Watched a TV show on You Tube called Mysteries and Scandles on You Tube. It is made by the cable network "E!".

They did the life of Vivian Vance in 22 minutes and was surprised about how beautiful this woman was in her youth. I dont know, I was surprised. I know her from the two Lucy shows, someone in middle age, matronly, great aunt looking woman. It is a sad thing when a woman loses her beauty and sexuality. Yes, I said it, Ethel Mertz was sexy (in her 20's in the 1920's!)

This is what I love about the internet, being able to see all these old pictures.

Yeeesh! I don't think the same thing can apply to someone say like Bea Arthur in her 20's.

Yeeesh! I don't think the same thing can apply to someone say like Bea Arthur in her 20's.

Bea Arthur in her 20s looked perfectly fine.

Bea Arthur in her 20s looked perfectly fine.
Yes she did.

People don't age as quickly these days as people did back then. I'm sure the frequent smoking back in the day had something to do with people aging themselves.

Bea Arthur in her 20s looked perfectly fine.

What did she get arrested for?

What did she get arrested for?

She wasn't arrested. :lol: Those pictures are from her military service during World War II. http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/celebrity/bea-arthur-was-truck-driving-marine

She wasn't arrested. :lol: Those pictures are from her military service during World War II. http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/celebrity/bea-arthur-was-truck-driving-marine

Oh, my bad. I thought they were mug shots.

People don't age as quickly these days as people did back then. I'm sure the frequent smoking back in the day had something to do with people aging themselves.
I'm glad I never smoked. The results are not pretty.

Off the subject, but I am the OP so....

Bea Arthur for some reason joined the US MARINE CORPS in WWII. I think she was stateside the entire time. The above are photos, with the second picture with her in her uniform with the Anchor and Globe insignia.

Now, I note "for some reason" because Arthur refused at all to talk about it, and would even deny it. Maybe she thought that it would make her seem "too butch" or something. Dunno. Would be interesting to know the story of this, and maybe it has been told. But Arthur tried and mostly succeeded in keeping this a secret.

Back to Vance, she was really pretty as a youth. She looked a bit like Kelly Cuoco from Big Bang Theory. Now I understand a bit why Lucy did not want Vivian to upstage her, although I think that by then, Vivian was middle aged and matronly (and 42 years old in 1951 is like 52 now in 2015) and Lucy did not have to worry.

Off the subject, but I am the OP so....

Back to Vance, she was really pretty as a youth. She looked a bit like Kelly Cuoco from Big Bang Theory. Now I understand a bit why Lucy did not want Vivian to upstage her, although I think that by then, Vivian was middle aged and matronly (and 42 years old in 1951 is like 52 now in 2015) and Lucy did not have to worry.

The Hollywood gossip mill has always wanted us to assume that Lucy didn't want Vivian for the part because she didn't want her to upstage her, but that assumption ignores certain facts. First of all, during every season of I Love Lucy, there were episodes about Lucy being jealous of beautiful young women who were played by young, beautiful actresses. Go listen, for example, to one of Barbara Eden's many interviews about her guest spot on I Love Lucy and how Lucille Ball went out of her way to fix Barbara's wardrobe so she would look as attractive as possible, in contrast to Lucy. Lucy wasn't concerned about being upstaged by Barbara and other beautiful women; she was concerned about the right people being cast for the right parts so the show would work.

Ethel Mertz was not supposed to be a beautiful young woman, which gets to my second point: The Mertz's were based on the My Favorite Husband radio characters, the Atterburys, who were an older couple. William Frawley had already been cast to play Fred Mertz (before Vivian Vance) and they needed an Ethel. They were looking for someone who could realistically portray his wife. It would be hard to buy a beautiful young-looking woman being married to cheap, lazy old Fred. Lucy took one look at Vivian Vance and couldn't make sense of someone as youthful and attractive as her being William Frawley's wife. But Vivian wanted the part so badly that she intentionally made herself look unglamorous, showing up on the set in a bathrobe with no makeup, hoping to make her case that she could be convincing as Ethel. Lucy at this point agreed.

Of course, after Vivian Vance won the role it started bothering her that people might think she could be married to someone who looked like William Frawley, exactly the thing she was trying to prove at the beginning! There's an old saying: Be careful what you wish for!

I agree - Vivian was gorgeous, in fact I love the name Vivian, which was as beautiful as the woman.