Lucille Ball

Just thinking about this woman, makes me want to light up. She was one hell of a funny lady. The jury is still out regarding her parental skills, but she was a great entertainer. My all time favorite Lucy story was told by her mega talented daughter Lucie Arnaz, at the beginning of the book, "Love, Lucy." "One of my mother's favorite things to do, when a small group of people were involved in some ordinary conversation, was to wait until one of them left the room and as soon as she returned, blurt out convincingly, "Here she is now! Why don'tcha tell her to her face?!!"" You can almost hear Lucy's black lunged laugh, "BWAAAAAAAhoa hoa hoa hoa!"

Here's a picture of Lucy's first home in Hollywood.

On Tuesday April 18^th, she was at her home of a hundred and twelve years at 1000 N. Roxbury, in Beverly Hills, when she started experiencing chest pains. Her husband, Gary Morton, called the ambulance, and she was rushed to the Emergency Room of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where she underwent bypass surgery for eight hours. She received an aorta, from a 27 year old male victim of a motorcycle crash. A big thanks for the Cedars photo's goes to Terri Rios.

By Wednesday, 14 hours after surgery, Lucy awakened, and asked Gary Morton, "How's the dog doing?" Telling, isn't it? He released this quote: "Her Irish eyes are smiling." Hollywood went nuts with get well wishes. Just across the street from the hospital, the Hard Rock Café erected this sign, for Lucy. Anyway. All signs were looking good for ol' Lu, when "suddenly and without warning" the aorta burst. Doctors said (no doubt, scared shitless about a lawsuit) that the rupture occurred far from where a portion of her aortic valve was replaced during surgery last week. Wherever it burst was irrelevant. On Wednesday the 26^th of April 1989, at 6am, the world became Lucy-less. She was 77 years old.

Her funeral was private, but there were three public memorial services scheduled around the country for her. One in Los Angeles, one in Chicago which I attended, and one in New York. They were all held at 8pm on Monday, May 8^th. The same time I Love Lucy used to air on television. Lucy was cremated, and she is interred in the Columbarium of Radiant Dawn, at Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills.

In March of 2002, Lucy’s children removed Lucy and DeDe’s remains from Forest Lawn, and reburied them in Lucy’s hometown of Jamestown, NY, where she is now a tourist attraction in a place in which her children have financial interest.

Post Script: Gary Morton, Lucy's husband, died on March 30, 1999 in Palm Springs. He had remarried towards the end of his life, but is now destined to be pussy whipped for all eternity.

The house on Roxbury Drive was unfortunately reconstructed in recent years. First it was completely torn apart, then gradually rebuilt, and now it looks like this. Bastards. They even took down the famous wall that Lucy and Ethel hopped over to grab a grapefruit from Richard Widmark's house, though they really used Lucy's own wall. Of course I grabbed a brick. Think I'm stupid? Don't answer that. Here's a rare picture of the pool, in the back yard.

Trivia: Here’s the letter I received from Lucy, when I wrote her a fan letter. The portrait at the top of this page came with it.

More: Here's the soundstage, where the I Love Lucy was filmed.  You probably remember the episode when Lucy and Ethel take the stars homes tour.  They actually used Lucy's real house.

Universal Studios has a Lucy retrospective, including a model of the room where Lucy had her backgammon table set up with a view of the yard.  There was also a list pinned near the telephone, which I tried to get a picture of.  The list is entitled, "Always asked Whom do I laugh at:" and the list of names follows.  I like to think its authentic, but I doubt it.

My friend Mike works at Paramount Studios, which has consumed the old RKO/Desilu studio, but within the complex is Lucy's old bungalow, a Lucy Building, and a Lucy park.  Tom Cruise's offices are close by.  Tom Cruise has a golf cart with tinted windows, and people are instructed NOT to look when he drives past.  Tom Cruise is nuts.

Just for fun, here's a great shot of Lucy and Judy Garland.  You can smell the nicotine in this picture, can't you?

Findadeath.com friend Mike Pare writes:

Lucie has made a second career out of bashing her Mom, including her Emmy winning special, which was overly favorable to Desi Sr. without taking into account how it affected her as a woman to have the entire town know that her hubby was screwing everything around, and was drunk all the time. She doesn't seem to realize that those were different times, and that she (Lucie) grew up with the advantages that her Mom never had. Yes, Lucy was abrasive, and "direct", but her kindnesses towards many unfortunates and co workers and extended family were legendary, though kept quiet by herself. Interestingly, the house in Beverly Hills on Roxbury that she bought for $80,000, sold after her death for nearly $10,000,000!!!!! Henry Fonda once said when he mentioned to her that he was buying a new home, she advised him to check all the pipes, he didn't listen, they burst, and he said "Now I know why it was Desilu" - they had dated in the 30's and he said if he'd played his cards right it would've been Henrylu!!

APRIL 2001 - Findadeath.com friends Tucker and D. Helbling send this in:

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