Bringing the Comedy Hall of Fame to Jamestown...

[Brock]

From this article in the Boston Globe, it appears the goal of bringing the Comedy Hall of Fame to Jamestown might be a shorter range plan than originally anticipated:

 

SAUGUS - Heard the one about the guy from Las Vegas who was driving up Route 1 and thought he had found the Forbidden City?

 

The old Weylu’s, the giant Chinese restaurant built to replicate the Imperial Palace, would be a great spot for the National Comedians Hall of Fame, he thought. After all, Route 1 in Saugus has always given people a little chuckle. It has an orange dinosaur, a neon cactus, and a leaning tower of pizza. Why not add Charlie Chaplin’s hat, Austin Powers’s suit, and a Howdy Doody puppet?

 

“It’s an iconic building,’’ Matt Adragna, 52, said of the long-closed restaurant. “It just seems to be a fitting place for us.’’

 

But is he joking? Maybe Niagara Falls, that old, sweet honeymoon spot, would be a better match? Or Jamestown, N.Y., the hometown of comedy queen Lucille Ball?

 

The upstate New York cities are also in the running for the nonprofit museum proposed by Adragna and his business partner, Tony Belmont of Florida.

 

Three days after the May 11 announcement of a $50 million plan to remake the old Weylu’s into the hall of fame, Belmont made a pitch to open the museum on Main Street in Niagara Falls, according to Mayor Paul Dyson of that city.

 

“We listened to their proposal,’’ Dyson said in a telephone interview. “We told them we were interested in hearing more about it.’’

 

Jamestown officials could not be reached for comment.

 

Andrew Bisignani, town manager in Saugus, is skeptical about the proposal. The 65,000-square-foot building would be turned into exhibit space, classrooms, a 300-seat auditorium, a gift shop, and a restaurant.

 

But since the announcement was made May 11 at Weylu’s to a group of local and state officials, there has been little discussion, Bisignani said.

 

“I’m not so sure it’s a viable project,’’ he said. “I haven’t heard much since that day, except for some e-mails saying that they have offers from Buffalo, Pennsylvania, and so on. I told him, ‘Do what you have to do.’ Saugus can’t match that.’’

 

Over the past 20 or so years, Adragna and Belmont have been making the circuit, pitching the idea of a hall of fame and museum to cities across the country. A meeting in Boston six years ago went nowhere, said Adragna.

 

Buffalo, Baltimore, and Philadelphia have also been talked about. In 2007, a temporary venue, named the National Comedy Hall of Fame, opened in Madeira Beach, Fla., a tiny community near Clearwater.

 

“It was a small location that we used only as a test site for one summer,’’ Adragna said. “The response was overwhelming, but it was just too small.’’

 

The duo initially set their sights on Las Vegas, where Adragna worked as a marketing professional. “We were looking to build on the strip,’’ he said. “We had some options, but each one fell through. When the economy crashed in 2008, we decided to look elsewhere.’’

 

So Adragna rented a Dodge Neon to scout locations on the East Coast. He was headed for Maine when he spotted the deserted Chinese restaurant overlooking Route 1. “I remembered that it was Weylu’s,’’ said Adragna, whose wife is from East Boston. “It’s changed quite a bit, but the site is still beautiful.’’

 

The three-story restaurant, built at a cost of $13 million, has a troubled history. While it opened to great promise in 1989, the mammoth restaurant soon ran into trouble.

 

A stubborn recession in the early 1990s hurt business almost from the start. The restaurant fell behind on tax payments to the town, mortgage payments to the bank, and employment taxes to the state.

 

The Bank of China eventually foreclosed, and founder Rick Chang pleaded guilty to 19 counts of failing to make employer tax contributions. He was sentenced to 20 days in jail. Weylu’s closed in 1998, after the bankruptcy court ordered it liquidated.

 

In 2002, Bank of China sold the restaurant, which sits on 10.5 acres, to a New York-based Chinese restaurant group. Since that year, four different Asian-themed restaurants and nightclubs have opened and closed at the site.

