Desi Arnaz

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Not to be confused with his son, the actor Desi Arnaz Jr.

This article uses Spanish naming customs: the first or paternal family name is Arnaz and the second or maternal family name is de Acha.
Desi Arnaz
Desi Arnaz 1950.JPG
Arnaz in 1950
Born
Desiderio Alberto Arnaz y de Acha III

(1917-03-02)March 2, 1917
Santiago de Cuba, Cuba
DiedDecember 2, 1986(1986-12-02) (aged 69)
Del Mar, California, U.S.
OccupationActor, musician, bandleader, comedian, producer
Years active1936–1982
Spouse(s)
  • ​
    ​
    (m. 1940; div. 1960)​
  • Edith Mack Hirsch
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1963; died 1985)​
Children
Parent(s)
Relatives
  • Alberto de Acha
    (maternal grandfather)[1]

Desiderio Alberto Arnaz y de Acha III (March 2, 1917 – December 2, 1986), better known as Desi Arnaz, was a Cuban-American actor, musician, bandleader, comedian and film, television producer and revolutionary in the creation of modern television. [2] He is best known for his role as the witty Ricky Ricardo on the American television series sitcom I Love Lucy, where he co-starred with his then wife Lucille Ball.[2] Arnaz and Ball are generally credited as the innovators of the syndicated rerun, which they pioneered with the I Love Lucy series.[3]

Arnaz and Lucille Ball co-founded and ran the television production company called Desilu Productions, originally to market I Love Lucy to television networks. After I Love Lucy ended, Arnaz went on to produce several other television series, at first with Desilu Productions, and later independently, including The Ann Sothern Show and The Untouchables. He was also renowned for leading his Latin music band, the Desi Arnaz Orchestra.

Early life[edit]

Arnaz was born Desiderio Alberto Arnaz y de Acha, III, in Santiago de Cuba, Cuba,[2] to Desiderio Alberto Arnaz y de Alberni II (March 8, 1894 – May 31, 1973) and Dolores de Acha (April 2, 1896 – October 24, 1988). His father was Santiago's youngest mayor and also served in the Cuban House of Representatives. His maternal grandfather was Alberto de Acha, an executive at rum producer Bacardi & Co.[4]

Arnaz describes the opulent family life of his early youth in his autobiography, A Book (1976)—the family owned three ranches, a palatial home, and a vacation mansion on a private island in Santiago Bay, Cuba. Following the Cuban Revolution of 1933, led by Fulgencio Batista, which overthrew President Gerardo Machado, Alberto Arnaz was jailed and all of his property was confiscated. He was released after six months when his brother-in-law Alberto de Acha intervened on his behalf.[4] The family then fled to Miami, where Desi attended St. Patrick Catholic High School. In the summer of 1934, he attended Saint Leo Prep[5] (near Tampa) to help improve his English. His first job was working at Woolworths in Miami. He then went into the tile business with his father before turning to show business full-time.[6]

Professional career[edit]

Musician and actor[edit]

After finishing high school, Arnaz formed a band, the Siboney Septet, and began making a name for himself in Miami. Xavier Cugat, after seeing Arnaz perform, hired him for his touring orchestra, playing the conga drum and singing. Becoming a star attraction encouraged him to start his own band, the Desi Arnaz Orchestra.[6][1]

Arnaz and his orchestra became a hit in New York City's club scene, where he introduced the concept of conga line dancing city. He came to the attention of Rodgers and Hart who, in 1939, cast him in their Broadway musical Too Many Girls. The show was a hit and RKO Pictures bought the movie rights.[6]

Arnaz went to Hollywood the next year to appear in the show's movie version at RKO, which also starred Lucille Ball. Arnaz and Ball fell in love during the film's production and eloped on November 30, 1940.[6]

Arnaz appeared in several movies in the 1940s such as Bataan, starring Robert Taylor (1943). Many consider his portrayal of the jive-loving California National Guardsman Felix Ramirez to be his best early role.

