December 5, 2025 • 36 mins
Hola Amigos! We’re thrilled to share a special episode from My Cultura and WV Sound, Starring: Desi Arnaz & Wilmer Valderrama. Before Ricky Ricardo became a household name, Desi Arnaz was just a Cuban immigrant with a dream—and the odds stacked against him.
Desi Arnaz refuses to move to New York, gambles his salary for ownership, and—with a little help from cinematographer Karl Freund—turns live comedy into filmed art. Together, he and Lucy invent the three-camera sitcom, syndication, and creative control itself. But as I Love Lucy conquers the world, their marriage unravels behind the scenes. Wilmer draws the parallel to his own journey, reflecting on family, legacy, and gratitude—culminating in his USO Merit Award speech, where he finally understands Desi’s timeless “Thank you, America.”
Featuring: Wilmer Valderrama (That ’70s Show, NCIS, Encanto)
Topics: I Love Lucy, Desi Arnaz, Lucille Ball, Desilu Productions, invention of the multi-camera sitcom, syndication, television ownership, Karl Freund, immigrant innovation, family legacy, USO, gratitude.
Starring: Desi Arnaz and Wilmer Valderrama is produced by WV Sound in partnership with iHeart’s My Cultura Podcast Network.
Starring: Desi Arnaz and Wilmer Valderrama is written by Erick Galindo and narrated by Wilmer Valderrama. It is produced by Sophie Spencer-Zavos and Leo Klemm, with special help from Angel Lopez Galindo.
Executive producers are Wilmer Valderrama and Erick Galindo.
This episode was edited and engineered by Sean Tracy and features original music by Halo Boy and Madison Davenport. Cover art illustration by Lindsey Mound.
For more podcasts from iHeart, visit the iHeartRadio app or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
M let's just tell let's just tell me now that
we're already to you the coach show, fellow, A great show,
the great show. He's going to bring it up up
the real television match. Ladies and gentlemen, and Jeff mister.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Thank you right, what do you?
Speaker 1 (00:34):
What are you?
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Thank you very much, thank you very much.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
We welcome you.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
He wanted to look like that's you look play house
as you know this, you know this is film, and
that's why you see why you see old cameras, down,
cameras down the lights, the lights, all the people and
thes just like making a move, making a movie.
Speaker 4 (00:50):
Now, Yes, to show you, guys, our nets at the
camera I studio audience at a filming of I Love Lucy.
He's already in costume, wearing Ricky Ricardo's iconic bathrobe as
he's explaining how TV works to a mesmerized crowd, and
he starts by walking over to the car table in
the middle of the stage.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Now, just to show you that the cameras will never
get in your line of vision. We make believe that
we're taking a scene right now. And I'll sit here
in this chair, and if you concentrate on the action.
You will see that no matter how many moves they make,
they will never get.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
In your line of vision.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Now, boys, you just go ahead and make your moves
like we're taking a shot, to show the people that
they're going to be able to see everything.
Speaker 4 (01:37):
Almost at the exact same time, two of the three
camera operators start pushing in towards Desi and the car table.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
You know, I'm sitting here smoking a cigarette talking to you.
We might be playing cards or something. They boys will
move in, but you just watch and see that at
no time your line of vision will be interrupted.
Speaker 4 (01:55):
The thing, and just like that, Dessie is completely blocked
by the massive TV cameras. You can barely make out
a slivery of his face. Then he laughs and gets
up and walks towards the audience, who is now completely
at ease and ready to laugh some more.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
How you see what I mean?
Speaker 3 (02:19):
Now, we just get it.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
We're sorry, right, and nothing that bad happens during the show.
Speaker 4 (02:24):
Warming up a live audience before a TV show is
filmed is a common practice, and even today. Ultimately it's
a stand up comedian doing a routine before and in
between the takes of the filming of a show. Dessi
was one of the first to do it. It's a
tiny thing when you think about the landscape of entertainment,
(02:47):
but the reason Dessie did it is huge to me.
When I Love Lucy was said to film their first
episode at their brand new studio, a government official delayed
the entrance of the audience because the nearest women's restroom
was too far. It was a zoning issue that was
finally solved when Lucy opened up her private restroom in
(03:08):
her dressing room for all the ladies in the audience
to use. But the whole red tape ordeal kept the
audience waiting for about an extra hour. Dessi was asked
to explain the situation to the audience once they sat down,
but instead, Dessi decided to take this moment to entertain
them and give a little lesson about the new medium
(03:29):
of television.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
We like you to meet some of the folks that
work with us every week.
Speaker 4 (03:37):
And first of all, this reminds me of something from
Dessi's childhood. It's a moment he himself has noted in
his memoir about his dad's struggles to start a new
business in America.
Speaker 5 (03:48):
I'm going to let our DESSI tell it.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
Well.
Speaker 6 (03:52):
You know, my father, he was the youngest mayor of
Santiago de Coula, and also he was a congressman. We
had land and mansion servants, you know, the whole dream. Oh,
it was paradise until.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
Then, it wasn't you see.
Speaker 6 (04:09):
Then the revolution came and with that the end of
the Arnest family golden era. My father was then imprisoned
and our property was seized. But hey, in Latin America,
you know, that's the.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Way it goes.
Speaker 6 (04:21):
Sometimes one day you might be in a palace and
next you're praying your neighbor doesn't rite you out for
your last loaf of bread, you know. And then we
came to America. In Miami, construction was booming and everybody
wanted to build something, houses, patios, sidewalks.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
You know.
Speaker 6 (04:45):
My father noticed that construction sites, they would throw out
these chip tiles and just leaving them out there in piles.
They were useless for the builders. But my father, he
saw potential. He cleaned them up, made them nice and
sold them as mosaics. And not just sold them, oh,
he sold them.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
You know.
Speaker 6 (05:05):
He pitched them to homeowners and business owners like they
were the latest trend in the design. He told people,
why have a boring floor when you can have a
piece of art. Each one is unique. He made it
sound so good people actually bought them. It was an
important lesson I learned from my father. When life breaks you,
(05:26):
you don't stay broken. You take those pieces and make
something new. You have to hustle, you create, you keep going.
You know there's always a way forward, and nothing is
a wasted experience.
Speaker 4 (05:39):
It's not lost on me that the guy who came
of age during a revolution was about to start one
in the entertainment world, even if he and the audience
at this tape in of I Love Lucy you don't
know it yet.
Speaker 5 (05:53):
And this is television, and now you have.
Speaker 4 (05:55):
To understand how revolutionary television itself was as a medium.
The first public television broadcast aired in the spring of
nineteen thirty nine, just about a decade before. These people
were welcomed by Dessi to the set of Islove Lucy and.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
First of all, I like you to meet young lady.
She plays our line lady in the show. She plays
ethel Mertz, Miss Vivian Vans.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
The leaders and gener.
Speaker 4 (06:23):
But the first decade of TV was mostly focused on
live television broadcasts, mainly talk shows and news programming.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
And the fellow that plays our landlord.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
He plays Fred.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Murtz, is married to Vivian in the show That is
a wonderful fella that I know you've seen many many
times on the screen.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
Is one of the greatest.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Character actors and comedians of our time. Mister William Frawley,
Bill Prawley again, Fred Murty, come out here, hell take
it down.
