October 15, 2025 • 26 mins
Before Desi Arnaz reengineered television, he learned a family lesson in Cuba: if you make something great, bottle it—then share it again and again. In this episode, Wilmer Valderrama traces Desi’s roots from Santiago high society and the Bacardí legacy to the brilliant idea that turned I Love Lucy into the blueprint for syndication (and today’s streaming). From filming on 35mm to owning the negatives at Desilu, Desi transformed one-and-done TV into a business that lives forever in reruns. Along the way, Wilmer weaves in his own childhood Zorro dreams, immigrant journey, and why Desi’s vision still powers hits like NCIS.
Featuring: Wilmer Valderrama (That ’70s Show, NCIS, Encanto)
Topics: Desi Arnaz, Bacardí, Cuba, TV history, I Love Lucy, Desilu, syndication/streaming, immigrant success stories, representation in media, Hollywood business. 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 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):
The back doors bar and the yekies will say that
no one gets out the front way. It'll only be
a few minutes now before that powder goes on. Come
on with joined Zorrow back, you're back inside.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
We'll have to bring it down.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
When I was a kid, I was obsessed with the
Western series Zoro.
Speaker 4 (00:38):
You get to your Horse's quick Son.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Dig Little Beaga came from a wealthy Spanish family and
was well educated. He got his education in Spain and
had to return to California to witness the injustice and
how the natives were being treated. He rose among the
people and decided that it was time to fend not
only his community, but fight for the justice that the
(01:04):
people deserved. Ton Digolo Bega was a swordsman. He suited
up in a cape and a mask to fight crime
and took on the name of Sorrow. And that's why
I imagine myself to be. And I know that sounds
kind of crazy, because as a kid on my family
ranch back in Venezuela, I always felt like I could
be Sorrow. I even named my horse Tornado like sorrows. Clearly,
(01:35):
my life in Venezuela was one of a working class family,
right I often took it up early and worked the
farms with my father, sitting on his lap as he
drove the tractor. My father wasn't just teaching me hard work.
He was giving me a skill that might helped me
provide for my family one day. He was also teaching
me to have pride and confidence. He never wore jeans
(01:58):
and work foods, even when he labor in the field.
That always wore a suit or a polyestrous lags, nice shoes,
and expensive carera sunglasses. He wore the look of a
successful Latino businessman, and for him, this was his version
of a cape and a mask. His uniform gave him
the confidence he needed to dream big and achieve big.
(02:24):
Writing Tornado made me feel confident. Even at seven years old,
I would think a lot about my future. Who was
I in the grand story.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Of the world right? And what would my name mean?
Speaker 3 (02:37):
One afternoon, I dug my heels into Tornado, and together
we gallop across the Venezuelan farmland. And I decided one
day that I will become someone just like Zora, living
big dreams, living the same kind of integrity, doing noble things.
I had no idea of how to get from here
to there, but surely I was well on my way.
(03:07):
I think about this moment a lot, especially as I
was learning about Dessi's life.
Speaker 5 (03:16):
My father and I came to this country with nothing
but the clothes on our back and five dollars in
our pocket. I didn't speak the language. Depending on who
you ask, I still don't. It was a truly humbling experience.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
Quick note, we've hired actors to recreate this scene and
many of the scenes in this podcast based on actual
archival footage, interviews, books, and things like that.
Speaker 5 (03:44):
We struggled to live, to work, to eat a decy meal,
you know. I mean, at some point the rats in
the warehouse we rented seemed to be living better lives
than us.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
When I first picked up Desie's story, I was still
a teenager, a young immigrant in America, trying to balance
my newfound success as an actor.
Speaker 6 (04:04):
That was tough.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
Sometimes I had to learn some hard lessons in real time,
but thankfully I had that strong foundation from a strong family.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Dessi had that too.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
Yeah, like my family, the Arnest family did come to
the US with almost nothing in their pockets, but we
did come with a lot of wisdom. Like me, Dessi
had learned a lot from his elders, and those lessons
would make him successful in more ways than one.
Speaker 5 (04:30):
From cleaning canary cages for eight bucks a day to
being honored here tonight is a long waist, and I
don't think there's any country in the world that could
give you that.
Speaker 4 (04:43):
So thank you America, Thank.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
You, thank you America.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
Indeed, I'm woman about drama and you're listening to Starry
and Desi or Nancy and Wilman about the the real
life story of the Latin immigrant who basically invented the
modern Hollywood system and to understand.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
How and why.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
In this episode, we are traveling to Cuba, back when
it was still a paradise for the Arnett family, back
when Desi learned an important lesson that helped him change
the whole TV landscape forever. Okay, I said that we
(05:38):
would get to nineteen thirties Cuba, but first let me
explain why we are going to nineteen thirties Cuba, and
it involves the TV business itself.
Speaker 4 (05:48):
Maui is amazing.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
No, it's not a vacation.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
I'm texting with Agent Tenant from the Honolulu office. A
missing witness from in no case of mind might have
turned up in a WAHU.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
In she's checking it out for me.
