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The Modern Lucille

Updated: Jul 17, 2018

A Lucille Ball Inspired Shoot


Photo Credit: Photos by Santino


When I first saw Lucille Ball, I was so shocked that a woman was allowed to be so funny during an era that women needed to be held under a microscope! I thought she needed permission...Lucille Ball did not need permission! And that's exactly how I felt about this shoot, about momming, about breastfeeding, and about living now!


“I thought she needed permission...Lucille Ball did not need permission!”


What's Your Favorite Episode?


Tell me your favorite Lucille Ball episode? Mine is the movie her and her husband starred in together,


There's a lot I did not know that women did in the 50s and 60s. It was obvious that women were actors and singers, but I did not know that they could be producers and directors. Ball was a film-studio executive, and producer along with her acting career. The black-and-white series, I Love Lucy, originally ran from October 15, 1951 to May 6, 1957 on CBS and was developed by Lucille & her husband Desi Arnaz.

I Love Lucy was the most watched show in the United States in four of its six seasons.


Along the way however, there were a lot of rules she had to break as a woman to retain the success she did as an artist and as a business woman.

The show, which was the first scripted television program to be shot on 35 mm film in front of a studio audience. I Love Lucy dominated U.S. ratings for most of its run.


I Love Lucy was how Lucille Ball really gained currency in Hollywood and catapulted her career. Along the way however, there were a lot of rules she had to break as a woman to retain the success she did as an artist and as a business woman.


Lucile Ball was the first woman to head a TV production company: Desilu, which she had formed with Arnaz. After their divorce, she bought out his share and became a very actively engaged studio head. Desilu and I Love Lucy pioneered a number of methods still in use in TV production today, such as filming before a live studio audience with a number of cameras, and distinct sets, adjacent to each other. During this time, Ball taught a 32-week comedy workshop at the Brandeis-Bardin Institute. She was quoted as saying, "You cannot teach someone comedy; either they have it or they don't."



"You cannot teach someone comedy; either they have it or they don't."


In the episode "Lucy Does The Tango", evoked the longest recorded studio audience laugh in the history of the show — so long that the sound editor had to cut that section of the soundtrack in half.


Why The Lucille Ball Inspired Shoot?

Changing Attitudes on Pregnancy & Motherhood in Society


"Several demands were made by CBS, insisting that a pregnant woman could not be shown on television, nor could the word 'pregnant' be spoken on-air."

On July 17, 1951, one month before her 40th birthday, Ball gave birth to daughter Lucie Désirée Arnaz. A year and a half later, Ball gave birth to her second child, Desiderio Alberto Arnaz IV, known as Desi Arnaz, Jr. Before he was born, I Love Lucy was a solid ratings hit, and Ball and Arnaz wrote the pregnancy into the show. (Ball's necessary and planned caesarean section in real life was scheduled for the same date that her television character gave birth.)


Several demands were made by CBS, insisting that a pregnant woman could not be shown on television, nor could the word "pregnant" be spoken on-air. After approval from several religious figures, the network allowed the pregnancy storyline, but insisted that the word "expecting" be used instead of "pregnant". The episode's official title was "Lucy Is Enceinte", borrowing the French word for pregnant; however, episode titles never appeared on the show.


Lucille Ball was the first woman to change the way Hollywood and all of it's viewers spoke about pregnancy. For so long it was so hush hush even the word couldn't be spoken. Pregnant women were ostracized into the shadows in shame as if it was Man, Woman, & Pregnant Woman.


The episode aired on the evening of January 19, 1953, with 44 million viewers watching Lucy Ricardo welcome little Ricky, while in real life Ball delivered her second child, Desi Jr., that same day in Los Angeles. The birth made the cover of the first issue of TV Guide for the week of April 3–9, 1953.[citation needed]


Breaking Censorship on Pregnancy .


What Lucille Ball did for Women was to uncover the truth of pregnancy and bring to light the humor and natural part of life that didn't need to be privatized and shamed because it's something that so many people can relate to. She altered the course for Women and their Pregnancy journey to be spoken about, uncovered, cherished, and welcomed and explosion of relatable laughter about the cycle of life that connects all human.


This day had Santino & I laughing! Playing in the sun while Babe shouted his baby talk to us from his sand throne! Lucille Ball's birthday falls two days after my sons in August. It's no wonder why Lucille Ball's firey humor and brassy attitude sparked so much humility and love for her. I am not as funny as Lucille Ball, but I love to laugh and I love when my son laughs! At least he thinks Im funny! And that's all that matters to this mama :D


Cited Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucille_Ball


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