Speaker 4 (06:53):
In the fall of nineteen forty five, when World War
Two was ending, the movie industry was struggling. In most
people got their scripted entertainment from audio dramas on the radio.
I'm talking about full scripted shows with famous actors voice
in fully formed characters. It was basically like a lot
of scripted podcasts today, but scripted TV it wasn't really
(07:15):
a thing, so most people didn't really understand how TV
shows got made. They couldn't have possibly known that they
were witnessing the birth of a modern Hollywood.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
And now the other girl in the show, my favorite Redhead,
my favorite wife, the vice president of Desilu Productions Incorporated.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
I am the president.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
The mother of my children, Ladies and gentlemen, she plays
Lucy Lucille Ball.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
You do get a sense from this clip of the
making of I Love Lucy that the audience knows they
are a part of something special. Lucy alone is a magical,
once in a lifetime talent. They can see that. Anyone
can see that. But I'm certain that members of this
live taping audience have absolutely no idea they are also
(08:29):
in the presence of the Latin immigrant who is also
a once in a lifetime talent. This your nance is
about to become the first showrunner in Hollywood, the first
Latino leading man on TV, the first husband in an
interracial marriage on TV, the first major in d TV
studio president, the first to put a pregnancy on TV,
(08:53):
the first to create TV syndication, the first to film
a TV show in Hollywood. First, he had to invent
television as we know it.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
See what's opens tonight in our living room? We just
the hot dinner are We're playing bridge with the Mercies
And actually.
Speaker 4 (09:15):
I'm Wilmer Balderama and you're listening to starring Dessier and
Nas and Wilmer about the rama. When I Love Lucy
(09:49):
was greenld by CBS, he came with the understanding that
they would shoot the show live in New York. Back then,
a lot of films were being shot in Los Angeles,
but all TV shows were done in the Big Apple.
Speaker 6 (10:02):
Lucy and I looked at each other and said, huh,
no way, we are moving to New York.
Speaker 4 (10:08):
Dessy and Lucy had just built a new addition for
the baby to Dessi Lureanch, their dream home in Los Angeles.
It was a sprawling space that housed not just them,
but their extended family, Lucy's mom, Dessi's mother, even a
few of their closest friends. Dessi spent the better part
of a decade living out of suitcases on band tours,
(10:29):
and Lucy was exhausted from her relentless Hollywood grind.
Speaker 6 (10:35):
We were starting a family and Lucy was pregnant. I
told CBS, Hey, we're not moving. If you want this show,
we're making it here in Los Angeles.
Speaker 7 (10:47):
TV shows at the time were all broadcast live, with
kinescope recordings made for stations and other time zones. Basically,
a low quality camera pointed out a TV monitor broadcasting
the live feed in the studio.
Speaker 4 (11:00):
That was Leo Klem, executive producer of a podcast. He
led the team as we researched all the different things
that were left behind that somehow created a deeper understanding
of who Desi er Ands was.
Speaker 5 (11:11):
Here are some more findings.
Speaker 7 (11:13):
Thanks Wilmer. So. This process resulted in grainy, low quality footage,
but the networks and sponsors didn't care because the massive
East Coast audience got to see the good live feed.
The BAT recordings would go to the Middle America and
the West Coast for CBS.
Speaker 4 (11:28):
Filming the show in LA and sending it back to
New York for broadcast seemed impossible because it would piss
off the sponsors. They fled out, said.
Speaker 6 (11:35):
No, I told them, hey, what if we filmed the
show instead?
Speaker 4 (11:41):
The idea of filming a TV show like a movie
and then distributing the rios nationwide was practically unheard of.
We talked about how Dessi's experience learning of the foot
of the creators of Ricardi Ram may have helped him
invent syndication, But what we didn't talk about was why
no one tried it before.
Speaker 7 (12:01):
When you shoot a movie, you basically rehearse where the
actors will stand and where the cameras will be and
then light it for a scene, sometimes just for one
shot of a scene. When the scene is done or
the shot is complete, the crew has to reset the
lighting for the next scene or the next shot. But
the show Dessy and Lucy sold was a stage play. Essentially,
every scene would need its own set, its own staging,
(12:23):
its own lighting, its own sound, etc.
Speaker 4 (12:26):
In other words, the idea of filming a TV show
would require multiple cameras, lights, sound stages, and a director
of photography who could make it all work seamlessly. And
most importantly, it will cost more.
Speaker 6 (12:40):
Well, we were told we would have to take what
was essentially a pay cut of forty four grand in
order to cover the cost of filming. I really think
CBS thought we would eventually come to our senses, you know,
and agreed to shoot live in New York. So Lucy
and I agreed to reduce our salaries, but in return
we wanted ownership of the show. If our salary was
(13:03):
paying for the film, we might as well own it.
Speaker 4 (13:06):
And that's the moment Desilu Productions was created. Dessi would
later write in his memoir that taking a pay cut
and turning that into ownership and creative control, basically creating
our whole production company. It's a classic, the Saudi Arnest
Senior move.
Speaker 6 (13:26):
It was like when my father and I first came
to America and saw the shipment of broken tiles as
a new modern design style. I learned how to make
the best of any situation. CBS agreed to let us
on the episodes because I don't think they thought about
how valuable the old episode of I Love Lucy would be.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
No one did.
Speaker 6 (13:45):
That concept didn't exist until we invented it.
Speaker 4 (13:50):
And then everything changed. By offering to reduce their salaries
in exchange for owning the show, Dessy and Lucy inevertently
created a blueprint for the modern television industry. Ownership of
the show meant residuals, syndication rights, and creative control.
Speaker 7 (14:10):
Does He completely changed the industry. He proved that creative
talent could control their own work and build long term
well from it. In a way, every streaming deal and
residual check today traces back to Isle of Lucy. Back
in the nineteen fifties, most TV shows were owned by
the networks, so what Doessey and Lucy did was unheard of.
By taking a pay cut in exchange for ownership. They
(14:32):
were creating the foundation of modern TV syndication.
Speaker 4 (14:37):
This he was setting the foundation, but he still hadn't
figured out the created puzzle of making a half hour
TV show that could be shot every week live in
front of a studio audience on film cameras. Enter Carl Freud,
a German born cinematographer who had worked on iconic cinema
classics like Dracula, where he's moving camera created a sense
(14:59):
of on ease and drew the audience into an eerie,
gloomy and gothic atmosphere.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
My blood now flows through her veins.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
She will live through the centuries to come as I
have lived.
Speaker 4 (15:20):
Fraud was a pioneer of visual storytelling. He was known
at the time for unchaining the camera, meaning taking it
off a tripod and mounting it on a Dolly crane,
even a chain around his chest.
Speaker 5 (15:33):
He also created one of the first.
Speaker 4 (15:35):
Known light meters as he knew he needed someone with
that level of innovation to make film in a multi
cameras that can work.
Speaker 6 (15:45):
I knew what I wanted, I said, Carl, Hey, I
need three cameras, okay, one for the white shots, one
for the medium shots, and one for the close ups,
but they can't get in anyone's way.
Speaker 5 (15:55):
Well, Freud came with a solution.
Speaker 4 (15:57):
He adapted film techniques for live televison, designing a lighting
setup that kept all three cameras operational, whether disrupting the
show's flow or the audience's view.
Speaker 5 (16:08):
It was a technical.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Marvel cambray white shot on Lucy gammerab zooman on Ricky
camera see hold for the reaction shot on Ethel.
