Lucille Ball Facts - Trivia

- Lucy spent the 30s and 40s acting in B movies. She did so many she became known as "Queen of the B's". This title followed her until her fame in "I Love Lucy" won her the title of "America's Favorite Redhead".

- Lucy had to convince CBS to allow Desi Arnaz to play her husband in "I Love Lucy" by taking a vaudeville act on tour with him. The act was based on the premise of "I Love Lucy" and proved to CBS that America accepted Desi as her husband.

- Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz founded Desilu Productions, making her one of the few women in history (along with Oprah Winfrey) to own and run her own TV production company.

-From 1955 until her death in 1989, Lucille Ball lived at 1000 North Roxbury Drive in Beverly Hills. The Georgian style brick home was next door to the homes of James Stewart and Jack Benny. Other neighbors on Roxbury Drive included Rosemary Clooney and Ira Gershwin.

- In the summer of 2005, Lucille Ball was voted America's most beloved deceased star.
After the demise of Desilu Productions, she also founded Lucille Ball Productions in 1968.

Biography of Lucille Ball

Birth Name: Lucille Désirée Ball

Date of Birth: 6 August 1911, Jamestown, New York, USA

Date of Death: 26 April 1989, Beverly Hills, California, USA (acute aorta aneurysm)

Nicknames: Technicolor Tessie Queen of the B movies (during the 1940s) - The First Lady of Television - Lucy - The Queen of Comedy

Height5' 7" (1.70 m)

Remembered as a dizzy sitcom redhead with show business aspirations, Lucille Ball was, in fact, a show business powerhouse and television pioneer. Throughout her teen years, Ball tried unsuccessfully to launch her show business career, finally landing a spot as a "Ziegfeld Girl". She launched her Hollywood career as one of the "Goldwyn Girls", but she moved out from the crowd of starlets to starring roles. With "I Love Lucy" (1951), she and husband Desi Arnaz pioneered the 3-camera technique now the standard in filming TV sitcoms, and the concept of syndicating television programs. She was also the first woman to own her own film studio as the head of Desilu.