On television, oh, quite some time back, I was watching this news show about Lucille Ball. Apparently a relative was very enthused about Communism. And as a sort of tribute to him, Lucille Ball declared herself to be a Communist. Okay, I got that part of the story. My question is this: Where did Ball stand politically, particularly most of her life, and shortly before she died too? Was she very liberal? Was she indeed sympathetic to the principles of the Communist party?
Now, at last, a debate with some substance! Probably be crushed beneath the hob-nailed jackboots of the Moderatti…
Short answer: no. Longer answer: there was a time when Communists had some respectability in American political circles. Since that time, the history has been re-written, but it was once entirely possible to be a patriotic American and a Communist. That’s a true fact, you could look it up. Of course, you could have looked up the whole question, for that matter.
She registered to vote as a member of the Communist Party in the 1930s to please her grandfather. As Desi said “The only thing red about Lucy is her hair and even that’s not legitimate!”.
She perhaps registered to vote as a communist in 1936. So, when the wHUACkos came into fashion in the early ‘50s’, dragging people in to answer charges that they might be un-a-merkin, she was on the list. But she was probably so popular, she was not seriously in jeopardy.
I don’t have any cites for this, but in the last 20 yrs or so of her life she was good friends with John wayne, and expressed strong anti Castro feelings. Probably one of the more right wing of the Hollywood set.
I believe this was the seed money that allowed Desilu to buy the RKO Hollywood soundstages and the Culver City backlot. This gave them the room to make many of the shows of TV’s Golden Age.
The notion to do this, incidentally, was all Arnaz’s
Took me all of 10 seconds to find the answer. Her grandfather was Fred C. Hunt. He helped raise her after her father died. He is described as “an eccentric socialist”. She was very close to her grandfather. He wanted her to register to vote as a communist and she did for the 1936 election out of respect for him. There is no proof that she was ever an active communist, agreed with communism or ever voted for a communist candidate. There was a brief uproar over this in the 50s but it died down when the truth was told and it was obvious the she wasn’t a communist. It’s in wiki and other places. Just type in “Lucille” “Ball” and “communist” into your search engine.
Well you’ve heard about the agents that we’ve already named
Well MPA has agents that are flauntedly unashamed
We’re after Rosie Clooney, we’ve gotten Pinkie Lee
And the day we get Red Skelton won’t that be a victory
Er, yeah. My warped upbringing caused be to believe Chad Mitchell is as well known as the Beatles. I worried more than a few neighbors (and annoyed one sister) by singing The John Birch Society frequently.