Speaker 5 (16:17):
The next challenge finding a place to shoot.
Speaker 7 (16:21):
At the time, Hollywood really only had two kinds of spaces,
movie studios for films and live theaters for live shows
like Ed Sullivan. But I Love Lucy needed something in between.
Dessie and Lucy wanted the look and feel of a
live performance, but they also wanted the quality of film.
Speaker 4 (16:38):
Lucy and Dessi sold the premise of I Love Lucy
to CBS, based on their vaudeville style shows made for
a live audience. They sold the show to the sponsor,
Philip Morris, based on a rough pilot shot in a
movie studio with no audience. Now they needed something that
could do both. Since he didn't exist, Dessey decided they
would create it Dessie and Lucy leased a sound stitch
(17:03):
in Hollywood and transformed it into a state.
Speaker 5 (17:05):
Of the art television studio.
Speaker 4 (17:07):
They built sets for the Ricardo living Room, the Kitchen bedroom,
and the Tropicana nightclub, and they did it vertically so
each set was directly in front of the same set
of bleachers for the audience to view them. They also
had to do other stuff never done by Hollywood, like
soundproof in the building, create emergency exits, and add a
(17:30):
sprinkler system, all leading up to the big day when
they had to let the first ever sitcom audience in
for the first live taping of I Love Lucy.
Speaker 6 (17:42):
The first night we had an audience, I told Lucy, hey,
if they laugh, we got a show.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
If not, we'll be in big trouble.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
Nik Ikey, Well, hello, honeys, about time you get home.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
Come in there.
Speaker 8 (18:02):
Are you mad at me?
Speaker 6 (18:03):
Honey?
Speaker 2 (18:04):
Of course not, Honey. Are you sure positive?
Speaker 6 (18:09):
Come in, honey?
Speaker 4 (18:14):
I Love Lucy was almost an immediate and unstoppable hit,
and he would leave Dessy and Lucy to massive career highs,
but it would also lead to the end of their
marriage and in many ways, to Desie's self destructive behavior
and eventual exit from the town. He helped create that
(18:39):
after the break thanks to his wife's incredible talents and
(19:10):
his business skills. The nineteen fifties saw Desi er Naz
be at the height of his power. I Love Lucy
revolutionized television, creating a blueprint for how shows were made, owned,
and distributed. Pretty soon, stars were flocking to Desilue Productions
asking to get the I Love Lucy treatment for their
sitcoms and dramas and films. Desilue produced some of the
(19:33):
most important TV shows of the era, including The Untouchables,
The Twilight Zone, and The Danny Thomas Show. The success
came with some drawbacks too.
Speaker 6 (19:45):
Lucy and I we were living in a goldfish bowl.
Everyone was watching our every move.
Speaker 4 (19:51):
Even Lucy's real life pregnancy with their second child, Dessi Junior,
was wadden into the show, a groundbreaking moment at the time.
Lucy and Desi planned the season so that the episode
depicting the birth of little Ricky air on the same
day their actual son, Dessi Junior, was born January nineteenth
(20:12):
of nineteen fifty three. I Love Lucy drew an audience
of over forty four million viewers that night, making it
one of the most watched events in TV history.
Speaker 5 (20:24):
Gee just think ethel, I'm going to be a mother.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
And I'm gonna be a I Am going to be something,
aren't I.
Speaker 4 (20:41):
By that point, I Love Lucy wasn't just a hit,
it was the show. It topped the Nielsen Radians for
four out of the six seasons. The show won multiple Emmys,
and it was the first scrypted TV show film in
front of a live audience, the first to be syndicated,
and the first to prove that a sitcom could be
both critically acclaimed and a commercial juggernaut. Lucy and Dessi
(21:07):
were on magazine covers and newspapers and in millions of
living rooms across the country every single week. But behind
the scenes, the pressures were mounting.
Speaker 6 (21:19):
The tabloids, the public appearances, the pressure running a studio.
It all started to add up.
Speaker 4 (21:27):
After the sixth season, Dessi wanted to focus on running
Desilu Productions, which had grown into one of the largest
independent studios in Hollywood, producing not just I Love Lucy,
but hit shows like our Miss Brooks.
Speaker 6 (21:42):
So I went to CBS and I told them, look,
I just couldn't do it anymore playing Ricky full time
and running Desilu you know, which, by the way, had
grown into a behemoth at the time. They didn't want
to do it at first, but they eventually agreed and
things got a little easier for me.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
Much.
Speaker 4 (22:01):
The show transitioned into a new format as The Lucy
Desi Comedy Hour, which aired thirteen hour specials from nineteen
fifty seven to nineteen sixty. They gave Dessi the freedom
to act and run the show while still growing in
the studio he and his wife built.
Speaker 8 (22:18):
The irony was that we created the show so we
could spend more time together, but the time we spent
together was now driving us crazy.
Speaker 4 (22:28):
On May fourth, nineteen sixty, Lucy filed for divorce.
Speaker 5 (22:33):
This time it stuck.
Speaker 4 (22:36):
The marriage that had burned so much creativity, so much innovation,
had finally run its course.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
You kicked me out of our bedroom.
Speaker 8 (22:46):
Gee, you must have hated that, being sent crying into
the arms of all those other women.
Speaker 6 (22:54):
I had to get my name's mata somewhere and don't
act all ladocent.
Speaker 3 (22:58):
You had your the line and says that too, who.
Speaker 8 (23:02):
Me, I'm just a shy little flower with no deliances.
Speaker 4 (23:08):
Ever, that's obviously a dramatized version based on how Dessie
described it in his memoir. In real life, Dessie and
Lucy were publicly diplomatic and even affectionate about each other
in later interviews, but they never aired the marital disputes
(23:28):
in that kind of direggt biting banter. But they did
write memoirs where their marriage and partnership was discussed. Here's
another dramatized scene based on how Dessi says he went
down in his book.
Speaker 8 (23:45):
Did you mean what you said earlier?
Speaker 6 (23:47):
Yes, I want a divorce. Look, honey, you can't tell
me you're happy living like this.
Speaker 8 (23:53):
I do it for the kids, you selfish jerk.
Speaker 6 (23:56):
I don't want to hurt the kids, but I can't.
Speaker 3 (23:59):
Go on like this.
Speaker 8 (24:00):
You got some nerve acting like the victim. You don't
get to embarrass me all over town with every stupid
fluozy that falls for your Cuban machio Latin lover act.
Speaker 3 (24:10):
You felt for it.
Speaker 6 (24:12):
What does that make you?
Speaker 8 (24:14):
Listen here, Ricky Ricardo, you're going to regret the day
you swam over here from Havana.
Speaker 4 (24:23):
It actually got way messier than that. If you take
Bessie's word for it. He pains the whole scene in
dramatic tones, almost like the climax of us experience tragedy.
The big fight even happens the night before they film
their final scenes as Ricky and Lucy Ricardo.
Speaker 5 (24:42):
Bessie was directing the episode.
Speaker 6 (24:45):
We kissed with the passion and tears of over two
decades of marriage.
Speaker 3 (24:50):
I mean all the fights, the sex, the love, all
there in now one final moment.
Speaker 6 (24:57):
And when the kiss was over, Lucy says.
Speaker 8 (25:01):
You forgot to say cut.
Speaker 6 (25:03):
I know cut.
