Lucy and Desi (2022) - full transcript

Hello, hello, hello.

One, two, three, four. Ready to record.

Hi there.

My parents had these tapes,

these audiotapes that they kept.

"B" for babies. I love them.

Sorry mine are growing up so fast.

"C" for cats.

I admire and envy
their self-sufficient attitude.

"D" for Desi.

I thank him for my two beautiful,
healthy children



and my freedom.

There are, you know,
20-some tapes like this.

A lot of this area are things

that nobody knows but me.

Underneath all of this painful stuff

and disappointments,

at the core, it's all about
unconditional love.

I find now that I am much more forgiving

in my looking back at all of this.

A lot is much clearer to me now.

America's number one show, I Love Lucy.

Here's Lucille Ball

and Desi Arnaz, the number one team,
of course, of television.

That's kind of one of
those things, you know, that,



if you're lucky enough, maybe,

they say, once in a lifetime.

Ricky, come here.

Ricky, no matter what you've done,

I forgive you.

To the rest of the world,
a Hollywood couple

- has no problems.
- Mm-hmm.

Of course we do,
but I don't think they believe it.

If we have a house, two cars and a pool,
what the hell problem have we got?

It's too bad Lucille and Desi
weren't Lucy and Ricky.

I was madly in love with Desi,

and, uh, I've never felt that way
about anyone before.

It is my privilege to present to you

the costar of the I Love Lucy
show, a grand fellow and a great showman,

ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Desi Arnaz.

Thank you, Roy.

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.

Thank you very much.

We welcome you to Desilu Playhouse.

I'd like you to meet, young lady,

my favorite redhead,

the, uh... the vice president

of Desilu Productions Incorporated...

I am the president.

The mother of my children,
ladies and gentlemen,

she plays Lucy, Lucille Ball.

There she is!

Oh, she's so pretty.

Thank you, honey.

Thank you.

This... uh, by the way, I play Ricky.

Hey, look at that.

That's the night before we got married.

We have had fun,

- haven't we, honey?
- Yes, sir.

These have been
the best 15 years of my life.

- What's the matter?
- We've only been married 13 years.

Oh.

Well, I-I mean it seems like 15.

What?

No, uh, what I mean is, uh,
it-it doesn't seem possible

that all that fun could have been
crammed into only 13 years.

The show was

one of the most wonderful things
to happen in my life.

But the reason that that happened

was that Lucy was the most loved
character in the world.

Raise the right leg

even with the bar.

Now, then, lower the leg
slowly to the floor.

She was fearless in her comedy.

She was very physical.

Madam, the leg down.

À bas! À bas!

- À bas? À bas.
- À bas.

À bas! À bas!

À bas!

You saw someone who was so beautiful,

and she wasn't afraid to look ugly.

Which is something you never...
almost never saw women do.

Put on a fat suit, black out your teeth,

put on a fright wig, uh,
all-all sorts of things.

And I think that's why
everything holds up today,

because it was belly laughs.

I don't like when people

call her work effortless.

There were no advantages to being a woman

in the 1950s television industry.

She wasn't lucky. She wasn't a genius.

She wasn't innately talented.

She really built her success.

I've been studying Lucy
since I was five years old.

It's pretty clear
that she had this kind of

scientific approach
to what generates a laugh.

I came up with, uh, something

that I had read called
"the enchanted sense of play."

I played the Lucy character
while Desi played straight man.

We'd say, "All right, let's play.
Let's pretend now."

And that way,
we, uh, don't have any trouble

believing what we're doing.

There.

It kind of looks like her.

This is excellent, Ricardo.

Hey!

Lucy!

It's sort of skipping into things
rather than plodding.

Looking at the ridiculous side sometimes
when things are a little rough.

I never started out to be, uh, an actress.

Well, I had a grandfather who never missed

one of the vaudeville shows.

He took us every Saturday.

Two and a half hours,

make people cry and laugh,
and it was pure magic.

And I think that really

sparked me to be in the business.

Our father died before I was born,

so my grandfather brought us up.

He was a very kind man.

And, uh, he was the same as a father.

We lived on a lake, Chautauqua Lake.

Those were tough years.

We didn't know anybody really
that was wealthy.

Uh, everybody in the family
worked all of the time.

Dede was the commander.

Very authoritative.

Lucy took on that trait.

I worked in the park, Celoron Park.

I was, uh, making hamburgers,
and I used to holler,

"Look out, look out!
Don't step over there!

Step over here and have a hamburger!"

You know, scare the hell
out of people.

They were also good hamburgers.

Lucy was always doing her own thing.

And, uh, when I was 12,
she went to New York.

One day, I had a little girlfriend over,

and we were target practicing.

And so there was myself, the girlfriend

and a little boy from next door.

And Grandpa.

This girlfriend of mine had the rifle,

aimed it, and the neighbor jumped up
at the same time.

And it hit him in the back
and paralyzed him.

It was nobody's fault.

It was just an accident.

They sued my grandfather
for everything we had.

They went on the stand to say
that my grandfather

had made a target of this kid
and let us practice on him.

It-it was a... the most horrible thing.

It ruined our home life, we moved away,

and my grandfather was never the same.

Did the accident with the,
the trial and everything

don't you think that strengthened
your family feeling too?

Yes probably. I was too young then
to step out and take care of them.

I always, as their fortunes waned
during those years

I was very eager to make enough
to take the burden off their shoulders.

When I came to this town, I was 15, 16.

I didn't know anyone in showbiz.

I didn't even know
how to look it up in the paper.

I got jobs as a showgirl,
but I never kept one.

Because after a couple weeks, they'd
realize that I was a dud, a real nothin'.

So I said, "I've had it. I have had it.

"I am going to find out
how to do something

that pays me something."

So I became a model.
I became a good model.

To add a little glamour to my life,

I changed my name to Diane Belmont.

I also was saying that I was from Montana,
so I acquired a nickname.

"Two Gun."

I was walking down the street in July,

and someone said,
"How would you like to go to California?"

And I said, "I'd go anyplace
to get out of this heat."

And they needed to produce
12 showgirls for Sam Goldwyn.

One girl backed out...
her mother said she couldn't go...

after 12 of them were chosen.

Mr. Jim Mulvey said,
"All right, you're tall enough.

I think Mr. Goldwyn will like you.
We don't have time to test you."

And thank God they didn't.

I never would've made it

'cause I never made
a screen test in my life.

We got on the train.

We came out here for a job
that was supposed to take six weeks.

It took six months,
that picture with Eddie Cantor

called Roman Scandals.

I had an absolutely wonderful association
with everyone at the studio.

I loved Hollywood.

I saw in it a place I wanted to live,
a place I wanted to bring my family.

I had no thought of ever going back.

What are you made up for, Lucy?

Oh, darn it, you recognized me.

Well, if I hadn't worn this,
would you have known who it was?

Of course.
What are you trying to prove?

Well, I was just practicing.

You know, us movie stars
have to go around disguised

or our fans will mob us.

Why, if it isn't Lucy Ricardo.

Gee, can I have your autograph?

Oh, Fred, don't be smart.

Who's being smart?

I want it on a check
for this month's rent.

You'll get your money, my good man.

Us movie stars always pay our bills.

Hey, wait a minute.

I thought Ricky was gonna be the star.

Oh, he'll be one, too. Don't worry.

"Too"?

♪ Yo quero pedir ♪

♪ Que mi negra me quiera ♪

♪ Que tenga dinero ♪

♪ Y que no se muera... ♪

I remember the first time I saw Ricky.

