| Title | : | Who Was Lucille Ball? |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0448483033 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780448483030 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 112 |
| Publication | : | First published February 2, 2016 |
Who Was Lucille Ball? Reviews
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Anyone who has ever seen "I Love Lucy' can recall Lucille Ball's comedic style and her ability to make you laugh with her humorous actions and on point facial expressions. It's easy to see how her outgoing personality and easy joviality made her the "Queen of Comedy."
This short biography looks at her acting career and emphasizes the difficulty she faced breaking into the business. Her continued efforts, small successes, and marriage to Desi Arnaz eventually lead to her starring role. There are plenty of insights into what was, and in many ways still is, valued in the film and television industry.
During her career, Lucille Ball had several noteworthy accomplishments:
- Due to the popularity of I Love Lucy, Monday evenings saw some unusual phenomena. Stores changed their hours to accommodate tv viewing, telephone calls and water usage dropped sharply during the half-hour time slot, and taxis were hard to come by as even cabbies wanted to watch Lucy and Desi.
- When Lucy was pregnant with her son, it was the first time a pregnancy was shown on television.
- She and her son, Desi Jr., appeared on the first cover of TV Guide.
- She was the first woman to run a major production company.
Determined to be a star, Lucy worked hard to earn her place. Lucy and Desi made a great team, and together they broke barriers in the entertainment industry. Even after their divorce, Desi and Lucy maintained a close friendship and a special bond.
Lucille Ball is an unforgettable woman and actress. Her signature look, voice, and style make her instantly recognizable. She's not a woman you soon forget, nor is she one that you want to. She still entertains us even now, long after her death. -
I read this wonderful children's book along with the audiobook. Lucille was a great woman, daughter, granddaughter, human being, mother, wife, businesswoman, friend and artist and she was a very hard working person and a woman ahead of her time too. I loved to watch her on TV when I was a kid and a teen.
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annual "who was" book from my dad. did you know that in the 50s when "i love lucy" was airing these things happened: stores changed their hours, no one could find a cab because taxi drivers would be taking their break, and the water pressure would go down because everyone would wait to go to the bathroom until the show was over. i bet you didn't know that. they also made a baby doll recreation of her son.... creepy... but also.... cool
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This book is in a series of books released as brief timelines of various important people's lives. It doesn't go into real depth but it is still a wonderful book to read. This book follows the life of Lucille Ball up until her death. I highly recommend these books for everyone of all ages. They are not only fun to read but you do learn a lot.
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I adore Lucy. This bio was the perfect amount of information!
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There was so much that I didn't know about the woman who can still make me laugh hysterically.
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I love all of her " I Love Lucy" shows! One of my favorites I'd watch with my grandmother growing up.
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Lucille Ball is one of the original queens of comedy. What I liked most about her is that she had to work hard to accomplish her dream. During the golden age of Hollywood, she wasn't the beauty, which didn't discourage her. She knew her strength was in comedy. Later on in her career, she became one of the first women to run her own production studio. She was a very smart woman. One that should never be forgotten.
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I have been interested in these Big head books. Yes, that's what I call them. I saw this one at my local library( I love library books!!) and picked it up to give one a try. I love always loved Lucille Ball, she's hilarious and such an amazing icon. This gave a pretty descriptive biography of her. I was even impressed about the mention of her death and the death of Desi. I really enjoyed this and will recommend for my nieces and I will pick up other "Big Head" books :).
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Great book for someone to learn more about Lucille Ball and her career. Kept to mostly positive aspects of her life and relationship. Very interesting for a small book and appropriate for kids.
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I loved Lucille Ball, I enjoyed watching her Tv series back in the day.
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I've been requesting lots of Who HQ books for a friend of mine, who is 101 years and seeking books to read. They're a nice length and have nice print size and spacing, and they're numerous on a wide variety of interesting people and places. She's enjoying them and I'm enjoying picking out titles I hope she'll enjoy.
We were talking about middle names during one of my through-the-window screen visits recently, my friend's middle name is Lucille and we got to talking about I Love Lucy. I have never seen an episode! So anyway, we both read this. As usual, it's a compact biography containing facts, highlights, and interesting tidbits on the subject - the life of Lucille Ball. But this one left me with more questions than usual, which is why it doesn't rank as high for me as other Who books.
And to be fully fair via honesty here, I'm less impacted or impressed by Who subjects whose main accomplishment is rising to money and fame. I'm not a big fan of celebrity. I realize that Lucille Ball accomplished more than this by making millions of people laugh, and if I had been one of those people (rather than someone who has never seen her shows) I may have felt more sentimental.
I always ask myself when reading these books, why was this person chosen as a subject? Sometimes it's obvious without asking. Sometimes I wonder a little more. Usually there is a theme of perseverance, of work ethic, following dreams, trailblazing, try, try again! That is present here. Lucille Ball was not an instant success. She had to keep at her dreams for a long time before seeing them come to fruition. Go, Lucy! On the other hand, the book emphasizes the fact that she lacked talent as a singer and dancer, highlights her long legs as the reason she was hired as a Chesterfield girl, tells a story about her stuffing her bra to try to get an acting role (lined up posing in swimwear to be inspected by a male doing the hiring) and expresses her continued vanity over her legs. I didn't like the tone. While this is the truth of the way our world used to be and very much still is, it's not the message I want replayed for my daughter.
