Lucille Ball - Love, Lucy (Berkley Boulevard Celebrity Autobiography)

The one and only autobiography by Lucille Ball... The #1 Greatest TV Star of All Time

TV Guide

Love, Lucy is the valentine Lucille Ball left for her fansa warm, wise, and witty memoir written by Lucy herself. The legendary star of the classic sitcom I Love Lucy was at the pinnacle of her success when she sat down to record the story of her life. No comedienne had made America laugh so hard, no television actress had made the leap from radio and B movies to become one of the worlds best-loved performers. This is her storyin her own words. The story of the ingenue from Jamestown, New York, determined to go to Broadway, destined to make a big splash, bound to marry her Valentino, Desi Arnaz. In her own inimitable style, she tells of their life togetherboth storybook and turbulent; intimate memories of their children and friends; wonderful backstage anecdotes; the empire they founded; the dissolution of their marriage. And, with a heartfelt happy ending, her enduring marriage to Gary Morton. Here is the lost manuscript that her fans and loved ones will treasure. Here is the laughter. Here is the life. Heres Lucy...

Love, Lucy

BY L UCILLE B ALL

Foreword by Lucie Arnaz

We watched her, we loved her, now her daughter lets us read about her... Lucy fans will find the book fascinating.

Detroit News

Her story is one of triumph... a winner.

New York Newsday

An intensely moving autobiography... sparkles with Lucys wit and ever present vitality.

San Francisco Chronicle

Indeed these are, really and truly, Lucille Balls memoirs... Lucy treats everything matter-of-factly, which seems to be how, in fact, she approached life... moving.

New York Daily News

A warm, conversational memoir filled with light and laughter... Lucille Ball died in 1989, so its a shock to hear the gleeful, guileless voice of Americas favorite redhead ring out with such vitality in an autobiography.

The New York Times Book Review

Its like reading a sincere letter from a likeable, ladylike college chum.

USA Today

Seven and a half years after her death, Lucy finally tells her story... Love, Lucy is an unexpected gift.

Rocky Mountain News

Readers will have a Ball... Lucy takes a long, hard look at her past and tells her story with the insight and dry wit that endeared her to generations of fans... Love, Lucy is a terrific tale, a belated valentine from a great star of stage and screen. Filled with backstage stories and lavishly illustrated, one only wishes that, like Lucys immortal sitcoms, it would go on forever.

Flint Journal

Lucys voice and inimitable timing come through loud and clear... Love, Lucy is a must-read for anyone enamored of the Lucy legend.

The Virginian-Pilot

We love Lucyand now her book... It is a delightful walk through Lucys memories from her childhood in Jamestown, N.Y., to her early years in New York, B movies in Hollywood, life with Desi, and finally life with Gary Morton, her husband for more than 20 years.

San Antonio Express-News

A lively take on a funny star... fascinating.

Atlanta Journal & Constitution

Breezy, well-written... Love, Lucy is packed with interesting anecdotes (did you know Vivian Vance saved Ball from drowning during the filming of a show?), recollections of Hollywood friendships and intimate stories of Balls family life. The writing flows so well you can almost hear Lucys voice confiding it all.

The Forum

Entertaining... Lucille Balls newly released autobiography, Love, Lucy, is a happy surprise for her fans... The most fascinating element of this tome is that it is written in present tense in the early 1960s.

The Star-Ledger

An extremely interesting read... Its a way to discover first hand what was most important to Lucylike Desi, her mother, her family and kids, the career, her mentor Lela Rogersand what was not. She was the genuine article. So is this book.

R OBERT O SBORNE ,

The Hollywood Reporter

BERKLEY

An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC

375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014

Copyright 1996 by Desilu, Too L.L.C.

Penguin Random House supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin Random House to continue to publish books for every reader.

BERKLEY is a registered trademark and the B colophon is a trademark of Penguin Random House LLC.

ISBN: 978-1-101-66708-8

G. P. Putnams Sons hardcover edition / September 1996 Berkley Boulevard mass-market edition / October 1997 Berkley mass-market edition / July 2018

Cover art: Portrait of Lucille Ball CBS Photo Archive / Getty Images; I Love Lucy episode 74 (BC image) CBS Photo Archive / Getty Images

Cover design by Vikki Chu

Book design by Casey Hampton

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O ne of my mothers favorite things to do, when a small group of people were involved in some ordinary conversation, was to wait until one of them left the room and as soon as she returned, blurt out, convincingly, Here she is now! Why dontcha tell her to her face?!! This was always followed by frozen silence, and then shed howl (with that depth-of-the-sea laugh she had) to see the look on the poor souls face, who for one horrible moment thought someone had been saying terrible things about her while she was gone.

Im not sure why, but I keep thinking about that now as I sit down to introduce you to this treasure.

* * *

I lost my father at five minutes after midnight on December 2, 1986, and my mother at dawn, on April 26, 1989. For my brother, Desi, and me, it has been a difficult and complicated mourning period.

Normally, I would think, when an adult child loses her first parent, theres a parents spouse there to take over; to handle the technical decisions, to bury and bequeath. My parents were divorced in the late fifties and both were married to others for more than twenty years. My fathers wife, Edie, died of cancer the year before he did, so we were his only heirs. And after my mothers death, her husband of twenty-seven years, and our stepfather, Gary Morton, learned from her executors that he had been very lovingly and carefully provided for, but that she had placed Desi and me in charge of her estate.

For any children, tending to an estate is an unwelcome and painful process, no matter when the loss comes. Being the one responsible for making all the important final decisions can be a great burden and an instant maturing process all at the same time.

The organizing alone is overwhelming... from ridiculous details like who gets the gravy boat to selling the house, to where are you going to put all the stuff you simply arent ready to part with, to choosing what kind of service you think your parent would want (without ever having talked with her about it).