Lucy's personality

[iamme]

in all of the books that i have read about her say that lucy was bossy and controlling.do you think thats true?
if so i would never think of her like that i will always think of her like lucy ricardo personality wise

[tdr]

Yes, I think it's true, if for no other reason because people who have enormous success in what they do are very 'driven' with forceful personalities; and when they get control they expand it. All this fits the description of what Lucy was like by the Livingston brothers (of My Three Sons), who said that she drove a golf car around the studio grounds continually shouting, "Move over! I'm Lucille Ball here! Get the f_ck out of the way!"

[NOVARick]

Originally Posted by iamme

in all of the books that i have read about her say that lucy was bossy and controlling.do you think thats true?
if so i would never think of her like that i will always think of her like lucy ricardo personality wise

While there may be some truth to this, I think a lot of this stuff about Lucy being bossy or controlling is rooted in sexism. A man behaving the way she did on the set would be considered normal and expected. He would be described as "strong" and "confident" and "a leader." But when it's a woman, all these negative adjectives get applied. Lucy did have a few well-known run-ins (or at least friction) with a few celebrities: Tallulah Bankhead, Joan Crawford, and Richard Burton. Notice what those three had in common? They were all alcoholics. As for Richard Burton, Lucy was completely oblivious to any problems he claimed they had as she didn't realize she had ruffled his feathers in any way until years later when she read his posthumously-published memoirs.

Gale Gordon and others who worked with Lucy often said that, if you did your homework and were professional you'd get along just fine with Lucille Ball. I've spent time hanging out with Jimmy Garrett, who played her son on The Lucy Show. He loves talking about his days on that show and will tell you he adored Lucille Ball. Whenever I hear this stuff about her being difficult, I have to ask how bad was it, really? So bad that Gale Gordon spent three years with her on the radio in My Favorite Husband, did several guest appearances on I Love Lucy and the Lucy-Desi Hour, eleven years combined between The Lucy Show and Here's Lucy, then came back to do Life with Lucy with her? So bad that Vivian Vance spent a combined twelve years on her show, then lots of guest appearances after that, including her final TV appearance ever in Lucy Calls the President in 1977. So bad that William Frawley spent nine years with her, then made HIS final TV appearance in a cameo on The Lucy Show. So bad that Mary Jane Croft, after first working with her on My Favorite Husband, then making a number of appearances on I Love Lucy, ultimately becoming a regular on both The Lucy Show and Here's Lucy? So bad that Mary Wickes, Frank Nelson, Charles Lane and others would make countless appearances on her shows? There's such a long line of celebrities who made multiple appearances on her show: John Wayne, Jack Benny, Danny Thomas, Bob Hope, Frankie Avalon, Phil Harris, Wayne Newton, Jackie Coogan, Wally Cox, Ann Sothern, Milton Berle, Carol Burnett, Art Linkletter, Dean Martin, Claude Akins, Ernie Ford, Dennis Day, Eva Gabor, Cesar Romero, Ed McMahon, Bob Cummings, Elsa Lanchester, and others. So really, just how bad was it working with Lucille Ball if all these people wanted to keep working with her?

[iamme]

good maybe she wasnt so bad,maybe a little bitter and bossy sometimes but i still think she's great

[OH Nuts!]

Originally Posted by NOVARick

While there may be some truth to this, I think a lot of this stuff about Lucy being bossy or controlling is rooted in sexism. A man behaving the way she did on the set would be considered normal and expected. He would be described as "strong" and "confident" and "a leader." But when it's a woman, all these negative adjectives get applied. Lucy did have a few well-known run-ins (or at least friction) with a few celebrities: Tallulah Bankhead, Joan Crawford, and Richard Burton. Notice what those three had in common? They were all alcoholics. As for Richard Burton, Lucy was completely oblivious to any problems he claimed they had as she didn't realize she had ruffled his feathers in any way until years later when she read his posthumously-published memoirs.

