Lucille Ball | Hollywood Yesterday

Happy Birthday to the Extraordinary Carol Burnett!

April 26, 2023 By Joi

Carol Burnett and Lucille Ball

The adorable picture above shows two of my favorites doing what they do/did best… making people smile. Such extraordinary women and very close friends in real life as well.

Carol Burnett’s birthday is today and I can think of no better way to honor her than a photo with a friend that meant so much to her.

She was born on April 26, 1933 in San Antonio, Texas and television and its fans are all the richer for it. It’s amazing to me just how timeless The Carol Burnett Show is, even today. The music, opening monologue, skits, and humor ring as wonderful today as they did then and so much of that is because of the wonderful redhead we’re celebrating today.

Happiest of birthdays, Carol Burnett, and thanks for all of the wonderful fun and laughter!

You can find the complete series (or buy seasons individually) of The Carol Burnett Show on dvd or watch on Prime Video. (Amazon link)

Victor Mature and Lucille Ball in Easy Living (LOVE These Two!)

July 16, 2022 By Joi

Victor Mature and Lucille Ball

Two of my favorites, Victor Mature and Lucille Ball, star in the 1949 Easy Living. The drama was directed by Jacques Tourneur and also stars Lizabeth Scott, Sonny Tufts, Lloyd Nolan, Jack Paar, and Paul Stewart.

The movie doesn’t get a lot of attention and I truly believe it’s mainly because it’s never shown on television! While many people (myself included) absolutely love to stream movies and classic television series and do it regularly, a movie (and its stars) benefit GREATLY from television exposure. Many such stars, Victor Mature included, have films that aren’t shown as often and suffer because of it.

Think about it, if a greater VARIETY of films were shown on television regularly, more people would be exposed to a greater variety of stars. The entire genre of old Hollywood would benefit so greatly. While I understand (completely!) televising favorites such as Casablanca, The Women, and Singin’ in the Rain, I would love to see more attention given to the obscure, all but forgotten films that kind of get lost in the shuffle.

Okay… rant over!

You can find Easy Living on dvd (Amazon link) or watch on Prime Video. I highly recommend it, the cast (especially the two remarkable people shown here) is wonderful.

Victor Mature and Lucille Ball

Lucille Ball and Jack Oakie, Annabel Takes a Tour (1938)

October 23, 2021 By Joi

Lucille Ball and Jack Oakie

Two of Lucille Ball’s earliest films were with the wonderful Jack Oakie – The Affairs of Annabel and Annabel Takes a Tour. As a Lucille Ball fanatic, naturally I love both of these films. You can see early signs of the character we’d all fall in love with years later (“Lucy Ricardo”) in Annabel films, especially in Annabel Takes a Tour. You can see her in a few of the reactions Lucille Ball gives Annabel and in many of the expressions and gestures. It’s actually very fascinating to see!

You can find both The Affairs of Annabel and Annabel Takes a Tour on DVD (Amazon link).

A Beautiful Legend was BOTD in 1911 in Jamestown, New York

August 6, 2021 By Joi

Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball – Behind the Scenes of I Love Lucy

Lucille Desiree Ball was born on August 6, 1911 in Jamestown, New York. Little did anyone know then that this tiny baby would one day become both the face of television and one of the most beloved stars EVER.

Lucille Ball is one of those stars (and lifelong personal favorites) that, when I’m writing about her, I truly struggle to find words. Words are some of my closest friends and, yet, when talking about Lucille Ball, they all but abandon me.

I think one of the things is, in many ways, she seems almost like family. After all, she was in our living room for as long as I can remember and is, to this day, a very frequent guest in our den and kitchen. Heck she’s even shown up in the bathroom a time or two.

When you have favorite stars who have been with you all of your life, you realize that they’ve “seen you” through everything you’ve been through – good or bad.

