MovieChat Forums > I Love Lucy (1951) Discussion > Lucille Ball's Aging and Season Six

Lucille Ball's Aging and Season Six

posted 6 years ago by [email protected] (1732)
21 replies | jump to latest

Fans have often discussed how Lucy (and Desi, while we're at it) had noticeably aged by
season six. But one of the weird things to me is how Lucy's aging vacillates from episode
to episode.

For instance, in the season opener (with Bob Hope), Lucy - to me - looks remarkably tired
compared to the final European eps, filmed just months prior (the Hope ep was lensed
in June of '56). She also looks remarkably older in "Little Ricky Learns to Play the Drums."

Yet in the Florida episodes, Lucy looks her old young self. Could it be the bow in her hair,
and the cute short-sleeved top with the tennis shoes??

To me, it highlights the idea that Lucy wasn't necessarily aging naturally, but looked worse
in some season six episodes due to her marital stress.

Am I the only one to note that Ball's "aging" is inconsistent? She was still a beautiful
woman, but no longer believable as someone under 40.

Thoughts?

[–] [email protected] (5501) 6 years ago

Lucy looked so youthful in the first season!

I don't think she aged rapidly, but she did have two children (by caesarean, no less) late in life and that often takes a toll on a woman. Many don't bounce back. However I think Lucy managed to keep a youthful figure through most of the series.

She looked quite thin while dancing the jitterbug and later in Hollywood, "vancing with Dan", er dancing with Van.

In the later seasons Lucy was getting a bit wrinkly around the eyes. I'd attribute that to her serious smoking. One of my sisters is four years younger than I am and she is a very heavy smoker. It's not like I am bragging, but my complexion looks way better than hers! She has those crepey lines around the eyes and mouth. Her skin is so dry. She also doesn't use sunscreen. And I do.
Lucille Ball was from a generation who still thought a tan was "so healthy" and she did live in southern California. She had fair skin and probably got her share of sun without benefit of sunscreen.

Lucy's appearance did bounce around from episode to episode. It probably had to do with the stress that she was dealing with in her marriage.

[–] [email protected] (1732) 6 years ago

You're right, I never thought about the effects of smoking (which ruined Lucy's voice by the early '60's). I've never been
a smoker, and thank God for that!

The other issue is, by season six, she was wearing much bigger false eyelashes, heavier foundation, and that deep, dark
red lipstick...none of which was flattering to her.

In the first year, she appears have worn a pink lipstick, which in black-and-white, looks almost like a gloss. It was softer
than what she was wearing at the end of the show. I think they thought more makeup would disguise her aging, but to
me, it only highlighted it.

[–] [email protected] (5501) 6 years ago

Yes, heavier make-up only accentuates a woman's age. It's like, "what are you trying to hide under all that"??

Lucy had very delicate skin and all that smoking and from what I have read, her preference for Scotch, didn't help any.

I still thought she was a beauty. But life and stress took its toll on her.

[–] [email protected] (1732) 6 years ago

It's interesting to note in "Little Ricky Leans to Play the Drums" how much older Lucy looks in the opening
breakfast scene, as opposed to the end scene where she's wearing virtually NO makeup (thanks to the soap
on her face when Fred shuts off their water). It takes YEARS off Lucy's age, which is interesting.

Lucy was still fairly slim in the first third of season six, then really put on some pounds by those country
episodes (you can really see it when she's in pants, rehearsing the tango with Ricky at the beginning).

Lucy really trimmed down by "The Lucy Show", and while I didn't care of the series (especially after Vance
left), Ball was trim again, and really looked lovely for a woman in her '50s.

[–] Culburn (3638) 6 years ago

Sometimes they'd shoot her with a soft lens, especially in movies she made late---like "Yours, Mine and Ours."

They'd shoot Doris Day the same way.

[–] [email protected] (1732) 6 years ago

ILL was never shot in soft-focus. Nor was "The Lucy Show." I think Ball looked better in terms of
rest and figure in 1965 than she did in the '50's. She had gotten somewhat heavy, and was in
"sheer, unadulterated hell" with Desi in her final years of marriage.

But you're right...in 1968's "Yours, Mine and Ours", and (especially) "Mame", Lucy looked
as though she was filmed through tons of gauze.

[–] ProductionNow (1072) 5 years ago

[deleted]

[–] ProductionNow (1072) 5 years ago

Lucy didn't physically look much older by season 6, to me. (in that case, did she look even older by the Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour?) In the 1st season, she looked washed-out (her eyes, or something) , which is likely why she wore more make-up by season 1/2 after they all likely accessed the show in real life.

Her temper/anger was more real (almost scary) in season 6--though it waxes and waned during that season.

