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Lucy's 100th Birthday in the Media

Brock

By Brock,
in The Hennarincess

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Aside from the commemorations in Jamestown, Celoron, and Los Angeles, post articles and so forth related to Lucy's centennial here!

 

 

AARP -- Lucy at 100: We Still Love Her

 

Movies for Grownups -- Radio Show

 

Kansas City Star -- Tributes Abound as Lucille Ball's Centennial Approaches

I really hope we get that LIFE magazine tribute issue as the ones that came out when she passed away were always some of my favorites.

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Brock Newbie

Brock

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This one is great for the Dann Cahn content alone!

 

Los Angeles Daily News -- `Lucy' still has them laughing 60 years later:

 

By Dennis McCarthy, Columnist

Posted: 08/03/2011 09:14:23 PM PDT

Updated: 08/03/2011 09:15:57 PM PDT

 

"I never imagined I'd still be telling `I Love Lucy' stories in the 21st century."

 

- Dann Cahn, film editor

 

 

 

Happy 100th birthday, Lucy. You've still got it, doll. You're still the funniest, zaniest, best-looking redhead on TV - hands down.

 

Your old film editor, Dann Cahn, was sitting around a neighbor's pool last weekend holding court with a group of young people in their 20s who were peppering him with questions about you.

 

It surprised him a little. You don't see many young people hanging on every word an 88-year-old guy is saying about a comedy show from 60 years ago.

 

Most of their parents hadn't even been born yet when Johnny, the bellhop, shouted "Call for Philip Morris!" to open the "I Love Lucy" show.

 

These kids knew all the great episodes, Lucy. Vitameatavegamin, the chocolate factory, stomping wine grapes with Ethel. Pure comedy magic.

 

It's all pretty amazing. You made the grandparents and parents of these kids laugh, and now you're making them laugh.

 

It's like you never left. When these young people get married and have kids of their own, odds are you'll still be on TV in reruns making the fourth generation of fans laugh at the Ricardos and the Mertzes.

 

"It blows my mind because I never imagined I'd still be telling `I Love Lucy' stories in the 21st century," Cahn said Wednesday.

 

He was there that Monday night, Oct.15, 1951 when you all gathered around the 14-inch black-and-white TV in director Marc Daniels' house to watch that first show.

 

Just about the whole team was there except William Frawley - who played Fred Mertz. Cahn thought he was over at Musso and Frank Grill holding court at the bar.

 

Cahn still remembers the look Desi Arnaz gave him when the sound on the Los Angeles feed came out garbled because one projector was a fraction of a second ahead of the other, making it sound like two voices were talking at the same time.

 

It wasn't Cahn's fault. He had delivered a perfect print, but somehow the projectors got out of sync for the West Coast broadcast.

 

"I thought Desi was going to have apoplexy," Cahn said. "We went to dinner afterward a little glum and tense.

 

"The L.A. reviews the next morning were only fair because of the sound problems, but the New York reviews were great. They hadn't had any sound problems on the East Coast."

 

That was it for you, Lucy. You were on your way to becoming a legend and finding the stardom you worked so hard for in the movie industry. You got it instead on TV.

 

You could never know how important all those laughs you've given the country the last 60 years were, Lucy. They helped get a lot of people through some tough times.

 

Mary Rapaport for one. She was in the hospital undergoing chemotherapy treatments for breast cancer 12 years ago when she turned on the TV in her room at 4 a.m. because she couldn't sleep.

 

"The only thing I found on was `I Love Lucy,"' she said. "Before I knew it I wasn't thinking about the pain anymore because I was laughing so hard."

 

Rapaport, who lived only a few miles from your hometown of Jamestown, N.Y., wound up buying your childhood home and restoring it, Lucy.

 

It's no longer on 8th Street. It's officially Lucy Lane now. Great story.

 

There'll be plenty of great stories, memorabilia and clips of old shows at the Hollywood Museum, which is celebrating Lucy's 100th birthday (which was Saturday) and the 60th anniversary of "I Love Lucy."

 

The exhibit opened Friday and runs through Dec. 31 at the museum, which is located in the historic Max Factor Building, 1660 N. Highland Ave., Hollywood. For more information go online to www.thehollywoodmuseum.com.

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Brock Newbie

Brock

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This is kinda off topic but I just got in jamestown after an 8 hour drive!! Who else is here now?

 

I'm here! How will we know you? I'll be at the Here's Lucy with Joan Rivers dinner in a few minutes and Joan's 8:00 show. I'll be wearing a grey polo shirt, khaki pants and white sneakers tonight. Wave! lol

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Brock Newbie

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I might be at the 8 show if they have extra tickets. Im wearing a pink i love lucy shirt....ill see if i can fin you!!

 

 

I'll post a picture of myself in the Poultry Growers section in the Lucy Fest section. Hopefully you can do the same and we can spot one another!

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Brock Newbie

Brock

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The Today Show had a segment showing "never before seen" photos of Lucy as part of the centennial celebrations. All but one of the photos they showed have been in their online archives for about two years now, but I'm in favour any excuse to get Lucy on network TV!

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HarryCarter Newbie

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The Today Show had a segment showing "never before seen" photos of Lucy as part of the centennial celebrations. All but one of the photos they showed have been in their online archives for about two years now, but I'm in favour any excuse to get Lucy on network TV!

