Lucille Ball is one of the most revered figures in the history of filmed entertainment,
but there are numerous things that even the most diehard I Love Lucy fans might not know
about the beloved entertainer and unlikely media mogul. From the fact
that she wasn’t a natural redhead to her days of being investigated by the FBI,
join Facts Verse as we explore secrets Lucille Ball was hiding her whole career.
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She Wasn’t a Natural Redhead When most people first think of Lucille Ball,
they likely think of her with red hair. During the actress’s most famous years, she became known for
her iconic hair color. However, those that are aware of Lucille’s earlier days in Hollywood
may know that the actress wasn’t always a redhead. In fact, Lucille Ball was born a
brunette, and worked as a brunette for a good deal of her time in Hollywood.
Long before creating I Love Lucy with husband Desi Arnaz,
Lucille Ball was a fledgling Hollywood star working with RKO Pictures.
Lucille ended up being let go by RKO Pictures, and she thought her days on the screen were over
before getting the idea for I Love Lucy. By the time of I Love Lucy’s premiere, Lucille Ball had
her iconic red hair, and she would keep it over the course of her remaining career.
The person credited with inspiring Lucille Ball to change the color of her hair is a
hair stylist by the name of Sydney Guilaroff. Lucille had changed her hair color for films
before, with her having appeared as a blonde in a couple of features. However,
she had never before been seen as a redhead. The look clicked, and Lucille kept it.
Of course, I Love Lucy has since usurped all of Lucille Ball’s other works in popularity,
so it may be hard for most fans to picture the actress without her iconic red hair.
She Changed Her Name to Diane Belmont
Very early on in Lucille Ball’s career, she was having an identity crisis. She had just
begun modeling, and wasn’t sure exactly how she wanted to present herself. Around the late 1920s,
she changed her professional name for some time to Diane Belmont. The name
didn't end up sticking, and she ended up becoming best known as Lucille Ball.
According to the late Lucille Ball, she came up with the name Diane Belmont when
she was driving around one day and saw the Belmont racetrack.
The actress claimed that she had simply always liked the name Diane,
and liked the way it sounded when paired up with the racetrack's name. She performed a few
modeling jobs as Diane Belmont, though decided to give the name up when venturing into acting.
She Didn’t Like the Business Aspects of Her Work When it came to the creative partnership of
Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, Lucille was the artist and Desi was the businessman. However,
this creative relationship all came crashing down in the wake of the pair’s 1960 divorce.
Although Lucille and Desi tried to keep things the same professionally after their divorce,
their emotions ended up getting in the way. During the 1960s,
Desi sold his entire share of Desilu Productions to Lucille Ball.
Lucille and Desi had created Desilu Productions as a way to work together
because their current jobs weren’t allowing them to spend enough time with each other.
With the success of I Love Lucy, the production company became a pretty big deal.
The smart people that they were, Desi and Lucille saw the opportunity to produce
other shows under the Desilu Productions banner. Besides I Love Lucy, Desilu Productions also
went on to produce such notable programs as Star Trek and Mission: Impossible.
When Lucille Ball bought Desi Arnaz’s shares of Desilu Productions, she became the first-ever
female CEO of a big Hollywood production company. Many have prided Lucille for her
feminist accomplishment, though it seems that the actress would’ve much rather been
performing on the stage than toiling away in the offices of her company.
According to daughter Lucie Arnaz, Lucille Ball was never quite comfortable with the business
aspects of running Desilu Productions. Instead, she would’ve much rather have been performing
in front of the cameras. Still, besides Desi, there was nobody that could run the company
and keep it’s integrity the way that she could. She remained on board before eventually selling
the company off in the late 1970s, though her children seem to be in charge of it today.
Although Lucille Ball didn’t enjoy the business aspects of running Desilu Productions,
she seems to have made some pretty good decisions! Apparently, Lucille stuck her neck out to keep
both Star Trek and Mission: Impossible on the air, and they would both go on to become major hits!
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The FBI Investigated Her Though the public adored
Lucille Ball, there was one time during I Love Lucy's original run that the actress
found herself being affected by a notable controversy. When I Love Lucy was on the air,
America was incredibly afraid of Communists. This fear sparked the creation of the House
Un-American Activities Committee, which was tasked with investigating possible Communists in America.
There were many notable Communists in Hollywood, but most of them kept their
mouths shut. Stars could be blacklisted for their Communist affiliations,
and even being labeled as a Communist could be enough to completely end your career in
the entertainment industry. Because of this, Lucille Ball was incredibly
frightened when she found out that she was suspected of being a Communist herself.
The government didn’t suspect that Lucille Ball was a Communist for no reason.
During the actress’s younger days, she had apparently checked a box
on a voter registration panel labeling herself as such. According to Lucille,
she did this because her grandfather was a Communist and she appreciated his values at
the time. However, Lucille also went on to say that she wasn’t active in the party and
hadn’t thought about her Communist beliefs since her grandfather’s passing years prior.
On the surface, it seemed that Lucille’s insistence that she wasn’t an active Communist
was enough to appease the American government. She testified before the House Un-American
Activities Committee and was found to have no active Communist affiliation. However,
the FBI continued to investigate both the star and her then-husband for many years.
It remains uncertain if they were being spied on purely for their possible Communist affiliations,
or if there were other things the pair were suspected of.
The FBI investigated Lucille and Desi under the direction of J. Edgar Hoover,
though the politician claimed to be a big fan of the couple in public. It doesn’t seem as if the
FBI’s years of investigating the Hollywood power couple turned up much. There was one person who
alleged that they had attended a Communist meeting at Lucille Ball’s house. However, the same person
went on to peculiarly add that the beloved television star wasn’t even there at the time.
The FBI also alleged that Desi Arnaz performed a show in the 1940s that was sponsored by an
organization that was alleged to be a front for the Communist Party. However, Desi was always
incredibly patriotic and despised Communism, having fled from a Communist country as a boy.
Another thing that J. Edgar Hoover apparently didn’t like was the series The Untouchables,
which was produced by Desilu Productions. The politician felt that the show was inaccurate.
She Almost Died Filming I Love Lucy
One of the most memorable scenes from I Love Lucy’s run remains the scene where the character
of Lucy is attempting to learn how to make wine from stomping grapes. The scene occurs in the
episode “Lucy’s Italian Movie”, and remains one of Lucille’s most inspired physical routines.
However, it has been revealed in the time since that episode’s original airing that
much of the physical comedy of the scene wasn’t completely intentional.
Not only that, but Lucille Ball may have actually been in some intense physical danger!
The woman that was hired to film the scene alongside Lucille Ball was hired for her abilities
to stomp grapes. The producers tracked down a real grape stomper, and the one who took the
job didn’t speak English very good. When it came time for Lucille to perform the classic scene,
there was a miscommunication with the real-life grape stomper that caused
her to get incredibly angry with Lucille and attack her for real. Because of this,
the fight that ended up making it into the final cut of the episode wasn’t actually staged!
According to Lucille, she feared for her life during the moments when that authentic Italian
grape stomper had her in her grasps. No one that was watching was aware that anything
had gone wrong, with them simply believing that Lucille was just giving her all to the
performance. The take ended up being included in the episode, though the audience might not
be so keen to laugh if they realized that Lucille’s life was at risk! The actress was
certainly a hard worker that enjoyed giving her all to her physical performances,
and she was likely just glad that her sacrifice paid off.
Even if you thought you knew everything there was to know about Lucille Ball, hopefully,
you were able to learn something new in this video! Now it’s time to hear from you: did you
know that Lucille Ball wasn’t a natural redhead, or did you think that she always looked like Lucy
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