Today is MAGGIE VESPER’S ANNIVERSARY FN1, and GHD or GLOBAL HANDWASHING DAY FN2, and INTERNATIONAL DAY OF RURAL WOMEN FN3, and NATIONAL AESTHETICIAN DAY FN4, and NATIONAL I LOVE LUCY DAY FN5, and my cugino Dominic says it’s also NATIONAL CHICKEN CACCIATORE DAY or GIORNATA NAZIONALE della POLLO CACCIATORE.
*1778: Pulaski Massacre: British Regulars & New Jersey Loyalists bayoneted 50 patriots roused from sleep between present-day Tuckerton & Osborn Island in the American Revolution's Attack at Little Egg Harbor aka The Pulaski Massacre, 1 week after the British raid at the Battle of Chestnut Neck, on the Little Egg Harbor River (now known as the Mullica River) near the present-day city of Port Republic, NJ, which was used as a base by privateers;
*1881: 1st Angler: the 1st American fishing magazine, "American Angler," was first published;
*1915 "The Metamorphosis": 1st publication of Franz Kafka's absurdist tale of Gregor Samsa who wakes to discover he’s transformed into a huge insect;
*1917: Mata Hari: at Vincennes, near Paris, the Dutch dancer Mata Hari (41) was executed by a French firing squad for spying for the German Empire;
*1934: The Long March: 6,000-mile trek of Chinese Communists, which resulted in relocation of Communist revolutionary base from SE to NW China & emergence of Mao Zedong as party leader began when Soviet Republic of China collapsed as Chiang Kai-shek's National Revolutionary Army encircled;
*1944: Panzerfaust: Unternehmen Panzerfaust (“Operation Armored Fist”) a military op was undertaken by the Nazis to insure the Kingdom of Hungary would remain a German ally in WWII;
*1951; 1st Lucy: the 1st episode of "I Love Lucy," a TV sitcom starring Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, and William Frawley, aired on Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS);
*1981: 1st Wave: Pro cheerleader Krazy George Henderson led the 1st audience wave in Oakland, CAL in Oakland A's ALCS Playoff Game #2 vs NY Yankees – which NYY won 13-3;
*2022: Marsh Madness: Phillies beat Braves 8-3 in Game 4, as CF Brandon Marsh hit a 3-run homer & J.T. Realmuto became the 1st catcher to hit an inside-the-parker in postseason history and Brice Harper punctuated the romp of “the Bravos” with a clinching 2 run home run in the bottom of the 8th inning in CBP (Citizen Bank Park).
FN1: “COUNTER COLUMBUS DAY”: In 1977 the International Conference on Discrimination Against Indigenous Populations in the Americas, sponsored by the UN in Geneva, Switzerland, began to discuss replacing Columbus Day in the US with a celebration called Indigenous Peoples Day. In July 1990, at the First Continental Conference on 500 Years of Indian Resistance in Quito, Ecuador, representatives of groups thru the Americas agreed they would mark 1992, the 500th anniversary of the 1st of the voyages of Christopher Columbus, as a year to promote "continental unity" and "liberation."
FN2: Chief & Diplomat: Chief Piomingo aka Piomino was Chickasaw war chief and diplomat who established a friendship with President George Washington and signed the first Indian Peace Treaty.
FN3: 1.0008: every year, scientists and engineers across the country celebrate National Hydrogen & Fuel Cell Day; Oct 8 was aptly chosen for atomic weight of hydrogen (1.008).
FN4: MARSHMELLOW FLUFF SANDWICH: National Fluffernutter Day is observed annually Oct 8 – to make/enjoy the sandwich made w peanut butter + marshmallow fluff.
2 DOZEN FACTS ABOUT LUCY
[ Lucille Ball Facts You Probably Didn’t Know: If you’re one of the millions of fans of Lucille Ball, you probably fell in love with her watching 1950s sitcom I Love Lucy. You rooted for her success as she attempted to properly pronounce “Vitameatavegamin,” safely store dozens of chocolates in her cheeks, and steal some of her husband’s spotlight. Yes, you love Lucy, but how well do you really know her? If you thought you knew everything about Lucy, you were wrong. The one, the only Lucille Ball.
