Ball of Fire (49 page)

Permissions Acknowledgments

Grateful acknowledgment is made
to the following for permission to reprint
previously published material.

Atlantic Music Corporation:
Excerpts from the song lyric “I’m A Fool” by Joey Cooper & Red West. Copyright © 1964 © renewed 1992 by Atlantic Music Corp. All rights reserved. International copyright secured. Reprinted by permission of Atlantic Music Corporation.

Blackwell Publishing Ltd.:
Excerpts from “A Summer Spent Watching Lucille Ball Perform” by Louis Phillips from
The Journal
of Popular Culture
(Fall 1993). Reprinted by permission of Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Dutton Signet:
Excerpts from
Love, Lucy
by Lucille Ball. Copyright © 1996 by Desilu, Too L.L.C. Reprinted by permission of Dutton Signet, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

Hal Leonard Corporation:
Excerpt from the song lyric “I Love Lucy,” lyric by Harold Adamson, music by Eliot Daniel. Copyright © 1953 (Renewed) by Desilu Music Corp. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permssion of Hal Leonard Corporation.

HarperCollins Publishers Inc.: Excerpts from Desilu by Coyne Steven Sanders and Tom Gilbert. Copyright © 1993 by Coyne Steven Sanders and Tom Gilbert. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers Inc.

Hyperion Books For Children:
Excerpts from
Lucille
by Kathleen Brady. Copyright © 1994 by Kathleen Brady. Reprinted by permission of Hyperion Books For Children.

International Creative Management, Inc.:
Excerpts from
Lucy
in the Afternoon
by Jim Brochu. Copyright © 1990 by Jim Brochu. Reprinted by permission of International Creative Management, Inc.

Los Angeles Times:
Excerpts from “Everybody Loved Lucy: Lucille Ball Made It All Look Spontaneous” by Charles Champlin (Los Angeles Times, April 27, 1989). Copyright © 1989 by Los Angeles Times. Excerpts from “Everybody Loved Lucy: She Set the Standard for Situation Comedy” by Howard Rosenberg (
Los AngelesTimes,
April 27, 1989). Copyright © 1989 by Los Angeles Times. Reprinted by permission of the Los Angeles Times.

The New York Times:
Excerpts from “The Good, the Bad, the Lucy . . .” by Joyce Millman (
The
New York Times,
October 14, 2001). Copyright © 2001 by The New York Times Co. Reprinted by permission of The New York Times.

Oxford University Press, Inc.:
Excerpts from
Holding My Own in
No Man’s Land: Women and Men and Film and Feminists
by Molly Haskell. Copyright © 1997 by Molly Haskell. Reprinted by permission of Oxford University Press, Inc.

Peer International Corporation:
Excerpt from the song lyric “Babalu” by S. K. Russell. Copyright © 1941 by Peer International Corporation. Copyright renewed. Copyright secured. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission of Peer International Corporation.

St. Martin’s Press, LLC:
Excerpts from
Lucy: The Real Life of
Lucille Ball
by Charles Higham. Copyright © 1986 by Charles Higham. Excerpts from
The Lucy Book: A Career in TV
by Geoffrey Mark Fidelman. Copyright © 1999 by Geoffrey Mark Fidelman. Reprinted by permission of St. Martin’s Press, LLC.

Southern Illinois University Press:
Excerpts from the poem “Star-Spangled Banner” from
The Star-Spangled Banner
by Denise Duhamel. Copyright © 1999 by Denise Duhamel. Reprinted by permission of Southern Illinois University Press.

Syracuse University Press:
Excerpts from
Laughs, Luck . . . and
Lucy: How I Came to Create the Most Popular Sitcom of All Time
by Jess Oppenheimer with Gregg Oppenheimer. Copyright © 1996 by Gregg Oppenheimer. Reprinted by permission of Syracuse University Press.

