JAMESTOWN, N.Y. — From old television scripts and costumes to photographs, and a 1972 Mercedes, the legacies of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz have been preserved in Lucy’s hometown of Jamestown for almost 30 years.
“I’m thrilled we’ve been able to make some people happier with some of the things we’ve been doing with the legacy that they left behind,” said Lucie Arnaz, Ball and Arnaz’s daughter.
Lucie Arnaz was tasked with going through her parent’s decades of belongings after her father died in 1986 and her mother in 1989.
“No one wants to be saddled with all the things you’re saddled with when your folks die. But when it’s Lucille Ball, when it’s Desi Arnaz, I was in the process of saying, ‘what on earth do we do with all of this, for one reason or another, valuable material?’ ” she said.
Most of the material, artifacts and other rare memorabilia, like Lucy’s Emmy awards and family home movies, eventually made their way to the Lucy-Desi Museum and later to the National Comedy Center.
Arnaz has opened the door to a long list of other families that have shared their late parents’ archive with the center, like Melissa Rivers, who recently turned over the extensive joke file of her mother Joan.
“Very proud that that little idea we had turned into what is going on over there right now. People like me, daughters and sons of these talented comedians, where else are we going to put their stuff?” said Lucie.
“We’re never done telling comedy’s story and we’re incredibly proud to be the home of an archive that continues to grow with more of comedy’s rich heritage,” said Journey Gunderson, executive director, National Comedy Center.
Gunderson equally grateful to Arnaz for also seeing her mother’s vision come to life.
“Which was not just her hometown celebrate her career, but rather establish an institution and an archive that would celebrate all comedy legacies and the artform as a whole,” said Gunderson.
“This is a quote I remember. She said, ‘oh god, just don’t honor me. I’m just an actress. Honor comedy. Honor the art of comedy, and humor and laughter,’ ” Arnaz said.
She’s thrilled for the success of the Comedy Center.
“Build it and they will come. My mother was right. And it just took a while to figure out how to do it,” said Arnaz. “She’s there every day taking credit for all of it. She loves this. I guarantee you there is a spirit of my mother. You will feel her. She is there. She is proud.”
The annual Lucille Ball Comedy Festival is set to take place in August.
Part one of this exclusive report can be found here.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source spectrumlocalnews.com ’
