JessiLu

@JoeySanJoaquin Breakfast recs are certainly welcome! My trip is in two weeks.

This is great. Thanks so much, @JoeySanJoaquin!

Hey guys! I'm finally making it out to Los Angeles for the first time, in August. I really would love to hit a few "Lucy" spots. Any ideas? For instance, anyone know if you can easily drive past Lucy's old house in Roxbury Drive, if any of the restaurants Lucy used to frequent are still open, where Lucy and/or Desi's stars on the Hall of Fame are located, etc. Just looking for some ideas like that. I definitely won't be able to hit everything (hubby is coming with me!) but thought I'd start here for some ideas and see if anyone has ever planned an LA trip with Lucy tourism in mind.

Looks like Kevin Bacon owns miniature ponies named Lucy and Desi Jr. : https://www.instagram.com/p/CILs6SNHTlx/

I just took a listen. I thought the second interviewer was unnecessarily rude to Desi at the end. All of a sudden the line of questioning became slightly hostile and Desi seemed to take it with as much grace as probably would have been possible in that situation. There are other ways to get at some of those answers without asking the questions in the way he did. What a bad interviewer.

Looking back through some of the old photos. Any idea when/where this was?

Great photo! This is one of those rare times where I can see Cleo’s resemblance to Lucy. Was this from one of the Desilu picnics?

OMG! These are PRICELESS. Thanks so much for posting.

Didn't realize that rumor started in the 50s. Figured it came later. Interesting!

Yet another Lucy mystery! Thanks for the info.

I think it was probably a mixture of a bruised ego and sadness. Totally agree about ILL being their showbiz baby, and Desi was probably more sentimental about it in later years. Plus ILL was the only thing most people remembered him for career-wise, so he may have been even more protective of it for that reason. Regarding feeling bad for her, Eddie's bit mostly made fun of Desi, finishing with saying something extremely raunchy. So, Desi probably felt personally attacked. (I can PM you the clip if you're interested, but don't want to post a link to something that crass here.) Found another quote from Lucy in which she expresses her disapproval: She was insulted by the recent Eddie Murphy and Buddy Hackett specials on HBO: ''Inexcusable. Why should we glorify that by watching it. How can we stop it? It's making money, and as long as they're making a buck they don't seem to care. Nobody cares anymore!'' She throws up her arms in mock surrender. https://www.csmonitor.com/1984/0516/051606.html So really, I'll bet Lucy is speaking out against Eddie's special because of how it hurt Desi, rather than the other way around.

It’s a bit odd that jokes about AIDS hurt Lucy’s feelings, but not the ILL jokes. (Not that she can’t have empathy for those suffering from AIDS, but you’d think she’d take more personal offense to the latter.) I do find her comment about it not hurting Eddie Murphy’s career interesting. Tom Watson said that she told Desi, when he was upset about the comedian, that he was just a punk trying to make a name for himself. Very similar.

As always, thanks for the heads up about these Lucy-themed episodes. I agree that the Lucy/Desi post-divorce stories that were shared are absolutely priceless. It's amazing how devoted they were to each other. I feel like Desi must have been pretty out of it at the end, to get so emotional over a talk show host making disparaging comments about ILL and to keep her up for hours while dealing with his own insomnia. He was dying and his wife had already passed, so I bet Lucy felt she had to play the role of a surrogate wife so he wouldn't feel so alone. I feel like some of the most touching stories (that we've heard about) from their love story happened after they were divorced. Any guesses on the identity of the "talk show host" who said "horrendous things" about ILL? I wonder if perhaps Desi stumbled across a re-run of Eddie Murphy's 1983 stand-up show "Delirious." He says some pretty raunchy things about ILL in that show.

I skimmed through the Closer article in the checkout line the other day. One insight that was given from someone on set: Lucy would have her lunch brought to her dressing room each day so she could spend the time talking on the phone to Desi. A very interesting tidbit! Shows just how dedicated Lucy was to her dying ex-husband.

Many of the Nosotros photos have been published before, but there are definitely some here I haven't seen before.... especially the last one! I kinda assumed we had seen all of the post-divorce Lucy/Desi photos there was to see (outside of the family's private collection), but that one is great. Love it!

Nothing new here, but Fox News’ website picked up the Closer story: https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/lucille-ball-life-with-lucy-criticism

Thanks so much for tracking that excerpt down. And your above commentary pretty much tracks with what I was thinking. A few additional thoughts/reactions: - I didn't realize that Lucie and Desi, Jr. were so close. So I really enjoyed learning about that. - I also assumed that Lucy was the more violent one. Harriet's supposed story about Lucy hitting Desi over the head, knocking him out cold, and believing he was dead, also comes to mind. I can't recall if there was any act of violence from Desi that prompted that. (I should point out that the story is totally hearsay and probably shouldn't have been reported on. But I note it because it is another story out there about violence within the marriage.) I believe I read somewhere that Lucy and Desi's fights would sometimes get physical. But if it got that bad, wouldn't we have heard more about Lucy coming to the set with physical signs? Given her job, it would be hard to hide. You noted that he'd get physically violent with men but not with women. In my opinion, the "me too" moment that Paula Stewart shared in her book about her first encounter with Desi is pretty darn close. It wasn't anger-induced violence, but lust-induced (and alcohol-fueled). And it was something that shocked me a bit. I previously would've found it hard to believe that he behaved like that with strange women, because we hadn't heard any similar reports. So, with regard to Desi and violence toward Lucy or the kids, it makes me think anything's possible. One additional thought. Maybe Desi, Jr.'s commentary was vague about the type of violence (i.e. violence against objects vs. violence against human beings) because it was an editorial decision. Maybe the editors were trying to sensationalize it and make it fit better with the "adult survivors of abuse" theme. Final thought: will Lucie and/or Desi, Jr. please write a book already? So many unanswered questions in my mind. They both clearly loved their father, so things couldn't have been THAT bad. But who really knows except them.

Just came across this book on Amazon - “Wednesday’s Children: Adult Survivors of Abuse” by Suzanne Somers, featuring Desi Jr.: https://www.amazon.com.au/Wednesdays-Children-Adult-Survivors-Abuse/dp/0515111325 Product description says: “Adult survivors of abuse--including Traci Lords, Gary Crosby, Patti Davis, Angie Dickinson, and Desi Arnaz, Jr.--share their experiences of pain and recovery from physical, emotional, and sexual battering.” I know Desi dealt with drug abuse, but judging from the description, it doesn’t sound like the book addresses that kind of abuse. Seems more like the kind committed against you. Anyone come across this book before or have an idea is what it may discuss with regard to Desi?

I’ve seen the series of photos from this event, but not this particular shot. #captionthis

Quite a hat that Desi has on.

Earlier in this thread, Lucie is quoted as calling Closer a rag sheet. I guess she feels better about it, since she gave them an interview.

A new article featuring an interview with Lucie: https://www.closerweekly.com/posts/lucille-ball-and-desi-arnazs-daughter-talks-legacy-of-i-love-lucy/

I've always loved this photo:

Here are two online articles associated with this cover story: https://www.closerweekly.com/posts/lucille-balls-granddaughter-remembers-the-late-i-love-lucy-star/ https://www.closerweekly.com/posts/lucille-balls-first-husband-desi-arnaz-was-the-love-of-her-life/

Perhaps comparing her looks to Lucy, especially in the headline, made for better click bait.