 

Since then, once-opulent Weylu’s has been like a white elephant. Broken glass, cracked plaster, and rubbish scar the inside, where patrons were once served by staff dressed in tuxedos. Outside, the giant pagoda that welcomed guests at the foot of the driveway is chipped and faded. Tall grass and cracked pavement spoils the formerly well-groomed grounds.

 

“It’s really a shame,’’ said Paul Rupp, economic development consultant for Saugus. “It was very, very high-end there. . . . It was built for a singular purpose. It’s not the type of structure that just anything could go in there.’’

 

Adragna said he has signed a purchase-and-sale agreement to buy the property for $6.5 million from Golden Mountain LLC of New York, the current owner. The town assesses the value of the restaurant and land at $2.5 million, according to town records.

 

Golden Mountain also owes the town $181,000 in real estate taxes and in fees owed to the Fire Department for providing a fire watch after a series of false alarms, said Wendy Hatch, the town accountant.

 

James Mao, a representative of Golden Mountain LLC, declined to comment when contacted by the Globe. He said he is not an owner, only a representative of them.

 

Adragna said the property needs a new roof, estimated to cost more than $150,000. That has become a sticking point in negotiations, he said.

 

“We had to renegotiate the pricing because of the roof,’’ Adragna said. “The insulation is wet, and the wood is rotting. It can’t be repaired; it must be replaced.’’

 

And then, of course, there are the talks with Niagara Falls and Jamestown.

 

“We do have a very attractive offer from the city of Niagara Falls,’’ Adragna said. “It’s an offer, but it hasn’t been agreed to.’’

 

But Dyson, the Niagara Falls mayor, said the city has made no offer of financial assistance. He and other officials did provide Adragna and Belmont with letters of intent stating their interest in working with them, he said.

 

“We basically just said it’s an interesting idea that we’ll talk to them about,’’ Dyson said.

 

Their proposal calls for the city of Niagara Falls to purchase a building on Main Street, transform it into a museum, and lease it to the National Comedy Hall of Fame for five years, Dyson said.

 

After five years, the museum would be turned over to the city, he added.

 

Dyson said he would look at a feasibility study or business plan, but added, “We have no interest and are in no position to run a Comedy Hall of Fame.’’

 

Saugus - where finances are so tight that voters had to approve a one-time tax increase to pay last winter’s $1 million snow removal deficit - has not been approached about financing the attraction, Bisignani said.

 

“We are not in any sort of position to pledge any kind of financial resources,’’ he said.

 

The nonprofit Comedy Hall of Fame Inc. was formed in Florida. Adragna and Belmont also registered the names National Comedians Hall of Fame and the National Comedy Hall of Fame, Florida public records show.

 

The nonprofit says it has thousands of pieces of comedy memorabilia stored in a Florida warehouse, just waiting to be laughed at. Minnie Pearl was the first star inducted into the hall, during a ceremony in Nashville in 1994 attended by George H.W. Bush, the former president, Adragna said.

 

Since then, A-list comedians, including Carol Burnett and Bill Cosby, have been inducted, along with legends such as Lucille Ball and Jonathan Winters, he added.

 

“Our collection is estimated in the multimillion-dollar range,’’ Adragna said, adding that they recently acquired new items in an auction by singer Debbie Reynolds.

 

But finding a permanent home has not been easy. Investors will not give money until a site is acquired, he said. Banks want to see solid backing before loaning money. Their website - www.comedianshalloffame.org, which shows a picture of the old Weylu’s with an opening date of 2012 - asks comedy fans to make donations to a building campaign.

 

Adragna is also trying to sell corporate sponsorships, but that effort has hit a snag. A brochure for the Saugus site listed Bank of America and Verizon Wireless as sponsors, but spokesmen for each company said the firms are not sponsors and asked that their logos be removed.

 

Adragna said the logos have been removed. “It was a mistake on my part,’’ he said. “We had received some small grant money from a Bank of America branch in Las Vegas and a Verizon store there.

