From Out of the Past

It's all led this: Chapter 10, prepping the first ‘I Love Lucy’ episode.  And we begin with another perfect storm, this time of logistics.  Where will they shoot in L.A., and HOW with multi-cam on 35mm film, in front of a live audience?  Not to mention in front of the camera had its own issues.  Remember the Pilot didn’t have the Mertzes;  and now they needed to find them.  Rehearsals got under wa...

Chapter 9 sees Lucille and Desi get married.  Yep, again!  Lucille will re-sign with Columbia, reuniting her with dear friends Ed Sedgwick and Buster Keaton.  And she and Desi will both make more movies (this on top of Desi’s nightclub touring and serving as Bob Hope’s musical director).  Well, why not make a movie together?  If Hollywood wouldn’t bank on them, they’ll bank on themselves, and form...

Chapter 8 is live and sees Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz get divorced (kinda).  While Desi’s still in the Army, Lucille makes ‘Easy to Wed,’ a hit, and ‘Two Smart People’ which, unknown at the time, will be her last at MGM.  Then Desi’s out of the Army to find slipping back into life at MGM isn’t as easy as he’d hoped.  Lucille finds success freelancing -- including beginning her run with Bob Hope a...

Chapter 7 sees Lucille Ball arrive at MGM, 31 years old, acutely aware this is her last shot at stardom.  She’ll become the redhead we all think of including shining in Technicolor.  There’s ‘Du Barry Was a Lady’ which reintroduces her to Red Skelton and introduces her to Gene Kelly.  Then there’s ‘Best Foot Forward,’ a more-than-anything-else fun picture which begins her run of cameos (with the l...

Chapter 6 begins the second half of our third season and we’re back with our glamorous clown as Lucille meets Desi, twice, as they make the RKO movie version of the hit Broadway show ‘Too Many Girls.’  And they sure do fall for each other but passion is passion so it’s often a bit of love and war.  Party hard and work hard?  Sure again.  And as for work?  This week includes Harold Lloyd, a who’s w...

Chapter 5 has us going back in time to share Desi Arnaz’ road to Hollywood;  which, if you don’t know, is more than a little surprising.  And scary.  And sad.  And then more than a little hopeful as “picking oneself up by the bootstraps” is an understatement.  From growing up in Cuba, surviving the 1933 Revolution, playing in rumba bands including with Xavier Cugat, drinking Bacardi rum with Bing...

Chapter 4 spotlights Lucille’s thriving in the wake of her split with RKO Chief Pandro Berman … including dipping her toes in a medium that would prove more than a little seminal:  radio.  In her words?  “It turned out to be one of the smartest things I did.”  Outside of work?  There was her next serious relationship:  director Alexander Hall.  Their relationship is more a mutual understanding inc...

Chapter 3 spotlights Ms. Ball’s arrival at RKO, and her family’s arrival in California.  Lucille will befriend Ginger Rogers and, as significantly, Ginger’s mother, Lela, who will prove a great mentor.  And Lucille will need it as she navigates both the studio and studio relationship with chief Pandro Berman.  Sure, he’ll help her with her career, so long as it’s the best decision for Lucille AND...

Chapter 2 spotlights Lucille Ball’s arrival in Hollywood where she’ll make ‘Roman Scandals’ as well as about 20 more projects for Sam Goldwyn, Darryl Zanuck, and Harry Cohn ... before arriving at RKO. And, in that time, she focused on three things:  sponging info, meeting people, and establishing a good reputation.  Lucille Ball may have not finished High School but she was getting the education o...

Chapter 1 of ‘Lucille,’ our season celebrating Lucille Ball, begins the road to ‘I Love Lucy.’  (Spoiler!  We end the season with that hit show beginning!)  After all, the 40 years before that?  That’s a road far too less traveled and far too interesting to miss.  We begin with a little girl in west New York state living the poverty-tragedy of Dickens.  Well, that isn’t going to stop our hero who...

‘I Love Lucy’ had to begin somewhere, and this is that story.  From a little girl growing up in west New York State, dreaming of being an actress, then making it happen … to the struggled days in Manhattan when “eating good” meant you were eating … to the struggled days in Hollywood that didn’t improve much more than the weather.  Well, the struggles only made the tenacious brunette-turned-blonde-...

Episode 10 -- The Finale -- of The Year Before Disneyland wraps in July, 1955.  We begin at The Disneyland Hotel and why it NOT opening with The Park was a Blessing.  Then it’s back to TV with the 1st new ‘Disneyland’ The Show Ep since March:  The Park’s “Pre-Opening Report!”  Then it’s Walt & Lillian’s 30th Wedding Anniversary and (we hope) The Mark Twain’s Maiden Voyage.  THEN, in the Week b...

Episode 9 of our Season on The Year Before Disneyland continues with June, 1955 where we begin in Theatres with two Feature Releases and one Short including the Hit Now-Classic ‘Lady And The Tramp’ (including spotlights on a couple favorite Imagineers).  Then 29 Big Things get piled on Disney:  The Unions.  And we round out this week’s chat with (hopefully) filling The Rivers Of America and gettin...

