Who was more beautiful in their prime: Lucille Ball or Vivian Vance?

Lucille and it’s not even close.

Desi Arnaz

Something about Vivian Vance was beautiful. She just didn't put much effort into it.

That's like trying to decide which one of your grandma's nightshirts.... ummmm...looked better on her. 😬

r3 I don't think Vivian considered herself beautiful. On the other hand, Lucille was fully aware that she was attractive. Someone -- Madelyn Pugh maybe? -- said that Lucille did her physical comedy knowing full well she was beautiful. She wouldn't do things that she thought would make her appear ugly or unattractive.

Mrs. Trumbull.

Little Ricky

Viv had a nose job before THE LUCT SHOW and definitely looked better then, but Lucy was always the beautiful one until she aged out of it.

[quote]Lucy was always the beautiful one until she aged out of it.

We take full credit.

R5- You are WRONG 😑

Lucy was in MANY situations on I Love ❤️ Lucy where she looked awful- but funny.

The Phipps Department store episode- she walks out in a sack and her hair is all FRIZZY and PERMMED- ugly in the 1950’s but it just looked 1980’s hair- which was still ugly.

I'm citing someone directly involved with the production of the show, r10 (but too lazy to look up the direct source). I'm not "wrong."

People perceive themselves in all sorts of ways that differ from how others perceive them.

Viv developed sanpaku eyes in later life.

Viv was rather plain in high school

Lucy needed Vivian more than Vivian needed her. Vivian wanted an out. I guess she couldn't just say no. Lucy's life was pretty empty at this point except for the studio. Clearly Vance had enough money to be comfortable for the rest of her life what with those commercial unlike doing a weekly sitcom. A beautiful farmhouse with flowers was a lot more important to her.

Like most DLers, Vivian just wanted earrings, caftans, flowers, and a younger gay man.

Fred Mertz was hot!

r17 = the ghost of Helen Keller

Is this a trick question ?

I'm gonna say on looks alone, Lucille Ball. In terms of the whole package, Vivian Vance. She's the one I'd want to hang with at a party. More fun. More stylish. More available. Viv for the win.

Lucy was a lot of things, but being some kind of self-absorbed Hollywood diva was not one of them. She was nice looking, but hardly a legendary beauty

[quote]Lucy was a lot of things, but being some kind of self-absorbed Hollywood diva was not one of them.

Neither was being witty.

r21 = Joan Crawford

^ Don't fuck with me, fella, this isn't my first rodeo

-r21

And they called ME a bitch!

I get that Vivian resented her frumpy wardrobe, especially in earlier seasons of I Love Lucy.

However, while she was generally stylish (especially later in life), she wore an Ethel dress when she accepted her 1954 Emmy. She looks like she's on her way to the Ricardo's apartment for dinner.

As Olive Lashbrooke in The Voice of the Turtle (mid 1940s)

@r26, is that not the ugliest Emmy Award dress any winner has ever worn?

In Vivian's defense, r28, I capped her Emmy dress budget at $10.

^ What did Viv do with the change?

Therapy bills, r30

Lucy was no beauty---that was one reason she never got beyond B-level stardom. It also made her "Lucy Ricardo" character relatable. She became impossible to work with later and tried to make herself look more glamorous than her character in her later years, too.

Speaking of Vivian and therapy: it's amusing to me that Phil Ober did not want her to have friends, especially at Desilu. He hated Lucille, of course, but he also became enraged if Viv and ILL hairdresser Irma Kusely so much as hung out together in Viv's dressing room. And Doris Singleton said Vivian wasn't very social on the set, and when not rehearsing retreated alone to her dressing room.

But on the other hand, Ober was perfectly fine with Viv spending hours with various therapists every week, for many years.

I assume, deep down, he knew if she developed strong female friendships she would dump his ass. And yet constant therapy, in which she presumably disclosed the details of the marriage, was somehow not a bridge too far for him?

There's only so much that tape, wigs, and Vaseline can hide

Lucille was a classic beauty who, interestingly, peaked in her 30s.

Clearly Viv's dress at r26 was from before she married the gay husband

Lucille was kind of nondescript in her 20s

r28 = the ghost of Bea Benaderet

I always though Vivian looked better than Lucy in the "Charm School" episode

Here's a flattering pic of Viv

Viv had an unfortunate nose

Barbara Eden

Who's the beautiful beautiful female comic?

Candice Bergen?

Like most DLers, Vivian really hit her stride in her 50s.

I think you could make the argument Vivian was looking better than Lucy only a couple of seasons in

Viv was attractive but Lucy was sexy.

I did charge my johns high prices, r46

Vivian FTW!

Beautiful? Nope.

r49 = Bill Frawley

Elizabeth Patterson

No poll? With Vivian Vance as a literal option?

lmao

Ball was a Technicolor beauty in the few MGM musicals she did in the 40s Best Foot Forward is terrific fun except for the very very bad moment where the kids decide to humiliate her at the dance and in a wild frenzy strip off her gown. A humiliating stupid plot turn.

Having your first children after Thirty five ages a woman. Same thing happened to Bette Davis.

r54 = Mrs. Alfred Steele

Lucille was quite stunning

Lucille was a beauty but it well before her TV fame.

She was beautiful in the early seasons r57

Even on I love Lucy there are times when she dresses up and carries herself like the fashion model she once was. Why in Mame she approved a wardrobe that one can say without objection was the worst ever given to a star in a big budget musical only God can answer.

Saint Vivian, forgive them for they know not what they say...

R34 “ There's only so much that tape, wigs, and Vaseline can hide.”

That goes for bath houses too!

Lol R61!

Lucy wasn’t a classic beauty, but she photographed well, especially in color. Beautiful eyes and the perfect shade of red hair.

Plus, she was shapely and was on every best dressed list in Hollywood.

She also managed not to gain (much) weight post-menopause, unlike many women r63

Elizabeth Patterson

"But Desi! I'm a 10 on DL!"