Lucille Ball#Illness and death

File:Lucille Ball - Downtown Jamestown, NY.jpg

Lucille Désirée Ball was born on Sunday, August 6, 1911, at 69 Stewart Avenue in Jamestown, New York,{{Cite web |title=The home at 69 Stewart Ave., Jamestown, NY where the family of Lucille Ball, a pioneer female television comedian whose landmark television show, "I Love Lucy," captivated U.S. audiences in the early 1950s, lived when she was born |url=https://www.loc.gov/item/2018700782/ |access-date=March 19, 2024 |website=Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA|date=January 2018 }} the first child and only daughter of Henry Durrell "Had" Ball, a lineman for Bell Telephone, and Désirée Evelyn "DeDe" (née Hunt) Ball.{{Cite web |url=https://www.fentonhistorycenter.org/special-features/lucille-ball/the-many-names-of-lucy-and-family/ |title=The Many Names of Lucy and Family - Fenton History Center |access-date=January 28, 2018 |archive-date=August 5, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180805083354/https://www.fentonhistorycenter.org/special-features/lucille-ball/the-many-names-of-lucy-and-family/ |url-status=dead }} Her family belonged to the Baptist church. Her ancestors were mostly English, but a few were Scottish, French, and Irish.{{sfn|Kanfer|2003|p=10}}{{sfn|Ball|1997|pp=168–69}} Some were among the earliest settlers in the Thirteen Colonies, including Elder John Crandall of Westerly, Rhode Island, and Edmund Rice, an early emigrant from England to the Massachusetts Bay Colony.{{cite web|title=Some Ancestral Remains of Lucille Ball|url=http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nychauta/CEMETERY/ForestHill/LucilleBall.html|access-date=October 6, 2012|publisher=Rootsweb.com}}{{cite web|title=Isaac Ball (1747-?)|url=http://www.edmund-rice.org/era5gens/p3.htm#i334023|access-date=May 13, 2012|publisher=Edmund Rice (1638) Association. Lucille Desiree Ball (1911–1989) was a descendant of Edmund Rice as follows: Edmund Rice (1594–1663); Henry Rice (1617–1711); Elizabeth Rice (1648–1740); Mary Brewer (1680–?); Isaac Ball (? –1789); Isaac Ball (1747–1790); Isaac Ball (1787–1865); Clinton Manross Ball (1817–1893); Jasper Clinton Ball (1852–933); Henry Durell Ball (1887–1915) and Lucille Désirée Ball (1911–1989)|archive-date=March 12, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120312235407/http://www.edmund-rice.org/era5gens/p3.htm#i334023|url-status=dead}}

Her father's Bell Telephone career frequently required the family to move during Lucy's early childhood. The first was to Anaconda, Montana, and later to Trenton, New Jersey. On February 28, 1915, while living in Wyandotte, Michigan, Lucy's father died of typhoid fever aged 27, when Lucy was only three years old.Patch, Jason Alley, [http://patch.com/michigan/wyandotte/lucille-ball-lived-in-wyandotte-as-a-young-child], patch.com, August 7, 2011.{{Cite magazine|date=May 26, 1952|title=Radio: Sassafrassa, the Queen|language=en-US|magazine=Time|url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,859647-6,00.html|access-date=June 22, 2020|issn=0040-781X}} At that time, DeDe was pregnant with her second child, Fred Ball (1915–2007). Lucille recalled little from the day her father died, except a bird getting trapped in the house, which caused her lifelong ornithophobia.

Ball's mother returned to New York, where maternal grandparents helped raise Lucy and her brother Fred in Celoron, a summer resort village on Chautauqua Lake.{{cite encyclopedia|title=Lucille Ball Biography|url=http://www.notablebiographies.com/Ba-Be/Ball-Lucille.html|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of World Biography|access-date=April 5, 2008}} Their home was at 59 West 8th Street (later renamed Lucy Lane). Also living in the house were Ball's aunt and uncle, Lola and George Mandicos, and their daughter, Lucy's first cousin Cleo. Having grown up with Lucy, Cleo would later work as a producer on several of Lucy's radio and television programs, and Lucy also introduced Cleo to her second husband, the Los Angeles Times critic Cecil Smith.{{cite book|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nNCGDwAAQBAJ&dq=Cecil+Smith%C2%A0July+11,+2009&pg=PT33|title=Lucille Ball FAQ: Everything Left to Know About America's Favorite Redhead|author= Barry Monush|year=2011|publisher=Applause|isbn=9781557839404|chapter=Cleo Smith}}

Ball loved Celoron Park, a popular amusement area at the time. Its boardwalk had a ramp to the lake that served as a children's slide, the Pier Ballroom, a roller-coaster, a bandstand, and a stage where vaudeville concerts and plays were presented.Higham, C. (1986). Lucy: The Life of Lucille Ball, New York: St. Martin's Press.

Four years after Henry Ball's death, DeDe married Edward Peterson. While they looked for work in another city, Peterson's parents cared for Lucy and Fred. Ball's step-grandparents were a puritanical Swedish couple who banished all mirrors from the house except one over the bathroom sink. When Lucy was caught admiring herself in it, she was severely chastised for being vain. She later said that this period of time affected her deeply, and it lasted seven or eight years.{{sfn|Harris|1991|pp=23–24}}

When Lucy was 12, her stepfather encouraged her to audition for his Shriners organization that needed entertainers for the chorus line of its next show.{{sfn|Kanfer|2003|p=16}} While Ball was onstage, she realized that performing was a great way to gain praise.{{sfn|Kanfer|2003|p=20}} In 1927, her family was forced to move to a small apartment in Jamestown after their house and furnishings were sold to settle a legal judgment.{{sfn|Ball|1996|p=41}}

File:Lucille Ball Tennessee Ernie Ford I Love Lucy.jpg (1954)]]

In 1925, Ball, then only 14, started dating Johnny DeVita, a 21-year-old local hoodlum. Her mother was unhappy with the relationship, and hoped the romance, which she was unable to influence, would burn out. After about a year, her mother tried to separate them by exploiting Ball's desire to be in show business. Despite the family's meager finances, in 1926, she enrolled Ball in the John Murray Anderson School for the Dramatic Arts,{{Cite magazine|last=Swift |first=Sunday|date=February 2019|title=Lucille Ball|magazine=The Chap |pages=29–33}} in New York City,{{sfn|Brady|2001|p=20}}{{sfn|Kanfer|2003|p=24}} where Bette Davis was a fellow student. Ball later said about that time in her life, "All I learned in drama school was how to be frightened."{{sfn|Kanfer|2003|p=205}} Ball's instructors felt she would not be successful in the entertainment business, and were unafraid to directly state this to her.

In the face of this harsh criticism, Ball was determined to prove her teachers wrong and returned to New York City in 1928. That same year, she began working for Hattie Carnegie as an in-house model. Carnegie ordered Ball to bleach her brown hair blond, and she complied. Of this time in her life, Ball said: "Hattie taught me how to slouch properly in a $1,000 hand-sewn sequin dress and how to wear a $40,000 sable coat as casually as rabbit."{{sfn|Kanfer|2003|p=30}}{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j66uvWzubRwC|title=Ball of Fire: The Tumultuous Life and Comic Art of Lucille Ball |last=Kanfer |first=Stefan |date=December 18, 2007|publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group |isbn=9780307424914}}

Her acting forays were stilled at an early stage when she became ill with rheumatic fever and was unable to work for two years.

