I Love Lucy: An American Legend

The television show I Love Lucy developed from a confluence of talent, on-screen chemistry, behind-the-scenes skill, and — in the words of the show’s producer, Jess Oppenheimer — "unbelievably good luck."

In celebration of the 60th anniversary of the show’s debut, the Library of Congress presents a new exhibition, I Love Lucy: An American Legend. Free and open to the public, the exhibition opened on August 4, [two days before what would have been Lucille Ball's 100th birthday] and is on view through January 28, 2012. The exhibition is located in the foyer of the Library of Congress outside the Performing Arts Reading Room on the first floor of the James Madison Building, 101 Independence Ave. SE, Washington, DC.

I Love Lucy: An American Legend explores the show’s history through the Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz family scrapbooks as well as photographs, scripts, printed and manuscript music and other documents from the Library of Congress.

The idea for I Love Lucy originated when CBS considered transferring its successful radio program, My Favorite Husband, starring Ball (1911–1989), to the then-new medium of television. Ball’s real-life husband, Arnaz (1917–1986), became her costar.

Featured items in the exhibition include a manuscript drum part for "Babalu" from the 1940s and early scrapbook photographs of the young Arnaz and Ball in Hollywood. Also on view will be items from the Jess Oppenheimer Collection, including a copy of the original concept and receipt for copyright registration for "I Love Lucy" (1951). All scrapbooks pages are from the Library’s Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz Collection.

"The I Love Lucy show was not only a star vehicle for Lucille Ball, but a way for her to try to salvage her marriage to Desi Arnaz, which had become badly strained, in part by the fact that each had a hectic performing schedule which often kept them apart."

"Along the way, she created a television dynasty and reached several 'firsts.' Ball was the first woman in television to be head of a production company: Desilu, the company that she and Arnaz formed. After their divorce, Ball bought out Arnaz's share of the studio, and she proceeded to function as a very active studio head. Desilu and I Love Lucy pioneered a number of methods still in use in television production today such as filming before a live studio audience with a number of cameras, and distinct sets adjacent to each other. During this time Ball taught a thirty-two week comedy workshop at the Brandeis-Bardin Institute. Ball is quoted as saying, "You cannot teach someone comedy; either they have it or they don't." (The preceeding two paragraphs are from Wikipedia.)

An excerpt from the book, Lucille: The Life of Lucille Ball by Kathleen Brady, follows:

The matchless silent film star Buster Keaton recognized Lucille Ball’s genius for physical comedy in the late 1930s and early 1940s when RKO and then MGM had her playing showgirls and gangsters’ molls. After MGM fired her, Keaton persuaded Harry Cohn to hire her for the comedy unit of Columbia Pictures.

At Columbia, Lucille hung out at The Boors Nest, the office Keaton shared with his associate Ed Sedgwick, who was later godfather to Lucille’s children.

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I Love Lucy: An American Legend

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