Most helpful customer reviews
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3.0 out of 5 stars
Why "Love Lucy"?, Mar 1 2004
While reading Love, Lucy, I began to understand where Lucille Ball had come from and what she had done. This book gives us insight into the mind of a comedy legend. Beginning in Jamestown, New York, the young Lucille Ball enjoyed her life and making people laugh. She was moved around a lot as her mother was widowed at a very young age and needed some space from the world in order to find out who she was. Young Lucille lived with grandparents or aunts and uncles in her early years and always knew that she wanted to make people happy and she wanted to be noticed. The death of her father, and of her grandmother reinforced her drive to bring joys to others and end the sadness that had engulfed her life during that time. She moved to New York City as an older teenager and gained recognition while modeling for small dress shops in the city, and was in many runway shows. It was then that she was noticed by a photographer and named "Model of the Month." Soon after, she was recognized by a producer at RKO studios and offered a role as a showgirl. At RKO studios she met her first real mentor, Lela Rogers, the mother of the famous Ginger Rogers. Lela ran a small acting class / studio and immediately saw Lucille's potential. She knew there was something special inside of her and helped young Lucille to find it herself. It was then that she began receiving larger roles in more prominent films. After a "run-in" with a perverted producer,(who wanted to leave his wife and marry her) Lucille, now in her mid-twenties, was only cast in "B" films as the wife of the producer was extremely upset. She made sure that Lucille would never cross the path of her husband again as he was the producer of "A" films. This turned out to be a good thing because she was cast as either second leading lady or the lead. She made many public appearances. One happened to be in New York City at Broadway to see a theater production of a movie she would possibly be starring in. She met Desi Arnez and they were both smitten; they eloped a year or so later. With the birth of their first child, Lucie, the couple was more sure than ever that they wanted to be co-starring in a show together. The I Love Lucy show was born and turned out to be a huge success. During the end of the first season, Lucy gave birth to another child, a son, Desi Jr. After his birth the marriage began to fall apart and the couple divorced. Custody of the children consisted of Lucille having the kids for the school year, and Desi having them during the summer. Eventually Lucille remarried and established a somewhat normal lifestyle.
Lucille Ball's relationship with her work was very unique as she wouldn't do a scene if she didn't believe it. She needed to feel the reality behind it if she wanted the audience to believe it as well. She was very passionate about her work and willing to try anything, even in her early years. "No Sir, I haven't done anything on Broadway, but I'd sure like to try." she would say to any producer who would listen. She tried to please everyone but realized that she couldn't be who everyone wanted her to be. She stayed true to herself and did what was best for her and her family.
Lucille Ball is bubbly and vivacious in this autobiography. Her liveliness seems to be contagious to everyone she meets and she brings joy to all who came in contact with her, and those who still come in contact with her work. Although I have a high opinion of Lucille herself, I felt that the book was somewhat lacking. Most parts were full of realism and passion for her work; some parts just didn't flow with the rest of the novel. She seemed to not have much to say in certain chapters as she kind of rambled on a bit about the same things over and over again such as her pay and her relationship with RKO studios.
Overall, this book was a great read and was very informative, but some things could have been edited out as they were not worth the time of the reader.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
A Touching Autobiograppy - I Read It Three Times, Sep 3 2003
This book, without a ghost writer, was taken from a munuscript composed by Lucy herself in 1966 and not discovered until several years after her death. That's the best feature of the book - you feel as though Lucy is sitting in front of you, recounting her life. Those looking for juicy, dirty gossip had better look elsewhere; Lucy was far too classy for that. Without getting into unnecessarily sordid, perhaps lewd details, characterstic of many divorces, she reveals the causes of her divorce from her dreamboat, Desi Arnaz. Her use of the English language, including her vocabulary and grammar belie the image of the scatter brained, mischievous bubbleheaded characters portrayed during her tremendous career, especially the I Love Lucy show. Lucy was indeed a very astute, insightful lady, equally at home in a luxurious ballroom gown and a hobo's costume. She could certainly do it all. In her own words, she was not easily taken in by others. It showed in this book. I would heartily recommend to any fan of the great T.V. legend, Lucille Ball. A bargain at three times the price
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3.0 out of 5 stars
A "Politically Correct" Autobiography, Aug 31 2003
By A Customer
I read Lucille Ball's autobiography "Love, Lucy" and was impressed by the wealth of detail. It was so wonderful to get to finally see how Lucille Ball looked at life. And it was also inspiring to see the amount of work that Ball had to put in to attain super-stardom. But, as with many autobiographies, you need to take this work with a grain of salt. Ball obviously wasn't interested in making herself (or anyone else, for that matter,) look bad. She deliberately sidesteps issues regarding husband Desi Arnaz's marital fidelty, and she also downplays her own jealous and controlling nature. So if you want to read a very "politically correct" version of Lucy's life, I suggest you read this autobiography. But if you want to read the hard facts, I suggest you look elsewhere.
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