C L A U D E Posted September 5, 2012 Report Share Posted September 5, 2012 Alcohol actually does dry out and dehydrate your vocal chords. I sing with a choir, and I would never drink right before and certainly not during a performance. This doesn't mean that you can never or should never drink, but if you're a singer or a performer who uses her voice frequently, it's something to think about. But I would agree with you that the change in Lucy's voice probably had more to do with cigarettes (main culprit I think), years of speaking in an unnaturally high voice, and improper projection techniques during Wildcat and on her TV show. I dunno, my dad was an alcoholic and his voice never changed. Although you've finally answered my question as to why people always bring up Lucy having the occasional drink. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C L A U D E Posted September 5, 2012 Report Share Posted September 5, 2012 I actually kind of her like her voice in the later seasons of HL. Why did she insist on everybody projecting their lines? It was filmed in a studio with an audience that had to hear every line and some were pretty far away, Lucy performed in an era BEFORE mics were attached to every star. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C L A U D E Posted September 5, 2012 Report Share Posted September 5, 2012 Hit it right on the head! She wasn't no alcoholic, even though many people believe that to be so. I'm surprised Desi didn't lose his voice or had a change in it honestly. Good point, if that were true Desi would have sounded more like Bea Arthur. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Annaleigh Posted September 6, 2012 Report Share Posted September 6, 2012 Good point, if that were true Desi would have sounded more like Bea Arthur. As long as he didn't wear those god awful sandals Bea did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C L A U D E Posted September 6, 2012 Report Share Posted September 6, 2012 As long as he didn't wear those god awful sandals Bea did. Oh, you too? I know she had to wear those as she was so tall but still, the ugliest feet in the business. Boy could she have stomped grapes for a living. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brock Posted September 6, 2012 Report Share Posted September 6, 2012 Boy could she have stomped grapes for a living. Bacchus'll get you for that, Claude. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magster Posted September 6, 2012 Report Share Posted September 6, 2012 I dunno, my dad was an alcoholic and his voice never changed. Although you've finally answered my question as to why people always bring up Lucy having the occasional drink. I don't think alcohol in and of itself causes your voice to change. But because it does dry out your vocal chords (so, for example, if you're singing you feel raspy and like you always have to clear your throat), I think if you're someone who constantly needs to use and project your voice regular drinking could exacerbate already existing voice problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chedderchester Posted September 6, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 6, 2012 I don't think alcohol in and of itself causes your voice to change. But because it does dry out your vocal chords (so, for example, if you're singing you feel raspy and like you always have to clear your throat), I think if you're someone who constantly needs to use and project your voice regular drinking could exacerbate already existing voice problems. Yeah by 1986, she pretty much sounded like a bullfrog. Anyway, did anyone like Lucy Carmichael's season 3 wig? Or that gray pantsuit she wore a lot? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irene Kampen Tripp Posted September 6, 2012 Report Share Posted September 6, 2012 She looks/sounds best in The Lucy Show.. LOVE how she looks/sounds in that show.. Here's Lucy is at times very sad.. like it was said earlier.. sounds like she could be in pain.. also I am sure some medication she was on made her have the cotton mouth.. and that can help deepen a voice.. I don't think straight scotch or chesterfields were the only culprit but I am sure they didn't help.. she was a deep vioced woman her whole life.. Kate H told her to lower her speaking voice by four tones when they were at RKO together. I just think she no longer could push that voice up into the soprano of Lucy RicardoCarmiachael... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mmadluv7 Posted September 12, 2012 Report Share Posted September 12, 2012 She looks/sounds best in The Lucy Show.. LOVE how she looks/sounds in that show.. Here's Lucy is at times very sad.. like it was said earlier.. sounds like she could be in pain.. also I am sure some medication she was on made her have the cotton mouth.. and that can help deepen a voice.. I don't think straight scotch or chesterfields were the only culprit but I am sure they didn't help.. she was a deep vioced woman her whole life.. Kate H told her to lower her speaking voice by four tones when they were at RKO together. I just think she no longer could push that voice up into the soprano of Lucy RicardoCarmiachael... YOU ARE SO RIGHT! I noticed her voice in her early movies and she has a very very wide range, yet it was lower than Id expect it to be. Especially in the 40s. I think the movie Best Foot Forward noticed this and gave her a similiar yet low singing voice in her number "Your Lucky" or something like that. I think Lucy started that, loud yelling, wild n out projecting in the 60s, when she became comfortable with her style of performing. In ILL, her volume seems to fluctuate-sometimes she's speaking and projecting to be heard, and then other times, she's simply speaking comfortably- as appose to The Lucy Show, where she almost keeps this consistent yelling and sometimes yells even louder to override the laugher of the audience. Any time Lucy screams in any of her shows after 1965. I think after age & after wildcat (in which I can hear Lucy coughing in one of the numbers) and with the bad case of laryngitis, it deepened over time. But I think in 73-74, when she breaks her leg, she must have done a lot of drinking and smoking just chillin around the house or something lol because during this time, her voice gets deeper and more "gravily". I think it gets deeper again around LWL, maybe its from the yelling for the show, I dunno. In the LWL interview in the hardware store, her voice seems the deepest Ive ever heard it. I LOVE IT!