‘I Love Lucy’ Treasures Acquired by the National Comedy Center
The National Comedy Center has acquired a collection of I Love Lucy production materials, including hundreds of previously unseen photographs and 35mm film prints owned by Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. The collection offers new material for fans and historians to explore the making of the influential sitcom, which premiered 75 years ago.
The materials also include an early pilot script draft from when the show was called The Lucille Ball Desi Arnaz Show and its central couple were Lucy and Larry Lopez. Drawn from writer Bob Carroll Jr.’s papers, the collection is being digitised and preserved with Desilu, Too. The centre plans to show selected items at its museum in Jamestown, New York, next year, while the museum will share 75 artefacts on social media, including Ball’s costume, a polka dot dress and Arnaz’s straw hat.
- The centre acquired unseen I Love Lucy photographs and film prints.
- An early pilot script reveals the show’s original title and character names.
- Selected artefacts are due to go on display next year.
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I Love Lucy was a US television comedy about Lucy Ricardo, played by Lucille Ball, and her husband Ricky, played by Desi Arnaz. The couple’s comic misunderstandings and Lucy’s attempts to get into show business helped make the programme one of the best-known sitcoms of its era.
Ball and Arnaz also ran Desilu, the company that produced the series. Writer Bob Carroll Jr. was part of the team behind its scripts. Production records, photographs and film can help show how the programme was written and made, as well as how its characters and format developed.
The National Comedy Center is a museum in Jamestown, New York, devoted to comedy and its history. Preserving material from the series gives researchers and visitors a way to study a programme that influenced later television comedy.