In 1932, she moved back to New York City to resume her pursuit of an acting career, where she supported herself by again working for Carnegie{{sfn|Brady|2001|p=33}} and as the Chesterfield cigarette girl. Using the name Diane (sometimes spelled Dianne) Belmont, she started getting chorus work on Broadway,{{sfn|Kanfer|2003|p=28}} but it did not last. Ball was hired — but then quickly fired — by theater impresario Earl Carroll from his Vanities, and by Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. from a touring company of Rio Rita.{{cite book|author1=Darryl J. Littleton|author2=Tuezdae Littleton|title=Comediennes: Laugh Be a Lady – "Lucille Ball"|date=2012|publisher=Hal Leonard Corporation|isbn=9781480329744|page=(eBook)(Chapter 5)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Iz_S7n9bWW8C&pg=PT43|access-date=April 5, 2016}}

File:Lucille Ball and Joe Penner 1938.jpg in Go Chase Yourself, a 1938 RKO film in which she played second lead to Penner]]

After an uncredited stint as a Goldwyn Girl in Roman Scandals (1933), starring Eddie Cantor and Gloria Stuart, Ball moved permanently to Hollywood to appear in films. She had many small movie roles in the 1930s as a contract player for RKO Radio Pictures, including a two-reel comedy short with The Three Stooges (Three Little Pigskins, 1934) and a movie with the Marx Brothers (Room Service, 1938). Her first credited role came in Chatterbox in 1936. She also appeared in several Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers RKO musicals: as one of the featured models in Roberta (1935), as the flower shop clerk in Top Hat (1935), and in a brief supporting role at the beginning of Follow the Fleet (1936).{{cite web|title=Lucille Ball |url=http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=103863|publisher=Everything2.com|access-date=April 5, 2008 |quote=Ball and Rogers are lifelong friends}} Ball played a larger part as an aspiring actress alongside Ginger Rogers, who was a distant maternal cousin, and Katharine Hepburn in the film Stage Door (1937).

In 1936, she landed the role she hoped would lead her to Broadway, in the Bartlett Cormack play Hey Diddle Diddle, a comedy set in a duplex apartment in Hollywood. The play premiered in Princeton, New Jersey, on January 21, 1937, with Ball playing the part of Julie Tucker, "one of three roommates coping with neurotic directors, confused executives, and grasping stars, who interfere with the girls' ability to get ahead".{{sfn|Brady|2001|p=73}} The play received good reviews, but problems existed with star Conway Tearle, who was in poor health. Cormack wanted to replace him, but producer Anne Nichols said the fault lay with the character and insisted the part needed to be rewritten. Unable to agree on a solution, the play closed after one week in Washington, D.C., when Tearle became gravely ill.{{sfn|Brady|2001|pp=73–74}}

Like many budding actresses, Ball picked up radio work to supplement her income and gain exposure. In 1937, she appeared regularly on The Phil Baker Show. When its run ended in 1938, Ball joined the cast of The Wonder Show starring Jack Haley. There began her 50-year professional relationship with the show's announcer, Gale Gordon. The Wonder Show lasted one season, with the final episode airing on April 7, 1939.{{cite web|url=http://www.lucyfan.com/wondershow.html|title="The Wonder Show" – 1938 Radio Series – Starring Jack Haley, with Lucille Ball & Gale Gordon|access-date=April 9, 2008|publisher=The Wonder Show|quote=Lucy and The Wonder Show|archive-date=August 3, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200803232053/http://www.lucyfan.com/wondershow.html|url-status=dead}}

File:Lucille Ball - Metro Goldwyn Mayer post card.jpg postcard]]

During Ball's time at MGM in the 1940s, silent film star Buster Keaton and director Edward Sedgwick became her friends and comedic mentors, sharing their experiences with practical comedy and prop work.{{cite book |last1=De La Hoz |first1=Cindy |title=Lucille Ball Treasures |date=2023 |publisher=Chartwell |pages=73–76}} In 1940, Ball starred in Dance, Girl, Dance{{cite web|url=https://www.tiff.net/the-review/the-passion-of-dorothy-arzner/|publisher=Toronto International Film Festival|title=The Passion of Dorothy Arzner|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170717120421/https://www.tiff.net/the-review/the-passion-of-dorothy-arzner/|archive-date=July 17, 2017|author=Fletcher, Alicia|date=February 22, 2017}} and appeared as the lead in the musical Too Many Girls, where she met and fell in love with Cuban band leader Desi Arnaz, who played one of her character's four bodyguards in the movie. Ball signed with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in the 1940s, but never achieved major stardom there.{{cite book|author=Crouse, Richard J.|title=The 100 Best Movies You've Never Seen|publisher=ECW Press |location=Toronto|year=2003|page=[https://archive.org/details/100bestmoviesyou0000crou/page/196 196]|isbn=1-55022-590-1|quote="Stage Door" gives Ball her big break|url=https://archive.org/details/100bestmoviesyou0000crou/page/196}} She was known in Hollywood circles as "Queen of the Bs (B-movies)"{{cite web |url=https://www.womenofthehall.org/inductee/lucille-ball/ |title=Lucille Ball |publisher=National Women's Hall of Fame |access-date=June 30, 2021 }} – a title previously held by Fay Wray and later more closely associated with Ida Lupino and Marie Windsor – starring in a number of B-movies, such as Five Came Back (1939).

In 1942, Ball starred opposite Henry Fonda in The Big Street."[https://catalog.afi.com/Film/27140-THE-BIG-STREET?cxt=filmography The Big Street]". That same year she also appeared in the acclaimed Western "Valley of the Sun" opposite James Craig. AFI Catalog of Feature Films. American Film Institute. Retrieved December 22, 2021. MGM producer Arthur Freed purchased the Broadway hit musical play Du Barry Was a Lady (1943) especially for Ann Sothern, but when she turned down the part, that role went to Ball, Sothern's real-life best friend. In 1943, Ball portrayed herself in Best Foot Forward. In 1946, Ball starred in Lover Come Back and the film noir The Dark Corner. In 1947, she appeared in the murder mystery Lured as Sandra Carpenter, a taxi dancer in London. In 1948, Ball was cast as Liz Cooper, a wacky wife in My Favorite Husband, a radio comedy for CBS Radio. (At first, the character's name was Liz Cugat; this was changed because of confusion with real-life bandleader Xavier Cugat, who sued.{{Cite book|last=Nachman|first=Gerald|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RkCiJ4KvzPYC&pg=PT125|title=Raised on Radio|date=October 17, 2012|publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-307-82894-1}})

File:Lucy in scotland 1956.JPG

File:Lucille Ball John Wayne 1955.JPG in I Love Lucy, 1955]]

File:I Love Lucy Cast.JPG, Desi Arnaz, and Vivian Vance]]

File:Ann Sothern Lucille Ball Lucy Havana show 1957.JPG and Ball during 1957]]

My Favorite Husband was successful, and CBS asked Ball to develop it for television. She agreed, but insisted on working with her real-life husband, Arnaz. CBS executives were reluctant, thinking the public would not accept an Anglo-American redhead and a Cuban as a couple. CBS was initially unimpressed with the pilot episode, produced by the couple's Desilu Productions company. The pair went on the road with a vaudeville act, in which Lucy played the zany housewife, who wants to get into a Cuban band leader's (Arnaz's) show. The tour was a hit, and CBS put I Love Lucy into their lineup.{{cite news |url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/sotomayer-more-splainin-t_b_236347 |title=Sotomayor: More 'Splainin' to Do |access-date=June 18, 2010 |work=The Huffington Post |quote=CBS executives originally did not want Ball, a sassy redhead, married to a Latino on the program|first=Allison|last=Silver|date=July 16, 2009}}

I Love Lucy ran on CBS from October 15, 1951, to May 6, 1957, and was not only a star vehicle for Lucille Ball, but also a potential means for her to salvage her marriage to Arnaz. Their relationship had become badly strained, in part because of their hectic performing schedules, which often kept them apart, but mostly due to Desi's attraction to other women.{{Cite web|title=The Truth Behind Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz's Turbulent Love Story|url=https://www.countryliving.com/life/entertainment/a41926/lucy-and-desi-love-story/|last=Carter|first=Maria|date=March 1, 2017|website=Country Living|language=en-US|access-date=May 20, 2020}}

For the production of I Love Lucy, Ball and Arnaz wanted to remain in their Los Angeles home, but prime time in Los Angeles was too late to air a major network series live on the East Coast; broadcasting live from California would have meant giving most of the TV audience an inferior kinescope picture, delayed by at least a day.{{cite news|url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1272/is_2676_130/ai_78256901|title="I Love Lucy" Turns 50 – Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, background info on influential, groundbreaking TV comedy|publisher=USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education)|access-date=April 5, 2008|quote=Arnaz did not want kinescope|first=Wes|last=Gehring|year=2001|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080626011156/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1272/is_2676_130/ai_78256901|archive-date=June 26, 2008}} Sponsor Philip Morris pressured the couple into relocating, not wanting day-old kinescopes airing in major East Coast markets, nor did they want to pay the extra cost that filming, processing, and editing would require. Instead, the couple offered to take a pay cut to finance filming on better-quality 35 mm film, on the condition that Desilu would retain the rights of each episode once it aired. CBS agreed to relinquish the post-first-broadcast rights to Desilu, not realizing they were giving up a valuable and enduring asset. In 1957, CBS bought back the rights for $1,000,000 (${{Format price|{{inflation|US|1000000|1957}}}} in today's terms), financing Ball and Arnaz's down payment for the purchase of the former RKO Pictures studios, which they turned into Desilu Studios.Cushman, Marc; These Are the Voyages, Vol. 1; Jacobs/Brown Press; San Diego, CA, USA; 2013; p. 27.