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C L A U D E Posted September 12, 2012 Report Share Posted September 12, 2012 Bacchus'll get you for that, Claude. Sorry, but i've always had a thing about big ugly feet. And whenever you see Bea in an evening gown wearing those ugly as hell sandals, it just diminishes her appearance so. You see those humongous toes hanging over the sandals, UGH! They look like clown shoes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C L A U D E Posted September 12, 2012 Report Share Posted September 12, 2012 I don't think alcohol in and of itself causes your voice to change. But because it does dry out your vocal chords (so, for example, if you're singing you feel raspy and like you always have to clear your throat), I think if you're someone who constantly needs to use and project your voice regular drinking could exacerbate already existing voice problems. My mom had a theory about that, everytime she'd hear someone with a different strange or raspy voice, she'd say, OH THEY'RE NOT GONNA LIVE THAT LONG and sure enough, Selma Diamond and the one that replaced her on Barney Miller, Florence Halsop i think was her name and Alice Pearce on Bewitched and Judy Holiday all died young. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C L A U D E Posted September 12, 2012 Report Share Posted September 12, 2012 She looks/sounds best in The Lucy Show.. LOVE how she looks/sounds in that show.. Here's Lucy is at times very sad.. like it was said earlier.. sounds like she could be in pain.. also I am sure some medication she was on made her have the cotton mouth.. and that can help deepen a voice.. I don't think straight scotch or chesterfields were the only culprit but I am sure they didn't help.. she was a deep vioced woman her whole life.. Kate H told her to lower her speaking voice by four tones when they were at RKO together. I just think she no longer could push that voice up into the soprano of Lucy RicardoCarmiachael... Exactly, it was all Hepburn's fault, she told her to scream at the top of her lungs while driving in a convertible. she did that for years and then kept the cigarette business going for decades too, LOL! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C L A U D E Posted September 12, 2012 Report Share Posted September 12, 2012 YOU ARE SO RIGHT! I noticed her voice in her early movies and she has a very very wide range, yet it was lower than Id expect it to be. Especially in the 40s. I think the movie Best Foot Forward noticed this and gave her a similiar yet low singing voice in her number "Your Lucky" or something like that. I think Lucy started that, loud yelling, wild n out projecting in the 60s, when she became comfortable with her style of performing. In ILL, her volume seems to fluctuate-sometimes she's speaking and projecting to be heard, and then other times, she's simply speaking comfortably- as appose to The Lucy Show, where she almost keeps this consistent yelling and sometimes yells even louder to override the laugher of the audience. Any time Lucy screams in any of her shows after 1965. I think after age & after wildcat (in which I can hear Lucy coughing in one of the numbers) and with the bad case of laryngitis, it deepened over time. But I think in 73-74, when she breaks her leg, she must have done a lot of drinking and smoking just chillin around the house or something lol because during this time, her voice gets deeper and more "gravily". I think it gets deeper again around LWL, maybe its from the yelling for the show, I dunno. In the LWL interview in the hardware store, her voice seems the deepest Ive ever heard it. I LOVE IT!! It must have been the yelling out the lines on her shows because when interviewed on tv in the late eighties, her voice seemed fine. Although i have to repeat again that when i watched The Lucy Show and Here's Lucy on tv and heard her voice from I Love Lucy one day on a Lily Tomlin comedy album, i didn't even recognize it at first, it was so high that i did not remember it that way, as the show was not playing everywhere here at that time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Annaleigh Posted September 12, 2012 Report Share Posted September 12, 2012 Yeah by 1986, she pretty much sounded like a bullfrog. Anyway, did anyone like Lucy Carmichael's season 3 wig? Or that gray pantsuit she wore a lot? Yeah. She wore it a hell of a lot though!! Hahaha. Like in Lucy in London when she goes into the mod London store to buy a new outfit but yet she comes out in that gray pantsuit! Also I was watching Lucy and Micky Rooney and her wig in that episode reminds me of her HL hair. It is pretty short! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Annaleigh Posted September 12, 2012 Report Share Posted September 12, 2012 Oh, you too? I know she had to wear those as she was so tall but still, the ugliest feet in the business. Boy could she have stomped grapes for a living. She sure could've! I love me some Bea but some of those clothing choices, especially the sandals! She should've stayed with those boots at all times! Haha. Bacchus'll get you for that, Claude. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. YESSS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C L A U D E Posted September 13, 2012 Report Share Posted September 13, 2012 She sure could've! I love me some Bea but some of those clothing choices, especially the sandals! She should've stayed with those boots at all times! Haha. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. YESSS. Splain please, who the hell is that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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