Lucille Ball & Barbara Walters: An Interview of a LifeTime (FULL)

[Music] [Applause] [Music] when you've had an unhappy marriage and we've disappointed millions of people by getting a divorce you know I think they're more they want you to run off in a week [Music] [Applause] [Music] when I spoke with Lucille Ball I was nervous she rarely talked about the breakup of her famous marriage to Desi Arnaz and I wasn't sure how to bring it up she was after all going to be sitting right next to her second husband comedian Gary Morton and I assumed that desi was not their favorite subject but she had no problem talking about him in fact she was eager to discuss her ex-husband and did so in a frank manner that was somewhat shocking to the millions who had only known them as that zany happy couple the Ricardos in a moment a great Lucille Ball though she grew up in a small town in upstate New York Lucille Ball loved Hollywood she lived in this elegant Beverly Hills mansion for over 30 years from 1961 until her death she enjoyed the luxuries of her legendary fortune with her second husband Gary Morton a producer former comedian and her most trusted friend this was Gary's and Lucy's bedroom on the second floor and this the pink bathroom that gary built is a surprise for Lucy when she was on location this is also the home where she had lived with Desi Arnaz their work together fills volumes of scripts all of which were stored in the house Marbury this is a very comfortable room this is your favorite oh yes yeah you know there's always one room you live in play games there and the plants grow better and everything but in here we show pictures we have 85,000 feet of seriously movie all right something called fat little cowboy when they wearing starring my children when they were let's see Jesse was about two and a half almost three and Lucy was four but she of course was always telling all I could do pushing him around making sure that he did they close now very good they ever were yeah really much during their 20 years of marriage Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball had two children a daughter Lucy in 1951 and Desi jr. came two years later they were the great joy of Lucy's life she encouraged their interest in show business and as teenagers they joined her in a final TV series Here's Lucy she often said she was a firm believer in nepotism Lucy was so good at being funny that people forget she was also a great beauty in fact it was her looks that got her in the door first as a model and then as an actress and B movies in 1940 she appeared in a movie with a Cuban singer who would eventually steal her heart they were married in November of the year and ten years later they approached CBS about doing a sitcom loosely based on their marriage together they called it I Love Lucy despite strong prejudice against Latin Americans Desi Arnaz built the Empire known as Desilu studios from the ground up and gained a reputation as one of the smartest businessmen in Hollywood there has never been a success like Lucy she was on CBS for 23 consecutive years and won four Emmys and countless other awards by anyone's measure she was the queen of comedy on camera Lucy and Ricky Ricardo exaggerated marital troubles and made us all laugh the public thought they were the perfect match off-camera the marriage fell apart in 1960 Lucy filed for divorce amidst allegations that desi drank too much and cheated on her America was heartbroken so apparently was Lucy but they managed to remain friends until his death in 1986 when I sat down with Lucy and Gary I wasn't sure what to expect she was 66 at the time desi was still alive and the subject of her first marriage was still painful I mean when you and Desi were married you had everything he had nothing he was a he had his own band and he was in a play in New York when he was a kid were you were married but there was married at the SIP and we build up a lot of things but thinking while they were building they would not believe that he was doing the building and he was doing this successful building a very well-run Empire I was doing the acting and having the children I had no part of it I took that on much later but I knew what he had suffered really and how he did not deserve that and just because he was Cuban and once a bongo player did not warrant calling him any of those names and he worked very hard and got a lot of respect for what he did and they forgot about that you had the success the marriage looked perfect it was everything and then it felt that was his problem and I've heard you were devastated I couldn't understand it any more than you you know for the same reason you're asking the question seems like we had everything a people still don't understand I don't either oh I think that's past that's certainly power think it's best but we certainly did have everything and worked very hard to get it and two beautiful children and the what else can you ask for and I think if Jesse were here right now he would agree that it was but when we're talking about the marriage you had said I didn't make the same marriage mistake twice this marriage is very different this man is very good thank you it's not a loser I married a loser before that you could win win hi hi I say he could work very hard he was brilliant but he had to lose this rent sweet I like getting up in a more sober man sweet and generous overly generous but he had to lose he had to fail at everything that he build up everything he built he had to break down he still claims he's the same way and if this marriage itself very different yes very different oh we have a home that is lived in we had many houses before but we didn't have a home but he was ever in well I think together we take care of one another when she's down I carry it up feeling good Gary Gary has for a long time long time thank you well he just assumed that role beautifully and I was grateful for it and I encouraged it and in many many ways I don't think he's even aware of he has responsibilities I think he did he's not even aware of when I found out the kind of man I had married it takes time you know you're not you're not for sure I'd only known him a year and I hadn't thought about it for a year and I really didn't want to get married again I had two beautiful children and I was when you've had an unhappy marriage and you've disappointed millions of people by getting a divorce you know I think more than