Jamestown - LUCY Murals & the Lucy Desi Museum

The 4-day festival obviously focused on Lucy with Lucy Nostalgia along with great Late Night Comedy, historic tours, live music, block parties, discussions on the art form called comedy, and comedy showcases.

MURALS:
“California, Here We Come! Mural” - 1,800-square-foot as they go across the George Washington Bridge while singing.
“Job Switching” Mural - Lucy and Ethel are shown with the chocolate.
“Lucille Ball alongside Desi Arnaz” with his signature straw hat.
“Vitameatavegamin - Lucy Does a TV Commercial” - widely considered among the greatest performances in comedy history.
“Lucy & Desi Postage Stamp Mural” - 1999 as part of the U.S. Postal Service’s “Celebrate the Century” series.

The Lucy Desi Museum (in its 30th year), is celebrating the lives, careers, and legacies of the “First Couple of Comedy,” and their gigantic impact on the world tells the story of the incredible lives of Lucy and Desi. It includes recreations of some studio sets (Ricardo’s New York City apartment living room and kitchen and their Hollywood hotel) from I Love Lucy (1951-1957) which became 181 episodes, won 21 Emmy nominations and 5 awards and was followed up with 13 one-hour-long Lucy Desi Comedy Hour shows until 1960. On display are: costumes, props, rare footage, Emmy Awards, and scripts from this TV series. Karen even got to perform her Vitameatavegamin commercial. We miss you Lucy & Desi! (there was so much great trivia about their lives and shows but it was way too long so I left it out here but google it for more info). BTW, we have about 400 more photos that we could not post so we tried to pick the "best".

Lucy & Desi were pioneering artists, innovators, and cultural icon in addition to TV comedy stars and were responsible for building Desilu Productions to be the largest studio in its time. With 3 studios and 33 sound stages and so many successful TV programs besides LUCY.

Born here in Jamestown, Lucy was raised mostly by grandparents in a very modest home (which they eventually lost for a very bizarre reason …too much to write) and she pursued her dream of show business at 15 years old when she moved to NYC to study drama and modeling. There is a video at the museum on her childhood with interviews with her friends, family, and even Lucy and the childhood of Desi. She appeared in over 100 films before her big radio career in 1948 as the star of My Favorite Husband. Desi, had a very different background, born wealthy to very influential parents in Santiago, Cuba, but lost everything when the Batista revolution forced him to flee to the US. His musical talents led to his becoming a star at night spots in NYC, introducing the Conga dance craze to America (maybe that’s why I love Gloria Estefan) and later he was on Broadway and in films (Too Many Girls). He met Lucy on set at RKO Studios and a creative partnership was born!

When I Love Lucy premiered, it changed TV in countless ways for its physical comedy and great real life (maybe exaggerated) story-crafting, and Desi’s inventions of using 3 cameras in front of a live audience as well as 35mm film leading to reruns and residuals for them (for the last 75 years, they have never been off of TV but CBS wouldn’t pay for it and blew it and lost millions) but also represented the first interracial marriage on TV and the first woman to appear pregnant (I noticed they said “expecting” on the show).

In 1962, Lucy bought Desi’s interest in the company and became the first woman to run a Hollywood studio. Over the years, Lucy received the Kennedy Center Honor, a Presidential Medal of Freedom, 4 Emmy Awards, and was part of the Television Academy Hall of Fame’s inaugural class of inductees.

I Love Lucy & Desilu Museum and the other building (yes there are 2) which highlights the lives and careers of Lucy and Desi. There is also some very interesting exhibits and clips about the crew that made the show possible including the producer Jess Oppenheimer and the writers. Throughout the Museums, there are many mementos from their childhoods, marriage, and later careers which was very interesting to hear/read all about their lives off-screen. At the end is a video that was plays old clips of Lucy on TV shows, in movies, and on talk shows there are the clothes that she was wearing in each clip are on display. Cool.
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