Lucille Ball Impact On Women

“I have an everyday religion that works for me. Love yourself first, and everything else falls into line.” (Lucille Ball Quotes) Lucille Ball took an interest in acting at the age of 15. She enrolled in a New York drama school. She was desperate to make it as an actress, but she was too nervous and shy to be noticed. She eventually moved to Hollywood and landed some acting jobs; however, it was not until 1951 when her career took off by landing the role of Lucy, in the hit show I Love Lucy. (Lucille Ball) Lucille Ball was groundbreaking for changing how women were perceived around the world in the entertainment industry.

Lucille Ball was the first comic female lead on television. She paved the way for future women in comedy. “Actresses like

Tina Fey, Melissa McCarthy, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus can thank Lucille Ball for opening the door. She trained with Buster Keaton and Red Skelton to become one of the best physical-comedy actors of all time. She really earned her nickname Queen of Comedy." (Conway) Before Lucille Ball came around it was not accepted for females to be comedic actors and be portrayed a certain way. By being the first woman comedic actor, she was able to transform the Entertainment Industry to not restrict what women can do. She started on the comedy television show I Love Lucy for six years, breaking boundaries in comedy. “Perhaps her biggest legacy is laughter. Her show continues to air in re-runs and an annual festival in Jamestown that bears her name and encourages aspiring comedians to take the stage.” (Lucille Ball) Even today, she is still remembered and makes people laugh. Her legacy of being the first will live on forever and continue to inspire women to follow in her footsteps. Lucille was not just the first female comedic actress; she was the first female to do many historic things, which involved changing the lives of women.
Lucille wanted to gain control over her work, so with her husband Arnaz she formed Desilu Studios.

Lucille divorced Arnaz and bought him out of the company becoming the first female president of her own company. “She became the first female head of a major production company…produced hits like Star Trek and Mission Impossible.” (Karlin) Lucille made it possible for women to be more than what society thought. She ran her own production company producing hit movies, showing the world that anything a man can do a she can do better. She also helped women to see it is acceptable to get a divorce and not stay in an unhappy marriage. For she divorced Arnaz because she thought she deserved better. To take control over her career Lucille Ball ran her own production company. “Lucille Ball injected anarchic female power into the TV industry both in front of the camera and behind it, as an early auteur that controlled much of her own destiny by forming Desilu Productions at a time when the networks and movie studios oversaw the means of production.” (The Revolution) Lucille Ball made a difference in spreading equality for women. It was not normal for women to have such a huge roll behind the screen. She was the first. Lucille did not just revolutionize the women’s role off screen; she was ground breaking on her television show I Love

Lucy.
Her television show, I Love Lucy, broke boundaries that were not standard at the time. Lucille Ball stared in the hit show I Love Lucy with her husband. Together they changed the course of the entertainment industry. I Love Lucy was a show that expanded the views of life of Americans. “Though I Love Lucy was not the very first TV show to feature a pregnancy, it was an early one, and broke barriers with the huge success of the storyline …though the American public was obviously ready for the pregnancy arc; it still existed in a time of very different moral standards for television. The show could not actually say the word pregnant because, according to site The A.V. Club, CBS deemed it to vulgar. Executives reportedly called for a priest, minister, and rabbi to approve the scripts before they gave permission for the storyline to air.” (Karlin) Lucille Ball changed the game for women by acting as a pregnant female. It was not morally standard. There were many precautions taken to ensure the storyline was not ill-mannered and it became a hit storyline. Lucy and Ethel’s friendship on I Love Lucy was ahead of its time, as well. “Though we now live in a "Broad City" era, it was only in recent history that television began to increase its representation of realistic female friendships. But on I Love Lucy, Ethel and Lucy were constantly getting up to their own adventures, without falling into Hollywood's ugliest tropes about women friend pairs.” (Karlin) I Love Lucy challenged social morals. Showing a strong female friendship was new to the world. Lucille Ball ruled the screen for decades and broke principles all the time.
Lucille Ball helped start to spread equality for women in the entertainment industry. She was the first lady of television comedy, through her show I Love Lucy. She spread equality for women by being the first women to run own production company. I Love Lucy aired for six years where she broke boundaries in comedy. Lucille Ball started out as a timid nervous girl, through hard work she became a star. Women should continue to follow in her footsteps.