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LUCY & DESI: A HOME MOVIE (TV)

Summary

A television documentary film about the relationship between Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, featuring home movie footage and interviews with their friends, family, and associates, as compiled by their daughter Lucie Arnaz.

Arnaz explains that she has spent several years unearthing old footage and scrapbook photographs of her parents from before she was born, which had been largely overlooked during her lifetime. Through these artifacts and through interviews, she hopes to portray them in a realistic and “objective” fashion, as she is frustrated with some media portrayals of her parents. Interviews with Ball’s childhood friends from Jamestown, New York testify that she was an extroverted and enthusiastic child, but that there was much “suffering” in her life that she kept concealed. The source of this “suffering” is identified by those who knew her as stemming from the sudden death of her father from typhoid fever when she was four years old, leaving her grandfather in charge. He is loved amongst the family but unpopular due to his association with the Socialist Party. Ball and her siblings spend much of their childhood laboring, including taking care of her family’s various livestock; her mother also works and is often absent from the home. This is compounded when her mother remarries and takes a long absence to spend time with her new husband. It is during this time that Ball becomes fascinated with vaudeville and harbors aspiration of becoming a vaudeville performer. She becomes discontented with her home life and makes several unsuccessful attempts to run away. Tragedy strikes when Ball’s friend Cleo accidentally shoots and cripples a boy with Ball’s grandfather’s hunting rifle. Her grandfather is held responsible for the crime and loses his house, sending the family into poverty. Ball travels to New York City and gets work as a model in order to bring in money for the family. A few years later she is asked to go to California to be a chorus girl in the 1933 musical film “Roman Scandals.”

Meanwhile, Desi is born on March 2nd, 1917 in Santiago de Cuba into a wealthy Cuban family, the son of the city’s mayor. He expresses interest in music from a very young age. A popular uprising in Cuba in 1933 upends Desi’s life, as his father sides with the government. His father is imprisoned and Desi and his mother barely escape. He finishes high school on a Jesuit scholarship and, in defiance of his family’s desire for him to become a doctor, he ends up working in a Cuban dance band. While performing in Miami he is discovered by bandleader Xavier Cugat and given a position in his band. He decides to strike out on his own and form a rumba band. During this time his parents divorce and his mother comes to live with him, and he becomes determined to try to keep his family together. While Ball starts experience success in Hollywood and becomes a contract player with RKO, Desi in New York introduces traditional Cuban concepts such as the conga to his music, gaining popularity in the United States. In 1940, RKO purchases the film rights to “Too Many Girls,” a Broadway musical featuring Desi in the cast. Ball is cast as the star of the film, and it is during the production of the film when she and Desi first meet. Their friends and family recount the circumstances of the meeting and the immediate attraction they had for each other. When filming ends Desi returns to New York, and interviews state that Ball took any excuse to go to New York for publicity events for RKO in order to visit him.

It is not long before the two of them are married after eloping to Connecticut. Interviews and footage show that Desi incorporates himself quite readily into Ball’s family, as he feels “exiled” from his own home. They further state that the attraction between the two of them was “passionate” and “involved.” They move in together to a ranch in Chatsworth, California, which becomes something of an idyllic place for them, including sections built by Desi as reminders of his home in Cuba. Arnaz reviews film footage of their first ten years there and believes that they seem extremely happy together, as contrasted by their behavior during some of her childhood. At this time they often have their Hollywood friends over as guests, and interviews with several of them recount the jovial atmosphere at the ranch. They note the contrast between the behavior of the couple: Desi is stated to have been constantly happy, witty, and “charming,” whereas Ball is more quiet and “serious.” Footage also shows the numerous animals the couple kept, including several dogs and a cow.

Both Ball and Desi are under contract to RKO, and Ball becomes known as the “queen of the B’s,” in reference to her taking virtually any film job she could get. Desi, meanwhile, is cast only infrequently in film, usually fulfilling some sort of Latin-American stereotype. He becomes concerned about typecasting and about the age difference between himself and Ball. Immediately following the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941, Desi attempts to enlist in the United States Navy but is turned down. He decides to take roles in patriotic propaganda films as a means of helping the war effort. He also participates in the “Victory Caravan,” a campaign by Hollywood stars to sell war bonds. Meanwhile, Ball appears in the crime film “The Big Street,” which her friends take as evidence of her desire to be a “serious actress.” Despite the film’s critical success it is unprofitable and RKO drops her contract, leading her to take up another contract with MGM. Concerned with being labelled as a “Hollywood blonde,” Ball changes her hair color to her signature red. Desi obtains American citizenship, allowing him to enlist in the military, and he does so enthusiastically. The two write numerous letters to each other during Desi’s tour, and Ball saves all of them.

