LUCILLE "LUCY" BALL - AUTOGRAPHED INSCRIBED PHOTOGRAPH - HFSID 168989

LUCILLE BALL
Signed with her rare full signature
Rare Photograph inscribed and signed in full: "To/Wes/Lucille/Ball". B/w, 8x10. Pictured with Eddie Albert (not signing) in a still from the 1950 comedy, The Fuller Brush Girl, in which Ball starred as Sally Elliot and Albert co-starred as her boyfriend, Humphrey Briggs. ©1950, Columbia Pictures Corp. Captioned at lower margin. In the year she made this film, Ball also starred in A Woman of Distinction and Fancy Pants. The following year, she would debut on her classic sitcom, I Love Lucy. Show business veteran Lucille Ball (1911-1989) appeared in the chorus of Broadway productions before breaking into films in the 1930s. By 1938, she was a star of "B" movies, having appeared in Stage Door (1937), and her later roles in films such as DuBarry Was a Lady (1943) made her a popular star. Lucy was offered her own television show, but she refused unless her husband, Cuban musician and bandleader, Desi Arnaz, would co-star. After I Love Lucy debuted on the small screen in 1951, Lucy became an American institution. Nominated for 13 Emmy Awards and the winner of four Emmys for her role as Lucy Ricardo in I Love Lucy (1953 and 1956) and Lucy Carmichael in The Lucy Show (1967 and 1968), Ball was also a television pioneer and astute businesswoman. She and her husband, Desi Arnaz, pioneered the three-camera technique that is now the standard in filming TV sitcoms and the concept of syndicating TV programs. She and Desi also formed Desilu Productions, which was highly successful in producing other TV shows, and later purchased the facilities of RKO, where both had been contract players. In later years, on advice of her lawyer, Lucille Ball only signed her full name on legal papers, signing "Lucy" on photographs. Creased at blank margins. Surface creased. Captioned in pencil (unknown hand) on verso (no show through). Overall, fine condition.