 

“I thought we could use the logos. Once they told us not to use them, I stopped.’’

 

He said he is now focused on finding a fitting spot for his hall of fame.

 

“I like the Weylu’s building a lot,’’ Adragna said, adding that he recently moved to Boston. “I want to get this deal done. I don’t care if people laugh at me. It’s a viable concept.’’

 

Kathy McCabe can be reached at kmccabe@globe.com.

© Copyright 2011 Globe Newspaper Company.

 

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2011/07/10/the_goal_is_comedians_hall_of_fame_on_route_1/?page=full

[jab5983]

From this article in the Boston Globe, it appears the goal of bringing the Comedy Hall of Fame to Jamestown might be a shorter range plan than originally anticipated:

 

 

 

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2011/07/10/the_goal_is_comedians_hall_of_fame_on_route_1/?page=full

 

sounds like jamestown is not the top choice! what a suprise!

[C L A U D E]

sounds like jamestown is not the top choice! what a suprise!

Well, Jamestown's not exactly Philadelphia, it's more Secaucus, Pismo Beach or Cucamunga.

[Brock]

sounds like jamestown is not the top choice! what a suprise!

 

 

Your Jamestown axe must be pretty thin by now at the rate you've been griding it. LOL

[C L A U D E]

Your Jamestown axe must be pretty thin by now at the rate you've been griding it. LOL

Hey, he's allowed, giving a JAB is even part of his screenname. In entertainment, everybody knows it's New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and then Jamestown, right?

[JoeySanJoaquin]

This article about the festival surprisingly/happily appeared in today's (Sunday, July 10) LA Times.

Enjoy!

 

Lucille Ball museum: Where you can love Lucy all over again.

 

The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Center in Jamestown, N.Y., draws fans of all ages. They also stop at the house where she grew up and at her gravesite.

 

By Jay Jones

Special to the Los Angeles Times

 

Reporting from Jamestown, N.Y. —— Even though she was born 100 years ago next month and her mega-hit TV show premiered 60 years ago this October, there remains a single truth about Lucille Ball: We still love Lucy.

 

"I Love Lucy" is in black and white, and the fashions are outdated, but the show continues to air in 80 countries and has been dubbed in 21 languages. Her fans are multigenerational.

"My daughter is 15 and she just loves it," said Ginger Atkins, whose husband, Scott, treated her to a trip to Jamestown — Ball's hometown — for their 23rd anniversary.

 

"I've just been a Lucy fan all my life," Atkins of Fort Wayne, Ind., said as the couple recalled their favorite episodes while touring the Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Center in downtown Jamestown, a community of 30,000 about 90 minutes south of Buffalo.

 

Lucy fans make the trip year-round to western New York state to pay homage to the woman Atkins called "the queen ofcomedy."

 

Besides reminiscing about Ball's showbiz career, the faithful also visit the house where she grew up and the Ball family gravesite.

 

The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Center operates two side-by-side museums, one devoted to "I Love Lucy" and the other to the rest of her entertainment career. Of course, the sitcom side, known as the Desilu Playhouse, draws the most attention — and chuckles.

 

"The center's mission is to promote the healing power of love and laughter," head tour guide Susan Ewing said as she stood in front of a display of 20 "TV Guide" covers, all featuring the remarkable redhead.

 

Ewing loves to tell guests about Jamestown's biggest star, the girl who dropped out of high school to pursue an acting career.

 

"She was just thrilled by show business. She was captivated by vaudeville," Ewing said, adding that Lucy's mom, Desiree "DeDe" Ball, paid for her to move to New York City to attend acting school.

 

"[The teachers] said she had no talent," Ewing said. "[They even asked,] 'Why would you waste your money on this kid?'"

 

The TV monitors scattered throughout the Desilu Playhouse prove otherwise as they show clips from one of the most successful TV shows of all time.

