MGS 1/11: Lucille Ball Discusses How She Got Into Showbiz

[HookahTurka]

LoL only she could pull off walking onto the stage with a purse

[moviefannnnnn]

she was a very humble woman. she didnt think she was beautiful or very bright & she was both.  love u lucy. R.I.P

[sunshineclassic]

@moviefannnnnn She truely was a lovely masrer of comedy. I think people back then were very modest. I'm sure she knew she was beautiful and clever :)

[mrpapafunky7879]

SULTRY

[mrpapafunky7879]

i signed the banner over her star they laid on the hollywood walk of fame when she passed

[pecs2006]

She was such an outstanding woman.  And incidently had one of the tightest speaking voices of all time.

[amberlovesapplepie09]

thumbs up if you love Lucy ! :D

[blondeboy1988]

i wish i was born around the time she was alive she is beautiful and amazing

[143AC]

Mr.Griffin is right! Lucy Ball is still one of tv comedy's most beloved and

creative clowns.

[TheHeatherEra]

This interview is so odd and I love it so much. lol.

[bujinnineko]

i love her honesty and her smile.

[DoubleDutchBust]

1:01am Thursday (PDT) - Time in California, United States of America

[68lincoln]

She is my all time favorite actress. Beautiful, talented, funny, witty, honest...she is the best. Thanks for this Lucy interview with Merv from 1973, I was 14 years old at the time and it's nice to see it again.

[caloscalante1518]

she mentions she is in love with the whole human race... it is safe to say the WHOLE human race is also in love with her.

[sugarlipz96]

Lucille was amazing! i will never forget her and desi!

[misswings83]

Love Lucy ♥

[tommypicklesfan19]

Aww, lucy i love you, and yes you are beautiful

[KarolineKayySaysHeyy]

BUT she IS BEAUTIFUL! and witty

[beachbunnyhunny101]

I ♥ LUCY!!!!!!!!!!! So sad about her death shes still alive in my world though!

[coursestudent]

Yes, she's one of those eternal Hollywood icons.

[shealways]

god i love her.shes great to listen to

[Mrmathis909]

She died 16 years after this interview on April 26, 1989. if she was still alive, she would be 98. She was 77 when she died, almost 78.

[kesonrad]

Lucille Ball, 100% classy lady!

[MarkThompson01]

Yes, she was. I loved her.

[hardrein101]

yes, she was a class act..never said a bad word about anybody in an interview including desi.

[DianaMichelleLynette]

I still love Lucy. I own the entire boxed set of the I Love Lucy series. I was thinking of getting the entire Lucy Show on DVD as well.

[graphixmike]

I will ALWAYS love LUCY!

[collazzone]

I love Lucy!

[lasuvidaboy]

Interviews were'nt as staged as they are today. Lucy probably drove over to Merv's set in her own car and just kept her purse. There is an interview (Dick Cavett) w/Bette Davis and she comes in w/her purse and gloves on-like she just got out of a cab in NYC.

[laron214]

lucy where are you going wiht purse?

[DoubleDutchBust]

BillyEdward~yes

SeeMyPurseangray~yespKirbyFurl­ong

LucilleilakaMesp 3:23 you AreinpinkblouseMickeyMouse

DSeeMyPurseangray~yespkirbyFur­long

EyeKnowMyCraft 7:59

[greenpurpleorangesod]

what's a goldwyn girl?

[celluloidjunkie13]

In the 1930's the studio Metro Goldwyn Mayer had a lot of young, beautiful starlets under contract to, basically, do whatever picture was asked of them; mostly just 'set decoration'. Lucy herself was in the background of a lot of films before she was in the foreground.

Ok, thats a goldwyn girl, accidental tangent.

[MirkodiWallenberg]

She was very beautiful, she was very bright and always knew what she wanted to become in the performing arts! In the end she became president of Desilu studios and was a though boss with top shows in her stable! Her modesty in this clip is only an act to be humble, sadly!