He received his draft notice, but before reporting, he injured his knee. He completed his recruit training, but was classified for limited service in the United States Army during World War II. He was assigned to direct United Service Organization (USO) programs at the Birmingham General Army Hospital in the San Fernando Valley. Discovering the first thing the wounded soldiers requested was a glass of cold milk, he arranged for movie starlets to meet them and pour the milk for them.

Following his discharge from the Army on November 16, 1945, he formed another orchestra, which was successful in live appearances and recordings.[7] He sang for troops in Birmingham Hospital with John Macchia and hired his childhood friend Marco Rizo to play piano and arrange for the orchestra.

For the 1946–47 season, Arnaz was the bandleader, conducting his Desi Arnaz Orchestra, on Bob Hope's radio show (The Pepsodent Show) on NBC.[8]

In 1951, Arnaz was given a game show on CBS Radio, Your Tropical Trip in order to entice Arnaz and Ball to stay at CBS over a competing offer from NBC, and to keep Arnaz and his band employed and in Hollywood, rather than touring. The musical game show, hosted by Arnaz, had audience members competing for a Caribbean vacation and also featured Arnaz's orchestra. The program aired from January 1951 until September, shortly before the premiere of I Love Lucy in October.[9]

When he became successful in television, he kept the orchestra on his payroll, and Rizo arranged and orchestrated the music for I Love Lucy.[10]

Lucille Ball and Arnaz, 1957

I Love Lucy[edit]

Main article: I Love Lucy

On October 15, 1951, Arnaz co-starred in the premiere of I Love Lucy, in which he played a fictionalized version of himself, Cuban orchestra leader Enrique "Ricky" Ricardo. His co-star was his real-life wife, Lucille Ball, who played Ricky's wife, Lucy. Television executives had been pursuing Ball to adapt her very popular radio series My Favorite Husband for television. Ball insisted on Arnaz playing her on-air spouse so the two would be able to spend more time together. CBS wanted Ball's Husband co-star Richard Denning.[11]

The original premise was for the couple to portray Lucy and Larry Lopez, a successful show business couple whose glamorous careers interfered with their efforts to maintain a normal marriage. Market research indicated, however, that this scenario would not be popular, so Jess Oppenheimer changed it to make Ricky Ricardo a struggling young orchestra leader and Lucy an ordinary housewife who had show business fantasies but no talent.[citation needed] The character name "Larry Lopez" was dropped because of a real-life bandleader named Vincent Lopez, and was replaced with "Ricky Ricardo". The name was inspired by Henry Richard, a family friend and the brother of P.C. Richard of P.C. Richard & Son. This name translates to Enrique Ricardo. Ricky often appeared at, and later owned, the Tropicana Club, which under his ownership he renamed Club Babalu.[citation needed]

Initially, the idea of having Ball and the distinctly Latin American Arnaz portray a married couple encountered resistance as they were told that Desi's Cuban accent and Latin style would not be agreeable to American viewers.[12] The couple overcame these objections, however, by touring together, during the summer of 1950, in a live vaudeville act they developed with the help of Spanish clown Pepito Pérez, together with Ball's radio show writers. Much of the material from their vaudeville act, including Lucy's memorable seal routine, was used in the pilot episode of I Love Lucy. Segments of the pilot were recreated in the sixth episode of the show's first season. During his time on the show, Arnaz and Ball became TV's most successful entrepreneurs.

