Lucille+Ball


 * Note to parents and community members:** If there is any information on which you would like to comment or provide feedback/insight, please click on the discussion tab above. You must have a wikispace account. //Please click here for those directions//.

I'm not funny. What I am is brave.
//Lucille Ball//



Lucille Ball was best known for her role as the goofy housewife on __**I Love Lucy**__, but few know her as the strong confident women she was when she was off the set. I believe one of the best know episodes of **__I Love Lucy__**, is the Vitameatavegamin episode, where Lucy wanted to be cast in Ricky's commercial, but she got drunk on the medicine she was advertising. This was the classic charade Lucille Ball put on everyday when she walked on to the set of __**I Love Lucy**__, but what about when she was off the set? Was she still the goofy housewife that didn't do anything right? No, she wasn't. Although she actually was married to Desi Arnez, and a lot of stuff that happened to her in real life was part of the show, she wasn't really the clutz she played. Lucille Ball was caught in a typical woman's role on a TV show back in the 50's. Because the media wanted the message sent out that women were ment to stay at home to cook and clean, Lucille, like others, also had to play a role like that on TV so when the viewers saw the show, the message would be sent to them in a very discrete way. Many of these messages included Lucille messing up at her first job, and not being able to do what her husband could do, or when trying to prove her husband wrong, proving herself wrong in the process. However, Lucille did something no other sucessfull TV star could do. She fought the accustions and rumors that she was a communist head on. Luckily, the rumors stopped. Lucille was also famous for one perticular episode of __**I Love Lucy**__, which more people tunned in for than Eisenhower's inauguration. It was the episode where fiction met reality and Lucille Ball gave birth to her second child on air as Lucy Ricado. Also, in the last ever episode of __**I Love Lucy**__, Lucy and Ricky filed for divorce. In real life, Lucille and Desi decided to get a divorce as well, which shows that much of what went on in __**I Love Lucy**__, actually did happen in real life. Many people who tunned in to watch Lucille Ball, were never aware that they were actually watching the media portraying gender rolesand stereoypes and this was what they wanted, "normal suburban life".

During her life, Lucille Ball stared in five TV shows: 1951-57 //I Love Lucy// 1957-60 //The Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz Show// 1962-68 //The Lucy Show// 1968-74 //Here's Lucy// 1986 //Life With Lucy//

Lucille won two Emmy Awards: Best Comedienne and Best Actress - Continuing Performance

If you'd like to watch a clip from Lucille Ball's Vitameatavegamin commercial, please click [|here]. Click [|here] to just some of the funny quotes from __**I Love Lucy**__. Pay close attention to some of the quotes, because you can see the hint of stereotyping written within the lines.

Bibliography:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Love_Lucy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucille_Ball http://www.selah.k12.wa.us/SOAR/Projects2005/CierraP.html

Media Portrayal of Gender Roles Ms. Rice's Homepage