Film historian Darwin Porter is the most prolific author of show-biz biographies in the world. A former entertainment columnist for The Miami Herald, he was assisted in the production of this book by Danforth Prince. Formerly employed by the Paris Bureau of The New York Times, Prince is the award-winning innkeeper of a historic and media-centric AirBnb in New York City, MagnoliaHouseSaintGeorge.com
As reviewed by Diane Donovan, Senior Editor at BOOKWATCH and THE MIDWESTERN BOOK REVIEW Lucille Ball & Desi Arnaz Darwin Porter & Danforth Prince Blood Moon Productions Ltd. 9781936003716 $39.95 www.bloodmoonproductions.com Lucille Ball & Desi Arnaz: They Weren't Lucy & Ricky Ricardo is the first volume in a two-part biography, and covers the marriage and stormy relationship between Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz between 1911-1960. The many facts about both individually, as well as together, will engross and entertain as well as educate. Lucille, for example, was a chorus girl in the 1930s before she became involved with Arnaz. She grew from a teen who earned a reputation as a bad girl in Jamestown, New York after she become involved with the local hoodlum to working in show business and as a nude model. Her move to Hollywood expanded her activities as a hooker and show girl. These changed when she met Desi, a Cuban whose family lost most of their wealth in the Cuban Revolution before they fled to Miami for a new life. Desi and Lucy's Hollywood encounter led to a marriage fraught with stormy conflicts and separations...a relationship that lasted two decades, surviving infidelity on both sides. Readers who enjoy Hollywood gossip and stories of stars, starlets, and passion will find all these forces and more in Lucille Ball & Desi Arnaz. Black and white images pack the story, embellishing it with photos, vintage ads and movie bills, and on- and off-screen shots that capture the personalities and events of Lucy and Desi. More than just a biography filled with Hollywood stories, however, Lucille Ball & Desi Arnaz captures the era which produced Lucy and Desi, from backroom deals and critical successes and failures to the evolution of films, shows, and the two stars as they navigated a changing Hollywood milieu and their relationship. The passion, pathos, and personal and career encounters and choices each faced, both individually and as a famous couple, is captured in vivid descriptions of filming and acting that bring the Hollywood of the 1930s to modern times to life in all of its transformations. Perhaps the greatest strength of this story lies in its contrast between the dreams and realities of a Hollywood couple whose professional lives impacted their personal ambitions and marriage. Filled with insights and moment-by-moment inspections, Lucille Ball & Desi Arnaz is a definitive biography highly recommended for anyone interested not just in these two, but in Hollywood filming, famous couples, and the changing milieu of movies and television over the decades. Biography, film, and media collections alike will find this exploration educational, historically accurate, dramatically intriguing, and revealing.