Television Week:
Excerpts from articles by Jane Smiley, Susan Stamberg, Dan Wakefield, John Waters from the special commemorative
I Love Lucy
issue of
Electronic Media:
now called
Television
Week
(October 1, 2001). Reprinted by permission of
Television
Week.

Warner Bros. Publications U.S. Inc.: Excerpts from the song lyric “Cuban Pete” by Norman Henderson. Copyright © 1936 (Renewed) J. Norris Music Publishing Co., Ltd. (c/o Sony/ATV Songs). All rights for the U.S., Canada, the Philippines, and the Open Market controlled by WB Music Corp. Excerpts from the song lyric “Disgustingly Rich” by Lorenz Hart and Richard Rodgers. Copyright © 1954 (Renewed) Chappell & Co. Excerpts from the song lyric “I Wish I Were In Love Again” by Lorenz Hart and Richard Rodgers. Copyright © 1937 (Renewed) Chappell & Co. Rights for extended renewal term in U.S. controlled by The Estate of Lorenz Hart (administered by WB Music Corp.) and The Family Trust U/W Richard Rodgers and The Family Trust U/W Dorothy F. Rodgers (administered by Williamson Music). Excerpts from the song lyric “Sally Sweet” by Norman Henderson. Copyright © 1936 (Renewed) J. Norris Music Publishing Co., Ltd. (c/o Sony/ATV Songs). All rights for the U.S., Canada, the Philippines, and the Open Market controlled by WB Music Corp. Excerpts from the song lyric “She Could Shake the Maracas” by Lorenz Hart and Richard Rodgers. Copyright © 1939 (Renewed) Chappell & Co. Rights for extended renewal term in U.S. controlled by The Estate of Lorenz Hart (administered by WB Music Corp.) and The Family Trust U/W Richard Rodgers and The Family Trust U/W Dorothy F. Rodgers (administered by Williamson Music). All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission of Warner Bros. Publications U.S. Inc., Miami, FL 33014.

Washington Post Writers Group:
Excerpts from an article by Tom Shales (
The
Washington Post,
November 6, 1985). Copyright © 1985 by The Washington Post. Reprinted by permission of the Washington Post Writers Group.

Bibliography

The researcher for
Ball of Fire,
as well as for two of my other books, was John Bennett at Sterling Library, Yale University. In examining a life begun nearly a century ago, and a career that ended more than two decades ago, I found it necessary to ransack hundreds of long-forgotten personal papers, as well as thousands of periodicals, memoirs, books, and that newest form of communication, Web sites. These concerned not only the obvious subject of bygone show business personalities, but the more complex categories of politics and finance. Mr. Bennett’s work was a model of nuance and scruple, with special attention paid to obscure records ranging geographically from upstate New York to Hollywood, Broadway, Europe, and the Caribbean. The writing of this book would not have been possible without his unflagging diligence, and persistence.

For additional research I am also indebted to Danielle Moon, Archivist, Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library; Jean Geist, Librarian, Popular Culture Library, Bowling Green University; Lyn Olsson, Acting Special Collections Librarian, Malcolm A. Love Library, San Diego State University; Brad Bauer, Archivist, Herbert Hoover Presidential Library-Museum; Nathaniel Parks, Senior Archival Assistant, Special Collections, Boston University; Sally McManus, Palm Springs Historical Society; Nancy Robinson, Librarian/Local History Indexer, Palm Springs Public Library.

Individuals who provided enormous aid include Lucie Arnaz Luckinbill, Daniel Melnick, Regina Kessler, the late Chuck Jones, Josh Greenfeld, Howard Weishaus, Stephen Becker, Kevin and Andrew Ettinger, Robert Rittner, Robert Tucker, Will Shortz, Robert Mankoff, Steven Zeitlin, Dr. Robert Spitzer, Richard Schickel, and others who prefer to remain anonymous.

