Latest news with #Arnaz
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Lucie Arnaz Returns to the Lot Her Parents Built—This Time to Help a Fan Finish His Film
Lucie Arnaz Returns to the Lot Her Parents Built—This Time to Help a Fan Finish His Film originally appeared on L.A. Mag. Raji Ahsan proves it's always great to meet your heroes. Perhaps your childhood obsession was Barbie or board games, but for young Ahsan growing up in Orange County in the 90s, it was Desilu Studios, the long-gone TV production company founded by Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. The filmmaker is partnering with Lucy and Desi's daughter Lucie Arnaz for 'Lucie on the Lot' a fundraising event to complete his new film Dr. Sam at the old family studio on June 5. After completing their iconic series, I Love Lucy, Desilu produced shows like Star Trek, Mission: Impossible and Mannix from the old RKO Studios (now Paramount) at the corner of Melrose and Gower in Hollywood. Lucy sold her shares in the company to Paramount decades before Raji was born. 'I'm a Desilu nut,' Ahsan says. 'Right after 9/11 they stopped giving studio tours. When I was 12 I had a school assignment to write a persuasive essay and my teacher said you should mail it to the studio so I did…and I put in my tiny little headshot.' Two weeks later he dialed up the studio and a friendly page told him he was moved by the letter and offered a private tour. 'My mom lived in a shelter and she cleaned houses to keep us fed,' Ahsan remembers. 'When she was home, we'd watch I Love Lucy. It was my comfort.' Ahsan grew up to become an actor and a waiter – the classic Hollywood combo. Through mutual friends, he met Emmy-winning actress Lucie Arnaz and a friendship was born. 'He had a podcast and asked me to be a guest,' says Arnaz. 'He's really smart and funny and full of ideas. I instinctively took him under my wing and wanted to help him. He's a powerhouse. You've gotta be like that to get anything done in this world.' Ahsan wrote the short film Dr. Sam about a struggling actor, musician and waiter who masquerades as a therapist and offered a part to his hero Arnaz. 'He said he'd like me to play his mom,' she says. 'I so do not look Egyptian, so in the movie he's adopted.' Lucie and her brother Desi Jr. spent part of their childhood exploring the historic Hollywood lot that today is part of Paramount. 'We would be let loose in some wonderful big empty stages,' Armaz remembers. 'It was so fun to go through the prop room at RKO and play with a life size King Kong and all the wonderful costumes and amazing props from all the films they had done. It was a kid's paradise.' Today, Arnaz lives in Palm Springs, where she writes and produces new shows and oversees the merchandise end of the family business with her daughter. Her brother Desi is retired, and jokingly calls himself a 'self-imposed recluse.' Arnaz will be performing standards live in concert at the Catalina Jazz Club in Hollywood on June 27-28 and opening the new season of the Purple Room in Palm Springs August 29 and 30. The 'Lucie on the Lot' event on June 5 will screen Arnaz's award-winning film Lucy and Desi: A Home Movie on the big screen at the Paramount Theater. There will be a celebration of the 75th anniversary of Desilu, photo ops in front of the famous Bronson gate you remember from Sunset Boulevard and a chance to chat up the filmmakers. Proceeds will be split between finishing up Ahsan's film and the Long Beach shelter his mom landed in when the family immigrated to L.A. 'I wanted to live on the lot,' Ahsan says. 'The fact that Lucie is coming to this place I wrote a letter to when I was 12 is full circle.' This story was originally reported by L.A. Mag on May 30, 2025, where it first appeared.
