When someone mentions a redhead woman, all we can think of is Lucille Ball. There is no one who can make us smile like she does. However, she wasn’t really a redhead. There are many more facts you aren’t aware of. Hence, we are here to take you to the unknown side of Lucille Ball’s life.
Behind her natural smile creases, there is some harsh reality of the actress’ real, unscripted life.
Where It All Started
This ball of energy and positivity was born on 6th August 1911 in Jamestown, New York. This energized ball was uncontrollable and her mother had to put her on the leash. She went away from her home frequently and wandered until she was exhausted.
Her parents used to be in a state of panic whenever she went away for a stroll. However, one of these wanderlust experiences got her maiden performance ever. At the counter of the butcher’s shop, she danced and twirled for the passers-by. However, this discovery of love for dance didn’t make her life any easier.
Tragedy Hit Her Hard
At the age of 4, she had to face the death of her father. It was a period of testing for her and her mother who was pregnant with Lucille’s younger brother. This tragedy left a deep impression on the little girl and it was a scar for a lifetime.
The moment Ball received the unfortunate news, she recalled that a bird hit the te window of the kitchen that knocked down a frame. This was one reason she had a phobia of birds throughout her life. However, things started getting worse…
Struggling To Survive
After the death of her dad, Ball’s mother got remarried and her stepfather was a Swedish-American man. The ball was just 11 years old when she got a step-dad. He was never mean or abusive to her. In fact, his presence was like a shadow. His behavior was like that of a father. However, there were other things that made them struggle as a family.
Finances
For them, the main struggle was with the finances. The level of scarcity of money was such that she couldn’t afford pencils for her school. This poverty had a strong impact on the future star and she ended up collecting pencils from the different studios she worked in. When she finally turned into a star, people remember her closet full of unopened packs of pencils. Incidents of our childhood do make us make some strange changes to our life.
A Slow Start
Even though she was destined to become a star. However, it wasn’t an easy journey. She managed to convince her mother to enroll her in a New York City drama school and all this happened when she was just 15. She claims that all her energy turned into nervousness when it came to be on the stage, in front of numerous people.
Criticism Led Her On A New Path
If people had to be believed, her drama school teacher was of the opinion that Ball wasn’t fit for the drama school and wrote a letter to her mother. She wrote, “Lucy’s wasting her time…and ours. She’s too shy and reticent to put her best foot forward.”
After this critical response from her teachers, Lucy had another plan for herself.
Switching The Plan
After failed plans of drama school, Ball didn’t give up and stayed in the city. She decided to change her plans and stayed in the city to try her hand at modeling and singing on Broadway. During this period, she even changed her name to Diane Belmont.
She explained, “I always loved the name Diane and I was driving past the Belmont race track, and the names seemed to fit together.”
Broadway Didn’t Work Out
Broadway definitely made her happy but not everything was on the same page. As she went ahead in life, she found that she was suffering from rheumatoid arthritis. As a result of which she was fired from the Broadway shows. Similar to her drama school teachers, the people here discouraged her but she had turned thick-skinned by now. She did end up becoming a star due to this nature but what exactly happened?
Budding Love
At the set of Too Many Girls, she met the Cuban actor, Desi Arnaz. By this time, Lucille had switched back to her real name. Both the actors were starred in the movie and things started getting heated up real soon.
After knowing each other for over a period of six months, they tied the knot on November 30, 1940.
Despite their friends being skeptical. They both managed to stay together for twenty years but they had their share of obstacles.
Against The Norms
Back in the day, marrying a man younger than you wasn’t appreciated and it was against the societal norms of that time. Ball was nearly six years older than Desi, when she was 28, Arnaz was just 23. However, to balance out the difference, both of them gave out their year of birth as 1914.
They did manage the situation well but the struggles didn’t end here.
Creating History On Television
Desi and Lucille were the first two people who made an interracial couple on television. Before the show makers started production of I Love Lucy, Lucille wanted her husband to be her on-screen husband as well. The producers were not happy with the choice. They thought that the Cuban accent won’t translate well on the screen.
