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......now what are you doin'?.....I think I'm in LUV!....yeah, right!....yes, with a CRAZY red head....that's all we need...ANOTHER crazy voice....no, she's REAL! I seen her on TV!..did you take you meds today????...umm, well, I, um, I...say no more, we KNOW....yeah, but what can I say, except  Welcome to
Camp RUN-A-MUK! Camp Run-A-Muk THEME SONG!
Apparently, one of my "voices" is getting cable thru the aluminum wrapped around my head, & has fallen in LUV with LUCY! 
Guess what today's Camp is about..... 
Lucille Ball was a pathfinder who paved the way for all the women in TV to follow. Without Lucy, arguably, there might not have been a Carol Burnett or Mary Tyler Moore.
She proved women could be the leads and carry a show. Not one show, but several.
She was the first female head of a studio. While running Desilu, her willingness to take a risk lead her to approve production of Mission Impossible and Star Trek. That's right, without Lucille Ball, no Captain Kirk.
She was a woman who didn't mind looking funny, as long as she WAS funny.  
None of which takes away from Desi Arnaz's estimable talents as a producer. His "can do" attitude made the "I Love Lucy Show" work. He innovated the three camera filming format still in use today. Previously, shows like this were performed before a live audience and preserved on kinescope which makes poor copies. Desi's filiming of Lucy is the reason there are great copies today.
For the "I Love Lucy Show" the casting of William Frawley and the then unknown Vivian Vance was sheer genius. Although Vance was often unhappy to be playing the frumpy wife of a man who was 22 years her senior, she would stick with Lucille Ball into the "Lucille Ball Show" and "Here's Lucy."
Part of the "I Love Lucy" success was the real relationship between Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. The love showed. I Love Lucy Theme Song
I Love Lucy" by Harold Adamson and Eliot Daniel
"I love Lucy and she loves me
We're as happy as two can be
Sometimes we quarrel but then
How we love making up again
Lucy kisses like no one can
She's my Mrs. and I'm her man
And life is heaven you see
'Cause I love Lucy
Yes I love Lucy
And Lucy loves me! " While Lucy always has some splainin' to do for her antics, he always forgave her. 
The show ran in a period of TV history when married people slept in separate beds which would explain why on TV, women didn't get "pregnant." Expecting, maybe. So when Lucille Ball became pregnant with her second child in 1952, the network felt the morning sickness. They worried about ratings. They worried about sponsors. But Lucy fought for and won the right to do "pregnant stories."
The result? Some 54 million people turned in on January 19, 1953 to watch the episode "Lucy Goes to the Hospital" when Lucy would deliver. In an odd bit of coincidence, the show aired on the same day that Lucille Ball actually delivered Desiderio Alberto Arnaz IV.
Sadly, the strain on the marriage was too much. Arnaz had a problem with booze and women and evidentially Lucy left him. They divorced in 1960. She bought out his shares of Desilu.
Yet Lucille Ball was a survivor and work was her salvation. The networks doubted she could carry a show on her own. They were wrong. She forged ahead with "The Lucille Ball Show" (1962-1968), "Here's Lucy" (1968-1974) and short-lived "Life With Lucy" (1968).
Lucille Ball Info Lucille Ball was born on August 6, 1911 in Celeron NY. From the beginning Lucy knew she wanted to be in show business. Lucy lost her father while she was a child and her stepfather was a drunk. Lucy learned to rely on herself for what she wanted to do in life and what she needed. Fred Hunt is Lucy grandfather but she called him "Daddy."
Lucille Ball moved to New York in 1926 to be an actress living on her own fifteen( the illness, she called a car accident, but some call it rheumatoid arthritis.) That left her unable to function for one yr(1929-1930). When Lucy recovered she modeled for Hattie Carnegie. Wish Lucy working for Carnegie, she was discovered and later became a Chesterfield cigarette poster girl. Which led to Lucille's 1st movie contract with famed producer Samuel Goldwyn and her 1st trip to Hollywood in 1933. She was never out of work until age forced semiretirement in 1980.