what you don't run off in a week besides I didn't want to take a man who seemed to be his own man I didn't want anything to happen to that wonderful feeling that he had that that that real wonderful ego and he played it in any way I didn't want thing to happen to that did you ever worry you're a couple of years old and he'd look at somebody else oh I had that I've had that I've had that I've been you know what no I'm that's why I didn't worry I'd heard that you know he had quite a life before all that I didn't really worry about that no I can't say that I did I didn't at the time I thought one sign of that and goodbye whomever one thing I loved about him is that he likes to take his time off he really appreciates it with his golf he's a fine golfer and always has been and he was I think quite pleased when he found out that I didn't mind is going up to the club or going to Palm Springs or wherever to play golf at anytime that he wanted to now from the very beginning he always called nobody asked him to he never said that be sure and call I want to hear and all that never once and through the years he just always says I've always known where he was he's always known where I was there's been no there been no games being played and I was pretty used to a lot of games and I'm not talking about Scrabble do you make each other laugh yeah yeah music said but you said I Lucille Ball I don't think funny and I'm not funny I'm these funny but I'm not I don't think funny I can do funny things that other people write down in detail tell me how to do them but I really don't think funny he doesn't well she'll do what we call Lucy isms things from my show you know like always says Oh Lucy that's crazy Lucy look at Lucy's doing she'll walk into a wall but she'll do little things like that I feel the decide on on dinner and forget the toast and it's been laying there it's this big by the time it comes to me and I forget the roast though Antos that's what I get well well what she does well why don't I make that you like is chopped chicken liver that's all right I don't know my mother's watching but I've learned from your mother girl however Oh Lucy ISM I was making chopped chicken liver it takes a couple of hours to make a huge dish we were expecting some guests and I was doing fine and I was right on time and I tasted it and he did salt and I I already had it in dish but it wasn't too late if I hadn't put the egg yolks on the top so I took the big salt thing and I went like this and the top came off and the entire thing looked like a snowbank and they're practically driving in the driveway I just didn't know what to do so I quickly did the worst thing you can think of I rinsed it well then all this salt went right straight through it you know made notes in so we went out what's her best quality and what's your worst quality our best quality is her long and I love her warmth and a compassion for other people a consideration of other people who are well what's the worst I can't think of I really can I mean it sounds I know what I don't like you take naps oh yeah she has a thing about me taking naps oh yeah I feel uh I'd love to take math I don't like anyone who can take a nap I hear that you're very influenced by norman vincent peale the progress father Frank the man himself and his thinking what does it do what do you what do you live by what's your philosophy is a daily religion I like it because it works for you every day you can use it right now from here to there every morning it's it's I can if I wish I can't Lucy after 25 years of doing the weekly series you stopped in 1974 then methods of life you got up in the morning and you didn't have to run to work dramatic very well for the first three or four months I was I was in limbo I was just in shock I loved getting up and going to work we did because I was depressed I was in such a depression that they you know the doctor said you've got to take her away you've got to find something that she wants to do and it wasn't anything I wanted to do but go back to work why'd you leave oh I've been on long enough I thought and I've kind of always prided myself on knowing when to get off and I felt that really I had stayed out about four or five years longer than I planned which happened because of the children's coming on our show and kind of wanting them to get their wings and fly off on their own which they did and as soon as they did that then I really quit but I've been planning it for five years I just felt that I doubt you know I've grown that that that stage and also with the new shows I began to feel a little old-fashioned let me ask about that would Lucy today Zain a young woman and and really the I Love Lucy the crazy zany lady married to the Cuban bandleader but that shall work today I can't the touch me dancer now apparently they're getting a little tired of the new stuff and they are appreciative of of what they already know about and want again Lucia worked in 77 countries that she distributes the Lucy show and here's Lucy and I Love Lucy so it's funny all over the world and that's the way I feel about the Yuma Lucy's humour can go on and on there's no limit to anybody that's funny Lucy was all Lucy because I always felt that they needed their days the public needed a show that had a beginning a middle and a happy ending and something they could depend on and I think it's become more important to them now that's why they're tuning in so regularly day and night because they can depend on those days they see things that are oh they're trying to make entertainment out of newsreels what we see in the news with which is not very peppy these days and they're they're building shows around them and to me that's not entertainment do you watch yourself do you watch the really lot I Love Lucy no I I never have really watched them recently I've caught some of them inadvertently so they twirling in a dial well I feel about the funny-looking hair doing a funny looking I look like I was forever pregnant because I was either having one or just getting rid of one but I know that they were well-written and we had a wonderful time doing them and I think it shows that is the essence of our comedy those early I Love Lucy and gave me my education and the whole thing did you have trouble selling those first I Love Lucy no I would have trouble selling them because they were I mean the concept I heard that when you first came to CBS with the Cuban