Why Lucille Ball Was More Revolutionary Than You Think

[LittleRickyII]

. . . Lucy Loungers excluded, of course.  One minor beef with this article:  It amazes me that people still don't understand the difference between race and ethnicity.  I would think that someone who takes the time to write an article like this, where Lucy and Desi's cultural differences are part of the thesis (point #5), would spend a few minutes learning the definition of race.  Only if you break the caucasian race into subraces can you possibly make the claim that they were bi-racial (or bi-subracial), although there is a lot of ambiguity and disagreement over the delineation of caucasians into subraces.  The only thing you can say with certainty is that they were the first couple on TV from different ethic groups.  While still groundbreaking, I think the Willises on The Jeffersons were the first truly bi-racial TV couple.  And that was possibly a bigger groundbreaker.

 

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/26/lucille-ball-revolutionary_n_7138476.html

 

You probably love Lucy.

Since "I Love Lucy" premiered in 1951, star Lucille Ball has been one of America's most worshipped performers. Long after the show went off the air, new generations continue to discover her hilarity in syndicated "I Love Lucy" episodes.

But while most know Ball paved the way for future women in comedy, they may not understand the exact magnitude of her influence on Hollywood. More than 60 years after "I Love Lucy" began, the ramifications of Ball's groundbreaking strides are still hugely present in the television industry.

To commemorate the star on the anniversary of her death on April 26, 1989, The Huffington Post compiled some of the ways Ball revolutionized American entertainment.

1. "I Love Lucy" broke barriers with its depiction of pregnancy 

Though "I Love Lucy" was not the very first TV show to feature a pregnancy, it was an early one, and broke barriers with the huge success of the storyline. In fact, the episode in which Lucy gives birth to Little Ricky aired the day before President Eisenhower's inauguration, and drew substantially more viewers than his swearing-in.

Though the American public was obviously ready for the pregnancy arc, it still existed in a time of very different moral standards for television. Lucy's character was pregnant, but the show couldn't actually say the word "pregnant" because, according to site The AV Club, "CBS deemed [it] too vulgar." Executives reportedly called for a priest, minister and rabbi to approve the scripts before they gave permission for the storyline to air.

2. Lucille Ball was not only a TV star. She had major power behind the scenes.

It's no secret that Ball was one of the first comic female leads on television. But the weight of her power in the industry may be lost on current viewers. Ball not only starred in "I Love Lucy," but co-owned its production company, Desilu, with her husband Desi Arnaz. The company -- which produced other hits during Ball and Arnaz's co-ownership, including "The Ann Sothern Show" and "The Untouchables" -- laid the groundwork for the invention of syndication, and was a catalyst for moving American television production from New York to LA.

Other indicators of Ball's iconic status? She appeared on the first-ever cover of TV Guide in 1953 and "I Love Lucy" finished its series run at No. 1 in the Nielsen ratings.

3. Lucille Ball was the first woman to run her own production company

After the "I Love Lucy" era of Desilu, and the divorce of Ball and Arnaz, Ball ended upbuying Arnaz out of the company. With this move, she became the first female head of a major production company. While Ball was at the helm, the company produced hits like "Star Trek" and "Mission Impossible."

4. Ethel and Lucy's female friendship was way ahead of its time

Though we now live in a "Broad City" era, it was only in recent history that television began to increase its representation of realistic female friendships. But on "I Love Lucy," Ethel and Lucy were constantly getting up to their own adventures, without falling into Hollywood's ugliest tropes about women friend pairs. As Rookie magazine writes:

But even though it was sometimes Lucy and Ethel versus the world (or just Ricky and Fred), they always cooperated with each other. They were around the same age, from similar economic backgrounds, and were both happily married. Their relationship existed on an essentially even playing field, so stereotypical female competitiveness plots -- over men or status -- never entered the picture. Whether they were snooping, spying, scheming, or going on wild adventures, their relationship was a source of constant mutual support. (In that respect, Lucy and Ethel’s escapades often passed the Bechdel Test before it even existed.)

5. Lucille Ball had to fight the network to portray Lucy and Ricky's interracial marriage 

While Lucy and Ricky's relationship on "I Love Lucy," played by the then-real life couple Ball and Arnaz, is arguably the most important relationship in the show, Ball had to fight the network to get Arnaz the role of her husband.