Gale Gordon and others who worked with Lucy often said that, if you did your homework and were professional you'd get along just fine with Lucille Ball. I've spent time hanging out with Jimmy Garrett, who played her son on The Lucy Show. He loves talking about his days on that show and will tell you he adored Lucille Ball. Whenever I hear this stuff about her being difficult, I have to ask how bad was it, really? So bad that Gale Gordon spent three years with her on the radio in My Favorite Husband, did several guest appearances on I Love Lucy and the Lucy-Desi Hour, eleven years combined between The Lucy Show and Here's Lucy, then came back to do Life with Lucy with her? So bad that Vivian Vance spent a combined twelve years on her show, then lots of guest appearances after that, including her final TV appearance ever in Lucy Calls the President in 1977. So bad that William Frawley spent nine years with her, then made HIS final TV appearance in a cameo on The Lucy Show. So bad that Mary Jane Croft, after first working with her on My Favorite Husband, then making a number of appearances on I Love Lucy, ultimately becoming a regular on both The Lucy Show and Here's Lucy? So bad that Mary Wickes, Frank Nelson, Charles Lane and others would make countless appearances on her shows? There's such a long line of celebrities who made multiple appearances on her show: John Wayne, Jack Benny, Danny Thomas, Bob Hope, Frankie Avalon, Phil Harris, Wayne Newton, Jackie Coogan, Wally Cox, Ann Sothern, Milton Berle, Carol Burnett, Art Linkletter, Dean Martin, Claude Akins, Ernie Ford, Dennis Day, Eva Gabor, Cesar Romero, Ed McMahon, Bob Cummings, Elsa Lanchester, and others. So really, just how bad was it working with Lucille Ball if all these people wanted to keep working with her?

I'm sure Lucy could have a hard a** edge to her, and could be a real b**ch if you caught her the wrong way. But as you said, people who were on the ball (no pun intended) never seemed to have a problem with her. Yes, she was bossy and a control freak. So what. She had excellent LEADERSHIP qualites, made acutely sharp business/production decisions and ensured everything was ship shape. Nothing wrong with being a boss & a control freak when you know what you're doing, AND SHE DID. Besides I like strong women. So, what's really important here is HOW someone uses these traits. And the end result was hers brought vast accomplishments and joy to many.

And let's not forget the other side of the coin: She was passionate and cared deeply about others, which she demonstrated often.

[Madame X]

You said it, Rick and Rich!

[Bill S.]

It's funny you bring up Lucy's personality...I was just watching Slums of Beverly Hills the other day, which takes place in the 70's, and one of the kids in the movie (played by David Krumholtz) mentions something about Lucille Ball being a mean old lady. Of course I don't know how much truth there is to that statement, the movie was a comedy, and was most likely poking fun at different rumors and whatnot from that time period.

[NOVARick]

Originally Posted by rich p

I'm sure Lucy could have a hard a** edge to her, and could be a real b**ch if you caught her the wrong way. But as you said, people who were on the ball (no pun intended) never seemed to have a problem with her. Yes, she was bossy and a control freak. So what. She had excellent LEADERSHIP qualites, made acutely sharp business/production decisions and ensured everything was ship shape. Nothing wrong with being a boss & a control freak when you know what you're doing, AND SHE DID. Besides I like strong women. So, what's really important here is HOW someone uses these traits. And the end result was hers brought vast accomplishments and joy to many.

And let's not forget the other side of the coin: She was passionate and cared deeply about others, which she demonstrated often.

A personality flaw that Lucy acknowledged having was that she would often not react initially to something someone did that was upsetting to her. Instead, she would keep it inside and let it fester. And then the person would continue to do things that were annoying, and all these annoyances would build and build until the person did something that was the last straw, and Lucy would blow up. She said sometimes the thing that actually would make her lose it might be very insignificant, and the person wouldn't realize that she had actually been upset about something else from months before. Of coures, they would inevitably be baffled seeing her go off over some trivial thing.

[coffield3]

Originally Posted by tdr

Yes, I think it's true, if for no other reason because people who have enormous success in what they do are very 'driven' with forceful personalities; and when they get control they expand it. All this fits the description of what Lucy was like by the Livingston brothers (of My Three Sons), who said that she drove a golf car around the studio grounds continually shouting, "Move over! I'm Lucille Ball here! Get the f_ck out of the way!"

Geez, so is that true about the golf car and yelling! I would never of thought she'd be like that at all. Although its kinda funny, i think Lucille Ball could only get away with being like that in my eyes.
Thanks for the info guys.