Groundbreaking, fearless, timeless, supremely talented… and magical. We salute her today in honor of her 1st TV Show, Oct 15, 1951, with a bevy of facts you probably didn’t know about the beloved “I Love Lucy” star. From real-life antics on the set of her iconic sitcom (that grape stomping scene turned into a wrestling match) to superstitions (keep away all pictures of birds!) to a long-kept secret (Lucy had no eyebrows — really!), we go through it all. So sit back and celebrate the icon known as Lucille Ball with this deep-dive into her life. ]
1. LUCY’S NATURAL HAIR WAS NOT RED … OR APRICOT: Lucille Ball, America’s favorite redhead wasn’t actually a redhead. Before jumping into comedy, Ball was a natural brunette, and even a blonde at one point during her early modeling days. She didn’t dye it red until she landed a role in the 1943 musical Du Barry Was a Lady and then decided to keep it.
Her hairstylist Irma Kusely described the shade as a “golden apricot” shade that she created by using a henna dye that was kept in her garage under lock and key.
2. LUCY HAD NO EYEBROWS: The studio star system of the Golden Age was all-controlling. The first order of business was always walking potential starlets into the hair and makeup departments for a makeover, usually to glam them up. And Lucy was no different.
“One of the worst things the studio people did was shave off my eyebrows,” Lucy remembered. “We were all trying to look like Jean Harlow. Now, God forbid I should ever find myself on a desert island without an eyebrow pencil. It’s the first thing I reach for every morning. The only girl I know who managed to grow hers back again was Ginger Rogers… even then it took her years.”
3. THE GRAPE-STOMPING: “I got into the vat with one, and she had been told that we would have a fight,” Lucy said on “The Dick Cavett Show.” She continued, “I slipped and, in slipping, I hit her accidentally and she took offense, until she hauled off and let me have it. Now this was supposed to happen — that she got right.” But when she hit Lucy, it took the wind out of her. “She had been told that we were to stay down for a while, give me a chance to get my legs way up, so that they’d show in the camera, then up would come an arm and then both of them– my head was supposed to—but, well, my head never popped up. She’d get me down by the throat! I had grapes up my nose, in my ears, and she was choking me, and I’m really beating her to get her off…she didn’t understand that she had to let me up once in a while. I was drowning in these grapes!”
Apparently, the woman spent so much time “beating the hell” out of Lucy that they had to cut half of it.
4. DESI, JR & LITTLE RICKY WERE DELIVERED 12 HOURS APART: You want to talk publicity stunt to end all publicity stunts? Well, on Jan. 19, 1953, Lucille Ball delivered a doozy. On that day, Lucille Ball delivered Desi Jr. just 12 hrs before Lucy Ricardo delivered Little Ricky on “I Love Lucy.” It was all brilliantly planned that way, with Ball scheduled for a cesarean delivery of Desi Jr. to coincide with Little Ricky’s TV birth. And, did it payoff ratings-wise – 44M “I Love Lucy” fans tuned in for that episode (equivalent to 72% of American households). To put that in additional perspective, the following day, President Dwight D. Eisenhower first took the oath of office, and only 29 million tuned in for that. People like Ike, but they LOVE Lucy.
5. LUCY’S KIDS: Lucille Ball had kids later in life. Though she married her husband and co-star Desi Arnaz in 1940, Ball suffered at least two devastating miscarriages, and didn’t have her first child until she was 40 years old. In 1951, the couple welcomed their daughter Lucie Désirée Arnaz, and then a year and a half later, Ball gave birth to Desiderio Alberto Arnaz IV, known as Desi Arnaz, Jr. or “Little Ricky.”
Her producers ended up writing her second pregnancy into the script, making Ball one of the first actresses to appear pregnant on TV. When Ball gave birth to Desi Arnaz, Jr. on 1/19/1953, CBS also aired an episode where her character Lucy gives birth to her son (filmed beforehand, naturally). NY Times hailed it as a “national event,” with a record-setting 44 million people tuning in.
6. LUCY WAS DIANE BELMONT IN HER EARLY YEARS: As a model, Lucy wanted to change it up a little so for a short period of time, she went by the name Diane Belmont. “I was driving in Long Island and I saw the Belmont Race Track and I loved the name Diane,” Lucy explained. “People, to this day, think my name was Diane Belmont and I took Lucille Ball.”
