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Lucille Ball Movie Schedule: EASY TO WED, THE BIG STREET, PANAMA LADY

Lucille Ball Centennial on TCM: STAGE DOOR, BEST FOOT FORWARD

Schedule (ET) and synopses from the TCM website:

6:00 AM DU BARRY WAS A LADY (1943) A night club employee dreams he's Louis XV, and the star he idolizes is his lady love. Dir: Roy Del Ruth. Cast: Red Skelton, Lucille Ball, Gene Kelly. C-101 mins.

8:00 AM PANAMA LADY (1939) An oil man forces a cabaret singer to work for him after she tries to rob him. Dir: Jack Hively. Cast: Lucille Ball, Allan Lane, Steffi Duna. BW-65 mins.

9:30 AM WITHOUT LOVE (1945) A World War II housing shortage inspires a widow to propose a marriage of convenience with an inventor. Dir: Harold S. Bucquet. Cast: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Lucille Ball. BW-111 mins.

11:30 AM MISS GRANT TAKES RICHMOND (1949) An inept secretary goes to work for a bogus real estate firm thinking it's for real. Dir: Lloyd Bacon. Cast: Lucille Ball, William Holden, Janis Carter. BW-88 mins.

1:00 PM THE FULLER BRUSH GIRL (1950) A daffy door-to-door saleswoman blunders into a murder investigation. Dir: Lloyd Bacon. Cast: Lucille Ball, Eddie Albert, Carl Benton Reid. BW-84 mins.

2:30 PM THE LONG, LONG TRAILER (1954) Life on the road isn't what it's cracked up to be when a honeymooning couple invests in an oversized motor home. Dir: Vincente Minnelli. Cast: Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Marjorie Main. C-96 mins.

4:30 PM BEST FOOT FORWARD (1943) A movie star wreaks havoc when she accepts an invitation to a military academy dance. Dir: Edward Buzzell. Cast: Lucille Ball, William Gaxton, Virginia Weidler. C-94 mins.

6:15 PM DANCE, GIRL, DANCE (1940) A ballet dancer and a burlesque queen compete for a wealthy suitor. Dir: Dorothy Arzner. Cast: Maureen O'Hara, Louis Hayward, Lucille Ball. BW-90 mins.

8:00 PM STAGE DOOR (1937) Women at a theatrical boarding house try to make their big break happen. Dir: Gregory LaCava. Cast: Katharine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers, Adolphe Menjou. BW-92 mins.

9:45 PM THE BIG STREET (1942) A nightclub waiter, who's in love with a selfish showgirl, gets to prove his love when she's injured. Dir: Irving Reis. Cast: Henry Fonda, Lucille Ball, Barton MacLane. BW-89 mins.

11:30 PM EASY TO WED (1946) In this remake of Libeled Lady, a tough newspaper editor hires a gigolo to compromise a woman suing his paper for libel. Dir: Edward Buzzell. Cast: Van Johnson, Esther Williams, Lucille Ball. C-110 mins.

1:30 AM LURED (1947) A woman helps the police catch the serial killer who murdered her best friend. Dir: Douglas Sirk. Cast: George Sanders, Lucille Ball, Charles Coburn. BW-103 mins.

3:15 AM THE AFFAIRS OF ANNABEL (1938) A screen queen suffers through harebrained publicity stunts schemed up by her press agent. Dir: Ben Stoloff. Cast: Jack Oakie, Lucille Ball, Ruth Donnelly. BW-67 mins.

4:30 AM ANNABEL TAKES A TOUR (1938) A movie star on tour gets thrown into a variety of wacky publicity stunts. Dir: Lew Landers. Cast: Jack Oakie, Lucille Ball, Ruth Donnelly. BW-67 mins.

This weekend: ‘Falling Skies’ season finale; Lucille Ball celebrations; ‘Breaking Bad’ brilliance

Lucille Ball, Bryan Cranston and Steven Spielberg all have a chance to shine this weekend.

