about her. although, when they were older, she made up for the time not spent with them, and they played the roles of her children in The Lucy Show.
yes, exactly. and that's why when they were growing up and were teenagers. she tried to spend as much time with them as she could and make up for it all, so that's when they became stars on "The Lucy Show"
ok so after reading these comments, i'm not sure if i want to watch this. as an avid fan, do you think i should or should i not watch it so nothing gets ruined. please dont tell me anything because i love them too much
THe subtitles are funny as the computer has left out god, santa and other keywords so that it is funny modern jibberish, especially on the missing christmas special
We have Desilu to thank for Star Trek and probably the mobile phone and who knows what else ? I LOVE LUCY xxx thanks for posting , most informative I already knew most of it but nice to see it presented like this x