Episode 8 of our Season on The Year Before Disneyland continues with May, 1955 where we begin at the beginning … of the PARK, that is:  Main Street U.S.A.  Then we’ll tram over to The Disneyland Hotel for its Gas Station and some ‘Gourmet’ Food.  Then it’s back to Theatres for the ‘Davy Crockett’ Feature AND we’ll chat that Genuine Phenomenon.  And we’ll round out this week with Van Arsdale France...

Episode 7 of our Season on The Year Before Disneyland continues with March & April, 1955 where we return to The Disneyland Hotel for its Groundbreaking and how Guests got-around outside the Park.  Then we’re back in Theatres with the Animated Short ‘Contrasts In Rhythm’ AND back on TV with the 2 Eps before we go to Repeats until right before Park Opening, including the seminal ‘Man In Space.’ ...

Episode 6 spotlights January & February, 1955 where we begin with Disney’s Float in The Rose Parade.  Then it’s EIGHT ‘Disneyland’ TV Show Eps including where Pirate Speak comes from, relooking at ’20,000 Leagues Under The Sea,’ more ‘Davy Crockett,’ a Park Progress Report, and ‘Lady And The Tramp’ with Ms. Peggy Lee.  Then it’s a Donald Duck Short, Bob Gurr getting Autopia driving (do you rem...

Episode 5 of our Season on The Year Before Disneyland continues with December, 1954.  We begin with the FIVE ‘Disneyland’ TV Show episodes that month (including 3 biggies), chat Disney’s Sylvania Win, Walt being on the cover of ‘Time,’ and the birth of ‘The Mickey Mouse Club.’ Then we look at Bob Gurr’s officially starting at WED, and Walt living up to his own "perfect creationism."  And...

Episode 4 of our Season on The Year Before Disneyland continues with November, 1954.  We’ll chat Bios on Ub Iwerks & Bob Gurr;  look at ‘The Flying Squirrel’ in Theatres and ‘Alice In Wonderland,’ ‘True Life Adventures,’ Donald Duck, & ‘So Dear To My Heart’ on TV;  C.V. Wood – you remember Woody – going after Sponsors and beginning his own exit;  and we’ll close out this week with the Offi...

Episode 3 of our Season on The Year Before Disneyland continues with September & October, 1954.  We’ll chat Bios on Roy Disney, Bonita Granville, and Jack Wrather; those latter two KEY in The Disneyland Hotel.  Then we’re back in Theatres with the Animated Short Social Lion and on TV with the Premiere of the Disneyland TV Show.  And we’ll close out this week in Frontierland;  what little was t...

Episode 2 officially begins our Year Before Disneyland with July & August, 1954.  We’ll look at 160 Acres of barren Anaheim land knowing half of it needs to become a Park – quoting Walt – “like nothing else in the world.”  And we’ll begin in Adventureland.  We’ll also spotlight Chouinard Art Institute and the July & August ’54 Theatrical Releases including Disney’s break from Distributor R...

Episode 1 of our Season on The Year Before Disneyland is our Prologue to July 1954, getting you both grounded in the scene & its players AND getting you comfortable with just how much happened at Disney at the same time … on a regular basis.  Plus the impetuses of 'Lady And The Tramp,' '20,000 Leagues Under The Sea,' AND Disneyland go back longer than most people realize.  And...

When Tron The Attraction opened in Walt Disney World in 2023, there were comments such as, “It took FIVE YEARS to build!  Disneyland took ONE!”  And of course there are asterisks to that but it got us thinking about The Year Before Disneyland:  July 1954 to July 1955.  Yes, Disneyland The Park went from breaking ground to opening.  But look at what ELSE happened IN THAT SAME TIME: Disney parted wi...

Episode 10 – The Finale – of our Season on the Life & Career of William Goldman rounds out The Story from 2006 to 2018, looking at a lost Non Fiction Book, a Mark Wahlberg-starrer, writing with The Sports Guy Bill Simmons, Goldman’s return to Broadway, his only Biography, losing a Daughter, and the world losing William Goldman.  And when the chronology is through?  We’ll of course talk his Leg...

Episode 9 of our Season on the Life & Career of William Goldman pauses the chronology to spotlight his two Writing-On-Writing, On-Hollywood, KINDA-Autobiographies:  1983’s ‘Adventures in the Screen Trade’ and 2000’s ‘Which Lie Did I Tell?’  Where he takes us through his work, others’ work, even presents new work for peers to critique … and you bet we discuss his infamous “Nobody Knows Anything...

Episode 8 of our Season on the Life & Career of William Goldman gets into ‘Absolute Power’ with Clint Eastwood and our chatting Adaptations in general.  We’ll nod Brother James’ passing, chat Goldman’s last screenplays – ‘The General’s Daughter,’ ‘Hearts In Atlantis,’ and ‘Dreamcatcher’ – and his last books:  ‘The Big Picture’ and ‘Which Lie Did I Tell?’  Then we’ll round-out with his non-Prod...