Barry Norton - 1923
photographer unknown
Showing posts with label Desi Arnaz. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Desi Arnaz. Show all posts
March 5, 2026
March 4, 2026
March 2, 2026
Desi Arnaz ~ Not a sidekick
Today is the birthday of Desiderio Alberto Arnaz y de Acha III, better known as Desi Arnaz. He was a Cuban-American actor, musician, producer, and bandleader. He was known for playing the conga drum and popularized the conga line in the United States. He played Ricky Ricardo on the American television sitcom I Love Lucy, in which he co-starred with his wife Lucille Ball
publicity photo
Many think of him as only the straight man for Lucille Ball, however, he was as equal as her in the financial area. He negotiated a deal whereby they retained the rights to the I Love Lucy show and they bought Desilu Productions. Arnaz and Ball are credited as the innovators of the syndicated rerun, which they pioneered with the I Love Lucy series.
Arnaz and Ball decided that I Love Lucy would maintain what Arnaz termed "basic good taste" and were therefore determined to avoid ethnic jokes,
as well as humor based on physical handicaps or mental disabilities.
Arnaz recalled that the only exception consisted of making fun of Ricky
Ricardo's accent; even these jokes worked only when Lucy, as his wife,
did the mimicking.
Arnaz and Ball co-founded and ran the television production company Desilu Productions, originally to market I Love Lucy to television networks. I Love Lucy ended, Arnaz went on to produce several other television series, at
first with Desilu Productions, and later independently, including The Ann Sothern Show and The Untouchables.
Arnaz was born in Santiago de Cuba, Cuba, on March 2, 1917, a descendant of Cuban nobility and , The Cuban Revolution of 1933
forced Arnaz and his family to lose everything. A mob
attacked and destroyed the family's houses, property, and livestock. The family then fled to Miami with no money and Arnaz had to live with
his father in a garage that was infested with rats and roaches. His first jobs included working at Woolworths
and cleaning canary cages in Miami. He then went into the tile business
with his father before turning to show business full time. A lifelong Republican, and active in politics, Arnaz was deeply patriotic about the United States. In his memoirs, he
wrote that he knew of no other country in the world where "a
sixteen-year-old kid, broke and unable to speak the language" could
achieve the successes that he had.
Xavier Cugat,
after seeing Arnaz perform, hired him for his touring orchestra,
playing the conga drum and singing. Becoming a star attraction
encouraged him to start his own band, the Desi Arnaz Orchestra. Arnaz and his orchestra became a hit in the New York City club scene,
including a club named La Conga, where he is credited with introducing
the concept of conga line dancing to the United States.
The Muppets conga line
He came to the attention of Rodgers and Hart who, in 1939, cast him in their Broadway musical Too Many Girls. The show was a hit and RKO Pictures bought the movie rights. Arnaz went to Hollywood the next year to appear in the show's movie version at RKO, which also starred Lucille Ball. Arnaz and Ball fell in love during the film's production and eloped on November 30, 1940.
On April 27, 1943, Arnaz received his draft notice as a foreign national
since he was a citizen of Cuba at the time, upon discovering the first thing the wounded soldiers requested was a
glass of cold milk, he arranged for movie starlets to meet them and pour
the milk for them. Later that year he became a
naturalized US Citizen and changed his legal name to Desi Arnaz.
On October 15, 1951, Arnaz co-starred in the premiere of I Love Lucy,
in which he played a fictionalized version of himself, Cuban orchestra
leader Enrique "Ricky" Ricardo. His co-star was his real-life wife, Lucille Ball, who played Ricky's wife, Lucy. At that time, most television programs were broadcast live, and as the
largest markets were in New York, the rest of the country received only kinescope images. Karl Freund, Arnaz's cameraman, and even Arnaz himself have been credited with the development of the multiple-camera setup production style using adjacent sets in front of a live audience that became the standard for subsequent situation comedies.
In the late 1960s, Arnaz was seriously injured in an accident when the
floor in his home in Baja California collapsed and he was impaled by a
tree stump. An operation saved his life, although his health was never
the same after the incident. He suffered a severe attack of diverticulitis in 1971, which required an operation and several years of recovery.
Arnaz was a regular smoker for much of his life and often smoked cigarettes on the set of I Love Lucy. He smoked Cuban cigars until he was in his sixties. Arnaz was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1986 and underwent treatment.
Lucille Ball visited him during this time in the hospital and the two
watched VHS tapes of I Love Lucy. His daughter Lucie was by his side constantly during his final days. He died two days later on December 2, 1986, at the age of 69, three years before Lucy's death.
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August 19, 2021
Philo T. Farnsworth ~ Nuclear Fusion & Captain Kangaroo
~ 
From left: Dancing Bear, Bunny Rabbit,
However, he invented the tube in his laboratory at the foot of Telegraph Hill (link below), right here in San Francisco, California. 
