Desi Arnaz

Desi Arnaz (born Desiderio Alberto Arnaz y de Acha, III) (March 2, 1917 – December 2, 1986) was a Cuban-American musician, actor, comedian and television producer.

Early life

He was born in Santiago de Cuba, Cuba's second largest city, to a wealthy family. His ancestors had been among the recipients of the original Spanish land grants in the eighteenth century, and his father served in the Cuban House of Representatives and became the youngest mayor that Santiago had ever had. After the 1933 revolution that overthrew the American-backed President Gerardo Machado, Arnaz and his parents fled to Miami, Florida. At that time, Miami was a medium sized city with a very small Latin American population; to support themselves, the Arnaz family worked at different odd jobs.

Music career

He began his career as a professional musician in 1936, playing guitar and percussion for a Latin orchestra. He then took a pay cut to work in New York City for Xavier Cugat, his mentor, whom he later described as world-class cheapskate but an excellent teacher. Arnaz returned to Miami six months later to lead his own combo. It was there he introduced American audiences to the Conga Line, which soon became a national rage. He formed his own orchestra and returned to New York.

Arnaz was also a successful recording artist, beginning in 1937, and had a hit with the Santeria-flavored "Babalu" (1946), his signature song, which was recorded at RCA Victor.

Film career

In 1939, he starred on Broadway in the successful musical Too Many Girls. He then went to Hollywood to appear in the 1940 movie version at RKO, which starred actress and comedienne, Lucille Ball.

Arnaz appeared in several movies in the 1940s, most notably Bataan (1943). Shortly after he received his draft notice, but before he was actually inducted, he injured his knee. Although he made it through boot camp, he was eventually classified for limited service, and ended up directing U.S.O. programs at a military hospital in the San Fernando Valley. In his memoirs, he recalled discovering that the first thing soldiers requested was almost invariably a glass of cold milk, so he arranged for beautiful starlets to greet the wounded soldiers as they disembarked and pour milk for them. After leaving the Army, he formed another orchestra, which was successful in live appearances and recordings. After he became engaged in television, he kept the orchestra on his payroll. Throughout the period he remained an active producer.

I Love Lucy

He produced and starred in I Love Lucy, in which he played a fictitious version of himself, Cuban orchestra leader Ricky Ricardo, and starring his real-life wife Lucille Ball as Ricky's wife Lucy. In the original pilot, Ricky and Lucy were successful showbusiness figures (he a band leader, she an actress) whose glamorous careers interfered with their efforts to maintain a normal marriage. Market research indicated, however, that this scenario would not be popular, so Arnaz changed it to make Ricky a struggling young orchestra leader and Lucy a plain housewife with showbiz fantasies but no talent at all. Initially, the idea of having Ball and the distinctly Latino Arnaz portray a married couple encountered resistance, for he was told that his Cuban accent and Latin style would not be agreeable to American viewers; but Arnaz overcame these objections by auditioning the proposed television show before live audiences with great success.

Desilu Productions

With Ball, he founded Desilu Productions. At this time, most television programs were broadcast live, and as the largest markets were in New York, the rest of the country received only kinescope images (the result of placing 35 mm or 16 mm film cameras in front of a television monitor and shipping the prints to other time zones for broadcast at a later date, resulting in extremely poor quality). Arnaz developed the multicamera setup production style using adjacent sets that became the standard for all subsequent situation comedies to this day. The use of film enabled every station around the country to broadcast high-quality images of the show. Initially, Arnaz was told that it would be impossible to allow an audience onto a sound stage, but he worked with the famous cameraman Karl Freund to design a set that would accommodate an audience, allow filming and also adhere to fire and safety codes.

Arnaz also pushed the network to allow them to show Lucille Ball while she was pregnant. According to Arnaz, the CBS network told him, "You cannot show a pregnant woman on television." Arnaz consulted a priest, a rabbi and a minister, all of whom told him that there would be nothing wrong with showing a pregnant Lucy or with using the word "pregnant." The network finally relented and let Arnaz and Ball weave the pregnancy into the story line, but remained adamant about eschewing use of "pregnant," so Arnaz substituted "expecting," pronouncing it "'spectin'" in his Cuban accent.

In addition to I Love Lucy, he produced December Bride, The Texan, Make Room for Daddy, The Mothers-in-Law, The Lucy Show, Those Whiting Girls, Our Miss Brooks, and the pilot episode of The Untouchables, all Top Ten shows in their time. He is also credited with the invention of the rerun.