 

"I thought that 'I Love Lucy' was a pleasant little situation comedy that might even survive its first season," Ball wrote in her memoir, "Love, Lucy." That, of course, was the ultimate understatement.

 

On Jan. 20, 1953, 29 million Americans tuned in to watch the inauguration of President Dwight Eisenhower. That number paled in comparison with the viewing figure the previous evening for "I Love Lucy," when 40 million Americans were glued to their sets for the episode in which Lucy — who was, in real life, pregnant with Desi Jr. — gave birth to the fictional Little Ricky.

 

The Manhattan apartment in which the Ricky and Lucy Ricardo characters lived after the birth of their television son is intricately re-created inside the Desilu Playhouse. Hollywood prop houses were scoured to find replicas of the furniture and even the kitchen appliances. When none could be found, the museum — which opened in 1996 — had replicas made.

 

Visitors can test their own comedic skills in an interactive exhibit featuring the famous episode in which Lucy gets a job filming a commercial for an alcohol-laced tonic called Vitameatavegamin. With the script and a real TV camera in front of them, guests can test-run the tongue twister that left Lucy fans in fits.

 

"Do you poop out at parties? Are you un-poopular?" amateurs ask, re-creating the line recited by the apparently drunk Lucy.

 

The modest two-story house where Ball grew up isn't open to the public, but visitors frequently pose for pictures in front of it.

It's at what is now 59 Lucy Lane in neighboring Celoron, a short walk from the park where the teenage Lucy sold hamburgers and hot dogs.

 

Ball, who died in 1989, was originally interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in the Hollywood Hills, but her remains are now buried with those of her mother and other family members in Jamestown's Lake View Cemetery.

 

Employees at the gatehouse regularly direct people to the family plot. It's marked by a large granite headstone on which, in the style of the famous TV show's opening credits, the name "Ball" is scripted inside a large heart.

 

travel@latimes.com

Copyright © 2011, Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.c...0,1474784.story

 

 

 

 

 

[C L A U D E]

This article about the festival surprisingly/happily appeared in today's (Sunday, July 10) LA Times.

Enjoy!

 

Lucille Ball museum: Where you can love Lucy all over again.

 

The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Center in Jamestown, N.Y., draws fans of all ages. They also stop at the house where she grew up and at her gravesite.

 

By Jay Jones

Special to the Los Angeles Times

 

Reporting from Jamestown, N.Y. —— Even though she was born 100 years ago next month and her mega-hit TV show premiered 60 years ago this October, there remains a single truth about Lucille Ball: We still love Lucy.

 

"I Love Lucy" is in black and white, and the fashions are outdated, but the show continues to air in 80 countries and has been dubbed in 21 languages. Her fans are multigenerational.

"My daughter is 15 and she just loves it," said Ginger Atkins, whose husband, Scott, treated her to a trip to Jamestown — Ball's hometown — for their 23rd anniversary.

 

"I've just been a Lucy fan all my life," Atkins of Fort Wayne, Ind., said as the couple recalled their favorite episodes while touring the Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Center in downtown Jamestown, a community of 30,000 about 90 minutes south of Buffalo.

 

Lucy fans make the trip year-round to western New York state to pay homage to the woman Atkins called "the queen ofcomedy."

 

Besides reminiscing about Ball's showbiz career, the faithful also visit the house where she grew up and the Ball family gravesite.

 

The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Center operates two side-by-side museums, one devoted to "I Love Lucy" and the other to the rest of her entertainment career. Of course, the sitcom side, known as the Desilu Playhouse, draws the most attention — and chuckles.

 

"The center's mission is to promote the healing power of love and laughter," head tour guide Susan Ewing said as she stood in front of a display of 20 "TV Guide" covers, all featuring the remarkable redhead.

 

Ewing loves to tell guests about Jamestown's biggest star, the girl who dropped out of high school to pursue an acting career.

 

"She was just thrilled by show business. She was captivated by vaudeville," Ewing said, adding that Lucy's mom, Desiree "DeDe" Ball, paid for her to move to New York City to attend acting school.