"CBS and its sponsor, Philip Morris cigarettes, were adamantly opposed to this," Kathleen Brady, author of Lucille: The Life of Lucille Ball, told NPR. "They said that the American public would not accept Desi as the husband of a red-blooded American girl."

According to Brady, Ball told CBS she wouldn't do the show without Arnaz, and they eventually gave in.

***

It feels inevitable that "Lucy" will remain an integral part of the American TV landscape. Hopefully, the depth of Ball's contributions to the medium can also be a part of that legacy.

[Freddie2]

The only one on here I've never heard mentioned before was the Lucy/Ethel relationship, and I'm still not 100% sure how it was the first 'real' female friendship. One thing I never hear about is how close Lucy and Ricky were. If you showed me Burns and Allen for the first time I would not guess that those two were married. Lucy and Desi were incredibly close to the point of a little awkwardness because you feel like you're looking in on a very intimate moment from a real couple.

[C L A U D E]

The only one on here I've never heard mentioned before was the Lucy/Ethel relationship, and I'm still not 100% sure how it was the first 'real' female friendship. One thing I never hear about is how close Lucy and Ricky were. If you showed me Burns and Allen for the first time I would not guess that those two were married. Lucy and Desi were incredibly close to the point of a little awkwardness because you feel like you're looking in on a very intimate moment from a real couple.

Of course it wasn't, they probably meant the one that had the most impact though.  I agree with you about Desi, which is certainly a great thing now though as Latinos represent such a huge proportion of the population.

[leenorman]

Of course it wasn't, they probably meant the one that had the most impact though.  I agree with you about Desi, which is certainly a great thing now though as Latinos represent such a huge proportion of the population.

 

Let's be CLEAR, NOW:

 

Hate to throw a 'monkeywrench' into all this inter- bi- and other racial matters, and TERMS; but, I believe any CAUCASIAN would be hard-pressed to go back three or four generations and NOT find other-racial into their long-held believe they are white.......

[LittleRickyII]

Let's be CLEAR, NOW:

 

Hate to throw a 'monkeywrench' into all this inter- bi- and other racial matters, and TERMS; but, I believe any CAUCASIAN would be hard-pressed to go back three or four generations and NOT find other-racial into their long-held believe they are white.......

 

Caucasian and "white" are not synonymous. Indians and Pakistanis are Caucasian, but I wouldn't call them white.

[leenorman]

Caucasian and "white" are not synonymous. Indians and Pakistanis are Caucasian, but I wouldn't call them white.

 

 

Are you positive about that, love? 

 

I'm going to go into one of my surveys I take (just to clear my head on a busy chronology-loaded day - EVERY!!!!) and in each survey, as a pre-requisite to taking the survey, is a listing of races, for the survey folks to lump it's survey takers into - I ALWAYS click on Caucasian/White. 

 

 I shall copy the list and re-print it here; then, we can 'haggle'....Loving you, JK

[LittleRickyII]

Are you positive about that, love? 

 

I'm going to go into one of my surveys I take (just to clear my head on a busy chronology-loaded day - EVERY!!!!) and in each survey, as a pre-requisite to taking the survey, is a listing of races, for the survey folks to lump it's survey takers into - I ALWAYS click on Caucasian/White. 

 

 I shall copy the list and re-print it here; then, we can 'haggle'....Loving you, JK

 

 

That's a good point.  It's complicated, I guess.  Government creates its own classifications for its own purposes, which may conflict with anthropologists who aren't entirely in agreement with each other.  And they don't necessarily see things as strictly as biologists might, whose focus is on DNA similarities.  I think the most basic delineation between the major race groups has to do with skull and facial features, not pigment, which has more to do with evolutionary climate adaptation.

 

That said, the census, like you indicate, says this:

 

White. A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa. It includes people who indicate their race as "White" or report entries such as Irish, German, Italian, Lebanese, Arab, Moroccan, or Caucasian.

