“Both of them started sobbing and couldn’t finish the number. “Suddenly Lucy and Desi remembered their own real emotions when they discovered they were finally going to be parents,” he recalled, per Harris. The patriarchal studio brass was not as happy, and Arnaz convened a panel including a rabbi, a minister and a priest to deem what was appropriate to show regarding the pregnancy.Īccording to director Jess Oppenheimer, during the filming of the episode “Lucy Is Enceinte,” where Lucy Ricardo tells Ricky she is pregnant while he is performing, the lines between reality and fiction blurred. In 1952, the couple were thrilled to find that Ball was pregnant again. After years of trying, they had become parents to daughter Lucie in 1951. I knew I shouldn’t have married him, but that was one of the biggest attractions.”īut nothing could dim Ball and Arnaz’s happiness. But he also frightened me, he was so wild. “I never fell in love with anyone quite so fast. “Eloping with Desi was the most daring thing I ever did in my life,” Ball recalled, per Harris. On November 30 th, 1940, they eloped in Connecticut, before making it back to New York in time for Arnaz’s second show at the Roxy, where he introduced her to the titillated audience. “I can teach you quickly, but only on condition that you go out with me tonight.” “You’re going to have to rumba in this picture,” Desi said. Putting one arm on each side of her, he pinned her against the piano. This time Desi finished with a flourish, landing face-to-face with Lucille.

Desi did a quick demonstration…Fascinated, Lucille leaned against the side of the piano and asked for a repeat performance. “No, but I bet that you do,” she replied, amused. He…asked Lucille if she knew how to rumba.

This time, Arnaz was enthralled with the woman before him. That afternoon, she cleaned up and went to a soundstage where Arnaz and other Too Many Girls cast members were rehearsing. Her disheveled appearance in the commissary was the result of a cat fight with Maureen O’Hara for the film Dance, Girl, Dance. Six years older than Arnaz, Ball had been a reliable B-movie glamour girl in Hollywood since 1933.

Love, Lucy by Lucille Ball