Established | August 1, 1996 |
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Location | 2 West 3rd Street (West 3rd Street at Main Street) Jamestown, New York 14701 |
Coordinates | 42°05′47″N79°14′30″W / 42.09651°N 79.24161°W |
Website | www |
The Lucille Ball Desi Arnaz Museum,, formally The Lucille Ball Desi Arnaz Museum & Center for Comedy and commonly known as the Lucy Desi Museum, is a museum at 2 West 3rd Street, Jamestown, New York that is affiliated with the nearby National Comedy Center with which it shares executive director Journey Gunderson. [1] [2] The museum is dedicated to the lives and careers of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. Jamestown was Ball's birthplace.
The museum opened in 1996 and as of 2015, drew approximately 25,000 international visitors annually. The Comedy Center followed in 2016. [3]
In addition to re-created sets, including the series' iconic living room, [2] the museum showcases the work of Desilu Studios in an adjacent building, [4] [5] houses the couple's artifacts and memorabilia including Ball's Emmy Awards, and an event facility dubbed the Tropicana Room, a recreation of Ricky Ricardo's nightclub. [1]
Formerly, each May, the museum celebrated Lucy-Desi Days, which featured several events including panel discussions with those closest to Ball and Arnaz. In the spring of 1989, Ball was meant to attend the commencement ceremony at Jamestown Community College and receive an honorary degree from the institution, and during the same weekend she planned to attend the Lucille Ball Festival of New Comedy, which she had developed in cooperation with the Arts Council of Jamestown, [6] but she died shortly before the scheduled event.
In 1991, the National Comedy Center established the annual Lucille Ball Comedy Festival, which is now held every August to honor Ball's August 6 birthday. [5] [3] Past festivals have featured Ray Romano, Ellen DeGeneres, Lewis Black, Billy Gardell, Jay Leno, Bill Engvall, Joan Rivers, Paula Poundstone, Kathleen Madigan, Tammy Pescatelli, and many more. [7]
Desiderio Alberto Arnaz y de Acha III was a Cuban-American actor, musician and bandleader. He played Ricky Ricardo on the American television sitcom I Love Lucy, in which he co-starred with his wife Lucille Ball. Arnaz and Ball are credited as the innovators of the syndicated rerun, which they pioneered with the I Love Lucy series.
Celoron is a village in Chautauqua County, New York, United States. It is part of the town of Ellicott and sits on the west boundary of the city of Jamestown. The population of Celoron was 1,082 at the 2020 census.
Jamestown is a city in southern Chautauqua County, New York, United States. The population was 28,712 at the 2020 census. Situated between Lake Erie to the north and the Allegheny National Forest to the south, Jamestown is the largest city in the county. Nearby Chautauqua Lake is a freshwater resource used by fishermen, boaters, and naturalists.
I Love Lucy is an American television sitcom that originally aired on CBS from October 15, 1951, to May 6, 1957, with a total of 180 half-hour episodes, spanning six seasons. The show starred Lucille Ball and her husband Desi Arnaz, along with Vivian Vance and William Frawley. The series follows the life of Lucy Ricardo (Ball), a young, middle-class housewife living in New York City, who often concocts plans with her best friends and landlords, Ethel and Fred Mertz, to appear alongside her bandleader husband, Ricky Ricardo (Arnaz), in his nightclub. Lucy is depicted trying numerous schemes to mingle with and be a part of show business. After the series ended in 1957, a modified version of the show continued for three more seasons, with 13 one-hour specials, which ran from 1957 to 1960. It was first known as The Lucille Ball–Desi Arnaz Show, and later, in reruns, as The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour.
Desilu Productions was an American television production company founded and co-owned by husband and wife Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball. The company is best known for shows such as I Love Lucy, The Lucy Show, Mannix, The Untouchables, Mission: Impossible and Star Trek. Until 1962, Desilu was the second-largest independent television production company in the United States, behind MCA's Revue Studios, until MCA bought Universal Pictures and Desilu became and remained the number-one independent production company, until Ball sold it to Gulf and Western Industries in 1968.