bandleader and though they always think they didn't want to buy desi as my husband and I said do why not he is I said well Cuban and we want an American so we got together and went out importable for a few weeks to see how they accepted us than they did when I came back I insisted that's all I said I expected to only do the show for a year and then have some like home movies to show the baby that I had just had you know when she grew up and no one who knew there was going to go on this long or get that big or the business would snowballs my my success was never labeled success by anyone close to me it was just go to work and do a good job get the show out learn how to do it you do it so the best of its you know the best that it can be done and teach others how to do it because it was as I say of a new way of doing things I didn't have time to think of being a success personally if the show was doing well that was good it's been said that you're very tough to work for are you are you know perfectionist perfectionist I have decided his attention to detail which I'm very proud of and that's the way I learned my craft that's one thing that I second thing I think that I'm proudest of it I've learned my craft the other thing that I'm proud of is that I've had time with my children and that my children are doing what they want to do and doing it successfully and I think Gary's the ones oh I'm very happy I read that Lucy is an overprotective mother I found that she she sometimes gets overly protective to her children she's she had a late life and it was her whole world the children ate still are they're very important and they're very very fortunate she's very thoughts are they're wonderful kids but I remember when little desi was born and it was the most important event that happened in the country and I remember reading that more people watched when when desi was supposedly born on the program then watched the Dwight Eisenhower's inauguration or than what J happens I mean Elizabeth's coronation yeah tell us what that time was like for you I wasn't aware of all they didn't tell me all that first of all when you have cesarean you're not that wide awake for you know for the next three hours that takes three four days before you there's major you know and so I was just concerned that the baby was healthy and then later I found out the pure are there that cause and and how nice there was no happy everybody was about it and of course the fact that we were documented by our show and being on the night he was born on the morning of the of January 19th in the show was that night and that could be arranged because it was a planned cesarean and it just happened to fall out of money you are almost 40 when your first child was born 39 it must have been the most fantastic thing right do you think in retrospect that it was that it matters that it was a good thing of a bad thing that you wanted the child so badly that you were that age when the child was born no one warned me that I know now that I was taking a risk but my doctor at the time he didn't frighten me in any way I found out that I was taking a risk - later I read somewhere that when when at that time little Lucie was born that you were so happy you cried so much but the doctor said he wouldn't let you have the baby because you were gonna cry all over though they did because I think they had to take the baby away for me because every time they bring her in I'd cry and it hurt you know when you've had cesarean she was an unexpected cesarean and it was a tough operation and every time they brought her in I would cry so that I'd I couldn't hold her and then once that burped her and I booked her right up out of the blanket and she went up on the top of the bed I tried to raise her up I didn't have the strength and I might like that she went right out of the blanket like raising them but you adore those kids don't you sure I'd also heard that when when Lucy was born that that you heard about the before she was born that you heard that you were pregnant on the radio that you hadn't known yes that one I lost but I got pregnant know that I was pregnant we went out into vaudeville this is one we went into vulnerable to find out if the public or the accepted se as my husband yeah the full event of the television series and I wasn't feeling well and we opened in Chicago and got into New York I thought I'd better see a doctor I had no idea that I was pregnant cuz I hadn't been and we've been married over nine years but I want to see a doctor and he said I think your pride said Europe gotta be putting your on we'll take a test that was Thursday and I supposed to get the results Monday and Sunday night we heard it on Walter Winchell and we reach in our separate dressing rooms and we met in the hall says it's true because we know that if Winchell said it was true that he had spies in the lab and but we really found it out on the radio I just think it's an unusual situation I mean it's tough enough for kids that when they grow up and then to have this sort of spooky thing of seeing your parents and seeing yourself born on television and all of that trend oh they're very nice they're late as they got older it's not to understand the difference between reality and film and you've had to understand it in your life probably much more than most people the difference between reality and film because you had to live for many years still do with another it was another image with an image of a marriage I used it when I was unhappy what do you mean well it was always happy in our story it was always happy pretending until you became I had to pretend but it helped [Music] Lucille Ball died after heart surgery in 1989 but her place in Hollywood history had been determined long before her death her name is now tossed about the same sentences with Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton and she is widely recognized as the most influential woman from the early days of television that probably means less to her than the fact that she will continue to be watched over and over again by new generations of viewers like all great talents she wears well Lucy's brand of comedy is timeless [Music]

Channel: love4myclarks7

Views: 1,826,046

Rating: 4.8244772 out of 5

Keywords: Lucille Ball (Actor), Interview (TV Genre), Barbara, Walters

Id: xQR5BzN4EKg

Length: 22min 1sec (1321 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 12 2012