When I was in school, I had to miss a lot of days each school year due to my bronchial asthma. It was like clockwork, each October, I would get a terrible bout of bronchitis and end up in the hospital, followed by a week or more of recovering at home. Episodes of I Love Lucy were my constant companion and laughing at them gave me consistency my lungs robbed me of.
When I got married, Lucy, Ricky, Ethel, and Fred came along on our honeymoon.
When my husband and I moved out of state and I was homesick for my mom, dad, cat, dog, and hometown… Lucy came to my rescue again.
When my daughters came into the picture, it was their time to grow up with a familiar hilarious redhead as a frequent houseguest!
After losing my dad and, then, years later, my mom – episodes of I Love Lucy truly helped me hold it all together when it really didn’t seem possible.

Good times, bad times, great times, horrific times… she has been a constant. If that sounds normal to you.. then you, too, have a star (or possibly even an athlete) that means an awful lot to you.

She was extraordinary in every way and, truth be told, I don’t just love Lucy… I adore her.

Happy Heavenly birthday and thank you so much for all you’ve meant and MEAN to me!

Lucille Ball

Closer Magazine: One of the Few Magazines I Still Buy….

June 11, 2021 By Joi

Closer Magazines

I used to spend so much money on magazines… I mean to the point I almost embarrassed my own self. I got it from my mom. She simply didn’t go to the store without returning with at least one magazine. I still love them but find that I buy fewer than I once did. I buy a couple of cooking magazines consistently but the one I look forward to the most and buy without fail (each issue) is Closer Magazine. It’s the only entertainment magazine I buy these days.

As you can see by the photos in this post, I am accumulating quite a collection… and this isn’t even all of them! I add magazines that feature my favorites (like Lucille Ball, Audrey Hepburn, James Stewart, Judy Garland…) to my individual collections.

Not only does Closer almost always have one of our beloved stars from old Hollywood or Classic television on the cover, they also feature book reviews, interviews, and articles inside the magazine. I love that they spotlight Lucille Ball and Judy Garland so often.

Closer Magazines

You can find Closer in quite a few grocery stores (I find it consistently in Meijer and every now and then in Kroger), but most people seem to prefer subscribing to Closer. I’m actually considering doing so, myself. I love having new things to look forward to in the mail AND it’s kind of cool to get a magazine before it hits the stands!

Closer Magazine Subscription

Lucille Ball and Boris Karloff, Lured (1947)

September 20, 2020 By Joi

Lucille Ball and Boris Karloff, Lured

Anyone who knows anything about me knows how much I adore Lucille Ball. Always have, always will. Whether it’s one of her hilarious, timeless sitcoms or one of her wonderful movies, this redhead is always, always, always welcome in my den.

Lured (1947, directed by Douglas Sirk) is somewhat of a hidden gem in the world of classic film fans. The only reason it isn’t wildly popular or known is that it isn’t shown on television more often. If it were, it’d be just as known and loved as celebrated film-noirs Indemnity, The Postman Always Rings Twice, and The Killers.

It’s that good.

The cast includes Lucille Ball, George Sanders, Charles Coburn (always wonderful), and Boris Karloff… in a very small but memorable role. He seemed to relish this part and it’s a lot of fun to watch.

Ball and Sanders have an unexpected chemistry and it practically sizzles. I’m not sure why I consider it “unexpected” but it absolutely caught me off guard.

If you’ve never seen this excellent film, I hope you’ll watch it as soon as possible. If you have seen it… see it again. It’s every bit as good when re-watched.

You can find Lured on dvd on Amazon or watch it on Prime Video.

Lucille Ball, Lured

Lucille Ball: A Legend was BOTD in 1928!

August 6, 2020 By Joi

Lucille Ball and Bob Hope, Fancy Pants

The wonderful, beautiful, hilarious, intelligent… I could go on for weeks… Lucille Ball was BOTD in Jamestown, N.Y. in 1928. All of us who love movies and (especially) television owe a debt of gratitude to the event. Television would never have been the magical force it became without Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz.

Not even close.

The picture of the day is from the hilarious movie she made with her friend Bob Hope, Fancy Pants (1950). It is deliciously over the top, hilarious, and outrageous… just like its wonderful stars.

Happy Heavenly birthday to my personal favorite television star of all time… bar none!

