When discussing comedy one name that cannot be left out is Lucille Ball. Lucy as she had become to be referred to as was a comedic genius. She was often called the queen of comedy. While many associate her with her long career in television with shows such as I Love Lucy and the many incarnations of her own show “The Lucy Show” she had also made many comedy movies herself and had appeared in many others as a bit player.
Lucy was born August 11, 1911 in Jamestown New York She often referred to her birthplace in her television shows (Desi, 2015). Lucy started her entertainment career in 1928 as a model for Hattie Carnegie in New York City. 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 Candles (1933) (Wagner, 2006). She was doing very well in the modeling profession, but she developed rheumatoid arthritis and had to stop working. She returned to working in 1932. This is when she pursued her acting career using the name of Dianne Belmont as her stage name. One would have never recognized Lucy at this time as she was a blonde and had not yet acquired her signature red hair. She landed her first role in the movie The Bowery a comedy /drama where she was uncredited. She appeared in many comedy, drama, musical movies from 1933 to 1936 with most of her parts in these films being uncredited and her playing very minor parts. Her first true credited part came in 1936 with the movie That Girl from Paris, a musical comedy in which she played the girlfriend (Clair Williams) of one of the stars of the movie. This seemed to be the movie that launched her Career.
Lucy began starring in more comedic roles in the movies. She played opposite people such as Bob Hope and other comedy giants. Some of her most memorable performances in movies included The Fuller Brush Girl, Lover Come Back and Fancy Pants. Fancy Pants was released in 1950. It portrayed Lucy as a door to door sales lady. She is not very good at it. While selling door to door one of her customers is murdered and her fiancé and Lucy are considered as the suspects in the case (IMDb, The Fuller Brush Girl, 2016)Lucy shows her great comedic timing in this movie. 1950 was a very busy year in film for Lucy. She also starred in another movie called Fancy Pants. In this movie she teamed up with Bob Hope. In this movie Lucy plays Aggie, an unrefined woman whose mother hires Bob Hope thinking he is an English butler, when in reality he is an actor (IMDb, Fancy Pants, 2016). The film has many aspects of slapstick comedy which Lucy was popular for throughout her career. The film takes a turn when the people of the town think Bob Hope is English royalty and the president hears this and plans a visit to the town.
In 1951 Lucy’s comedy radio show called My Favorite Husband was adapted for television and the show I Love Lucy was born. Lucy learned firsthand of the discrimination that took place in the entertainment business. Lucy had to fight television executives when it came to casting her real life husband Desi Arnaz as her on air husband. The executives did not feel he would be believable as her husband on the show. According to Tudor “Having been a fashion model, film contract player, and radio actress. Ball was undoubtedly familiar with sexism in the workplace. But she was also familiar with racial prejudice, having married Desi Arnaz, a Cuban immigrant, in 1940” (TUDOR, 2013,p.130). Lucy stood her ground and Desi was cast as her husband and the rest is television history.
The television show did not stop Lucy from staring in films. She and her husband in 1953 starred in the Movie The Long Long Trailer. In this film Lucy who plays Tacy in the film (not Tracy) and Nicky played by Desi Arnaz get married. They want to save money for a home but instead ending up buying a very large trailer. Again the movie shows the comedic talent of Lucy in many of the scenes, especially when she is trying to cook dinner for her husband and her self while the trailer is being driven down the road (IDMb, The Long Long Trailer, 2016). This film was directed by Vincent Minelli one of the most popular directors of that era.
During this time, her and her husband were also amassing an entertainment empire. The two formed the Desilu Studio and Production Company. This was one of the major entertainment players of this era. The studio produced many popular shows such as My Three Sons, My Favorite Martian and Star Trek. According to Entrepreneur
When the creators of such mega-hits as "Friends," "Seinfeld" and "ER" cash their hefty syndication residual checks, they should take a moment to pay homage to Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball-two of the savviest and most innovative entrepreneurs ever to grace the star-studded streets of Tinsel town. In addition to laying the groundwork for the multibillion-dollar television syndication industry, they introduced many of the production techniques that would become standard television practice and almost single-handedly made Hollywood the television capital of the world (Entrepreneur, 2016).
Things did not go well for the marriage of Desi and Lucy and they divorced in 1960. In 1962 Lucy bought Desi out of Desilu for 2.5 million dollars and became “ the first woman CEO of a major television and movie production company” (Entrepreneur, 2016).Along with her comedic talent she was also now a major player in the entertainment business of that era.
Lucy continued in television and in films after the divorce. In 1968 she teamed up in another comedy movie with Henry Fonda called Yours Mine and Ours. This was a comedy about a couple who meets and marries bringing children from previous marriages into theirs. The blended family sets the stage for Lucy to again show her comedic genius along with a somewhat serious side (IMDb, Yours Mine and Ours, 2016). After this film Lucy did not make another film until 1974, this film was Mame. In this film she plays Mame Dennison, an eccentric woman who gains custody of her young nephew after his parents are killed. She brings the boy up in a lifestyle that is very much against the norms of society. The film also starred Bea Arthur as her best friend Vera, which they have a love hate relationship (IMDb, Mame, 2016). This would be the last comedic film that Lucy did as her next was The Stone Pillow, which was a dramatic film portraying the life of a homeless woman in 1986.
In her career Lucy starred in well over seventy movies. Most of these movies showed her great comedic timing. King discusses how men who are comics are allowed to be unruly and cause disruption and for female comics this was not the norm (King, 2002). This was not the case with Lucy as she pushed the envelope with her comedy. She was ranked in the same class as the Marx Brothers and the Three stooges when it came to the type of comedy that she did. According to Wagner when discussing Lucy, he stated
Over the airwaves, Ball’s beauty and grace were invisible and what was left was that perfect comic timing and tone. With a pause, a stutter or a firmly asserted absurdity she could express all of the quirky awkwardness of physical comedians like Keaton, Chaplin, or the Marx Brothers, and the audiences ate it up. (Wagner, 2006)
Lucille Ball was a very talented comedic actress. Her work not only was showcased in films but transferred over to television where she became one of the best loved talents in history.
References
Desi, L. (2015). Lucille Ball. Retrieved from Lucy Desi Center for Comedy: http://www.lucy-desi.com/fan-central/lucille-ball/
Entrepreneur. (2016). Growth Strategies Desi Arnaz & Lucille Ball . Retrieved from Entrepreneur Media, Inc. : https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/197550
IDMb. (2016). The Long Long Trailer. Retrieved from IDMb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047191/
IMDb. (2016). Fancy Pants. Retrieved from IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042447/
IMDb. (2016). Mame. Retrieved from IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071803/
IMDb. (2016). The Fuller Brush Girl. Retrieved from IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042488/
IMDb. (2016). Yours Mine and Ours. Retrieved from IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063829/
King, G. (2002). Film Comedy. Chipenham ,Wilshire: Wallflower Press.
TUDOR, D. &. (2013). Demoting Women on the Screen and in the Board Room. Cinema Journal, 53(1), 130-136. Retrieved from EBSCOhost
Wagner, M. (2006, September 21). American Masters. Retrieved from PBS: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/lucille-ball-finding-lucy/477/
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