I Love Lucy dominated U.S. ratings for most of its run. An attempt was made to adapt the show for radio{{Cite book|last=Terrace|first=Vincent|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EhOBCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA161|title=Radio Programs, 1924–1984: A Catalog of More Than 1800 Shows|date=September 2, 2015|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-1-4766-0528-9|language=en}} using the "Breaking the Lease" episode (in which the Ricardos and Mertzes argue, and the Ricardos threaten to move, but find themselves stuck in a firm lease) as the pilot. The resulting radio audition disc has survived, but never aired.

A scene in which Lucy and Ricky practice the tango, in the episode "Lucy Does The Tango", evoked the longest recorded studio audience laugh in the history of the show — so long that the sound editor had to cut that section of the soundtrack in half.{{cite book|author=Hofstede, David|title=5000 Episodes and No Commercials: The Ultimate Guide to TV Shows on DVD 2007|publisher=Back Stage Books|location=New York|year=2006|page=149|isbn=0-8230-8456-6|quote=Longest laugh in television history}} During the show's production breaks, Lucy and Desi starred together in two feature films: The Long, Long Trailer (1954) and Forever, Darling (1956). After I Love Lucy ended its run in 1957, the main cast continued to appear in occasional hour-long specials under the title The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour until 1960.{{Cite book|last1=Brooks|first1=Tim|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w8KztFy6QYwC&pg=PA652|title=The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946–Present|last2=Marsh|first2=Earle F.|date=June 24, 2009|publisher=Random House Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-307-48320-1|language=en}}

Along the way, Ball created a television dynasty and achieved several firsts. She was the first woman to head a TV production company, Desilu, which she had formed with Arnaz. After their divorce in 1960, she bought out his share and became a very actively engaged studio head.{{cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/previews/american_masters_lucy|title=American Masters "Lucille Ball: Finding Lucy"|access-date=April 2, 2008|publisher=Public Broadcasting Service|quote=Ball first woman to head a major studio}} Desilu and I Love Lucy pioneered a number of methods still in use in TV production today, such as filming before a live studio audience with more than one camera, and distinct sets, adjacent to each other. During this time, Ball taught a 32-week comedy workshop at the Brandeis-Bardin Institute. She was quoted as saying, "You cannot teach someone comedy; either they have it or they don't."{{sfn|Karol|2004|p=201}}

Desilu produced several other popular shows, such as The Untouchables, Star Trek, and Mission: Impossible. Ball sold her shares of the studio to Gulf+Western in 1967 for $17,000,000 (${{Format price|{{inflation|US|17000000|1967}}}} in today's dollars), and it was renamed Paramount Television.Cushman, Marc; These Are the Voyages, Vol. 2; Jacobs/Brown Press; San Diego, CA, USA; 2014; p. 307

File:Lucille Ball at work Heres Lucy 1969.JPG, 1969]]

File:Lucille Ball Lucie Arnaz Here's Lucy 1973.jpg

The 1960 Broadway musical Wildcat ended its run early when producer and star Ball could not recover from a virus and continue the show after several weeks of returned ticket sales.{{sfn|Kanfer|2003|p=220}} The show was the source of the song she made famous, "Hey, Look Me Over", which she performed with Paula Stewart on The Ed Sullivan Show. Ball hosted a CBS Radio talk show entitled Let's Talk to Lucy in 1964–65.[https://www.npr.org/2021/08/04/1024566837/sirius-xm-revives-lucille-ball-radio-tapes-for-podcast-let-s-talk-to-lucy "SiriusXM Revives Lucille Ball Radio Tapes For Podcast: 'Let's Talk To Lucy{{'"}}] August 4, 2021. NPR. She also made a few more movies including Yours, Mine, and Ours (1968), and the musical Mame (1974), and two more successful long-running sitcoms for CBS: The Lucy Show (1962–68), which costarred Vivian Vance and Gale Gordon, and Here's Lucy (1968–74), which also featured Gordon, as well as Lucy's real-life children, Lucie Arnaz and Desi Arnaz, Jr. She appeared on the Dick Cavett show in 1974 and discussed her work on I Love Lucy, and reminisced about her family history, the friends she missed from show business, and how she learned to be happy while married. She also told a story about how she helped discover an underground Japanese radio signal after accidentally picking up the signal on the fillings in her teeth.{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.shoutfactorytv.com/the-dick-cavett-show/the-dick-cavett-show-comic-legends-lucille-ball-march-7-1974/55ad40d269702d04dc0e3c02#top |title=The Dick Cavett Show: Comic Legends - Lucille Ball |date=March 7, 1974 |access-date=March 11, 2022}}

Ball's close friends in the business included perennial co-star Vivian Vance and film stars Judy Garland, Ann Sothern, and Ginger Rogers, and comedic television performers Jack Benny, Barbara Pepper, Ethel Merman, Mary Wickes, and Mary Jane Croft; all except Garland appeared at least once on her various series. Former Broadway co-stars Keith Andes and Paula Stewart also appeared at least once on her later sitcoms, as did Joan Blondell, Rich Little, and Ann-Margret. Ball mentored actress and singer Carole Cook, and befriended Barbara Eden, when Eden appeared on an episode of I Love Lucy.{{Cite web |last=Barnes |first=Mike |date=January 11, 2023 |title=Carole Cook, Lucille Ball Protégé and 'Sixteen Candles' Actress, Dies at 98 |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/carole-cook-dead-lucille-ball-protege-sixteen-candles-actress-1235297334/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230301062242/https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/carole-cook-dead-lucille-ball-protege-sixteen-candles-actress-1235297334/ |archive-date=March 1, 2023 |access-date=June 9, 2024 |website=The Hollywood Reporter |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last1=Gelhoren |first1=Giovana |last2=Heldman |first2=Breanna L. |date=August 7, 2022 |title=Barbara Eden Recalls Working with 'Wonderful' Lucille Ball and 'Playboy' Desi Arnaz: 'I'll Never Forget Her' |url=https://people.com/tv/barbara-eden-recalls-working-with-wonderful-lucille-ball-and-playboy-desi-arnaz-ill-never-forget-her/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230309165429/https://people.com/tv/barbara-eden-recalls-working-with-wonderful-lucille-ball-and-playboy-desi-arnaz-ill-never-forget-her/ |archive-date=March 9, 2023 |access-date=June 9, 2024 |website=People |language=en}} Ball was originally considered by Frank Sinatra for the role of Mrs. Iselin in the Cold War thriller The Manchurian Candidate. Director/producer John Frankenheimer, however, had worked with Angela Lansbury in a mother role in All Fall Down, and insisted on having her for the part.Frankenheimer's DVD audio commentary.

In 1979, Ball signed a deal with NBC under Fred Silverman's watch after 28 years of working with CBS in order to deal with new comedy specials, but only one was aired as part of an agreement.{{Cite news |date=July 2, 1979 |title=Fred's redhead |pages=72 |work=Broadcasting |url=https://www.worldradiohistory.com/hd2/IDX-Business/Magazines/Archive-BC-IDX/79-OCR/BC-1979-07-02-OCR-Page-0072.pdf |access-date=October 26, 2023}}

Ball was the lead actress in a number of comedy television specials to about 1980, including Lucy Calls the President, which featured Vivian Vance, Gale Gordon, and Mary Jane Croft, and Lucy Moves to NBC, a special depicting a fictionalization of her move to the NBC television network. In 1959, Ball became a friend and mentor to Carol Burnett. She guested on Burnett's highly successful CBS-TV special Carol + 2 and the younger performer reciprocated by appearing on The Lucy Show. Ball was rumored to have offered Burnett a chance to star on her own sitcom, but in truth, Burnett was offered (and declined) Here's Agnes by CBS executives. She instead chose to create her own variety show due to a stipulation that was on an existing contract she had with CBS.{{cite news|date=September 25, 2012|title=How 'Carol Burnett Show' almost never happened|work=CBS News|url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-carol-burnett-show-almost-never-happened/|access-date=August 30, 2018}} The two women remained close friends until Ball's death on April 26, 1989, which was Carol's birthday. Ball sent flowers every year on Burnett's birthday.{{cite book|last=Fink|first=Mitchell|title=The Last Days of Dead Celebrities|publisher=Miramax Books|year=2007|isbn=978-1401360252|location=New York City}}

Aside from her acting career, Ball became an assistant professor at California State University, Northridge in 1979.{{cite book|last=Stern|first=Michael|date=2016|title=I Had a Ball: My Friendship with Lucille Ball Revised Edition|publisher=iUniverse|chapter=20|isbn=978-1532011412}}{{cite web|last=Holguin|first=Richard|date=December 16, 1979|title='Everybody is a Comedian' Lucille Ball Starring in Northridge Classroom|url=http://www.lucyfan.com/lucyatnorthridge.html|work=Los Angeles Times|page=5|access-date=April 15, 2019|archive-date=October 23, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201023015419/http://www.lucyfan.com/lucyatnorthridge.html|url-status=dead}}

File:One of the last photographs of Lucille Ball (210262351).jpg in 1989, four weeks before her death. Her husband, Gary Morton, is at left.]]