TNT’s “Falling Skies” from executive producer Spielberg ends its first season with passionate performances, stellar special effects and a chilling yet moving cliffhanger. The two hours, beginning at 9 p.m. Sunday, set up a 10-episode second season next summer.

The season finale echoes the vivid style of Spielberg’s “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” and “War of the Worlds.” His touch is evident in the heroic children, the history lessons and the childlike wonder in technology. Still, it’s a bleak backdrop, one reminiscent of ”Saving Private Ryan,” as survivors struggle to carry on after extraterrestrials wiped out 90 percent of humanity.

Noah Wyle supplies most of the hope as Tom Mason, a history professor turned resistance fighter. Driven by concern for his three sons, Tom pushes himself and stands up to the resistance leader, played with creepy efficiency by Will Patton. And Tom must outwit the aliens, who are startling in their look and vicious in their intentions.

That cliffhanger should keep people talking about “Falling Skies.” It’s a game-changer, for sure.

Also of note:

***Bryan Cranston continues his brilliant run on “Breaking Bad” at 10 p.m. Sunday on AMC.

***”In Plain Sight’ ends its fourth season with an episode called “Something Borrowed, Something Blew Up.” Mary McCormack continues her winning ways at 10 p.m. Sunday on USA.

***Tom Brokaw delivers a major report on “Dateline NBC” at 7 p.m. Sunday. He reports “The Road Back,” which examines how the Iraq war affected three families in profound ways.

***Saturday would have been Lucille Ball’s 100th birthday. Hallmark Channel will salute her with a 48-hour, 96-episode marathon of “I Love Lucy” episodes. The fun starts at 6 a.m. Saturday.

TCM salutes Ball with a day of movies that start at 6 a.m. Saturday. Her beauty in showcased in all its Technicolor glory in “Du Barry Was a Lady” at 6 a.m. She upstages Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn — not an easy thing to do — in “Without Love” at 9:30 a.m. “The Long, Long Trailer,” her best movie with Desi Arnaz, plays at 2:30 p.m. “Stage Door,” a wonderful comedy-drama with Ball supporting Hepburn and Ginger Rogers, airs at 8 p.m. “The Big Street,” at 9:45 p.m., is Ball’s most dramatic film.

New comic pays tribute to beloved Lucille Ball

Funny lady and pop culture icon Lucille Ball (one of my all-time favorites) is being honored by comics publisher Bluewater Productions.
In honor of the centennial of her birth (she was born Aug. 6, 1911 and died in 1989), Bluewater will publish Comics: Lucille Ball written by Jaymes Reed and drawn by Patricio Carbajal on Aug. 24. Cover price: $3.99.
This comic, about one of the most influential women in the history of American television, tells her life story from humble beginnings to becoming a beloved household name as the star of I Love Lucy.
Announcing the comic, Bluewater publisher Darren G. Davis said, " Our goal is to show the little-known events and influences that resulted in Lucille Ball becoming the phenomenon she remains to this day, 100 years after her birth and years after her death. A visual medium provides perspective that is not only accessible but more relatable to the average person without losing any of the information involved".
For lifelong fans of Lucy, like me, no need to "splain" why she's so fabulous.

Lucille Ball lookalikes gather for 100th birthday

Bridgette Muller of Newburgh, New York, Cindy Wilson of Aurora, Ohio, and Linda Silver, of Kingston, Ontario, (L-R) take part in an attempt to set a new Guinness world record for most Lucy Ricardo lookalikes assembled in one place, in Jamestown, New York on August 6, 2011.
Photograph by: Doug Benz, Reuters

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- "I Love Lucy" star Lucille Ball's New York hometown will be filled with red-lipsticked, redheaded lookalikes Saturday to try to break a world record in honour of what would have been the actress' 100th birthday.

Scores of people trying to mimic Lucy's distinctive look as TV persona Lucy Ricardo were expected to gather in Jamestown in western New York state to topple the world record for gathering the most Lucy lookalikes.

The event takes place on the fourth day of a five-day comedy festival in her name and was organized by the town's not-for-profit Lucille Ball/Desi Arnaz Center.

