LUCILLE
BALL'S LASTING INFLUENCE -
IN
A FIELD WE NEVER THOUGHT ABOUT
by
Hugh Murray
I
had been arrested in the first lunch-counter sit-in in my native New
Orleans in September 1960. We were a small group, 5 blacks and 2
whites, all of us members of the newly formed activist organization,
CORE, the Congress of Racial Equality. One reason for its appearance
in New Orleans and other cities in the South, the NAACP in New
Orleans and elsewhere sometimes opposed non-violent direct action,
and it opposed our sit-in. In 1961 CORE drew national attention when
it sponsored the Freedom Rides, in which CORE members would purchase
tickets to ride ordinary Greyhound or Continental bus tickets, ride
like other passengers, but then, when the bus stopped for rest, CORE
members would attempt to integrate the eateries and rest rooms
located in the bus terminals. The courts had declared segregation in
interstate travel to be illegal, but CORE sought to test the reality.
In the deep South, many CORE Freedom Riders were badly beaten and
arrested in these tests.
Not
everyone was sympathetic to integration, and George Lincoln Rockwell,
leader of the American Nazi Party, decided he would bring his Hate
Bus and some followers from his base in Virginia down to New Orleans.
New Orleans was also the final destination of the Freedom Riders,
but with beatings and arrests along the way, many did not complete
the journey.
When
Rockwell's bus arrived in New Orleans, the signs that covered his
vehicle caused a disturbance - “Gas Jews, Queers, Commies” or
something similar. The New Orleans Police demanded that he cover the
provocative signs.
In
May 1961 the film “Exodus” was playing at one of the movie
theaters in New Orleans, and Rockwell and his Storm Troupers decided
to picket the theater. I asked a young woman studying law at Tulane
U. if she would go with me so we could see (and perhaps boo) the
Nazis. Janet Smith was, like myself, a member of the Unitarian
Church in New Orleans. She lived near the university, just off St.
Charles Ave. I parked across from her building in my car, and it was
pouring rain. I rushed to her building and got her and back to my
car, when I discovered I had locked my keys inside the car. Could
not get the side window vent open, would take forever to get help, so
we took the nearby St. Charles streetcar.
The
streetcar is not the fastest form of transportation, but we had time
before the film began. Soon after the trolley turned on Lee Circle
we got off. The water had risen up nearly 2 feet, touching the hem
of her dress, and my long pants that I had rolled up lto my knees.
We walked only one block, and the deep water was now merely a wet
sidewalk. And the rain had lightened. When we got to the theater,
we were too late to see the the police arrest the uniformed Nazis,
but some plain-dress sympathizers handed us fliers The pickets were
breaking up, the drama was over, and we had missed the main event.
Back on the streetcar, we read the flier - Do Not Invite These Reds
into Your Home. Top of the list was Lucille Ball. We laughed. Well
she did have red hair.
The
American Nazis were not in New Orleans that long, for by the end of
the next month, June 1961, George Lincoln Rockwell and several of his
members, were invited guests, in Nazi uniforms, to the mass rally of
the Nation of Islam held at Uline Arenal in Washington, D.C. (The
arena had a capacity of 8,000, and in 1964 was the venue for the
first Beatles' concert in the USA.) If some missed the point,
Rockwell and his Storm Troupers were again, invited guests, in
uniform, to the mass Saviour's Day event of the Nation of Islam in
February 1962 at Chicago's International Amphitheater. Rockwell was
even invited to the podium to address the crowd of over 12,000.
The
Smithsonian Magazine on line, perhaps as part of Women's Month, March
2022, published “Who Was the Real Lucille Ball?” 22 March 22, by
Jackie Mansky, part of “Women Who Shaped History.” The author
discusses Ball as an actress, a comedienne, a business woman, and a
hard worker. The article describes some of the interplay among the 4
main characters of the “I Love Lucy” program, Lucy, her real live
husband Desi Arnaz, William Frawleyz, and Vivian Vance, who played
neighbors Ethel and Fred Mertz. Yet, perhaps the author omitted a
most important part of the real Lucille Ball.
If
you go to Wikipedia, you will find that while residing in California,
Lucille Ball went to register to vote in 1936, and she registered,
not as a Democrat or a Republican, but as a Communist. Her brother
and mother registered as Communists too. In testimony, she said she
so registered to satisfy her grand father, but there was other
testimony, some saying she was on the central committee of the
Communist Party in California. She denied ever being a party member.
In
the 1930s the Communist Party was well known for pressing equal
rights for blacks. They led the fight to free the Scottsboro boys,
accused of rape aboard a freight train in Alabama in 1931, made in
into a international cause celebre, and took the case to the
conservative US Supreme Court twice where significant judgments were
rendered. The CP and its front groups were involved in many racial
cases round the nation.
In
the 1930s Ball was often 2nd fiddle in major films, but
might be the star of a b film. One of the “queens of the b films.”
She also did radio work to supplement her income. Beginning in 1948
she would be the wife in a new radio comedy, “My Favorite Husband,”
on CBS. Except for the first of the series, her co-star would be
Richard Denning, her favorite husband.
In
1951 CBS wanted to transfer the program to the new medium of
television. Ball was quite willing, but adamant that this time her
husband would have to be her real husband, Desi Arnaz. The
Smithsonian article relates how much of the show was Lucy's attempt
to get work in show business, or just to get work. Though during
WWII, with men drafted and away from industry, which now needed more
workers to build ships, tanks, planes, and everything else. So women
were recruited for jobs outside the home, unlike anything before.
However, after the war, when men returned, they wanted the jobs, and
women were being pushed out of the job market and back into the home.
This tension produced much of the humor of I Love Lucy.
But
there is something else, something important, so obvious that we do
not see it. In 1951 the majority of American states had laws
forbidding interracial marriages of one kind or another. The typical
American family, in all the films, and in the new tv, the typical
American family was Anglo or Irish or generic white. Desi as a
husband was different. His music was different. And his accent was
very different. Singing “Babaloo” was not typically American.
Richard Denning would have been the typical all American husband.
But Lucy demanded Desi. The 1950s were sometimes called the age of
conformity; it was also the age of assimilation. Immigrants were to
assimilate, adopt the clothing of Americans, drop the accents of the
distant homelands, become true Americans. Desi, playing Ricky
Ricardo, was not assimilated. His accent and antics were part of his
character, and the American public began to love Lucy and her
“unassimilated” husband. And with the popularity of I Love Lucy,
as it became the #1 program for 3 years, it undoubtedly changed the
notion of the ideal American family. THAT is no small
accomplishment.
I
have no idea if Lucille Ball was ever a member of the Communist Party
or not. But she must have been influenced by some of the racial and
ethnic ideas circulating on the left. Remember, in 1931 the
Communists held a show trial in Harlem, accusing a member of
“racism.” In Communist circles, racism was a great crime, and
forcing assimilation may have taken on some of that disapproval. By
dropping Denning and demanding Desi, Lucy was hoping – not only for
a successful tv show, but to expand the notion of what an
all-American family was.
I
have argued elsewhere that the influence of the American Communist
Party is far greater that most people are aware of. Much of the
political correctness and cancel culture of today can be traced back
to efforts of the small, but extremely influential Communist Party in
the US. Some of that influence, I would conclude has been good for
the nation. Some, like the narrowing of free speech, the firing of
people of alleged racism, the toppling of monuments of our heroes,
and stealing atomic secrets, has been disastrous. However, in this
particular case, expanding the idea of what a good husband could be
like, I would say the result has been good.
