The Life and Times of Lucille Ball

The Life and Times of Lucille Ball

"Love yourself first and everything else falls into line. You really have to love yourself to get anything done in this world." That quote was one that Lucille Ball lived by throughout her twisted and turbulent life. As one of the most recognized faces in the world, she is known to millions simply as Lucy. She went from waitress and salesgirl to model to Goldwyn Girl to radio clown to an unlikely leading lady in a ground-breaking sitcom that is still seen in regular syndicated reruns more than 40 years after the series ended. Beyond being a television legend, she was the first woman president of a major Hollywood studio—a studio she co-founded. This is the life and times of Lucille Ball.

The eldest child of two, Lucille Désirée Ball was born August 6, 1911, in the small town of Celoron, New York, a suburb of Jamestown. Her father, Henry Durrell Ball, was a telephone lineman for the Bell Company, while her mother, Désirée (DeDe) Hunt, was often described as a lively and energetic young woman. While DeDe was pregnant with her second child, Frederick, Henry contracted typhoid fever and died in February 1915. During her childhood, Ball and her brother lived with their independent mother, grandmother and grandfather, Fred Hunt, who was an eccentric socialist who enjoyed theatre. He frequently took the family to local vaudeville shows (acts using music, costuming, and dialogue with comedy, juggling, magic, clowning, acrobatics, singing, mime, and dancing) and encouraged young Lucy to take part in both her own and school plays. ...

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When asked if she considered herself lucky to have had such an outstanding career, Lucille Ball said, "Luck? I don't know anything about luck. I've never banked on it and I'm afraid of people who do. Luck to me is something else: Hard work - and realizing what is opportunity and what isn't."

Bibliography

"Ball, Lucille (Désirée)." Biography.com. 2001. A&E. September 13, 2003.

Lowe, Denise. Women and American Television: an encyclopedia. New York: ABC-CLIO, December 1, 1999.

Magill, Frank N., ed. Great Lives From History: American Women Series. Vol. 1. Salem: Salem Pr, January 1995.