Speaker 4 (25:10):
But Lucy's memoir has a more reserved version of what happened.
Speaker 8 (25:14):
My divorce from Desi came with a mix of love, regret,
and acceptance. I will always love Dessie, but his alcoholism
and constant cheating led to so many arguments. We fought
more than we made love. His behavior became unbearable. It
(25:37):
broke our marriage.
Speaker 4 (25:40):
But even though their personal lives fell apart, she acknowledges
his strengths and their legacy as a professional powerhouse.
Speaker 8 (25:49):
Desi remains the smartest, most charming man I ever knew,
and he had a huge impact on my success. We
did that for each other and he really did love
our kids, which are the best thing we did together.
Speaker 4 (26:04):
I Love Lucy ran for six seasons, premiering on October
fifteenth of nineteen fifty one and concluding its original run
on May sixth of nineteen fifty seven. It was the
top TV show in the country for most of its run,
making the ownership deal Desi Stroke one of the most
lucrative ever at the time.
Speaker 6 (26:26):
So a few years later we sold back that I
Love Lucy show to CBS and the price was four
million dollars. Not bad for a Cuban immigrant that came
to the US with nothing.
Speaker 4 (26:38):
The four million the Desi Erness and Lucy Oball received
for selling the rights of IS Love Lucy back to
CBS in nineteen sixty will be worth approximately thirty four
million in today's dollars. When you add that to the
money they made from the ad revenue, syndication, merchandising, their
salaries as actors and executive producers, and the Cowans all
(27:01):
the deals related to the show, Dessi and Lucy made
hundreds of millions of dollars in their lifetime just from
I Love Lucy.
Speaker 6 (27:12):
You know, if you take the success of I Love
Lucy and divide it into parts. You can give ten
percent to me and the entire rest of the cast
and crew, Viv, Fred and I. We are all just props.
The other ninety percent, well, that was all Lucy.
Speaker 4 (27:30):
Dessie moved out of the spylight after their divorce. He
saw his shares to Dessie Little productions to Lucy, making
her the first woman to head a major Hollywood studio.
He retreated to acquire her life contend to let his
work speak for itself. His memoir A Book was published
in nineteen seventy six, and Dessie said he wrote it
(27:50):
for his father.
Speaker 6 (27:52):
I didn't write it to set the record straight, or
to make anyone look bad, you know.
Speaker 3 (27:56):
Or to dig up both wounds. No, no, I wrote
it because us.
Speaker 6 (28:00):
Writing it was like sitting down and having one last
conversation with him, telling him everything that happened after we
lost it all in Santiago. It wasn't about the fame
or the money. It was about family, you know, always
about family. To keep my family together, to make sure
my mom always had a place to live, to prove
(28:21):
the arnest family could endure. I wound up proving you
could lose everything and still rebuild it. Only in America
is something like that possible.
Speaker 4 (28:30):
You know, when I think about Desier and Nas, I
don't just see the guy who invented the three camera sitcom,
who proved that a Cuban immigrant could make it in
a world that didn't see his value. I see a
man who did it all for his family.
Speaker 6 (28:49):
I never forgot what my father taught me. You know,
when life breaks you, you take those pieces and build
something new.
Speaker 4 (28:57):
When I started this project, I thought I was lucky,
obsessed with Desi because he was a brown guy with
an accent that made it in Hollywood.
Speaker 6 (29:06):
Oh and one more thing, I love Lucy was never
just the title.
Speaker 4 (29:12):
But now I realized that it's because Desi built the
Hollywood we know today just to save his family. And
if he hadn't done that, I wouldn't have been able
to save mine. Planning the role of fest changed my life.
But it also came when the Valderramas needed it the most.
I got to give my parents the American dream. And
(29:33):
now I have my own wife and daughter and son
and a whole family that I love and fight for.
And that's ninety percent thanks to Desi. And there are
countless of others who have deasi to think.
Speaker 5 (29:47):
Since releasing the.
Speaker 4 (29:48):
First episodes of this podcast, I've had friends and colleagues
tell me how DESSI has inspired them, including one of
my dearest friends, Jamie Presley.
Speaker 9 (30:01):
I've been a fan of the show of I Love
Lucy since I was a little girl, and DESI what
a talent, you know, and he came over here, didn't
speak English and was in everything that he did a showman.
He and the DP of The Lucy Show created the
multi camera sitcom format, which is my favorite to perform in.
(30:23):
Once they did it, it started to take off and
everybody started doing it. It's the cheapest way to make television.
You make the most in your return when it goes
into syndication, brilliant and being able to actually see your
families because it's the closest thing to a nine to
five you can get. I think it's definitely safe to
say that had they not had such a prolific show
(30:44):
and created such a prolific way to shoot a show,
I don't know that I would be in the business.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
No.
Speaker 9 (30:52):
But even more important, my oldest son, Desi. He's half Cuban,
his dad's Cuban. I named him after your dadsy aren't
as because again brilliant man and created my favorite medium
to work in.
Speaker 4 (31:11):
Does It turned rejection into innovation. He invented syndication, the
multicam sitcom, the idea of owning your own show. But
most of all, he showed us that even in a
country that they didn't always see your worth, you could
still build something timeless. And that's what makes America a
truly special place for all of us dreamers.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
My first job in this country was planning bird cages.
It's very true. We came to this country and we
didn't have a scent in our pockets. From Plinny Canary
cages to this night here in New York, it's a
long ways, and I don't think there's any other country
in the world that would give you that opportunity. I
(31:56):
want to say thank you, Thank you, America, thank you.
Speaker 4 (32:15):
I started this show by telling you about how that
moment this is thank you America speech. It still gives
me chills every time I hear it. Well, a few
months ago, I had my own thank You American moment
as I stood on stage in front of hundreds of
service members, their families, and the people who support them.
Speaker 10 (32:35):
So I'm up here talk about the USO Amerit Award.
The USO Amerit Award is the highest honor that we
bestow on those who support the USO mission. Its past
recipients include Bob Hope and Ann Margaret, two celebrities that
defined the USO in their time. They did not receive
(32:58):
the award because they're soelebrities, but because of their selfless
commitment to the USO and the men and women we serve.
Tonight is a time to honor a man who defines
the USO in our time. It is my pleasure to
bestow this highest honor to our current USO Global Ambassador,
(33:21):
mister Wilmer Valderramo.
Speaker 5 (33:29):
Thank you, thank you so much.
Speaker 4 (33:33):
As I received as a word, I reflect on the
word marriage, not just achievement, but being deemed worthy of
the responsibility to serve something greater than myself.
Speaker 5 (33:45):
In a way, we're all ambassadors, whether we wear the
title or not.
Speaker 4 (33:51):
We all have a chance to bridge the distance between
military life and civilian understanding, to amplify appreciation in our
communities for the incredible people who were the uniform and
the families who serve alongside them. I'm just one of
the many who have had the chance to give back,
(34:13):
and truly my heart has gained so much more. Thank you, God,
bless you, and may God protect the men and women
of the United States Military until the last one comes home.
(34:40):
Getting that a word and giving that speech, I think
I finally understood what Dessie really meant because I came
to this country as a kid with a dream, and
now somehow I get to carry the torch and pass
it to the next generation like Dessie did for me
and so many the others.
Speaker 5 (35:01):
That's the American.