Speaker 4 (06:00):
Jane Tennant from the conference in Orlando. You usual, that's
where we met.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Yeah, but I don't recall you being there.
Speaker 7 (06:07):
I wasn't, but I recall there being a little rumor
about YouTube rumor.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
No, no, that's the clip from my CBS show and
CIS where I play special legend Nick Tooris to be
my own screen home for almost a decade, and the
show itself, it's been on for twenty three seasons. It's
so popular that in the first four months of twenty
twenty four, seventy six billion, billion with a B minutes
of NCIS were watched. But we definitely didn't air seventy
(06:36):
six billion minutes of the show in the first three
months of twenty twenty four. So how's that possible? How
does the CBS network drama that airs for an hour
each week get numbers like that? It's called syndication or
maybe you know it better, Today has streaming. Now, please
(06:57):
bear with me as we get into some of the
more one key stuff about how TV works. But don't
worry to make it more dramatic. I'm going to play
a really suspenseful song, and I'm going to have my
producer read it, because, to be honest, He's English is better.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
Eric, let it rip, Thank you Wilmer.
Speaker 8 (07:20):
In the streaming era of Hollywood, there are primarily two
ways TV shows wind up on your favorite streaming service.
The first one is original content. Streaming platforms often produce
their own shows, like Only Murders in the Building that's
a Hulu original. The other is through acquisition of rights
or syndication, which is a fancy way of saying that
(07:42):
streaming platforms pay for the rights to stream reruns of
a TV show like NCIS on their platform. It works
the other way too, a show might first appear on
a streaming service and later be sold to traditional TV
channels or even other streamers. Before Netflix and Hulu were
invented and the streamers took over our screens, syndication worked
(08:06):
a little differently. Traditionally, there were two main types of syndication.
First run syndication shows that are made specifically to be
sold directly to syndication markets rather than airing first on
a network. That's like Jeopardy or Wheel of Fortune. Those
shows are made by Sony and syndicated in the US
(08:26):
on ABC and some cable channels. Okay, the point is
it was made to be sold all over the place.
The other type of syndication, which if you're a fan
of Nick and Knight, may be more familiar to you,
is called off network syndication. That's where the network would
take their popular shows, usually ones that ran for at
(08:46):
least one hundred episodes, and then sell them to other networks,
cable channels, or local TV stations, just like watching reruns
of Golden Girls on Nick and Night, or back to
back episodes of Friends on TBS, or That's seventy Show
on FBX. Before syndication was invented, TV shows aired love,
which means they pointed the camera at what was happening
(09:08):
on stage and that image was broadcast to the audience
at home. If you missed it. That was pretty much it.
And when they finally did start to record the episodes,
they used something called kinescope recordings, which is where someone
pointed a sixteen millimeter film camera at a TV screen
that was tuned into that show. The quality was low,
(09:31):
but they didn't care. The method was designed just as
a form of archiving. Some of the TV shows, so
they didn't fully lose the moment. I mean, they made
a good episode of a hit show, got some laughs,
sold it to some advertisers, made a buck one and done.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
Then Desi changed everything. And these experiences in nineteen thirty
these Cuba made him the perfect person to do so.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
I ain't got nonsense.
Speaker 9 (10:10):
Particular Profuso set the Carnival outus, which.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
Is that's Dessi in an all the interview on a
local Miami area TV station in the early eighties. He's
wearing an unbuttoned blue dress shirt, a white blazer, and
a Cuban patch on the right front pocket at sixty
five years old, looking like a Latino Rick Flair as
his back on local TV promoting the Carnival, a yearly
(10:37):
music and culture festival similar to once in New Orleans
and Brazil. The festival is huge today, but in nineteen
eighty two it was just starting and Dessi was the
first ambassador.
Speaker 4 (10:50):
Which is a big event in all of Miami music.
Speaker 7 (10:52):
You're like a native sono staff here, you're telling us
you went to high school graduate of what year was that.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
It's clear Desi is an American, a native son of
Miami but also he's a Cuban exile. There's a misconception
sometimes about people leaving their country for America. According to
a twenty twenty three study by the Pew Research Center,
about forty percent of the US population is not happy
(11:21):
about the number of immigrants coming here.
Speaker 8 (11:24):
Factors include the size, origin, religion, and skill level of immigrants.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
That last part, the skill level of immigrants. That's the
misconception I'm talking about that all immigrants come here because
they're poored and struggling in their home country, which can
be partially true, but I know from personal experience that's
not exactly the case. My family was pretty well off
for most of the time we lived in Venezuela. It
(11:52):
was the rise of an oppressive dictator like Yugo Chavez
that contributed to us seeking refuge in the Land of
the Free. And it's true as he came to America
with nothing in his pockets, but he was in some poor,
helpless Cuban looking for a better life.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Well I got here. You know.
