Biography

b. Desiderio Alberto Arnez y de Acha III, 2 March 1917, Santiago, Cuba, d. 2 December 1986, Del Mar, California, USA. Arnaz relocated to the USA in the early 20s and began singing and playing bongo and conga drums with Xaviar Cugat and others before forming his own band. Arnaz achieved sufficient popularity to be offered musical spots in movies. While working on one of these, Dance, Girl, Dance (1940), he met and subsequently married Lucille Ball. In the late 40s, Ball appeared on radio in a popular series, My Favourite Husband, in which she co-starred with actor Richard Denning. In the early 50s, Ball decided to adapt the show for television with her real-life husband as producer, and she also decided that Arnaz should play her television husband - two decisions frowned upon by executives at CBS Records and Philip Morris (cigarette makers and potential sponsors for the show). Their reluctance stemmed from the fact that as a producer Arnaz was an unknown quantity and as an actor he was a potential liability because of his pronounced Cuban accent. In the event, Ball and Arnaz prevailed but had to make concessions. These included taking a salary reduction, though as compensation CBS made the multi-million-dollar blunder of allowing the couple to retain 100% residuals. The new show, I Love Lucy, was a runaway success and made a fortune for Desilu, the company Ball and Arnaz had formed to produce the show. I Love Lucy ran until 1959 and the following year the couple were divorced, although they continued as business partners. After I Love Lucy, Ball starred in The Lucy Show which was produced by Arnaz. In 1962, Ball bought out Arnaz's share of their company and for a while ran Desilu on her own, producing popular television shows such as Star Trek and Mission: Impossible. Arnaz made a few movie appearances in the mid-50s, including the popular The Long, Long Trailer with Ball, but then drifted into retirement. Later, he returned for occasional cameo roles, produced the NBC television series The Mothers-In-Law (1967), which starred Eve Arden and Kaye Ballard, and published his autobiography. His daughter, Lucie Arnaz, gained favourable reviews for her singing in New York clubs in the early 90s. In 1993, she, and her husband, Laurence Luckinbill, were the executive producers of Lucy And Desi: A Home Movie, "their own version of Lucy and Desi's entwined careers", that was shown in the USA on NBC Television.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: A Book, Desi Arnaz. Desilu: The Story Of Lucille Ball And Desi Arnaz, Coyne Steven Sanders and Tom Gilbert.
FILMOGRAPHY: The Long Long Trailer (1954), Forever Darling (1956), The Escape Artist (1982).

Encyclopedia of Popular Music
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