Broadcasting Telecasting (Jul-Sep 1962)

OUR RESPECTS to Desi Arnaz, president, Desilu Productions His 'why?' and 'why not?' crumbled archaic programming ideas Asked last week for the secret of his successful transition from band leader to head of a major tv production firm, Desi Arnaz had a succinct reply: "Ignorance." "I didn't know what couldn't be done, so I wasn't stopped by precedents. When I came to Hollywood the words I used most were 'why' and 'why not.' When we were getting ready to make the / Love Lucy series I wanted to do it on film, but at that time — 1950 or '51 — film was a dirty word around the networks. 'You have to do it live,' they told me. 'Why?,' I asked. 'Because it's comedy and you need a live audience,' they answered. 'Why can't we film it in front of a live audience?' I insisted. 'Impossible,' they came back. 'Why?' I asked. 'Because nobody's ever done it that way.' they said. "We went round and round until finally I got my way. Then the problem was where to do it. We couldn't use a theatre; the stages were too small. We couldn't use clubs like the Moulin Rouge; the audience was too far away from the performers. One night I woke up about 2 a.m. and shook Lucy. 'Where do they make motion pictures?" 'In studios,' she said. "That was the answer, a movie studio. But up to then nobody had ever brought 300 people onto a sound stage to watch a show being filmed. The fire department, the police department and a dozen other departments all had reasons why we couldn't do it. The fire department wanted a lot of exits to the street. We got General Service Studios, which ran along a street, and putting in the required exists was not too difficult. Finally everybody was satisfied." Simple, Successful ■ "It's very simple," Mr. Arnaz explains. "I want to give the guy at home the best entertainment I can. I want the advantage of film, the chance to do a scene over if it's not right, plus the spontaneity of live tv." With / Love Lucy tv's top show, no one could knock Desi's technique and other producers started bringing their programs to Desilu for the same treatment. The technique that started then is still the backbone of Desilu. When Desiderio Alberto Arnaz y Acha III came into the world, on March 2, 1917, in Santiago, Cuba, his world was not the world of show business. His father, a member of the Cuban congress served for eight years as mayor of Santiago. He owned three ranches (100,000 acres), a palatial residence, a private island and other assets. At 16, Desiderio had his own boat, his own car and a stable of horses at his dis posal. Then came the Cuban revolution of 1933. Desi's father was imprisoned, his estates confiscated. Desi and his mother fled to Havana. When the elder Arnaz was released from prison, but banished from Cuba, he went to Florida. As soon as he could, he sent for his family. The depression was on; work was scarce. Desi drove trucks and taxis, worked in a railroad yard and a pet shop, went to school whenever he got the chance, to learn English. He drifted into show business as a guitar player and singer with a rhumba band. Xavier Cugat heard him and hired him as featured vocalist. A year later he formed his own band, booked into Miami's swank La Conga Cafe and made such a hit that George Abbott hired him for a lead role in the Broadway show. Too Many Girls. Desi Meets Lucy ■ RKO bought the film rights to the Abbott play and hired Desi to recreate his stage role on the screen. This he did — and he strayed from the script to marry his leading lady— Lucille Ball. After World War II, when Desi served in the U. S. Army Medical Corps, he went back to band leading under contract to MGM, where Lucy had become a top star. The couple talking about teaming up, but nothing happened until a couple of years later. Lucy, released from MGM, was starring in a radio series, My Favorite Husband, which sparked the idea that a comedy about an actress Mr. Arnaz Proved his points by succeeding married to a band leader might be the answer. The writers of Lucy's radio series turned out an initial script which Desi and Lucy tried out as a stage act. The reaction convinced them the idea was sound and they took the package to CBS. The result was / Love Lucy. Desi's business ability, revealed during his negotiations with CBS when he insisted on, and got, production control and ownership of / Love Lucy, surprised some people. "It shouldn't have," he commented. "Leading a band is a business and a band leader who isn't a good business man won't be a band leader very long." Growth ■ The initial success of Lucy provided funds for the purchase of controlling interest in Motion Picture Center by Desilu Productions, which had been formed in May 1950. In 1958, Desilu purchased the RKO-Pathe Properties for $6 million, giving it three studio lots with 36 sound stages. The same year, the weekly half-hour Lucy shows became monthly hours, part of a $12 million deal with Westinghouse, biggest tv program contract ever negotiated. That fall, Desilu Productions went public, putting 525,000 shares of common stock, which had been held by Desi, Lucy and a few associates, on the market. Although Desi and Lucy were divorced May 4, 1960, their business careers remain closely linked. He is president and she is vice president, of Desilu Productions; together they own a controlling interest in the firm. She is starring in the new Lucy series, which he is personally producing ("after aU, I know her better than anyone else at Desilu-Gower 11"). Here, from an oakpaneled office, he supervises the firm's production schedule, and keeps an eye on its new idstribution subsidiary and such diverse sidelines as the erection of a plant to be leased as a factory ("the land was no good for making pictures and we couldn't just let it stand there.") and drilling for oil. Desi's administrative duties keep him tied pretty closely to his office, but on occasion he gets away for long weekends at his Del Mar beach house or his horse breeding farm at Corona. A photo of Nashville, former great racer now out to stud, hangs on Desi's office wall, sharing honors with enlargements of child pictures of Desi and Lucy, which flank the Arnaz coat of arms at one end of the office, and a three-generation picture of Desi, his father and his son, Desi IV, now 9 years old. Desi IV and his sister, Lucie Desiree, 11, live with their mother, but Desi sees them frequently. BROADCASTING, September 24, 1962 153