Speaker 4 (35:02):
Dream, and it's not just something you live, it's something
you pay forward. So thank you, Bessie, thank you America,
and thank you for listening.
Speaker 5 (35:35):
Starring Desi r.
Speaker 4 (35:36):
Nass and Wilmer Valdorama is produced by WV Sound in
partnership with Iheartmichael Duda Podcast Network, starring Desi r. Nast
and Wilmer val Durama is written by Eric Galindo and
narrated by me Wilmer Valdorama. It is produced by Sophie
Spencer Savos and Leo Klem, with special help from Anhealing
(35:56):
Lopez Galindo. Our executive producers are myself feneric Ga Lindo.
This episode was edited and engineered by Sean Tracy and
features original music by Halo Boy and Madison Devenport. Our
cover illustration is by Lindsey Mount. For more podcasts from iHeart,
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
(36:17):
to your favorite podcasts
M let's just tell let's just tell me now that
we're already to you the coach show, fellow, A great show,
the great show. He's going to bring it up up
the real television match. Ladies and gentlemen, and Jeff mister.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Thank you right, what do you?
Speaker 1 (00:34):
What are you?
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Thank you very much, thank you very much.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
We welcome you.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
He wanted to look like that's you look play house
as you know this, you know this is film, and
that's why you see why you see old cameras, down,
cameras down the lights, the lights, all the people and
thes just like making a move, making a movie.
Speaker 4 (00:50):
Now, Yes, to show you, guys, our nets at the
camera I studio audience at a filming of I Love Lucy.
He's already in costume, wearing Ricky Ricardo's iconic bathrobe as
he's explaining how TV works to a mesmerized crowd, and
he starts by walking over to the car table in
the middle of the stage.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Now, just to show you that the cameras will never
get in your line of vision. We make believe that
we're taking a scene right now. And I'll sit here
in this chair, and if you concentrate on the action.
You will see that no matter how many moves they make,
they will never get.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
In your line of vision.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Now, boys, you just go ahead and make your moves
like we're taking a shot, to show the people that
they're going to be able to see everything.
Speaker 4 (01:37):
Almost at the exact same time, two of the three
camera operators start pushing in towards Desi and the car table.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
You know, I'm sitting here smoking a cigarette talking to you.
We might be playing cards or something. They boys will
move in, but you just watch and see that at
no time your line of vision will be interrupted.
Speaker 4 (01:55):
The thing, and just like that, Dessie is completely blocked
by the massive TV cameras. You can barely make out
a slivery of his face. Then he laughs and gets
up and walks towards the audience, who is now completely
at ease and ready to laugh some more.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
How you see what I mean?
Speaker 3 (02:19):
Now, we just get it.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
We're sorry, right, and nothing that bad happens during the show.
Speaker 4 (02:24):
Warming up a live audience before a TV show is
filmed is a common practice, and even today. Ultimately it's
a stand up comedian doing a routine before and in
between the takes of the filming of a show. Dessi
was one of the first to do it. It's a
tiny thing when you think about the landscape of entertainment,
(02:47):
but the reason Dessie did it is huge to me.
When I Love Lucy was said to film their first
episode at their brand new studio, a government official delayed
the entrance of the audience because the nearest women's restroom
was too far. It was a zoning issue that was
finally solved when Lucy opened up her private restroom in
(03:08):
her dressing room for all the ladies in the audience
to use. But the whole red tape ordeal kept the
audience waiting for about an extra hour. Dessi was asked
to explain the situation to the audience once they sat down,
but instead, Dessi decided to take this moment to entertain
them and give a little lesson about the new medium
(03:29):
of television.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
We like you to meet some of the folks that
work with us every week.
Speaker 4 (03:37):
And first of all, this reminds me of something from
Dessi's childhood. It's a moment he himself has noted in
his memoir about his dad's struggles to start a new
business in America.
Speaker 5 (03:48):
I'm going to let our DESSI tell it.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
Well.
Speaker 6 (03:52):
You know, my father, he was the youngest mayor of
Santiago de Coula, and also he was a congressman. We
had land and mansion servants, you know, the whole dream. Oh,
it was paradise until.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
Then, it wasn't you see.
Speaker 6 (04:09):
Then the revolution came and with that the end of
the Arnest family golden era. My father was then imprisoned
and our property was seized. But hey, in Latin America,
you know, that's the.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Way it goes.
Speaker 6 (04:21):
Sometimes one day you might be in a palace and
next you're praying your neighbor doesn't rite you out for
your last loaf of bread, you know. And then we
came to America. In Miami, construction was booming and everybody
wanted to build something, houses, patios, sidewalks.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
You know.
Speaker 6 (04:45):
My father noticed that construction sites, they would throw out
these chip tiles and just leaving them out there in piles.
They were useless for the builders. But my father, he
saw potential. He cleaned them up, made them nice and
sold them as mosaics. And not just sold them, oh,
he sold them.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
You know.
Speaker 6 (05:05):
He pitched them to homeowners and business owners like they
were the latest trend in the design. He told people,
why have a boring floor when you can have a
piece of art. Each one is unique. He made it
sound so good people actually bought them. It was an
important lesson I learned from my father. When life breaks you,
(05:26):
you don't stay broken. You take those pieces and make
something new. You have to hustle, you create, you keep going.
You know there's always a way forward, and nothing is
a wasted experience.
Speaker 4 (05:39):
It's not lost on me that the guy who came
of age during a revolution was about to start one
in the entertainment world, even if he and the audience
at this tape in of I Love Lucy you don't
know it yet.
Speaker 5 (05:53):
And this is television, and now you have.
Speaker 4 (05:55):
To understand how revolutionary television itself was as a medium.
The first public television broadcast aired in the spring of
nineteen thirty nine, just about a decade before. These people
were welcomed by Dessi to the set of Islove Lucy and.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
First of all, I like you to meet young lady.
She plays our line lady in the show. She plays
ethel Mertz, Miss Vivian Vans.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
The leaders and gener.
Speaker 4 (06:23):
But the first decade of TV was mostly focused on
live television broadcasts, mainly talk shows and news programming.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
And the fellow that plays our landlord.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
He plays Fred.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Murtz, is married to Vivian in the show That is
a wonderful fella that I know you've seen many many
times on the screen.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
Is one of the greatest.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Character actors and comedians of our time. Mister William Frawley,
Bill Prawley again, Fred Murty, come out here, hell take
it down.
Speaker 4 (06:53):
In the fall of nineteen forty five, when World War
Two was ending, the movie industry was struggling. In most
people got their scripted entertainment from audio dramas on the radio.
I'm talking about full scripted shows with famous actors voice
in fully formed characters. It was basically like a lot
of scripted podcasts today, but scripted TV it wasn't really
(07:15):
a thing, so most people didn't really understand how TV
shows got made. They couldn't have possibly known that they
were witnessing the birth of a modern Hollywood.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
And now the other girl in the show, my favorite Redhead,
my favorite wife, the vice president of Desilu Productions Incorporated.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
I am the president.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
The mother of my children, Ladies and gentlemen, she plays
Lucy Lucille Ball.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
You do get a sense from this clip of the
making of I Love Lucy that the audience knows they
are a part of something special. Lucy alone is a magical,
once in a lifetime talent. They can see that. Anyone
can see that. But I'm certain that members of this
live taping audience have absolutely no idea they are also
(08:29):
in the presence of the Latin immigrant who is also
a once in a lifetime talent. This your nance is
about to become the first showrunner in Hollywood, the first
Latino leading man on TV, the first husband in an
interracial marriage on TV, the first major in d TV
studio president, the first to put a pregnancy on TV,
(08:53):
the first to create TV syndication, the first to film
a TV show in Hollywood. First, he had to invent
television as we know it.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
See what's opens tonight in our living room? We just
the hot dinner are We're playing bridge with the Mercies
And actually.