Although all the works cited below bear on Lucille Ball’s biography, several are particularly significant, for historians, scholars, and unabashed Lucy fans.

AUTOBIOGRAPHIES OF LUCY AND DESI

Arnaz, Desi.
A Book.
New York: Morrow, 1976. Desi’s disarmingly candid appraisal of his private and professional life happily stresses his own virtues but never shies away from his liabilities, including his alcoholism and unbridled temper that eventually broke up a storybook marriage. Filled with engaging show business anecdota.

Ball, Lucille, with Betty Hannah Hoffman.
Love, Lucy.
New York: Putnam, 1996. A posthumously published, less-than-frank exercise in nostalgia. The tone is clearly that of a woman who would rather not bear any grudges—in print—but who is withholding a lot from the reader. Nonetheless, a valuable item because Lucy wrote so little about herself.

KEY BIOGRAPHIES AND MEMOIRS

Brady, Kathleen.
Lucille: The Life of Lucille Ball.
New York: Hyperion, 1994. The most recent of the biographies, this thoroughly researched, important work uncovers new material about Ball’s early years in Jamestown, N.Y., and closely follows various stages of her career, from modeling in Manhattan to acting in minor and major Hollywood films, to the rise of
I Love Lucy
and Desilu, to the slow decline of marriage, family, vocation, and, finally, health.

Brochu, Jim.
Lucy in the Afternoon: An Intimate Biography of Lucille Ball.
New York: Morrow, 1990. A graceful, melancholy memoir of Ball in her final years, by a close friend who noted her recollections of triumphs, sorrows, and regrets, and saw her through the last illness.

Gregory, James.
The Lucille Ball Story.
New York: New American Library, 1974. An early and rather uncritical appraisal of the star after the breakup of her marriage, but well before her decline.

Harris, Eleanor.
The Real Story of Lucille Ball.
New York: Farrar, Straus & Young, 1954. The first biography of the star, shortly after
I Love Lucy
had risen from sitcom to phenomenon. A valuable indicator of television’s power to amuse—and then to influence—its new audience.

Higham, Charles.
Lucy: The Life of Lucille Ball.
New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1986. A short, intelligent biography of the actress–studio head, published three years before her death, by a veteran Hollywood biographer and journalist.

Morella, Joe, and Edward Z. Epstein. Lucy: The Bittersweet Life of Lucille Ball. Secaucus, N.J.: L. Stuart, 1973. An early account of, as the authors put it, “a super-talented woman with a super-fascinating life.”

Oppenheimer, Jess.
Laughs, Luck—and Lucy: How I Came to Create the Most Popular
Sitcom of All Time. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1996. Despite its subtitle, a disarming and bemused account of
I Love Lucy
from drawing-table idea to international phenomenon, by its inventor and first producer. The late author recalls his employers with affection, but does not shy away from less-than-flattering glimpses of the couple under pressure.

Sanders, Coyne Steven, and Tom Gilbert.
Desilu: The Story of Lucille Ball and Desi
Arnaz.
New York: Morrow, 1993. A close, sophisticated look at Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, separately and together, with great emphasis on the formation and daily operation of the Desilu studios. With many interviews and photographs.

Tannen, Lee.
I Loved Lucy: My Friendship with Lucille Ball.
New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2001. Another fan checks in, with his own chronicle of Lucille Ball in old age. Manifestly, she grew dependent on her young admirer, and it is to his credit that he not only treated her well, but saw to it that her meditations on life, love, and work were recorded in print.

OTHER BOOKS

Abbott, George.
Mister Abbott.
New York: Random House, 1963.

Ace, Goodman.
The Book of Little Knowledge: More Than You Want to Know About
Television.
New York: Simon & Schuster, 1955.

Adir, Karin. The Great Clowns of American Television. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 1988.

Altschuler, Glenn C., and David I. Grossvogel. Changing Channels: America in TV
Guide.
Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1992.

