Lucille Ball

Trivia of Lucille Ball (6 August 1911 – 26 April 1989)

*In 1926, Ball attended New York’s John Murray Anderson School for the Dramatic Arts as a teenager. But she performed poorly. When it came to the moment Ball had to perform in front of her peers, she got too nervous.Ball’s teachers called her shy and reticent. Ball’s teachers told her she “had no future at all as a performer.” However, the negative comments didn’t stop Ball. She was determined to prove her doubters wrong.

*Her natural hair color was brown.Before she made a big splash in the comedy world, Lucy appeared as a brunette in her earlier head shots.Lucy originally dyed her locks for a role in Du Barry Was a Lady, then kept it that way for I Love Lucy. But rather than the vibrant red we all envisioned it to be, her hairstylist Irma Kusely described it as more of a "golden apricot" shade.She kept her trademark hair color for more than four decades.

*To avoid controversy, Ball and Arnaz lied about their ages on the marriage certificate. On the day of their wedding, Ball was 29 and Arnaz was 23, but they both claimed to be 26 on their marriage certificate.

*She was the first female to run a major Hollywood studio.Desilu Productions — named for its founders, Lucille and Desi — was formed in 1950. And until its reincorporation into Paramount Television in 1967, it not only produced I Love Lucy, but it also brought Star Trek, Mission: Impossible, and The Untouchables.

*Lucy was superstitious about pictures of birds.

When she was only 3 years old, her father died of typhoid fever at age 27. Because she was so young at the time, she later said that she remembered very little of that day — but one thing she did remember was a picture frame falling off the wall and a bird flying into her house. And that memory scarred her for the rest of her life. Although she was able to be in the vicinity of a bird, she couldn’t look at pictures of them and had even refused to stay in a hotel room with artwork of birds on the walls.

*Though starring in many successful 1940s musical comedies for MGM, her contract allowed her to honor her prior commitments. She starred in two film classics, The Dark Corner (1946) for 20th Century-Fox and the independently produced Lured (1947).

*Had a superstition about the letters A and R, which is why her character was named Lucy RicARdo in I Love Lucy (1951); Lucy CARmichael in The Lucy Show (1962); Lucy CARter in Here's Lucy (1968); Helen North BeARdsley in Yours, Mine and Ours (1968) and Lucy BARker in Life with Lucy (1986) (she was also married to 'Desi ARnaz'). She believed she didn't have luck in her career until she changed her name to Arnaz.