Desilu Productions[edit]

Main article: Desilu Productions
Lucille Ball and Arnaz in Los Angeles, 1953

With Ball, Arnaz founded Desilu Productions in 1950, initially to produce the vaudeville-style touring act that led to I Love Lucy. At that time, most television programs were broadcast live, and as the largest markets were in New York, the rest of the country received only kinescope images. Karl Freund, Arnaz's cameraman, and even Arnaz himself have been credited with the development of the multiple-camera setup production style using adjacent sets in front of a live audience that became the standard for subsequent situation comedies. The use of film enabled every station around the country to broadcast high-quality images of the show. Arnaz was told that it would be impossible to allow an audience onto a sound stage, but he worked with Freund to design a set that would accommodate an audience, allow filming, and adhere to fire and safety codes.[citation needed]. Due to the expense of 35mm film, Arnaz and Ball agreed to salary cuts. In return they retained the rights to the films. This was the basis for their invention of re-runs and syndicating TV shows (a huge source of new revenue).[13]

In addition to I Love Lucy, he executive produced The Ann Sothern Show and Those Whiting Girls (starring Margaret Whiting and Barbara Whiting Smith), and was involved in several other series such as The Untouchables, Whirlybirds, and Sheriff of Cochise / United States Marshal. He also produced the feature film Forever, Darling (1956), in which he and Ball starred. In the late 1950s, Arnaz proposed a Western television series to his then neighbor, Victor Orsatti, who formed a production company, Ror-Vic, in partnership with actor Rory Calhoun. Ror-Vic produced The Texan, which aired on Monday evenings on CBS from 1958 to 1960. Episodes were budgeted at $40,000 each, with two black-and-white segments filmed weekly through Desilu Studios. Despite the name, the series was filmed mostly in Pearl Flats in the Mojave Desert of Southern California. The program could have been renewed for a third season had Calhoun not desired to return to films.[14]

The original Desilu company continued long after Arnaz's divorce from Ball and her subsequent marriage to Gary Morton. Desilu produced its own programs and provided facilities to other producers. Desilu produced The Andy Griffith Show, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Lucy Show, Mission: Impossible, and Star Trek. When Ball sold her share of Desilu to what became Paramount Television, Arnaz went on to form his own production company from his share of Desilu. With the newly formed Desi Arnaz Productions, he made The Mothers-In-Law (at Desilu) for United Artists Television and NBC. This sitcom ran for two seasons from 1967 to 1969. Arnaz's company was succeeded-in-interest by the company now known as Desilu, Too. Desilu, Too and Lucille Ball Productions worked hand-in-hand with MPI Home Video in the home video reissues of the Ball/Arnaz material not owned by CBS (successor-in-interest to Paramount Television, which in turn succeeded the original Desilu company). This material included Here's Lucy and The Mothers-In-Law, as well as many programs and specials Ball and Arnaz made independently of each other.[15]

Personal life[edit]

Beliefs[edit]

Arnaz and Ball decided that the show would maintain what Arnaz termed "basic good taste" and were therefore determined to avoid ethnic jokes, as well as humor based on physical handicaps or mental disabilities. Arnaz recalled that the only exception consisted of making fun of Ricky Ricardo's accent; even these jokes worked only when Lucy, as his wife, did the mimicking.[1]

Arnaz was deeply patriotic about the United States. In his memoirs, he wrote that he knew of no other country in the world where "a sixteen-year-old kid, broke and unable to speak the language" could achieve the successes that he had.[1]

Marriages[edit]

Ball and Arnaz in 1955

Arnaz and Lucille Ball were married on November 30, 1940. Their marriage was turbulent. Convinced that Arnaz was being unfaithful to her and also because he came home drunk several times, Ball filed for divorce in September 1944, but returned to him before the interlocutory decree became final.[citation needed] Arnaz and Ball subsequently had two children, actors Lucie Arnaz (born 1951) and Desi Arnaz Jr. (born 1953).

Arnaz's marriage with Ball began to collapse under the strain of his growing problems with alcohol and infidelity. According to his memoir, the combined pressures of managing the production company, as well as supervising its day-to-day operations, had greatly worsened as it grew much larger, and he felt compelled to seek outlets to alleviate the stress.[citation needed] Arnaz was also suffering from diverticulitis. Ball divorced him in 1960. When Ball returned to weekly television, she and Arnaz worked out an agreement regarding Desilu, wherein she bought him out.[16]

Arnaz married his second wife, Edith Eyre Hirsch (née McSkimming), on March 2, 1963, and greatly reduced his show business activities. He served as executive producer of The Mothers-in-Law, and during its two-year run, made four guest appearances as a Spanish matador, Señor Delgado. Edith died in 1985, aged 67, from cancer.