Anderson, Christopher.
Hollywood TV: The Studio System in the Fifties.
Austin: University of Texas Press, 1994.

Andrews, Bart, and Thomas J. Watson.
Loving Lucy: An Illustrated Tribute to Lucille
Ball.
New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1980.

Arden, Eve.
Three Phases of Eve: An Autobiography.
New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1985.

Babington, Bruce, and Peter William Evans.
Affairs to Remember: The Hollywood Com
edy of the Sexes. Manchester, U.K.: Manchester University Press, distributed by St. Martin’s Press, 1989.

Bacon, James.
Hollywood Is a Four Letter Town.
Chicago: Regnery, 1976.

———.
Made in Hollywood.
Chicago: Contemporary Books, 1977.

Balio, Tino, ed.
Hollywood in the Age of Television.
Boston: Unwin Hyman, 1990.

Barlett, Donald L. Empire: The Life, Legend, and Madness of Howard Hughes. New York: Norton, 1979.

Barnouw, Erik.
Tube of Plenty: The Evolution of American Television.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1975.

Basinger, Jeanine.
A Woman’s View: How Hollywood Spoke to Women,
1930–1960.
New York: Knopf, 1993.

Beauchamp, Cari.
Without Lying Down: Frances Marion and the Powerful Women of
Early Hollywood.
New York: Scribner, 1997.

Beeman, Marsha Lynn.
Joan Fontaine: A Bio-bibliography.
Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1994.

Berg, A. Scott.
Goldwyn: A Biography.
New York: Knopf, 1989.

Berle, Milton, with Haskel Frankel.
Milton Berle, An Autobiography.
New York: Delacorte Press, 1974.

Bernardi, Daniel, ed.
Classic Hollywood, Classic Whiteness.
Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2001.

Billips, Connie J.
Lux Presents Hollywood: A Show-by-Show History of the Lux
Radio Theatre and the Lux Video Theatre, 1934–1957. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 1995.

Billman, Larry.
Betty Grable: A Bio-bibliography.
Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1993.

Blesh, Rudi.
Keaton.
New York: Macmillan, 1966.

Blumenthal, Ralph.
The Stork Club: America’s Most Famous Nightspot and the Lost
World of Cafe Society.
Boston: Little, Brown, 2000.

Boddy, William.
Fifties Television: The Industry and Its Critics.
Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1990.

Boller, Paul F., and Ronald L. Davis. Hollywood Anecdotes. New York: Morrow, 1987.

Boswell, Thomas D., and James R. Curtis.
The Cuban-American Experience: Culture,
Images, and Perspectives.
Totowa, N.J.: Rowman & Allanheld, 1984.

Bragg, Melvyn.
Richard Burton: A Life.
Boston: Little, Brown, 1988.

Breslin, Jimmy.
Damon Runyon.
New York: Ticknor & Fields, 1991.

Brochu, Jim.
Lucy in the Afternoon: An Intimate Memoir of Lucille Ball.
New York: Morrow, 1990.

Brown, Les.
Television: The Business Behind the Box.
New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1971.

Brunsdon, Charlotte, Julie D’Acci, and Lynn Spigel, eds.
Feminist Television Criticism:
A Reader.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.

Bubbeo, Daniel.
The Women of Warner Brothers: The Lives and Careers of
15
Leading
Ladies, with Filmographies for Each. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2002.

Burns, George, with David Fisher.
All My Best Friends.
New York: Putnam, 1989.

Callow, Simon.
Charles Laughton: A Difficult Actor.
London: Methuen, 1988.

Carbó, Nick.
El Grupo McDonald’s: Poems.
Chicago: Tia Chucha Press, distributed by Northwestern University Press, 1995.

Carrick, Peter.
Liza Minnelli.
London: R. Hale, 1993.

Carrier, Jeffrey L. Tallulah Bankhead: A Bio-bibliography. New York: Greenwood Press, 1991.