 

"[The teachers] said she had no talent," Ewing said. "[They even asked,] 'Why would you waste your money on this kid?'"

 

The TV monitors scattered throughout the Desilu Playhouse prove otherwise as they show clips from one of the most successful TV shows of all time.

 

"I thought that 'I Love Lucy' was a pleasant little situation comedy that might even survive its first season," Ball wrote in her memoir, "Love, Lucy." That, of course, was the ultimate understatement.

 

On Jan. 20, 1953, 29 million Americans tuned in to watch the inauguration of President Dwight Eisenhower. That number paled in comparison with the viewing figure the previous evening for "I Love Lucy," when 40 million Americans were glued to their sets for the episode in which Lucy — who was, in real life, pregnant with Desi Jr. — gave birth to the fictional Little Ricky.

 

The Manhattan apartment in which the Ricky and Lucy Ricardo characters lived after the birth of their television son is intricately re-created inside the Desilu Playhouse. Hollywood prop houses were scoured to find replicas of the furniture and even the kitchen appliances. When none could be found, the museum — which opened in 1996 — had replicas made.

 

Visitors can test their own comedic skills in an interactive exhibit featuring the famous episode in which Lucy gets a job filming a commercial for an alcohol-laced tonic called Vitameatavegamin. With the script and a real TV camera in front of them, guests can test-run the tongue twister that left Lucy fans in fits.

 

"Do you poop out at parties? Are you un-poopular?" amateurs ask, re-creating the line recited by the apparently drunk Lucy.

 

The modest two-story house where Ball grew up isn't open to the public, but visitors frequently pose for pictures in front of it.

It's at what is now 59 Lucy Lane in neighboring Celoron, a short walk from the park where the teenage Lucy sold hamburgers and hot dogs.

 

Ball, who died in 1989, was originally interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in the Hollywood Hills, but her remains are now buried with those of her mother and other family members in Jamestown's Lake View Cemetery.

 

Employees at the gatehouse regularly direct people to the family plot. It's marked by a large granite headstone on which, in the style of the famous TV show's opening credits, the name "Ball" is scripted inside a large heart.

 

travel@latimes.com

Copyright © 2011, Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.c...0,1474784.story

 

 

WOW, what a GREAT article, thanks for posting it for us to see.

[JoeySanJoaquin]

Thanks!

 

 

FYI, in the newspaper version, they also included a picture of La Ball's Jamestown headstone, which even has her last name ("Ball") in a heart a la the ILL opening credits, but for some reason they didn't include it or a link in the online version, or I would have included it here.

[Brock]

At Lucie's recent show in Toronto, it sounded like a Comedy Hall of Fame at the train station was a go. I hope there is announcement about these plans in Jamestown next month.

[jab5983]

At Lucie's recent show in Toronto, it sounded like a Comedy Hall of Fame at the train station was a go. I hope there is announcement about these plans in Jamestown next month.

What is so great about this for Lucy fans?? The focus of the Lucy Desi center will totally shift to the comedy hall of fame.... why does the center keep moving the focus away from Lucille Ball and why should Lucy fans continue to support their efforts to do this? Turning the Lucy Center into a place for up and coming stand up comedians would be like graceland becoming the center for new pop/rock performers!! Soon there will not be a festival in Jamestown to celebrate Lucy. It will be turned into a comedy festival with no Lucy related events (its actually pretty close to that now) The last time I checked Lucille Ball was never a stand up comedian so why should the comedy hall of fame be in Jamestown???

[Brock]

What is so great about this for Lucy fans?? The focus of the Lucy Desi center will totally shift to the comedy hall of fame....

 

It is not a question of one or the other. The location they are proposing for the Comedy Hall of Fame is quite a distance from the Lucy-Desi Museum, Desilu Playhouse, etc.

 

The last time I checked Lucille Ball was never a stand up comedian so why should the comedy hall of fame be in Jamestown???

 

I... Nevermind. Comedy (as we all know, or else we wouldn't be here...) is not limited to stand-up.

