Lucille Ball: On Inventing Her Own Piano

Lucille Désirée Ball (August 6, 1911 – April 26, 1989) was an American comedienne, film, television, stage and radio actress, model, film and television executive, and star of the sitcoms I Love Lucy, The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour, The Lucy Show, Here's Lucy and Life With Lucy. One of the most popular and influential stars in America during her lifetime, with one of Hollywood's longest careers, especially on television, Ball began acting in the 1930s, becoming both a radio actress and B-movie star in the 1940s, and then a television star during the 1950s. She was still making films in the 1960s and 1970s.

The comedian Steve Allen once said: "Perhaps the greatest pianist who ever lived was a cave man living in a cave in Europe 20,000 years ago.  But we'll never know, because there were no pianos."

Relatively late in her career, at about age 40, Lucille Ball virtually invented the modern TV sitcom.  Lucille Ball and I Love Lucy pioneered a number of methods still in use in television production today such as filming before a live studio audience with three cameras (instead of the then standard of one), and distinct sets adjacent to each other.  Speaking metaphorically, Lucille Ball invented her own piano. 

Since boyhood my favorite episode of I Love Lucy is one titled "New Neighbors."  After snooping in the new tenant's apartment, she finds herself over-hearing the couple talking about murdering her and Ricky; stealing their identities; and then blowing up the Capitol. Little does Lucy realize that the new tenants are rehearsing a scene for their job. Lucy sneaks out of the apartment and puts the apartment on lock-down as the Ricardos and Mertzes prepare to defend themselves.

I find it interesting and revealing that this episode should have been my favorite as a boy, a boy who was later to develop a keen interest in psychoanalysis.  In psychoanalysis, the surface appearance of a patient's narrative is dismissed and viewed, rather, as an ironic transformation of deeper, hidden meanings.  The humor of New Neighbors lies in the fact that the apparent, manifest reality is interpreted by the characters as the sole meaning.  The characters fail to see the deeper, hidden meaning: that what they are actually perceiving is a deceptive reality.  The true reality requires an appreciation of a larger context: namely, the fact that the new neighbors are actually actors rehearsing a role.

In the play of a life that I have written, I present myself to The Powers That Be as a potentially homicidal psychotic. But that is only a role I have created--or rather one that was created for me. In fact, my true aim is to enlist The Powers in a criminal investigation to uncover the facts of a fraud and racketeering conspiracy of many years duration, with the intent to capitalize on my pain and suffering and, in the end, acquire the financial means to purchase a condo in South Beach!