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Lucille Ball-Queen of comedy. A former model and character actress who had the beauty of a Lana Turner, Ginger Rogers or Betty Grable, yet she chose to make people laugh, as she so masterfully did for nearly fifty years. Nearly everyone from Baby Boomers to young people alike have screamed with hilarious laughter at the ridiculous antics of Lucy Ricardo on "I Love Lucy" in the 1950s to "The Lucy Show" in the 1960's and early 1970's. And her fame was at a time when female comedians, or comediennes, as they are called, were not viewed as big as the popular comedians of the day like Milton Berle, Jackie Gleason or Bob Hope. But Lucy showed them how wrong the public could be, for she became one of the greatest-some say the greatest comediennes in modern comedy history.

Lucille Ball came from humble beginnings. She was born Lucille Desiree Ball on August 6,1911, in Jamestown, NY, but grew up in the adjacent small town of Celeron, to Henry Durell Ball, a telephone lineman for the Bell Company and to Desiree "Dede" Eveline Hunt Ball, who was more like an older sister to Lucille than a mother. Lucille also had a younger brother, Fred. Her father died when she was three, and Lucille and her younger brother Fred was primarily raised by her mother and mostly by her grandparents (Her mother was constantly working long hours to make ends meet for the family, so Lucille did not get to see her much). Her grandfather, Fred C. Hunt was particularly a theater lover and he often took young Lucy and her brother to theater and vaudeville shows. Sensing talent in his granddaughter, he encouraged her to take part in her schools plays and shows.

In 1925 when she was about 14, Lucy enrolled in the John Murray School for the Dramatic Arts in New York City. She was outshone by one particular student: Her name was Bette Davis. She went back home discouraged after she was told by her teachers that she "had no future at all as a performer." But years later as a star, her instructors would have to eat those words.

She returned to New York in 1932 and worked as an actress and model for designer Hattie Carnegie and as the Chesterfield Girl in which she graced the popular advertisements of the day. She used the stage name of "Diane Belmont" when she performed on Broadway and flopped. She made her major break in films in 1933 as one of the Goldwyn Girls in the Eddie Cantor comedy "Roman Scandals". Not long afterward she moved to Hollywood where she appeared in many small movies as a contract

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