I was a kid growing up
in the San Fernando Valley.

- Good morning, dear.
- And I kind of learned English

from watching I Love Lucy, you know.

- ...a sus saludes.
- A la salud. - A cubita bella.

Uh, l'chaim.

Desi brought sophistication

where Latinos have hardly ever
been seen as sophisticated.

♪ Babalú... ♪

There was Carmen Miranda.

She had bananas.

There were Cesar Romero,
but he didn't play Cuban.

And Desi came in and said,
"I'm Cuban Pete.

I'm the king of the rumba beat."

♪ Olé, olé, olé, olé ♪

- ♪ Olé, olé, olé, olé ♪
- ♪ Olé, olé, olé, olé ♪

♪ Olé, olé, olé, olé ♪

Ah!

Yeah!

Ah!

Ah! Yeah! Yeah! Ah!

Hey!

I got to this country, you know, broke,

and, uh, I didn't speak the language.

So... I was just trying to make a dollar.

'Cause I had nothing to start out with.

Well, my father said, "Today you're 16.

"In my book, that means
that you're no longer a child.

You're now a man."

This fellow was raising canaries,
and my job was to clean the cages.

I got $15 a week and one meal.

Some guy had a little band
called the Siboney Septet.

He offered me $39 a week.

So that's how I got into show business.

My father finished high school

by the skin of his teeth,

but he got an opportunity
to learn from the best.

My father always said
he learned everything he knew

about the band business
from working with Xavier Cugat.

He was the king of the rhumba.

The king of Latin music.

Now he saw me when I was 16 years old.

And that's how I ended up
in the United States of America.

And people liked me. Thank God!

Cugat discovered a lot
of excellent talented people,

and I am one of them.

Cugat discovered Desi.

And he could see
that he was a real dreamer.

I met Desi because I knew Xavier Cugat.

They have a lot in common,

although Cugat was older.

Because Cugat grew up also in Cuba.

So they were, like they say in America,
two peas in a pod.

Cugat the maestro, and the student Desi.

It was the greatest
experience in the world.

And even though he didn't pay much money,

I learned a hell of a lot
about the band business.

Was like going to college.

I was so grateful to be any part

of the business.

I was a part of it.

I didn't care what I did.

They never had to ask me twice
to do anything.

I said, "I want to know about this.

I want to know how to do this."

In those days,
there were no working hours.

We worked all day and all night,

maybe 3:00 in the morning.

And we'd be there at 6:00.

See, when you're not beautiful
and you're not too bright,

you attract attention any way you can.

The trouble with you is
you're all trying to be comics.

Don't you ever take anything seriously?

After you've sat around for a year
trying to get a job,

you won't take anything seriously either.

So I got a chance to work many times

because I didn't mind what I did.

I just knew it was action.

It was just doing something
that no one else wanted to do.

Those were the days when you had
a mom-and-a-pop, uh, studio.

They were our security.

They had publicity departments
who made us a certain type.

They dressed us, they trained us.

They shoved us into "B" pictures
whether we wanted it or not.

I never minded it.

I knew I was getting
a well-paid apprenticeship.

That's the difference.

Lela was the first one at RKO
who was giving any thought

to the young people
that were under contract there.

And I became, by her own admission,
one of her best students.

I was happily part of her group

that she surrounded Ginger with
at the time.

Ginger worked harder than

anybody I've ever known in the business.

Ginger was not, uh,
a great dancer when she started.

She was not a big star.

She was not a great actress.

She learned all these things,

and she learned it with real hard work.

RKO was very good to me.

And it was just, uh, a place

that I was very grateful
to have grown up in.

Eventually, they would
send me scripts and say,

"Would you like to do this?"

One day, I saw on a script
"Lucille Ball type."

That was one of
the biggest thrills I had ever...

uh, could imagine.

Imagine anybody knew who Lucille Ball was.

I said, "Cugat, I got to quit.

I got to get my little band."

He says, "Go to Miami,"
so I got a little job down there.

I says, "I got the job. Send me the band."

We played the first set,
the guy says, "You're fired."

He says, "That is the worst sound
I have ever heard in my life."

And he was right.

So I said, "Let me try to figure out."

And I had this big conga drum with me.

Now, in Cuba, everybody does
the conga in Carnival time,

particularly in my hometown.

It's like the Mardi Gras in New Orleans.

Everybody from the island
comes to Santiago,

and they do the conga line.

I bought a bottle of rum.

I says, "Drink up. We're gonna
play something new."

That's how the conga started.

My dance of desperation.

All those rhythms,
they were all Afro-Cuban.

And he took that and made it
the definition of Cuba for the world.

♪ One, two, three ♪

♪ Boom! ♪

1... 2... 3... Kick!

1... 2... 3... Kick!

When you have that rhythm so heavy,

all percussion. It goes to your bones.

I did a play on Broadway called
Too Many Girls.

And then RKO bought it for a film,

and they brought me out to Hollywood
to do my part I did on Broadway.

I was told that I was

going to play an ingenue
in Too Many Girls.

And, uh, at that time,

I did a picture called Dance, Girl, Dance,

which was a real brassy burlesque queen.

I had been doing that scene all day,

and so I went at lunchtime
into the commissary.

I had a big black eye
and bruises on my face.

And in that interim, I met Desi Arnaz.

We were rehearsing the music,

directed by George Abbott.

I said to Mr. Abbott,
"She's gonna be the ingenue?

You're out of your mind."

Later on that afternoon,
it was the first get-together,

and I said to the piano player, I said,

"Oh, my, that's a hunk of woman."

He says, "You met her this morning.

That's Lucille Ball."

I said, "That's Lucille Ball?"

Will someone please come?
There's a waiter fainted out here.

She came over.

I said, "If you don't have
anything to do tonight,

uh, how would you like to learn
how to do the rumba?"

She says, "I don't and I'd love to."

I said, "Look, you love me?"

She said, "Yes. I love you."

I says, "I want kids."

I said, "What else is there?"

We got married six months later.

How would you define the word "love"?

Um...

I don't know.

It's such a wonderful,
uh, thing that I feel

when you say that.

Not that you can do no wrong,

but that I would do anything in the world
to make you happier.

With me, it's-it's wanting to please,

wanting to, uh, devote myself, too.

I never been asked that before.

How do you define it?

That's great.

Nobody wanted him
to have anything to do with her.

It was just a taboo

that a white woman is married
to a dark person.

Also, when you're perceived as exotic,
which Cubans are,

passionate and hot-tempered

rather than intellectual or, you know...

But they both insisted on it.

And that's the beginning
of climbing a big mountain.

You felt right from the beginning

that this was going to be difficult
didn't you?

Well, I hope that I wasn't running,

uh, with a lot of negative thinking.

I knew that it was precarious.

Ricky, uh, will be home soon.

Uh... Ricky casa soon.

Soon.

Hi, hon... Mother!

¡Mi vida!

When did you get in?!

- How are you?
- Ay, mi amor.

Oh, isn't this wonderful?

My mother-in-law wasn't, uh,

so demanding of me as she was of Desi.

I spent a great deal of time
just getting along and being nice.

Did she come out to Hollywood
as soon as you two moved out here?

Yes. She always went where he went.

Mm-hmm.

From the time his father let go,

somebody had to take care of his mother,

and he very gallantly did it.

My mother and my father were both

caretakers of their own families.

The first night that
they went out on their date,

that first night that they met,
they exchanged those stories.