[vieetverite]

Actually, the modesty is for real. Behind an outward air of confidence, Lucille Ball was terribly insecure. She had an old-school belief that to be a true Hollywood star meant succeeding in motion pictures and winning Oscars, which she didn't. Of her TV success, she always said it was because of her writers. If she was tough on the set, it was because she was terrified of failure. Failure made her give up. When MAME failed, she quit pictures; when LIFE WITH LUCY failed, she gave up altogether.

[BRONXPEPE]

i love her last name its such a rich sounding last name

[doetim]

She keeps saying she was never beautiful but she was a model when she was young and her photos from back then are REALLY beautiful!

[adriannelibra]

I like her voice.

[MyCrazyAngel09]

LOL it is cute =)

[jesparza562]

"don't touch me"! love it

[Yesteryearfan2000]

Lucille was a comedic genius. Television was good back then. Thanks for sharing this, Michael :)

[scrumptious94]

I absolutely LOVE Lucy!!! She is the greatest. She has just a really funny dry sense of humor.

[HeyDeyFan]

Nobody was better than this woman! Nobody!

[kaleyandhylie]

thats wut smoking does to your voice =[

[JasonIsAwesom]

I had just been watching I Love Lucy and when I heard her speak here i was like OMG!!

[vidayverdad2]

Check out the Youtube clip of with this title: "What's My Line" (w/ guest Lucille Ball, Deborah Kerr) 3/3 Starting at 4:38 in that clip, you can hear Lucille Ball's natural speaking voice back in the "I Love Lucy" days when she WASN'T playing Lucy Ricardo. It's much deeper than on her show. And by continuing to do that "Lucy" voice, she would drive her voice even deeper.

[caloscalante1518]

THE WORLD'S FAVORITE REDHEAD

[atlast23]

I'm surprised the audience didn't give her a standing ovation. She deserved one. Great to see this clip.

[MrMidwest]

Can someone put up the show from the 70s with Lucy, Otto Preminger, David Mamet, and Elizabeth Ashley sitting around talking? I can't remember exactly what show it was, but it used to be posted on here.

[mphcanal]

So glad to see here happy after the reach of a first husband treated her and screwed around on here thanks to Gary Morton who i met in palm spring back in the early nintys very great and funny man !!!! mike in houston

[dainaluvgod]

i love her so much makes me wanna cry

[livin4eternity]

makes me want to cry too.

[ShesBroadwayBound]

I think it was just kinda weird that they had no where to sit...but the conversation seemed fine. I think their position on stage was awkward.

[char4him99]

Wasn't that odd???  I would have thought they would have had stools to sit on

[lebaneseasilah]

I love seeing her so happy! <3

[drowsymaggi]

I've noticed that on shows in the 70's women often carried their handbags onto the set. I've seen it on the Tonight Show clips too. Strange!

[daris89]

lol Whyv does she say he's too young to know what a G-String is??

[asumbudee23]

not*

[asumbudee23]

Sorry I don't know if this question has been answered, but why do I get an 'awkward' kind of vibe watching this? is he now a good interviewer? is she actually upset deep down?

[rachelazw]

I have no idea why you get that vibe. They both seem like they're relaxed and having a good time to me. And seem comfortable teasing and joking with one another.

[asumbudee23]

oh it's just me then. :P

[Buck61]

I get a 'vibe' too. Let me just say that I don't see any connection between them.

[scarlett24ca]

I do as well.. if the set had couches that had been present so they could sit with a table it could have less awkward.

I think she is also naturally introverted so its hard for her to do public appearances in the context above..maybe thats it? She talks a lot in some responses but in other responses they are short and the interviewer had to push her out.

[725Mama]

You wanna see her really loopy? Try the Dick Cavett interview. She seemed so tipsy and tired.

[Beejjjjjj]

She was that way in the Cavett interview because she was exhausted. She was in the middle of a national promotional tour for her film, MAME. That's not so easy on a 62 year-old.

[celluloidjunkie13]

yah she says she's feeling pretty good... acting pretty um, high... on life, you know... yah. just a lil' loopy.

