I LOVE Lucy.

You may know that - I mentioned it yesterday - Lucille Ball, the Funniest Lady to ever Live, will turn 100 years old on August 6th!! (Well, she would if she were still alive).


Trueclassics.wordpress.com is hosting - drum roll please - a "Loving Lucy Blogathon!" I created this blog just yesterday, but I already knew that my first real post (consider yesterday's some sort of an introduction) would have to be about Lucy. And that's wonderful, because then I can join the "Loving Lucy Blogathon."


I could go on forever about Lucille Ball. Trust me - my friends and family can tell you that, too! I'm scheming up some massive sort of blog tribute for her actual birthday. So, I'm not going to go all out in this particular blog... this is mostly for being accepted into the Blogathon. (And so I can put one of those awesome banners on my sidebar!)


So today I'll present to you simply this:

The Reasons Why I Love (And You Love, and She Loves) Lucy

This list could go on eternally. But I know you don't have time to sit here and read my Blog all day, so I'll try to keep it to a minimum.

1) Stating the Obvious: She's Funny

You can't really put it into words. Instead of flipping through my thesaurus and dictionary for hours on end (that versus writing "She's realllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllly funny"), I thought I'd just share  a clip from what I consider to be one of her funniest moments.

(You know it - I don't own this clip! Many thanks to the uploader of it).

"Spoon your way to health!"

2) She's lovely - without trying too hard

Lucy was obviously pretty. I am all one for glamour, but Lucy didn't need any of that to make herself pretty... she wasn't afraid to get the pie in the face or wear the black teeth or mess her hair up. She didn't care if it made her look unflattering (though you could see lovely Lucy deep down in there), if I was essential to the role, and to make us laugh, she didn't care.

As "Queen of the Gypsies" -

she played a haggle toothed Gypsy... it was one of her favorite - and funniest - roles

3) Desilu 

Though their marriage ended in divorce, Lucy and Desi were really a good team... that includes professionally. They really built an empire out of nothing. Did you know that besides "I Love Lucy", Desilu Productions produced "The Andy Griffith Show," "The Untouchables," "Star Trek," "That Girl,"... just to name a few?? I also think that the fact that they were married in real life during the run of "I Love Lucy" really helped the relationship between Lucy and Ricky more poignant and believable. Below is the very best expression of this: this is the episode in which Lucy tells Ricky she's pregnant. The tears in this are real and unscripted; the story goes that after it was shot, the director told them they'd have to do it again. But the audience stood up and protested, and this version was kept in. I'm glad - it makes it so much more memorable!

"We're having a baby - my baby and me"

4) She cheers you up - and makes you happy

It has been said - and by Lucy herself - that her favorite song was "Make Someone Happy." I think Lucy very much accomplished this. Lucy Ricardo could just cheer you up. She was very imperfect but at the same time that makes her so much more lovable. Whenever I feel upset, I can turn on "I Love Lucy" and make myself feel better again... And it's not just me. I mean, lots of people feel this way - that's why "I Love Lucy" is still popular nearly 60 years after first going on air (and it hasn't been off since!).

How can this NOT make you smile?

5) The blazing red hair

Well, just look at the picture below and you'll get the idea. I also love the fact how, unlike many who dye their hair, she was the first one to poke fun at it and make a "Henna Rinse" joke.

"I saw the flames!"

6) She didn't give up.

There are many examples in Lucy's life when she could have given up - but didn't. She actually had a difficult childhood, in many terms. She lost her father at four. Her family wasn't very rich, and she was often packaged off from relative to relative (though her mother did love her very much, she had to hold down a job wherever she could get one). But she continued onto pursue her dreams. When she was about fifteen or sixteen, her mother enrolled her in an acting school in New York City. She was overshadowed by a star pupil named "Bette Davis" (hmmm?? wonder whatever happened to her? Just kidding ;D) and was sent home, told that she didn't have any "talent." (I wonder how stupid they felt when "I Love Lucy" came out). She didn't give up though. She pushed and pushed and got to Hollywood, where they stuck here in RKO to make B movies. But she still didn't give up. And finally, she made it to the top.

7) She's like another friend.
I guess she just always seemed very genial, happy, and appreciative of her fans. She always looked happy to know that people were watching her shows and enjoying them. She just looks like she'd make an amazing friend.

Dance, Girl, Dance!

(the name of a 1940 "B" movie Lucy made with good friend Maureen O'Hara)

8) She was a true professional.
Anyone who worked with her can vouch for this. She was a perfectionist. They filmed these shows before a live audience, and didn't have the options for retakes on most occasions. If they made a mistake, they usually had to do their best to cover it up. Lucy never really made mistakes (or, who knows? Maybe she did, but she was too brilliant that she covered it up beautifully and no one ever noticed!!)... from everything I've read or heard about her, she just seems to seem like overtly professional. She did what was necessary to make her show good and audiences happy. One of my favorite stories is told by "I Dream of Jeannie" star, Barbara Eden. Barbara had a role in the episode "Country Club Sirens" as the sultry Diana. They gave her a sort of dismal dress for the episode. Lucy saw it, told her to take it off, and with her assistant, spent hours gluing little rhinestones over the dress so that it sparkled all over. "It was the nicest thing a big television star like that ever did for me," Barbara said of it later.

Barbara speaks of the incident

I have a lot more to say, but I think I'll save it for Lucy's big 100th birthday Blog (I can hardly wait!!). Now, I'm going to go and proudly add myself into the "Loving Lucy Blogathon." If you Blog, you should most certainly go over to yours, hit "New Post," and join the Blogathon.

While I'm here, I also want to wish a happy birthday to Phylis Diller - who turns 94 today - and belated happy birthdays to Barbara Stanwyck and Ginger Rogers (who were yesterday, July 16th - Ginger would've turned 100, too!). I would have done Blogs on that, but I was just getting this started and I hope this makes up for it, a little!

I'll leave you with a picture of Lucy making her "spider face." ;)