| ||
| ||
| ||
 |
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The woman who changed televisionAuthor looks at 'Ball of Fire' Lucille Ball
By Todd Leopold
(CNN) -- The redhead was never more striking than in black and white. When people think of Lucille Ball, the image that almost certainly comes to mind is of the star-struck, conniving Lucy Ricardo of the legendary '50s sitcom "I Love Lucy." More than 50 years after it first aired, the old series remains a stalwart in reruns, forever introducing new generations to the slapstick genius of its star. The show not only made Ball too big for a 19-inch screen, but bigger than life, says Stefan Kanfer, author of the new Ball biography, "Ball of Fire" (Knopf). "There's something strange and powerful about black-and-white imagery," Kanfer says in a phone interview from his home in suburban New York, noting that the format somehow makes its subjects more powerful, more iconic. And Ball's forum, "I Love Lucy," had "a filmic quality to it. People saw a minidrama each week," he says. Yet, as "Ball of Fire" makes clear, "I Love Lucy" also has frozen Ball in a kind of monochrome video amber. Her lightweight image in the series overshadowed her genuine talents as an actress and executive. Ball was a former fashion model who remade herself into a comedian; a struggling actress who stood up for her Latin husband, Desi Arnaz, and his good judgment; a partner in creating one of the most successful TV studios of the '50s and '60s, Desilu. "They were real pioneers," says Kanfer. A star finally on TVKanfer, also the author of the well-regarded Groucho Marx biography "Groucho: The Life and Times of Julius Henry Marx," had a wealth of material with which to work. Both Ball and Arnaz wrote memoirs, their children Lucie and Desi Jr. are still active, and friends and colleagues of the pair also wrote books. But memoirs can be deceptive, and many of the couple's contemporaries are dead. Kanfer found himself going through a great deal of primary sources -- old issues of trade magazines, local newspapers, correspondence -- to get at the truth.
"I had to steep like a tea bag [in the material], try to triangulate," he says with amusement. Lucie Arnaz, who has maintained her mother's memory, was "very nice and generous with her time," he adds, "but you still have to go back to print." What the record reveals is a woman who "blunders into one thing after another," says Kanfer. Ball lost her father when she was 3 and found escape from a troubled childhood by entertaining people. A stunning woman, she found work as a runway model and took acting lessons at a school where one of her rivals was Bette Davis -- and, after a few more twists and turns, became a successful actress in B-grade Hollywood films. But television proved her salvation. Instead of dwindling roles as the wisecracking sidekick, she became the star of the top-rated show of the nascent mass medium. The 1953 episode in which she gave birth to "little Ricky" was the must-see event of the day. The show's images remain indelible: Lucy gulping down the alcohol-filled tonic, Vitameatavegamin; Lucy mirroring the moves of Harpo Marx; Lucy and Ethel in the chocolate factory. These moments highlight Lucy's talents as an actress. "She was a very acute observer," says Kanfer. A trailblazing sitcom
"I Love Lucy" was a trailblazer. It was filmed when other shows aired live or were, at most, kinescoped. Its longtime cinematographer, Karl Freund, pretty much invented the three-camera setup still used on sitcoms today. Even the premise -- the life and times of a girl next door in a marriage to a Latin musician -- was groundbreaking for the time. Ball and Arnaz had their own successful studio, Desilu, giving them almost complete control over their work. Their personal relationship didn't last, of course. Arnaz was an alcoholic, Ball was alternately imperious and insecure, and their marriage broke up in 1960. Ball took over Desilu. Kanfer notes that she was an underrated executive -- it was Ball who had the final word on putting "Mission: Impossible" and "Star Trek" into production, thus providing Paramount (which eventually bought Desilu) a pair of billion-dollar franchises -- but she didn't want to run a studio. Unfortunately, she also spent the last 25 years of her life outrunning herself. "I Love Lucy" was succeeded by "The Lucy Show" and "Here's Lucy," and then -- very late in Ball's life -- the disastrous "Life With Lucy." Ball tried movies, but many -- particularly the musical "Mame," with her as the title character -- were unsuccessful. She was forever going to be Lucy Ricardo. The "acute observer" could learn a great deal about others, but she never learned to look inward, says Kanfer. Nevertheless, her legacy is secure. Kanfer doesn't believe anybody has filled Ball's shoes. "There was a time when I thought Geena Davis could do it, but somehow it didn't happen," he says. "Now, I don't see anybody with the combination of Lucy's beauty and guts." And, he adds, the landscape has changed. Few performers, few shows, get the freedom to fail that Ball had. Besides, everything's in color now -- even big-screen TVs. And color just doesn't have the oomph to make an icon out of a redhead. "Lucy," he says, "is the last of the greats."
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