[ckri2]

Why so cynical? Can't she just be in a good mood? She came directly from taping her own show, an episode where her daughter was spotlighted doing an impression of Cher. It went well, so she's a proud mother and happy. And maybe Merv's a friend and she's happy to be on his show with her family. It's not like she's slurring her words or losing her balance.

[celluloidjunkie13]

hah I didn't intend it to be cynical. I only meant that she's playing with her purse in a childlike way, giddy one moment and spits "Don't touch me" the next- and then "what didchya ask me?" I just thought it was an amusing anomoly. I love Lucy.

[vieetverite]

She was just joking with him.  She had a dry sense of humor.

[xodramaxo]

Haha, you're right. She is in a pretty cynical mood here. But I still love her to death, hehe. <3!

[rachelazw]

She's in a cynical mood? "I'm in love with the whole human race tonight, I really am . . . I feel especially good tonight . . . We had a good show, my kids are with me, I'm happy to be with you, and I'm just happy to be alive." My gosh, how do you define cynical?????

[xodramaxo]

well yes she did say that but just the way shes carrying herself and the way she responds to merv's questions and comments.. i dont know, she was in a good mood that night but maybe she was in a cynical mood at that time in her life, or perhaps discussing some things about her past put her in that kind of mood. i dont know, she just seems a little sarcastic to me. but shes allowed, shes LUCY!!! i still love her and every one else does! <3

[lebasilah]

Thank you so much for posting these!  I adore Lucille Ball.

[zzzzz87]

This is a great interview (always is with Lucy), but it's strange to see them standing up for so long.

[Gosalyn87]

No no, that voice is a result of smoking, not strain. Her voice really isn't hoarse like it would be if it were due to strain, it's just deep and dried out, because that's what smoking does to the voice; thickens the vocal chords and dries out the throat. I'm sure the strain didn't help, but I think her voice would've sounded a million times better had she been a non-smoker.

[Beejjjjjj]

Smoking alone didn't do that to her voice. Sure, it had a great deal to do with it, but not everything. It was also many years of straining her voice. I've noticed watching "The Lucy Show" that her voice tends to get very raspy by the end of each season. Listen to her in the 1967 Emmy acceptance speech posted here (which was several months after her season ended, and her voice had time to rest), then compare to that '67 Lucy Show drunk scene. Huge difference in the quality of her voice.

[livin4eternity]

yep

[1timysand]

Lucy's voice was damaged too from her practice of projecting to tv audiences, in spite of microphones, the way live theatre actors do so the audience can hear them. Watch the Lucy shows- there are very few scenes where the actors are speaking in normal speaking voices. I read in a Lucy bio that an actor read his lines in a normal voice and Lucy scolded him, "Is he saying something- I can't hear him. We speak in full voice around here!" Smoking heavy took its toll, too.

[mastud]

I read and watched a documentary about her and it was said many times that she was a terror to work with. Real REAL bitchy and bossy and utterly rude. Even her co-hosts couldn't stand working with her. Viv and the bank manager. Still though...that wont ever make me not laugh at her pure and untainted comedy.

[Beejjjjjj]

If that's true, why did Viv keep co-starring with her for 12 years? Why did Gale Gordon keep coming back to work for her for nearly 40 years? And Mary Jane Croft and so many other people? If you look at the credits in even some of her early movies, you'll see many of the same names she still had working with her decades later. Lucy was tough, indeed. She worked very hard but expected those around her to do the same. I think the ones that had trouble with her just didn't have the same work ethic.

[mastud]

I always loved her and was very surprised at that documentary. Goes to show...you cant always believe what others claim to know and what the media and documentarys say either.

[Beejjjjjj]

Here are some comments Gale Gordon made in 1991 about working with Lucy: "I think anybody who has been in the theater, prefers it. Television is a... factory. You turn out things on a revolving assembly line. You don't have time to perfect anything in television."

