35 years ago, DL fave Lucille Ball died

Lucy couldn't be all bad if Carol loved her.

Carol said when she was first starting out with her own show in the 60s, Lucy made a lunch date with her and gave her sage advice about going into 'business' with her husband (Joe Hamilton) on her TV show. She reminded Carol the two should always be 'equals' in their business venture. Carol said from that day forward, Lucy became her 'guardian angel' in Hollywood, and she stayed under her wing. Whenever she had difficulty with CBS, or any other business matter, she called on Lucy - and she never let her down. When she decided to leave Joe Hamilton in the early 80s, Lucy was by her side, guiding her along.

Cher said the same thing about Lucy when she and Sonny signed on with CBS. Lucy invited her to lunch at her house, and Carol was there, too. The two of them gave Cher sound advice through their experience - and reminded Cher to be an 'equal' in the business. When Cher left Sonny, Lucy helped her get through it. When Cher went solo on her own CBS show, Lucy and Carol helped her. This was the beginning of her long-lasting friendship with both women (she still says she's best friends with Carol).

I remember the morning this happened. My brother and I were in the back of my mom's red pick up truck parked in front of cousins house. She was picking up some of my cousins to go camping. It was overcast and grey morning and one of the neighbor kids came bounding down the street shouting that Lucille Ball had died.

It was big deal to us because one of the local channels here showed I Love Lucy reruns in the morning and we always watched them whenever possible.

I swear it was only like 10 years ago.

One of Lucy’s last interviews:

Is it time to blu-Ray “Life with Lucy” and re-evaluate?

I owned my store back then. One of the items I carried were B&W postcards of 'Old Hollywood' which always sold very well. I remember my best-sellers were always "I Love Lucy" related - especially with gay men. Anyhow, a few days earlier I had a huge shipment come in, all ILL postcards for me to refill my display. I remember I got 100 designs (still photos from the show) , many new images, in packs of 25. They sold for 90 cents each. I spent the past few days checking the inventory in, and filling up the post card display. I figured 2500 post cards would probably last me through the summer (tourist business).

Before I opened for business that day, my mother called me to tell me the news. I felt so sad, and kept looking at my postcard rack, wondering how this would effect sales. There was a line forming outside my door before I opened (I was in the financial district of my city - all business people) and sure enough I was swamped all day. No one bought 'one or two' - they were buying handfuls of 'Lucy' postcards. It was insane. At the end of the day (8 hours later) I had sold over 1,000 that day - unheard of. The next few days I had completely sold out. One thing I recall - women were sobbing and men had tears in their eyes. Gay men were sobbing, too.

I finally was able to get another order in around Memorial Day - the company which had the license to ILL postcards was completely wiped out, and couldn't restock merchants fast enough. They still sold like crazy throughout the summer (by then I had ordered everything Lucy - tees, lunchboxes, posters, etc.)

And we wonder why DL is less alive than this ancient cunt?

Why didn't Gary talk her out of it?

r7 what happened to your store?

I tell this story often on DL but since this is the day Lucy died, it's time again. Way back when, Lucy's dress maker retired and the fabric shop recommended my friend to take over. Lucy called her and things went well. My friend asked if I would like to meet her. Hell, yes! Lucy came to her condo with her body model as well as lots of other things like color samples, etc. She knew her body, her hair coloring, etc. so she wanted her new dress maker to have access to it. My friend was going to be making a dress for Lucy because she was going to be returning to Jamestown NY for the first time in decades. It was a pretty big thing. Lucy entered kinda like Cruella DeVille. Smoke everywhere and that deep, deep voice. I had gone to school with her writer's son (a real asshole, but that's another story) so I had that as a conversation starter. I also told her how much I loved her and her shows. Her Thank You was as gracious as could be. I understand she's had to do it thousands of times but if you recall the old ILL episodes where Lucy Ricardo thanked someone? That was exactly how it sounded. I heard Lucy loved gossip so I brought an issue of the old Hollywood Kids magazine with me. The famous Page 2 with the Guess Who Don't Sue" was what she focused on. She started reading and then burst out into raucous laughter. She asked who the BI was about and I said probably Bruce Willis. (It was a story about how Bruce had a one night stand with a girl and was too cheap to even get her a ride home so she was running for a bus with his cum dripping down her leg.) Lucy said she loved Moonlighting but she had heard weird stories about him. Here I am, in W. Hollywood gossiping with Lucy. I was in heaven. After her fitting was over, she grabbed my hand and asked "do you know how to play backgammon?" I said no and she said she was going to teach me. She wrote her phone number down on a card and told me to call her in two days. The morning I was going to call, Lucy was sent to the hospital and never came out. Everyone asks what she was like. From my relatively brief interaction, she was a tough, cranky old broad who still loved to have fun.

