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Lucille: The Life of Lucille Ball Audiobook
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(3.02) - 193 listener ratings
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Publisher Description
In twenty years of show business, Lucille Ball had only modest and sporadic success. Her television program, I Love Lucy, was her last chance to fulfill the ambition that had sustained her through the frustrations of her professional life and the anguish of a failing marriage. The role of Lucy Ricardo revealed her true gifts, but it changed her life immeasurably, and the remarkable individual who was Lucille Ball became slowly obscured in the shadows of Lucy.
This definitive portrait of Lucille is based on the recollections of fellow performers like Milton Berle, Ginger Rogers, Bob Hope, and Katherine Hepburn; her closest friends and family; and Lucille herself. From her childhood, when her virtual abandonment instilled in her a relentless drive for love and attention, through her struggling years in Hollywood and her troubled relationship with Desi Arnaz, Brady vividly recounts the story of this passionate and vulnerable woman.
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"Kathleen Brady did a fantastic job with Lucy's biography. It told a sad and believable account of her life. It was tedious, in some places, with all the business side of Desilu, but intersperced were stories that broke it up. In all, I enjoyed this book and was glad I read it."
— Kathy (4 out of 5 stars)
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“While Brady is a fan, she is also a fine biographer. Her admiration is both clear-eyed and penetrating. With insight and impressive detail, Brady goes beyond Ball’s most famous creation—Lucy Ricardo—to expose the complex, determined woman.”
— Chicago Sun-Times -
“A beautiful portrait of someone with enormous talent as an entertainer and heartbreaking fragility as a woman. In giving Lucille Ball the serious appraisal she deserves, Kathleen Brady has really gotten behind the scenes and the cameras to provide an invaluable chronicle of several areas and eras of show business.”
— Molly Haskell -
“Well researched and well written.”
— Library Journal -
“Ball’s life is a captivating, ultimately cautionary tale; its similarity to the plot of a showbiz potboiler makes it all the more appealing.”
— Booklist
Lucille Listener Reviews
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" An enjoyable read if you are a Lucille Ball fan. If not, you might not find it very engaging. "
— Laura, 2/16/2011 -
" This book chronicles the life of one of America's funniest female comedians, Lucille Ball. "
— Sandollar3, 5/9/2010 -
" Lucille Ball is my hero and this is well written, but the fact that the biographer portrayed her as a bit of a monster was very upsetting. I just don't want to believe half of what the author had to say-I don't think she fell enough in love with her subject. "
— Christine, 11/2/2007
About Kathleen Brady
Kathleen Brady is co-chairman of the Biography Seminar at New York University. She has covered television and the media for Time magazine. For her biography of the investigative journalist Ida Tarbell, she was named a Fellow of the Society of American Historians. She was featured on the PBS television series, “The Prize,” and on A&E’s “Biography” of the Rockefeller family.
About C. M. Hébert
C. M. Hébert is an Earphones Award winner and Audie Award nominee. She is the recording studio director for the Talking Books Program at the Library of Congress’ National Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped. She lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, with her husband, daughter, cat, and assorted fish.