The day will feature performances by comic Paula Poundstone as well as Lucy, Ricky, Fred and Ethel impersonators, the main characters from the hit sitcom "I Love Lucy," which ran from 1951 to 1957 and has been seen for decades since in reruns.

Festival-goers can watch episodes of the beloved show under the stars, take a cemetery tour of Ball's final resting place, and dine in the "Tropicana Room," a re-creation of her TV husband Ricky Ricardo's famous Manhattan night club. Ricky was played by Ball's husband, Desi Arnaz.

Earlier in the week, the festival included an appearance by comedian Joan Rivers and the unveiling of the studio door for CBS Studio A in Hollywood where Ball and Arnaz made their very first appearance on TV together in 1949 and where they later shot the "I Love Lucy" pilot in 1951.

The non-profit group that organized the festival says on its website, www.lucy-desi.com, that its mission is to preserve the Ball and Arnaz legacy and enrich the world through a commitment to the development of the comedic arts.

The Lucy legacy has had an impact on Jamestown, about 80 miles south of Buffalo, as evidenced by the many city institutions and other venues bearing her name.

Events conclude on Sunday with a picnic at Lucille Ball Memorial Park where graduates of Friday's Comedy College will perform at the Desi Arnaz Memorial Bandshell.

The Centenary of Lucy: We Still Love Her

Lucille Ball would have celebrated her 100th birthday over the weekend, so I celebrated by watching a handful of episodes of her groundbreaking show, and never regretting the decision for a moment. I must admit, for a guy with an edgy sensibility and weird tastes (modern classical music, avant-garde jazz, etc), I would rather watch I Love Lucy than any number of consciously kooky, modern-day sitcoms. Keep your cynicism and your post-modern winks, I'll have a glass of vitameatavegamin and call it a day.

As is now commonly acknowledged, I Love Lucy provided heaping doses of the stylistic DNA that was replicated in the innumerable sitcoms that followed in its wake. Even the much joked-about Desi Arnaz is credited with deciding to shoot the series on film, and also co-conceived the "multi-camera" production method with Fritz Lang's cinematographer, Karl Freund. Freund flooded the set with light, eliminating shadows when actors moved around, and thus allowed one set-up for all three cameras. Simple, but brilliant.

Old Ricky Ricardo had another idea up his sleeve, one that would reap huge financial rewards for the couple's company, Desilu Productions. When the network suits complained about the cost of shooting the series on film, Arnaz made a deal to absorb any additional costs incurred to do so, in exchange for owning and controlling the rights to the show. That may not have sounded so shrewd at the time, but it means Desilu reaped the boundless sums generated by re-runs and syndication in the last 60 years!

But it is Lucille Ball herself who provided the blueprint for success in television comedy — she was the first, and remains to this day, the most powerful woman in the history of the medium. Even her fictional persona, the hapless but lovable red-headed ditz, had a head full of promising get-rich schemes that were all doomed to miserably fail. As such, she may have captured the lightning of post-war euphoria and boundless optimism in a tiny, half-hour bottle. The underdog was never so appealingly innocent and deserving, even if Ricky scoffed at her harebrained schemes.

Lucille Ball Turns 100 - Her Five Craziest Food Clips

 
I Love Lucy is one of the most beloved television shows in history. Each week for six years from 1951 through 1957, life practically stopped as American families hunkered around their living room television sets to see what that crazy redhead and her wacky band of sidekicks, Ricky, Fred and Ethel got themselves into.

Though everyone has their favorite Lucy episodes, the funniest ones are the ones that are food-related. That's really no surprise, because Lucille Ball was never funnier than when she got into a food fight - be it in Italy with wine grapes or back in America with chocolate.

To celebrate Lucille Ball's 100th birthday, we bring you Lucy's five craziest food-related clips:
5. Lucy makes dinner on a schedule - In this clip, (long before women's rights), Ricky puts Lucy on a household chore schedule. Lucy gets back at him during a very important dinner party.