15 Lucille Ball Facts You Probably
Didn’t Know (Photos)
• Lucy had no eyebrows
The studio star system of the Golden Age was all-controlling. The first order of business was always walking potential starlets into the hair and makeup departments for a makeover, usually to glam them up. And Lucy was no different.
“One of the worst things the studio people did was shave off my eyebrows,” Lucy remembered. “We were all trying to look like Jean Harlow. Now, God forbid that I should ever find myself on a desert island without an eyebrow pencil. It’s the first thing I reach for every morning. The only girl I know who managed to grow hers back again was Ginger Rogers. And even then it took her years.”
Throughout her life, Lucy would talk lovingly about her mother, DeDe, who lived with her famous daughter and was her biggest cheerleader. Lucy recalled that when she was three and her mother was pregnant with Lucy’s little brother Fred, DeDe would tie up the rambunctious Lucy in the yard with a dog leash so she wouldn’t run around the neighborhood. Ball wrote in her autobiography “Love Lucy,” “Every time somebody would pass by on the sidewalk, I’d beg to be released.”
Forty years later, DeDe would attend every taping of “I Love Lucy.” In fact, that “Uh oh” you hear when Lucy Ricardo gets into one of her predicaments, that’s DeDe.
• Desi and Lucy were TV’s first interracial couple
If Lucy had not been persistent about wanting her real-life husband, Desi Arnaz, to be her TV hubby on “I Love Lucy,” it would not have happened. Before “I Love Lucy,” CBS was so impressed by her comedic performance on her radio program “My Favorite Husband” that they wanted to adapt it for television. Lucy agreed under one condition – Desi would play the role of her husband. CBS wasn’t thrilled with the idea, believing that no one would tune in to watch an “all-American red-headed woman with a Cuban,” especially a Cuban with a thick accent. But Lucy wouldn’t budge.
To prove her point that America would love them as a husband-wife team, Lucy and Desi toured the country in sort of vaudeville act. Her fans couldn’t get enough, and CBS agreed.
• Lucy was superstitious about pictures of birds
Lucille was only 3 years old when her father died of typhoid fever at age 27. Because she was so young at the time, she later said that she remembered very little of that day — but one thing she did remember was a picture frame falling off the wall and a bird flying into her house. And that memory scarred her for the rest of her life. Although she was able to be in the vicinity of a bird, she couldn’t look at pictures of them and had even refused to stay in a hotel room with artwork of birds on the walls.
• Lucy became the first woman to run a major TV studio
Lucille Ball took her Hollywood know-how to an all-new height, crashing right through that glass ceiling to become the first woman to run a major TV studio. In 1962, Desi Arnaz resigned as the studio’s president, and Lucy bought out his holding in the company. Four years later, CBS turned down the original “Star Trek” series pilot, fearing the weekly budget to produce it would be too high. But Lucy stood behind it and gave the crew the finances needed, and it was made. So, Trekkies, you’ve got Lucille Ball to thank for your obsession. (Desilu also went on to produce the TV series “Mission: Impossible.”)
• Lucy and Desi once owned Tara, Scarlett O’Hara’s plantation in “Gone With the Wind”
In 1957, Desilu Productions bought all of RKO Pictures properties for $6.15 million. Quite a steal, actually. According to Ball, “We now owned 33 more sound stages, or 11 more than 20th century Fox and four more than MGM. We had fabulous permanent sets, including the Southern plantation exterior from ‘Gone With the Wind,’ fire-scarred and weather-beaten, but still majestic.”
• When TV Superman George Reeves appeared on “I Love Lucy,” she insisted his real name not be mentioned in the credits
Lucy put thought into the wants and needs of her audience of all ages. In an episode of “I Love Lucy” in which she promises Little Ricky that she’ll get Superman to attend his birthday party, TV’s Man of Steel himself, George Reeves, made a guest appearance. But to keep the fantasy alive that it was really Superman (not an actor), Lucy insisted Reeves name not appear in the episode credits.
• A “Simpson” character was made in her honor
“The Simpsons” has paid homage to Lucille Ball on more than one occasion. In the episode titled “Little Big Mom,” Lisa is visited by Lucy’s ghost, who is named Lucy McGillicuddy Ricardo Carmichael (Ball’s maiden and married names on “I Love Lucy” and “The Lucy Show.”) There was also an episode that had Moe selling clams that look like Lucy, and a parody of “I Love Lucy” called “I Lost Lucy,” in which a character visits Lucille Ball’s grave.
• Lucy taught a class in “Television and Film Aesthetics” at California State University, Northridge
You can add college professor to Lucy’s resume. In 1979, California State University, Northridge hired her as an assistant professor to teach a three-unit class called “Television and Film Aesthetics,” which included showing and analyzing film and television programs.
“I try to teach them the art of taking care of themselves in every way so someone else doesn’t have to,” she told The Los Angeles Times. “All they hear about is rejection. I try not to talk about rejection. I teach how to do the best for you — don’t be a patsy, a pushover — and to take that step ahead every day.”
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