During the 1980s, Ball attempted to resurrect her television career. In 1982, she hosted a two-part Three's Company retrospective, showing clips from the show's first five seasons, summarizing memorable plotlines, and commenting on her love of the show.{{cite web|url=https://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/showthread.php?t=192779|title=TV Land March 2007 – To Be Continued Free Fridays; Three's Company 30th Anniversary – Sitcoms Online Message Boards|access-date=April 6, 2008|publisher=TV Land|quote=Ball hosts Three's Company reflective.}}

In 1983, Lucille Ball and Gary Morton partnered to set up a film and television production house at 20th Century Fox that encompassed film and television productions as well as plans to produce plays.{{Cite news|date=February 16, 1983|title=Ball-Morton's Deal with 20th Banners Features Plus TV|pages=7, 26|work=Variety}}

Ball starred in a 1985 dramatic made-for-TV film about an elderly homeless woman, Stone Pillow, which received mixed reviews, but had strong viewership. Her 1986 sitcom comeback Life with Lucy, costarring her longtime foil Gale Gordon and co-produced by Ball, Gary Morton, and prolific producer Aaron Spelling, was canceled less than two months into its run by ABC.{{cite web|url=http://www.tvparty.com/movlucy4.html|title=Life With Lucy|access-date=April 6, 2008 |publisher=TV Party|quote='Life With Lucy' turns out to be a flop.}} In February 1988, Ball was named the Hasty Pudding Woman of the Year.{{cite news|url=http://bostonlocaltv.org/catalog/V_Y58RYZJ8ISFLYLS |work=Ten O'Clock News, WGBH|title=Lucille Ball at Hasty Pudding|date=February 19, 1988}}

In May 1988, Ball was hospitalized after suffering a mild heart attack.{{cite news |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-06-01-me-3583-story.html|work=Los Angeles Times |title=Local News in Brief: Lucille Ball Recovering|date=June 1, 1988}} Her last public appearance, just one month before her death, was at the 1989 Academy Awards telecast, in which she and fellow presenter Bob Hope received a standing ovation.{{Cite book|title=Lucy A to Z: The Lucille Ball Encyclopedia|last=Karol|first=Michael|publisher=iUniverse|year=2004a|isbn=0-595-29761-7}}

When Ball registered to vote in 1936, she listed her party affiliation as Communist, as did her brother and mother.{{cite web|year=1936|title=Index to Register of Voters|url=http://blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/bal-lucy-actress-cst-1936-la-co-highlight.jpg|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110707140727/http://blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/bal-lucy-actress-cst-1936-la-co-highlight.jpg|url-status=dead|archive-date=July 7, 2011|work=Ancestry.com|access-date=March 14, 2012}} Copy of document from Los Angeles City Precinct No. 1598, Los Angeles County, California.

To sponsor the Communist Party's 1936 candidate for the California State Assembly's 57th District, Ball signed a certificate stating, "I am registered as affiliated with the Communist Party."Testimony of Lucille Désirée Ball Arnaz, September 4, 1953, Committee on Un-American Activities, House of Representatives, 83d Cong., 1st sess., [https://books.google.com/books?id=y1pXKrPW0DoC Investigation of Communist Activities in the Los Angeles Area – Part 7], September 4, 1953 (Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1953), p. 2567 (PDF p. 14) The same year, the Communist Party of California appointed her to the state's Central Committee, according to records of the Secretary of State of California. In 1937, Hollywood writer Rena Vale, a self-identified Communist, attended a class at an address identified to her as Ball's home according to her testimony given before the United States House of Representatives' Special House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), on July 22, 1940.{{Harvard citation no brackets|FBI file|p=15}}: FBI memorandum: D.M. Ladd to Hoover, Subject: Lucille Ball, Dezi [sic] Arnaz, September 17, 1953. Two years later, Vale affirmed this testimony in a sworn deposition:

{{blockquote|... within a few days after my third application to join the Communist Party was made, I received a notice to attend a meeting on North Ogden Drive, Hollywood; although it was a typed, unsigned note, merely requesting my presence at the address at 8 o'clock in the evening on a given day, I knew it was the long-awaited notice to attend Communist Party new members' classes ... on arrival at this address I found several others present; an elderly man informed us that we were the guests of the screen actress, Lucille Ball, and showed us various pictures, books, and other objects to establish that fact, and stated she was glad to loan her home for a Communist Party new members' class; ...{{Cite book|last=United States. Congress. House. Committee on Un-American Activities|url=https://archive.org/details/investigationofc07unit|title=Investigation of Communist activities in the Los Angeles area. Hearings|date=1953–54|location=Washington, D.C. |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office|others=Boston Public Library |page=2573}}}}

In a 1944 Pathé News newsreel titled "Fund Raising for Roosevelt", Ball was featured prominently among several stage and film stars at events in support of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's fundraising campaign for the March of Dimes.{{Cite AV media|title=Fundraising for Roosevelt|medium=video newsreel film|url=http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=55256|publisher=British Pathé|location=Washington, DC|access-date=June 14, 2011|archive-date=September 28, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110928174903/http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=55256|url-status=dead}} She stated that in the 1952 United States presidential election, she voted for Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower.

On September 4, 1953, Ball met voluntarily with HUAC investigator William A. Wheeler in Hollywood and gave him sealed testimony. She stated that she had registered to vote as a Communist "or intended to vote the Communist Party ticket" in 1936 at her socialist grandfather's insistence.Ball explained, "In those days, that was not a big, terrible thing to do. It was almost as terrible to be a Republican in those days." Testimony of Lucille Désirée Ball Arnaz, September 4, 1953, Committee on Un-American Activities, House of Representatives, 83d Cong., 1st sess., [https://books.google.com/books?id=y1pXKrPW0DoC Investigation of Communist Activities in the Los Angeles Area – Part 7], September 4, 1953 (Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1953), p. 2571 (PDF p. 18) She stated she "at no time intended to vote as a Communist". Her testimony was forwarded to J. Edgar Hoover in an FBI memorandum:

{{blockquote|Ball stated she has never been a member of the Communist Party "to her knowledge" ... [She] did not know whether or not any meetings were ever held at her home at 1344 North Ogden Drive; stated ... [that if she had been appointed] as a delegate to the State Central Committee of the Communist Party of California in 1936 it was done without her knowledge or consent; [and stated that she] did not recall signing the document sponsoring EMIL FREED for the Communist Party nomination to the office of member of the assembly for the 57th District ... A review of the subject's file reflects no activity that would warrant her inclusion on the Security Index.{{Harvard citation no brackets|FBI file|p=26}}: FBI memorandum: SAC Los Angeles to Hoover, Subject: Lucille Ball, was., December 16, 1953.{{sfn|Sanders|Gilbert|2001|pp=77–78}}}}

Immediately before the filming of episode 68 ("The Girls Go Into Business") of I Love Lucy, Desi Arnaz, instead of his usual audience warm-up, told the audience about Lucy and her grandfather. Reusing the line he had first given to Hedda Hopper in an interview, he quipped:

{{blockquote|The only thing red about Lucy is her hair, and even that is not legitimate.{{cite book|last=Brioux|first=Bill|title=Truth and Rumors: The Reality Behind Tv's Most Famous Myths|year=2007|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Company |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=voIe7XkFvEsC&pg=PA37|access-date=July 4, 2012 |page=37 |isbn=9780275992477}}}}

File:Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz at home 1947.jpg played Lucille Ball's husband in I Love Lucy]]

In 1940, Ball met Cuban-born bandleader Desi Arnaz while filming the Rodgers and Hart stage hit Too Many Girls. They connected immediately, and eloped on November 30, 1940, two months after the film opened. Although Arnaz was drafted into the Army in 1942, he was classified for limited service due to a knee injury.{{cite web|title=Arnaz, Desi|url=https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/person/5686%7C37992/desi-arnaz#biography|publisher=Turner Classic Movies|access-date=July 17, 2014}} He stayed in Los Angeles, organizing and performing USO shows for wounded G.I.s brought back from the Pacific.{{citation needed|date=May 2025}}

Ball filed for divorce in 1944, obtaining an interlocutory decree; however, she and Arnaz reconciled, precluding the entry of a final decree.{{Cite book|last1=Sanders|first1=Coyne S.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W_n5s-2BGrkC&pg=PA20|title=Desilu|last2=Gilbert|first2=Tom|date=May 31, 1994|publisher=Harper Collins|isbn=978-0-688-13514-0|language=en}}

File:Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz 1955.jpg in the 1950s|alt=Colored glamorous shot of Lucille Ball and Arnaz standing: Both are smiling to the front. Ball at the left wears a ceremonial gown; Arnaz at right wears a tuxedo.]]

On July 17, 1951, less than three weeks prior to her 40th birthday, Ball gave birth to daughter Lucie Désirée Arnaz. A year and a half later, she gave birth to Desiderio Alberto Arnaz IV, known as Desi Arnaz, Jr. Before he was born, I Love Lucy was a solid ratings hit, and Ball and Arnaz wrote the pregnancy into the show. Ball's necessary and planned caesarean section in real life was scheduled for the same date that her television character gave birth.

CBS insisted that a pregnant woman could not be shown on television, nor could the word "pregnant" be spoken on-air. After approval from several religious figures,{{cite magazine|title=Radio: Birth of a Memo|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,817789,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081222122816/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,817789,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=December 22, 2008|date=January 26, 1953|magazine=Time|access-date=June 14, 2011}} the network allowed the pregnancy story line, but insisted that the word "expecting" be used instead of "pregnant" (Arnaz garnered laughs when he deliberately mispronounced it as "spectin{{'"}}).{{cite web|title=Celebrity Commercials in TV's Golden Age|url=http://www.teletronic.co.uk/ustvads.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100819094937/http://www.teletronic.co.uk/ustvads.htm|archive-date=August 19, 2010|work=Teletronic|access-date=April 5, 2008}} The episode's official title is "Lucy Is Enceinte", borrowing the French word for pregnant; however, episode titles never appeared on-screen.{{citation needed|date=May 2025}}

The episode aired on the evening of January 19, 1953, with 44 million viewers watching Lucy Ricardo welcome little Ricky, while in real life Ball delivered her second child, Desi Jr., that same day in Los Angeles. The birth made the cover of the first issue of TV Guide for the week of April 3–9, 1953.{{Cite book|last=Hofer|first=Stephen F.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m6yvgvusRXoC&q=desi+arnaz+jr+cover+tv+guide&pg=PA7|title=TV Guide: The Official Collectors Guide|date=2006|publisher=Bangzoom Publishers|isbn=978-0-9772927-1-4|language=en}}

In October 1956, Ball, Arnaz, Vance, and William Frawley all appeared on a Bob Hope special on NBC, including a spoof of I Love Lucy,{{Cite web |title=S7-E1 The Bob Hope Show |url=https://www.metacritic.com/tv/the-bob-hope-show/season-7/episode-1-october-21-1956 |access-date=August 26, 2022 |website=Metacritic}} the only time all four stars were together on a color telecast. By the end of the 1950s, Desilu had become a large company, causing a good deal of stress for both Ball and Arnaz.{{citation needed|date=March 2015|reason=Previous ref not a reliable source}}

On March 3, 1960, a day after Desi's 43rd birthday (and one day after filming the final episode of The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour), Ball filed papers in Santa Monica Superior Court, claiming married life with Desi was "a nightmare" and nothing at all as it appeared on I Love Lucy.{{cite book|last=Andrews|first=Bart`|title=Lucy and Ricky and Fred and Ethel|year=1976|publisher=Clarke, Irwin & Company Limited|location=Toronto and Vancouver|page=166}} On May 4, 1960, they divorced; however, until his death in 1986, Arnaz and Ball remained friends and often spoke fondly of each other. Her real-life divorce indirectly found its way into her later television series, as she was always cast as an unmarried woman, each time a widow.{{cite web|url=http://www.powells.com/review/2003_09_25.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031003164359/http://www.powells.com/review/2003_09_25.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=October 3, 2003|title=Powell's Books – Review-a-Day – Ball of Fire: The Tumultuous Life and Comic Art of Lucille Ball by Stefan Kanfer|work=The New Republic Online|access-date=April 5, 2008|quote=Ball's real life divorce makes it into her new shows ... showing her as a single woman}}{{harvnb|Kanfer|2003|pp=72–84}}. "Ball and Arnaz remain friends".

The following year, Ball starred in the Broadway musical Wildcat, co-starring Keith Andes and Paula Stewart. It marked the beginning of a 30-year friendship with Stewart, who introduced Ball to second husband Gary Morton, a Borscht Belt comic 13 years her junior.{{sfn|Sanders|Gilbert|1993|p=216}} Morton and Ball married on November 19, 1961. According to Ball, Morton claimed he had never seen an episode of I Love Lucy due to his hectic work schedule. She immediately installed Morton in her production company, teaching him the television business and eventually promoting him to producer; he also played occasional bit parts on her various series.{{sfn|Kanfer|2003|pp=94, 103}} They had homes in Beverly Hills and Palm Springs, California, and in Snowmass Village, Colorado.{{cite web |title=3BR Condo Vacation Rental in Snowmass Village, Colorado #936414 {{!}} AGreaterTown |url=https://agreatertown.com/snowmass_village_co/3br_house_vacation_rental_in_snowmass_village_colorado_0001548298 |website=agreatertown.com |access-date=February 27, 2022 |quote=Snowmass Condo formerly owned by Lucille Ball}}{{Cite news |last=Flint |first=Peter B.|date=April 27, 1989|title=Lucille Ball, Spirited Doyenne Of TV Comedies, Dies at 77 |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/04/27/obituaries/lucille-ball-spirited-doyenne-of-tv-comedies-dies-at-77.html |access-date=July 11, 2020}}

Letters regarding her marriage to Morton were published: "Boy, did I pick a winner!" Ball wrote to a friend in 1983 after she married Morton in 1961. "After 19 years with that Latin lover I never expected to marry again, but I'm glad I did!"{{citation needed|date=May 2025}}

Ball was outspoken against the relationship her son had with actress Patty Duke. Later, commenting on when her son dated Liza Minnelli, she said: "I miss Liza, but you cannot domesticate Liza."{{sfn|Kanfer|2003|pp=35–37}}

File:Lucille Ball Gravestone.jpg, Jamestown, New York]]

On April 18, 1989, Ball was admitted to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles after experiencing chest pains. She was diagnosed with a dissecting aortic aneurysm near her heart and underwent a 7-hour surgery to repair her aorta and successfully install an aortic valve replacement.