 

http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/meta/long_RHI125213.htm

 

I think the term "white" as a race classification might throw some people because some think of white in terms of a nordic-type person.  But this definition is probably closest to a biologist definition, although they have Asian Indians and Pakistanis classified as Asian.  Geographically, yes, they're in Asia, but they are more genetically related to Europeans than, say, Japanese.  And American Indians are genetically Asian.

 

The word Caucasian, incidentally, comes from Caucasus, as in the Caucasus Region (and Caucasus mountains), which divides Europe and Asia and includes the nations of Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, parts of Russia, with Turkey nearby.  So I guess it is sort of ground zero for this race classification.

 

But as for Desi, under any of these definitions, he falls under the same "race" definition as Lucy.  They were different cultures and different ethnicities, but the same race. I'm not diminishing the significance of their "mixed" marriage in the '50s.  There were bigots, I'm sure, who had a problem even with that.  "He was difernt."  But I don't know that I can say that it was as groundbreaking as Helen and Tom Willis on The Jeffersons. From what I understand, executives at CBS, before the I Love Lucy went on the air, were worried the public might be upset by the Ricardos' mixed marriage.  But was there actually any fallout?  I've never heard that there was.  But I think CBS did get a lot of letters in the '70s about the Willis's on The Jeffersons.

 

By the way, here's an interesting (and long) discussion on racial classifications.  Yes, it's complicated.

http://www.academia.edu/831938/The_concept_of_race_in_anthropology

[Luvsbway]

And the Star Trek kiss is noted as the first interracial kiss on TV.

[leenorman]

That's a good point.  It's complicated, I guess.  Government creates its own classifications for its own purposes, which may conflict with anthropologists who aren't entirely in agreement with each other.  And they don't necessarily see things as strictly as biologists might, whose focus is on DNA similarities.  I think the most basic delineation between the major race groups has to do with skull and facial features, not pigment, which has more to do with evolutionary climate adaptation.

 

That said, the census, like you indicate, says this:

 

White. A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa. It includes people who indicate their race as "White" or report entries such as Irish, German, Italian, Lebanese, Arab, Moroccan, or Caucasian.

 

http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/meta/long_RHI125213.htm

 

I think the term "white" as a race classification might throw some people because some think of white in terms of a nordic-type person.  But this definition is probably closest to a biologist definition, although they have Asian Indians and Pakistanis classified as Asian.  Geographically, yes, they're in Asia, but they are more genetically related to Europeans than, say, Japanese.  And American Indians are genetically Asian.

 

The word Caucasian, incidentally, comes from Caucasus, as in the Caucasus Region (and Caucasus mountains), which divides Europe and Asia and includes the nations of Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, parts of Russia, with Turkey nearby.  So I guess it is sort of ground zero for this race classification.

 

But as for Desi, under any of these definitions, he falls under the same "race" definition as Lucy.  They were different cultures and different ethnicities, but the same race. I'm not diminishing the significance of their "mixed" marriage in the '50s.  There were bigots, I'm sure, who had a problem even with that.  "He was difernt."  But I don't know that I can say that it was as groundbreaking as Helen and Tom Willis on The Jeffersons. From what I understand, executives at CBS, before the I Love Lucy went on the air, were worried the public might be upset by the Ricardos' mixed marriage.  But was there actually any fallout?  I've never heard that there was.  But I think CBS did get a lot of letters in the '70s about the Willis's on The Jeffersons.

 

By the way, here's an interesting (and long) discussion on racial classifications.  Yes, it's complicated.

http://www.academia.edu/831938/The_concept_of_race_in_anthropology

 

 

Thanks SO MUCH for this extremely enlightening delineation of races; something so many of us have no idea about; so, I'm lying when I call myself 'white'/Caucasian, when my great-grandmother on my father's side was Native American Indian because I believe (her mother) married a Silvernail; but, don't know great-great-grandmother's  maiden name, and she doesn't have that classic Native American 'look';  (and even THAT was mixed; since my great-grandfather, ('white') was a Penhollow, which sounds something Native American to me!!!!  Needless to say, THAT wasn't spoken about when I was growing up!  I found some pictures in my aunt (Dad's sister) house after she had passed that gave me photos I'd NEVER seen growing up of my grandparents; their parents, and their grandparents - WOW did I ever love that.  Didn't even know that had photo capabilities that far back - early 1800's!; but, they did....

