“Barring accidents, Lucille Ball (1911 – 1989) tomorrow will occupy the spot now disputed by Carol Lombard, Joan Crawford and Ginger Rogers – as First Lady of Hollywood. Lucille deserves to get it and she has what it takes to get there. The red-headed ex-chorus girl has talent, ability looks, personality and willingness to take every punishment on her way up.”
“And Lucille is taking a beating. Nominally called a star, through the casual generosity of her studio, she rates as a Grade-B actress. The Inner Sanctum of Hollywood, producers, directors and actors, dismiss her as a nobody, except for a few who believe in her. She gets the brush-off as ‘another glamour girl’ or ‘that wacky comedienne.’ She is condemned to the chain-gang of half-a-dozen ‘B’ films a year, with days of hard work posing for gag leg art sandwiched between pictures, to get the money’s worth out of her minor-league salary.”
The image at the top of the article depicts Lucy dancing with the RKO dancing coach Hermes Pan; you can read about him here…
You can click here to read about I Love Lucy here
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