The Tragic Gunshot That Ruined Lucille Ball's Childhood - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

TMC · 01-15-2016, 11:55 PM

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-...usaolp00000592

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The Lucille Ball we all know and love was the product of lifelong determination; she was a living example of how practice and patience make perfect. Despite legendary comedic talents and abundant career opportunities--Ball was well known as "the queen of the B movies" by major movie studios and audiences for a decade--the beauty eventually decided she'd never really achieve the acclaim she had hoped. She ultimately settled for a little television show that bore her name, I Love Lucy, at the ripe old age of 40. You know what happened next.

What you may not know is that Ball overcame a great deal of tragedy throughout her life, from being rendered bedbound in her youth for three years with a mysterious acute case of arthritis that miraculously resolved itself completely to surviving Hollywood's infamous blacklisting of communists--despite attesting that she had formally (yet naively) joined the Communist Party.

On the heels of President Obama's historic executive action on gun control, Ball's story is also a reminder of the damage that firearms can do at the hands of a certainly innocent child.

In her memoir, Love Lucy, Ball writes that on July 4, 1927, her grandfather, "in a holiday mood, came home from work on the trolley with a mysterious object wrapped in brown paper. It was a birthday present for [Ball's brother] Freddy, who was about to turn 12--a real .22-caliber rifle." Despite Freddy's excitement, Ball's father told him he couldn't shoot the gun until the next day, after he showed him how. True to his promise, Ball's father "set up a tin-can target in our backyard and then in his usual meticulous, careful way explained all about the gun."

Next door to the Balls lived an eight-year-old boy, Warner Erickson, who Ball writes had a habit of stopping by uninvited. He did so on this day. Freddy's "little girlfriend" Johanna took a turn with the gun, and just as she was aiming at a tin can, Warner's mother called out his name from their home. "The gun went off," Ball writes, "and Warner fell spread-eagled to the ground, into the lilac bushes." Ball continues:

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"The next few days were a kind of nightmare as we all hung on to bulletins from the hospital. Then we learned the awful news: a .22-caliber bullet is very small, but by fantastic bad luck, the bullet passed right through Warner's spine, severing the cord."

PracTz · 01-16-2016, 02:13 PM

A few clarifications here. Lucille and Freddy's father, Henry Durell Ball had been DEAD since 1915- when Lucille was only 3 and 1/2 and about four months before his only son Freddy himself was born so it was not the 'Ball home'. They lived (for the most part) in the home of Lucille's maternal grandfather Fred Hunt during their childhood but what may be a bit confusing here is that Mr. Hunt insisted on the late Mr. Ball's offspring calling him 'Daddy' and that's what Lucille always called him. Anyway, what appears to have happened was that Mr. Hunt gave his beloved grandson the rifle and Freddy's 'girlfriend' was holding it when poor Warner leaped up a bit startled to hear his mother calling him home for supper. Anyway, Freddy's girlfriend Joanna shot the gun and that horrible shot crippled Warner. Since it happened on Mr. Hunt's property and he WAS the only adult on the premises, the Ericksons SUED him to compensate for their son's injuries and it wound up that when all the dust settled, Mr. Hunt's home was sold from under him Mr. Hunt himself was farmed out to distant relatives while his grandchildren and only surviving child DeDe Hunt Ball Petersen were also scattered to the wind. Thus, it became Lucille's BURNING ambition to somehow reunite her family and THAT is what drove her to become a performer and she WAS eventually able to have them all live with her in Hollywood. As to poor Warner? He would die eight years later still crippled at age 16.
And Joanna? By Lucille's account, she and her parents spirited her out of town ASAP and she was never charged with anything nor would make contact with her onetime 'boyfriend' Freddy or anyone else connected to the Balls or Hunts. No one seems to know what became of her much less if she lived to see 'I L L' and how she may have reacted.

Coffeecup · 01-16-2016, 07:57 PM

I don't like guns. I heard so many stories of accidents.

WalterTheDrinker · 04-25-2016, 03:00 PM

Only an idiot would think that a gun is something appropriate for a child to use.

Unfortunately, there are countless idiots all around us to this day...

Babalu · 05-01-2016, 06:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WalterTheDrinker

Only an idiot would think that a gun is something appropriate for a child to use.

Unfortunately, there are countless idiots all around us to this day...

Many even drink.

01-16-2016, 02:13 PM	#2
PracTz Member Senior Member Join Date: Jul 14, 2002 Location: United States of America [Happily Living in the 20th Century] Posts: 2,711	A few clarifications here. Lucille and Freddy's father, Henry Durell Ball had been DEAD since 1915- when Lucille was only 3 and 1/2 and about four months before his only son Freddy himself was born so it was not the 'Ball home'. They lived (for the most part) in the home of Lucille's maternal grandfather Fred Hunt during their childhood but what may be a bit confusing here is that Mr. Hunt insisted on the late Mr. Ball's offspring calling him 'Daddy' and that's what Lucille always called him. Anyway, what appears to have happened was that Mr. Hunt gave his beloved grandson the rifle and Freddy's 'girlfriend' was holding it when poor Warner leaped up a bit startled to hear his mother calling him home for supper. Anyway, Freddy's girlfriend Joanna shot the gun and that horrible shot crippled Warner. Since it happened on Mr. Hunt's property and he WAS the only adult on the premises, the Ericksons SUED him to compensate for their son's injuries and it wound up that when all the dust settled, Mr. Hunt's home was sold from under him Mr. Hunt himself was farmed out to distant relatives while his grandchildren and only surviving child DeDe Hunt Ball Petersen were also scattered to the wind. Thus, it became Lucille's BURNING ambition to somehow reunite her family and THAT is what drove her to become a performer and she WAS eventually able to have them all live with her in Hollywood. As to poor Warner? He would die eight years later still crippled at age 16. And Joanna? By Lucille's account, she and her parents spirited her out of town ASAP and she was never charged with anything nor would make contact with her onetime 'boyfriend' Freddy or anyone else connected to the Balls or Hunts. No one seems to know what became of her much less if she lived to see 'I L L' and how she may have reacted.

01-16-2016, 07:57 PM	#3
Coffeecup coffeecup. Forum 3000 Club Member Join Date: Jan 17, 2003 Location: snoozeville Posts: 3,183	I don't like guns. I heard so many stories of accidents.

04-25-2016, 03:00 PM	#4
WalterTheDrinker Member Frequent Poster Join Date: Jan 19, 2012 Location: New Jersey Posts: 168	Only an idiot would think that a gun is something appropriate for a child to use. Unfortunately, there are countless idiots all around us to this day...