Los Angeles Times
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Poignant Desi Arnaz bio spotlights drive and showbiz innovations of Lucy's comic foil
Desi Arnaz's life ricocheted between privilege and economic hardship, creative peaks and alcoholic lows — the stuff of high drama. But it was comedy that secured his legacy. The Cuban American musician, bandleader, actor and producer remains most famous for his role as Lucille Ball's husband and straight man, Ricky Ricardo, in their iconic 1950s television series, 'I Love Lucy.' Arnaz, playing a version of himself, memorably exploded into exasperation or anger before forgiving the TV Lucy's slapstick schemes. In actuality, he was far more than his (real-life) wife's adroit comic foil. As Todd S. Purdum relates in his intimate, often poignant biography, Arnaz was the driving force behind the show and a pioneer of early television. 'I Love Lucy' was filmed before a live studio audience using multiple synchronized cameras, innovations that paved the way for both massively profitable syndication and future sitcoms. That business model, Purdum writes, 'lasted unchallenged for the better part of seven decades, until the streaming era established a competing paradigm.' Desilu Productions, the couple's company, became a leading creator of television content and eventually spawned the 'Mission: Impossible' and 'Star Trek' franchises. The themes in 'Desi Arnaz' are familiar from Amy Poehler's 2022 documentary, 'Lucy and Desi,' though the book provides more detail and context. Purdum stresses both Arnaz's underappreciated talents as a producer and showbiz entrepreneur and the couple's enduring bond, which survived even their divorce and remarriages to others. Like the film, the biography benefits from the cooperation of the couple's children, Desi Arnaz Jr. and especially Lucie Arnaz, who opened private family archives to the author. That access allows Purdum (who in 2018 chronicled another creative partnership, between Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, in 'Something Wonderful') to present a nuanced portrait of both Arnaz's gifts and his tragic shortcomings. Alongside his celebration of Arnaz's entrepreneurial savvy, comic flair, photographic memory, personal kindness and managerial skills, Purdum chronicles his (probable) sex addiction and descent into alcoholism. He emphasizes Arnaz's 'compulsive patronage of prostitutes,' which Purdum suggests played an outsize role in his philandering. Whatever the source and specific contours of his demons, Arnaz's impulsive, self-destructive behavior derailed both his marriage to Ball and his career. In material terms at least, Arnaz's childhood in Cuba was idyllic. The privileged only son of an aristocratic lineage, he was 'raised as a prince.' His pharmacist father became the reformist mayor of Santiago, and the youthful Desi — born Desiderio Alberto Arnaz y de Acha in 1917 — a bit of a hellion. But the 1933 Cuban Revolution impelled his family's flight from the island, dashing Desi's hopes of a legal career. At 17, he ended up penniless in Miami, living with his father in a rat-infested warehouse and cleaning canary cages for cash. In high school, his best friend was Al Capone Jr., the Chicago mobster's son. The radical shift in Arnaz's fortunes, Purdum argues, led to 'a willingness to take bold risks — and a burning, consuming drive to succeed.' Music was the first path he took. Purdum, otherwise an admirer, describes Arnaz's musical talents (if not his charisma) as 'limited.' Xavier Cugat, 'king of the rumba,' nevertheless hired him, and Bing Crosby advocated for him. Arnaz gained celebrity as the American popularizer of the conga, an Afro Cuban line dance that his father had once tried to ban. The Broadway lyricist Lorenz Hart spotted Arnaz in a Miami Beach club called La Conga, and with his collaborator, Richard Rodgers, invited him to audition for their new Broadway musical, 'Too Many Girls.' Arnaz and Lucille Ball, six years his senior and already a movie star, met on the set of the subsequent film adaptation. Their attraction was immediate, mutual and intense. But the relationship was tempestuous from the start. The couple were frequently apart — Arnaz touring with his band, Ball making movies — and they quarreled over his sexual peccadilloes. 'I Love Lucy' originated, in part, as an attempt to save their marriage. By then, Purdum writes, both Arnaz and Ball 'had run out their string in the movies and were willing to leap into the still-untested, second-tier medium of television.' The biography offers a fascinating play-by-play of the sitcom's development. The show relied on much of the same staff as Ball's radio hit, 'My Favorite Husband,' including head writer Jess Oppenheimer. Oppenheimer, the showrunner for 'I Love Lucy' in its early years, remained bitter that Arnaz publicly downplayed his contributions. 'Desi had become so used to being underestimated and taken for granted that when it was finally his turn to control the narrative,' Purdum writes, 'he sometimes took too much credit.' Arnaz's own achievements — as this country's first Latino television star and television executive — occurred against a cultural backdrop of condescension and outright racism. He also struggled with his insecurities about playing second fiddle to his immensely talented wife. In the end, though, Arnaz's addictive behaviors were his greatest challenge. He was 'often simply too drunk to function,' Purdum writes. Arnaz eventually got sober, but he died of lung cancer in 1986 at 69. One lifelong friend, Marcella Rabwin, said of Arnaz: 'He was a very serious, wonderful man who felt very deeply.' Purdum's empathetic biography endorses that assessment. Klein is a cultural reporter and critic in Philadelphia.