[SPLAIN]

I am so tired of having to defend her on this topic. Yes, she was straightforward and blunt, but like Joan Rivers said, if you know what you're talking about, that saves time, Tony Randall said the same thing, she knew her set better than anybody, she knew every light, every shadow, she knew her CRAFT, she said that herself, she was proud of that. There is no way i believe that she ever screamed at people to get out of the way of her cart while swearing on the lot, not with kids there, and she was professional at work, that just is one of those made up stories that get repeated because they are interesting. I also repeat what someone else rightfully said before, it was the fifties, a man's world, and this uppety woman was telling MEN what to do, she had 3 thousand employees at one time, men, back then, hated being told what to do by a woman, some still resent it today, LOL! Yes, she was tough and lacked TACT sometimes, but so did all her contemporaries who succeeded in that man's world, look at Hepburn or Davis, they were the same way, no nonsense New England types who told it like it was. If they hadn't been that tough, they never would have made it to superstardom. Remember also that for every moron who complains about how harsh she was, there are others who say she was perfectly appropriate, even some of her employees have axes to grind and others are remembering what happened 50 years ago and are now in their 80's or older and also when they are quoted for books and articles, they have a better chance of being quoted if they exaggerate or lie or embellish, same as Lucy Ricardo would when telling a story on the show, LOL!

[Lodee]

Puhleese! You love defending her. It shows off your knowledge of her.

[tdr]

Originally Posted by SPLAIN

There is no way i believe that she ever screamed at people to get out of the way of her cart while swearing on the lot, not with kids there, and she was professional at work, that just is one of those made up stories that get repeated because they are interesting.

I will have to admit you may be right. I'm not sure how long it's been since I read that-- I think it was an interview with both Livingston brothers, but I'm not sure which one said that. Anyway, I just tried to search for that or a similar story and I can't find it. So maybe it comes down to a single incident where one (or both) of those boys were in her way and she yelled and cursed at them like that, and they've held a grudge because of it and say she did that alot.

I thought it might have been on LB's biography on imdb.com, but I couldn't find any reference to it there either; but there are some interesting things about her there (true or not).... like she hated artistic portrayls of birds, and if she couldn't see real ones she ordered paintings of them removed from her home, office, or any hotel room she stayed in; she deplored the demise of the "studio system" of developing performers, saying she had no talent at all and would never have been successful if not for them taking 'charge' of her and making her what she became. I never knew the house seen as Richard Widmark's house in that Hollywood episode was actually her and Desi's newly acquired home in Beverly Hills. I like that quote of hers: "A man who correctly guesses a woman's age may be smart, but he's not very bright."

[NOVARick]

I've heard the Livingston brothers talk about Lucille Ball on several occasions, including at a couple of the "Lucy" conventions in Burbank. They had some colorful stories to tell about Lucille Ball, but nothing as negative as this one about Lucy on her golf cart at the studio telling people to "get the f*** out of the way." The only golf cart story I remember them telling was how Lucy would ride around the studio on her golf cart and let them ride with her. She'd ask if they'd like to have a ride, and of course they said yes because they thought it was fun. She may have been yelling at people to get out of the way (though I don't remember that part of the story), but that Livingston boy would have been on the cart with her when she was doing it. Which would tell me she was joking. Also, as "colorful" as her language could be, she didn't believe in talking that way in front of children. So I would be surprised if she said it quite that way.

One other story that does come to mind -- and I forget which Livingston brother told this -- was about a misadventure William Frawley put him on. My Three Sons was filmed on a soundstage nextdoor to where The Lucy Show was filmed. One day William Frawley asked the Livingston boy if he'd like to have a little fun with him. He said sure. So Bill took him to a room where they gathered together a bunch of film cans -- you know, those round metal containers used to store reels of film. They walked quietly over to the Lucy Show soundstage, each carrying a big stack of film cans, entering into the darkness of the studio audience area under the bleachers. Lucy and Vivian were busy rehearsing a scene for their show. Bill instructed the Livingston boy, "when I give you the signal, drop all those cans." So the Livingston boy stood there with Bill, hiding in the in the darkness under the bleachers waiting for Bill to give him his cue. Lucy was delivering her line. Then it was Vivian's turn. Just as Vivian started to deliver her line, Bill whispered his cue: "Okay . . . now!" And both immediately dropped all the film cans to the floor, creating a huge, loud crashing sound. Because the lights were out where they were, Lucy and Vivian could not see anybody. But Vivian quickly jumped up, straining to see who was there as Bill and the Livingston boy were quickly scampering out of the studio. Vivian was screaming "BILL! BILL!!! Where are you? I know that's you, Bill!!!" He really loved pissing her off.

[comedyfreak]

Thanks for that funny story NOVARick. LOL.

[SPLAIN]

Yeah, i too LOVED that Frawley story when i first read it, so INSIDER and so darn funny, LOL! Wasn't there also a story about the youngest Livingston boy doing a Lucy show as Mooney's son and her cutting his hair and him being annoyed that they had to redo the whole scene in front of the audience? As well as a great story about them having skate boards on the lot and a basketball hoop and other things and Lucy having them removed the minute she heard a kid got hurt while playing?