Speaker 6 (12:11):
My dad was mayor of my hometown, Cuba.
Speaker 8 (12:14):
He was a congressman, very wealthy man.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
You heard that right this His dad was a big
shot in Cuba. The Sidediolberto Arness the Albany the second.
Yeah that's his name. He was a doctor in Santiago's
youngest mayor. He wasn't just a powerful politician. Thesideddu the
second owned several farms, a palatial estate, a mansion on
(12:39):
a private island where the Arnett family with vacation. According
to Desi, his father was the first person to bring
pasteurized milk to Cuba. In his autobiography called a book,
Yeah that's what the book is called. This, he says
the people of Santiago loved the Siderio, re electing him
(13:01):
several times, primarily thanks to his popularity among Africubans.
Speaker 5 (13:07):
My father was elected to Cuba's Congress in nineteen thirty two.
Speaker 4 (13:12):
The election, oh, I was something to see.
Speaker 5 (13:15):
I got to go to some of Santiago's precincts with
him as the vote was counted. And back then there
were no machines to count votes. It was all done
by hand. There was always an impartial official who called
out the names and dropped them in the candidates boxes
so everyone could see who was winning each.
Speaker 9 (13:35):
Prison connesis on Quarintha para doctor e paraisi.
Speaker 5 (13:42):
Chao i remember walking into one prisonc just as the
official was dropping some in Dad box, and hearing the
people cheering amas.
Speaker 9 (13:53):
You know, mask Carl, doctor, no paralysis.
Speaker 4 (13:59):
Ya Oh.
Speaker 5 (14:03):
I winced as I saw the official daintily dropped one
in the other guy's box. You know, I don't remember
the other guy's name. I just remember that feeling of
knowing my dad was a winner. Dad initially went to
(14:24):
Havana to get sworn into Congress in January nineteen thirty three.
He came back to Santiago a few weeks later to
help the new mayor and turn over the metaphorical keys
to city hall. Ooh, metaphorical, that's a hard one. The
(14:53):
town gave my father a tremendous victory celebration parade. I mean,
the crab picked him up and carried him along the
largest Cuban flag I had ever seen. There must have
been at least one hundred people holding him up and
bouncing him up and.
Speaker 4 (15:09):
Down, up and down.
Speaker 5 (15:11):
He looked as if he were doing tricks on a
trampoline or in the circus.
Speaker 4 (15:15):
You know, I thought, my god, what a beautiful sight
to see.
Speaker 5 (15:20):
My dad was my hero, but he was also a
hero to so many Cubans, and a lot of them
were Afro Cubans. I found out later that they hadn't
just carried him that day. They metaphorically carried him to
victory in the election.
Speaker 4 (15:38):
They always did.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
This is mom do lotes that chad he the associates,
but everyone called her Lolita. Also came from a wealthy
and affluent family. Lolita was a direct descendant of the
Marquise the Child, a member of the Spanish royal family
who ruled Cuba as a King of Swords, and her
(16:02):
father was Alberto the a child. This is how DESSI
listed it all out in a book.
Speaker 4 (16:09):
On my mother's side of the family.
Speaker 5 (16:11):
My grandfather was Alberto the Accha, one of the founders
of Bacardia Rum. His wife, my grandmother, was Frositas Sosias,
and both my grandmothers had the same first name and
the same bill Hi by five. I adored them both.
We used to have lunch every Sunday at Grandpa Berto's.
(16:32):
They had twelve children and the table would always be
set for thirty people, even so many times the kids
had to eat on the patio, or in the kitchen,
or you know, wherever they could find room. You know,
one of the things I missed a lot in this
country is the family closeness.
Speaker 4 (16:48):
Of my youth.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
Dessi was born into a big, successful family and they
were close. It was the only child his parents had
and was a favorite of his grandparents and uncles. They
made him work in the family's businesses, not just white
collar stuff. He would fish and do farm work. His
elders would impart wisdom and often tell them stories about
(17:13):
their upbringing in Cuba as it transition into the twentieth century.
Speaker 4 (17:18):
He was like this.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
His entire childhood was a Cuba in Howartz, where instead
of learning how to make magic that he was being
taught how to make the most of any situation. I
believe one of those lessons will be the reason seventy
six billion minutes of ncias will be streamed today and
why I Show Like France is a billion dollar franchise.
Speaker 6 (17:43):
More on that after the break.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
When Dessi and Lucy sold the idea of I Love
Lucy to CBS, they decided to start their own production company.
The company would produce and therefore own I Love Lucy episodes.
The network must have agreed to this because who cares,
right TV shows are really only valuable to the network
while they are being watched. At the time, they were
(18:38):
only being watched once while they aired. Dey advocated for
a different approach. Instead of shooting on live broadcast cameras
like all the other TV shows of that era, I
Love Lucy will be shot on thirty five millimeters so
that the quality of the taping was higher.
