Lucille Ball

[Ginger]

Continuing a discussion from the Barbara Walters thread.

Desi was a cheater and a drunk. I don't think she ever got over him - it broke her heart. There's a video of the two of them playing with Lucie's baby in a swimming pool - it must have been close to the end of Desi's life. Even there Lucy is nasty to Desi - splashing him, messing up his hair .... finally it ends semi-nicely with her calling him Grandpa pa pa pa... but all the bitterness was still there.

Lucy said once that they "never approved of each other". She was too uptight for him, and she didn't like his "life of the party" thing. In that video, Lucie gives the impression in her interviews that she preferred her father. Lucy didn't show her much affection and didn't have much pleasure in life aside from work, whereas Desi was very easygoing and fun.

They always had a very, very stormy marriage, but it's sad because I think after the divorce, Lucy kind of gave up on life. She married some schmuck mainly so she'd have someone to sit at home and play cards with, but she wasn't in love with him like she was with Desi. When Desi was on his deathbed, Lucy called him up and was just saying "I love you I love you I love" to him over the phone as he died.

[scarlet]

Watching the BW interview clips last night, the phrase "there's a thin line between love and hate" came to mind. Babs was right--Lucy never did get over Desi.

[kayti2212]

I love her. I grew up with her in the 90s (I was born 1986) and I own several biographies, as well as her unfinished autobiography. I love Desi, I love Vivian, I love William, I love Gale, I love Lucie and I love Desi Jr. as well.

I think Lucy and Desi always loved each other, but as Lucy discusses in depth in her autobiography, they were bad for each other and knew it. She was a high-strung perfectionist and he was easy-going and laid-back - the drinking and cheating didn't help either.

[Peggy Lane]

Lucy and Desi sound like Reese and Ryan.

[abbynormal]

Did she say in her autobiography that the divorce affected the show (I'm assuming yes, but I'm interested to here what she had to say)?

[madrugada]

This is really lame of me, but I could never enjoy "I Love Lucy" as much after hearing the real-life story of Lucy and Desi. I'd keep picturing Ricky REALLY doing the dancer in his nightclub act. Sigh.

[Deleted]

Lucy and Desi were an awesome pair. Neither one was ever as good after the professional and marital breakup, though Miss Ball did try and kept trying.

Whatever Mr. Arnaz did; he did it for Miss Ball. Yep, he cheated and boozed; but he built Miss Ball a TV empire and ran it for her. Whatever Miss Ball wanted, Mr. Arnaz made sure that she got it. Lord, he loved that woman. Of course, Miss Ball wanted everything---even his fidelity. And I think that he withheld that because his devotion to Miss Ball scared him or even unmanned him and he had to get his manhood back (in his weird manly way---Men!).

I remember a tape of a TV symposium that Miss Ball did in her later years. She spoke about her TV glory days and the studio that Mr. Arnaz built for her. And she gave him all the credit and called him a genius. And then her lips went tight and her face went sour and her beautifully manicured hand with its enormous rings pushed something away from her face and she pulled up her turtleneck. And that said it all for me. He disappointed her and she was bitter, but she knew what she had had and she knew what she had lost. She was not a sentimental woman; she faced the truth.

[Ginger]

Did she say in her autobiography that the divorce affected the show (I'm assuming yes, but I'm interested to here what she had to say)?

They didn't divorce until after the show. It didn't affect I Love Lucy so much, but the Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour went from 1957-1960, and those were the worst years of their marriage. Desi's alcoholism was out of control, he was living in the guest house of their home and the tabloids were photographing him coming drunk out of brothels. I believe they filed for divorce the day after taping the final Lucy Desi Comedy Hour, and supposedly you can see in the final scene Lucy is wearing kabuki makeup but her eyes are all red from crying. I also recall them taking a cruise of Europe together during that time which was one long, vicious fight, and Desi came back with a big scrape on his face from where he fell down drunk. Lucie remembers her mother standing over Desi at one point and screaming, "Why don't you die!"

On a side note, I found it amusing that Lucy was once interviewed in the 50s, and she said she was like her friend Joan Crawford when it came to parenting - be strict and don't spoil them. Hopefully, Lucy wasn't quite as bad as Crawford.

[Deleted]

Oh man, was I was like 10 years old, this show started on Nick at Nite and I was obsessed with it. My mom got me a bunch of 'I Love Lucy' books and a Lucy biography that Christmas and I so fell in love with Lucy and Desi as a couple. They were like the epitome of tragic romance to me at that age. LOL. I would sit and cry over their marriage dissolving and always wondered if they secretly were together again at the end.

I think the obsession lingers, because I do still have a soft spot for them. Especially Desi, despite all his faults. He was so overshadowed by Lucy, but he was so talented and did so much for TV production. He was really quite amazing.

[gibby]

I remember reading in a bio that towards the end of their marriage she would screech at him and say why didn't he just hurry up and die. Knowing how bad their marriage was has actually taken some of the fun out of I Love Lucy.