Laughing with Lucy: My Life with America's Leading Lady of Comedy [Hardcover]

Madelyn Pugh Davis (Author), Bob Carroll Jr. (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2005

At any time, night or day, I Love Lucy is being broadcast somewhere in the world. Four generations have grown up watching I Love Lucy, and Lucille Ball’s is the most recognized face in the world. Madelyn Pugh Davis was Lucy’s staff writer for nearly half a century. Davis was the first female writer in television and was responsible for thousands of hours of memorable programming. Many of the plot lines used on I Love Lucy were taken from Davis’s own life and immortalized by Ball’s comic genius. In Laughing with Lucy, Davis and her long-term writing partner, Bob Carroll Jr., recount her rise in television and her many years working on the set and behind the scenes with Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. She recounts her experiences as a pioneer in the entertainment industry, one of the first women writers in Hollywood. Lighthearted and witty, this book fondly remembers Lucy and the early days of television.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Fans who have read Geoffrey Mark Fidelman's exhaustive The Lucy Book or Jess Oppenheimer's Laughs, Luck... and Lucy won't find much new material here. The lure of this volume is its amiable and knowledgeable authors: Davis and her longtime writing partner Carroll co-wrote virtually every episode of I Love Lucy and continued to write on all of Lucille Ball's sitcoms through 1986's Life with Lucy. The duo gently clarifies tales that have become exaggerated over the years (e.g., Vivian Vance's contract did not stipulate she weigh 20 pounds more than Ball) and offers amusing examples of script shorthand (e.g., "SPIDER" meant Lucy should make her "eeuh!" sound). They praise Desi Arnaz as a staunch defender of his writers and an unsung behind-the-scenes innovator. Ball was "a beautiful clown" and a perfectionist, but, they cryptically note, "everyone is complicated, and Lucy was more complicated than most." Although tales of working with Ball take up the majority of the book, Davis also offers a fascinating look at being one of the few female comedy writers working on radio and TV in the 1940s and '50s, and lightly touches on her post-Lucy successes writing/producing Alice. (Sept. 30)
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From the Publisher

Lucy fans will love: • How the writers dealt with Lucy’s real-life pregnancy without ever using the "p" word on-air • That elements of Desi and Lucy’s real life were mirrored in the scripts • Details from Davis’s own past and how they made their way into the show (Mertz was the last name of Davis’s neighbors growing up in Indiana) • Nearly 100 photos, from classic moments in Lucy’s TV shows to never-before-seen backstage shots

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Clerisy Press, Emmis Books; First Edition ~1st Printing edition (September 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1578602475
• ISBN-13: 978-1578602476
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #694,846 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #28 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( B ) > Ball, Lucille

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must For Lucy Fans, May 6, 2006

By 

Mark Baker (Santa Clarita, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Laughing with Lucy: My Life with America's Leading Lady of Comedy (Hardcover)

While the name Madelyn Pugh Davis might not be super familiar, almost everyone is familiar with her work. As one of the first women writing in TV, she co-wrote nearly every episode of the classic sit-com "I Love Lucy." This fascinating memoir is a behind the scenes look at her life and work.

Madelyn started out wanting to be a foreign correspondent. But, since this was the 30's, women didn't get those kinds of jobs, and she had to settle for anything she could get. Moving to California, she started working at CBS, first in news, then in entertainment when she started working on a weekly radio comedy program called "My Favorite Husband" starring a comedian named Lucille Ball. It was also during this time that she hooked up with Bob Carroll, Jr., her long time writing partner.

The book spends lots of time talking about "I Love Lucy," starting with the birth of the show. There are many familiar stories here, the network's reluctance to make a show about an interracial couple, Desi's desire to film the show in front of a live audience, the making of the pilot, Lucy's pregnancy in season two, etc. Madelyn also debunks a few myths that have sprung up over the years, such as Vivian Vance's weight being in her contract and Lucy's fake nose catching fire in a season four episode.

The book does talk about other things. Being a memoir, we also get some talk about Madelyn's life. She doesn't spend too long at it, but it continues to entertain. It also gives an interesting view of Los Angeles in the 1940's. It's certainly changed over the years.