Speaker 7 (19:00):
Yeah, that we're all comfortable and ready, It is my
privilege to present to you the co star the I
Love Lucy Show, a grand fellow and a great show.
He's going to bring you up to data and the
proceedings and give you the real low down and all
this television magic.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
Ladies and gentlemen. Mister Desi Arnez, thank you, Ryan good
even Elsie Takama, thank you very much.
Speaker 4 (19:30):
We welcome you to Desilu Playhouse.
Speaker 7 (19:32):
As you know, this is film, and that's why you
see all these cameras down here in the boom and
the lights and all the people and all this stuff,
because it's just like making a movie.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
See now, just to show.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
You it was a stroke of genius the film.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
The episodes could be re ran at a different time
like they did with movies to recap TV shows before
I Love Lucy made watched sold once TV shows after
I Love You See what's billions of minutes? So you see,
Dessi basically invented the concept of reruns aka syndication aka
(20:09):
the very concept behind streaming your favorite TV shows over
and over and over again. But where did Dessi get
such a novel idea. It was from one of those
family stories. It was a lesson he learned from Bacardi.
Speaker 5 (20:25):
Emilio Bacardi, the Rum's namesake and co founder, was a
lover of good wine, but he did not like the
dark and.
Speaker 4 (20:31):
Heavy rum of Jamaica, you know.
Speaker 5 (20:33):
So one day he took a small steal and brewing
equipment and set up shop and a little building he
had behind his home. He experimented with different mixtures until
he came up with an excellent light.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
Run that's based on Dessi's book. Check this out.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
It's the late eighteen hundreds in Santiago, Cuba, and Amelia
Baccardi's hosting another dinner. But this dinner is not just
about good food and company. Emilius got a surprise for
his friends.
Speaker 4 (21:11):
Gentlemen.
Speaker 9 (21:12):
Gentlemen, it's time to tell no show you why I
really brought you here. I've finally done it, my masterpiece.
I've created a perfect one. It's clear, it's light, it's
unlike anything I have ever dated before. But gentlemen, you
are some of the best traveled and your opinion is
(21:33):
very important to me. So please take a sip and
tell me your god reaction.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
And as a rum makes its rounds, the room fills
with astonishment. Everyone is taken aback by the unique flavor
of this drink. A Milius now certain that he's done
something big, Dinner's continue. Emelia has not owned made a
run that he loves. He's made his new favorite drink
(22:04):
and a great party trick. He also saved himself a
ton of money on buying imported alcohol at a markup.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
That's pretty good. But he wasn't done yet. Here's Dessi again.
Speaker 5 (22:18):
Everybody raved about it. Before Emilio could really enjoy the
piece of accomplishing something so great, his friends put him
to work. As work got out, people were bringing anti
Coca cola and you know, beer bottles to be filled
with Emilio's beautiful run. Then one day, these fancy frenchmen,
(22:43):
aren't they all you know. Monsieur Enrique Escheu came over
for dinner and naturally sampled the rum. He immediately became
enthusiastic and advised Emelio to stop giving it away. His
drink was unique. Why not bother it, label it bakaradi
and sell it. He was done. The Frenchman became the
(23:04):
business manager and financed the first mass produced batch. Emilio
made the rum each bottle himself for that first run,
and then there had to be some distribution. That's how
my grandfather Alberto, who owned two mules, became the salesman
and distributor around town. He would load the mules with
as many bottles of rum as he could put into
(23:25):
cardboard boxes and sell them in Santiago and the nearby countryside.
When he died, he was vice president at the Bacardi Corporation.
It is the best rum in the world.
Speaker 3 (23:44):
I mean, come on, I can see it Enrique brewing
and bottling in his basement. That's his grandfather Alberto loading
it up on the mules, the bottles clinking gently in
their crates as he travels from Santiago to the countryside,
spreading the word one a lot of time and just
like that, a local stable begins its transformation into a
(24:05):
global legend. Fast forward to the nineteen fifties in Hollywood,
as Ernest, drawing from his family's legacy, understands the value
of not just creating something remarkable, but sharing it repeatedly,
ensuring it reaches as many people as possible, making.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
The most out of a situation. Just as Baccardy.
Speaker 3 (24:29):
Became more than just ram at a party, I Love
Lucy became more than just a show on a TV set.
But that lesson was just the beginning of many, as
he would learn in his youth and Kula Levee, this
(24:49):
connection to Bacardy contributed to the Arnest family mystique, part
of his family's status and wealth in Cuba, contributing to
their prominence and both business and social circles. Like I
said earlier, the art Nass family didn't come to the
US because they were poor, struggling people. Dessi's family had
(25:11):
power and wealth that were regarded with great respect in
Cuba for generations, but all those years of success would
end in one forty eight hour period.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
Thus, on the next episode of.
Speaker 3 (25:30):
Starring starring Desi r Nas and Wilmer Valderama, is produced
by WB Sound in partnership with Iheartmichael Duda podcast Network,
starring Dezi r Nas and wilmerval Durama is written by
Eric Galindo and narrated by me Wilmer Valderama. It is
(25:51):
produced by Sophie Spencer, Savos and Leo Klem, with special
help from Anhel Lopez Galindo. Our executive producers are myself
and eric A Lindo. This episode was edited and engineered
by Sean Tracy and features original music by Hallo Boy
and Madison Devenport. Our cover art illustration is by Lindsey Mount.
(26:12):
For more podcasts from iHeart, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts
The back doors bar and the yekies will say that
no one gets out the front way. It'll only be
a few minutes now before that powder goes on. Come
on with joined Zorrow back, you're back inside.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
We'll have to bring it down.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
When I was a kid, I was obsessed with the
Western series Zoro.
Speaker 4 (00:38):
You get to your Horse's quick Son.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Dig Little Beaga came from a wealthy Spanish family and
was well educated. He got his education in Spain and
had to return to California to witness the injustice and
how the natives were being treated. He rose among the
people and decided that it was time to fend not
only his community, but fight for the justice that the
(01:04):
people deserved. Ton Digolo Bega was a swordsman. He suited
up in a cape and a mask to fight crime
and took on the name of Sorrow. And that's why
I imagine myself to be. And I know that sounds
kind of crazy, because as a kid on my family
ranch back in Venezuela, I always felt like I could
be Sorrow. I even named my horse Tornado like sorrows. Clearly,
(01:35):
my life in Venezuela was one of a working class family,
right I often took it up early and worked the
farms with my father, sitting on his lap as he
drove the tractor. My father wasn't just teaching me hard work.
He was giving me a skill that might helped me
provide for my family one day. He was also teaching
me to have pride and confidence. He never wore jeans
(01:58):
and work foods, even when he labor in the field.
That always wore a suit or a polyestrous lags, nice shoes,
and expensive carera sunglasses. He wore the look of a
successful Latino businessman, and for him, this was his version
of a cape and a mask. His uniform gave him
the confidence he needed to dream big and achieve big.
(02:24):
Writing Tornado made me feel confident. Even at seven years old,
I would think a lot about my future. Who was
I in the grand story.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Of the world right? And what would my name mean?
Speaker 3 (02:37):
One afternoon, I dug my heels into Tornado, and together
we gallop across the Venezuelan farmland. And I decided one
day that I will become someone just like Zora, living
big dreams, living the same kind of integrity, doing noble things.
I had no idea of how to get from here
to there, but surely I was well on my way.
(03:07):
I think about this moment a lot, especially as I
was learning about Dessi's life.
Speaker 5 (03:16):
My father and I came to this country with nothing
but the clothes on our back and five dollars in
our pocket. I didn't speak the language. Depending on who
you ask, I still don't. It was a truly humbling experience.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
Quick note, we've hired actors to recreate this scene and
many of the scenes in this podcast based on actual
archival footage, interviews, books, and things like that.
Speaker 5 (03:44):
We struggled to live, to work, to eat a decy meal,
you know. I mean, at some point the rats in
the warehouse we rented seemed to be living better lives
than us.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
When I first picked up Desie's story, I was still
a teenager, a young immigrant in America, trying to balance
my newfound success as an actor.
Speaker 6 (04:04):
That was tough.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
Sometimes I had to learn some hard lessons in real time,
but thankfully I had that strong foundation from a strong family.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Dessi had that too.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
Yeah, like my family, the Arnest family did come to
the US with almost nothing in their pockets, but we
did come with a lot of wisdom. Like me, Dessi
had learned a lot from his elders, and those lessons
would make him successful in more ways than one.
Speaker 5 (04:30):
From cleaning canary cages for eight bucks a day to
being honored here tonight is a long waist, and I
don't think there's any country in the world that could
give you that.
Speaker 4 (04:43):
So thank you America, Thank.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
You, thank you America.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
Indeed, I'm woman about drama and you're listening to Starry
and Desi or Nancy and Wilman about the the real
life story of the Latin immigrant who basically invented the
modern Hollywood system and to understand.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
How and why.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
In this episode, we are traveling to Cuba, back when
it was still a paradise for the Arnett family, back
when Desi learned an important lesson that helped him change
the whole TV landscape forever. Okay, I said that we
(05:38):
would get to nineteen thirties Cuba, but first let me
explain why we are going to nineteen thirties Cuba, and
it involves the TV business itself.
Speaker 4 (05:48):
Maui is amazing.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
No, it's not a vacation.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
I'm texting with Agent Tenant from the Honolulu office. A
missing witness from in no case of mind might have
turned up in a WAHU.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
In she's checking it out for me.
Speaker 4 (06:00):
Jane Tennant from the conference in Orlando. You usual, that's
where we met.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Yeah, but I don't recall you being there.
Speaker 7 (06:07):
I wasn't, but I recall there being a little rumor
about YouTube rumor.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
No, no, that's the clip from my CBS show and
CIS where I play special legend Nick Tooris to be
my own screen home for almost a decade, and the
show itself, it's been on for twenty three seasons. It's
so popular that in the first four months of twenty
twenty four, seventy six billion, billion with a B minutes
of NCIS were watched. But we definitely didn't air seventy
(06:36):
six billion minutes of the show in the first three
months of twenty twenty four. So how's that possible? How
does the CBS network drama that airs for an hour
each week get numbers like that? It's called syndication or
maybe you know it better, Today has streaming. Now, please
(06:57):
bear with me as we get into some of the
more one key stuff about how TV works. But don't
worry to make it more dramatic. I'm going to play
a really suspenseful song, and I'm going to have my
producer read it, because, to be honest, He's English is better.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
Eric, let it rip, Thank you Wilmer.
Speaker 8 (07:20):
In the streaming era of Hollywood, there are primarily two
ways TV shows wind up on your favorite streaming service.
The first one is original content. Streaming platforms often produce
their own shows, like Only Murders in the Building that's
a Hulu original. The other is through acquisition of rights
or syndication, which is a fancy way of saying that
(07:42):
streaming platforms pay for the rights to stream reruns of
a TV show like NCIS on their platform. It works
the other way too, a show might first appear on
a streaming service and later be sold to traditional TV
channels or even other streamers. Before Netflix and Hulu were
invented and the streamers took over our screens, syndication worked
(08:06):
a little differently. Traditionally, there were two main types of syndication.
First run syndication shows that are made specifically to be
sold directly to syndication markets rather than airing first on
a network. That's like Jeopardy or Wheel of Fortune. Those
shows are made by Sony and syndicated in the US
(08:26):
on ABC and some cable channels. Okay, the point is
it was made to be sold all over the place.
The other type of syndication, which if you're a fan
of Nick and Knight, may be more familiar to you,
is called off network syndication. That's where the network would
take their popular shows, usually ones that ran for at
(08:46):
least one hundred episodes, and then sell them to other networks,
cable channels, or local TV stations, just like watching reruns
of Golden Girls on Nick and Night, or back to
back episodes of Friends on TBS, or That's seventy Show
on FBX. Before syndication was invented, TV shows aired love,
which means they pointed the camera at what was happening
(09:08):
on stage and that image was broadcast to the audience
at home. If you missed it. That was pretty much it.
And when they finally did start to record the episodes,
they used something called kinescope recordings, which is where someone
pointed a sixteen millimeter film camera at a TV screen
that was tuned into that show. The quality was low,
(09:31):
but they didn't care. The method was designed just as
a form of archiving. Some of the TV shows, so
they didn't fully lose the moment. I mean, they made
a good episode of a hit show, got some laughs,
sold it to some advertisers, made a buck one and done.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
Then Desi changed everything. And these experiences in nineteen thirty
these Cuba made him the perfect person to do so.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
I ain't got nonsense.
Speaker 9 (10:10):
Particular Profuso set the Carnival outus, which.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
Is that's Dessi in an all the interview on a
local Miami area TV station in the early eighties. He's
wearing an unbuttoned blue dress shirt, a white blazer, and
a Cuban patch on the right front pocket at sixty
five years old, looking like a Latino Rick Flair as
his back on local TV promoting the Carnival, a yearly
(10:37):
music and culture festival similar to once in New Orleans
and Brazil. The festival is huge today, but in nineteen
eighty two it was just starting and Dessi was the
first ambassador.
Speaker 4 (10:50):
Which is a big event in all of Miami music.
Speaker 7 (10:52):
You're like a native sono staff here, you're telling us
you went to high school graduate of what year was that.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
It's clear Desi is an American, a native son of
Miami but also he's a Cuban exile. There's a misconception
sometimes about people leaving their country for America. According to
a twenty twenty three study by the Pew Research Center,
about forty percent of the US population is not happy
(11:21):
about the number of immigrants coming here.
Speaker 8 (11:24):
Factors include the size, origin, religion, and skill level of immigrants.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
That last part, the skill level of immigrants. That's the
misconception I'm talking about that all immigrants come here because
they're poored and struggling in their home country, which can
be partially true, but I know from personal experience that's
not exactly the case. My family was pretty well off
for most of the time we lived in Venezuela. It
(11:52):
was the rise of an oppressive dictator like Yugo Chavez
that contributed to us seeking refuge in the Land of
the Free. And it's true as he came to America
with nothing in his pockets, but he was in some poor,
helpless Cuban looking for a better life.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Well I got here. You know.
Speaker 6 (12:11):
My dad was mayor of my hometown, Cuba.
Speaker 8 (12:14):
He was a congressman, very wealthy man.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
You heard that right this His dad was a big
shot in Cuba. The Sidediolberto Arness the Albany the second.
Yeah that's his name. He was a doctor in Santiago's
youngest mayor. He wasn't just a powerful politician. Thesideddu the
second owned several farms, a palatial estate, a mansion on
(12:39):
a private island where the Arnett family with vacation. According
to Desi, his father was the first person to bring
pasteurized milk to Cuba. In his autobiography called a book,
Yeah that's what the book is called. This, he says
the people of Santiago loved the Siderio, re electing him
(13:01):
several times, primarily thanks to his popularity among Africubans.
Speaker 5 (13:07):
My father was elected to Cuba's Congress in nineteen thirty two.
Speaker 4 (13:12):
The election, oh, I was something to see.
Speaker 5 (13:15):
I got to go to some of Santiago's precincts with
him as the vote was counted. And back then there
were no machines to count votes. It was all done
by hand. There was always an impartial official who called
out the names and dropped them in the candidates boxes
so everyone could see who was winning each.
Speaker 9 (13:35):
Prison connesis on Quarintha para doctor e paraisi.
Speaker 5 (13:42):
Chao i remember walking into one prisonc just as the
official was dropping some in Dad box, and hearing the
people cheering amas.
Speaker 9 (13:53):
You know, mask Carl, doctor, no paralysis.
Speaker 4 (13:59):
Ya Oh.
Speaker 5 (14:03):
I winced as I saw the official daintily dropped one
in the other guy's box. You know, I don't remember
the other guy's name. I just remember that feeling of
knowing my dad was a winner. Dad initially went to
(14:24):
Havana to get sworn into Congress in January nineteen thirty three.
He came back to Santiago a few weeks later to
help the new mayor and turn over the metaphorical keys
to city hall. Ooh, metaphorical, that's a hard one. The
(14:53):
town gave my father a tremendous victory celebration parade. I mean,
the crab picked him up and carried him along the
largest Cuban flag I had ever seen. There must have
been at least one hundred people holding him up and
bouncing him up and.
Speaker 4 (15:09):
Down, up and down.
Speaker 5 (15:11):
He looked as if he were doing tricks on a
trampoline or in the circus.
Speaker 4 (15:15):
You know, I thought, my god, what a beautiful sight
to see.
Speaker 5 (15:20):
My dad was my hero, but he was also a
hero to so many Cubans, and a lot of them
were Afro Cubans. I found out later that they hadn't
just carried him that day. They metaphorically carried him to
victory in the election.
Speaker 4 (15:38):
They always did.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
This is mom do lotes that chad he the associates,
but everyone called her Lolita. Also came from a wealthy
and affluent family. Lolita was a direct descendant of the
Marquise the Child, a member of the Spanish royal family
who ruled Cuba as a King of Swords, and her
(16:02):
father was Alberto the a child. This is how DESSI
listed it all out in a book.
Speaker 4 (16:09):
On my mother's side of the family.
Speaker 5 (16:11):
My grandfather was Alberto the Accha, one of the founders
of Bacardia Rum. His wife, my grandmother, was Frositas Sosias,
and both my grandmothers had the same first name and
the same bill Hi by five. I adored them both.
We used to have lunch every Sunday at Grandpa Berto's.
(16:32):
They had twelve children and the table would always be
set for thirty people, even so many times the kids
had to eat on the patio, or in the kitchen,
or you know, wherever they could find room. You know,
one of the things I missed a lot in this
country is the family closeness.
Speaker 4 (16:48):
Of my youth.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
Dessi was born into a big, successful family and they
were close. It was the only child his parents had
and was a favorite of his grandparents and uncles. They
made him work in the family's businesses, not just white
collar stuff. He would fish and do farm work. His
elders would impart wisdom and often tell them stories about
(17:13):
their upbringing in Cuba as it transition into the twentieth century.
Speaker 4 (17:18):
He was like this.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
His entire childhood was a Cuba in Howartz, where instead
of learning how to make magic that he was being
taught how to make the most of any situation. I
believe one of those lessons will be the reason seventy
six billion minutes of ncias will be streamed today and
why I Show Like France is a billion dollar franchise.
Speaker 6 (17:43):
More on that after the break.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
When Dessi and Lucy sold the idea of I Love
Lucy to CBS, they decided to start their own production company.
The company would produce and therefore own I Love Lucy episodes.
The network must have agreed to this because who cares,
right TV shows are really only valuable to the network
while they are being watched. At the time, they were
(18:38):
only being watched once while they aired. Dey advocated for
a different approach. Instead of shooting on live broadcast cameras
like all the other TV shows of that era, I
Love Lucy will be shot on thirty five millimeters so
that the quality of the taping was higher.
Speaker 7 (19:00):
Yeah, that we're all comfortable and ready, It is my
privilege to present to you the co star the I
Love Lucy Show, a grand fellow and a great show.
He's going to bring you up to data and the
proceedings and give you the real low down and all
this television magic.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
Ladies and gentlemen. Mister Desi Arnez, thank you, Ryan good
even Elsie Takama, thank you very much.
Speaker 4 (19:30):
We welcome you to Desilu Playhouse.