On Wednesday, April 26, while still in the hospital, Ball awoke with severe back pain, then lost consciousness and died at 5:47 a.m. PDT.{{cite web |title=Article: Lucille Ball, Pioneer of Television Comedy, Dies at 77 |url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-1187461.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121106080946/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-1187461.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=November 6, 2012 |access-date=August 31, 2009}}{{cite news |last1=Arnold |first1=Roxane |title=Lucille Ball Dies; TV's Comic Genius Was 77 : Death Caused by Ruptured Abdominal Aorta as She Appeared to Be Recovering From Surgery |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-04-27-mn-1618-story.html |access-date=February 13, 2023 |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |date=April 27, 1989}} Doctors determined that she had succumbed to a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm. They also learned the area of the aorta operated on the week prior had no bearing on the abdominal tear.{{citation needed|date=May 2025}}

Three memorial services were held for Ball.{{cite news| title=3 Services Pay Final Tribute to Lucille Ball| url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-05-09-mn-3036-story.html| newspaper='Los Angeles Times| date=May 9, 1989| access-date=November 4, 2024}} She was cremated, and the ashes were originally interred at Forest Lawn – Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles, where her mother was also buried. In 2002, Ball's and her mother's remains were re-interred at the Hunt family plot at Lake View Cemetery in Jamestown, New York, in accordance with Ball's wishes to be buried near her mother.{{cite news| url=https://buffalonews.com/news/remains-of-lucy-mother-to-be-interred-in-hometown/article_17d42c3b-a0c2-5f38-9a66-410c12b884de.html| title=Remains of Lucy, Mother to be Interred in Hometown| first1=Terry| last1=Frank| first2=Norma| last2=Braude| newspaper=The Buffalo News| date=July 3, 2002| access-date=December 10, 2020| language=en}} The remains of her brother, Fred Henry Ball, were also interred there in 2007.{{citation needed|date=May 2025}}

File:Lucille Ball (3831372291).jpg star for her television work]]

File:Lucille Ball Museum Set (1).jpg set]]

Ball received many tributes, honors, and awards throughout her career and posthumously. On February 8, 1960, she was given two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: at 6436 Hollywood Boulevard, for contributions to motion pictures; and at 6100 Hollywood Boulevard, for her contribution to the arts and sciences of television. In 1964, Ball and her second husband Morton attended "Lucy Day", a celebration in her honor held by the New York World's Fair.{{sfn|Harris|1991|p=278}}

Acting on advice given to her by Norman Vincent Peale in the early 1960s, Ball collaborated with Betty Hannah Hoffman on an autobiography that covered her life until 1964. Her former attorney found the manuscript, postmarked 1966, while going through old files. He sent it and the tapes of interviews, conducted by Hoffman and used to write the manuscript, to Lucie and Desi Jr., who had been put in charge of their mother's estate.Ball, Lucille "Love, Lucy", introduction written by Arnaz, Lucie pp. iii-vi Berkley Publishing 1997 It was subsequently published by Berkley Publishing Group in 1997.{{sfn|Ball|1997}} The book was released on audio through Audible on July 9, 2018, read by her daughter.{{cite book|url=https://www.audible.com/pd/Love-Lucy-Audiobook/B07FB98XCJ |last=Ball |first=Lucille |title=Love, Lucy |access-date=November 2, 2021}}

In 1976, CBS paid tribute to Ball with the two-hour special CBS Salutes Lucy: The First 25 Years.{{cite book|last1=Andrews|first1=Bart|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9Q6LyRdRL20C&q=CBS+Salutes+Lucy%3A+The+first+25&pg=PA222|title=Loving Lucy: An Illustrated Tribute to Lucille Ball|last2=Watson|first2=Thomas J.|date=January 15, 1982|publisher=Macmillan|isbn=978-0-312-49975-4|language=en}} Both Ball and Arnaz appeared on the screen for the special, which is the first time they appeared together in 16 years since their divorce.{{sfn|Harris|1991|pp=306-307}}

On December 7, 1986, Ball was recognized as a Kennedy Center Honors recipient. The part of the event focused on Ball was particularly poignant, as Desi Arnaz, who was to introduce Lucy at the event, had died from cancer just five days earlier. Friend and former Desilu star Robert Stack delivered the emotional introduction in Arnaz's place.{{cite web| url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1986/12/08/LUCY-AND-DESI/7205534402000/| title=Lucy and Desi |date=December 8, 1986| access-date=January 1, 2020| website=United Press International}}{{cite episode |title=Desi Arnaz |series=E! Mysteries & Scandals|series-link=Mysteries and Scandals |network=E! |date=October 9, 2000 |season=3 |number=32 |quote=[Robert Stack:] Somebody asked me if I would do his introduction to Lucy. I looked up and she had a handkerchief to her eye, and I had tears running down my...[chokes up] }}

Posthumously, Ball received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President George H. W. Bush on July 6, 1989,{{cite news| title=Nation: Lucille Ball Gets Medal of Freedom| date=July 6, 1989| url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-07-06-mn-4245-story.html| newspaper=Los Angeles Times| access-date=May 22, 2011}} and The Women's International Center's Living Legacy Award.{{cite web| url=http://www.wic.org| title=Welcome to Women's International Center| access-date=April 9, 2008| website=Women's International Center| quote=Living Legacy Award}}

File:Jamestown, New York (4303088285).jpg

The Lucille Ball Desi Arnaz Museum & Center for Comedy is in Ball's hometown of Jamestown, New York. The Little Theatre was renamed the Lucille Ball Little Theatre in her honor.{{cite web|url=http://www.designsmiths.net/lucilleball/index.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040219213914/http://www.designsmiths.net/lucilleball/index.html|url-status=dead |archive-date=February 19, 2004|title=The Lucille Ball Little Theater of Jamestown, Inc.|access-date=April 9, 2008|website=Designsmiths|quote=Renaming of the 'Little Theater' in Jamestown, New York.}} The street she was born on was renamed Lucy Lane.

Ball was among Time magazine's "100 Most Important People of the Century".{{cite magazine|url=http://www.time.com/time/time100/index_2000_time100.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060614225911/http://www.time.com/time/time100/index_2000_time100.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=June 14, 2006|title=TIME 100 – People of the Century|magazine=Time|access-date=April 9, 2008}}

On June 7, 1990, Universal Studios Florida opened a walk-through attraction dedicated to Ball, Lucy – A Tribute. It featured clips of shows, facts about her life, displays of items she owned or that were associated with her, and an interactive quiz. It remained open until August 17, 2015.{{cite web|url=https://www.universalorlando.com/Shows/Universal-Studios-Florida/Lucy.aspx|title=Lucy – A Tribute|work=Universal Studios Orlando|access-date=July 8, 2015}}{{cite news|url=http://www.orlandosentinel.com/travel/attractions/theme-park-rangers-blog/os-universal-studios-lucy-hello-kitty-20150817-post.html|title=Universal: Lucy attraction out, Hello Kitty in|newspaper=Orlando Sentinel|date=August 17, 2015|access-date=October 17, 2015}}

On August 6, 2001, the United States Postal Service honored what would have been Ball's 90th birthday with a commemorative stamp as part of its Legends of Hollywood series.{{cite press release|url=http://www.usps.com/news/2001/philatelic/sr01_057.htm|title=Stamp Release No. 01-057 – Legendary Hollywood Star Lucille Ball Honored on U.S. Postage Stamp|access-date=April 9, 2008|publisher=US Post Office|quote=Ball honored on a Postage Stamp|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080119012634/http://www.usps.com/news/2001/philatelic/sr01_057.htm|archive-date=January 19, 2008}}

Ball appeared on 39 covers of TV Guide, more than any other person, including its first cover in 1953 with her baby son, Desi Arnaz Jr.{{cite web|url=http://www.tvguide.com/celebrities/lucille-ball/163025#+http://www.tvguide.com/celebrities/lucille-ball/163025#|title=Lucille Ball – Photos, Bio and News for Lucille Ball|access-date=April 9, 2008|work=TV Guide|quote=Lucy appears on thirty-nine covers of TV guide}} TV Guide voted her the "Greatest TV Star of All Time", and later commemorated the 50th anniversary of I Love Lucy with eight covers celebrating memorable scenes from the show. In 2008, it named I Love Lucy the second-best television program in American history, after Seinfeld.{{cite web|url=http://archive.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/history/topic/56036-1.html+http://archive.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/history/topic/56036-1.html|title=TiVo Community Forums Archives – TV Guide's 50 Best Shows of All Time|date=April 26, 2002|access-date=April 9, 2008|first=Steve |last=Gorman|work=TV Guide|quote=TV Guide's second greatest or most influential show of all time|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080606032032/http://archive.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/history/topic/56036-1.html%2Bhttp%3A//archive.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/history/topic/56036-1.html|archive-date=June 6, 2008}}

For her contributions to the Women's Movement, Ball was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 2001.{{cite web|url=http://www.greatwomen.org|title=National Women's Hall of Fame|access-date=April 9, 2008|website=Great Women Organization|quote=Ball inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame}}