 

In ANY EVENT, I truly enjoyed reading this incredibly complicated ethnic 'structuring' you have listed above, and thanks for posting it.  Loving you, JK

[leenorman]

Just reading over this 'white' business once more, noticed something left out of 'white'....

 

I've always thought of myself as English, Scotch-Irish, and tiny bit of Swedish, on mother/dad's side(s);  Here's what you had listed:

 

"White. A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa. It includes people who indicate their race as "White" or report entries such as Irish, German, Italian, Lebanese, Arab, Moroccan, or Caucasian."

[LittleRickyII]

Thanks SO MUCH for this extremely enlightening delineation of races; something so many of us have no idea about; so, I'm lying when I call myself 'white'/Caucasian, when my great-grandmother on my father's side was Native American Indian because I believe (her mother) married a Silvernail; but, don't know great-great-grandmother's  maiden name, and she doesn't have that classic Native American 'look';  (and even THAT was mixed; since my great-grandfather, ('white') was a Penhollow, which sounds something Native American to me!!!!  Needless to say, THAT wasn't spoken about when I was growing up!

 

 

I'm sorry I got so long-winded, but I hope it was helpful.  I'm a bit jealous of your Native American background.  I think that's so cool.  You can rightfully claim to have original roots in these lands.  To my knowledge, all my ancestors came from Europe.  I've done a fair amount of research on my genealogy and haven't come across anyone non-European.  But the branches go in so many different directions, it's impossible to know for sure.  One of these days I'd like to have a DNA test done.  I hope I'm surprised!

 

 

I found some pictures in my aunt (Dad's sister) house after she had passed that gave me photos I'd NEVER seen growing up of my grandparents; their parents, and their grandparents - WOW did I ever love that.  Didn't even know that had photo capabilities that far back - early 1800's!; but, they did....

 

That's incredible that your family has photographs that old!  If they're from the early 1800s, they have to be daguerreotypes, which was the earliest form of photography and involved silver-plated copper.  That process only dates to 1839, so I'm guessing your photographs may date to somewhere around the 1840s?  The oldest photographs I've seen of anyone from my family only go back to the 1860s, around the end of the Civil War.

 

Just reading over this 'white' business once more, noticed something left out of 'white'....

 

I've always thought of myself as English, Scotch-Irish, and tiny bit of Swedish, on mother/dad's side(s);  Here's what you had listed:

 

"White. A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa. It includes people who indicate their race as "White" or report entries such as Irish, German, Italian, Lebanese, Arab, Moroccan, or Caucasian."

 

Now that's the Census Bureau definition.  According to that, you're pretty white!  But then you also have that touch of Native American, which anthropologists would point to as having a bit of Asian blood.

[leenorman]

Pocahantas married a second time; to John Rolfe (my maiden name is Rolph); so, I'm of her lineage, as well, so I'm told.  If I ever get this chronology done,

 

I shall delve further into ancestry.com;  We also have a wonderful source here in Jamestown that I have a friend who says is a great one, The Fenton Historical Center, he has been investigating his geneology back to the 1600's at this point, on one side of his family.

 

My mother's side, the WING/SHEPARD clan were first inhabitants of Busti, NY; and Mehitabell Wing married one of the Prendergasts,-  William, I believe; so long history here in this area for at least 4 generations back, Chautauqua County.

[LittleRickyII]

Pocahantas married a second time; to John Rolfe (my maiden name is Rolph); so, I'm of her lineage, as well, so I'm told.  If I ever get this chronology done,

 

Pocahantas?  That is so cool!

 

Pocahantas married a second time; to John Rolfe (my maiden name is Rolph); so, I'm of her lineage, as well, so I'm told.  If I ever get this chronology done,

 

I shall delve further into ancestry.com;  We also have a wonderful source here in Jamestown that I have a friend who says is a great one, The Fenton Historical Center, he has been investigating his geneology back to the 1600's at this point, on one side of his family.

 

My mother's side, the WING/SHEPARD clan were first inhabitants of Busti, NY; and Mehitabell Wing married one of the Prendergasts,-  William, I believe; so long history here in this area for at least 4 generations back, Chautauqua County.