Speaker 4 (09:15):
I'm Wilmer Balderama and you're listening to starring Dessier and
Nas and Wilmer about the rama. When I Love Lucy
(09:49):
was greenld by CBS, he came with the understanding that
they would shoot the show live in New York. Back then,
a lot of films were being shot in Los Angeles,
but all TV shows were done in the Big Apple.
Speaker 6 (10:02):
Lucy and I looked at each other and said, huh,
no way, we are moving to New York.
Speaker 4 (10:08):
Dessy and Lucy had just built a new addition for
the baby to Dessi Lureanch, their dream home in Los Angeles.
It was a sprawling space that housed not just them,
but their extended family, Lucy's mom, Dessi's mother, even a
few of their closest friends. Dessi spent the better part
of a decade living out of suitcases on band tours,
(10:29):
and Lucy was exhausted from her relentless Hollywood grind.
Speaker 6 (10:35):
We were starting a family and Lucy was pregnant. I
told CBS, Hey, we're not moving. If you want this show,
we're making it here in Los Angeles.
Speaker 7 (10:47):
TV shows at the time were all broadcast live, with
kinescope recordings made for stations and other time zones. Basically,
a low quality camera pointed out a TV monitor broadcasting
the live feed in the studio.
Speaker 4 (11:00):
That was Leo Klem, executive producer of a podcast. He
led the team as we researched all the different things
that were left behind that somehow created a deeper understanding
of who Desi er Ands was.
Speaker 5 (11:11):
Here are some more findings.
Speaker 7 (11:13):
Thanks Wilmer. So. This process resulted in grainy, low quality footage,
but the networks and sponsors didn't care because the massive
East Coast audience got to see the good live feed.
The BAT recordings would go to the Middle America and
the West Coast for CBS.
Speaker 4 (11:28):
Filming the show in LA and sending it back to
New York for broadcast seemed impossible because it would piss
off the sponsors. They fled out, said.
Speaker 6 (11:35):
No, I told them, hey, what if we filmed the
show instead?
Speaker 4 (11:41):
The idea of filming a TV show like a movie
and then distributing the rios nationwide was practically unheard of.
We talked about how Dessi's experience learning of the foot
of the creators of Ricardi Ram may have helped him
invent syndication, But what we didn't talk about was why
no one tried it before.
Speaker 7 (12:01):
When you shoot a movie, you basically rehearse where the
actors will stand and where the cameras will be and
then light it for a scene, sometimes just for one
shot of a scene. When the scene is done or
the shot is complete, the crew has to reset the
lighting for the next scene or the next shot. But
the show Dessy and Lucy sold was a stage play. Essentially,
every scene would need its own set, its own staging,
(12:23):
its own lighting, its own sound, etc.
Speaker 4 (12:26):
In other words, the idea of filming a TV show
would require multiple cameras, lights, sound stages, and a director
of photography who could make it all work seamlessly. And
most importantly, it will cost more.
Speaker 6 (12:40):
Well, we were told we would have to take what
was essentially a pay cut of forty four grand in
order to cover the cost of filming. I really think
CBS thought we would eventually come to our senses, you know,
and agreed to shoot live in New York. So Lucy
and I agreed to reduce our salaries, but in return
we wanted ownership of the show. If our salary was
(13:03):
paying for the film, we might as well own it.
Speaker 4 (13:06):
And that's the moment Desilu Productions was created. Dessi would
later write in his memoir that taking a pay cut
and turning that into ownership and creative control, basically creating
our whole production company. It's a classic, the Saudi Arnest
Senior move.
Speaker 6 (13:26):
It was like when my father and I first came
to America and saw the shipment of broken tiles as
a new modern design style. I learned how to make
the best of any situation. CBS agreed to let us
on the episodes because I don't think they thought about
how valuable the old episode of I Love Lucy would be.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
No one did.
Speaker 6 (13:45):
That concept didn't exist until we invented it.
Speaker 4 (13:50):
And then everything changed. By offering to reduce their salaries
in exchange for owning the show, Dessy and Lucy inevertently
created a blueprint for the modern television industry. Ownership of
the show meant residuals, syndication rights, and creative control.
Speaker 7 (14:10):
Does He completely changed the industry. He proved that creative
talent could control their own work and build long term
well from it. In a way, every streaming deal and
residual check today traces back to Isle of Lucy. Back
in the nineteen fifties, most TV shows were owned by
the networks, so what Doessey and Lucy did was unheard of.
By taking a pay cut in exchange for ownership. They
(14:32):
were creating the foundation of modern TV syndication.
Speaker 4 (14:37):
This he was setting the foundation, but he still hadn't
figured out the created puzzle of making a half hour
TV show that could be shot every week live in
front of a studio audience on film cameras. Enter Carl Freud,
a German born cinematographer who had worked on iconic cinema
classics like Dracula, where he's moving camera created a sense
(14:59):
of on ease and drew the audience into an eerie,
gloomy and gothic atmosphere.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
My blood now flows through her veins.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
She will live through the centuries to come as I
have lived.
Speaker 4 (15:20):
Fraud was a pioneer of visual storytelling. He was known
at the time for unchaining the camera, meaning taking it
off a tripod and mounting it on a Dolly crane,
even a chain around his chest.
Speaker 5 (15:33):
He also created one of the first.
Speaker 4 (15:35):
Known light meters as he knew he needed someone with
that level of innovation to make film in a multi
cameras that can work.
Speaker 6 (15:45):
I knew what I wanted, I said, Carl, Hey, I
need three cameras, okay, one for the white shots, one
for the medium shots, and one for the close ups,
but they can't get in anyone's way.
Speaker 5 (15:55):
Well, Freud came with a solution.
Speaker 4 (15:57):
He adapted film techniques for live televison, designing a lighting
setup that kept all three cameras operational, whether disrupting the
show's flow or the audience's view.
Speaker 5 (16:08):
It was a technical.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Marvel cambray white shot on Lucy gammerab zooman on Ricky
camera see hold for the reaction shot on Ethel.
Speaker 5 (16:17):
The next challenge finding a place to shoot.
Speaker 7 (16:21):
At the time, Hollywood really only had two kinds of spaces,
movie studios for films and live theaters for live shows
like Ed Sullivan. But I Love Lucy needed something in between.
Dessie and Lucy wanted the look and feel of a
live performance, but they also wanted the quality of film.
Speaker 4 (16:38):
Lucy and Dessi sold the premise of I Love Lucy
to CBS, based on their vaudeville style shows made for
a live audience. They sold the show to the sponsor,
Philip Morris, based on a rough pilot shot in a
movie studio with no audience. Now they needed something that
could do both. Since he didn't exist, Dessey decided they
would create it Dessie and Lucy leased a sound stitch
(17:03):
in Hollywood and transformed it into a state.
Speaker 5 (17:05):
Of the art television studio.
