As the calendar turned to the year 1956, Jamestown residents were all talking about the recent announcement that Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz would be coming to Jamestown in February for the world premiere of their latest movie Forever Darling.
Mr. and Mrs. Earle O. Hultquist and Mr. and Mrs. Alldor M. Nord were the leaders of the Planning Committee for the famous couple’s visit. At the time, Mr. Hultquist was a leading Jamestown businessman and Mr. Nord was the president and treasurer of Union National Furniture Company. The Planning Committee had hundreds of other area residents who donated, organized, planned and helped make this event a roaring success.
Lucille had been back to Jamestown in earlier years, but this would be the first visit to her hometown since becoming the star of America’s favorite television show I Love Lucy in 1951. Her husband and co-star, Desi Arnaz, had never been to Jamestown.
Lucille was born on August 6, 1911 to Henry Durrell and Desiree Evelyn Hunt Ball when the family lived on Stewart Avenue. Henry worked for Bell Telephone Company, and Desiree and the children traveled with him as he was assigned to work away from home. Henry passed away in February 1915, and Desiree, Lucille, and baby Fred moved back to Jamestown to live with her parents.
When Lucille was eight years old, Desiree married Ed Peterson. Lucille and Fred subsequently lived with Ed’s parents on the north side of Jamestown for a time. Viewers of I Love Lucy will remember a scene with Lucy and Ethel (Vivian Vance) were making coffee. When Lucy put the coffee grounds in the pot and then also threw in the egg shells, she announced “My grandmother was Swedish,” referring to Mrs. Peterson.
Lucille attended but did not graduate from Jamestown High School. During her teenage years she loved acting, playing parts in various area productions and at home for her family. In 1926 at age 15, her mother borrowed money so Lucille could enroll in a drama school in New York City for the summer. In her biography Love, Lucy, Lucille wrote that at the end of the semester, the school told Desiree that Lucille was wasting her time, and Desiree her money, because Lucille “doesn’t have what it takes.”
Lucille would return to New York City when she was 17, working as a model. After recuperating in Jamestown from a severe case of rheumatoid arthritis, she again went back to New York City in 1932, determined to pursue an acting career. She again worked as a model, a “Chesterfield Girl” and also did “chorus work” in Broadway shows.
In a chance encounter on a New York City street in 1933, an agent that knew Lucille said “Do you want to move to Hollywood?” Her biography said she ran to the agent’s office and signed up immediately for the job. After getting established in Hollywood, she had small parts in several films, her first “credited role” coming in 1936 in the movie Chatterbox. She met Desi Arnaz while they were both filming the movie Too Many Girls, and they were married on November 30, 1940.
In 1948, Lucille was the star in a radio comedy, playing the role of Liz Cooper in My Favorite Husband. In 1950, the CBS television network asked her and Desi to develop the show for television, and I Love Lucy premiered on October 15, 1951.
Obviously, there are many more details about the life of Lucille Ball, and many biographies have been written about her life and achievements. As we pause now to await the details of her triumphant visit to Jamestown in February 1956, we can also think of her as a little girl growing up without a father in early 20th century Jamestown and Celoron. We can see her walking to School #1 at East 8th and Pine Streets when she lived with the Petersons and as a brave teenager taking the train to New York City by herself several times to follow her acting dreams. She returns home, sick, at the height of the depression in 1930, and, with the help of her family, recovers and returns again to New York City in 1932, only 21 years old, determined to succeed, despite many odds against her.
And now the most famous comedienne in the world would be “coming home.”
