Research Podcast

Lucille Ball, with her red hair and blue eyes, broke barriers in the media industry. She inspired women with her independence and boss-like personality. Starting from humble beginnings, she became a successful actress and radio host. Lucille and her husband Desi created the show "I Love Lucy," which challenged societal norms and portrayed female friendship and empowerment. The show addressed topics like women's rights and equality. Lucille's character Lucy Ricardo became an iconic figure, and the show was globally popular. She later took control of her production company and made history as the first woman to run a major TV studio. Despite facing challenges, she continued to push boundaries and pave the way for future generations of women in the industry. 🎵 Tall and thin, her signature red locks and bright blue eyes captivated not only the audience, but America. She crushed the media, destroyed stereotypes, and set new standards. Lucille Ball's aspirations of independence and her boss-like personality inspired a new generation of females in the industry and world today. Lucille Ball's influential impact on society and representation in the mass media continues to be a symbol to all women. It all started in Jamestown, New York on August 6th in the year of 1911, when Lucille Ball was born. With a father who had passed away at a fundamental early age and a working mother, she was raised with the help of her grandparents. Growing up, Lucille's family did not have much money, but with her ambition, she was determined to be different, to make something of herself, and to become someone great. Lucille Ball is not only known for starring in the role of Lucy Ricardo in the hit television sitcom, I Love Lucy, but she is also known for individually altering the media during her career. According to leading lady and Will & Grace star, Deborah Messing states, Lucy was also the rarest of creatures, a loving wife and homemaker who subverted the patriarchy. She schemed to get out of the kitchen. She wanted to be an actress, a dancer, a spokesperson, a model, anything really, that would get her seen and known and get her a paycheck. She wanted more. She wanted independence. Through her various roles in media and being dubbed as the queen of B-movies, she later became a successful radio host of the show, My Favorite Husband. Her radio career began after she appeared on the Jack Haley's radio show in 1938, The Wonder Show. Ten years later, she was offered the starring role by CBS, My Favorite Husband, went on to air 124 episodes with up to millions of listeners. She used this skill set given to her from her radio show to help her succeed in her future. Ball states, This gave me a name in the trade as a good feminine foil. In March of 1951, Ball said goodbye to her radio show. She decided to take the next steps in her career and form a show with her husband, Desi, called I Love Lucy. According to Lucy, Season 2, Episode 6, I Love Lucy from the podcast, The Plot Thickens, leaving the radio was considered to be the biggest gamble of her career. For TV was relatively new and compared to the radio, the audience was much smaller. Lucille began to change societal standards before the show was even aired. The network, CBS, argued that her real husband, Desi Arnaz, should not co-star as her husband on screen due to his Cuban ethnicity. Although CBS considered it scandalous for the Cuban to be married to a typical red-headed woman, Lucille refused to settle with CBS' ideology, but she insisted that Desi play her husband in the sitcom. After 10 years of trying, Lucille Ball was finally pregnant. Typically, in this age, TV was aired live. CBS wanted to shoot the show in New York, except Lucille wanted to shoot the television show in Hollywood. Since she was pregnant and wanted to stay in California, she and Desi had to become creative. With Desi's innovative mind, he was able to configure how to shoot the show in a studio in LA, on film. With Lucille's star power, she was able to convince CBS. They became the first ever to film and shoot with a live studio audience. I Love Lucy introduced and paved the way for the new format of filming and establishing the industry's standard live studio audience. CBS later wanted to cut their pay, but they negotiated with CBS to make a deal to own their original film version of the show. Never having done this before, CBS agreed, not expecting people to want to watch a show they had already previously seen. This became the establishment of reruns. During this time, women were primarily known as caretakers and housewives, when they continued to be marginalized on the screen. To keep up with the societal normality and social standards, they were depicted as primly dressed mothers who frowned upon women who wanted to pursue careers and be in the spotlight. Women were passive, subservient to a patriarch, and centralized people pleasers, said the journal, the only thing read about her. But instead, Lucille continued to fight the societal constraints. She was going to change the conversation. I Love