As I've mentioned before, Lucille Ball's career didn't really start to hit its stride until the mid-40s. She'd been making films since 1933 and had never managed to graduate to leading roles in A pictures. But things began to pick up with her move to MGM in 1943 and the studio's promotion of her as a wise-cracking glamour girl. And while her brief time at Hollywood's starriest studio gave no indication of what heights she'd reach in the next decade, it produced one very significant and lasting effect: after cycling through several hair colors in her career thus far - from natural brown to platinum blond - a bright, hennaed red would now be her permanent, soon to be iconic hue. It also happened to look spectacular in color; between her former nickname, "Queen of the B's", and her future one, "The First Lady of Television", Lucille Ball was known as "Technicolor Tessie".
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| Ziegfeld Follies, 1945. (Three images.) |
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| DuBarry Was a Lady, 1943. (Seven images.) |
Stunning, brainy, and so full of talent they really never knew quite what to do with her. I have seen some of her early noir films and DAYUM, could she steam up a screen.
ReplyDeleteYeah, we've entirely missed the Noir phase; we really have to remedy that unfortunate oversight. : )
DeleteI absolutely adore her in everything and in everyway ❤
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