Loved all of these posts.

DLers always have the best stories.

R11 Wonderful post, and new to me. Thanks for sharing. This is why DL must be protected.

R5 Fuck off

I got to go to Jamestown just 2 years ago then it was pretty cool to see how much she's admired there but I guess they don't really have much aside from the reason I was there which was the 10,000 Maniacs.

I visited the mean I Love Lucy museum but they're really honestly wasn't that much to it. I know I wasn't in there too long because the lady running the gift shop made a comment about how I only spent less than 15 minutes in there.

The comedy museum was a lot more fun though and I enjoyed that a lot.

R6. Yes, let’s.

Oh, it’s still garbage.

Paul R. Williams was the first black architect to be issued a license in the state of California. He trained himself to draw his plans upside down so that if a white client wanted a sketch, they wouldn't be on the same side of the desk. You know. Standing next to a negro.

Lucy loved him and loved his work. She became an advocate of his. He designed at least five houses for her. She introduced him to Barbara Stanwick and Lauren Bacall, both of whom also networked for him. He wound up designing more than 1,000 buildings in greater LA and paved the way for architects of color nationally.

I give her props for that.

^Williams was designing when Lucy was still a blonde Goldwyn Girl.

R19, true - but she helped open him up to Hollywood stars.

"ya call that coffee hot!". Lucy yells at St Peter upon arrival in Heaven. God did not take kindly to that. God quickly despatched her to the "other place" were she spent eternity drinking cold coffee locked up in a room with Patty Duke.

What did Patty Duke do to deserve that?

She loved mashed potatoes (11:20)

Where the fucking is the smoking cloud?

I'm finally watching my LIFE WITH LUCY DVDs.

The constant fucking mugging for the camera.

I'm on episode two featuring John Ritter. Just awful! Doing his Three's Company schtick!

I don't get the Lucy as a healthnut character. Must be an 80s thing.

Lucy was amazing in ILL but I never found her funny or entertaining in anything else. She was also generally unpleasant or smug in every interview as I remember. I have never understood the adoration.

Lucy mastered cigarette voice.

Lucy wanted to live but Gary talked her out of it.

She'll live forever.

I never really liked "The Lucy Show' and hated 'Here's Lucy'. 'Life With Lucy' was unbearable.

I was in middle school when she died and they played the IIL theme song over the intercom system. This girl walked into class and said “Lucy dead” and we all screamed “WE KNOW” at her and she got pissed and and “fine I ain’t tellin any of you shit anymore”

Lucy wasn’t all bad R1. A couple of deranged posters here want to turn her into some drunken gorgon who was abusive to everyone who came ten feet within her.

The truth is she was a woman who went through the first public celebrity divorce then had to be a mogul in an industry headed by men. She had no choice but to harden up. Did she make mistakes? Absolutely. But there was no roadmap to what ground she was covering. Ground she never wanted to go over in the first place. I think that changed her and hardened her emotionally.

But unlike a lot of old Hollywood, she was very liberal as mentioned above. She was publicly pro gay rights at a time when no one was. When even people like Streisand had fag jokes in their films, Lucy spoke about her support for the gay community and mentored people like Jim Bailey. Very classy.

Thanks for that clip, R23. I love Charles Nelson Reilly interviews and had never seen that one.

I was gagging to hear Charles did a children's show with Ruta Lee, Paul Reubens, and Zelda Rubinstein. But alas, it was actually an animated feature that was part of The Flintstones show. Since they only did voiceovers, they probably never met. If they actually worked together, what stories we could have heard.

Didn't Lucy use fag as a derogative with both Desi Sr and Desi Jr?

[quote][R19], true - but she helped open him up to Hollywood stars.

No, she didn't. He was famous waaaaaaaaaaaaay before she and Desi used his services. Here's a "few" of his pre-Lucy designs.

Made it through the first disc yesterday. Pretty much the halfway point.

The teddy bear episode with Dena Dietrich was fairly decent but, again, the constant mugging for the camera by everyone involved aside from Gale Gordon.

I'd fuck the husband, though.

He'd let you.