As a movie actress Lucille Ball was, in her own words, “queen of the B-pluses.” But on the small screen she was a superstar–arguably the funniest and most enduring in the history of TV. In this exemplary biography, Stefan Kanfer explores the roots of Lucy’s genius and places it in the context of her conflicted and sometimes bitter personal life.
Ball of Fire gives us Lucy in all her contradictions. Here is the beauty who became a master of knock-down slapstick; the control freak whose comic alter ego thrived on chaos, the worshipful TV housewife whose real marriage ended in public disaster. Here, too, is an intimate view of the dawn of television and of the America that embraced it. Charming, informative, touching. and laugh-out-loud funny, this is the book Lucy’s fans have been waiting for.
Chapter 1: A little world out of nothing
Chapter 2: “This girl’s fulla hell”
Chapter 3: “Jesus, what energy!”
Chapter 4: “I’ll call you Dizzy”
Chapter 5: “The hair is brown but the soul is on fire”
Chapter 6: “How can you conceive on the telephone?”
Chapter 7: “How can I possibly sell this?”
Chapter 9: “The only thing red is the hair”
Chapter 10: “Why can’t I be happy?”
Chapter 11: “From Cuban *to Reuben”
Chapter 12: “What are you trying to do, ruin my career?”
Chapter 13: “Tough, very tough”
Chapter 14: “You think it’s funny getting old”
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