Madelyn also talks about her post "I Love Lucy" work, including all of Lucy's other TV shows and the classic "Alice." These were just as fascinating to me, even though I have never seen them, and make me very interested fixing that.

There are times the book begins to feel like an episode guide for whatever series she's currently discussing, but it never lasts too long. She will start telling a story about something that happened behind the scenes at that time. These include some of the extra things she had to do as the only female staff member of the shows such as watching for any wardrobe malfunctions Lucy might have performing the stunts or dealing with the sometimes temperamental star.

The one thing you won't find here is dishing on the behind the scenes rumors. As Madelyn states in the first chapter, it's poor form to do that when someone can't defend themselves. While she does discuss character flaws that Lucy and Desi had, she doesn't dwell on them. Instead, a very complimentary view of the two comes to the forefront. She praises them equally for the success of the show. The picture she paints shows Desi willing to pay for anything they dreamed up and Lucy willing to do it. If it brought laughs, it would happen.

The book feels like a conversation with a good friend over a cup of coffee. This makes it an easy, fun read. I actually read it in two days, staying up way too late at night to read just a little more.

This book provides a fascinating look at life behind the scenes of a just emerging medium as well as a classic show. Fans of early Hollywood history or "I Love Lucy" will eat it up.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I do LOVE Lucy, October 26, 2005

By 

Lucy Ricardo "Henna Head" (Wildwood, MO USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Laughing with Lucy: My Life with America's Leading Lady of Comedy (Hardcover)

This book is just as the title says: Madelyn Pugh Davis's relationship with Lucille Ball as part of the writing team for several of Lucy's shows. It was easy and fun to read; sometimes reiterating stories I had heard previously, but most often not. Madelyn did a good job of imparting fresh stories without dishing any dirt. A good read, but the book is no doubt for people who really love Lucy - a reader with just a casual interest may get bored.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Adventures of the Original Girl Writer, April 17, 2007

By 

Hawaiian Eye "Hawaiian Eye" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Laughing with Lucy: My Life with America's Leading Lady of Comedy (Hardcover)

Madelyn Pugh Davis tells us upfront that this is no tell-all tome...that to dish on longterm employers Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz would be unfair since they are dead and cannot defend themselves.
She also adds that as the writers of "I Love Lucy," she and her partner Bob Carroll Jr. were in the dark much of the time about personal scandal and gossip.
This is the crux of her book. Desi Arnaz called her the 'Girl Writer' when he wasn't mangling her given name by calling her 'Mallen.' He called Pugh and Carroll 'the kids' or as he pronounced it, 'the kits.'
Pugh's stories of her own beginnings in the TV and radio writing trades would be absorbing enough - but chuck Lucy, Desi and company in the mix and you have yourself a page turner.
Pugh writes with warmth, enthuiasm and energy (qualities by the way in which she admired Arnaz).
Straight out of college, she was turned down for a job as a newsletter writer for a meat-packing company. As she wittily points out, the meat-packing company smelled bad and somebody with the last name of Pugh shouldn't be working in a place like that.
Her adventures up to and including all the incarnations of "Lucy" are absorbing. She dishes in an amusing, professional and tasteful way about hard-headed Lucy and working with gues stars like Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton - and that famous 69 carat diamond ring.
As an ardent Lucy fan,I loved hearing about how Pugh and Bob Carroll jr. drove up to northern Calfornia to meet the North famly whose marrriage and staggering 20 children led to the screenplay for the Ball-Fonda classic, "Yours Mine And Ours." (A Desi Arnaz idea).
There are tons of nuggets here - both professional and private. When Pugh married her college sweetie, Dr. Richard Davis, she moved herself and her small son to his Frank Lloyd Wright house in Indiana. She hated the house both because its construction design lent itself to dark bathrooms and a miniscule kitchen, but also because strangers dropped by unanounced to get a look at it.
The chipmunk watching her each morning is hysterical. Movie version, anyone?
The author says that for her, it is gratifying when fans tell her they watch "I Love Lucy" when they are feeling blue and it gives them a lift. I will keep "Laughing With Lucy" handy so that I may dip into it on my 'off days' as a reminder that even the original Girl Writer had her share of ups and downs.