I couldn't wait to get my family out here,

to put them all under one roof.

That way, we could make it.

Her mother had nothing,

so she ended up being
the head of the family

and had to take care of them
for the rest of her life, basically.

And same with my dad.

His parents divorced
the minute that his mother

got to the United States,
and he had to take care

of his mother for the rest of his life.

They brought to this marriage
a belief system

that the most important thing was family.

The first time I saw Lucy up on the screen

was in a movie that she did at MGM,
and it was in Technicolor,

called Du Barry Was a Lady.

And I just thought she was so beautiful

with that orange-red hair
and that complexion.

But in those movies,

they did not touch upon
her comedic talent.

So I had no idea that she was a comedian.

They didn't know
that she had that skill set.

And I find it one of the great crimes,

really, one of the great artistic crimes.

They called her "The Queen of the B's".

In those days remember they were called
the B pictures. Smaller budgets.

Were you envious of her success?

No not at all. But I couldn't
stay out here and just, don't do anything.

He was under contract to Metro,

but nothing happened.

So he went into the Army.

And when he got out of the Army,

he went on the road
with his band five years,

and he was in the Army three and a half.

So eight and a half years
of our first nine years,

we were not together.

Tell me, what's it like
being married to an entertainer?

Oh, it's very exciting.

After all, there's no business
like show business.

You may quote me.

Fine.

You're not the jealous type, then, hmm?

Well, what is there to be jealous about?

Well, after all, Ricky is
a handsome, charming man,

surrounded by showgirls all the time.

Well...

And he is out every night in a nightclub.

When he says he's at rehearsal,
he's at rehearsal.

May I quote you on that?

Oh, sure, sure.

Hmm.

Well, I guess that's the kind of trust
that's made your marriage last.

- Isn't it?
- Hmm?

I said that's the kind of trust
that's made your marriage last.

Yeah, that's the kind of trust
that you have to have

in-in that kind of a...
any kind of a marriage.

I've had a front-row seat

for more than a decade now,
carefully observing

how Lucille Ball's career
has been characterized.

And there's such
a disproportionate focus on

how hard-nosed she could be.

But think about how many times
she must have had things

mansplained to her on a set.

You see, honey,
there isn't a husband alive

who can stand living with a wife
who's right all the time.

Not-not even when she is right?

No.

That's more than any man can take.

And as a woman,
you had to be really good,

because it wasn't necessarily
going to be embraced.

Her commitment was about always improving.

You never see her let up.

When I really had to sit down

and decide what I wanted to do,
I did go back

to what I had done in pictures,
and, uh, I was amazed really

to find out that I picked out
about eight or nine domestic scenes.

I know that if I'm playing
something that I understand,

a-a housewife or secretary,

that I can portray that all right
because I lived it.

I got my big start for any of the comedy

that I finally got into on radio.

It's time for My Favorite Husband,

starring Lucille Ball.

Jell-O, everybody!

My first impression of Lucy,

I was scared to death.

I had never really met
a real movie star before.

We were on staff at CBS.

We got a chance to do the script.

This is our very, very first big show,

and, uh, she came on pretty strong.

She wasn't happy with some of the scripts,

and I was just terrified
that I'd get fired,

I guess, is what I was afraid of.

The radio show was

in about its 12th week,
and it wasn't doing well at all,

and I-I wrote a script for it.

And Jess had had

a lot of experience
as a producer, head writer,

so he came on
and we got sort of organized.

It was 1948, and my dad,
for the previous six years,

had been writing The Baby Snooks Show

starring Fanny Brice,
one of the biggest stars in Hollywood.

Fanny got into
a-a salary dispute with CBS,

and she walked off the show.

So, suddenly, he was unemployed.

Just had a baby, just bought a house.

He was very open to a new job,
even though his friends said,

"Don't go work for Lucille Ball.

She's very difficult to work with."

Well, here we are, darling.

"Darling"?

Now you call me "darling"!

But what am I when we're alone?
Your slave.

You beat me with a cane
and push my poor broken body

down the stairs!

Oh, I don't care for myself,
but you push the children after me!

The children? I did not!

Then where are they?

After ten years of experiment,

television now takes its place
as a new American art and industry.

With the inauguration of
regular television broadcast,

set owners enjoy the novel experience
of receiving pictures through the air.

It was new to everyone,

the networks and people in general,

and the studios frowned upon it.

Lucille Ball!

I love you, you know,

in your radio shows every Friday night.

You know, the one called
My Favorite Husband.

CBS wanted to adapt
a radio show for television,

and she says, "I'll do it
if Desi plays the husband."

- ♪ Babalú... ♪
- No, no, no, no.

I want you to sing "Babalú," but, uh...

wait, wait.

No one wanted him to play my husband

because he was Cuban,
and they wanted a real American couple.

They always dreamed of being together,

working together and having
an ability to have a family.

You know, "Can't we just
keep you off the road, Des?"

We'd been married nine years

and been together a-a year and two months.

If that.

You can't have children that way.

You cannot have them by telephone.

So I told Lucy, said,
"Maybe they're right.

"Maybe nobody will believe you and I

working together, you know."

So, in those days,
I had the big band, you know.

- Yeah.
- And we used to do vaudeville.

So I told Lucy,
"The next time that I go on tour,

"why don't you come with me?

We'll do a couple numbers
and see what the audience thinks."

Did they look upon us as

something strange
or could they like us together?

We didn't know what to expect.

Bob and Madelyn wrote a little sketch.

She did the clown bit.

She did "Cuban Pete" with me
and "boom, boom, boom, boom"

and knocked my hat off my head,

and the audience throughout the country,

they love us being together.

The head of CBS saw us.

He said, "Well, they have been
married for ten years.

Maybe they'll believe that they are."

In the meantime,
I had been feeling very strange.

And I said, "I am pregnant."

I'd waited all these years,
and suddenly I knew I was.

- How did you feel?
- I felt so elated,

but I hadn't had a test yet or anything.

I took the test in New York,

and, uh, Winchell had a-a spy,

- whatever you call it...
- Oh, yeah.

...in the lab,
which he's been doing for years.

And they knew the answer
to the test before I did.

They told Winchell, and he had it
on his Sunday night show.

Walter Winchell dispenses

Broadway gossip, last-minute scoops,

in a breathless mixture
for Sunday night listeners.

And I woke up Desi and said,
"We're gonna have a baby!

It's it. The test is okay."

He said, "How do you know?
How do you know?

You're not supposed to know
till Monday morning."

I said, "Winchell told me.

Winchell said so."

He says, "How you like that?"

When you think about the fact

that Lucille Ball struggled
to become pregnant,

remarried Desi Arnaz
with a Catholic ceremony

because her mother-in-law believed

that part of the reason
she couldn't get pregnant

was that they didn't have
a Catholic wedding,

and to know that
Walter Winchell broke the news

that she was pregnant
before she heard it herself

makes me want to cry for her.

Do you think being in vaudeville

had anything to do
with you losing the baby?

I don't know.

It was around Christmas 1950,

CBS made a deal with
Lucy and Desi to make a pilot.

But the deal didn't say anything about
what the show was gonna be about.

The initial vision was that

Lucy and Desi were
going to play movie stars,

and they changed that right away.

My dad came up with,

uh, this idea of a guy
who's been raised in show business

and he wants nothing more
than to get away from it

and have a normal home life.

Now, look, Lucy,
you know how I feel about this.

I don't want my wife in show business.

