Pop Culture Flashback: We Loved Lucy (August 6)

Even after all these years, Lucille Ball remains one of the funniest actresses there ever was. Not everyone can pull off physical comedy and still be funny. But Lucy could. Over and over again. And we loved her for that.

1911 – Lucy is Born

It was on this day in 1911 that Lucille Desiree Ball was born in Jamestown New York. When Lucy was just 14-year-old, she began a romance with a 23-year-old whom her mother thought was a hoodlum. Her mother arranged to send Lucy to the John Murray Anderson School for Dramatic Arts in New York in an effort to separate the two. While attending the school, Lucy met her classmate, Bette Davis.

Lucy began her long career in 1929 first working as model and then appearing on Broadway using the stage name, Diane Belmont. This helped her to land a few minor film roles during the 1930s. It was also during time that Miss Ball met the Cuban leader, Desi Arnaz. The two eloped in November 1940.

In 1948, Lucy was cast in the CBS radio show, My Favorite Husband which was big success. CBS wanted to develop the same show for television, a common practice during the early days of TV. Lucy agreed but only if the part of the husband would be played by Desi. And so, they became Mr. and Mrs. Ricardo.

Popular opinion believes that Lucy made that demand as an attempt to their marriage together as Desi was known to be attracted to other women.

The title of the sitcom was changed to I Love Lucy. It debuted on October 15, 1951, and ran for six seasons. It was a huge rating hit for CBS always being one of the top 3 shows on the network.

The sitcom was followed by The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour, which was a series of 13 hour-long episodes which were basically extended I Love Lucy episodes, but the shooting schedule was easier on the young family. Although not as successful as their first sitcom together, it was still plenty popular. Sadly, when the show ended in April 1960, so did Desi and lucy’s marriage.

In 1961, Lucy married Gary Morton and it was also that same year that Lucy became the first woman to run a major TV studio known as Desilu which produced Mission: Impossible, Star Trek and others.

Lucy later starred in three other similar TV series: The Lucy Show (1962-1968), Here’s Lucy (1968-1974) and Life with Lucy (1986). Her last public appearance was during the 61st Academy Awards in 1989. She died four weeks later. She is gone, but we are forever in love with Lucy.

OTHER EVENTS THAT HAPPENED ON THIS DAY:

1999 – He Saw Dead People

(Hollywood Pictures)

Most people are probably unaware of the Disney connection with the movie The Sixth Sense. The story goes like this: The former president of production of Walt Disney Studios, David Vogel, loved reading M. Night Shyamalan’s spec script for the movie. So much so, he bought the rights to the script for $3 million promising that Shyamalan could direct it. Bad move. Disney sacked him.

Disney sold the production rights to Spyglass Entertainment. However, it was agreed upon that the Mouse House would distribute the movie (but only under their Hollywood Pictures label.) And since Shyamalan didn’t have to get rid of his director’s chair, it became a happy ending for everyone.

The spooky story where a young boy could see and talk to dead people starred Bruce Willis, Haley Joel Osment, Toni Collette, Donnie Wahlberg and Mischa Barton. The movie also brought an awareness of the fairly unknown director.

What made the movie so popular was its amazing twist ending that none of us saw coming. It was brilliant and very hard to duplicate.

Not only did The Sixth Sense make money (over $672 million) it was nominated for six Academy Awards. Sadly, the movie didn’t win any of them. While still a popular director, Shyamalan hasn’t achieved the same level of fame since.

1923: Swimmer Henry

Henry Sullivan became the first American to swim across the English Channel from Dover, England to Calais, France. It took him 27 hours, 25 minutes.

1948: Diver Vicki

American Vicki Draves won her second diving gold medal during the London Olympic Games in the 10-meter platform.

1926: Swimmer Gertrude

Gertrude Ederle became the first American woman to swim across the English Channel from Cap Gris-Nez, France to Kingsdown, England. It took her 14 hours, 39 minutes.

1956 – DuMont Airs its Last Broadcast

(Dumont via Wikimedia Commons)

Long before FOX television network, there was another major network that competed with ABC, NBC and CBS – DuMont.

DuMont was a company that originally built and sold TV sets. It only took a few months of sales before DuMont opened his own TV station in New Jersey. With no radio network to draw stars from to star in DuMont’s programming, the company hired actors from Broadway. And unlike the other stations who only sold commercial rights to one advertiser for each show, DuMont ran commercials for a variety of different businesses, which is the practice today.

On this day, the network aired its last broadcast featuring a boxing match which might have been shown on only five stations nationwide. At least, that is one theory. There are conflicting reports on the actual end date of the network.

The DuMont Broadcasting Corporation’s name was later changed to “Metropolitan Broadcasting Company” to distance the company from what was seen as a major flop. In addition, DuMont was the only major TV network to cease programming for 50 years before UPN and WB networks shut down in 2006.

1960 – Chubby Checker Did “The Twist”

Come on baby, let’s do The Twist! Ernest Evans was a great singer when he was younger. One songwriter was so impressed with Ernest, he arranged a private concert for him to entertain Dick Clark and his wife Barbara. While there, Ernest performed an impression of Fats Domino. Barbara was so impressed, she said that he should go by the name Chubby Checker in Fats’ honor. And he did.

On this day, Chubby performed his version of “The Twist” on Clark’s American Bandstand which made “The Twist” a dance sensation.