Lucille Ball

In 1940, she met a Cuban bandleader Desi Arnaz, and starred with him in the B-grade movie, ‘Dance, Girl, Dance’. Both of them fell in love with him each other and got married.

During the initial years of their marriage, they were unable to stay together due to her career which forced her to travel continuously. In 1944, she filed for a divorce but later reconciled with her husband.

She had miscarriages in 1942, 1949 and 1950 and finally gave birth to her first child, Lucie Arnaz in 1951. On 19 January 1953, she gave birth to their second child, Desi Arnaz Jr.

She was born on 6 August, 1911 to Henry Ball, a telephone lineman for Bell Telephone Company and Desiree Hunt in Jamestown, New York. She had a brother, Fred.

In 1915, when she was three years old, her father died of typhoid leaving the family in a vulnerable state. She distinctly remembered the day her father died, as it was the day she became orthophobic, when she witnessed a bird getting trapped in her house.

After her father’s demise, they went to her maternal grandparents in New York and her mother found a job at a local factory. In 1919, her mother married Edward Peterson and they moved to another city in search of work without the children.

Both the children were looked after by Edward’s Swedish parents and it was a hard time for the both the children and grandparents. The grandparents imposed restrictions on her causing her to rebel.

In 1927, another unfortunate incident took place, a neighbor boy was accidentally shot and paralyzed by her brother, due to which her grandfather was sued and forced to sell his house for financial settlement.

In 1928, she changed her stage name to Diane Belmont and worked as a fashion model for Hattie Carnegie. She had a blooming career ahead of her, when she got ill with rheumatic fever and was unable to work for next two years.

In 1932, after recovering from the disease, she resumed her career as a model again for Carnegie and also became the Chesterfield cigarette girl.

She went to Hollywood to pursue her career as an actress in 1933, and appeared in several B-grade movies, earning the title “Queen of the B’s”.

Some of her more popular movies include ‘The Three Musketeers’ (1935), ‘Stage Door’ (1937), ‘Room Service’ (1938), ‘Too Many Girls’ (1940) and ‘The Big Street’ (1942).

Her husband persuaded her to work in broadcasting, and she got the lead part in CBS radio program ‘My Favorite Husband’ which ran from 1948 to 1951. Later, CBS asked her to adapt it for television; she seized the opportunity and responded with a demand of working in it with her real life husband, Desi Arnaz.

In 1942, she was critically praised for her role in “The Big Street” as a handicapped nightclub singer.

Her first production ‘I Love Lucy’ with her real life husband was an instant hit and she became a household name. It was rated No. 1 within six months of its start with a groundbreaking success in the history of sitcoms.

Her show also influenced the future sitcoms in terms of filming with a live audience and set-ups that were created on distinct sets adjacent to one another. ‘I Love Lucy’ was the most prominent and unmatched achievement of her career.