[Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball, head-and-shoulders publicity portrait for the "Lucile Ball-Desi Arnaz show" television series] About this image
|| About the Collection ||
The Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz Collection chronicles the lives and careers of two of the most influential figures in the history of American entertainment. Ball (1911-1989) and Arnaz (1917-1986) achieved immortality when they created the roles of Lucy and Ricky Ricardo in the ground-breaking television situation comedy "I Love Lucy" in 1952. The collection consists chiefly of a set of eighty-five scrapbooks which preserve the record of the lives and careers of Ball and Arnaz as they were recorded by the contemporary press. The childhood years of their children, Lucie Arnaz and Desi Arnaz, Jr. also figure prominently in the scrapbooks. Along with newspaper clippings and magazine articles, however, there are also many photographs, letters, telegrams, greeting cards, and other items. There are also five scrapbooks assembled by Desi Arnaz’s father, which record the details of the Arnaz family in pre-revolutionary Cuba, and a number of scrapbooks assembled by fans of Lucille Ball and sent to her in her later years. In addition, the collection contains many of the scores and instrumental parts used by the Desi Arnaz Orchestra from the late 1930s until the 1960s.
|| Collection Details ||
General
- Span Dates
- 1915-1990
- Bulk Dates
- 1925-1990
- Major Language(s)
- English, Spanish
- Repository
- Music Division, Library of Congress
Physical Collection
- Number of Items
- 4700
- Number of Containers
- 60
- Linear Feet
- 25
- Contents
- Scrapbooks - 85, band arrangements - ca. 300, sound recordings - ca. 100
- Processing History
- Unprocessed
- Transfers
- Sound recordings
- Provenance
- The materials in the collection became the property of Lucie Arnaz and Desi Arnaz, Jr. following the deaths of their parents; they were transferred to LC in 2003.
Access/Copyright
- Access Permissions
- Unprocessed, not available
- On Microfilm?
- No
- Copyright Info
- http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.html
- Preferred Citation
- The Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz Collection, Music Division, Library of Congress