Lucy: The Real Life of Lucille Ball

by Charles Higham

Covers the comedienne's life through "I Love Lucy" and beyond, including her stormy relationship with Desi, her perfectionism, and her emotional struggles.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction

261 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

Charles Higham was an author and poet. Higham was a recipient of the Prix des Créateurs of the Académie Française and the Poetry Society of London Prize.

Reviews

[brad · Rating 1 out of 5]

If you want to read a general biography of Lucille Ball, this book will suffice. On the positive side, it gives good background on Lucy's family history. Her maternal grandfather, was a very interesting and peculiar man. On the negative side, it takes forever to get to the filming and history of "I Love Lucy." And then after that period, the book speeds up and glosses over "The Lucy Show" and "Here's Lucy" periods. Also, the book spends a bit too much time covering Desi, Jr.'s affairs with various women. There are better biographies about Lucille Ball out there that I recommend over this one.

[Muriel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some very interesting parts. As an "I Love Lucy fan", I enjoyed the behind-the-scenes info, and some of the juicy gossip. Sadly there was way too much triviata and not enough meat to it. It was a very detailed biography. Would have liked to have seen it written in a more memoirish style. (Far too much name-dropping, dates, etc. for my taste.

[Lauren Perotto · Rating 2 out of 5]

I felt like I was reading a tabloid. I'm not sure what was true, what was false, and what was half true. It was full of cynicism and pessimism. After a chapter and a half I called it quits.

[Kaesey Malone · Rating 2 out of 5]

As an avid, lifelong fan of Lucille Ball, I was excited to read this new (to me) book. I was so disappointed in it I couldn't get past the 2nd chapter. There were spelling, grammatical, and name errors. The author got several facts wrong just in the 28 1/2 pages that I read. He would have done himself a tremendous favor by reading Lucille Ball's autobiography (Love, Lucy) before writing this, and several of his "facts" differ from hers, written in her own words. I was horribly disappointed in this book. The only reason I gave it 2 stars instead of 1, is because in the 28 1/2 pages I DID make it through, I learned some new facts (hopefully they're facts) that I hadn't known before.

[Stuart · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not since my nose caught fire in the Bill Holden episode had I had so unpleasant an accident

"Two chimps bit me...I was even bitten by a bear...until you've been bitten by a bear, you haven't lived!

During the nineteen-day honeymoon, Patty flew her Saint Bernard dog from Chicago in a Lear jet because she didn't want it to be in the cargo hold of a normal airplane

She had worked with lions, tigers, sheep, goats, penguins, chimpanzees, porpoises, horses, bears, cats, birds, pigs and dogs. among other things, she played an Indian, a bricklayer, a grape trampler, a fight manager, a sax player in a band of nuns, a martian, an astronaut, a pool Hustler, a kangaroo, the front end of a horse, and a pickle

[Travis Butler · Rating 3 out of 5]

I learned a few things I hadn't before reading this book, but, it was slow paced and spent too much time talking about agents, producers and friends and family we don't know. Much of the book talks about the production of her shows, and not enough about her life outside of show business.

[Mary Narkiewicz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book. Made me a "born again" Lucy fan.

[Denise · Rating 3 out of 5]

General overview of Lucy and Desi life on and off stage and screen. There is always so much more to the lives of the rich and famous.

[Graceann · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good overview for those who are only generally interested in the life of Lucille Ball, but hardcore fans may prefer the longer biography written by Kathleen Brady, written after her passing.

Charles Higham had the advantage of interviewing Miss Ball and several of her contemporaries, and even for this, he is remarkably harsh in his discussions of her later life; her cutting remarks regarding Desi, Jr. and how difficult she was to work with are covered in great, uncomfortable detail. It's clear from this narrative that she never stopped loving Desi, though they could not remain married to one another and still maintain any semblance of sanity. Gary Morton was a much more suitable husband for a lady as mercurial and quick-tempered as Lucy.

For fans who are very familiar with Lucille Ball and her work, there will be no new information here. For those who are new to her, or just casual admirers, it's a good start. I found nothing that was glaringly erroneous and nothing salacious. In a market of "biography" which is really just a means to express the author's base fantasies, I found Higham's approach to the comedy icon that is Lucy refreshing.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a thorough, to a fault, detailed history of Lucille Ball written in 1986, while she was still alive. I wish I could say that I came to like Lucy, but I didn't. I appreciate her talent and many accomplishments, but as a person, I was not impressed. She was very much the dramatic character of her early films. Angry.

[TheRLPL Rice Lake Public Library · Rating 5 out of 5]

Patron Review: Excellent biography of an over-ambitious entertainer. 1st example of sitcom.