Plaque at the location of Farnsworth's 
In his later life, Farnsworth invented a small nuclear fusion device, the Farnsworth–Hirsch fusor, employing inertial electrostatic confinement (IEC). The design of this device has been the inspiration for other fusion approaches, including the Polywell reactor concept. Farnsworth held 300 patents, mostly in radio and television.
log cabin
Farnsworth Steps, San Francisco - 2021
Styrous® ~ Thrusday, August 19. 2021
Philo T. Farnsworth with TV statue
Today is the birthday of Philo Taylor Farnsworth. I can just hear you say, “Who the hell is Philo Farnsworth?” Ok, I’ll tell you. He is the father of what we now call The Television! His invention ushered in a new way of living as well as many characters that everyone came to love, the loveable Howdy Doody . . .
Howdy Doody -1947 - 1960
. . . Ed Sullivan . . .
Ed Sullivan Show - 1948 - 1971
, , , Desi and Lucy, . . .
I Love Lucy - 1951 -1957
. . . Ralph Kramden and his wife Alice . . .
. . . and, of course, Captain Kangaroo.
Grandfather Clock, Mister Moose
and Mister Green Jeans.
Farnsworth
is best known for his 1927 invention of the first fully functional and
complete all-electronic television system complete with receiver and
camera—which he produced commercially
through the Farnsworth Television and Radio Corporation from 1938 to
1951, in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
However, he invented the tube in his laboratory at the foot of Telegraph Hill (link below), right here in San Francisco, California.
San Francisco laboratory on Green Street
photo by Adam Kliczek
I
almost met him but we missed each other by 35 years; he was in his
studio in the late twenties and I got there in the early sixties (Wilder link below). Timing is everything!
Farnsworth’s 202 Green Street lab - San Francisco
Philo T. Farnsworth Archives
In his later life, Farnsworth invented a small nuclear fusion device, the Farnsworth–Hirsch fusor, employing inertial electrostatic confinement (IEC). The design of this device has been the inspiration for other fusion approaches, including the Polywell reactor concept. Farnsworth held 300 patents, mostly in radio and television.
Farnsworth was born in a small log cabin that was built by his granfather in Indian Springs near Beaver, Utah.
Indian Springs ~ Beaver, Utah.
When he was a kid he began tinkering with machines and developed an
early interest in electronics after his first telephone conversation
with a relative and after he discovered a large cache of technology
magazines in the attic of a house they moved into. He won $25 in a
pulp-magazine contest for inventing a magnetized car lock.
Farnsworth
conceived of the idea for electronic television at the age of 14 while
working on a farm. He observed the straight rows created by the horses
as he plowed, and thought “he could build the image like a page of print
and paint the image line after line . . . with the speed of the
electron, this could be done so rapidly the eye would view it as a solid
picture.”
According to his wife Pem, Farnsworth reasoned that by using an image dissector tube, he could manipulate electrons to “change a visual image into a stream of electrical current, transmit that to another vacuum tube at the receiver, and on a fluorescent screen turn the current back into the visual image again.” Farnsworth sketched his idea on the blackboard of his high school chemistry teacher, Justin Tolman, and presented him with a drawing of it, which would prove invaluable years later during a 1935 patent suit ruling.
According to his wife Pem, Farnsworth reasoned that by using an image dissector tube, he could manipulate electrons to “change a visual image into a stream of electrical current, transmit that to another vacuum tube at the receiver, and on a fluorescent screen turn the current back into the visual image again.” Farnsworth sketched his idea on the blackboard of his high school chemistry teacher, Justin Tolman, and presented him with a drawing of it, which would prove invaluable years later during a 1935 patent suit ruling.
Farnsworth’s sketch for Justin Tolman
When his family moved to Salt Lake City he became acquainted with
Leslie Gorrell and George
Everson, a pair of San Francisco philanthropists, They agreed to fund
his early television research with an initial $6,000 in backing, and
set up a laboratory in Los Angeles for Farnsworth to carry out his
experiments. In 1974, Everson wrote a book, The Story of Television; The Life of Philo T. Farnsworth.
In 1926 he and his wife, Elma "Pem" Gardner, rented a house at 2910 Derby Street in Berkeley. He applied for his first
television patent, which was granted on August 26, 1930. By that time they had moved across the bay to San Francisco, where Farnsworth set up his new lab at 202 Green Street.
Many inventors had built electromechanical television systems before his seminal contribution, but Farnsworth designed and built the world's first working all-electronic television
system, employing electronic scanning in both the pickup and display
devices. He first demonstrated his system to the press on September 3,
1928, and to the public at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia on August 25, 1934.