Of course, Lucy eventually finds her niche, breaks barriers, and becomes successful while being uniquely herself. This is good. Use your wit, kids. Not your body. -
great facts
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You would never think her life was actually not that great.......😭
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This Non-fiction book on Lucille Ball was a great read! It did not take long to read but it was so full of a lot of great information. This is intended for children to read to learn about a very well known lady from TV that had a very accomplished life.
When reading this book it starts out in the very beginning of her life, telling you about her father dying and her family moving in with her grandparents and how badly she wanted to be in the show light.
It talks a lot of her dedication and hard work through all of her struggles to become big in show business. She was not a good singer and dancer and so this caused limitation on her acting career. She ends up in a movie with her future Cuban husband Desi Arnaz, where they fall in love and ended up starting a show together called I love Lucy. It was based of of Lucy as a house wife that gets herself into misfit that is usually hilarious!
This book did not have an intended point of view. It was very formal and straight-forward to the truth of Lucile Ball's Life. The thing that I really liked about this book was all through out the book every time there was new information of history, such as talking about the first television and communist there was a separate page that just gave information on that history! Over all a great book! -
What’s not to love about the Queen of comedy? Or for that matter this book about her? Once again another great read for the “Who Was…” series. Lucille was with out a doubt a woman ahead of her time. “I Love Lucy” was translated in many different languages all over the world. Her show/ work is still funny and entertaining today to a wide variety of people. That’s an amazing when you think about. Without a doubt, she earned her tittle.
It was inspiring to read about Lucille’s journey to becoming the Lucy we all know and love. I didn’t know she struggled so much and worked so hard. Lucille was told more than once that she wasn’t cut out to be an actress or in show business. Good thing she didn’t listen. It’s a big reminder to never give up on your dreams or passions.
I was sad to come to the end. Especially sad to read of Lucille’s end, but she forever lives on through her work. -
"She was the first woman in history to run a major production company."
Overall, this is a good introduction to the life and times of Lucille Ball. The parts about her and Buster Keaton are fascinating, one of those bits of trivia that make perfect sense once you learn them, but was not something I had been aware of before.
I wish in the portion/timeframe where Desilu Studios is talked about there had been a side bar about Star Trek. Without Desilu we wouldn't have Star Trek, and when we look at the Star Trek franchise NIW it is kind of amazing to think of our world without all that content, or the modern world having not been influenced by the original Star Trek series. Lucy, Desi, and Desilu deserve a great deal of credit for the shows they brought to the air beyond just the shows Lucy was in. -
Sin duda alguna, una biografía bastante superficial, cubriendo los mayores hitos en la vida artística y personal de esta difunta estrella de la comedia de televisión, Lucille Ball.
Pasaron por altos algunos hechos que ya sabía, sobre todo los problemas familiares que tuvo en su infancia temprana y adolescencia. Pero bueno, no puedo culparlos, esta serie está para un público más general que para aquel que quiera una verdadera y completa biografía.
Bastante interesante y los dibujos a mano muy hermosos. -
Inspiring
It just boggles the mind how Lucy had to struggle for so many years until she finally found her niche and achieved recognition. I don't understand how any of these show biz people were able to watch her perform and not see her talent and potential. Definitely a lesson for us all. And I have to say that Gregory Copeland's illustrations are superb and a delight to the eye! -
A biography of a television pioneer for junior readers? No. This series is read by both adults and children. You can get a lot of information from this introductory material and the authors make it entertaining throughout the reading experience. It even has short explanation of certain key historical events. I highly recommend.
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This is a well written introductory biography of Lucille Ball. Though not a long read, this book packs information in in an interesting way that helps the reader understand the life of Ball. I was surprised how much information was covered. It was the first "Who Was?" biography I read, and now I understand why my students enjoy them so much. Great middle grade biography.
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Thoroughly enjoying these series of child-oriented biographies. Fun to read about “I Love Lucy” and was surprised to know she was investigated for Communist ties. Also makes me want to introduce this show to my kids (thank you Amazon Prime). Even now, with a fresh new generation, I know they would get a kick out of this show and its mishaps.
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I picked this up since my mother loves Lucille Ball. I loved learning that water pressure would drop every week from 9:30 and 9:35 since people were waiting to use the restroom until after I Love Lucy show ended. It reminds me of the UK having to prepare for when everyone would turn their kettles on at 7:30 when EastEnders would end (a UK show).
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It’s a very quick way to learn about Lucille Ball. This book gives the perfect amount of information and I’ll recommend it for ages 6 and up. There might be some vocabulary ages younger than 6 may not understand. But I personally think after reading it myself that any age is a great age to hear/read about the story of Lucille Ball’s life! I loved it!
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Hmm, I guess I didn't realize this series was pretty basic and was hoping for a bit more depth in Ms Ball's history. Super quick read though but I don't know that I learned much that was new. If you are looking for a basic history of Lucille Ball, this is your book. If you want more than 1 inch depth, look somewhere else.
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This is a thorough, if not rosy picture, of Lucille Ball. It tells of her life in television, her relationship with Desi Arnez, and her life after television. I thought the detail was good for the age level.
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I like this book because it is very descriptive about the life of Lucille Ball. I have seen a couple episodes of "I Love Lucy" and wanted to learn more about the actors. This book helped me do just that.