 

My family, on both sides, also were here pre-Revolutionary War.  From my maternal grandfather's family is a lineage that traces back to France and were French Huguenots who were among the founders of Charleston, SC, settling there in the late 1600s.  But I actually envy some of the more recent arrivals who have more of a connection to their native homeland and can find relatives abroad.  All my folks have been here so long, any possible relatives in Europe would be super distant.  But it's still interesting knowing we have this long history here.  I think Ms. Ball's family also came over very, very early.  She claimed to be related to George Washington on his mother's side (Mary Ball Washington).

[leenorman]

Thanks for sharing, wonderful stuff!!!!

[Lucyilove]

Let's be CLEAR, NOW:

 

Hate to throw a 'monkeywrench' into all this inter- bi- and other racial matters, and TERMS; but, I believe any CAUCASIAN would be hard-pressed to go back three or four generations and NOT find other-racial into their long-held believe they are white.......

 

I completely agree and let's face there is no way in hell Lucy and Desi would have been accepted by the general public of the 1950's if they were considered an "interracial" couple in that era.  It's really not been but since the late 1970's or so that Latinos as a group have been considered in America as "non-white" to many.  There never was any controversy over caucasian Latinos and other caucasians dating or marrying back then, think of all the Latino stars who regularly played opposite non-Latinos in romantic roles in movies in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s - Dolores Del Rio, Ricardo Montalban, Cesar Romero, Lupe Velez, Ramon Novarro, Fernando Lamas, et al.  I think the real issue (and it was pretty slight given they didn't fight it) with CBS and the possible casting of Desi was he may have been hard for the general public to understand with his accent (and the show did of course play on that)  and he was just plain and simple a conspicious "foreigner" and the same concern might have popped up had he been French, Italian, Swedish, whatever, and with a strong accent and international personality in the WASP world of "All American" family sitcoms. 

[C L A U D E]

I completely agree and let's face there is no way in hell Lucy and Desi would have been accepted by the general public of the 1950's if they were considered an "interracial" couple in that era.  It's really not been but since the late 1970's or so that Latinos as a group have been considered in America as "non-white" to many.  There never was any controversy over caucasian Latinos and other caucasians dating or marrying back then, think of all the Latino stars who regularly played opposite non-Latinos in romantic roles in movies in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s - Dolores Del Rio, Ricardo Montalban, Cesar Romero, Lupe Velez, Ramon Novarro, Fernando Lamas, et al.  I think the real issue (and it was pretty slight given they didn't fight it) with CBS and the possible casting of Desi was he may have been hard for the general public to understand with his accent (and the show did of course play on that)  and he was just plain and simple a conspicious "foreigner" and the same concern might have popped up had he been French, Italian, Swedish, whatever, and with a strong accent and international personality in the WASP world of "All American" family sitcoms. 

Very well said, thank you.

[LittleRickyII]

I think the real issue (and it was pretty slight given they didn't fight it) with CBS and the possible casting of Desi was he may have been hard for the general public to understand with his accent (and the show did of course play on that)  and he was just plain and simple a conspicious "foreigner" and the same concern might have popped up had he been French, Italian, Swedish, whatever, and with a strong accent and international personality in the WASP world of "All American" family sitcoms. 

 

Is it possible that initially the show was intended to be even closer to the format of My Favorite Husband, and the idea of Desi Arnaz playing a banker didn't make sense to CBS?  I'm sure you can find many Latinos running banks in this country today, but not in the '50s.  Maybe that was part of the issue, so by the time the pilot was put together, they had transformed the character to something closer to what Desi Arnaz was in real life: a bandleader.  I don't know, I'm just guessing here.

[C L A U D E]

Is it possible that initially the show was intended to be even closer to the format of My Favorite Husband, and the idea of Desi Arnaz playing a banker didn't make sense to CBS?  I'm sure you can find many Latinos running banks in this country today, but not in the '50s.  Maybe that was part of the issue, so by the time the pilot was put together, they had transformed the character to something closer to what Desi Arnaz was in real life: a bandleader.  I don't know, I'm just guessing here.

That's EXACTLY what it was, Richard Denning on Husband played this typical American banker and nobody could see Desi doing that.  I'm sure you've heard Lucy telling the story that CBS wanted a typical American . . .