7. LUCY GAVE VIVIAN VANCE A CONTRACT ORDERING HER NOT TO GAIN WEIGHT: True – but it was a gag gift. Vance, who played Ethel Mertz on “I Love Lucy,” was 22 years younger than her TV husband, William Frawley. And although she agreed to go with the Plain Jane look, she refused to wear padding to make her look plump.
According to Ball, Vance told producer Jess Oppenheimer, “If my husband in this series makes fun of my weight and I’m actually fat, then the audience won’t laugh. They’ll feel sorry for me. But if he calls me a fat old bag and I’m not too heavy, then it’ll seem funny.” In 1975, Vance and Ball appeared on Dinah Shore’s daytime talk show – and Vance brought with her a mock contract Lucy had drawn up some 20 years earlier.
Vance read it to the studio audience: “Party of the first part must promise to never dye her hair within five shades either way of the party of the second part, also known as ‘the lovable natural redhead.’ Part two: Party of the first part must also agree to put on an additional five pounds every month [within] next year, otherwise this contract shall be terminated at the whim of the party of the second part by 1) a phone call or the more generous option of 30 minutes notice. Lucille Ball.”
8. GINGER ROGERS’ MOM LELA GROOMED LUCY FOR STARDOM: During the 1930s and early ’40s, Ginger Rogers’ mother, Lela, was known in Hollywood as quite a stage mom, molding her daughter into a star with a controlling, demanding fist on the throat of the studios. While Ginger was a contract player at RKO, Lela ran an acting school on the lot and one of her students was Lucille Ball.
“Lela advised us to work on ourselves and pay no attention to those corporate machinations. Lela wouldn’t tolerate anyone taking advantage of her charges,” Lucy said of Lela’s protective nature. And Lela also saw something in Lucy that the studios didn’t… yet.
“She told me years later, ‘I noticed the twinkle in your eyes and the mobile face, which is a must for comedy. I also sensed depth and a great capacity for love,’” Lucy said. “Lela was the first person to see me as a clown with glamor. She pulled my frizzy hair back off my brow and had a couple of my side teeth straightened. Then she sent me to a voice teacher and told me to lower my high squeaky voice by four tones.”
9. AFTER CAROLE LOMBARD’S DEATH, SHE CAME TO LUCY IN A DREAM AND URGED HER TO DO “I LOVE LUCY”: If it wasn’t for a “message from beyond the grave” from the Queen of Screwball Comedies, Carole Lombard, “I Love Lucy” might never have happened. Lombard and Lucy struck up a close friendship in her early days struggling in Hollywood, as Lucy studied Lombard’s comedic style. “When I’m weighing a particularly difficult decision. sometimes I ask myself what Carole would’ve said, and it helps. She gave me lots of pointers on what she called studio behavior,” Lucy said of Carole.
In 1942, Lombard, who was married to Clark Gable, died in a plane crash while touring the country selling war bonds. More than a dozen years later, when Lucy was weighing whether or not to give up her highly-paid movie career and Desi’s band commitments to go for broke on TV, Lombard visited Lucy in a dream and encouraged her to take a leap of faith.
“Carole Lombard appeared to me in a dream. She was wearing one of those slinky bias-cut gowns of the ’30s, waving a long, black cigarette holder in her hand. ‘Go on. kid,’ she advised me eagerly. ‘Give it a whirl.‘”
10. LUCY’S MOM TIED HER IN THEIR YARD SO SHE WOULDN’T RUN WILD: Throughout her life, Lucy would talk lovingly about her mother, DeDe, who lived with her famous daughter and was her biggest cheerleader. Lucy recalled that when she was three and her mother was pregnant with Lucy’s little brother Fred, DeDe would tie up the rambunctious Lucy in the yard with a dog leash so she wouldn’t run around the neighborhood. Ball wrote in her autobiography “Love Lucy,” “Every time somebody would pass by on the sidewalk, I’d beg to be released.”
Forty years later, DeDe would attend every taping of “I Love Lucy.” In fact, that “Uh oh” you hear when Lucy Ricardo gets into one of her predicaments, that’s DeDe.
