To Read The Story - Steve Dale Pet World

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E BRITY
WCILLEBALL
eventually be our kind of scripts again. I just hope we're still
able to work when it happens.
Lucille Ball started her life in the limelight as a successful
fashion model in New Thrk City under the name Diane Belmont. Beginning her film career as a Goldwyn Girl, Ball was
eventually signed by RKO Pictures. But it was in 1951 that
she and her first husband, Desi Arnaz, achievedphenomenal
successin their long-running television classic I Love Lucy.
Ironically, their company, Desilu, eventually bought the old
RKO studios. Ball married comedian Gary Morton in 1961.
VT: "WasMame a disappointment
DESIWASA GREATBUSINESSMAN,
A FINE
PERFORMER,
A TECHNICIAN
AHEADOFHIS TIME,AND
A GAMBLER.
for you?
L8:Not for me. It might have been for someone else. Maybe
Warner Bros., who walked away and didn't help us. I'm very
proud of Mame. It's a good family picture.
VT: On your various TV series, you always did your own .
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stunts. Are there any you absolutely refused to ex~cute?
LB: Have you ever tried going real fast down a fireman's pole?
It's more dangerous than it looks. I did it in rehearsal once,
and shot my heels through my neck. Some of the stunts were
easy. Walking on stilts was something I learned as a kid.
Once you learn it, it comes back to you, just like swimming.
VT:Do you have a favorite episode of! Love Lucy?
L8: I suppose one has to be stomping grapes, ["Lucy Goes
Italian:' 1956.] I almost drowned in that vat of grapes. We
had to get short, actual Italian grape stompers. We came up
with three women that didn't understand English. And none
of us spoke Italian. One woman, a rather big woman, was told
we were to have a fight. We tried to explain to her that she
had to let my legs come up for the camera, then an arm, then
my head, then another arm. Well, she never let me up. That
vat contained real grapes. It was like being in three feet of
eyeballs! I had grapes up my nose, in my ears. This lady had
me by the neck. I thought, what a way to go, drowned in a vat
of eyeballs.
CLOCKWISE:
A BLONDE
LUCYFROMTHEEARLYDAYSOFHERCAREER,
VIVIAN
VANCEANDLUCY,
THEWHOLEGANGONI LOVELUCY.
Her recent television program Life with Lucy featured a vivacious and dynamic Lucy. Luci11e Ball wi11always be Americas sweetheart.
(This interview was conducted shortly before the death of
Desi Arnaz.)
VIDEOTIMES: You're returning [or have returned) to the small
screen. Is there a chance you'll come back to the movies?
[Ball last appeared in Mame in 1974.)
LUCILLEBALL: I'd love to work with Bob Hope, but we can't
find the right script. Everything goes in cycles. There will
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VT:We'veheard that some of the audience laughter heard on
the I Love Lucy episodes was taped, and is now being used as
"canned laughter."
L8: I can watch a current TV program and I recognize my
mother's laugh or some other people I knew were in our audience regularly. I don't know this for a fact, but I'v~ lieard it
just like you've heard it.
VT:Over the years, in motion pictures and through television,
you've performed with all the great names. Is there anyone
you'd still like to work with?
LB: Bette Davis is one. I once worked with Katharine Hepburn, but that was so long ago; I'd love to do it again. Having
Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor on the program was
great fun.
VIDEOTIMES/February 1987
i
ORN
VT:1bday,we take reruns for granted. As a result, a whole
new generation is seeing I Love Lucy episodes on video and
on TV reruns.
LS: I wanted to save the shows so my children could see what
Desi and I once did, and one of our men said, "Look, we're on
film, we could put them in a vault and play them again some
time:' Back then, this was a radical idea.
VT:When your shows are dubbed for rebroadcast in Latin
American countries, who has the accent, you or Desi?
LS:I don't know how they do it, but I'm told that I have the
accent. I've heard myself in Yugoslavian, in Japanese, in
.
Swedish, upside down and inside out.
ER
a wedge. Desi was a great businessman, a fine performer, a
technician ahead of his time, and a gambler.
VT: When you're not working, what do you spend your time
doing?
LS: Cleaning the house. Aah, I try to visit Lucie and Larry
[daughter Lucie Arnaz and her actor/husband Larry Luckinbill] and the grandkids. And I thank God that Desi (Jr.] has
gotten his life back in shape.
I CAN'TEVENMENTIONVIVIAN'SNAMEWITHOUT
CRYING.THEREWILLNEVERBEAN.OTHER
TIME SO
GREAT.
VT:It's been reported that Vivian Vance's contract stipulated
that she stay overweight as Ethel Mertz and later as Vivian
Bagley.
LS:Absolutely nonsense. We both appeared in curlers, and
worse than what your average housewife might wear. I was
the one in the most ridiculous of outfits.
VT:Is it true that William Frawley [Fred Mertz} couldn't
stand Vance?
LS:No! He hated when I sang. He sincerely couldn't understand why we always had to do it for laughs. He wanted to do
the song-and-dance routines straight.
VT: Are you a liberated woman?
LS:Honey,I've been liberated all my life. I don't know about
anyoneelse, but I need a man to lean on. And I've been leaning on Gary [husband Gary Morton] for 24 years. We'venever
gone to bed angry with one another. Gary appreciates his
home, and I appreciate that fact. He's much easier to get
along with than I am. I've had enough liberation. I believe in
equal rights for woman, and I believe in equal rights for all
people. If you want to be liberated, go liberate yourself.
VT:Thu and Desi divorced in 1960. let, he continued working
with you, producing and directing. And by then, you were re-
married to Gary.Have you remained friends with Desi?
LS: Yes,we talk all the time. Desi is very sick now though.
And his wife died of cancer. She was a great girl, very good
with my children. We all had an amiable relationship after
the divorce. We never argued about the kids or used them as
VIDEO TIMEs/February
1987
CLOCKWISE:
LUCYWITHGUESTSTARHARPOMARX,LUCYLOVES
DESI.AND
DESIANDLUCYIN THEFILMTHELONG,lONG TRAilER.
VT:Are you sentimental? Or are you the hard-dtiven businesswoman that some people think you are?
LS: No, I'm not a great businesswoman. I ran the company,
but I depended on a lot of people to help me do it. Oh, aren't
you sentimental? Everyone's sentimental. I do miss so many
people-Harpo Marx, Carole Lombard, Vivian [Vance]. . .
and so many others. I can't even mention Vivian'sname without crying. There will never be another time so great. But
life still goes on for me.
-STEVE DALE
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