Remember

"Lucy has always considered herself a serious actress. No matter what role she was assigned to, she would pour in her heart and soul into being the perfect character. In The Big Street, for instance, Lucy played a heartless singer, Gloria, who became crippled when her boyfriend pushed her down a flight of stairs due to jealousy. I would give her acting full stars! She was so convincing as a bitchy woman, one would find watching movie weird because Gloria was so different from Lucy Ricardo."

The Big Street

Lucille Ball's best dramatic performance, in remembrance of her friend and role model, Carole Lombard, The Big Street:

Lucille Ball had the makings of being a dramatic actress, but neither RKO Studios, MGM Studios nor other movie studios cared to nurture her talent. It's a blessing in disguise really, because we have I Love Lucy today!

It must have been demoralizing for Lucille because at that point, she would never have known that she would be co-starring a television show with her husband, Desi Arnaz, and that particular show would become The Best Television Show of All Time (endorsed by America's ABC Channel in September 2012)!

Sometimes opportunities are disguised with setbacks. 

The Big Street (1942)

Have you all watched The Big Street (1942), starring Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda yet? If you have not done so, please find a way to get a hold of this movie!

Synopsis:
Lucille Ball plays Gloria, a materialistic and nasty nightclub singer who gets pushed down a flight of stairs by a rich man and becomes crippled and ill of health.Henry Fonda, or Pinks, is enamored of her. He takes her under his wing and takes great care of her after she becomes crippled.

Gloria is not only unappreciative, but she is mean to all of Pink's family and friends. In short, she is a bitch.

Of course, she turns over a new leaf towards the end of the movie, and dies soon. It's so tragic.

Comments:
It pains me to call Gloria/Lucille a bitch, but I'm actually complimenting her. Her role calls for her to be a bitch, and she was so reluctant to take up the role because she knew that audiences will typecast an actor according to the role in media. However, she gave her very best and she was fantastic in the movie.

Lucille's favorite movie that she was the proudest of is The Big Street!

Trivia: 
I've seen publicity pictures of Lucille in a beautiful gown, dancing gracefully and all, but this scene was nowhere to be found in the entire movie! I was befuddled and disappointed, because I very much wanted to see Lucille dance. She was so breathtaking and perfect when she danced with Van Johnson in I Love Lucy.

Well, anyway, here's what I discovered.

Choreographer Christopher Hales was engaged to create a dance for Lucille. Publicity shots of her rehearsing and performing her Rhumba solo were taken, but it did not make it into the final cut of the movie, except for the glimpse we see Gloria perform from waist up in the hospital bed when she discovered that she was paralyzed.

Says Hale, "Lucille is tall lithe and willowy, and has much talent as a dancer. She has a beautiful back, holds herself well, and is extremely graceful."

Now, Lucille wasn't very good in her singing when she grew older, especially after I Love Lucy ended. She had  injured her voice throat thanks to the ill advice of a vocal singer while doing the Broadway musical, Wildcat. If you had watched the movie Dance, Girl, Dance, you'll be amazed by her singing! It wasn't a perfect ten but it was better than average.

Now, though Lucille couldn't sing well, she certainly had a huge talent in dancing. Plus with all the nightclub dancing with her Rhumba teacher, Desi Arnaz, she became quite accomplished in her own right!

Instagram Pictures!

This is from The Big Street, one of my favorite Lucille Ball movies. Come to think of it again, I like ALL her movies!

This is from LIFE Magazine. I love her lovely hairstyle, where she pulls back her fringe.

This is scanned from a book.

Lucy has always been good with animals. She had pet dogs, pet cards, pet birds and others!

30 Days of Lucille Ball-- Day 12

12. Favorite behind the scene picture of Lucille Ball

Here's a rare picture of her practicing for a dancing scene in The Big Street with Henry Fonda. It was a pity that they had to cut this scene off due to time limit.

She could certainly dance gracefully, but it's a pity she wasn't given many chances to show off her talent!

Henry Fonda

Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda once dated when they were very young. No romance brewed and they moved on.

However, they must have felt a certain fondness for each other than they ever admitted, probably as the years went by.

When Lucille was to star in The Big Street with Henry, Desi Arnaz felt so insecure about leaving the both of them alone together that he often pop by in the movie sets to keep an eye on his lovely wife and a handsome actor, and his paranoid self made the director so exasperated that he finally banned him from being 10 feet near. 

I've always wondered if there was a certain attraction. Maybe it was because Lucille wanted Desi to have a taste of his own medicine and therefore made him jealous as often as she could by flirting with Henry, or maybe because she purely enjoyed Henry's attention. You can see from the pictures the way she was smiling-- that smile can only be conjured by a few men, including Desi Arnaz, Bob Hope and Henry Fonda.

 

Here's my postulation. It's purely based on speculations, but probably years ago, Lucille wasn't the queen of movies when they first dated in early 1940s. When he met her, her career was just starting to take off, and so was his. He probably was attracted, but she didn't have fame. He must have felt angry with himself when Lucy became North America's favorite housewife Lucy Ricardo in I Love Lucy in mid 1950s!

A credible person, none other than Henry's daughter Jane Fonda, claimed that Henry Fonda and Lucille had a very intimate relationship while filming the movie Yours, Mine and Ours in 1968. He became deeply and crazily in love with Lucille until his death.

In Dean Martin Roasts Lucille Ball, Lucille appeared to be overjoyed when she knew that Henry Fonda was going to roast her.

Henry hinted that there would have been Fondalu and not Desilu if they got married!

But I guess there will be no doubt in any of everyone's mind, that Lucy always belonged to Desi, even after her second marriage to Gary Morton.