Ball of Fire: The Tumultuous Life and Comic Art of Lucille Ball

You know how some biographies are dreadful to read, filled with mundane details or too much author opinion? This is definately not one of those! After rediscovering I Love Lucy on DVD I became more and more curious as to the woman behind the myth. This book didn't disappoint. It was very sad in that it completely shattered the persona Lucy and Desi portrayed in I Love Lucy. Desi was an alcoholic and a womanizer while Lucy was a workaholic. Their children readily admit that a nanny raised them and after wanting children so badly, Lucy and Desi were actually terrible parents. The thing I like best about the book was that Kanfer seems to know what parts of her life made a good story. The parts on her childhood and later years weren't a major part of the book, while I Love Lucy and her film career took center stage. He doesn't sugar-coat anyone. At times you will hate Lucy and Desi, at times your heart will break for them. It truly read more like a story which is what makes a great biography in my opinion. I would recommend this book to everyone, especially Lucy fans. It will keep you up late into the night!

Ball of Fire concentrates on the I Love Lucy show, how it came about (and almost didn't get off the ground), behind the scenes tidbits, its effect on America. Kanfer doesn't stint on the rest of Lucy's life, both before and after the Show, but I Love Lucy really is the star of this book. Never having read a biography of Lucille Ball, this was all news to me, and I enjoyed discovering that Vivian Vance loathed William Frawley, and that Ball was such a stickler and control freak. Kanfer's style is easy and very readable, and there are plenty of photos to round things out, including an unexpected one of a young topless Lucille Ball.If you are in the mood for an entertaining and, let's face it, unimportant, book, this one is worth the money.

Lucille Ball is one of the totems of America in the 1950s, but she has proved to transfer very well into the next century and into other cultures. At every second of every day, people somewhere in the world are watching Lucy stomp grapes, drunkenly pitch a vitamin product, or get woefully behind on a candy assembly line. "I Love Lucy" was the hallmark of her career; she didn't do anything as well before or after, but it wasn't for lack of trying. _Ball of Fire: The Tumultuous Life and Comic Art of Lucille Ball_ (Knopf) by Stefan Kanfer is a big, entertaining biography that spends about a third of its pages on the "Lucy" years, when the star produced a classic program that will, like the films of other clowns such as Chaplin and Keaton, always find an audience. Even during those years, however, Lucy's life was tense and unhappy except for her professional efforts. It is the standard paradox of comedians, and Kanfer rightly evaluates it in full.Lucy was a beautiful brunette from Jamestown, New York. She worked as a model and then became "Queen of the Bs", a hardworking actress stuck in second-rate pictures. Her eventual success on television stemmed directly from her marriage to Desi Arnaz, but their joint effort was from the beginning an attempt to keep the marriage together. Kanfer is careful to show just how much Desi contributed and how revolutionary the format of the show was; production in front of a live audience with three cameras going had never been tried before, for instance. But he knew she was the core of the show; when she tripped on a cable, he told everyone, "Amigos, anything happens to her, we're all in the shrimp business.") She got opportunities to show off a physical comedy that movie producers had denied her. The television success did not, of course, save the marriage. There are wonderful anecdotes about the production of the show, and surprising facts such as Lucy's summons to appear before HUAC because she had been a registered Communist, and her role in bringing such shows to the air as _Star Trek_.Lucy was increasingly anxious even during the height of her success. Her marriage failed, and she had fitting worries as her children tried being adults. She had a phobia about birds and about dirt, and she was a prig, fretting over the morals of movies and upbraiding Marlon Brando for _Last Tango in Paris_. Spinoffs after "I Love Lucy" were derivative failures, and her movies, except for _Yours, Mine, and Ours_, were embarrassments. Toward the end of her career as at the beginning, she just did not fit; but it was a glorious second act. Kanfer, who wrote an excellent biography of Groucho (who along with Harpo and Zeppo has a cameo in this book), has loaded it with facts and anecdotes that anyone who likes Lucy reruns will enjoy. He has not been able to explain just where Lucy's amazing gift for an almost universally enjoyed brand of comedy came from. No one could do that. She had more than her share of failur

Lucille Ball is an icon, and this book explores her life, her show, and her fame brilliantly. The story is told crisply and completely. Even Lucy's fans will find new material here, and everyone interested in comedy will appreciate Stefan Kanfer's expert knowledge and vivid prose.