Lucille Ball Biography

A young woman sat there and dreamed about a day that she would see characters on television who portrayed the same life that she herself was living. She hoped that one day people would stop presenting television characters who represented the ideal or perfect person, but would one day favor reality. At a young age, Lucille Ball found an urge to perform by attending a New York City drama school at age fifteen. This would lead her to make great alterations to the world of entertainment from the 1950s to 1960s, especially through her hit T.V. show “I Love Lucy” (“Lucille Ball Biography”). Lucille Ball was innovative in American entertainment because she exposed the industry and country to new ideas of comedy and demonstrated that women could be

Before the television was invented, people would listen to the radio for entertainment, which meant that people were used to being entertained by verbal jokes, instead of a funny facial expression or stunt. Lucille Ball played a great role in introducing and making popular the concept of physical comedy (making a joke through facial expressions or gestures, rather than words). “Ball proved … that a female comedian could be both feminine and aggressively physical. She accomplished this, at least in part, by choreographing every move of her slapstick performances and accumulating a series of goofy facial expressions that were eventually cataloged by the writings staff under such cues as ‘light bulb,’ ‘puddling up,’ ‘small rabbit,’ and ‘foiled again’” (“Lucille Ball”). A growing talent, Ball developed the ability to make people laugh by making humorous facial expressions identifiable to herself, which later became so popular and performed so frequently that they were given their own names. Through her work she not only helped familiarize the country with this new form of comedy but she also did so as a woman who was not portraying her character as the common elegant and proper woman, but expressed herself in a manner which accurately and comically demonstrated the way that many women often acted and felt. Even though she was a comedian, Ball did not make just any funny joke or facial expression she was directed to, but practiced and performed her new art form which continues to inspire modern comedians. “It was routine for the actress to spend hours rehearsing her antics and facial expressions. And her groundbreaking work in comedy paved the way for future stars such as Mary Tyler Moore, Penny Marshall, Cybill Shepherd and even Robin Williams” (“Lucille Ball Biography”). Certainly, Lucille Ball invested hours of hard work into perfecting her famous