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Google, Everyone Loves Lucille Ball On Her 100th Birthday!
By
Ben Yakas
Published Aug 6, 2011
Modified Aug 6, 2011
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By
Ben Yakas
Published Aug 6, 2011
Modified Aug 6, 2011
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In case you're a bit confused about today's Google Doodle old fashioned TV, today would have been legendary comedian Lucille Ball's 100th birthday! Starring in a series of shows for CBS from 1951 to 1974, Ball is best known and loved for her first television series, I Love Lucy, which some say has been seen by more people more often than any other program in history.
Born in Jamestown, NY, Ball moved to NYC when she was 15 to study acting, supporting herself by modeling and appearing in Broadway chorus lines. Eventually, she turned her attention fully toward her acting career, and became known in many Hollywood circles as "Queen of the B's," because of all the B-movies she headlined.
She finally hit the big time when I Love Lucy debuted on 15 Oct 1951, with Ball starring as redheaded screwball wife Lucy Ricardo, with her husband Desi Arnaz co-starring. The show depicted their life as a couple with different backgrounds living in Manhattan's East 60s, both trying to make it in show business; the show was the country's most popular program for most of its six seasons, and established the situation comedy as the dominant television genre of its time.
Ball was considered a pioneer in comedy, both on the screen and off—in 1962, after her final divorce from Arnaz, she assumed sole ownership of their production company, Desilu, becoming the first woman to head a television studio. Ball died at the age of 77 in April 1989. In tribute to her, Google has six different clips from the show on their homepage today, while the Paley Center for Media will host screenings of Ball's work through September 3.
You can also read tributes to her here, see previously unreleased photos of her here, or catch marathons of the show on TV for the next few days.
Below, check out a few clips of Ball in her prime, including one of our favorite scenes from I Love Lucy, a clip of her playing drunk on The Lucy Show, and an interview from the Dick Cavett show in early 1974 in which she talks about her classic grape-stomping scene:
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comedy
i love lucy
Lucille Ball
Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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