Although Arnaz and Ball both married other spouses after their divorce in 1960, they remained friends and grew closer in his final decade. "I Love Lucy was never just a title", wrote Arnaz in the last years of his life.[17] Family home video later aired on television showed Ball and Arnaz playing together with their grandson Simon shortly before Arnaz's death.

Later life[edit]

Arnaz with his son Desi in the 1974 television special, California, My Way.

In the 1970s, Arnaz co-hosted a week of shows with daytime host and producer Mike Douglas. Vivian Vance appeared as a guest.[18] Arnaz also headlined a Kraft Music Hall special on NBC that featured his two children, with a brief appearance by Vance. To promote his autobiography, A Book, on February 21, 1976, Arnaz served as a guest host on Saturday Night Live, with his son, Desi, Jr., also appearing.[19] The program contained spoofs of I Love Lucy and The Untouchables.[18] The spoofs of I Love Lucy were supposed to be earlier concepts of the show that never made it on the air, such as "I Love Louie", where Desi lived with Louis Armstrong. He read Lewis Carroll's poem "Jabberwocky" in a heavy Cuban accent (he pronounced it "Habberwocky"). Desi Jr., played the drums and, supported by the SNL band, Desi sang both "Babalú" and another favorite from his dance band days, "Cuban Pete"; the arrangements were similar to the ones used on I Love Lucy. He ended the broadcast by leading the entire cast in a raucous conga line through the SNL studio.[20][21]

Desi Arnaz contributed to charitable and nonprofit organizations, including San Diego State University. He also taught classes at San Diego State in studio production and acting for television. Arnaz made a guest appearance on the TV series Alice, starring Linda Lavin and produced by I Love Lucy co-creators Madelyn Pugh (Madelyn Davis) and Bob Carroll, Jr.[22]

Thoroughbred racing[edit]

Arnaz and his wife eventually moved to Del Mar, California where he lived the rest of his life in semi-retirement. He owned a horse-breeding farm in Corona, California and raced Thoroughbreds. The Desi Arnaz Stakes at Del Mar Racetrack is named in his honor.[23]

Death[edit]

Arnaz was a regular smoker for much of his life and often smoked cigarettes on the set of I Love Lucy.[24] He smoked Cuban cigars until he was in his sixties.[25] Arnaz was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1986, and died several months later on December 2, 1986, at the age of 69. Arnaz was cremated and his ashes scattered. His death came just five days before Lucille Ball received the Kennedy Center Honors. He was predeceased by his second wife, Edith, who had died a year earlier on March 23, 1985. His mother outlived him by almost two years.

Legacy[edit]

Desi Arnaz has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: one at 6301 Hollywood Boulevard for contributions to motion pictures and one at 6250 Hollywood Boulevard for television.[26] Unlike his co-stars, Arnaz was never nominated for an Emmy for his performance in I Love Lucy. In 1956, he won a Golden Globe for Best Television Achievement for helping to shape the American Comedy through his contributions in front of and behind the camera of I Love Lucy. He was inducted into the Television Academy's Hall of Fame.[27]

The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Center museum is in Jamestown, New York, and the Desi Arnaz Bandshell in the Lucille Ball Memorial Park is in Celoron, New York.