New York Post
10-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Post
Revealed: Why Lorne Michaels told Jack Black he thought Desi Arnaz was going to die during 1976 ‘SNL' episode
We love hearing stories from the vault. On Wednesday, Jack Black appeared on David Spade and Dana Carvey's 'Fly on the Wall' podcast where he reflected on what 'SNL' creator Lorne Michaels told him when he hosted the show last month. 'Lorne said the funniest thing. I don't think he was trying to be funny,' the actor, 55, explained. 'After the rehearsal, when he saw me do the tiger roll and he saw me doing that rockin' number, and he saw me sweating and wheezing, he said, 'I just want to tell you a story.' ' 5 Lorne Michaels attends SNL50: The Homecoming Concert at Radio City Music Hall. Getty Images 'In the '70s, this is the beginning, we had Desi Arnaz on the show,' Michaels, 80, told Black. 'And he was getting up there, he was in his 70s. And I wanted him on, because I just thought, yes he's older, but he's an icon.' Arnaz hosted season one episode 14 on February 21, 1976, but Black recounted that the creator told him that 'Desi was kind of struggling.' Arnaz, who was married to Lucille Ball from 1940 to 1960, wanted to perform his 'Babalú' number, which was his signature performance for his character Ricky Ricardo from 'I Love Lucy.' 5 Desi Arnaz on 'Saturday Night Live.' NBCUniversal via Getty Images The Babalú saw Arnaz singing while playing the drums with a band behind him. The piece originated on the sitcom — which ran for six seasons from 1951 to 1957 — but Arnaz continued to do it long after the series ended. 'Lorne was a little worried about it. Can he still pull it off?' Black told Carvey, 69, and Spade, 60. 'And he was doing it, but he could see that he was starting to sweat and really struggle physically while he was 'Babalú'-ing and he wouldn't stop.' 'Then he looked closer on the screen and he's like, 'Desi's lips started to turn blue' and he started to worry like, 'Oh, he's about to die,' ' he continued. 'And he just pulled the plug on it and said, 'Just go to commercial, whatever.' ' Black didn't know what to make of Michaels' remarks, sharing, 'I was like, 'Wait a second, are you telling me this story because you're worried I'm going to die [appearing on 'SNL']?' 5 Jack Black on 'Saturday Night Live.' Will Heath/NBC 'Lorne was a little worried,' admitted Black. 'He was just warning me not to go too hard. Because if I went full hard as a motherf–ker, that I could die.' The 'Goosebumps' actor is no stranger to Studio 8H, as he has hosted 'Saturday Night Live' in 2002, 2003, 2005 and again this year. In April, Black got candid on returning to the show after two decades, alongside musical guests Elton John and Brandi Carlile. 5 Jack Black and Michael Longfellow as Dexter during the 'Goth Kid on Vacation' sketch on Saturday, April 5, 2025. Holland Rainwater/NBC Prior to the night, the 'Minecraft' star called his appearance on 'SNL' 'cray cray' while talking to Variety. Black added that he was feeling the pressure. 'Just so you know, having lots of nightmares and night terrors and also fond memories flooding back. It's crazy, very exciting,' teased Black. 'You know what they're thinking about right now? They are just all in a dead coma from last night's show,' the star said of the cast and writers. 'Maybe some of them are thinking of some ideas, but I'm really thinking it's one of those shows they put together in one week, that's part of the excitement.' 5 'Saturday Night Live.' Rosalind O'Connor/NBC Black said he loves 'all those kids' currently on Season 50. 'I call them kids because I was on that show before some of them were born — except for Kenan [Thompson], we're around the same age. That's about it,' he confessed. Michaels created the sketch comedy show on Oct. 11, 1975. A variety of A-listers got their star on the series, including Jimmy Fallon, Amy Poehler, Mike Myers, Chevy Chase, Will Ferrell and Tina Fey.