Lucy became one of the first shows to portray female support of one another by displaying the fundamental and realistic qualities of female friendship throughout the show, as well as engaging in contradictory debates regarding how women can appear in public and disrupt the stereotype of the true woman, according to Funny Peculiar. It also consisted of plots added to bring light upon specific matters. For instance, storylines dealing with marital issues, pregnancy, parenthood, women in the workplace, women's rights, and even feelings of unsettlement in the suburban lifestyle were explored in episodes. In Season 3, Episode 4, Equal Rights, aired in 1953. This episode contained some of the most known quotes from the show regarding women speaking up about equal rights. Lucy says to her husband, Ricky, I don't know how you treat your women in Cuba, but this is the United States, and I have my rights. Later in the same episode, the character Ethel states, You men tell us that we have equal rights, but you certainly don't give us a chance to act like it. These famous lines said during the 1950s came as a shock to the media, as well as the common household. It depicted the feministic side of the television show. These types of statements are considered bold for the forthcoming time of the independent woman. The only thing read about her, scholarly article writes, The character's physical similarity meant that Ball and Lucy appeared to be the same person. The gendered stylizations of Ball and Lucy's bodies were identical. They shared clothing styles, makeup styles, hairstyles, and hair color, known even though the show aired in black and white. Ball, the actor, and Lucy, the character, looked to be the same. The same article also points out her intertextual parasocial relationships and how neither Ball's nor Lucy's actions make sense unless refracted to the lens of femininity and the way in which gender evacuates women from the political realm and into the personal. Even when engaging in the most overt of political actions, this accurately depicts the similarities of physical traits and values that Lucille and Lucy share. Through the screen, Lucille's inner feminist shines through her character to bring attention to the importance of female actions and rights. Her 1950s hit show became viewed in 44 countries, leading to a global appeal. She became described as America's most beloved comedian. In 1960, the final season ended in April. One month later, she and Desi split for divorce. Lucy had moved eastward to live in New York to keep working. She did not have anything to prove to anyone. Yet, she wanted to keep going. She went on Broadway and played in the musical Wildcat, starring as Wildly Jackson. Although the musical itself was not greatly popular, the show became sold out for months just to see the star, Lucille Ball. The famous Hey Look Me Over song she sang in the musical became her trademark for years, giving the expression that with the right attitude, anything can be possible. Furthermore, she assimilated control over the company, Desilu. She took power amounting to the presidential position of the studio. Life magazine notes that she became the first woman to outright own and ever run a major TV production of a modern Hollywood studio. She made television history again in the year 1965. Being the only female in a boardroom full of men, she was pressured into canceling both of her shows. Yet, her gut instinct pushed forward the television shows and she approved both pilots, getting them to both be sold. The seven-season show, Mission Impossible, made more than $3 billion in the film franchise. She also pushed for Star Trek production. Without her, the famous show would cease to exist. Later, the media company, Golf and Western 1967, made an offer to purchase Desilu. She sold the land, property, shows, and production studio to the company for $10 million, the equivalent of $79 million today. The company has been rebranded to Paramount Television. Her acts of fearlessness, mischief, and hilarious sense of humor exploded across the screen. The peer-reviewed journal, Funny Peculiar, Lucille Ball and the Vaudeville Heritage of Early American Television Comedy, notes that Ball and her peers in early television comedy undercut the rude women by acting outside the bounds of normative heterofemininity. They performed gender as problematic, as unnatural, as peculiar, deploying the Vaudeville technique that by the 1950s had long been employed in Hollywood, but not often by female stars. Not only did she revamp the media to become more accepting of women, but she fundamentally changed and paved the art of the TV industry, redesigning sexual oppression. Her unapologetic, fierce force of nature and untraditional qualities sparked young women. She was known for breaking the social rules and changing the game for women to come. Carol Brunette said she opened those doors for women to be accepted as executives. Her independent and stealthy feminist side would change the media and inspire performers and businesswomen for generations. .