Friends of the family in interviews state that Desi had affairs with other women, causing a strain on their marriage. Ball’s grandfather dies in 1944, and soon thereafter Ball nearly files for divorce but decides not to at the last minute. Desi returns from the army and resumes his life in Chatsworth, although his film career is unchanged from before. He decides to form his own Latin orchestra in Los Angeles in 1946, and it becomes a success for many years thereafter. The early years prove to be difficult, as he is forced to take some unsavory bookings in order to make ends meet. Meanwhile, Ball films “Sorrowful Jones,” her first of several films alongside Bob Hope. Their busy schedules make it so that they see each other very little, and this compounds the troubles in their marriage. While Ball is on tour in a theater performance of the play “Dream Girl,” Desi decides to fly up to Detroit to see her. Fred Ball, Lucille Ball’s brother, recounts that while they were on the plane, the bus holding Desi’s band got into a terrible automobile accident which might have cost them their lives if they were on it. This incident causes both Ball and Desi to make an earnest effort to repair their marriage, serving as “a wake-up call.” They make an arrangement to have Desi and his band perform at Ball’s shows in order to keep them together. They also have a second marriage, this time a Catholic one at Desi’s mother’s request, and footage of the ceremony is shown.

Shortly after the second marriage, Ball becomes pregnant. Friends and family state that Ball believes at this time that having children will serve as a means of stabilizing her marriage. She has a number of miscarriages, proving to be emotionally devastating for her. The idea of having children becomes extremely important to her, as her friends attest. At this time, Ball’s mother and Desi’s mother also stay with them; friends of the family recount how the two of them were extremely different in background and temperament, adding to the increasingly-complex family dynamic. By 1950, Ball has starred in over 60 films and becomes quite famous around Hollywood, whereas Desi is often sidelined by her success. Friends recall how the two of them tried to determine a way to unify their lives in a way that would afford both of them the same level of recognition. Around this time, Ball stars in a radio show called “My Favorite Husband,” and CBS offers to adapt it for television. Ball, whose agents previously steered her away from television, is interested, but insists on having Desi play the part of her husband, an idea which meets with resistance from the studio. To allay their concerns, Ball and Desi go on tour with a vaudeville act in order to convince the public that they could star in the series together. The tour proves to be a success, and they incorporate much of their act into the pilot episode of the series.

Around this time, Ball becomes pregnant with Arnaz, and the pilot episode of the series is shot while she is six months pregnant. The series, now named “I Love Lucy,” is picked up and Ball and Desi wish to shoot it in California, although the studio says they must move to New York due to shooting difficulties. They come up with the idea to shoot the series on film (an unprecedented practice in those days) and in front of a live studio audience, as they feel that Ball performs better in front of an audience. Interviews detail how Desi put the operation into action, including the invention of a new multi-camera setup; the advent of film as a medium for its recording ensures that the show is preserved long after its initial run. Accounts tell of how Desi covered the high cost of episode production when CBS and the sponsor would not: he put up the money himself on the condition that he and Ball would have ownership of the completed films. Those who worked alongside him talk about the foresight Arnaz had in making this deal, and in creating a separate company, Desilu Productions, to manage the corporate aspects.

Lucie Arnaz is born just before “I Love Lucy” goes into production, and Desi shoots a great deal of footage of her in her infant years. Ball is overjoyed at her birth and dotes on her constantly. Footage of interviews with Ball and Desi recount how Vivian Vance and William Frawley were cast in “I Love Lucy,” and on the interactions they had with them. “I Love Lucy” becomes a major hit nationwide, and Ball and Desi achieve the great acclaim that they had always sought in both of their careers. Two years into the show’s run, Ball becomes pregnant again, and Desi proposes that her pregnancy be written into the show’s plot, something unheard of on television in those days. She gives birth to Desi Arnaz Jr., who becomes known to many as “Little Ricky,” much to his resentment. As hearings by the House Un-American Activities Committee single out figures in entertainment, suspicion falls upon Ball that she is a member of the Communist party. Interviews recount how Desi and Ball reacted to this development: the suspicion started with her grandfather’s socialist political affiliation; she registered as part of the Communist party in 1936 as a means of pleasing her grandfather. The story attracts a great deal of media attention and gossip at the time, and those close to the family recall how it caused difficulties for them. However, the trouble soon subsided, and the two of them started to appear in movies together (such as 1954’s “The Long, Long Trailer”), spurred on by their television success. The production officials associated with such projects recount that Desi had an inherent sense of comedy (particularly involving props), whereas Ball “didn’t know what was funny in concept.” However, Desi always considers Ball to be the true talent out of the two of them, noting: “Desi Arnaz was already a star to everyone except Desi Arnaz.”