Speaker 4 (17:07):
They built sets for the Ricardo living Room, the Kitchen bedroom,
and the Tropicana nightclub, and they did it vertically so
each set was directly in front of the same set
of bleachers for the audience to view them. They also
had to do other stuff never done by Hollywood, like
soundproof in the building, create emergency exits, and add a
(17:30):
sprinkler system, all leading up to the big day when
they had to let the first ever sitcom audience in
for the first live taping of I Love Lucy.
Speaker 6 (17:42):
The first night we had an audience, I told Lucy, hey,
if they laugh, we got a show.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
If not, we'll be in big trouble.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
Nik Ikey, Well, hello, honeys, about time you get home.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
Come in there.
Speaker 8 (18:02):
Are you mad at me?
Speaker 6 (18:03):
Honey?
Speaker 2 (18:04):
Of course not, Honey. Are you sure positive?
Speaker 6 (18:09):
Come in, honey?
Speaker 4 (18:14):
I Love Lucy was almost an immediate and unstoppable hit,
and he would leave Dessy and Lucy to massive career highs,
but it would also lead to the end of their
marriage and in many ways, to Desie's self destructive behavior
and eventual exit from the town. He helped create that
(18:39):
after the break thanks to his wife's incredible talents and
(19:10):
his business skills. The nineteen fifties saw Desi er Naz
be at the height of his power. I Love Lucy
revolutionized television, creating a blueprint for how shows were made, owned,
and distributed. Pretty soon, stars were flocking to Desilue Productions
asking to get the I Love Lucy treatment for their
sitcoms and dramas and films. Desilue produced some of the
(19:33):
most important TV shows of the era, including The Untouchables,
The Twilight Zone, and The Danny Thomas Show. The success
came with some drawbacks too.
Speaker 6 (19:45):
Lucy and I we were living in a goldfish bowl.
Everyone was watching our every move.
Speaker 4 (19:51):
Even Lucy's real life pregnancy with their second child, Dessi Junior,
was wadden into the show, a groundbreaking moment at the time.
Lucy and Desi planned the season so that the episode
depicting the birth of little Ricky air on the same
day their actual son, Dessi Junior, was born January nineteenth
(20:12):
of nineteen fifty three. I Love Lucy drew an audience
of over forty four million viewers that night, making it
one of the most watched events in TV history.
Speaker 5 (20:24):
Gee just think ethel, I'm going to be a mother.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
And I'm gonna be a I Am going to be something,
aren't I.
Speaker 4 (20:41):
By that point, I Love Lucy wasn't just a hit,
it was the show. It topped the Nielsen Radians for
four out of the six seasons. The show won multiple Emmys,
and it was the first scrypted TV show film in
front of a live audience, the first to be syndicated,
and the first to prove that a sitcom could be
both critically acclaimed and a commercial juggernaut. Lucy and Dessi
(21:07):
were on magazine covers and newspapers and in millions of
living rooms across the country every single week. But behind
the scenes, the pressures were mounting.
Speaker 6 (21:19):
The tabloids, the public appearances, the pressure running a studio.
It all started to add up.
Speaker 4 (21:27):
After the sixth season, Dessi wanted to focus on running
Desilu Productions, which had grown into one of the largest
independent studios in Hollywood, producing not just I Love Lucy,
but hit shows like our Miss Brooks.
Speaker 6 (21:42):
So I went to CBS and I told them, look,
I just couldn't do it anymore playing Ricky full time
and running Desilu you know, which, by the way, had
grown into a behemoth at the time. They didn't want
to do it at first, but they eventually agreed and
things got a little easier for me.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
Much.
Speaker 4 (22:01):
The show transitioned into a new format as The Lucy
Desi Comedy Hour, which aired thirteen hour specials from nineteen
fifty seven to nineteen sixty. They gave Dessi the freedom
to act and run the show while still growing in
the studio he and his wife built.
Speaker 8 (22:18):
The irony was that we created the show so we
could spend more time together, but the time we spent
together was now driving us crazy.
Speaker 4 (22:28):
On May fourth, nineteen sixty, Lucy filed for divorce.
Speaker 5 (22:33):
This time it stuck.
Speaker 4 (22:36):
The marriage that had burned so much creativity, so much innovation,
had finally run its course.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
You kicked me out of our bedroom.
Speaker 8 (22:46):
Gee, you must have hated that, being sent crying into
the arms of all those other women.
Speaker 6 (22:54):
I had to get my name's mata somewhere and don't
act all ladocent.
Speaker 3 (22:58):
You had your the line and says that too, who.
Speaker 8 (23:02):
Me, I'm just a shy little flower with no deliances.
Speaker 4 (23:08):
Ever, that's obviously a dramatized version based on how Dessie
described it in his memoir. In real life, Dessie and
Lucy were publicly diplomatic and even affectionate about each other
in later interviews, but they never aired the marital disputes
(23:28):
in that kind of direggt biting banter. But they did
write memoirs where their marriage and partnership was discussed. Here's
another dramatized scene based on how Dessi says he went
down in his book.
Speaker 8 (23:45):
Did you mean what you said earlier?
Speaker 6 (23:47):
Yes, I want a divorce. Look, honey, you can't tell
me you're happy living like this.
Speaker 8 (23:53):
I do it for the kids, you selfish jerk.
Speaker 6 (23:56):
I don't want to hurt the kids, but I can't.
Speaker 3 (23:59):
Go on like this.
Speaker 8 (24:00):
You got some nerve acting like the victim. You don't
get to embarrass me all over town with every stupid
fluozy that falls for your Cuban machio Latin lover act.
Speaker 3 (24:10):
You felt for it.
Speaker 6 (24:12):
What does that make you?
Speaker 8 (24:14):
Listen here, Ricky Ricardo, you're going to regret the day
you swam over here from Havana.
Speaker 4 (24:23):
It actually got way messier than that. If you take
Bessie's word for it. He pains the whole scene in
dramatic tones, almost like the climax of us experience tragedy.
The big fight even happens the night before they film
their final scenes as Ricky and Lucy Ricardo.
Speaker 5 (24:42):
Bessie was directing the episode.
Speaker 6 (24:45):
We kissed with the passion and tears of over two
decades of marriage.
Speaker 3 (24:50):
I mean all the fights, the sex, the love, all
there in now one final moment.
Speaker 6 (24:57):
And when the kiss was over, Lucy says.
Speaker 8 (25:01):
You forgot to say cut.
Speaker 6 (25:03):
I know cut.
Speaker 4 (25:10):
But Lucy's memoir has a more reserved version of what happened.
Speaker 8 (25:14):
My divorce from Desi came with a mix of love, regret,
and acceptance. I will always love Dessie, but his alcoholism
and constant cheating led to so many arguments. We fought
more than we made love. His behavior became unbearable. It
(25:37):
broke our marriage.
Speaker 4 (25:40):
But even though their personal lives fell apart, she acknowledges
his strengths and their legacy as a professional powerhouse.
Speaker 8 (25:49):
Desi remains the smartest, most charming man I ever knew,
and he had a huge impact on my success. We
did that for each other and he really did love
our kids, which are the best thing we did together.
Speaker 4 (26:04):
I Love Lucy ran for six seasons, premiering on October
fifteenth of nineteen fifty one and concluding its original run
on May sixth of nineteen fifty seven. It was the
top TV show in the country for most of its run,
making the ownership deal Desi Stroke one of the most
lucrative ever at the time.
