A long time ago everyone I knew were fans of the “I Love Lucy” TV show. If you asked me two weeks ago to spell the name of Lucy’s husband, I might have misspelled it (with a z). But I know the spelling now, “Desi.” I just finished a wonderful book, Desi Arnaz: The Man Who Invented Television. The book was published in June of this year.
I Love Lucy was on for six seasons, 1951 to 1957. Surely my family and I saw every episode and we credited Lucille Ball with making the sit-com great. I knew very little about Desi Arnaz. Since reading the book I now know that Desi came from a sophisticated background in Cuba, that his family lost everything during the Cuban revolution, that at a young age in Miami Desi was the entertainer who popularized the Conga dance craze, that Desi was on Broadway where he met Lucy, that Desi was in movies, that Desi once was Music Director of the Bob Hope Show on radio, and that Desi was the “smart” one of the couple who, author Purdum says, “invented television” or at least, invented television as it is seen today.
Lucille Ball was a movie star who was in 60 films, but she was never in the league with other female stars of the day. She had success on the radio program, “My Favorite Husband.” Desi was often on the road performing, so when CBS wanted to bring the radio show to TV, Lucy insisted that Desi play her husband. (She wanted to keep Desi away from temptation.) When Desi didn’t like the character on the radio show, Lucy and Desi wanted to develop a TV comedy show. Wanting to persuade a reluctant CBS that the pubic would accept Lucy and Desi as a performing team, Desi arranged an old-fashioned (and successful) vaudeville tour with his band and Lucy in movie houses around the country. CBS was convinced. Desi, President of Desilu Productions, insisted on a live audience for the I Love Lucy show. He also wanted to film the show in sequence, something that had never been done before. I Love Lucy was also filmed with three cameras at once, a system that is still in use today.
The book talks at length about the success of Desilu Productions, about Desi’s fall from grace, about Lucy’s rehearsal shyness and on and on. The inside look is fascinating and a tribute to Desi, and I for one, couldn’t put it down. Want to know about Desi Arnaz? This is the book.
