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In celebration and appreciation of Hispanic Heritage month, here at “The Showplace” we honor the tremendous achievements and accomplishments of trailblazing entertainers of Latin origin like…Desi Arnaz.
To most people, he’s known as the straight man to real-life (as well as fictional) first wife, “I Love Lucy” star, Lucille Ball.
However, Desi Arnaz is one of the most innovative television pioneers in the industry and created techniques that are still used to this day.
Desiderio Alberto Arnaz y de Acha III was born in Santiago, Cuba in 1917 — the son of the town’s mayor and grandson of an executive at the popular Bacardi Rum Company. Forced from his home due to civil unrest, Desi worked numerous jobs in Florida before forming his own band, and getting a major boost from established Hispanic Bandleader Xavier Cugat.
According to his autobiography, entitled, “A Book”, Arnaz claims to have sparked the line-dancing craze in America out of desperation when his late-arriving band proved to be less than capable to perform at a famous nightclub in Miami.
Arnaz’s popularity would grow as a bandleader around the country—performing in person and on the radio until he started getting roles in films. While occasionally landing a role in a major picture, most of his movies, by his own admission were so poorly produced and received, that he referred to them in his autobiography as “D films.”
However, it was on the set of the film, “Too Many Girls,” where he met and subsequently married Ball. He also began studying film techniques and without any formal training used his on-the-job learning when CBS pitched a television show idea to his wife.
Determined to spend more time with her husband, Ball insisted that Desi star and produce the show himself. While CBS and the show’s sponsor, Phillip Morris, balked at Arnaz playing Lucy’s on-screen husband (claiming no one would believe they were married), the couple toured across the country performing acts which proved that United States citizens would “buy in” to the comedy created by the real life married duo.
Because of various production issues, Arnaz soon realized that the best possible ways of shooting the “Lucy” show would be to record the program on film and to use three cameras, later editing together the best shots. This revolutionary idea paved the way for programs—previously recorded live on only one or, at most, two cameras—to be preserved and later rebroadcast again. Thus, syndication was born!
These techniques also allowed mistakes by camera to be deleted and allowed directors time to pick and choose the best shots instead of having to pick one on the fly.
Despite this practice later being used by nearly every situation comedy to this day, CBS at first rejected this technical theory as ridiculous and implausible. So convinced that it would work, Desi and Lucy set out to prove his theory by forming their own production company, called “Desilu Productions” and made these shooting techniques a reality.
Arnaz’s brilliant business savvy and behind-the-scenes production ideas continued to grow Desilu and generated many successful early television series. In addition to “I Love Lucy”, Arnaz oversaw the productions of “The Untouchables,” “The Ann Sothern Show,” “Our Miss Brooks,” “Westinghouse Playhouse,” “The Lucy Show,” and many others.
At its peak of popularity, Desilu (the name derived from a combination of “Desi” and “Lucy”) was the second most successful TV production company in the world.
Three years after Lucy divorced Desi, Arnaz slowly began to cut back on his television work, selling his half of Desilu to his now ex-wife. His contributions to the industry should not be overlooked. One could argue that his ideas and the tenacity he showed to prove his theories, changed the landscape of television forever.
You can enjoy “The Lucy Show,” in which Arnaz helped create and develop, and served as Executive Producer, at various times on ATVN. To view the complete rundown of classic programming on our network, check out the weekly listings here on our website.
The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of RCN or any other agency, organization, employer or company.