The show makers had one choice and it was to screen both of them or cast neither of them. You don’t need us to tell you what happened!
Challenging Ageism
Unlike others, Ball didn’t get the opportunity to go on screen before she turned 40. Even after being at that stage, Lucille mattered a lot in the industry. It was harder for older women to find work as compared to younger women. However, that wasn’t the case with Ball. She changed the game and how!
When her show came in 1951, she was a vital part of the show and the show makers weren’t ready to give up on her and that is the reason they got Desi on board.
Not A Redhead
This brunette lady had to put in extra effort to keep up the look she was supporting. The redhead didn’t come to her naturally. Hence, they had to find the perfect blend of red to give her the look.
The show makers had decided on the apricot gold color for her. However, the hairstylist had to work extra hard to get the perfect blend.
Getting Out Of The Dilemma
It was tough for the hairstylist to get the color right every time. Sometimes the color would be too dark and sometimes it won’t even touch the right tone.
This is when Ball’s trip to Vegas turned out to be helpful for both of them. Ball met Irma Kusely and he realized her hair color problem. He then ended up giving her a lifetime supply of ‘apricot gold’ color. However, he had kept the secret to the hair color a secret.
Committed To Work
Finding the perfect hair color was not the only thing she did for the sake of her perfect performance. She was willing to see fewer zeroes on her paycheck just to get better quality in the show. The pilot episode was shot on Kinescopeand it received truckloads of backlash.
Lucille didn’t want to compromise on the quality of the show hence, she sacrificed a few zeros on her check. All because she wanted to get an expensive film for shooting.
She Ruled The Show Biz
For all the people who think that women who laugh can’t be taken seriously, this woman will break all your notions. This redhead was the first woman to own a television production house and we are nothing but proud of this energy ball. Along with her husband, Lucille created Desilu Productions in 1950. If you could see, they both combined their names to get the name of their production.
The FBI
A few years before getting divorced, she was being watched by the FBI. Yeah, we told you things were never easy with the two of them. According to the Los Angeles Times, the reason was her registration under the Communist Party. It was at the same time that the government started to make strict rules for their ‘witch hunt’.
There was a complete investigation for her family by the House of Un-American Activities Committee.
Camera Commitment
Do you remember the Job Switching episode? That episode is proof of the commitment Lucille had for the camera. She withstood a nose break while shooting for a scene that involved the chocolate conveyer belt scene.
The scene was about the stone-faced woman slapping Lucy in the Face. However, Lucy was worried about shooting this scene and the reason was not the slap.
Hit Her Hard
Yes, it’s true, she wasn’t scared about the slap hitting her hard. It was because the candy dripper had refused to slap her during the rehearsal and Lucy thought that this hesitation might ruin the scene. However, things changed when they were actually shooting for the episode.
Nobody knows what got into the woman and she ended up slapping real hard. She was in pain and even thought that she might have broken her nose. However, Lucy didn’t cut the shot and gave the best performance.
Grape Stomping
The episode named Lucy’s Italian Movie had another unexpected incident for Ball. The grape stomping scene didn’t go as planned. In the actual scene, she had to stomp the grapes in the vat along with another Italian woman, Teresa.
The fact that makes this scene worth mentioning is that she nearly drowned in the grapes and the reason is bizarre.
Miscommunication
While Lucy tried to leave the vat, Teresa held her back and they get into a brawl. Teresa was an actual Italian grape stomper and she didn’t know English well. Hence, she ended up holding down Lucille’s head in the grape juice due to poor translation.
Ball thought that she was living the last moments of her life at that time. But still, there was a lot she had to face at the sets.
The Intoxication
Now that we are talking about the episodes, there is another one we’d like to talk about. We are talking about Lucy Does a TV Commercial Lucy; where she tries to sell a product called Vitameatavegamin. Yes, the one where she kept drinking the liquid and got intoxicated. Viewers were left in stitches while watching that particular episode. However, for Lucille, it was her least favorite episode of the series.