Desi Arnaz appears as a character in Oscar Hijuelos' 1989 novel The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love and is portrayed by his son, Desi Arnaz, Jr. in the 1992 film adaptation, The Mambo Kings.[28]

Arnaz was portrayed by Oscar Nuñez in I Love Lucy: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Sitcom, a comedy about how Arnaz and Ball battled to get their sitcom on the air. It had its world premiere in Los Angeles on July 12, 2018, co-starring Sarah Drew as Lucille Ball and Seamus Dever as I Love Lucy creator-producer-head writer Jess Oppenheimer. The play, written by Jess Oppenheimer's son, Gregg Oppenheimer, was recorded in front of a live audience for nationwide public radio broadcast and online distribution.[29]

On 2 March 2019, Google celebrated what would have been Arnaz's 102nd birthday with a Google doodle.[30]

The Amazon film Lucy and Desi was proposed in 2015 and was still in development in May 2020, without a casting for Arnaz.[31]

Filmography[edit]

Soundtracks[edit]

  • 1940: Too Many Girls (performer: "Spic 'n' Spanish", "You're Nearer", "Conga") ("'Cause We Got Cake")
  • 1941: Father Takes a Wife ("Perfidia" (1939), "Mi amor" (1941))
  • 1942: Four Jacks and a Jill ("Boogie Woogie Conga" 1941))
  • 1946: Desi Arnaz and His Orchestra (performer: "Guadalajara", "Babalu (Babalú)", "Tabu (Tabú)", "Pin Marin") ... a.k.a. "Melody Masters: Desi Arnaz and His Orchestra" – USA (series title)
  • 1949: Holiday in Havana (writer: "Holiday In Havana", "The Arnaz Jam")
  • 1956: Forever, Darling (performer: "Forever, Darling" (reprise))
  • 1952: I Love Lucy (3 episodes, 1952–1956) ... a.k.a. "Lucy in Connecticut" – USA (rerun title) ... a.k.a. "The Sunday Lucy Show" – USA (rerun title) ... a.k.a. "The Top Ten Lucy Show" – USA (rerun title) – Lucy and Bob Hope (1956) TV episode (performer: "Nobody Loves the Ump" (uncredited)) – Ricky's European Booking (1955) TV episode (performer: "Forever, Darling" (uncredited)) – Cuban Pals (1952) TV episode (performer: "The Lady in Red", "Similau")
  • 1958: The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour (1 episode, 1958) ... a.k.a. "We Love Lucy" – USA (syndication title) – Lucy Wins a Race Horse (1958) TV episode (performer: "The Bayamo")
  • 2001: I Love Lucy's 50th Anniversary Special (TV) (performer: "California, Here I Come", "Babalu (Babalú)") ... a.k.a. "The I Love Lucy 50th Anniversary Special" – USA (DVD title)

Bibliography[edit]

