It's Lucille Ball! Yes, friends, before she played an average housewife with dreams of becoming a glamour girl, Lucy actually was a glamour girl. A contract with RKO in the 1930's led to Lucille being dubbed "Queen of the B's," thanks to such programmers as The Affairs of Annabel (1938), Panama Lady (1939) and Dance, Girl, Dance (1940). It was on the set of the latter musical that Lucy met a handsome Cuban actor-musician, Desi Arnaz. The electricity was immediate, and the pair eloped soon after.
The 1940's found Lucille moving upward by signing with the Rolls-Royce of movie studios, MGM. Shedding her scrappy B-girl image, Lucille was now glorified as a glamourpuss and showcased in such lavish productions as DuBarry Was a Lady (1943) and Ziegfeld Follies (1946).
Unfortunately, despite uniformly positive personal reviews, MGM seemed at a loss when it came to turning Lucille Ball into a top leading lady. After beginning to freelance in 1948, Lucille was coming to the nadir of her film career with such dreck as The Magic Carpet (1951), when the offer of a weekly television series came along...
...and the rest is television history. It took a little something called I Love Lucy to turn Lucille Ball into a superstar, and she's never been off the air since. There would be disappointments to follow: Lucille's 1960 divorce from Desi; her gargantuan flop of a movie vanity project, Mame (1974); a disastrous attempt at a sitcom comeback in 1986 with Life with Lucy. But through it all, the public never wavered in its love for the First Lady of Television, and, more specifically, the brilliant "Lucy" character that Lucille created.
Today would have been Lucille Ball's 96th birthday. She passed away on April 26, 1989, shortly after making a triumphant appearance on that years' Oscars telecast. How appropriate that her final public appearance would be before a huge, worldwide television audience. We love you, Lucy!
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