11. DESI & LUCY WERE TV’s 1st INTERRACIAL COUPLE: If Lucy had not been persistent about wanting her real-life husband, Desi Arnaz, to be her TV hubby on “I Love Lucy,” it would not have happened. Before “I Love Lucy,” CBS was so impressed by her comedic performance on her radio program “My Favorite Husband” that they wanted to adapt it for television. Lucy agreed under one condition – Desi would play the role of her husband. CBS wasn’t thrilled with the idea, believing that no one would tune in to watch an “all-American red-headed woman with a Cuban,” especially a Cuban with a thick accent. But Lucy wouldn’t budge.
To prove her point that America would love them as a husband-wife team, Lucy and Desi toured the country in sort of vaudeville act. Her fans couldn’t get enough, and CBS agreed.
12. LUCY PUSHED PRODUCERS TO CAST DESI: Lucille Ball had to convince producers to cast her husband, Desi Arnaz. It’s hard to imagine I Love Lucy without the comedic husband-and-wife duo at its center, but Ball had to push CBS producers at the time to cast Arnaz, because he was Cuban. To prove them wrong, Lucy and Desi toured the country as a vaudeville act, and the network relented after they proved that fans couldn’t get enough of the pair. The move had a major impact, and some credit the pair with being TV’s first-ever interracial couple.
The sitcom quickly became the number-one show in America within six months of its debut on October 15, 1951, and it went on to garner 20 Emmy nominations and four wins. It was also inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1991.
Though the pair divorced three years after the show ended in 1960, they remained close until their deaths. Arnaz died at the age of 69 in 1986 and Ball died at the age of 77 in 1989. According to their daughter, their last words to each other were, “I love you.”
13. LUCY WAS SUPERSTITIOUS ABOUT BIRD PICTURES: Lucille was only 3 years old when her father died of typhoid fever at age 27. Because she was so young at the time, she later said that she remembered very little of that day — but one thing she did remember was a picture frame falling off the wall and a bird flying into her house. And that memory scarred her for the rest of her life. Although she was able to be in the vicinity of a bird, she couldn’t look at pictures of them and had even refused to stay in a hotel room with artwork of birds on the walls.
14. LUCY BECAME 1st WOMAN TO RUN A MAJOR TV STUDIO: Lucille Ball took her Hollywood know-how to an all-new height, crashing right through that glass ceiling to become the first woman to run a major TV studio. In 1962, Desi Arnaz resigned as the studio’s president, and Lucy bought out his holding in the company. Four years later, CBS turned down the original “Star Trek” series pilot, fearing the weekly budget to produce it would be too high. But Lucy stood behind it and gave the crew the finances needed, and it was made. So, Trekkies, you’ve got Lucille Ball to thank for your obsession. (Desilu also went on to produce the TV series “Mission: Impossible.”)
15. LUCY & DESI ONCE OWNED TARA, SCARLET O’HARA’S PLANTATION IN “GONE WITH THE WIND”: In 1957, Desilu Productions bought all of RKO Pictures properties for $6.15 million. Quite a steal, actually. According to Ball, “We now owned 33 more sound stages, or 11 more than 20th century Fox and four more than MGM. We had fabulous permanent sets, including the Southern plantation exterior from ‘Gone With the Wind,’ fire-scarred and weather-beaten, but still majestic.”
16. TV SUPERMAN GEORGE REEVES’ REAL NAME: When TV Superman George Reeves appeared on “I Love Lucy,” she insisted his real name not be mentioned in the credits. Lucy put thought into the wants and needs of her audience of all ages. In an episode of “I Love Lucy” in which she promises Little Ricky that she’ll get Superman to attend his birthday party, TV’s Man of Steel himself, George Reeves, made a guest appearance. But to keep the fantasy alive that it was really Superman (not an actor), Lucy insisted Reeves name not appear in episode credits.
17. A “SIMPSON” CHARACTER WAS HER MADE OF HONOR: “The Simpsons” has paid homage to Lucille Ball on more than one occasion. In the episode titled “Little Big Mom,” Lisa is visited by Lucy’s ghost, who is named Lucy McGillicuddy Ricardo Carmichael (Ball’s maiden and married names on “I Love Lucy” and “The Lucy Show.”) There was also an episode that had Moe selling clams that look like Lucy, and a parody of “I Love Lucy” called “I Lost Lucy,” in which a character visits Lucille Ball’s grave.
