When Desi Arnaz came to Hollywood in the 1940s, it seemed unlikely that a Cuban refugee with a thick accent would ever be accepted by American viewers — let alone star in one of the most popular TV shows of all time.
"[Executives] just did not believe that widespread American audiences would believe him as the husband of an all-American girl like Lucille Ball," biographer Todd Purdum says. "Of course, the irony is they had been an all-American couple for 10 years already in real life."
In his new book, Desi Arnaz: The Man Who Invented Television, Purdum chronicles Arnaz's contributions to the early days of TV and his relationship, both on- and off-camera, with Ball. I Love Lucy, which ran from 1951 until 1957, became the first show in TV history to reach 10 million people. On it, Arnaz played Ricky Ricardo, the TV husband to his real-life wife.
Much of the success of I Love Lucy is credited to Ball's comedic talent. But Purdum notes that Arnaz was more than just "second banana" to Ball's Lucy. Working behind the scenes, he devised the three-camera method used for filming in front of a studio audience, which became standard in the industry.
"Most sitcoms today are still shot using this same basic technique," he says. "It was used for shows like Friends, The Big Bang Theory."
Arnaz and Ball also co-founded Desilu Productions, which produced a number of shows, including The Andy Griffith Show, The Untouchables and The Dick Van Dyke Show. And, Purdum adds, Arnaz's influence is still evident on movie sets around the world, where bathrooms are often labeled "Desi" for men, and "Lucy" for women.
"In this moment in our culture when we're re-examining people whose contributions might've been overlooked because of the way they looked or the way the sounded ... [Arnaz's story is] a window into the early years of television, and the development of television as a business and the power of television that persists to this day over our lives," Purdum says.
Interview highlights
On Arnaz and Ball's tumultuous relationship
From the moment they met each other, it was a classic case of love at first sight or, a very powerful attraction. They got married within six months of meeting each other. They were each pretty seriously involved with other people when they met and they promptly dumped those other people and saw only each other.
The problem was from the very beginning that Desi had an idea that he could stray sexually and it shouldn't matter to his wife. … His uncle took him to the fanciest bordello in Santiago de Cuba, his hometown, and introduced him to sex in a bordello. And when he came to New York as a young performer, he frequented Polly Adler's bordello, which was the most elegant whorehouse in New York, basically. ...
I think he would clearly be what we now would think of as a sex addict. He didn't have affairs with people, as his daughter once said to me, "who had last names." He just had endless dalliances with prostitutes, sometimes more than one at a time. And when this was semi-private, it bothered Lucy, but she could tolerate it. When it became increasingly public and he ultimately got arrested weaving down the street in Hollywood in a neighborhood of notorious bordellos, it became humiliating for Lucy and she really just couldn't take it anymore. And ... and his drinking is what led to their divorce in 1960.
On the conflict at the heart of I Love Lucy
Their son, Desi Arnaz Jr., told me he thought really the theme of the show itself was fundamental conflict and that Lucy and Ricky almost hurt each other in every Monday night's episode but then they drew back and they didn't, and by the end of the shows they were back in each other's loving arms. But the flip side of the conflict is, in the words of the I Love Lucy theme song: "We have our quarrels, but then, how we love making up again." And Lucy, in her memoir, talked about how, especially early in their marriage, their fights were a kind of love-making in themselves that led to, ultimately, reunions. So it's a complicated reality, both in daily life and in the show. And that's part of what the overtones of the show are constantly coming back to the dynamic of their relationship in real life. And that's part of what makes it compelling, I think.
On the show ultimately driving them apart
[They] were working together pretty much 24/7, always thinking about the show in one way or another. And Lucy's only salvation in life, her happy place, was hard work. So she was restless. If she didn't have a lot to do she'd compulsively clean her house or rearrange her drawers. So she loved the work, she loved nothing better than working on that week's episode. ... At one point, Desi suggested they scale back and not do the weekly show anymore, [and] she was unwilling to do that. And I think what happened then was that familiarity began to breed, increasing contempt as they were with each other all the time, not just in home life, but in their work life. And the poignant paradox is that the show was intended to save their marriage and the tensions created by the success of the show ultimately were part of what drove them apart.
On Desi's life post-I love Lucy
After he and Lucy got divorced in 1960, their relationship got warmer and she relied on his business advice. When she bought him out of the company [Desilu] in 1962, he basically took his windfall, which would amount to about $30 million in today's money, and kind of retired and lived the life of Riley. He built a house down in Mexico. ... He lived at the beach, north of San Diego and Del Mar. He had a horse ranch in inland California for a while. And then he got bored, and in the mid-'60s, he tried to stage a comeback. He had one successful series in the late 1960s called The Mothers-in-Law, with Eve Arden and Kaye Ballard. But he never really succeeded again in getting anything much off the ground. ... He had a kind of sad unspooling in which he sank further and further into alcoholism and depression. And finally, with the help of his son, Desi [got] sober and he did finally grapple with some of his demons. He went to alcohol rehab down in San Diego and then he got lung cancer and within a year was dead. …
Lucille Ball went to see him near the end of his life. They had a bond that time couldn't shake. People who knew them said they really were one of great love-affairs of all-time. Their capacity to hurt each other was almost as powerful as their love, I suppose, and they just couldn't manage to be together.
Sam Briger and Anna Bauman produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Bridget Bentz, Molly Seavy-Nesper and Meghan Sullivan adapted it for the web.
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