'A.K.A. Lucy'
Ernie Kovacs and Danny Thomas might draw blank stares when mentioned. Red Skelton may have stuck in mind for his odd name but say “Lucille Ball” and most everyone’s eyes will light with recognition. Although far from the only funny person on early network television, Ball—let’s call her Lucy—has somehow endured in pop culture. Maybe it was from smart syndication—she proved as astute in business as she was on soundstages. But the Lucy persona, scatterbrained yet determined, forever scheming outside the narrow box of her life, continues to resonate with laughter.
Several biographies have detailed her life, and she (and husband Desi Arnaz) was the subject of the 2022 dramatization Becoming the Ricardos. In her new book A.K.A. Lucy, “Enough Wicker” podcaster Sarah Royal takes the approach of illustrating Lucy’s life with a series of vignettes accompanied by a timeline. And so we learn that on July 11, 1933, Lucy is stopped on a New York street by a Hollywood talent scout who recruited her as “pretty-faced film extra.” (Yes, talent scouts really roamed the streets back then, at least in LA and NYC.)
Discipline and insecurity marked Lucy’s childhood and she leveraged both, organizing her career like a drill sergeant while pushing herself forward against the threat of defeat. She was street smart to boot and felt called to perform, even if in New York, that meant modelling dresses rather than Broadway.
In Hollywood, a long time passed before anyone noticed her, even as Lucy worked like mad to pick up any role while being shunted from studio to studio. “I loved being part of the business. I would have swept floors just to be in it,” she said. With an unusual face and a gift for punch drunk comedy, the studios tried her in different settings but never seemed to know where she belonged.
“And as would be seen with I Love Lucy and subsequent television projects, the film industry was missing many elements that would create a ripe environment for Lucille’s success—a live audience being one example,” Royal writes.
A.K.A. Lucy: The Dynamic and Determined Life of Lucille Ball is published by Running Press.
