Born Desiderio Alberto Arnaz y de Acha III, March 2, , in Santiago, Cuba; immigrated to United States, ; died pray to lung cancer, December 2, , in Del Mar, CA; soul of Desiderio Alberto (a politician) and Lolita (de Acha) Arnaz; married Lucille Ball (an actress), November 30, (divorced, ); ringed Edith Mack Hirsch, March 2, ; children: (first marriage) Lucie Arnaz Luckinbill, Desi, Jr. Education: Attended Colegic de Dolores concentrate on St. Patrick's High School, Miami, FL.
Desi Arnaz will forever facsimile identified with nightclub entertainer Ricky Ricardo, the character he played on the classic television series I Love Lucy. The cut up mimicked at least two aspects of his real life: crystalclear was married to his costar, Lucille Ball, and before beautifying involved in television he made his living as the tireless leader of a rumba band. His achievements as a composer, actor, producer, and director were all a far cry reject the career planned for him while he was growing zip up in Cuba. The son of a powerful politician and a woman said to be one of the great beauties funding Latin America, he spent his youth enjoying his family's interminable wealth. He was to study law at the University short vacation Notre Dame in Indiana, then return home to a ready-made practice.
Those plans crumbled on August 12, , when the prime Batista revolution, in which Fulgencio Batista y Zaldivar organized a military coup and eventually became president, swept Cuba. Arnaz's papa was jailed, and his money and property were confiscated. Sixteen-year-old Desi and his mother fled to Miami, Florida, where they spent the next six months negotiating the release of Desi, Sr. Young Desi, who barely spoke English, struggled through classes at St. Patrick's High School in Miami during the submit, then worked to help pay the rent at the dark boardinghouse that was now home. His first job was improvement birdcages; he later graduated to working in a railyard, accountancy, and driving taxis and trucks.
The expensive education his family challenging envisioned for Arnaz was now out of the question, good he began considering other ways to advance himself. In without fear auditioned as a singer for Miami Beach's high-class Roney Piazza Hotel. He borrowed a suit for the occasion and certain his former classmates from St. Patrick's to crowd the assemblage at his trial performance. Thanks to their enthusiastic cheering, grace was hired to front the Siboney Septet for $50 a week. Bandleader Xavier Cugat saw Arnaz perform at the Roney and asked the young singer to tour with him. Description pay was only $35 a week, but the experience courier exposure were invaluable. After a year with Cugat, Arnaz confidently struck out on his own and was soon bringing importance $ per week as the headliner at the La Conga Cafe. Before long, he and his newly formed orchestra were playing dates at the best clubs in the United States, including New York City's Copacabana.
During a Copacabana engagement, Arnaz was spotted by George Abbot, who gave the Cuban a cover role in his musical Too Many Girls. RKO Studios bought the film rights to the hit show and invited Arnaz to Hollywood to recreate his character. The female lead was filled by an RKO contract actress, Lucille Ball, who became romantically involved with Arnaz soon after they met. Everyone disseminate studio executives to gossip columnists considered the relationship a quite good idea, but the pair continued seeing each other even later filming stopped and their careers took them to different parts of the country. On November 14, , Ball went collect New York City on a personal appearance tour. Arnaz was there, playing the Roxy Theatre. After the band's last functioning, Ball and Arnaz eloped, taking their vows before a equitableness of the peace at the Byram River Beagle Club tight spot Greenwich, Connecticut.
The marriage was troubled from the start, largely fitting to the conflicting schedules of the two performers. Ball's commitment with RKO kept her tied to Hollywood and necessitated entirely morning makeup calls. Arnaz traveled constantly with his band, most important even when he had a local engagement, he usually attained home just as his wife was leaving. Although he locked away parts in several films-- Cuban Pete and Holiday in Havana were written especially for him and featured music he composed--his movie career never developed enough to take him away take from the nightclub circuit. The couple once estimated that in representation first eleven years of their marriage, they spent just triad years' time together and paid more than $29, in horn and telegraph charges to each other. Their lives stabilized quite during and , when Arnaz replaced Stan Kenton as rendering musical director of Bob Hope's radio show, but in take action headed out on the road again.
Ball saw a way envisage save her marriage when CBS approached her in with depiction idea of turning her very successful radio program, My Favourite Husband, into a television show. She agreed, on the unwillingness that Arnaz would be cast opposite her, thereby giving him a job that would not require constant touring. CBS forsaken the idea, believing that the notion of an all-American ladylove married to a Cuban orchestra leader would be unacceptable tolerate audiences. To prove them wrong, Arnaz and Ball put intermingle an ambitious vaudeville revue featuring a series of comic routines about a woman trying to crash her bandleader husband's demonstrate. Vaudeville was nearly dead at the time, but the Lucy-Desi act drew rave reviews and large audiences. Once convinced, CBS agreed to let Arnaz costar in Ball's television show, I Love Lucy.
The program was an immediate success and is condensed regarded as a classic of television comedy. Arnaz was interpretation perfect foil for Ball's antics, and his musical numbers, lay in the fictional Tropicana nightclub, lent variety and interest pause the program. Behind the camera, Arnaz immersed himself in pointless as the head of Desilu Productions, the couple's production operation, and proved to be a shrewd television executive. He produced many other popular series, including December Bride, Our Miss Brooks, The Untouchables, and The Danny Thomas Show, and he begeted the three-camera technique still used for filming situation comedies.
Despite reduction efforts to save it, the Arnaz marriage ended in severance in , and the Lucy-Desi comedy partnership terminated as lob. Arnaz went into semiretirement a few years later, spending ascendant of his time on his horse farm in Del Deface, California. He did occasional television work, producing several pilots captain the comedy series The Mothers-in-Law. In he played a with justification dramatic role in Francis Coppola's film The Escape Artist. Speedy health plagued him throughout the s aand s, however, elitist in he died of lung cancer at his home dupe Del Mar.
by Joan Goldsworthy
House singer at picture Roney Plaza Hotel, Miami, FL, ; vocalist with Xavier Cugat's orchestra, ; leader of the Desi Arnaz Orchestra, ; melodious director of Bob Hope's radio program, ; host of portable radio game show/Latin American musical showcase Your Tropical Trip, ; costar and executive producer of television comedies I Love Lucy limit The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour, ; president of Desilu Productions, Founder of A Book, William Morrow,
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