[Taylor]

Sorry, kind of agree with Jab here. Like they said, you don't go to Graceland to see other rocks stars perform, you go to honor Elvis. I won't be making any special trips to Jamestown to see any stand-up comedians or anything of the sort, I'll be going there strictly for Lucy. That Comedy Hall of Fame thing will not be on my list of priorities to see there.

[Brock]

Sorry, kind of agree with Jab here. Like they said, you don't go to Graceland to see other rocks stars perform, you go to honor Elvis. I won't be making any special trips to Jamestown to see any stand-up comedians or anything of the sort, I'll be going there strictly for Lucy.

 

 

I'll be going strictly for Lucy as well, unless they bring in a Lucy-related stand-up like Don Rickles or something. The last thing we want is all-stand-up, all the time but my point here is that the Comedy Hall of Fame is not a "stand up comedy" hall of fame, it is all encompassing. If, for instance, this actually does happen and they have induction ceremonies of a handful of people every year, it could be a great way to ensure not just Lucy's legacy but also her colleagues. Imagine if, in its first year, they put Lucy, Desi, Viv, Bill and Gale as their first honourees but also decide to induct Betty White or Carol Burnett in there as well. That would be a great incentive to actually get them to the city and events can be built around that. I think this should be seen as a positive. But, that's just me. LOL

[Taylor]

I'll be going strictly for Lucy as well, unless they bring in a Lucy-related stand-up like Don Rickles or something. The last thing we want is all-stand-up, all the time but my point here is that the Comedy Hall of Fame is not a "stand up comedy" hall of fame, it is all encompassing. If, for instance, this actually does happen and they have induction ceremonies of a handful of people every year, it could be a great way to ensure not just Lucy's legacy but also her colleagues. Imagine if, in its first year, they put Lucy, Desi, Viv, Bill and Gale as their first honourees but also decide to induct Betty White or Carol Burnett in there as well. That would be a great incentive to actually get them to the city and events can be built around that. I think this should be seen as a positive. But, that's just me. LOL

 

Hell yeah, if they could get Carol or Betty there, 2 great friends of Lucy herself, I'd pay to see that. But please no Whitney Cummings or Dane Cook. Insulting.

[jab5983]

Hell yeah, if they could get Carol or Betty there, 2 great friends of Lucy herself, I'd pay to see that. But please no Whitney Cummings or Dane Cook. Insulting.

if it's not all about stand up comedy why is the festival full of stand up comedy performances. Good thing they got lucie arnaz to host an event because otherwise I doubt many lucy fans would be showing up in august.

 

how long will the center be able to afford to run all 3 locations? They had to sell off the gift shop recently correct?

 

just because the hall of fame will be in jamestown does not mean the induction ceremony will be there. The rock and roll hall of fame is in cleveland but the induction ceremony does not take place there.

 

plus the center has never been able to get betty white or carol to headline a festival in all these years and i'm thinking that not changing anytime soon.

 

wasn't whoppie announced as a headliner for this years festival? What happened with that?

[Brock]

I don't have the energy to respond to the rest of this right now, but...

 

They had to sell off the gift shop recently correct?

 

They closed that gift shop two years ago, presumably as there is one in the Desilu Playhouse and in the Museum. The building itself, however, was still in use by the Center during the Festival last August. Not sure if it is still owned by the Center though.

[leenorman]

It is not a question of one or the other. The location they are proposing for the Comedy Hall of Fame is quite a distance from the Lucy-Desi Museum, Desilu Playhouse, etc.

 

 

 

I... Nevermind. Comedy (as we all know, or else we wouldn't be here...) is not limited to stand-up.

 

 

LIKE TO GENTLY ADD MY TWO CENTS' WORTH:

 

Many STAND-UP Lady Comics of today credit Lucille with their success....Lucille just 'chose' the physical; THEY the flat foot method. Then, of course, there is Carol Burnett!!!! JK

[vivfantoo*]

My guess would be that this is a long term strategy to try to generate funds to keep the museums open. Internet & cable TV entertainment compete with Lucy for new fans. We know how wonderful she is, but many more do not. Without a steady & continually growing fanbase, how can the Lucy Museums survive financially unless they diversify to draw others in?

