When Desi Arnaz came to Hollywood in the 1940s, it seemed unlikely that a Cuban refugee with a thick accent would ever be accepted by American viewers — let alone star in one of the most popular TV shows of all time.
“[Executives] just did not believe that widespread American audiences would believe him as the husband of an all-American girl like Lucille Ball,” biographer Todd Purdum says. “Of course, the irony is they had been an all-American couple for 10 years already in real life.”
In his new book, Desi Arnaz: The Man Who Invented Television, Purdum chronicles Arnaz’s contributions to the early days of TV and his relationship, both on- and off-camera, with Ball. I Love Lucy, which ran from 1951 until 1957, became the first show in TV history to reach 10 million people. On it, Arnaz played Ricky Ricardo, the TV husband to his real-life wife.
Much of the success of I Love Lucy is credited to Ball’s comedic talent. But Purdum notes that Arnaz was more than just “second banana” to Ball’s Lucy. Working behind the scenes, he devised the three-camera method used for filming in front of a studio audience, which became standard in the industry.
“Most sitcoms today are still shot using this same basic technique,” he says. “It was used for shows like Friends, The Big Bang Theory.”
Arnaz and Ball also co-founded Desilu Productions, which produced a number of shows, including The Andy Griffith Show, The Untouchables and The Dick Van Dyke Show. And, Purdum adds, Arnaz’s influence is still evident on movie sets around the world, where bathrooms are often labeled “Desi” for men, and “Lucy” for women.
“In this moment in our culture when we’re re-examining people whose contributions might’ve been overlooked because of the way they looked or the way the sounded … [Arnaz’s story is] a window into the early years of television, and the development of television as a business and the power of television that persists to this day over our lives,” Purdum says.
Source: Npr.org