The reason will leave you shocked.
Tough Tongue Twister
Lucille thought that she had successfully messed up the tough tongue twister. She was nervous while shooting the scene as well. Well, we can’t blame her; it is tough to say the easiest tongue twisters over and over again and she was handling the tough one with her tongue. Hence, the crew had set numerous cue cards for her to get the scene right.
And expected out of her, she did a tremendous job.
A First For Women
She has slain many “first woman” moments and this one is just that. This goofball became the first pregnant woman to play a pregnant woman on screen. It was coincident that Lucille’s second pregnancy coincided with Lucy Ricardo’s pregnancy. In fact, Lucille gave birth to Junior Desi just 12 hours after Lucy gave birth to her baby on television.
History In Making
Lucille’s pregnancy did make some news on and off-screen. However, no one knew the impact would be so huge. When the episode, “Lucy Goes to the Hospital” was aired it showed Lucy giving birth to Little Ricky.
This episode was aired a day before the presidential inauguration of Dwight D. Eisenhower. This specific episode had 44 million viewers. However, presidential inauguration had just 29 million views. The difference of viewers exhibits the craze for this woman and her pregnancy, which leads us to the next point.
Working Mother
We know how tough it is to be a mother but being a mother who is committed to work is tougher. Lucille Ball is the latter one. This woman had two kids, daughter Lucie Desiree Arnaz and son Desi Arnaz Jr.
This was remarkable because being a mother of two and still having a successful career was rare.
Steady Support System
Even if you have seen just one episode of I Love Lucy, you will know that the background is filled with a lot of “Uh-ohs” and “Oh nos”. You can’t miss them because she is in pickle most of the time. However, not many people know who the person behind those reactions is.
It’s her mother, DeDe. She is a proud mother and she never missed the taping of her daughter’s series.
Record Holder
This woman is incredible. She has done many of the firsts and now she had a record as well, I mean is there anything she hasn’t done? She was known for her comic timing. She has managed to make people laugh for the longest time through her documented scenes.
There were a total of 64 seconds of laughter in the episode called ‘Lucy Does The Tango’.
On and Off-Screen BFFs
If you thought that due to the presence of her husband, Lucille didn’t bond well with others, you are wrong my friend. There was this one person in her life who was her o screen and off-screen friend. Lucy’s landlady, Ethel Mae Mertz is played by Vivian Vance. Despite sharing the relationship of a tenant and a landlady, both women strike a great friendship.
Not Leaving The Sets
This on-screen relationship was also an off-screen bond. They both didn’t want to leave each other and go home after the shooting of the episodes. That’s how well they bonded with each other. Ball claimed that she didn’t want to be cast in any series that didn’t have Vance. Sweet!
If that’s not friendship goals, then what is?
Workaholic
At the end of the series, I Love Lucy, Ball decided to take retirement. She thought that it was time for the curtains to fall. However, she didn’t know that the passion for acting would be a bug for life. She came back to television with the series Here’s Lucy.
She starred in it between 1968 and 1974. This opportunity helped her kids take the same road as hers.
True Winner
After making many firsts, breaking a world record, and working for most of her life, this woman has proved that she is worth the four Emmy Awards.
The list includes Best Comedienne in 1953, Best Actress in 1956, and Outstanding Continued Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Comedy Series in both 1967 and 1968. Seems like she was ruling the industry back then.
Reason Behind The Star Trek
Star Trek franchise is an inevitable part if you are a star and we can’t imagine Lucille Ball without it. And we have to thank the chocolate-scarfing, grape-stomping, Vitameatavegamin-selling lady for Star Trek’s existence.
This incredible woman gave her best to make the show trend on television. When the show makers didn’t approve the high budgets, she involved Desilu Production Company to get the required budget.