The Friars Club named a room in its New York clubhouse the Lucille Ball Room.{{cite web|url=http://www.friarsclub.com/club-facilities/lucille-ball-room |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121203000824/http://www.friarsclub.com/club-facilities/lucille-ball-room|url-status=dead|archive-date=December 3, 2012|title=Lucille Ball Room|website=The Friars Club|access-date=August 27, 2013}} She was posthumously awarded the Legacy of Laughter Award at the fifth Annual TV Land Awards in 2007.{{cite news|url=http://theenvelope.latimes.com/tv/la-env-tvland15apr15,0,2045170.story?coll=env-tv|title=TV Land loves Lucy|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|access-date=May 10, 2007|date=April 15, 2007}} In November 2007, she was chosen as number two on a list of the 50 Greatest TV Icons, behind Johnny Carson; however, a public poll chose her as number one.{{cite news|agency=Associated Press|title=Carson tops list of 50 greatest TV icons|url=https://www.today.com/popculture/carson-tops-list-50-greatest-tv-icons-wbna21772917|work=Today|date=November 16, 2007|access-date=March 19, 2008}}

On August 6, 2011, Google's homepage showed an interactive doodle of six classic moments from I Love Lucy to commemorate what would have been Ball's 100th birthday.{{cite news|author=Nancy Blair|title=Google Doodle pays charming tribute to Lucille Ball on her 100th|url=http://content.usatoday.com/communities/technologylive/post/2011/08/google-doodle-pays-charming-tribute-to-lucille-ball-on-her-100th/1|work=USA Today|date=August 6, 2011|access-date=August 6, 2011}} On the same day, 915 Ball look-alikes converged on Jamestown to celebrate the birthday and set a new world record for such a gathering.[http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2011/08/08/915-Lucille-Ball-look-alikes-set-record/UPI-55111312786834 "915 Lucille Ball look-alikes set record"]. United Press International. Retrieved December 8, 2014.

Since 2009, a statue of Ball has been on display in Celoron, New York, that residents deemed "scary" and not accurate, earning it the nickname "Scary Lucy".{{cite news|last=Hunter|first=Marnie|url=http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/07/travel/artist-offers-to-fix-lucille-ball-statue-feat/|title=Mayor rejects artist's offer to fix 'Scary Lucy' statue|work=CNN|date=April 7, 2015|access-date=April 8, 2015}} On August 1, 2016, it was announced that a new statue of Ball would replace it on August 6.{{cite magazine|last1=Kimble|first1=Lindsay|title=Lucille Ball's 'Scary Lucy' replacement statue unveiled|url=http://www.ew.com/article/2016/08/06/lucille-ball-scary-lucy-replacement-statue-unveiled|magazine=Entertainment Weekly|access-date=August 6, 2016}} However, the old statue had become a local tourist attraction after receiving media attention, and it was placed {{convert|75|yd|m}} from its original location so visitors could view both statues.{{cite web|last1=Stack|first1=Liam|title=Here's Lucy! 'Scary' Statue Is Replaced With One That Looks Like Her|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/10/arts/design/scary-lucy-statue-is-replaced-on-anniversary-of-comedians-105th-birthday.html|website=The New York Times|access-date=May 20, 2017|date=August 9, 2016}}

Ball was a well-known gay-rights supporter, stating in a 1980 interview with People: "It's perfectly all right with me. Some of the most gifted people I've ever met or read about are homosexual. How can you knock it?"{{cite web|url=https://people.com/archive/ask-her-anything-about-desi-sr-divorce-drugs-gay-rights-lucy-ball-hasnt-become-bashful-at-68-vol-13-no-6/|title=Ask Her Anything About Desi Sr., Divorce, Drugs, Gay Rights—Lucy Ball Hasn't Become Bashful at 68|first= Peter|last=Lester| work=People|date=February 11, 1980}}

Ball has been portrayed or referenced numerous times in other media. In 1991, CBS aired Lucy & Desi: Before the Laughter, starring Frances Fisher.{{Cite web | url=https://www.tvguide.com/movies/lucyasand-desi-before-the-laughter/2000262797/ |title = Lucy & Desi: Before the Laughter (TV Movie 1991) |website=TV Guide }}{{Cite news |last=O'Connor |first=John J. |date=1991-02-08 |title=TV Weekend; Lucy and Desi, Behind the Screen |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/02/08/arts/tv-weekend-lucy-and-desi-behind-the-screen.html |access-date=2024-08-07 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}} Rachel York and Madeline Zima portrayed Ball in a biographical television film titled Lucy which was directed by Glenn Jordan and originally broadcast on CBS on May 4, 2003.{{citation needed|date=May 2025}}

In 2015, it was announced that Ball would be played by Cate Blanchett in an untitled biographical film, to be written and directed by Aaron Sorkin. Subsequently, Nicole Kidman was hired to portray Ball when Sorkin's film entitled Being the Ricardos was produced in 2021.{{cite news|url=https://variety.com/2015/film/news/cate-blanchett-lucille-ball-biopic-aaron-sorkin-1201584182/|title=Cate Blanchett to star in Lucille Ball biopic from Aaron Sorkin|last=McNary|first=Dave|date=September 2, 2015|work=Variety|access-date=September 5, 2015}}{{cite web|first=Jeremy|last=Fuster|title=Nicole Kidman in Talks to Replace Cate Blanchett in Aaron Sorkin's Lucille Ball Biopic With Javier Bardem|url=https://www.thewrap.com/nicole-kidman-in-talks-to-replace-cate-blanchett-in-aaron-sorkins-lucille-ball-biopic-with-javier-bardem/|date=January 11, 2021|website=The Wrap|access-date=January 19, 2021}} On February 8, 2022, Kidman received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of Ball.{{cite web|url=https://deadline.com/2022/02/oscar-nominations-list-of-nominees-1234928251/|title=Oscar Nominations: 'The Power Of The Dog', 'Dune' Top List; 'Drive My Car' Among Big Surprises|work=Deadline Hollywood|first=Patrick|last=Hipes|date=February 8, 2022|access-date=February 13, 2022}} Kidman also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama for her performance.{{cite web|url=https://deadline.com/2022/01/golden-globe-winners-list-movie-tv-awards-1234907035/|title=Golden Globes: The Complete Winners List|website=Deadline Hollywood|first=Patrick|last=Hipes|date=January 9, 2022|access-date=January 10, 2022|archive-date=January 10, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220110093216/https://deadline.com/2022/01/golden-globe-winners-list-movie-tv-awards-1234907035/|url-status=live}}

A 2017 episode of Will & Grace paid homage to Ball by replicating the 1963 shower scene from the episode "Lucy and Viv Put in a Shower" from The Lucy Show.{{cite news|last=Rorke|first=Robert|date=October 4, 2017|title=Wacky 'Will & Grace' scene recalls 'The Lucy Show' episode|url=https://nypost.com/2017/10/04/wacky-will-grace-scene-recalls-the-lucy-show-episode/|access-date=November 16, 2020|newspaper=New York Post|language=en-US}} Three years later, an entire episode was dedicated to her by recreating four scenes from I Love Lucy.{{Cite magazine|title=Debra Messing takes EW behind the scenes of 'Will & Grace' tribute to 'I Love Lucy'|url=https://ew.com/tv/will-and-grace-i-love-lucy-debra-messing/|access-date=November 16, 2020|magazine=Entertainment Weekly|language=EN}} Separately in 2017, Ball's character Lucy Ricardo was portrayed by Gillian Anderson in the American Gods episode "The Secret of Spoons" (2017).[http://ew.com//2017/05/07/american-gods-gillian-anderson-lucille-ball "Gillian Anderson dishes on her Lucille Ball moment"]. Entertainment Weekly. May 7, 2017. Retrieved July 30, 2017.