And he marries a girl
who's dying to get into show business.

Yeah, I know you, Ricky Ricardo.

Just because you're gonna be
a big television star,

you're casting me aside like an old shoe.

And they incorporated material

that Bob and Madelyn had written

for the vaudeville routine.

Anytime you're ready,
Professor, we'll go with you.

We had a hell of a time.

We brought the rafters down.

Once they did the pilot,

they found someone
who would sponsor the show.

And the amazing thing about Lucy was

she was five months pregnant
when she shot the pilot.

When I finally did get pregnant,

I cried with joy.

I-I just couldn't believe it.

That's when I had Lucie.

Well, I was very ill after Lucie,
and it took me months to recover.

Desi was the perfect, uh,
husband for little Lucie.

Did you enjoy changing the baby
and bathing it?

- Oh, God, yeah.
- Yeah.

I could put salt on them and eat them.

And I had to go back to work, too, uh,

so I missed hours and hours
and hours, you know?

When we started Lucy,

the routines hadn't been set
and the practices hadn't been,

uh, established yet,
so we moved right into

a whole business that none of us knew

the slightest thing about.

In those days,

when we did a show in California,

all they got in the East Coast
was kinescope.

And it was very bad quality.

Well, Lucy and I had been
trying to be together

for quite a long time,

and we had no intention
of going to New York.

I said, "Well, why don't we do it on film?

And then everybody will get
the same quality."

Then CBS came in and said,

"Well, Lucy works better
in front of an audience."

And they were right.

She does work better
in front of an audience.

So I said, "Well,
why don't we do it on film

in front of an audience?"

They said, "You know how to do that?"

I said, "Sure."

I didn't have the slightest idea.

It came about
that he was a great producer,

which amazed all of us.

But most of all, he learned
to hire good men for the job

and then let them do it.

Desi was not somebody

who relied on luck, you know.

He was very intentional in who
he was gonna bring to the team.

My father was a director
in the early days of television.

He had already done dozens and dozens

of live television productions
in New York.

Karl Freund was an extraordinary expert

when it came to lighting and filmmaking

and was renowned in the film industry.

Whether it was Madelyn, Jess
or Bob Carroll, expert writers.

Danny Cahn, you know, the editor.

Desi was a collaborator
in the supreme sense.

And that's where you get the best stuff.

- Hey, what's this?
- I don't know.

Why, it's half...

half a horse.

Hey, look, here's the rest of it.

Oh, Ethel! This is it, this is it!

We'll do a horse act.

But it takes two people to do a horse act.

Well, what are you doing tonight?

I guess I could.

Yeah, come on. Let's try it on.

Okay.

Lucy!

I'm only doing this benefit for you.

I should think you could do
this one little thing for me.

Listen, Lucy, even for sweet charity,

I am not going to be
the back end of a horse.

My father worked with her
in the late '40s on a play

and was responsible
for getting Vivian Vance,

uh, to play the role of Ethel.

Back then, a big part of the culture

was pitting women against each other,

and there weren't opportunities for women

to work together as teammates as much.

Th-Th-They look like women from Mars!

And so you didn't see that

until Lucy and Ethel and their antics.

They keep each other in check.

Oh, no, you're not gonna
get me in on this.

Listen to me, Baby Face.

They conspire.

They commiserate.

I trust you.

That's an important story

for girls and women to see.

- Yoo-hoo!
- Yoo-hoo!

Morning, Lucy. I brought up your mail.

Oh!

I have approved of you since the day

I, uh, set eyes on you.

You know, you were hired
without my seeing you. Remember?

I know.

I've often wondered, Miss Ball...

Had I seen...

...had you seen me first...

I've often wondered,
but one can never say.

Lucy!

Yoo-hoo!

Where are you?

I'm right here, dear.

Lucy, how you've changed.

Yes, it's a new way I'm doing my hair.

Nobody wanted Bill Frawley to play Fred.

The networks didn't want it,
the agencies didn't want it.

They said he hadn't done
anything in a long time,

he had a drinking problem, and, uh,
the more they kept knocking him down,

the more I thought
he was right for the part.

Fred!

- Fred...
- Ricky, let go of our washing machine!

Oh, no.

Let go of it!

Fred, I won't want you
to get stuck with it.

- I want to get stuck!
- You don't want it.

Lucy, will you kindly take your hands
off of my washing machine?

Why should I take my hands
off your washing machine

when it belongs to us?

Come on, now.

Look what happened
to your washing machine.

One of the things
about the show that was so magical

was seeing an ensemble working

at the height, at the skill level
that you just didn't see very often.

Everybody was very close.

It was like a little theater group.

I mean, the-the one point of friction is
Frawley and Vance.

What are you doing here?

What are you doing here?

Lucy, is that my date?

He's no dream. He's a nightmare.

Vivian was 22 years younger

than Bill Frawley, and she was offended

that people would think
that she could be married to

"that old man," as she called him.

Bill Frawley heard her
complaining to somebody,

and he was really offended by that.

Sometimes I feel like I was married
to a garbage disposal.

Quiet, fat boy.

They were the only people

doing this filming a sitcom
in front of an audience

with-with moving cameras.

Uh, they were the only people doing it.

And so the plan was

there would be three cameras on
all the time,

which would keep things in sync,

but it was very expensive,
and so, because of that,

No retakes.

You know, 400 people in the bleachers,

and they do a warm-up, the band starts up,

and you do that show,
and you do that show once.

Now, no one knew the great potential

of being able to come into
millions of living rooms

and the instant love and close feeling
after one performance.

That all was an unknown quantity
when we started.

Is that you, Ricky?

Yeah, honey.

- Hello, baby!
- Hi.

I Love Lucy did a lot

for helping Americans understand

that just because a guy was male
didn't mean

that he was the dominant character.

There you are.

Oh, you great big, handsome husband, you.

Women could be
the dominant character, too.

- Lucy.
- Yes, dear?

What have you done?

When I saw it on television,

I fell in love with her immediately.

I think I'll get another station.

This evening, we... Stop that, now!

Go back and sit down!

There had never been anyone
like her before.

Greetings, Gates.
Slip me some skin, boy.

You realize that women could do this, too.

It wasn't just Charlie Chaplin.

It wasn't just Buster Keaton.

And Desi certainly brought

some new understanding
to the male part of a marriage.

How dare you say that to me?

What did I say?

I don't know, but how dare you?

We fell in love with Lucy and Desi.

When you are watching,

it isn't race that you're thinking about.

And so that capacity exists,

and there's a giant human lesson,
I would think, in that.

Oh, isn't this wonderful? Listen to this.

"Dear Mr. Ricardo,

"my husband and I are
going to have a blessed event.

"I just found out about it today,

"and I haven't told him yet.

"I heard you sing a number called
'We're Having a Baby, My Baby and Me.'

"If you will sing it for us now,

it will be my way
of breaking the news to him."

Isn't that wonderful?

Of course I'll do it for you. Sure.

The first season, they shot

41 shows in 41 weeks.

And they found out
at the end of the first season

Lucy's pregnant again.

♪ Rockaby, baby ♪

♪ On the treetop ♪
No?

At that time,
there was controversy, believe it or not,

- over the fact that you...
- I know.

...appeared pregnant
in a comedy series.

- I know.
- You could never use the word.

No. I-I think I wanted to say, uh,

"I feel like a pregnant goose,"
and they said I could say,

"I feel like an expectant swan."

My dad immediately just said,

"Congratulations.

Now I know what we're gonna do
next season."