 

News report on the opening of the Lucy exhibit at the Hollywood Museum with Lucie, Valerie Harper, Ruta Lee THE MOVIE STAR!!!, Rose Marie, Rip Taylor, and more!

 

My link

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News report on the opening of the Lucy exhibit at the Hollywood Museum with Lucie, Valerie Harper, Ruta Lee THE MOVIE STAR!!!, Rose Marie, Rip Taylor, and more!

 

My link

Wow, thanks for posting that. Nice to see some of her contemporaries there too. I like that they show us SOME of the exhibit also.

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Marlo Thomas salutes Lucy:

 

Lucille Ball was my landlady. I was renting a soundstage to film That Girl at Desilu Studios, which was owned by Lucy and her husband, Desi Arnaz. I remember the day we were rehearsing our very first episode, and I was carefully trying to save my energy for the real filming. At one point, I saw out of the corner of my eye that we had a redheaded visitor on the set. Yup, it was Lucy. To hell with my energy. For the next 20 minutes, I performed my heart out. Lucy was watching, and I wanted to be good. When it was over, she gave me a wink. It felt like an Emmy.

 

Lucille Ball -- whose 100th birthday we celebrate this weekend -- made us laugh for 50 years. And all I can think of is... it wasn't enough.

 

Damn, if we didn't grow accustomed to her face. In truth, all of them -- the putty face, the uh-oh-I'm-in- trouble face, the pop-eyed face. And we loved her for the most basic of reasons: We trusted her. We knew if we showed up on Monday nights, she'd pay us back in laughs.

 

Whether she was plucking chocolates off a conveyor belt and stuffing them in her mouth, or vigorously stomping in a vat of grapes, or lighting a putty nose on fire -- while it was attached to her face -- Lucy's mission was always the same: to see the laugh all the way through. She was like an Olympic gymnast, who practices tirelessly, executes to perfection and always lands on her feet.

 

As the saying goes, comedy is serious business -- and no one took it more seriously than Lucy. Like Fred Astaire -- who famously stayed late at the studio after everyone else had gone home, to practice waltzing with a coat rack -- Lucy was a meticulous artist.

 

Her persona on screen was so winning because she was so vulnerable. But it was her off-screen toughness that made her great. And this, at a time when a woman was not applauded, appreciated or, most often, not even tolerated for being tough. That's when I got to know her -- when she was not only the queen of television comedy, but a very powerful woman, and a landlady to many comedy shows. There were a lot of divisive remarks about her at the time because she had such power. I had a bit of power myself, being the producer and star of my own show, so there was a joke that went around the studio. Whenever someone was looking for me, the line was, "She's having a meeting with Lucy in the men's room."

 

Let 'em laugh. I was in good company. If she could take it, I could take it. Lucille Ball was a role model for me -- and all young actresses who aspired to take the reins of their shows and their careers.

 

Lucy also taught us by example that a woman didn't have to give up her femininity to be funny. She would make herself unattractive (remember those blacked-out front teeth and the fright wigs she'd sometimes wear?), or unkempt, or downright disheveled, as long as the comedy worked. She was a clown, for sure, but we never forgot that she was a woman. Only a handful of female comedians have ever since struck that kind of precarious balance -- Carol Burnett, Gilda Radner, Lily Tomlin, Tracey Ullman, Kristen Wiig. And more than a few of today's comic movie performances owe a nod to Lucy -- like Cameron Diaz's hilarious turn in There's Something About Mary, or Emma Stone's in Easy A, or Emily Blunt's in The Devil Wears Prada. All of these women are, in their own way, descendents of Lucy.

 

One of my favorite comedy bits from I Love Lucy was one in which she broke from her usual routine of practicing a piece to perfection. It had a classically convoluted twist -- the kind that had made the show beloved: Lucy has hidden dozens of chicken eggs from her husband Ricky down the front of her shirt. Before she can secretly dispose of them, Ricky enters and demands that the two of them rehearse a tango routine that they've been working on. (Happens all the time, right?) Lucy demurs. Ricky insists. And the music begins.

 

Lucy knows the eggs are there. So does the audience. The only person who's clueless is Ricky -- which is why, of course, at the climactic moment of the dance number, he grabs Lucy's hand, spins her toward him, and they smash their bodies together -- front to front.

 

As the eggs' sticky contents begin visibly seeping through her shirt -- and Lucy registers every bit of that yuckiness on her hilariously elastic mug -- the audience howls. And keeps howling. What made this brilliant comedic moment so great is that she knew it would work best if she did not rehearse it beforehand. She wanted the stunt to be spontaneous -- both for herself and her audience. And, as always, she was right: At 65 seconds, it would ultimately become known as the longest recorded laugh in television history.

 

If Lucy were alive today, I don't imagine she would be sitting back and listening to all of us go on and on about the history she made and the legacy she left.

 

No, not Lucy. She'd be in front of a camera somewhere, still lighting her nose and popping those big blue eyes and always -- always -- listening carefully for that one thing she seemed to live for: the sound of laughter.

 

Well, we're still laughing with you, Lucy. Happy Birthday, champ!

 

 

THAT GIRL

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