Vivian Vance was an American actress best known for playing Ethel Mertz on the sitcom I Love Lucy (1951–1957), for which she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress, among other accolades. She also starred alongside Lucille Ball in The Lucy Show from 1962 until she left the series at the end of its third season in 1965. In 1991, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She is most commonly identified as Lucille Ball’s longtime comedic foil from 1951 until her death in 1979.
Jessurun James Oppenheimer was an American radio and television writer, producer, and director. He was the producer and head writer of the CBS sitcom I Love Lucy.
Here's Lucy is an American sitcom starring Lucille Ball. The series co-starred her long-time comedy partner Gale Gordon and her real-life children Lucie Arnaz and Desi Arnaz Jr. It was broadcast on CBS from 1968 to 1974. It was Ball's third network sitcom, following I Love Lucy (1951–57) and The Lucy Show (1962–68).
Chautauqua Lake is located entirely within Chautauqua County, New York, United States. The lake is approximately 17 miles (27 km) long and two miles (3.2 km) wide at its greatest width. The surface area is approximately 13,000 acres (53 km2). The maximum depth is about 78 feet (24 m). The shoreline is about 41.1 miles (66 km) of which all but 2.6 mi (4 km) are privately owned.
Desiderio Alberto Arnaz IV, better known as Desi Arnaz Jr., is an American retired actor and musician. He is the son of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz.
Lucie Désirée Arnaz is an American actress and singer. She is the daughter of actors Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz.
The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour is a collection of thirteen black-and-white one-hour specials airing occasionally from 1957 to 1960. The first five were shown as specials during the 1957–58 television season. The remaining eight were originally shown as part of Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse. Its original network title was The Ford Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show for the first season, and Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse Presents The Lucille Ball–Desi Arnaz Show for the following seasons. The successor to the classic comedy, I Love Lucy, the programs featured the same cast members: Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, William Frawley, and Little Ricky. The production schedule avoided the grind of a regular weekly series.
Lucy and Ricky Ricardo, also known simply as Lucy and Ricky or the Ricardos, are fictional characters from the American television sitcom I Love Lucy, portrayed respectively by Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. The Ricardos also appear in The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour, and Lucy also appears in one episode of The Ann Sothern Show.
Forever, Darling is a 1956 American fantasy romantic comedy film directed by Alexander Hall, written by Helen Deutsch, and starring Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, and James Mason. In the film, Ball stars as a wife who tries to save her struggling marriage to a chemical engineer (Arnaz) with the help of her guardian angel (Mason). Louis Calhern and Natalie Schafer co-star in supporting roles.
Lucy is a 2003 television film directed by Glenn Jordan. It is based on the life and career of actress and comedian Lucille Ball.
Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse is an American television anthology series produced by Desilu Productions. The show ran on the Columbia Broadcasting System between 1958 and 1960. Three of its 48 episodes served as pilots for the 1950s television series The Twilight Zone and The Untouchables.
Lucille Désirée Ball was an American actress and comedienne. She was nominated for 13 Primetime Emmy Awards, winning five times, and was the recipient of several other accolades, such as the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award and two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She earned many honors, including the Women in Film Crystal Award, an induction into the Television Hall of Fame, a Kennedy Center Honor, and the Governors Award from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.
The National Comedy Center is an American museum dedicated to comedy. The museum and its archives are located in Lucille Ball’s hometown of Jamestown, New York. The museum documents the history of comedy and the artists, producers, writers, cartoonists, and other notable figures who have influenced its development in the US. It was designated as the United States' official cultural institution and museum dedicated to comedy by the United States Congress on February 26, 2019.
Being the Ricardos is a 2021 American biographical drama film written and directed by Aaron Sorkin, about the relationship between I Love Lucy stars Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem star as Ball and Arnaz, while J. K. Simmons, Nina Arianda, Tony Hale, Alia Shawkat, Jake Lacy, and Clark Gregg are featured in supporting roles.
Lucy and Desi is a 2022 American documentary film directed by Amy Poehler in her documentary directorial debut. The film explores the unlikely partnership and enduring legacy of one of the most prolific power couples in entertainment history, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz.