Love Lucy Book Report

Nonfiction Speech
I recently read Love, Lucy by Lucille Ball. It was an outstanding book all about Lucille Ball’s life and the highs and lows of her career. Love, Lucy is an autobiography that was uncovered by Lucie Desiree Arnaz, Lucille’s daughter, and an attorney after her death. A lot of the book is about how she started her career and got through the struggles that most aspiring actresses face. A great example of one of her struggles is the rare form of arthritis Lucille got towards the beginning of her career working for Hattie Carnegie as a model. Some of it also tells us all about her marriages to both Desi Arnaz and Gary Morton and how they influenced her life tremendously. The book starts out with her telling us about her childhood in Jamestown, New York, takes us through her life in New York City where she really started to work, and her life in Hollywood and many other places with Desi.
Lucille Ball was a funny woman with a lot of passion and drive. She was headstrong and never gave up on her dreams of being an actress, and that is why I think she wrote her story down. I think Lucille wanted everyone to realize we all have challenges we have to overcome just like her arthritis and her lack of natural talent when it came to singing and dancing, which led to her not being accepted to the John Murray Anderson-Robert Milton theater school. Love, Lucy is also directed towards young actresses trying to start their careers. Lucille writes, “Here’s what I advise any young struggling actress today: The important thing is to develop as a woman first, and a performer second.” This book was not published until 1996, seven years after Lucy’s death, because no one knew about it until an attorney noticed the manuscript in a box in the attic.
I think Lucy wrote this book because as her life progressed she realized how much she had learned and how influential her story could be to some people. She must have known that her advice and personal experiences could...