  • Arnaz, Desi. A Book. New York: William Morrow, 1976; ISBN 0688003427 (autobiography to 1960)
  • Sanders, Coyne Steven, and Thomas W. Gilbert. Desilu: The Story of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. New York: Morrow, 1993; ISBN 9780688112172 (revised edition 2011 ISBN 9780062020017) (full dual biography focusing prominently on business affairs of Desilu Productions)
  • Brady, Kathleen. Lucille The Life of Lucille Ball (1994), New York: Hyperion; ISBN 0-7868-6007-3
  • Pérez Firmat, Gustavo. "The Man Who Loved Lucy," in Life on the Hyphen: The Cuban-American Way. Austin: The University of Texas Press, 1994. Rpt. 1996, 1999. Revised and expanded edition, 2012.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d Arnaz, Desi. A Book. New York: William Morrow, 1976. ISBN 0688003427
  2. ^ a b c Colin Larkin, ed. (1997). The Virgin Encyclopedia of Popular Music (Concise ed.). Virgin Books. p. 54. ISBN 1-85227-745-9.
  3. ^ "Desi Arnaz & Lucille Ball: The Geniuses Who Shaped The Future Of Television". Entrepreneur. October 8, 2009. Retrieved January 28, 2013.
  4. ^ a b Gjelten, Tom. Bacardi and the Long Fight for Cuba: The Biography of a Cause. Viking Adult, 2008, p. 122 (footnote).
  5. ^ Horgan, James J. (1990). Pioneer College: The Centennial History of Saint Leo College, Saint Leo Abbey, and Holy Name Priory. Saint Leo College Press. p. 463.
  6. ^ a b c d https://www.closerweekly.com/posts/i-love-lucy-star-desi-arnaz-life-and-career-remembered/
  7. ^ Who's Who In Hollywood! By Terry Rowan, Desi Arnaz, page 15
  8. ^ https://www.biography.com/actor/desi-arnaz
  9. ^ https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1991/10/17/the-best-of-babalu/8cfa305f-8c13-4ab2-a7cf-78c77c26e128/
  10. ^ Horowitz, Susan (1997). Queens of Comedy: Lucille Ball, Phyllis Diller, Carol Burnett, Joan Rivers, and the New Generation of Funny Women. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9782884492447.
  11. ^ "Richard Denning". Variety. October 21, 1998. Retrieved March 2, 2019.
  12. ^ Silver, Allison (July 16, 2009). "Sotomayor: More 'Splainin' to Do". The Huffington Post. Retrieved June 18, 2010. CBS executives originally did not want Ball, a sassy redhead, married to a Latino on the program
  13. ^ Saporito, Jeff (September 26, 2016). "How did I Love Lucy invent the rerun and syndication?". ScreenPrism.
  14. ^ Billy Hathorn, "Roy Bean, Temple Houston, Bill Longley, Ranald Mackenzie, Buffalo Bill, Jr., and the Texas Rangers: Depictions of West Texans in Series Television, 1955 to 1967", West Texas Historical Review, Vol. 89 (2013), pp. 110–12
  15. ^ Karol, Michael (2008). Lucy A to Z: The Lucille Ball Encyclopedia. iUniverse. p. 60. ISBN 9780595752133. Retrieved December 23, 2016.
  16. ^ Karol, Michael (2008). Lucy A to Z: The Lucille Ball Encyclopedia. iUniverse. p. 16. ISBN 9780595752133. Retrieved December 23, 2016.
  17. ^ Desilu: The Story of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz[full citation needed]
  18. ^ a b Monush, Barry (June 1, 2011). Lucille Ball FAQ: Everything Left to Know About America's Favorite Redhead. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 9781557839404.
  19. ^ "Saturday Night Live | TV Guide". TVGuide.com. Retrieved March 2, 2019.
  20. ^ "The Paley Center for Media". The Paley Center for Media. Retrieved March 2, 2019.
  21. ^ jtranscripts, Author (October 8, 2018). "SNL Transcripts: Desi Arnaz: 02/21/76". SNL Transcripts Tonight. Retrieved March 2, 2019.
  22. ^ "Desi Arnaz Papers, 1947-1976 | Special Collections & University Archives". Scua2.sdsu.edu. Retrieved March 2, 2019.
  23. ^ "Chasing Yesterday Wins Desi Arnaz Stakes". Del Mar Thoroughbred Club. November 12, 2018. Retrieved September 1, 2020.
  24. ^ Terry Martin. "Famous Tobacco Victims - Desi Arnaz". About.com Health.
  25. ^ "Desi Arnaz, TV Lucy's Loving Co-Star, Dies". Los Angeles Times.
  26. ^ "Search results for 'Desi Arnaz'". The Hollywood Walk of Fame.
  27. ^ "Desi Arnaz: Hall of Fame Tribute". Television Academy. Retrieved March 2, 2019.
  28. ^ "The Mambo Kings (1992)". AFI | Catalog. American Film Institute. Retrieved March 8, 2019.
  29. ^ "I Love Lucy: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Sitcom". Broadway World. Retrieved July 16, 2018.
  30. ^ "Desi Arnaz's 102nd Birthday". Google.com. Retrieved March 2, 2019.
  31. ^ "Amazon acquires rights for Lucy and Desi". ladyfirst. Retrieved August 17, 2020.

External links[edit]

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