Castleman, Harry, and Walter J. Podrazik.
The TV Schedule Book: Four Decades of NetworkProgramming from Sign-on to Sign-off.
New York: McGraw-Hill, 1984.

Ceplair, Larry, and Stephen Englund.
The Inquisition in Hollywood: Politics in the Film
Community, 1930–1960. Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor Press/Doubleday, 1980.

Chunovic, Louis.
One Foot on the Floor: The Curious Evolution of Sex on Television
from “I Love Lucy” to “South Park.”
New York: TV Books, 2000.

Clark, Tom.
The World of Damon Runyon.
New York: Harper & Row, 1978.

Clements, Cynthia.
George Burns and Gracie Allen: A Bio-bibliography.
Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1996.

Cobb, Sally Wright.
The Brown Derby Restaurant: A Hollywood Legend.
New York: Rizzoli, 1996.

Cohan, Steven.
Masked Men: Masculinity and the Movies in the Fifties.
Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1997.

Davis, Ronald L. The Glamour Factory: Inside Hollywood’s Big Studio System. Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press, 1993.

Dewey, Donald.
James Stewart: A Biography.
Atlanta: Turner Pub.; Kansas City, Mo.: distributed by Andrews & McMeel, 1996.

DiBattista, Maria. Fast-Talking Dames. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001.

DiMeglio, John E. Vaudeville U.S.A. Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green University Popular Press, 1973.

Doane, Mary Ann, Patricia Mellencamp, and Linda Williams, eds.
Re-vision: Essays in
Feminist Film Criticism.
Frederick, Md.: University Publications of America, 1984.

Duhamel, Denise.
The Star-Spangled Banner.
Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1999.

Duke, Patty, and Kenneth Turan.
Call Me Anna: The Autobiography of Patty Duke.
New York: Bantam Books, 1987.

Eames, John Douglas.
The MGM Story: The Complete History of Fifty Roaring Years.
New York: Crown Publishers, 1975.

Eberly, Stephen L. Patty Duke: A Bio-bibliography. New York: Greenwood Press, 1988.

Edelman, Rob, and Audrey Kupferberg.
Meet the Mertzes: The Life Stories of “I Love
Lucy” ’s Other Couple.
Los Angeles: Renaissance Books; distributed by St. Martin’s Press, 1999.

Eder, Shirley.
Not This Time, Cary Grant! And Other Stories About Hollywood.
Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1973.

Edgerton, Gary R., and Peter C. Rollins, eds. Television Histories: Shaping Collective
Memory in the Media Age.
Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2001.

Eells, George.
Hedda and Louella.
New York: Putnam, 1972.

Ehrenstein, David.
Open Secret: Gay Hollywood,
1928–1998.
New York: Morrow, 1998.

Ewen, David.
Richard Rodgers.
New York: Holt, 1957.

Eyles, Allen.
The Marx Brothers: Their World of Comedy.
Cranbury, N.J.: Barnes, 1966.

Faith, William Robert.
Bob Hope: A Life in Comedy.
New York: Putnam, 1982.

Fidelman, Geoffrey Mark.
The Lucy Book: A Complete Guide to Her Five Decades on
Television.
Los Angeles: Renaissance Books, 1999.

Filmmakers on Filmmaking: The American Film Institute Seminars on Motion Pictures
and Television. Edited by Joseph McBride. Los Angeles: J. P. Tarcher; distributed by Houghton Mifflin, 1983.

Fisher, James.
Eddie Cantor: A Bio-bibliography.
Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1997.

Fleming, Michael.
The Three Stooges: Amalgamated Morons to American Icons; An
Illustrated History.
New York: Doubleday, 1999.

Fonda, Henry.
Fonda: My Life / As Told to Howard Teichmann.
New York: New American Library, 1981.

Forrester, Tom, with Jeff Forrester.
The Stooges’ Lost Episodes.
Chicago: Contemporary Books, 1988.