Ziegfeld Follies, Lucille Ball

We tend to forget that Lucille Ball was first and foremost a model and a showgirl before she became an actress and a comedic actress.

She had the showgirl blood in her all her life. She had always wanted to return to the stage to perform. She always felt that people who appeared on screens weren't real actors; real actors would have experienced performing on stage.

In Ziegfeld Follies, you see perfect Lucy standing on a while horse, moving gracefully and whipping girls to tame them... and you get surprised! It's impossible to connect this Lucy with Lucy Ricardo in I Love Lucy!

She's amazing.

Lucille Ball and William Holden

You'll probably recognize the two subjects in the following picture...

Yes, they are Lucille Ball (duh!) and William Holden, the guest star who appeared on I Love Lucy's famous episode, LA At Last! Yes, he received a pie in his face and yes, he lighted Lucy's fake nose on fire!

Lucy and Bill went back a long way. They became great friends when they starred in the movie Miss Grant Takes Richmond.

They were laughing so naturally in this picture because for some reason, while doing an intimate kissing scene, they kept breaking into laughter again and again. Finally, they got comfortable enough. I supposed it was because they were good friends. Bill would confide in Lucy about relationship problems and Lucy would provide sound advice. They always teased each other and told each other funny stuff just to make each other lose the poker face.

I love Old Hollywood, where people were friendly and nice and simpler. Well, comparatively so anyway!

Lucille Ball Color

Lucille Ball was an extremely resilient and determined woman. She was forced to be an adult when she was young, and she had taken care of her whole family her entire life.

I guess it takes such personalities to offer such awesome advice for the rest of us:

"One of the things I learned the hard way was that it doesn't pay to be discouraged. Keeping busy and making optimism a way of life can restore faith in yourself"
- Lucille Ball

Lucille Ball 1950s

Lucille Ball in an elegant Lucy Ricardo dress, 1950s.

Requested by some of my Instagram followers!

If you do have Instagram app, do follow me on @welovelucilleball!

Lucille Ball in Color

Oh gosh, she autographed this picture!

One night, Lucy came in wearing a low-cut dress, which sent Desi into a jealous panic when he noticed the way men were ogling her. When he bawled her out later for showing too much cleavage, she told him “Just because you own the tree doesn’t mean some other guy can’t enjoy looking at the apples”.

- Lucy & Desi: The Legendary Love Story of Television’s Most Famous Couple by Warren G. Harris

Sexy Lady

Sorry for not posting daily. In fact, I intentionally stopped blogging because I wanted the two entries of "Lucille Ball Topless" to gain maximum exposure. I don't want people to think that the topless woman featured on a certain magazine or a certain illegitimate biography is Lucille, because that certainly isn't her!

Anyway, I've gotten a few requests to post this particular picture of Lucille Ball on my blog, so here you go!

Here's a wonderful quote about Lucille Ball in one of my favorite movies, Du Barry was a Lady:

"To her red-headed and later bewigged beauty, Miss Ball adds vivaciousness and excellent comedy timing, proving once again that she is a musical-comedy star of the first magnitude."
- New York Herald-Tribune

I really love this quote because it seems like it was a dig to the movie studios, that the reviewers and audiences loved Lucille, and it was time for the big shots to start paying attention to the exceedingly talented and beautiful lady. Well, I guess that was a blessing in disguise, that Lucille hadn't enjoyed great success in the movies, because we have I Love Lucy today!

I Love Lucy: Fred and Ethel's Anniversary

I love the way Lucy Ricardo makes fun of Ricky Ricardo's accent!

This is one of the many scenes where I still laugh madly about, and I've watched each episode like... 30 times?