[Beejjjjjj]

Gale Gordon comments cont'd: "If you're doing a weekly series it's very difficult to make each episode of the series as good as it should be because you don't have the time to devote to it. This was one reason that Lucy was such a hard worker, and many people didn't like going on her show because they worked from the moment they got there until the show was filmed. And that was four days."

[Beejjjjjj]

Gale Gordon comments con't: "Guest actors had to rehearse with us as performers because each word that an actor might have said might be a cue for the camera to move or turn in order to get a different angle. All those technical things that television requires takes away from the concentration that you should be giving the character itself. For that reason, Lucy worked very hard for the four days. The results show."

[Beejjjjjj]

Gale Gordon comments concluded: "Her work has endured for some 40 years or more because she was never satisfied. She would never say, 'Oh, we can get by with this, it won't matter,' because if it mattered to one viewer- that would have ruined it as far as Lucy was concerned. And that's why television is a sausage factory."

[ithl123]

Thank you Beejjjjjj for posting these comments from Gale Gordon. Definitely a great insight into Lucille Ball and her work ethic.

[Beejjjjjj]

You're very welcome. I love Gale Gordon.

[Beejjjjjj]

Oh, after Lucy passed away and Gale Gordon was asked what it was like to work with her, his response: "Sheer heaven."

[mastud]

What did she die of?... i read about it before ages ago but have forgotten. I think it was cancer?..

[Beejjjjjj]

She died of a ruptured aorta. Desi and Vivian died of cancer. Bill Frawley died of a heart attack.

[mastud]

They dont make comedy shows like that anymore. Pure comedy. Thanks for all the info you gave me there! I wonder if i can get the box sets of the Lucy shows anywhere?

[XxcraziiLilgirlxX]

to bad she ruened her beautiful speaking voice with the bad habit of smoking... :(

[ckri2]

It wasn't just smoking. Using that unnaturally high pitch to play Lucy Ricardo also damaged her voice, as did improper voice projection she when singing, particularly in Wildcat. Also, the excessive talking she had to do running a studio, and essentially producing, directing & starring in her show ALL at the same time. And the voice projection she did performing all those years before a studio audience.

[ckri2]

Also, early on, according to Desi Arnaz, she tried to lower her voice by going out on the open highway and screaming at the top of her lungs for long periods of time because Katharine Hepburn had told her her voice was too high and might inhibit her ability to get good roles.

[4EverDarling]

"We're you one of the great nudies?" "Don't touch me." LOL!

[vivyyum]

they had G-Strings way back then?! wow....

[uswrestlerjock]

She's brilliant and very beautiful! Especially during the I Love Lucy era, but even after that she was beautiful!

[pooftaboy73]

Thank you so much for posting this show!! I've been hoping to see this for years! What a gem: deep-voiced Lucy in color, still with her wits about her, and funny!

I read somewhere that she was so unusually animated on this interview because she had just come from a taping of "Here's Lucy." It really shows!

Now, if only someone would post the 1977 Barbra Walters interview with Lucy and Gary in their backyard....that's the other Lucy Grail I've been looking for!

[patkurt06]

outstanding lucille ball one of a kind

[lewytlady1]

Thank you so much for posting this!

Lucy was on top of the world at this time

when she finished "Mame" and was so proud the film! I was proud of her too!

Was at the premier -March 26th 1974. Saw it 23 times at the "Cinerama Dome Theatre" in Hollywood!

[Richii2]

Saw it 23 times??? You are clearly a fan. Did you see Lucy at the premiere?

[lewytlady1]

Yes, she was indeed there arriving in a 1930's

cadillac convertible with her white fur stole and looked like she did when she took patrick to the speak easy in that scene from "Mame"

I remember Debbie Reynolds and Michael Landon

being there also. It was my first "premiere" and it was a wonderful night!

[Richii2]

I've never been to a premiere. I'm sure it would be an exciting experience. MAME was so hyped, so I imagine that made it doubly exciting. How did people in the theater react to the film, particularly when Lucy was singing?

[adw888]

This is awesome, thanks for sharing