18. LUCY WAS A PROFESSOR: Lucy taught a class in “Television and Film Aesthetics” at California State University, Northridge. You can add college professor to Lucy’s resume. In 1979, California State Univ., Northridge hired her as an assistant professor to teach a 3-unit class called “TV & Film Aesthetics,” which included showing and analyzing film and television programs.
“I try to teach them the art of taking care of themselves in every way so someone else doesn’t have to,” she told The Los Angeles Times. “All they hear about is rejection. I try not to talk about rejection. I teach how to do the best for you — don’t be a patsy, a pushover — and to take that step ahead every day.”
19. LUCY WAS A REVOLUTIONARY: She helped revolutionize the way TV and movies were made
Desilu Productions originated many common techniques that we see in TV today, including filming in front of a live studio audience and using multiple cameras.
This marked a departure from the way things worked at the time, when most sitcoms were recorded on a device known as a kinescope, which involved using a film camera to record the image of a television. Since the effect was often blurry, Ball decided to shoot I Love Lucy with three cameras on 35 mm film.
Shooting the show at a higher quality proved to be a smart business decision later on, because the studio was able to preserve those episodes to air reruns. According to CBS, the show still rakes in at least $20 million per year, which is definitely no small chunk of change.
20. LUCY GREENLIT STAR TREK: Lucy greenlit Star Trek as the 1st woman to run a major TV studio. A slew of actresses, including Drew Berrymore, Reese Witherspoon, and Queen Latifah, have started their own production companies in recent years, While it’s still considered somewhat of a novelty nowadays, it was even more of a rarity for a woman to run a studio back then. And in many ways, Ball helped pave the way for women to become studio executives.
On top of her comedic talent, Ball was a savvy businesswoman. In 1962, she became the sole owner of Desilu Productions after her ex-husband, Desi Arnaz, resigned as the studio’s president and she bought out his holding in the company. She went on to greenlight several hit TV series, including Star Trek and Mission: Impossible.
21. LUCY WAS HUMBLE: In addition to achieving comedy legend status, Ball’s accomplishments reach far beyond the confines of your TV screen — she was a model, an actress, a wife, a mother, and a studio executive. She even broke the glass ceiling for women in the industry when she became the first woman to head a studio in Hollywood.
And while her on-screen character loved attention, in real life, she remained humble about her success. “I am not funny,” Ball told Rolling Stone in 1983. “My writers were funny. My directors were funny. The situations were funny.”
22. LUCY WAS A “RED SCARE” COMMIE? Lucille Ball was accused of being a communist. Ball lived in an era known as “The Red Scare,” when celebrities and other famous figures could risk losing their jobs if they were accused of being a communist.
In 1953, the actress was thought to have ties to the party, prompting her to testify before Congress to clear her name, and she did. Though Ball listed her party affiliation as a communist when she first registered to vote, she told lawmakers that she only did that to please her socialist grandfather, and her name was cleared.
Still, the fallout had a real impact on Ball, who feared losing her career after the very public outing. So, Desi took charge; before a live audience taping, he joked, “The only thing red about Lucy is her hair, and even that’s not legitimate.” Eventually, all rumors were put to rest, when President Eisenhower invited her and the I Love Lucy cast to the White House to celebrate his birthday.
23. LUCY’S BEST FRIEND: The comedian was best friends with Betty White. It’s probably no surprise that Ball had many famous friendships during her time in Hollywood. But one friend who was particularly close to her heart was fellow TV legend and Golden Girls star, Betty White.
The pair first met around 1957 while Ball was filming the final season of I Love Lucy, and White was working on the TV comedy Date With the Angels. Despite their 10-year age difference, they immediately hit it off and stayed friends for more than 30 years.
“Lucy and Betty’s relationship spanned more than just being show business acquaintances,” an unnamed source of the pair told Closer. “They considered each other family.”
24. LUCY WAS A “LATE BLOOMER”: She became famous when she was 40. Ball is proof that success can come at any age. Even though she’d been working as an actress and model since she was 12 years old, the comedian didn’t become a household name until starring in her iconic show, I Love Lucy, shortly after she turned 40.
In an industry (& society) where women are oft tossed aside when they turn 40, what’s perhaps most memorable about her success is her subsequent small screen career, which included shows like Here’s Lucy, Life with Lucy, and The Lucy Show, spanned four decades. (She also appeared in more than 50 movies, including the classic Yours, Mine, and Ours alongside actor Henry Fonda.)