Picture of the Day: Maureen O’Hara, Lucille Ball, and Louis Hayward

February 9, 2020 By Joi

Maureen O’Hara, Louis Hayward, and Lucille Ball

Anyone who knows me at all knows that two of my greatest obsessions are Lucille Ball and Maureen O’Hara (along with Ann-Margret, Rita Hayworth, and Katharine Hepburn… yes, more redheads!). How could I not be all about Dance, Girl, Dance (Amazon dvd link) – the 1940 film starring BOTH of these beautiful and incredibly talented ladies. The movie is fun, spirited, entertaining, and packed with personality and charisma – just like its lovely stars.

Another cool thing about Dance, Girl, Dance is that it was directed by Dorothy Arzner, one of the bold ground-breakers for females in film-making. She didn’t just open the door for other female directors, she flung it open. The lady was absolutely wonderful.

The film makes for a very entertaining afternoon or evening and the photo makes for my kind of picture of the day!

Backstage DRAMA Behind the World’s Best COMEDY…

January 17, 2020 By Joi

Vivian Vance, William Frawley, Desi Arnaz, and Lucille Ball

One of the all-time most loved shows in the world had more than it’s share of backstage drama. Jess Oppenheimer, one of the writers of I Love Lucy gave a firsthand account of some of the drama behind my personal favorite television show of all time:

“Even though the entire world loved I Love Lucy, everyone on I Love Lucy didn’t love everyone else on I Love Lucy. Luckily…all the interpersonal problems didn’t show through the performances. Lucy and Desi were having a whole set of domestic problems, which ended in their divorce; Vivian couldn’t stomach Bill (William Frawley), mainly because she failed to understand how anyone could believe she was married to “that old man”; Bill reacted in typical fashion, referring to her figure as “a sack of doorknobs”; and Desi and I had a running series of spats, mostly ticked off when I picked up the trade papers and found he had taken credit for something I had done. But, luckily (again), it could not be seen on the screen, and there was no blowup which destroyed the team.”

I am, by nature, a Mary Poppins type blended with a great deal of Suzie Sunshine…. with a touch (okay a lot) of Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. Can’t help it, I was made this way. With that being the case, I almost didn’t publish this quote because I was afraid it would cast a negative light on stars I love a great deal – worse, yet, stars that aren’t with us to stand up for themselves!

However, I decided to publish it because, quite frankly, I am in AWE of the television magic these four stars (and directors, as well as writers) pulled off under these circumstances. Think about it – would you be able to make all happy and funny with a spouse you were in the middle of divorcing??

Would you be able to keep smiling and find a way not to cry when your marriage was crumbling?

Would you be able to work day-in day-out with someone you couldn’t even tolerate?!

I don’t know about you, but I have to answer NO to all of the above. I’m not made of nearly strong enough stuff to overcome any of that emotional turmoil.

Yet, these four stars rose above all the noise, all the drama, and all of the emotions and turned in one flawless performance after another.

I also published the quote for another reason… I trust my readers to know that one person’s quote does not make his or her opinion or account the gospel. It makes it their opinion or their “side.” If Desi were here, today, he may well have a whole other version.

In the end, they were all humans (just ridiculously talented humans!) and where there are humans, there are problems. I still maintain that these four did a super-human job of maintaining their maturity and professionalism when so many (raising my hand) wouldn’t have been able to.

I, for one, am thankful for their strength every single day because this series means more to me than I can even say.

Lucille Ball and John Hodiak, Two Smart People (1946)

December 11, 2019 By Joi

Lucille Ball and John Hodiak: Two Smart People Publicity Photo

Two Smart People is a film you really don’t hear a lot about but, truth be told, I like it a lot. Watching it is kind of bittersweet, however, because you’re reminded of how young John Hodiak was when he died (just 41). He died in 1955, while shaving at his parents house. He was getting ready to go to the studio to film On the Threshold of Space.

If you’ve never seen Two Smart People, I hope you’ll check it out. It’s a good movie and the leads are extra special.

Click here to see a stunning publicity photo of Lucille Ball from this film.