As many learned from the tragic fires in Southern California this past week, being a celebrity in no way absolves your need for human connection, nor does it protect them from the day-to-day trials of living a real life.
These are among the hard lessons Lucie Arnaz has fought to overcome for most of her life.
Born to the biggest TV star in the world in the 1950s, the daughter of Lucille Ball and her husband Desi Arnaz, Lucie grew up with working parents, even if they were super famous working parents.
Arnaz will bring their story to the stage and screen in Seal Beach on Jan. 29 as she presents “Lucy and Desi: A Home Movie,” a documentary film for which Lucie received an Emmy® Award, television’s highest honor.
In an interview with ENE this week, Arnaz discussed the documentary film that explores “who Lucy and Desi were as people, and as parents.”
While Arnaz remembers life as a child in the Lucy and Desi household as being somewhat chaotic, she says it was not without love.
Looking back, she says her parents did the best they could, given the enormous pressures of being the most popular TV star on the planet after she and her brother, Desi, Jr., were born.
“They did the best they could, with where they were and did the best they could with what they had,” said Arnaz
The “I Love Lucy” show was a hit on CBS Television when it first aired in 1951. The show pioneered situation comedy and introduced many recording techniques still used today.
When Arnaz was a baby, the “I Love Lucy” show was the number-one hit on American television, reaching approximately 16 million households. In that day, that viewership represented nearly 100 percent of the American audience as only about a quarter of households had televisions back then.
Lucille Ball’s comedic brilliance and Desi’s unique chemistry kept the show at the top of the ratings for almost a decade.
Lucille Ball became the first woman to head a studio. The aspiring couple first founded Desilu Productions and eventually purchased RKO Studios after the “I Love Lucy” show ruled the airwaves in America for years and grew an audience of billions in more than 80 countries.
Over the years, Arnaz has managed her entertainment career while protecting and advancing the legacy of her famous parents.
Projects like “Lucy and Desi” provide the public with “a deeper, more authentic portrayal of her parents’ lives, their legacy to showcase both their struggles and achievements.
Lucy and Desi both came from tragic backgrounds before reaching such success, their daughter said in the interview
“They had great love,” she said, but “tragedy was everywhere.”
Lucie Arnaz will present the Emmy Award-winning documentary at the Bay Theatre on Jan. 29 for one night only.
In addition, Arnaz said after the screening, she looks forward to a question-and-answer session about the film and her parents.
Arnaz was invited by Los Alamitos High alum Raji Ahsan, an aspiring actor/producer with several major acting roles to his credit. Lucie will show the film as part of a fundraising effort for a short film Ahsan hopes to produce, and in which Arnaz hopes to star.
“Lucie has been so incredibly generous to me,” said Ahsan. “I studied theater at NYU and grew up loving the “I Love Lucy” show and was always enamored with the family story.
Arnaz said she had been friends with Ahsan for several years, first meeting him appearing on a talk show he once hosted in New York.
“In her soul, Lucie is a teacher, always looking for deeper meaning in everything,” said Ahsan.
Arnaz said she is happy to support Ahsan and has indeed agreed to play a role in the movie when it is made.
“I am thrilled to do it,” she said.
Lucie said she was also thrilled to make the documentary film, after finding the film reels of home movies taken by her dad that her mother had stashed away.
Opening the canisters of film, said Arnaz, also unlocked many other memories, including darker moments that caused her to pause and debate whether to continue.
“Several times during the making of this film, I wanted to stop, especially when I was editing it. As I’m telling this story (Lucy and Desi), there’s some dark places and some really hard stuff to tell,” she admits.
“I lived through it, the divorce and the drinking and all of the stuff,” said Arnaz.
But even so, she had doubts about finishing the film.
“I kept waking up at night thinking, OMG, nobody’s going to want to see this, they just want to see the Chocolate Factory (one of Lucille Ball’s memorable skits).
“I was trying to figure these people out. I was trying to figure me out,” said Arnaz.
Her husband Larry Luckinbill finally encouraged her to follow her heart.
“It’s not going to steer you wrong,” Arnaz said he told her.
Arnaz followed through, did the interviews, made it through the family drama and found a way to present the real story of how they rose from dreamers to the owners one of the biggest Hollywood Studios of that day.
She released the 90-minute production and in 1993, the 90-minute documentary production was awarded an Emmy Award for “Outstanding Information Special,” an achievement of which Lucie is even prouder today.
Doing the documentary about her parents was “therapeutic,” she said, adding she sometimes saw a pattern in her own behavior that mimicked her iconic mother.
Lucie retains her mother’s wit and split-second comedic timing, yet she chose not to follow her into the television industry.
“I didn’t want to be typecast,” says the multi-talented Arnaz, even though Lucy did talk her daughter into making several appearances on “The Lucy Show.”
Lucie said she learned about life and show business from her mom, but dear old dad Desi instilled in her a love of music.
“My dad was all about the music,” she said.
“He sang when he was driving a car, which was kind of dangerous sometimes,” she says with a sheepish smile, “but he had a great love of music, and I think I just inherited that from him.”
Accordingly, over the years, Arnaz has drifted to the musical side of show business, becoming a star in musical theater at a relatively young age.
Arnaz starred in “Annie Get Your Gun,” “Lost in Yonkers,” which won the Pulitzer Prize for drama, “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels,” and “Pippin,” among others.
Arnaz played Sonia Wolsk in the Neil Simon musical “They’re playing our Song,” giving a performance that won awards from the Los Angeles Drama Critics’ Circle, Theatre World, and Outer Critic’s Circle.
She has also appeared in several major films, including “The Jazz Singer,” with Neil Diamond and Laurence Oliver. Arnaz won a Golden Globe nomination for “Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture” for her performance in the film.
In the current stage of her career, Arnaz has created her cabaret act, which allows her to act, sing, and dance all in one entertainment event.
Having uprooted the family from New York to Palm Springs, Arnaz says her family followed suit and all now live nearby.
“It’s insane,” she jokes.
Clearly though, the spark of show business still simmers within, one of her favorite roles is being a wife, mom, and grandma to three grandchildren. For sure, said Arnaz, she could do much more with her career, but family tugs the heartstrings as much as the stage.
“Maybe I could do more, but I make a lot of choices where I say, ‘No, I don’t want to go out and do that, because that means I have to leave Larry for a week and a half, and I don’t want to put him in that position right now.’”
“But I am coming to Seal Beach on Jan. 29, and I hope to meet as many people as I can.
Ahsan said most of the ticket categories are sold out, and that the only remaining unsold tickets are $75. To purchase tickets, visit rajiahsan.com/lucie, and for information about Arnaz, visit lrajiahsan.com/lucie=
“I wanted the film to be real and heartfelt,” said Lucie.
“I didn’t want it to be a tribute to the two of them. I didn’t want it to be a trash piece,” said Lucie.
“I wanted it to be a daughter’s search for meaning for who her parents were. I thought that would be kind of interesting because they were kind of famous, you know, and it turned out pretty well,” said Lucie.