And they both said, you know,
"You're crazy.

They won't let you do that on television."

And my dad said, "Of course they will."

♪ When the bough breaks ♪

♪ The cradle will fall ♪

Uh...

Honey, honey.

- Honey, no.
- Yes.

- Really?
- Yes.

Why didn't you tell me?

- Why, you didn't give me a chance.
- Are you kidding?

- No. I tried...
- It's me!

I'm gonna be a father!

♪ We're having a baby ♪

♪ My baby and me ♪

I was there

when they were doing the shows,
only I was in Mom's stomach.

And so it feels like I was
part of something that was

going on from even before I was born.

Ricky, this is it.

- This is...
- This is it! - This is it!

This is it! Let's go!

This is it!

We have to hurry, Ricky!

We have to hurry, she says!

The day I was born,
the show was on about

Little Ricky being born,
so I was in the public eye

even before I was able to communicate.

Hey, wait for me!

♪ We're having a baby ♪

♪ My baby ♪

♪ And me. ♪

So many of you were kind enough

to send us wires and write us
letters of congratulation

on the birth of our new son that...

well, it was just wonderful, really.

Lucy wanted me to tell you
how much we appreciate

your thoughtfulness
and that you'll be hearing from us soon.

What's remarkable is that

the pregnancy was the basis
for what we now call a rerun.

At the time I Love Lucy was emerging,
television shows were seen one time,

and because Desi had ownership
of those films,

they began to run repeat episodes

when the show was on hiatus
and established the rerun model

that really transformed
the entire television industry.

I only remember the serenity and the rest,

which I needed badly,
and I was allowed to get my rest.

- Mm-hmm.
- That was the last, uh,

that I was allowed to get.

It is my pleasure to present
the Television Academy's

1953 National Award
for the Best Situation Comedy

to I Love Lucy.

We didn't expect to win this tonight.

We're awful happy we did.

We're awful proud to be
a part of this industry,

really we are.

We're trying real hard
and we're gonna keep it up.

Thank you.

Uh, the Lucy show was at its peak
that second year.

They're setting records every week,

outpacing the inauguration
of the president,

outpacing the coronation of the queen.

Oh, honey, look.

Fry pans, a griddle,
a Dutch oven, a saucepan.

They're like the first lifestyle brand.

For great Christmas buys,
it's Westinghouse Royal gifts.

Why not give your husband
a carton of Philip Morris cigarettes?

There is nothing
newer in the world than a Ford.

We just love ours.

It was really a part of people's psyche

as American postwar consumers.

You get out! Come on out!

I can't. I'm not dry yet.

The question before this committee

and the scope of its present inquiry
will be to determine

the extent of Communist infiltration

in the Hollywood motion picture industry.

We have subpoenaed witnesses.

All we are after are the facts.

Are you a member of the Communist Party

or have you ever been a member
of the Communist Party?

Are you a member of the Communist Party?

Are you now or have you ever been
a member of the Communist Party?

This was a horrifying thing going on

in the country right then,

where the House on
Un-American Activities Committee

was literally dragging people
off the streets

and saying, "You're a Communist."

There was a lot of witch-hunting

at the time,
and they definitely took people

that they knew were absolutely cleared
of anything like this.

The responsibility of
a congressional investigating committee

was never better pointed up
than in the case of Lucille Ball.

The committee has long been in possession
of information indicating that Miss Ball,

for purposes of voting, uh,
signed as a Communist in 1936.

Grandpa was always for the working man.

We did register Communist to pacify him.

They interviewed her
about it at great length,

and they cleared her.

Then later on, somebody found that card,

and this one paper ran
this huge, big, red headline...

red ink...

"Lucille Ball is
a card-carrying Communist."

And she was just scared.

She was scared that
people wouldn't believe her.

This could destroy
everything that they had.

And my father took charge that week.

He invited all the press into our house,

and he told them exactly
what my mother had done,

that she'd never been involved
in the Communist Party.

When he brought them
to the filming of the show,

he got J. Edgar Hoover on the phone

and, you know, put the phone
up to the microphone.

He said, "Your wife is cleared
of any charges, 100% clear."

Then he introduced my mother
to the audience,

and he came up with his famous line.

The only thing red about her

was her hair.

And even that was not legitimate.

Then the whole audience stood up
and gave her a standing ovation.

It made me so mad because,

in Cuba, we lost all of our money
because my father was the first guy

that put a Communist in jail.

Now I'm here in this country
and we're doing all right then,

you know, we're doing real good,

and then she's accused
of being a Communist.

He would talk about Cuba sometimes,

and he would talk about
how beautiful it was.

Once in a while, he'd say that.

But he didn't talk about it a lot.

Thank you, Ed.

Thank you very, very much,
ladies and gentlemen.

You know, I think if it
wouldn't have been for Lucy,

I would have stopped trying
a long time ago

because I was always
the guy that didn't fit.

And you know something, though,
that I really want to tell you tonight?

We came to this country
and we didn't have a cent

in our pockets.

From cleaning canary cages
to this night here in New York

is a long ways.

And I don't think there's
any other country in the world

that could give you that opportunity.

I want to say thank you,
thank you, America.

Thank you.

For years and years and years,

he did not tell me that story,
and nobody else did either.

It was too traumatic.

My whole life has been
a bunch of accidents.

Everything that happened to me
is because something else happened.

My father was the mayor of my hometown.

My uncle was the chief of police.

We had that town... we were really popular.

My father came from

a very comfortable childhood in Cuba.

The Arnaz family comes from

a paramilitary and medical background.

They had several homes.

They had ranches, boats, servants.

He was an only child, but my grandfather

and my grandmother's family were
one of the founders of Bacardí Rum.

And Dad was either gonna be

a lawyer or doctor,
go to Notre Dame in America.

The Cuban Revolution happened
when he was 14 years old.

The Machado administration

that his father worked for was overthrown.

His uncle called him and said,

"You got to get your mother right now
and you got to get out of the house."

He said, "What do I take?"
He goes, "Nothing!

Take her now.
They're coming down the street."

In 48 hours we lost
everything we had. Everything.

They put all the congressmen in jail.
All the mayors. All the governors.

Everybody was in the can.

And my dad was there for 6 months.

Everything was gone in an instant.

No matter what he did
for the rest of his life,

it was never gonna be good enough.

It's never gonna be Cuba.

We're never gonna go home.

There's a big difference

between being an immigrant
and being a refugee,

and Desi was a refugee.

A refugee doesn't want to leave

and has to for political reasons.

The longing is to find a place
where you feel like you belong

and where you feel the warmth
of who you used to be.

But there's no way to ever really find it.

And I think that's at the core of Desi.

And certainly at the core
of Desi's mother.

When he got really successful,
he bought her a house for Christmas.

And he wanted everything
to look like the house they had in Cuba.

And she said,
"Nice try, Desi, but it's still not Cuba."

And I think that was
Desi's struggle in his life.

Because he never really felt at home,

and he kept looking for it.

Everywhere.

Naturally, you-you want to know

how much you can do to help
and, uh, what you can do to change,

and, uh, anything to get him to talk
and to air his-his discontent.

That-that was my purpose at the time.

Are your eggs all right, dear?

"How are your eggs, Lucy?"

Oh, they're just fine, thank you.

"Would you care for some more coffee?"

Oh, no, thanks.
It's just right, thank you.

"You're a wonderful cook."
Oh, do you really think so?

Oh, thank you.

Would you care for sugar in your coffee?

