8/13/2019 From Cuba With Love

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Lucille Ball had some 'splaining to do to CBS when she insisted thather real-life husband Desi Arnaz co-star with her in "l Love Lucy."

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Frcm Cuba with loveBY FRANK LOVECESpecial to Newsday

WWr'i"[hii;':ofthe legendary sitcom "I LoveLucy'' (CBS, 195l-1957) and itscharacter Ricky Ricardo, theloving but often exasperated,Cuban-born husband of theformer Lucille Esmeralda McGil-licuddy - as Scots a name as"Mary, Queen of." Fewer thanl0years after the Mexican-Ameri-can "Zoot Suit Riots" in L.4.., andduring a decade in which restau-rateurs hung signs reading "Nodogs or Puerto Ricans allowed"and Puerto Rican nationaliststried to storm the House ofRepresntatives, TV viewers bythe gazillions weekly welcomedTV's frst Anglo-Latino couple.Much of the reasonwhy isDesiArnaz, Lucille Ball's hus-band and co-star - as sharp acomic straight man as anyone, avisionary producer who coulddeftly counter obstacles, and,it'd be remiss not to note, alight-skinned Latino. His land-grant ancestors had emigratedfrom Spain to Cuba in the 18thcentury, and until the 1933 revo-lution remained among theisland's monied and politicalelite. As AlexAbella, a Cuban-American creative consultant onCBS"'I Love Lucy 50th Anniver-sary Special," said in 2001, "IfDesi were black or had blackblood, he wouldn't have had anysuccess or been allowed ontheair."As it was, he almost wasn't.CBS had wanted Ball tobring to TV her hit radio show,"My Favorite Husband," inwhich Richard Dennrng andshe played a Midwestem bank-er and iris wife. But Ball insistl

ed her real-life husband co-starin the video version. Despitenetwork executives' reserva-tions over whether white Amer-ica would accept an Hispanichusband (they actually proba-bly called him "Latin," as in"Latin lover," the term Hispan-ic not arising until the '70s),developmenl continued as theshow became about a famousmovie star and her celebratedbandleader husband - a sortof "I Love Charo."The concept further evolvedto become more Everyman,with Desi and Lucy as a middle-class nightclub bandleader andhis wife -Larry and LucyLopez. Later changed so as toavoid confusion with bandlead-er Vincbnt Lopez, those aretheir name,s on the originalpilot - a sole copy of whichsurvived the decades and wasrestored as the 1990 CBS spe-cial "I Love Lucy: The VeryFirst Show "

That pilot's centerpiece wasa filmed version of the self-fi-nanced comedy act that thecouple, collaborating withArnaz's friend fos6 "Pepito theClown" P6rez, took around thecountry to demonstrate to awary CBS that a Cuban-Ameri-can couple would be accepted.They demonstratbd more thanthat - they proved a hit. Thebit itself, involving Lucy and aprop cello, wound up restagedagain for the second pilot,which helped seal the deal andeventually aired as episode six.And whatever Ricky Ricardomight or might not have influ-enced in terms of cultural assimi-lation" Arnaz at least providedthe groundbreaking role modelthat helped Hispanics tell therest of America, "Honey We'rehome "