Lucy’s Birthday Celebration

Wow!! What a hit Lucy’s Birthday Celebration was! August 3-5 saw folks from 31 states, Canada and Germany making Jamestown, New York, their destination for a fun-filled weekend. You can enjoy pictures from the festival on-line at www.lucy-desi.com.

We in Lucy’s hometown always love to talk about what she’s known for most -- “I Love Lucy” -- and we even have a whole museum devoted to that fantastic show. But we also want to let folks know about all the other aspects of her life and career, and, boy, did we get a great opportunity to do that during the festival!

One of our special guests was Cindy De La Hoz, the author of the brand-new book Lucy at the Movies. The rest of the world doesn’t get to see it until the fall, but we made special arrangements with the publisher to have a supply for the weekend. It’s a terrific coffee table tome (over 350 pages!) with hundreds of pictures. Friday night Cindy hosted “Lucy at the Movies: A Tribute to Lucille Ball’s Film Career” and then fans had the chance to purchase the book, meet Cindy one-on-one, and get her signature on the book's title page!

The book is not only an amazing time capsule of Lucy's life in the movies, but also a complete directory of each and every Lucille Ball film.

My favorite? That’s a tough one…but if I have to choose, I’ll pick The Long, Long Trailer.

Now you tell me: what’s YOUR favorite Lucille Ball movie??

This photo of Lucille Ball with her brother, Fred, was taken in 1956 as she boarded a train (with Desi) to launch a publicity campaign for her and Desi’s third and film together, Forever, Darling.

Courtesy of the Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Center Archives.