"Oh, well, thank you. Don't mind if I do."

You are back there, aren't you?

We here at Desilu are aiming high.

We're aiming very high.

They established their own studio.

I mean, that's an enormous
business operation.

And Desi took the lead in that.

And whenI Love Lucy
became a megahit,

that whole studio filled up soundstages

because of everybody wanting to use

what they called "the Desilu technique."

You know, the remarkable thing about you

and-and your life
is that you came from Cuba

and ended up as one of
the biggest producers

of television shows here in Hollywood.

You had many, many big stars
working for Desilu.

Yeah. Mainly, I had Lucy.

You know, my father said,
over and over and over again,

Lucille Ball was the greatest actor
of the 20th century.

He directed Sir Laurence Olivier,

Julie Harris, Sally Field, Paul Newman.

But no matter who he was talking to,

Lucille Ball was the greatest actor
he had ever worked with.

Hello, friends.

I'm your Vitameatavegamin girl.

All you do is take a tablespoonful
after every meal.

- Now you take some.
- Oh.

It's so tasty, too.

You don't necessarily
have to be a funny person to get a laugh.

I'm not a funny person.

Lucille Ball is the kind of

a performer who needs a lot of rehearsal,

and if she gets enough of it,

there's just no heights to what sh...
what she can't reach.

Rehearsal, for my mom, came from years ago

with people like Buster Keaton,
who was a mentor to her

and taught her all about
how important the props were.

We absolutely believe

the silly things we do,
and I mean really believe it.

You can usually identify
with the initial trouble.

She gets to do what most everyone

would really like to do in a situation.

It's the exaggeration
of a believable star.

As an actress, body movement is
one of the most divine things

to know about.

You should be observing
everyone's body movements,

everyone's... cats, dogs,
old ladies in the park, drunks.

Just observe.

I'm happy that I brought laughter

because I have been shown the value of it.

In so many ways.

This is the main studio

of Desilu Productions.

Just behind this door

is the office of the president
of Desilu Productions.

And here seated at his desk,
we find the boss.

Uh, correction. This is the boss's boss.

Lucy, of course,
had been a star for years.

Desi had a terrible time adjusting,

and he was hurt, I think,
by all the publicity which said

the success of I Love Lucy
was due to her artistry.

Just a minute. This is my desk.

It says here "president."

Well, if you want to get technical.

No matter how hard he worked

or what a great businessman he was,
she was the clown.

The show was built around her.

As president of Desilu Productions,

I would like to...

Hi, Joan! I just saw your show
and I thought you were marvelous.

- You were so cute!
- Thank you, Lucy.

Oh, when you were on that horse, I just...

Oh, hi. How are you?

- That golf routine was a riot.
- Lucy, I was...

I've never laughed so...

- Lucy, I was just...
- You are interrupting me.

I am interrupting you?

You interrupted me.

I don't think that he was very happy

in a relationship where his wife was

more powerful than he was.

And as he started to get
stronger and stronger

in the producing side of it,

he kept staying away more and more.

His work was harder,

he was getting more tired,

and, uh, he felt great need
to run off on his boat

and his golf vacations
and to the racetrack.

He always had to go, go, go.

Her home life was very unhappy,

and, uh, the release
that she had was in her work.

She'd come in and she would want to

rehearse, rehearse, rehearse,
day in and day out, long hours.

We had no idea that Desilu

was going to become what it was.

Work became our whole life.

And what happened
after you sold the reruns for 5 million?

Why didn't he retire right then and there?

He wanted to because
we had done our five years,

and that's all we planned was five years.

And I remember we talked about it.

She didn't want to quit.

She'll never want to quit.

Why doesn't Bob Hope quit? Or Jack Benny?

Like Hope says, he gets bored fishing

because he can't get a laugh
from the fish.

That's... I'm not judging.

Because that's their life
and they enjoy that.

I happen to like other things,
besides being in front of an audience.

Thank you. Thank you very much,
ladies and gentlemen,

and welcome to our new show.

We have some wonderful guests
lined up for you.

- Psst.
- What's the matter?

It's time to do the show.

Oh. Time to do the show.

I'll see you in a minute.

The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour.

They wanted to keep working,

but they wanted to work less,
and so they said,

"We're gonna do the same show,

but we'll do it as a monthly thing,
like once a month."

Those shows have this really

dramatic loss of quality.

Now, stop it!

There's a lot of stories

about how difficult it was
for them on the set,

and I think it's very visible
on the screen.

Why do I have to act like
such a goof always?

Oh, I don't know.

I guess it's part of your charm.

Yeah.

Somebody ought to give me
a good swift kick in the pants.

I'll volunteer.

That is merely a figure of speech.

I think there was a cost

to the success that they attained
with I Love Lucy.

I do.

But they didn't know
how to just appreciate

the joy of doing the show
without making it bigger,

making it better, getting a bigger space.

It just seemed to mushroom
and-and get all out of hand.

When the opportunity came
to buy RKO, I bought RKO.

Not because I wanted RKO.

But I had only two choices.
Either quit or get bigger.

That is the way business is
in the United States.

You cannot be half-assed successful.

Didn't that used to be RKO?

That's right.

You know, one thing is sure,
you're not gonna be cramped for space.

No, sir, not with 35 soundstages
and three studios.

Within a span of about five years,

they go from filming the I Love Lucy pilot

to operating the largest independent
television company in the world.

To see it come to life was something.

To see 16, 17, 18, 19 shows going,

it was a revelation how he did it.

I was at that place
at 8 o'clock in the morning,

and I had all my calls to New York,

and I don't think I ever left the place
before 10 or 11 o'clock at night.

And as Desi had more and more

responsibilities with the studio,

he kept getting called away from the set,

and Lucy would say, "Where you going?

We-we need to rehearse."

And Desi'd say,
"What are you talking about?

We know the lines."

And as it got more stressful,

it was harder for him to survive.

He started to drink more.

Then, with the drinking,
he would forget and he would be

photographed with some dame.

She was willing to go
the extra mile for him,

and he still couldn't pull it back.

And my mother had her own problems,
and they didn't make it any better.

She was very hard-edged,
and that's the last thing he needed

was a hard edge.

He hurt her by his actions,
and she hurt him by her words.

I got a one track mind.

The biggest fault in my life is that
I never learned moderation.

I either work too hard or I play too hard.

If I drank, I drank too much.
If I worked, I worked too much.

I don't know. One of the greatest virtues
in the world is moderation.

That's the one I could never learn.

So I finally got permission from Desi,

after a long time,
to come and join in a conversation.

This was the New York psychiatrist?

Yes.

We tried to get Desi to continue,

but, uh, Desi never felt
that he had a problem,

so he certainly didn't want to discuss it.

Did you feel like you got
anything out of it yourself?

- Yes.
- Did you get any insight into yourself?

Yes, I did. I got the answer I wanted:

was it my fault
or how much of it was my fault

and what to do about it.

You decided it wasn't your fault?

No, I didn't decide that at all.

I knew where it was my fault.

I was at fault, too, because you can't go

years and years and years
being unhappy about a situation

without having it change you.

You get so you can't stand yourself.

They tried this last

family vacation to Europe.

That was a real nightmare.

Then I-I remember
a horrible fight one night.

I don't know what it was about,
but I-I do remember hearing that.

It was a miserable month
and a miserable trip.

And, uh...

that's where I decided
that, uh, that would be it.

I was the one who wanted out.

I brought it up and I, and I laid it.

