Lucille Ball, arguably the most iconic funny women of the 20th century, would have turned 100-years-old on August 6, 2011.
She left her early 40’s job as a hat model in New York and headed for Hollywood where she starred as a chorus girl opposite Henry Fonda in The Big Street in 1942. She spent the next 8 years making movies until television came calling.
She was cast as a wacky redhead who was married to Ricky Ricardo, played by her real-life husband Desi Arnaz. Their best friends were Fred and Ethel Mertz. The foursome delighted 1950’s audiences with their antics.
They hit America’s television sets in October 1951 and the nation was glued to the Monday night show for six years. During year three the show wrote Lucy’s real-life pregnancy into the show. The story line had her giving birth to a baby boy, Little Ricky, but in real life, she delivered a daughter, Lucy Arnaz.
Lucy stomped grapes, worked in a candy factory, got locked in a cold storage freezer, and constantly meddled into Ricky’s business while trying to hobnob with his celebrity colleagues.
Ball and Arnaz divorced in 1960. She went on to star in other popular television sitcoms but none were as humorous as her early antics.
The actress died in 1989 at age 77 and was posthumously granted the Presidential Medal of Freedom that same year by George H. W. Bush.
The citation read: “Her face was seen by more people more often than the face of any human being who ever lived. Who can forget Lucy? She was like everyone’s next-door neighbor, only funnier. Lucille Ball was a national treasure.”
More iconic photos below:
Photos: WENN