Preface
Imagine my surprise when I registered this blog's name and found that the name (DesiArnaz) as the URL is free, this man is highly underestimated! All these decades and he never had a blog or a biography of his own, acting second fiddler to his hugely famous wife Lucy! I never had this opportunity before, for example when writing about Elvis or Jane Austen, I found myself adding lots and lots of numbers to get a title with my own URL!
But this is about to change, may be my simple blog will ignite the Desi Chain!
Why would I start a biography about a rumba king in the fifties now? We are in the second millennium now. Is it because he was Ricky Ricardo? or is it because he is gaining a most deserved late recognition lately?
Well (in Ethel's Voice)!
My case is entirely different, I knew about "I love Lucy" a couple of years ago, mostly through another famous sitcom that made tribute to it, and I didn’t like the tribute, may be because I didn’t know what the hell are they talking about, or because I thought the jokes were not funny at the time!
Then COVID-19 came and I searched for a top listing comedy series, where I finished most of them already, so I thought why not this one, although it is in black and white, it seems to move a lot of people! So I started with the pilot.
For the first 10 episodes, and it took me a while to finish them, I didn't think it was hilarious, I took my time to understand the chemistry between them, and of course Ricky's accent, then it grew on me. Every season was growing funnier, until I am binging for 24 hours straight till the last of the six seasons, then paused a little and continued my marathon to the last of the Lucy-Desi comedy hours.
All I knew was they were married in real life, so their chemistry has something real in it, and I loved it. The more I watched the more I liked Ricky more, he was down to earth, level-headed, funnier in my opinion than Lucy, and he always made her shine, even if he was only in the background. But his presence was more than hers by miles!
Lucy was a clown, you may laugh at the clown but you always know he is putting a mask for show, there is always something phony about a clown you can't ignore. Ricky had all the empathy and love in my opinion, and that is why the show is called "I love Lucy" not "We love each other". Moreover when Desi did slap stick or retaliate with a plan it was funnier and more true.
I know that most people won't agree to my views, but that is why they are called point of views.
Then after my first run, I started to rewatch the funny episodes and like this time Desi himself. I started reading about their story and was intrigued by it!
I read all the books I could find or seemed relevant to their life story. And at the end I came to the unpopular conclusion; I love Desi not Lucy!!!
So I am writing his story not hers and to my astonishment, he never had a blog in his name! Mine is the first one! And he never had a full book as a biography dedicated to him alone, he was always only a part of her biographies!!
His only full book biography is his autobiography, which is marvelous and true and funny by the way, but as I learned later it left a lot. Left his post divorce and final years, left his achievements in certain areas. All this left the true person behind the mask of the clown go unexamined, simply because Desi really loved Lucy.
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