And I laid the plan for months
ahead of time so it would work.

Because I didn't want
any part of it anymore.

I just made up my mind
I couldn't live anymore, that way.

With the last of the Lucy shows,

it was obvious that Desi
was, uh, not, uh...

you know, that we were having trouble.

Well, I heard.

I heard everything.

I knew it.

I'm through.

Finished.

Oh, now, honey.

Where I really belong is on
my uncle's tobacco plantation.

In Cuba.

Well weren't you rather weepy
on that last show?

Oh, I was a wreck.

And Desi was a wreck.

Yeah. The cameramen were crying and the...

everybody was in tears.

It was sad.

You probably thought there would
never by any more didn't you?

Well, I didn't care one way or another,

but it was a finish of so many things.

Mm-hmm.

So then you waited
until he asked for the divorce?

Oh, I had everything prepared and ready.

Uh, in 20 minutes, I had the lawyer there.

♪ Break it ♪

♪ To me gently ♪

♪ Let me down ♪

♪ The easy way... ♪

They went at it for all
the right reasons, originally.

And the only reason I Love Lucy exists

is because they wanted to be together

so they could have a family
and make the marriage work.

So they made this show,

and now the rest of the universe has it,
and they never got what they wanted.

♪ Love again ♪

♪ 'Cause I'll never ♪

♪ Love ♪

♪ Again ♪

♪ Never love again. ♪

They both, um, sat us down
in the living room in Palm Springs.

I remember it so clearly.

And they basically said that,
"Your mother and I...

...can't get along well enough
to be together anymore."

It was very scary,
and I felt so sorry for my dad.

But the minute they separated,

they became kinder to one another.

The hard edge softened
the minute they got divorced.

Because they did love one another.

I Love Lucy built

every episode around
that-that idea of fracture

and then coming back together.

And I think we crave that
as humans in life.

These were not people
that held resentments.

You know, they couldn't be married,
but they kept working together.

You see, when we worked, we were happy.

We loved our work.
We worked very well together.

Even after we were divorced,
we worked together.

Desilu Productions was responsible

for some of the greatest television
of the 20th century.

The original Star Trek series,

Impossible.

Uh, you know, the list goes on and on.

All of these shows were either shot
at Desilu or produced by Desilu.

And as a result, there's just
a library of contribution

to our culture throughout the world.

And all of that was Desi.

Desi was at the helm of that ship.

My father wanted the business so bad

that he let the marriage fall apart.

And then the simple joy of creating
became the part he had no time to do.

And the business overwhelmed him.

I hated every minute of it...

...after a while.

I wanted to get as far away as possible.

And I was actually headed
for Europe to live.

The children were much smaller,
and that would've been

a nice place for their schooling.

But then the Wildcat thing
of course formulated.

♪ You gotta say, "Hey, look me over ♪

♪ Lend me an ear" ♪

♪ Fresh outta clover ♪

♪ Mortgage up to here... ♪

She was not a theater person.

She's not a singer. She's not a dancer.

♪ I'd figure whenever
you're down and out... ♪

And she's gonna give herself
a singing, dancing role

on Broadway, eight shows a week.

I can't even figure out
what on earth she must have been thinking.

♪ And, look out, world, here I come... ♪

Wildcat didn't embarrass me.

It was the choreography that went with it.

The choreography was done
by a very nice gal

and a very feminine girl,

and the routine came out feminine.

And I just didn't feel that it fit
the robustness of the show.

But mostly I got hurt.

I like to be strong.
That's about the quickest answer.

I don't like to be a weakling.
I don't like to be ill.

I'm not a... at all, a hypochondriac.

I don't enjoy weakness.

I like to have the strength
to do what I have to do.

I remember I went to see a show,
and afterwards we went backstage

to see Lucy.

Gary was in the dressing room,
and she said, "You know, kid,

he makes me laugh."

Gary was a comedian.

She felt very secure with him.

He said, "Will you be my girl?"

The actual
"Shall we get married?" came a bit later.

And when I decided it was right,

we did it immediately.

Within five days.

I don't think the public

rejected Gary Morton,
but I think the public

ignored Gary Morton and continues to.

Because it disrupts the fantasy
that they want to hold in their minds.

And I know it broke my father's heart,

but my father ended up remarrying
after a few years.

Her name was Edie.

Gorgeous, freckles,

redhead.

He was married to Edie for 26 years.

My mother was married
to Gary Morton for 27 years.

They were married to those people

longer than they were
married to each other.

It was the best thing,
really, in the long run

that happened to either one of them.

The Lucy Show.

Starring Lucille Ball.

Costarring Vivian Vance.

Hey, kids, guess what.

I, uh, I got a referee for your game.

- No kidding!
- Who?!

It's me.

What do moms know about football?

Especially you.

The Lucy Show was about

two single women
raising kids on their own.

It got a lot of flak in its first year
because it was all about Lucy and Viv.

After all, we're all alone here,
just two women without a man.

You don't have to rub it in.

Even with a slight change of format

two or three times, there's always been
audience identification with Lucy.

And then without, uh, the husbands,

was certainly audience identification

for millions of women
who try to go through life

without a man and have to raise children

and-and what goes on, life without a man.

- Oh.
- How do you like this one?

Yeah, he's kind of cute.
You like black sheep, Viv?

Like 'em? I was married to one.

Vivian Vance was playing

a divorced single mother.

She was really amplifying
a lot of feminist narratives

in a moment when a lot of the women
on television around her

were not doing that.

The character she played on television
for all those years

was motivating generations of women.

Marker.

Settle down!

Action!

Hi. I hope you enjoyed our little show.

Oh.

Oh goddamn! We're giving
the minorities a break this week huh?

Jesus Christ!

The minorities are working this week huh?

♪ Babalú ♪

♪ Babalú ♪

My dad produced the show.

They were already divorced
when that happened.

My mother called him
all the time for advice.

I never saw anybody

really get down to the root of a story
and give you

the fundamentals of it
and what we're after.

He could see what was happening,
uh, where a lot of other people didn't.

But he didn't enjoy it
as much as those early days

when he was figuring it out.

And, um, he got very depressed
because of that.

And he drank more.

Basically, his health deteriorated
and he wasn't able to function.

And that was a real shame
because nobody did it better.

You know, it was like
you got to tell the pilot,

"You can't fly the plane anymore
because you're not healthy enough."

He gave up.

I just think it became so connected
between the two of them

that, in that way, he was faithful.

But after that show
where so much was defined,

he couldn't...

keep going.

He couldn't do it anymore.

And she, because she came from nothing,
had to keep going.

Thank you, Oscar.

Good morning. Good morning. Good morning.

- Are we ready?
- Yeah, we are.

The financial results of the fiscal year

which ended May 2, 1964.

Gross income for that year
was $23,885,251...

Now isn't your job unique
in the whole world right now?

Aren't you the only woman who's the head
of a corporation as big as Desilu?

In the entertainment business,
I guess, yes.

The other thing that makes mine,
uh, even more different

is the fact that I'm working every day.

I'm not in an office presiding.

I'm in a... I'm-I'm on a stage
doing The Lucy Show.

And this makes everything
double time, you know.

Double time for everything.

She said, "You know,

"when I was married to the Cuban,
Desi did everything.

"Then all I had to do

"was come in on a Monday
and be crazy little Lucy.

Everything was there."

I have to handle the real problems

of running the studio the way I run it,

and I'm getting there earlier,
I'm staying later.