Ball was portrayed by Sarah Drew in the play I Love Lucy: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Sitcom, a comedy about how Ball and her husband battled to get their sitcom on the air. It premiered in Los Angeles on July 12, 2018, co-starring Oscar Nuñez as Desi Arnaz, and Seamus Dever as I Love Lucy producer-head writer Jess Oppenheimer. The play was written by Oppenheimer's son, Gregg Oppenheimer.{{cite news|url=https://www.broadwayworld.com/los-angeles/regional/I-Love-LucyA-Funny-Thing-Happened-on-the-Way-to-the-Sitcom-255669|title=I Love Lucy: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Sitcom|work=Broadway World|access-date=July 16, 2018}} BBC Radio 4 broadcast a serialized version of the play in the UK in August 2020, as LUCY LOVES DESI: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Sitcom, starring Anne Heche as Ball.[https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/proginfo/2020/33/lucy-loves-desi-a-funny-thing-happened-on-the-way-to-the-sitcom BBC Media Centre page] for "Lucy Loves Desi: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Sitcom". In January 2023, L.A. Theatre Works mounted a 22-city U.S. national tour of the play (as LUCY LOVES DESI: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Sitcom), starring Ellis Greer as Ball.{{Cite web | url= https://www.broadwayworld.com/national-tours/article/LA-Theatre-Works-17th-Annual-National-Tour-Brings-Hilarious-LUCY-LOVES-DESI-To-Performing-Arts-Venues-Across-US-20221215| title=LA Theatre Works 17th Annual National Tour Brings Hilarious LUCY LOVES DESI to Performing Arts Venues Across US|first=A.A.|last=Cristi|date=December 15, 2022|website=Broadway World| access-date=March 12, 2023 }}

{{main|List of Lucille Ball performances}}

Ball's awards and nominations references:{{Cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000840/awards|title=Lucille Ball|website=IMDb|access-date=December 26, 2018}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.oftaawards.com/tv-hall-of-fame/television-hall-of-fame-actors/|title=Television Hall of Fame: Actors – Online Film & Television Association|language=en-US|access-date=December 26, 2018}}

{{Reflist|refs=

{{cite web|title=Lucie Arnaz Filmography|url=http://www.fandango.com/luciearnaz/filmography/p2323|publisher=Fandango|access-date=April 5, 2008|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080320094244/http://www.fandango.com/luciearnaz/filmography/p2323 |archive-date=March 20, 2008}}

{{cite web|url=http://www.twoop.com/people/lucille_ball.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060507215239/http://www.twoop.com/people/lucille_ball.html|url-status=usurped|archive-date=May 7, 2006|title=Lucille Ball Timeline and Biography|access-date=April 5, 2008|publisher=twoop.com|quote=Ball gives birth to her children}}

{{YouTube|lxZ-z6R58Ow|Interview with Lucille Ball on the Dick Cavett Show, 1974}}

{{cite web|title=Lucille Ball Trivia|url=http://www.netglimse.com/celebs/pages/lucille_ball/index.shtml|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050521083356/http://www.netglimse.com/celebs/pages/lucille_ball/index.shtml|url-status=dead|archive-date=May 21, 2005|work=NetGlimse|access-date=March 14, 2012}}

}}

{{Refbegin}}

• {{cite book|last=Ball|first=Lucille|year=1996|title=Love, Lucy|editor-last=Hoffman|editor-first=Betty Hannah|location=New York|publisher=Putnam|isbn=978-0-399-14205-5 |oclc=231698725 |url=https://archive.org/details/lovelucy00ball_0}} This autobiography covers Ball's life up to 1964. It was discovered by her children in 1989 ({{cite web|url=http://www.worldcat.org/search?qt=wikipedia&q=isbn%3A9780399142055 |title=Love, Lucy|work=WorldCat|access-date=November 19, 2011}})
• {{cite book|last=Ball|first=Lucille|year=1997|title=Love, Lucy|editor-last=Hoffman|editor-first=Betty Hannah|location=New York|publisher=Berkly|isbn=978-0-425-17731-0|oclc=52255505}}
  • {{cite book|last=Brady|first=Kathleen|year=2001|title=Lucille: the life of Lucille Ball|location=New York |publisher=Billboard Books|isbn=978-0-8230-8913-0}}
    • {{wikicite |reference=FBI file: {{cite web |title=Lucille Ball Part 01 of 01 |url=https://vault.fbi.gov/lucille-ball |work=FBI Records: The Vault |publisher=FBI |ref=none}} |ref={{harvid|FBI file}}}}
      • {{cite book|last=Harris|first=Warren C.|year=1991|title=Lucy and Desi: the legendary love story of television's most famous couple|location=New York|publisher=Simon & Schuster|isbn=978-0-671-74709-1 |url=https://archive.org/details/lucydesilegendar0000harr_n1d6}}
        • {{cite book|last=Herringshaw|first=DeAnn|year=2011|title=Lucille Ball: Actress & Comedienne |location=Edina, MN|publisher=ABDO|isbn=978-1-61787-664-6}}
          • {{cite book|last=Kanfer|first=Stefan|year=2003|title=Ball of Fire: The Tumultuous Life and Comic Art of Lucille Ball|url=https://archive.org/details/balloffiretumult00kanf|url-access=registration|location=New York|publisher=Alfred A. Knopf|isbn=0-375-41315-4}}
            • {{cite book|last=Karol|first=Michael A.|year=2004|title=The Lucille Ball Quiz Book |publisher=iUniverse |isbn=978-0-595-31857-5}}
              • {{cite book|last1=Sanders|first1=Coyne Steven|last2=Gilbert|first2=Thomas W.|year=1993|title=Desilu: The Story of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz|publisher=HarperCollins|isbn=978-0-688-13514-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y1pXKrPW0DoC&q=Paula+Stewart+introduces+Lucille+BAll+to+Gary&pg=PA216}}
              • {{cite book|last1=Sanders|first1=Coyne Steven|last2=Gilbert|first2=Thomas W.|year=2001|title=Desilu: The Story of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz|location=New York|publisher=HarperEntertainment|isbn=0-688-13514-5 |oclc=48543617}}

              {{Refend}}

• Karol, Michael (2003). Lucy in Print; {{ISBN|0-595-29321-2}}
• Karol, Michael (2005). The Comic DNA of Lucille Ball: Interpreting the Icon; {{ISBN|0-595-37951-6}}
• {{cite web |last1=Mankiewicz |first1=Ben |author1-link=Ben Mankiewicz |title=Season Three: Lucille Ball |url=https://www.tcm.com/articles/Programming-Article/021880/tcm-presents-the-plot-thickens |website=The Plot Thickens (documentary podcast) |publisher=tcm.com |access-date=November 14, 2023}}
• McClay, Michael (1995). I Love Lucy: The Complete Picture History of the Most Popular TV Show Ever; {{ISBN|0-446-51750-X}} (hardcover)
• {{cite book|last=Meeks|first=Eric G.|title=P.S. I Love Lucy: The Story of Lucille Ball in Palm Springs|year=2011|publisher=Horotio Limburger Oglethorpe|isbn=978-1468098549|page=45}}
• Pugh Davis, Madelyn; with Carroll Jr., Bob (2005). Laughing With Lucy: My Life With America's Leading Lady of Comedy; {{ISBN|978-1-57860-247-6}}
• Sheridan, James & Barry Monush (2011). Lucille Ball FAQ: Everything Left to Know About America's Favorite Redhead; {{ISBN|978-1-61774-082-4}}
• Young, Jordan R. (1999). The Laugh Crafters: Comedy Writing in Radio & TV's Golden Age. Beverly Hills: Past Times Publishing; {{ISBN|0-940410-37-0}}

{{Commons category}}

{{Wikiquote}}

• {{IBDB name}}
• {{IMDb name|0000840}}
• {{rotten-tomatoes-person|lucille_ball}}
• {{TCMDb name}}
• {{TV Guide person}}
• [http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/B/htmlB/balllucille/balllucille.htm Lucille Ball] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090207003324/http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/B/htmlB/balllucille/balllucille.htm |date=February 7, 2009 }} at the Museum of Broadcast Communications
• [https://lccn.loc.gov/2006560773 Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz Papers, 1915–1990] at the Library of Congress
• {{cite magazine|url=http://www.life.com/gallery/62521/lucille-ball-unpublished-photos|title=Celebrating Lucille Ball at 100: Unpublished Photos|type=Sideshow|magazine=Life|access-date=August 6, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120115042606/http://www.life.com/gallery/62521/lucille-ball-unpublished-photos|archive-date=January 15, 2012|url-status=dead}}
• Norwood, Arlisha. [https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/lucille-ball "Lucille Ball"], National Women's History Museum. 2017.
• {{cite web |url= https://archive.org/details/1944OrsonWellesRadioAlmanacpart1|quote=Lucille Ball and several other actors participate|title=Orson Welles Radio Almanac|date=1944|series=Recordings|website=Internet Archive}}
• {{cite web|url=http://voicesofoklahoma.com/interview/clark-wanda|work=Interview|title=Wanda Clark|quote=About her long-time, 25 years, employer Lucille Ball|date=August 5, 2015|publisher= Voices of Oklahoma |series= Oral history project }}

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|title = Awards for Lucille Ball

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{{Cecil B. DeMille Award}}

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