While Lucille was working with Goldwyn, she was used as nothing more than a glamour girl in several Eddie Cantor musical comedy movies. She met with 2 actresses who became close friends for life--Ethel Merman and Ann Southern. In the mid 1930's, Lucille gambled with her salary by taking a drop in pay to move to Columbia Pictures. While Lucy was at Columbia she was used mostly in their short-subject unit. While many writers have detailed her early career with the comedic Three Stooges, the truth is just one movie short was made, Three Little Pigskins(1934). 
When Lucy was dropped by Columbia she walked across the street and got a contract with RKO Studios. She sent for her family, and, one by one her brother Fred, cousin Cleo, mother DeDe, and Grandpa Hunt join her in Hollywood to live.
Lucille's earliest screen efforts at RKO were in the glory days of Ginger Rogers, Fred Astaire, Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant, who reigned at the studio. Soon enough was in Panama Lady(1939).
Later on in Lucille Balls life she was Liz Cooper on My Favorite Husband. Co-starting Richard Denning. With the new producer Jess Oppenheimer brought 2 young writers to punch up the scripts--Bob Carol Jr. and Madelyn Pugh---her future I Love Lucy team.
From 1947-1949, Lucille did several small variety appearances on local television in both NY and LA, as well as some early live network appearances. Her earliest surviving appearance (on kinescope) was in January 1950, guest starring with her Latin lover husband (Desi Arnaz) on The Ed Wynn Show(1949-50).
Often, it has been written that Lucille Ball had to go into TV cause her movie career was finished. When it came to transfer My Fav. Husband to TV, what emerged was, well you know that. Lucille thought TV was a great idea for this radio series but she had one request: Desi to replace Richard Denning in the role of her TV husband. CBS hated the ideas cause they thought no-one would believe Lucille was married to a Latin husband. To prove the public would accept Arnazes as a believable couple, they went on the road in a vaudeville act.
Lucy will and will always be remembered as the 1st Lady of Television.
This info about Lucille Ball came out the the Lucy Book by Geoffrey Mark Fidelman and the book is AUTHORIZED BY DESILU, TOO, LLC.
Lucy married Desi Arnaz November 30, 1940. They got divorced on May 4, 1960.
Lucy and Desi's children are: Lucie Arnaz and Desi Arnaz Jr.
Lucy married Gary Morton on November 19, 1961
Lucy died on April 26, 1989
Nicknames for Lucy: "Queen of Comedy", "Queen of the B's" If you didn't know Lucy died on Carol Burnettes b-day. On Carols b-day Lucy would send her flowers. Lucy was in the hospital the day of Carols b-day sent her flowers,
later on we all found out Lucy died. Later that day Carol received the flowers Lucy sent. I Love Lucy 10/15/1951 - 6/24/1957 CBS 30 minutes The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour 11/6/1957 - 4/1/1960 CBS 60 minutes Lucy in Connecticut 4/3/1960 - 11/25/1960 CBS 30 minutes
Retitled stories of Lucy and Desi in their home in Westport, Connecticut
Black and White - 180 total episodes
Based in part on the radio show "My Favorite Husband" I Love Lucy Cast Lucille Ball as Lucy (MacGillicuddy) Ricardo
Desi Arnaz as Ricky Ricardo
Vivian Vance as Ethel Mertz
William Frawley as Fred Mertz
Little Ricky :
(1953) Richard and Ronald Simmons
(1954-56) Michael and Joseph Mayer
(1956-57) Keith Thibodeaux
Jerry Hausner as Jerry, the agent (1951-1954)
Elizabeth Patterson as Mrs. Mathilda Trumbull (1953-1956)
Doris Singleton as Caroline Appleby (1953-1957)
Kathryn Card as Mrs. MacGillicuddy (1955-1956)
Mary Jane Croft as Betty Ramsey (1957)
Frank Nelson as Ralph Ramsey (1957) I Love Lucy Wavs Ricky: Lucy I'm Home Lucy: Don't You Dare! Now Looo-cy 
I'm Your Vitameatavegamin Girl 
From the Chocolate Factory Episode Lucy wailing This is a Ricky Ricardo Production |