And on The Lucy Show, I believe she wore the temporary self-adhesive strips to lift her face to give her that tight jaw line, so of course she looked great. And Lucy's figure aged like most women; thicker around the middle regardless of how thin her hips/legs became. Hence, the short blouses and suit-tops.

[–] [email protected] (5501) 5 years ago

About the self-adhesive strips, yes Lucy started to wear them during The Lucy/Desi Hour when she got rid of the bun and started to wear her hair short. It's in a "Lucy" book that i have. Her hairdresser on the show bugged Lucille ball for a long time to cut her hair . But lucy liked to keep it longer for Desi.

Her hairdresser, Irma Kalish (?), started to put the tapes around Lucy's eyes and forehead. She really used a lot to lift her skin up. Lucy had very delicate skin and apparently wasn't a good candidate for plastic surgery. The short 'do was actually a wig that was placed on Lucy's head to hide all the tape.

Lucy said it was "uncomfortable" at first, but she felt that she looked better on camera.

[–] ProductionNow (1072) 5 years ago

Did those strips work on her jawline, though? Her jawline looked sharper on TLS and HL than I think it was in real life.

[–] ProductionNow (1072) 5 years ago

I still thought she was a beauty. But life and stress took its toll on her.
---- ----- ---- --- -----
Please..she caused her own stress. I loved Lucy, but she needed to grow-up in real life, and either accept the man she married or let him go (same as marrying a drug-addict) You cannot have everything you want, and she already had plenty. She divorced him in 1946--and then changed her mind (she instinctively knew then that something was not going to work) The thing that did work was we would not have ILL if they divorced.

[–] [email protected] (5501) 5 years ago

I didn't say that she did not CAUSE her own stress, just that it took a toll on her. lol

I know from experience how stress can be debilitating. My ex-husband was very emotionally and verbally abusive. I used to get blinding tension headaches. And i started to notice a weird thing. I was getting little creases right above my nose near my eyebrows.

In the morning my husband would often say, " Relax your face! You sleep with it all scrunched up. No wonder you wake up with headaches." (no, it was because I was waking up with HIM!)

After my divorce, I lost the headaches and the creases. They went away.

[–] ProductionNow (1072) 5 years ago

I understand; I was speaking from a collective-thought, since people (including herself) feel sorry for her over it. I feel passionate about the topic because there are such painful (and often incurable) emotional/physiological- conditions that some people cannot control. Debilitating can mean being unable to literally leave the house or function to do the most primitive things.

[–] brux (14666) 6 years ago

>> She also looks remarkably older in "Little Ricky Learns to Play the Drums."

Ha ... remember Fred, Fred, Fred-Fred-Fred !!!

I never liked I Love Lucy but I have to admit there were some very funny shows.

--

We have a theater in town that plays old movies from the 20's on ... the pre-Code movies and others. There were some movies with Lucille Ball in them, and she was a real knockout. I never would have guessed.

[–] pioneergrrrl (2389) 6 years ago

I am so glad I don't smoke @ all.

[–] Keelai (31918) 6 years ago

I never noticed any aging. I didn't assume she was supposed to play someone under 40 since her age was never mentioned. I also watched her in The Lucy Show and The Lucille Ball Show as well as numerous movies. The only time her age stood out for me was in "Roman Scandals" because she was just starting out and didn't have red hair.

[–] [email protected] (5501) 6 years ago

Well Lucy does mention her age in "Lucy Tells the Truth". But was she being truthful? lol She says that she is thirty four.

In a book I have about the making of the series, it was their intention to portray Lucy Ricardo as being almost a decade younger than Lucille Ball. I think the idea was that Ethel was older than Lucy even though in reality the actresses were almost the same age.

[–] Keelai (31918) 6 years ago

How could I forget that episode? Completely hysterical.

I just remembered that she was criticized in "Life with Lucy" for basically being old. I guess her aging bummed people out, but she was in her mid 70s. Sad that she died feeling rejected.

[–] who8mycookie (5) 5 years ago

I didn't really think they looked much older as they much as I thought they just looked bad. Desi looked like drinking was taking a toll on his once youthful looks. Lucy on the other hand looked like she was trying to hide stress, she was overdoing the makeup bit (IMO) and it didn't suit her appearance well, it made her look bad.

[–] ProductionNow (1072) 5 years ago

Smoking/stress is given too much blame (and in only 5 years) The sun and genetics are the biggest causes.

[–] brux (14666) 5 years ago

What surprised me having as a kid first seen Lucille Ball on
I Love Lucy was when I saw her in older movies that she had
been in, and how she was really a knock-out as a young woman.
She was a good actress too.

I never liked I Love Lucy, or Lucille Ball until I saw her younger
self in early movies.

Oh, but then there was the fact that i think Desilu productions
produced Star Trek, which I thought was superb for its day, and
my age at the time.