Speaker 6 (26:26):
So a few years later we sold back that I
Love Lucy show to CBS and the price was four
million dollars. Not bad for a Cuban immigrant that came
to the US with nothing.
Speaker 4 (26:38):
The four million the Desi Erness and Lucy Oball received
for selling the rights of IS Love Lucy back to
CBS in nineteen sixty will be worth approximately thirty four
million in today's dollars. When you add that to the
money they made from the ad revenue, syndication, merchandising, their
salaries as actors and executive producers, and the Cowans all
(27:01):
the deals related to the show, Dessi and Lucy made
hundreds of millions of dollars in their lifetime just from
I Love Lucy.
Speaker 6 (27:12):
You know, if you take the success of I Love
Lucy and divide it into parts. You can give ten
percent to me and the entire rest of the cast
and crew, Viv, Fred and I. We are all just props.
The other ninety percent, well, that was all Lucy.
Speaker 4 (27:30):
Dessie moved out of the spylight after their divorce. He
saw his shares to Dessie Little productions to Lucy, making
her the first woman to head a major Hollywood studio.
He retreated to acquire her life contend to let his
work speak for itself. His memoir A Book was published
in nineteen seventy six, and Dessie said he wrote it
(27:50):
for his father.
Speaker 6 (27:52):
I didn't write it to set the record straight, or
to make anyone look bad, you know.
Speaker 3 (27:56):
Or to dig up both wounds. No, no, I wrote
it because us.
Speaker 6 (28:00):
Writing it was like sitting down and having one last
conversation with him, telling him everything that happened after we
lost it all in Santiago. It wasn't about the fame
or the money. It was about family, you know, always
about family. To keep my family together, to make sure
my mom always had a place to live, to prove
(28:21):
the arnest family could endure. I wound up proving you
could lose everything and still rebuild it. Only in America
is something like that possible.
Speaker 4 (28:30):
You know, when I think about Desier and Nas, I
don't just see the guy who invented the three camera sitcom,
who proved that a Cuban immigrant could make it in
a world that didn't see his value. I see a
man who did it all for his family.
Speaker 6 (28:49):
I never forgot what my father taught me. You know,
when life breaks you, you take those pieces and build
something new.
Speaker 4 (28:57):
When I started this project, I thought I was lucky,
obsessed with Desi because he was a brown guy with
an accent that made it in Hollywood.
Speaker 6 (29:06):
Oh and one more thing, I love Lucy was never
just the title.
Speaker 4 (29:12):
But now I realized that it's because Desi built the
Hollywood we know today just to save his family. And
if he hadn't done that, I wouldn't have been able
to save mine. Planning the role of fest changed my life.
But it also came when the Valderramas needed it the most.
I got to give my parents the American dream. And
(29:33):
now I have my own wife and daughter and son
and a whole family that I love and fight for.
And that's ninety percent thanks to Desi. And there are
countless of others who have deasi to think.
Speaker 5 (29:47):
Since releasing the.
Speaker 4 (29:48):
First episodes of this podcast, I've had friends and colleagues
tell me how DESSI has inspired them, including one of
my dearest friends, Jamie Presley.
Speaker 9 (30:01):
I've been a fan of the show of I Love
Lucy since I was a little girl, and DESI what
a talent, you know, and he came over here, didn't
speak English and was in everything that he did a showman.
He and the DP of The Lucy Show created the
multi camera sitcom format, which is my favorite to perform in.
(30:23):
Once they did it, it started to take off and
everybody started doing it. It's the cheapest way to make television.
You make the most in your return when it goes
into syndication, brilliant and being able to actually see your
families because it's the closest thing to a nine to
five you can get. I think it's definitely safe to
say that had they not had such a prolific show
(30:44):
and created such a prolific way to shoot a show,
I don't know that I would be in the business.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
No.
Speaker 9 (30:52):
But even more important, my oldest son, Desi. He's half Cuban,
his dad's Cuban. I named him after your dadsy aren't
as because again brilliant man and created my favorite medium
to work in.
Speaker 4 (31:11):
Does It turned rejection into innovation. He invented syndication, the
multicam sitcom, the idea of owning your own show. But
most of all, he showed us that even in a
country that they didn't always see your worth, you could
still build something timeless. And that's what makes America a
truly special place for all of us dreamers.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
My first job in this country was planning bird cages.
It's very true. We came to this country and we
didn't have a scent in our pockets. From Plinny Canary
cages to this night here in New York, it's a
long ways, and I don't think there's any other country
in the world that would give you that opportunity. I
(31:56):
want to say thank you, Thank you, America, thank you.
Speaker 4 (32:15):
I started this show by telling you about how that
moment this is thank you America speech. It still gives
me chills every time I hear it. Well, a few
months ago, I had my own thank You American moment
as I stood on stage in front of hundreds of
service members, their families, and the people who support them.
Speaker 10 (32:35):
So I'm up here talk about the USO Amerit Award.
The USO Amerit Award is the highest honor that we
bestow on those who support the USO mission. Its past
recipients include Bob Hope and Ann Margaret, two celebrities that
defined the USO in their time. They did not receive
(32:58):
the award because they're soelebrities, but because of their selfless
commitment to the USO and the men and women we serve.
Tonight is a time to honor a man who defines
the USO in our time. It is my pleasure to
bestow this highest honor to our current USO Global Ambassador,
(33:21):
mister Wilmer Valderramo.
Speaker 5 (33:29):
Thank you, thank you so much.
Speaker 4 (33:33):
As I received as a word, I reflect on the
word marriage, not just achievement, but being deemed worthy of
the responsibility to serve something greater than myself.
Speaker 5 (33:45):
In a way, we're all ambassadors, whether we wear the
title or not.
Speaker 4 (33:51):
We all have a chance to bridge the distance between
military life and civilian understanding, to amplify appreciation in our
communities for the incredible people who were the uniform and
the families who serve alongside them. I'm just one of
the many who have had the chance to give back,
(34:13):
and truly my heart has gained so much more. Thank you, God,
bless you, and may God protect the men and women
of the United States Military until the last one comes home.
(34:40):
Getting that a word and giving that speech, I think
I finally understood what Dessie really meant because I came
to this country as a kid with a dream, and
now somehow I get to carry the torch and pass
it to the next generation like Dessie did for me
and so many the others.
Speaker 5 (35:01):
That's the American.
Speaker 4 (35:02):
Dream, and it's not just something you live, it's something
you pay forward. So thank you, Bessie, thank you America,
and thank you for listening.
Speaker 5 (35:35):
Starring Desi r.
Speaker 4 (35:36):
Nass and Wilmer Valdorama is produced by WV Sound in
partnership with Iheartmichael Duda Podcast Network, starring Desi r. Nast
and Wilmer val Durama is written by Eric Galindo and
narrated by me Wilmer Valdorama. It is produced by Sophie
Spencer Savos and Leo Klem, with special help from Anhealing
(35:56):
Lopez Galindo. Our executive producers are myself feneric Ga Lindo.
This episode was edited and engineered by Sean Tracy and
features original music by Halo Boy and Madison Devenport. Our
cover illustration is by Lindsey Mount. For more podcasts from iHeart,
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
(36:17):
to your favorite podcasts
Hosts And Creators
Wilmer Valderrama
Freddy Rodriguez
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