From the 1950s until his death, his major interest was nuclear fusion. In 1965 he patented an array of tubes, called "fusors," that produced a 30-second fusion reaction.
Philo T. Farnsworth died in Salt Lake City, Utah, of pneumonia on March 11, 1971, before he could complete his fusion work. He was 64 years old.
Farnsworth's wife, Pem, fought for decades after his death to assure his place in history. Farnsworth always gave her equal credit for creating television, saying, "my wife and I started this TV." She died on April 27, 2006, at age 98.
Philo T. Farnsworth died in Salt Lake City, Utah, of pneumonia on March 11, 1971, before he could complete his fusion work. He was 64 years old.
Farnsworth's wife, Pem, fought for decades after his death to assure his place in history. Farnsworth always gave her equal credit for creating television, saying, "my wife and I started this TV." She died on April 27, 2006, at age 98.
Farnsworth Television Model - 1936
The "Farnsworth Steps" in San Francisco are named after him; they lead from Willard Street (just above Parnassus) up to Edgewood Avenue.
photo by Styrous®
Viewfinder links:
Net links:
Arizona Archives ~ Farnsworth and Everson Papers - 1914 -1999
Indiana History ~
Sound & Communications ~ Farnsworth, The Father Of TV
July 21, 2020
August 6, 2019
Lucille Ball ~ I love Lucy & her madcap adventures
Today, August 6, 2019, is the birthday of Lucille Ball who starred, with her Cuban, English-destroying husband, Desi Arnaz, . . .
Lucille Ball & Desi Arnaz -1950's
. . . in the groundbreaking I Love Lucy sitcom which ran from October 15, 1951, to May 6, 1957, on the CBS network.
She
was born Lucille Désirée Ball on August 6, 1911, in Jamestown, New York. She left home at the age of fifteen to study drama in New York City and began her
early entertainment career with stints as a model and Goldwyn Girl. As well as a comedian,
she was an actress, model, entertainment studio executive and
producer. She was the star of the self-produced sitcoms I Love Lucy, The Lucy Show, Here's Lucy, and Life with Lucy, as well as comedy television specials aired under the title The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour.
Her career began in 1929 when she was a model. Shortly thereafter, she began her performing career on Broadway using the stage names
Diane Belmont and Dianne Belmont. She began her film debut in 1933 as a contract player for RKO Radio Pictures. She became known as the “Queen of the B’s” for her numerous roles in B-movies. She appeared in more than 75 films.
In 1951, Ball and her husband, Desi Arnaz, launched a comedy television series, I Love Lucy, based on their own lives. The show pioneered technical aspects of a comedy show, using three cameras, a set, and a live audience. It was also the first time a visibly pregnant woman was seen on television.
In 1951, Ball and her husband, Desi Arnaz, launched a comedy television series, I Love Lucy, based on their own lives. The show pioneered technical aspects of a comedy show, using three cameras, a set, and a live audience. It was also the first time a visibly pregnant woman was seen on television.
Cast members from left, standing:
Through
the years I have watched episodes over and over but have never gotten
tired of them; the show is dated in look but the situations are everyday
human
life which never grow old. There are so many episodes that I love: doing the Vitameatavegamin commercial, in the chocolate factory with Ethel, stomping grapes in Italy, Lucy and Superman. I could go on forever.
"Lucy and Superman" - January 14, 1957
Her talents extended beyond the realm of comedy, she became the first female studio head in Hollywood. As president of Desilu Productions, she broke the glass ceiling for women executives in the film and television industry and her shows live on in syndication.
Ball went on to garner thirteen Emmy nominations and four Emmy Awards for her work. In 1986, she received a Kennedy Center Honor for her contributions to the world of entertainment. In 1989, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
On April 18, 1989, Ball complained of chest pains at her home in Beverly Hills and was taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where she was diagnosed with dissecting aortic aneurysm and underwent an eight-hour aortic transplant. Shortly after dawn on April 26, Ball awoke with severe back pains then lost consciousness; she died at 5:47 a.m. PDT at the age of 77. Doctors determined that Ball had succumbed to a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm not directly related to her upper aneurysm and surgery. Ball had been a heavy smoker most of her life, increasing her risk of abdominal aneurysm.
On April 18, 1989, Ball complained of chest pains at her home in Beverly Hills and was taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where she was diagnosed with dissecting aortic aneurysm and underwent an eight-hour aortic transplant. Shortly after dawn on April 26, Ball awoke with severe back pains then lost consciousness; she died at 5:47 a.m. PDT at the age of 77. Doctors determined that Ball had succumbed to a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm not directly related to her upper aneurysm and surgery. Ball had been a heavy smoker most of her life, increasing her risk of abdominal aneurysm.
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