Both agreed on certain points in Desi's character, as being generous in his money and time, having persuasive and shrewd personality, a genius in his ideas (those ideas that were at least 30 years ahead of his peers, he was so ahead he became a Mongol of the business in few years) and his kindness towards all those around him (well! You cannot fake that).
I noticed that at some stage of her life Pugh was in love with Desi, not that they were in love, it looks like she was fascinated by his personality and character, it even shows in the writing of latter episodes.
Also, the timing of her marriage and divorce and second marriage is peculiarly of one who was hoping that he would love and marry her after he left Lucy! Then she accepted that he would never marry a working girl, especially a one working with Lucy and she was always. He married one who was far from show business, to be the stepmother of his children, to handle him a pipe or a slipper (according to which episode you are watching) and to cook for him (although Edie couldn’t cook at first, he was the great chef in the family, but he taught her and became a wonderful cook later on). All in all Madelyn and Desi respected each other. He always called her and Bob "kits" as in kids and she wrote a big letter at one point explaining his accent in details! This gave me the first hint that she was really infatuated by him. In her memoirs she never said a bad word about the claimed drinking problem and womanizing of Desi, that is how much she respected him. When they got a prize in 1952 and Desi took her and Bob to New York, and Lucy was in LA because she couldn’t fly due to her pregnancy, she looks adoringly at him, with Bob ogling them, I don’t know may be he was in love with her at that time, because they really were partners for fifty years! So some infatuation was bound to happen!
The relation between Marco and Desi was more complicated, Marco was not only his best friend, but also the only one who remained in Desi's surrounding that knew him while in Cuba!
He knew his family and who they were, and what they became, he knew the catastrophes that happened to him when Desi was only a teenager, he knew his vulnerabilities before becoming this hardened white haired man. It is worth mentioning that the graying of Desi's hair started when he was in his twenties, and Cugat of all people advised him to dye his hair to avoid losing fans. He later was fed up with the dying of his hair and instead used a temporary coloring that he washed after each show, retaining the white in his hair between the shows!
So Marco knew him, but he also knew his abilities and musical education, to summarize it, they both needed each other and complemented each other musically speaking!
Marco was the consummate professional when it comes to music, he could read sheets, he could perform his own music, he could conduct and direct his own orchestra. But Marco lacked the Desi's personality and Charisma. He was this kind of cute piano player in the eyes of his audience, who spoke in a non-understandable English, he could not lead a band, he could not defend his own rights, he accepted whatever happens to him peacefully and with joy, that was simply his personality!
Desi on the other hand, had none of those professional musical abilities, he couldn’t learn music in any standard way. But he had a intuition and feel for music more than anybody, even Marco who learnt by the best respected Desi's ear for music and recommendations, it was like a six sense in Desi, which no one around had, added with a great charisma and a take no-nonsense attitude at work and you have got yourself a leader!
So that how it worked between the two, Desi would say what he wants to Marco and Marco would turn it into a professional music!, but it wasn’t just that, they depended on each other and trusted one another.
There are two things that left me a little bit puzzled when I read their story together, one that Desi never gave Marco his deserved credit as the band director on the show, and even in his book he doesn’t mention Marco as his best friend. The second, was when Desi tried to train his vocals and asked Marco to help him, he refused and insisted that Desi's uneducated voice is a better choice for him, and the reason for his success, not only that he discouraged Desi when he heard from Lucy that he hired a vocal trainer to increase his range!
These two instances, are what showed me that may be the love and friendship are not that is to see, that there might be some other complicated feelings may be of fear (Marco's brother was in jail for two years in Cuba due Marco's relation to Desi, jealously (I doubt that but may be a little) or ownership (they both respected their co-working agreements) they both felt toward each other. I always wondered why Marco's biography of Desi was never got published, and why Desi; this 50's studio mogul, never had a biography of his own except his own autobiography!!
Also Marco was the first to point out a great cause of rift between Desi and Lucy; she never accepted his Cubanness. She refused to learn Spanish and even didn't want him to talk in Spanish or have Spanish friends! She tried to isolate him from his most beloved country culture and people, which didn't land well on Desi who despite his Americanization, was ALL CUBAN!
Comments
Post a Comment