I'm having to oversee a lot of things
that I-I'm interested in,

I'd rather someone else would be doing,
but at the moment, I have to do it myself.

Well, all I know is,
whenever I say, "Do this,"

you say you can't bring
that camera in for a close two-shot

because of the camera shadows.

- Yeah.
- Try and find out how to eliminate it.

We're bringing it in to the very limit.

And there is no-

I don't know how to light a scene
without lights.

Period.

No. No, I'm not asking that.

I'm not questioning that.

She said, "So now I've got to confront."

And sh-she never had to do that before.

And she said, "Kid,

that's when they put the 'S'
on the end of my last name."

I have already sold the one pilot,

The Greatest Show on Earth,
and it's going to be on ABC,

and that's an hour show,
and it's gonna mean a lot to the company.

And we consummated another deal
for three years

with the Danny Thomas empire.

He has, uh, six or seven shows
over in my other studio.

George Stevens is making
The Greatest Story Ever Told,

and Jesus Christ is
parting the waters out there

on the Culver, uh, 40 Acres.

So we're very happy about that.

Our stock is climbing a little bit,
and, uh, we're happy about that.

My mom loved the creative process.

When she could be the Lucy character

and Desi could run the studio,
that was all the best.

When she had to take on
all of that stuff...

first of all,
just run the show without him,

but then run a studio without him?...

she did not like that at all.

She didn't, she didn't care about
being the first woman anything.

So as soon as somebody made her
a decent offer, she took it.

In Hollywood, the winner is Lucille Ball.

Well...

I can't believe it.

I honestly cannot believe it.

I don't have one thing prepared to say
because I just didn't expect it.

It's been a long, long time.

I have one or two.

And they...

...they mean a lot

because it's given by you all,

part of the industry.

I don't know. It just sort of...

...seemed away and apart
of what we're really doing.

It left a long time ago,
and I'm glad it's back.

Last time I got it,
I thought they gave it to me

because I had a baby.

And that baby is 14 years old now.

I love my work.

Thank you for giving me this for it.

Thank you.

♪ I'm going fishing for a mate ♪

♪ She's going fishing for a mate ♪

♪ I'm gonna look in every brook ♪

♪ She's gonna look in every brook... ♪

I got my first big break,

and I-I was cast in an off-Broadway show.

This one night, there was
a big buzz in the audience

before the curtain was gonna go up,

and I made the mistake
of peeking through and looking out,

and there was that orange hair
in the second row.

I was working at
the Universal Amphitheatre

before it had a roof.

No one was more surprised than I was
to see her at my show.

'Cause I work blue.

You know, it... you aren't
supposed to work blue.

I was early working blue.
But she loved to laugh.

We went backstage,

and she said, "Hey, kid."

She called me "kid" because
she was 22 years older.

She was so encouraging,

and she said, "Kid,

if you ever need me, you give me a call."

Touché.

What Lucy gave me was a sense

I could do anything and try anything

and not be afraid of falling on my face.

That I could be free.

She was so kind.

And she did take me under her wing.

I think, at that...
by that time in her life,

she sort of decided that was her role.

We have a young lady here

with an I Love Lucy T-shirt on.

- Stand up and...
- Take your hands off her, David.

Oh, excuse me.

- I can see the shirt.
- So...

Thought I'd try to...

You know, big sister or big mama.

Oh, these are some of the actors
from our little theater group.

To guide people,
to guide younger women along.

Oh, well, I think she felt very proud

when somebody that she mentored
and loved did well.

I don't think there's a day goes by

that I don't think of her.

That she doesn't dip into
my mind and my heart.

He's right, girls. You look sensational!

- Yeah.
- You see, Kim,

apparently we were destined
to be gherkins.

Watching Lucy in the later shows,

she became the straight man.

Young lady,

will you please explain
why you, a waitress,

are sitting at a table
and leaving customers standing?

Because it's my coffee break.

Well, you could take
your coffee break in the kitchen.

Honey, you could eat in the kitchen.

And she lost the shoulder she hung on

because that was Desi.

So, my dad had lung cancer, and, um...

there weren't
any other treatments for him,

and he decided to forgo any chemo,

and I was taking care of him.

And, uh, I called my mom at one point,

and I said, you know,
"I think maybe you should think about

"coming down to Del Mar.

I don't know how much time he has left."

It made her... scared,
I think, a little scared.

And when she got there, I, uh,
I-I let her sit in his room.

And, um... I did the goofiest thing.

I-I put on old I Love Lucy shows
and let them watch them together.

Hey, this is great, Fred.

- This is wonderful.
- Yeah, look how big and roomy.

I bet you could hang
a whole side of beef in there.

Are you kidding? I bet that you...

Hi, Ricky, honey.

Cigarette?

I-I wasn't in the room.

I just heard what was going on
from outside the door.

I could hear them laughing together.

♪ Babalú ♪

Where does this go?!

Goes down to the starch vat!

Oh! Honey, take it off!

Oh!

Hey, what's going on here?!

Oh!

And then she left, she went home,

and she told me
she cried all the way home.

About a month later,
when he was really, really ill,

I called her and I said, uh...

..."I-I think you should talk to him.

"Don't know if he's gonna be
awake much longer.

So if you want to say anything at all,
now's a good time."

"Oh, okay. O-Okay." You know.

And I-I... held the phone

o-over to him,
and I leaned down like this.

And...

...she said...

..."I love you. I love you.
I love you. I love you.

I love you."

And he said, "I love you, too, honey."

The next morning, at 12:05 in the morning,

he died in my arms.

And I thought, "Wow, he got
a chance to speak to her."

The last person he spoke to,
other than me and a nurse,

was my mom.

That's great.

And then I realized that December...

12:05 a.m. on December 2nd,

was 24 hours he'd been in a coma...

the day they spoke was November 30th,

their anniversary.

From the John F. Kennedy Center

for the Performing Arts in Washington,

the ninth annual Kennedy Center Honors.

When I was offered the part

of Eliot Ness on The Untouchables...

...I can remember
the lady sitting up there

was sitting in the front office
'cause she was the boss.

The boss? She owned the studio.

But it was her partner

who persuaded me
that I-I should do the show.

He said, "We gonna make

the best damn television show
on television."

He wanted to be here tonight.

I'd like to read something that he wrote.

"I Love Lucy had just one mission:

"to make people laugh.

"Lucy gave it a rare quality.

"She can perform the wildest,
even the messiest

"physical comedy without
losing her feminine appeal.

"The New York Times
asked me to divide the credit

"for its success between the writers,
the directors and the cast.

"I told them, 'Give Lucy 90% of the credit

and divide the other ten percent
among the rest of us.'"

Desi concluded, "Lucy was the show.

"Viv and Fred and I were just props...

"damn good props, but props nevertheless.

"P.S.

I Love Lucy was never just a title."

Some people in this industry

are still saying,
"We got to get big stars.

We got to get big stars."

Well, we'd have to dig some of them up
'cause they're most of them dead.

We've got to make stars now.

So how do you make a star?

You don't necessarily
go out and find somebody

wearing a sweater,
sitting in a soda fountain.

That's an old, uh, Cinderella story.

I prefer to find a trouper.

People who know what to do
when they're given a great opportunity

and they don't take advantage,
take advantage, take advantage.

Show business means
that the show must go on.

The show comes first
instead of your personality.

All of these things can be applied at home

just as easily as it can to your work,

and it's something that I would
like to expand on later,

but I hate to put any more time
on this tape.

Bye for now.