Speaker 7 (19:32):
As you know, this is film, and that's why you
see all these cameras down here in the boom and
the lights and all the people and all this stuff,
because it's just like making a movie.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
See now, just to show.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
You it was a stroke of genius the film.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
The episodes could be re ran at a different time
like they did with movies to recap TV shows before
I Love Lucy made watched sold once TV shows after
I Love You See what's billions of minutes? So you see,
Dessi basically invented the concept of reruns aka syndication aka
(20:09):
the very concept behind streaming your favorite TV shows over
and over and over again. But where did Dessi get
such a novel idea. It was from one of those
family stories. It was a lesson he learned from Bacardi.
Speaker 5 (20:25):
Emilio Bacardi, the Rum's namesake and co founder, was a
lover of good wine, but he did not like the
dark and.
Speaker 4 (20:31):
Heavy rum of Jamaica, you know.
Speaker 5 (20:33):
So one day he took a small steal and brewing
equipment and set up shop and a little building he
had behind his home. He experimented with different mixtures until
he came up with an excellent light.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
Run that's based on Dessi's book. Check this out.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
It's the late eighteen hundreds in Santiago, Cuba, and Amelia
Baccardi's hosting another dinner. But this dinner is not just
about good food and company. Emilius got a surprise for
his friends.
Speaker 4 (21:11):
Gentlemen.
Speaker 9 (21:12):
Gentlemen, it's time to tell no show you why I
really brought you here. I've finally done it, my masterpiece.
I've created a perfect one. It's clear, it's light, it's
unlike anything I have ever dated before. But gentlemen, you
are some of the best traveled and your opinion is
(21:33):
very important to me. So please take a sip and
tell me your god reaction.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
And as a rum makes its rounds, the room fills
with astonishment. Everyone is taken aback by the unique flavor
of this drink. A Milius now certain that he's done
something big, Dinner's continue. Emelia has not owned made a
run that he loves. He's made his new favorite drink
(22:04):
and a great party trick. He also saved himself a
ton of money on buying imported alcohol at a markup.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
That's pretty good. But he wasn't done yet. Here's Dessi again.
Speaker 5 (22:18):
Everybody raved about it. Before Emilio could really enjoy the
piece of accomplishing something so great, his friends put him
to work. As work got out, people were bringing anti
Coca cola and you know, beer bottles to be filled
with Emilio's beautiful run. Then one day, these fancy frenchmen,
(22:43):
aren't they all you know. Monsieur Enrique Escheu came over
for dinner and naturally sampled the rum. He immediately became
enthusiastic and advised Emelio to stop giving it away. His
drink was unique. Why not bother it, label it bakaradi
and sell it. He was done. The Frenchman became the
(23:04):
business manager and financed the first mass produced batch. Emilio
made the rum each bottle himself for that first run,
and then there had to be some distribution. That's how
my grandfather Alberto, who owned two mules, became the salesman
and distributor around town. He would load the mules with
as many bottles of rum as he could put into
(23:25):
cardboard boxes and sell them in Santiago and the nearby countryside.
When he died, he was vice president at the Bacardi Corporation.
It is the best rum in the world.
Speaker 3 (23:44):
I mean, come on, I can see it Enrique brewing
and bottling in his basement. That's his grandfather Alberto loading
it up on the mules, the bottles clinking gently in
their crates as he travels from Santiago to the countryside,
spreading the word one a lot of time and just
like that, a local stable begins its transformation into a
(24:05):
global legend. Fast forward to the nineteen fifties in Hollywood,
as Ernest, drawing from his family's legacy, understands the value
of not just creating something remarkable, but sharing it repeatedly,
ensuring it reaches as many people as possible, making.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
The most out of a situation. Just as Baccardy.
Speaker 3 (24:29):
Became more than just ram at a party, I Love
Lucy became more than just a show on a TV set.
But that lesson was just the beginning of many, as
he would learn in his youth and Kula Levee, this
(24:49):
connection to Bacardy contributed to the Arnest family mystique, part
of his family's status and wealth in Cuba, contributing to
their prominence and both business and social circles. Like I
said earlier, the art Nass family didn't come to the
US because they were poor, struggling people. Dessi's family had
(25:11):
power and wealth that were regarded with great respect in
Cuba for generations, but all those years of success would
end in one forty eight hour period.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
Thus, on the next episode of.
Speaker 3 (25:30):
Starring starring Desi r Nas and Wilmer Valderama, is produced
by WB Sound in partnership with Iheartmichael Duda podcast Network,
starring Dezi r Nas and wilmerval Durama is written by
Eric Galindo and narrated by me Wilmer Valderama. It is
(25:51):
produced by Sophie Spencer, Savos and Leo Klem, with special
help from Anhel Lopez Galindo. Our executive producers are myself
and eric A Lindo. This episode was edited and engineered
by Sean Tracy and features original music by Hallo Boy
and Madison Devenport. Our cover art illustration is by Lindsey Mount.
(26:12):
For more podcasts from iHeart, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
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