Beliefs

"Good taste"

Also worth noting is the firm stance Arnaz and Ball took as to "basic good taste," avoiding racial or ethnic jokes, poking fun at the handicapped, and the like. Arnaz recalled that the only exception consisted of making fun of Ricky Ricardo's accent—and noted that even these jokes worked only when Lucy, as his wife, did the mimicking. "When Fred and Ethel made fun of Ricky's accent, they didn't get a laugh. Interesting, isn't it?" Arnaz said.

Patriotism

Arnaz was adamantly patriotic--in his memoirs, the first object of thanks was the United States itself: "I know of no other country in the world," he said, in which "a sixteen-year old kid, broke and unable to speak the language," could reach the astonishing heights of success that he had. Arnaz' warm feelings towards his adopted country most likely influenced the storyline of I Love Lucy in certain subtle ways. Over the show's six-year run, the fortunes of the Ricardos closely mirror that of the archetypical 1950s American Dream: at first, they live in a tiny brownstone apartment; Ricky's fortunes continue to improve, and they move into a slightly larger one with a view. Later, Ricky gets his big break and goes to Hollywood; shortly after returning to New York, all of them have the chance to travel through Europe, an adventure that most Americans back then could never afford. Finally, after Little Ricky is born, Lucy and Ricky echo the Zeitgeist of 1950s America and head for the suburbs. Fred Mertz, with his unrelenting stinginess and fears about money, symbolizes the lean years of the Depression, now a fading memory.

Marriages

Lucille Ball & Desi Arnaz

Arnaz married Lucille Ball in 1940 and initiated divorce proceedings in 1944, but reconciled before the interlocutory decree became final.

He and Ball were the parents of actress Lucie Arnaz (born 1951) and actor Desi Arnaz, Jr. (born 1953).

Arnaz's marriage with Ball began to collapse under the strain of his serious problems with alcohol, drugs, and womanizing. According to his memoir, the combined pressures of managing the production company as well as supervising its day-to-day operations had greatly worsened as it grew much larger. Arnaz was also suffering from diverticulitis, probably as a result of alcohol abuse. He and Ball divorced in 1960; she was 49 and he was 43. When Ball returned to weekly television, she and Arnaz worked out an agreement regarding Desilu wherein she bought him out.

Three years after the divorce, Arnaz married his second wife, Edith Mack Hirsh, and greatly reduced his show business activities. He served as executive producer of The Mothers-in-Law, and during its two-year run, made a couple of very amusing guest appearances as a Spanish matador. Actress Deborah Walley, in her 20s when she co-starred in the series, later recalled how Arnaz, then 50, was constantly coming on to her.

Later life

In the 1970s, he co-hosted a week of shows with daytime TV favorite Mike Douglas. Vivian Vance appeared as a guest, and in this brief reunion viewers could see the genuine affection each had for the other. Arnaz also headlined a Kraft Music Hall special on NBC that featured his two children, with a brief appearance by Vance. To promote his autobiography, cryptically named A Book, Arnaz served as a memorable guest on Saturday Night Live in 1976 when his son, Desi, Jr., was host. He played the drums and sang a song in Spanish. He ended by sending his love to Lucille Ball.

Desi and Edith eventually moved to Del Mar, California, where he lived the rest of his life in semi-retirement. He contributed generously to charitable and non-profit organizations, including San Diego State University. Arnaz would make a guest appearance on the TV series Alice, starring Linda Lavin. This would be one of Arnaz's last television appearances remembered by American audiences.

Arnaz, a lifelong smoker, died in Del Mar, aged 69, from lung cancer. His wife, Edith, had predeceased him (also from cancer).

His body was cremated and his ashes scattered. A widely published photograph taken at his memorial service shows an aged Lucille Ball emerging from the church.

Legacy

Desi Arnaz has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, for contributions to motion pictures at 6327 Hollywood Boulevard, and for television at 6220 Hollywood Boulevard.

Filmography

Too Many Girls (1940)
Father Takes a Wife (1941)
Four Jacks and a Jill (1942)
The Navy Comes Through (1942)
Bataan (1943)
Screen Snapshots: Hollywood in Uniform (1943) (short subject)
Cuban Pete (1946)
Desi Arnaz and His Orchestra (1946) (short subject)
Jitterumba (1947) (short subject)
Holiday in Havana (1949)
I Love Lucy (1953) (unreleased compilation film of episodes from the show).
The Long, Long Trailer (1954)
Forever, Darling (1956)
Salsa (1976) (documentary)
The Escape Artist (1982)

External links

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