 

Like many of you, I'm only interested in Lucy related venues & guests. Someday I'll get there ...

[rappy]

Today's article in the Post Journal called Jamestown the "Cooperstown of Comedy" again. I am sorry, but Lucille Ball was not stand-up, adult humor. So the new, young generation that will be wanting to attend these festivals will not be able to attend the stand up and will therefore have to be left behind in the hotel if their parents decide to go. This is certainly not family orientated the way Lucille Ball was.

 

The new banner on the side of the Renaissance Building is a picture of Lucy and it says Lucille Ball Festival of Comedy. What the heck happened to Desi here? Then the flags are of Desi and Lucy and say Festival of comedy.

 

I believe the Center is using Lucy's name to bring a whole new business to Jamestown. They should thank their lucky "stars" that Lucie is coming to save the show. With out Lucie being there, I don't believe it would be successful. What the hell will they do next year? Perhaps they will kick another major donor in the ass and grasp at straws again....Time will tell, and I will be watching.

 

On a positive note, 59lucylane.com will be open Wednesday through Sunday for it's 2nd big garage sale! It will be huge! Stop by for lots of Lucy merchandise priced for garage sale deals. Old and new stuff!!

[MONALISAISMONALUCY]

They should celebrate Lucy's legacy to situational comedy shows rather than stand up comedy.

[rappy]

This article was in the Buffalo News today. THE center will not be giving Tours of Lucy's Homes...Not today, not ever!

 

There is much more to the festival: bus tours, themed lunches and dinners in the re-created Tropicana Room, comedy workshops, book signings, tours of Lucy's former homes and the family's cemetery plots, and at the Friday and Saturday Party in the Plaza events, starting at 11 a.m., grape stomping, candy wrapping and Lucy trivia contests.

 

It's also a good time to visit the Lucy-Desi Museum, 10 W. Third St.

 

Many events are free. For tickets to the shows, and for everything else you need to know about Lucy Fest, go to lucycomedyfest.com.

[Brock]

This article was in the Buffalo News today. THE center will not be giving Tours of Lucy's Homes...Not today, not ever!

 

The Buffalo News said that? Wow. Hey, look on the bright side -- it might bring more traffic to the Lucy Lane garage sale!

[rappy]

The Buffalo News said that? Wow. Hey, look on the bright side -- it might bring more traffic to the Lucy Lane garage sale!

Too funny Brock. Let's hope so:)

[jab5983]

Today's article in the Post Journal called Jamestown the "Cooperstown of Comedy" again. I am sorry, but Lucille Ball was not stand-up, adult humor. So the new, young generation that will be wanting to attend these festivals will not be able to attend the stand up and will therefore have to be left behind in the hotel if their parents decide to go. This is certainly not family orientated the way Lucille Ball was.

 

The new banner on the side of the Renaissance Building is a picture of Lucy and it says Lucille Ball Festival of Comedy. What the heck happened to Desi here? Then the flags are of Desi and Lucy and say Festival of comedy.

 

I believe the Center is using Lucy's name to bring a whole new business to Jamestown. They should thank their lucky "stars" that Lucie is coming to save the show. With out Lucie being there, I don't believe it would be successful. What the hell will they do next year? Perhaps they will kick another major donor in the ass and grasp at straws again....Time will tell, and I will be watching.

 

On a positive note, 59lucylane.com will be open Wednesday through Sunday for it's 2nd big garage sale! It will be huge! Stop by for lots of Lucy merchandise priced for garage sale deals. Old and new stuff!!

 

ugh! so sick of this comedy hall of fame direction! I will be at Lucy Lane Friday and Saturday cannot wait! I'll also make an appearance at the center and a few of their events want to see how it goes there....