Footage shows the family on vacation at Del Mar and Palm Springs, where they often spent their summers, and Arnaz and her brother, Desi Arnaz Jr., recounts some of their memories of those times. They recount having a lavish lifestyle afforded to them by their parents’ success. They note that their parents, particularly Ball, were “very public” and would constantly open up their home to friends and parties and such. Friends and family recount the circumstances of the family’s life in Beverly Hills, accompanied by footage displaying their lifestyle and interaction with their (often famous) neighbors. Many recount Ball’s obsession at this time with styling the hair of her friends and family; they also recount an incident involving a lamp in Ball’s house attesting to Ball as “a very practical person.” By 1960, Ball and Desi are beloved across the country, and both take on very busy schedules of promotion, performance, and studio management. Their duties slowly become overwhelming and take time away from their marriage; Arnaz notes that they were at their happiest when they were filming something together. Their jobs often take them away from their children, who are left to be raised partially by servants and family members. Friends and family attest that they believe Ball did not know exactly how to be a mother to her children in light of her own troubled childhood. They also note that Ball was quite controlling around her children, and disliked being alone at this time; Desi is more playful with the children, not sharing Ball’s fixation on having a “perfect” family life.

Desi and Ball’s projects become more multifarious and complex, and Desi purchases RKO Studios during a break in “I Love Lucy.” Desilu also sells back the films to the “I Love Lucy” shows to CBS; the decision is considered sound at the time, and it is only years later that CBS makes a massive profit off of the deal via reruns. Desi’s management skills put him in control of several studios and a number of television shows, although Ball is still considered by the public to be the heart of the entire operation and Desi’s contributions are not given recognition until after his death. This becomes a source of frustration for him, according to recollections from his employees at Desilu. Desi again becomes known for his philandering, which they theorize was caused by this resentment. These problems are compounded with Desi’s alcoholism, which begins in the mid-1950’s and worsens as time goes on. This causes Desi and Ball’s marriage to experience problems again, as recounted by Arnaz and Arnaz Jr. They go on a trip to Europe in the hopes of saving their marriage, but it serves only to increase the growing animosity between them; their children recount how frightened and confused they were by the proceedings. They recount the exact moment when their parents told them that they would be divorcing.

Following the divorce, Ball and Desi’s working relationship similarly dissolves. Interviews recount the final days of production on “I Love Lucy,” when Ball’s emotional distress at her divorce is palpable. Arnaz observes that their story is “a tragedy,” as they made “I Love Lucy” as a means of creating an ideal family life for themselves which they never were able to achieve. Both of them remarry, and Ball attempts to continue her television career with various programs of her own, including “The Lucy Show” and “Here’s Lucy.” Those close to her recount how she felt compelled to keep working, as to do otherwise would be quite distressful to her; they also note that she became more withdrawn and demanding in the years following her divorce. Desi becomes somewhat more obscure, authoring a book and moving to a home he built in Baja. Arnaz Jr. recalls the lessons his father attempted to pass on to him, and how the two of them spent time together recovering from drug and alcohol addiction. Desi dies from health complications at the age of 69 in 1986, while Ball succumbs to a ruptured artery and dies at the age of 77 in 1989. Friends and loved ones of both of them recount that despite being divorced, Ball and Desi would often talk about how much they still loved each other. Arnaz closes by displaying the last footage of Ball and Desi ever taken together, showing them playing with her son Simon in their pool. Commercials deleted.

Details

• NETWORK: NBC
• DATE: February 13, 1993 9:00 PM
• RUNNING TIME: 1:48:28
• COLOR/B&W: Color
• CATALOG ID: 100336
• GENRE: Public affairs/Documentaries
• SUBJECT HEADING: TV - Public affairs/documentaries
• SERIES RUN: NBC - TV, 1993
• COMMERCIALS: N/A

CREDITS

• Lucie Arnaz … Executive Producer, Director
• Laurence Luckinbill … Executive Producer, Writer
• Don Buford … Producer
• Lonnie Reed … Writer
• Karen Callahan … Researcher
• Suzy Vaughan Associates … Researcher
• Lana Hale … Researcher
• Lucie Arnaz … Narrator, Interviewee
• Desi Arnaz Jr. … Interviewee
• Marion Von Vlack … Interviewee
• Pauline Lopus … Interviewee
• Cleo Smith … Interviewee
• Fred Ball … Interviewee
• Marco Rizo … Interviewee
• Ann Miller … Interviewee
• Van Johnson … Interviewee
• George Abbott … Interviewee
• Marcella Rabwin … Interviewee
• Jackie Cooper … Interviewee
• James Bacon … Interviewee
• Bob Hope … Interviewee
• Rod Rodriguez … Interviewee
• Carole Cook … Interviewee
• Susie Meyer … Interviewee
• Pamela Ball … Interviewee
• Martin Leeds … Interviewee
• Arthur Manella … Interviewee
• Bob Weiskopf … Interviewee
• Bob Schiller … Interviewee
• Johny Aitchison … Interviewee
• Bob Carroll Jr. … Interviewee
• Madelyn Davis … Interviewee
• Gale Gordon … Interviewee
• Charles Pomerantz … Interviewee
• Frank Gorey … Interviewee
• Wanda Clark … Interviewee
• Ed Holly … Interviewee
• Marge Durante … Interviewee
• Desi Arnaz
• Lucille Ball
• Xavier Cugat
• William Frawley
• Jess Oppenheimer
• Vivian Vance

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