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What happened to Desi Arnaz after he divorced Lucy?
"The things that got me where I was, were the things I couldn't do when I got there."
Aren't you glad there weren't reporters there to document you at your lowest? No matter who we are and what we've accomplished, we all have times when we're not at our best. That's just the nature of life. Luckily, for most of us, the paparazzi don't care if we have a bad hair day or a misstep in our relationship. Unfortunately for Desi Arnaz, though, fame brings scrutiny, and everybody wants to know the truth.
A 1967 interview with Cynthia Lowry of the Associated Press gives us a glance at the famed actor/producer's time away from the public eye.
"The things that got me where I was, were the things I couldn't do when I got there," said Arnaz.
By then, he was a few years removed from his divorce from Lucille Ball. He'd sold his share of Desilu Productions and quit show business altogether. Arnaz vanished from the entertainment world, retiring to his horse farm. He spent his days on his boat, on the track, or at the golf course.
But after three years, Arnaz was ready to return to Hollywood. He'd processed his meteoric rise and understood what went wrong and why.
"I got where I didn't want to be because things began parlaying," said Arnaz.
"We had a little studio and I Love Lucy and then to compete we had to get a larger studio and from there on we had to get out or get bigger. We wound up with three big studios. But by 1962 I decided I didn't want to be [Universal Studios head honcho] Lew Wasserman. I wanted to be [film director] Willie Wyler."
Instead, he became neither, and Desi Arnaz was a ghost for three years. He spent his time breeding and racing thoroughbred horses, buying alfalfa, and selling foals.
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18 Comments
in exchange for taking less money to produce I Love Lucy, he and Lucy got ownership of the episodes after
they were shown 2 or 3 times. In todays money we are talking billions of dollars.
Unfortunately he became a alcoholic, he was obviously drunk in the last - or next to last - episode
of the hour long Lucy sequel series.
The worst - and it's sad to see - was his appearance on The Virginian as a Mexican border official.
He was stinking drunk, the producers should be ashamed of themselves for not replacing him,
he deserved better, if only out of respect for his pioneering work on I Love Lucy and building the
DesiLu empire.
Lucy" had generated as an income stream, world wide to date, over a billion dollars at that point.
Sounded over the top to me but since it literally was running most everywhere I guess
that was legit, and that amount was 30 years ago.
Cperry, you amaze me with all the TV knowledge you have, I'd put you easily in the
top five people who post here as the most informed.
I didn't know Lucy and Desi had sold back the rights, perhaps thats how they financed
their studio's putting so much product on air at that time.
entertainment to see what the actors/comics do to put a scene over, and appreciate it.
Thats why I like these MeTV boards/places to post, there are many many people here who
are hep to what goes on in showbiz.
