Identify Regarding Books Ball of Fire: The Tumultuous Life and Comic Art of Lucille Ball
| Title | : | Ball of Fire: The Tumultuous Life and Comic Art of Lucille Ball |
| Author | : | Stefan Kanfer |
| Book Format | : | Hardcover |
| Book Edition | : | First Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 384 pages |
| Published | : | August 19th 2003 by Knopf (first published January 1st 2003) |
| Categories | : | Biography. Nonfiction. History |
Stefan Kanfer
Hardcover | Pages: 384 pages Rating: 3.85 | 1066 Users | 94 Reviews
Description In Favor Of Books Ball of Fire: The Tumultuous Life and Comic Art of Lucille Ball
For more than fifty years Lucille Ball has been television's most recognizable and beloved face. As Lucy Ricardo she was the ultimate screwball housewife, getting herself into and out of scrapes with unmatched comic finesse. Indeed, she was so funny, and so central to the cultural landscape, that we often overlook Ball's role in shaping that turf: as producer of her own show and a cofounder of a major studio, she was a pioneer, rewriting the rules and forging new paths for women in the boardroom and on the sound stage. In Ball of Fire, Stefan Kanfer goes beyond the icon to examine the difficult life and enduring work of the most influential woman in modern American comedy.Kanfer traces the arc of her career from its unlikely beginnings in a lonely and desolate childhood in upstate New York. There she discovered that making people laugh could ease the pains of a fragmented family life. But she was more than amusing. She was also beautiful, and when Lucy's adolescent attempts to crack Broadway ended in failure, she became a runway model and on a fluke, journeyed out to California to be an extra in one film. That led to another, and another, and another bottom-of-the-bill movie, until she became, in her own words, "The Queen of the B's." Ball of Fire tracks Lucy's pursuit of the superstardom that eluded her on the big screen and follows the actress through a series of disappointing affairs and sorrows until she meets a Cuban conga drummer six years her junior, and falls headlong in love with Desi Arnaz. Working with her husband, Lucille Ball becomes a different kind of comic artist in a program called "I Love Lucy," the show that is still running in more than eighty countries aroundthe globe.
Taking us through the development of television both as technology and cultural phenomenon, Kanfer chronicles the difficult birth of the sitcom that changed the world. He details the early executive meetings, the rocky first productions, the shaky first weeks and the unpredicted triumph. We see all of Lucy's behind-the-scenes battles for creative control of the show; her surprising confrontation with the House Un-American Activities Committee when it was discovered that she had once registered to vote as a Communist; her groundbreaking on-air pregnancy; and a series of in-depth analyses of the classic scenes and Chaplinesque slapstick that guarantee her a permanent place in the pantheon of American comedy.
Finally, we see the aftermath of her hard-won fame: the turbulent marriage and painful split from Desi, the man she never stopped loving; her second marriage; and her sad last years out of the limelight and away from the applause.
This is the first biography to examine the legendary Lucille Ball in all her many dimensions: her personal struggles and the torments that forged a comic genius; and, at last, her posthumous influence on television comedy, on feminist scholars and cultural critics, and on the public at large. Ball of Fire is the definitive biography Lucy fans have been waiting for.
Specify Books During Ball of Fire: The Tumultuous Life and Comic Art of Lucille Ball
| Original Title: | Ball of Fire: The Tumultuous Life and Comic Art of Lucille Ball |
| ISBN: | 0375413154 (ISBN13: 9780375413155) |
| Edition Language: | English |
Rating Regarding Books Ball of Fire: The Tumultuous Life and Comic Art of Lucille Ball
Ratings: 3.85 From 1066 Users | 94 ReviewsArticle Regarding Books Ball of Fire: The Tumultuous Life and Comic Art of Lucille Ball
Book club book for March 2019; came from a list of recommended books to read for Women's History Month (from Penguin publishers?)Interesting but not super readable. Many sections contain seemingly random details and very much have the feel of having been cut and pasted from other sources. The promised purpose of the book, to focus on Lucille Ball as the CEO of Desilu, is noticably thin, with few insights (other than she was miserable and ill-suited to the role). The final chapter, about herEarly in the run of "I Love Lucy, Ball" gave co-star Vivian Vance a hard time. Vance decided, "If by any chance this thing actually becomes a hit and goes anywhere, I'm gonna learn to love that bitch." She did, and so did the rest of the world. But according to Kanfer's excellent, compulsively readable biography, Ball (1911-1989) was much easier to love from afar (as was Kanfer's previous subject, Groucho Marx). Despite all the laughter the gifted red-headed comedienne produced, her personal
An avid fan of I Love Lucy, I love bios and I particularly like bios of people I admire. Lucille Ball is perhaps the funniest women in American TV (maybe all TV), but she had some serious issues (hers and that of first husband Desi Arnaz). If you had an entirely positive view of Lucy, this book will tarnish that, so beware.
An avid lover of I Love Lucy, I chose this book because I wanted to lean more about the woman behind the famous red hair. Ball of Fire is an interesting read, with a view into Lucy's private world. At times, the names and places can seem unfamiliar to someone who does not have a vast knowledge of Hollywood's movers and shakers from her time, but all in all, Ball of Fire was a good read and I would recommend it for anyone wanting to know more about Lucy.
I like biographies a lot, and somehow I found this one a bit bland. I can't put my finger on why it felt this way. Perhaps it was the lack of actual subject quotes, as there are very few actual statements from Lucille. However the subject was very interesting, and I stuck with it to learn about Lucille's rags-to-fame tale. You live on in our hearts, Lucy. You set the bar for every woman in comedy.
How can it be that Lucille Ball had this lively magnetism and energy and yet this book, devoted to her story was so long, boring, and dull?I love biographies, I love Lucy, ergo I should love this, but this was painful just terribly long and boring. Somehow the author was able to wipe all the sheen of Lucy's life and bog it down, making it long and tedious, it's like behind the music where you see the nitty gritty except I wasn't riveted. Good thing is you can continue to Love Lucy without
Very interesting look at the life of Lucille Ball. I've never been a big fan of Lucy's, although I respect her greatly as a businesswoman and producer (I mean, she greenlit "Star Trek.") To his credit, the author pulls no punches in showing Lucy's many contradictions: longing for love yet incapable of expressing it in a healthy way; desperately wanting children yet farming them out for long hours spent in the studio; a pioneering woman in entertainment who wanted to call the shots at every set
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