Happy Anniversary Lucy and Desi
“She was giving an interview to a lady magazine writer and Lucy was telling her all the reasons on why she and I should not get married. She was telling the writer that she had come to New York to say hello, and was promoting, Dance Girl, Dance. Also, she was glad that I was in New York at the same time. We would certainly see each other, but there was no way we were going to get married because of too many different difficulties between us. Our characters were completely apart. I had to live a certain kind of life on the road, nightclubs, and theater work, and she was more or less committed to Hollywood. Finally the lady left. We had not seen each other for a long time so we kissed and we apologized for all the nasty things we had said to each other over the telephone. We kissed again and made love in a hurry because I had to go back to the Roxy and do the next show. As I was leaving, I told Lucy, ‘This girl is going to have a hell of a time with that story.’
‘Why?’
‘Because I have everything arranged to marry you tomorrow morning if you would like to marry me.’
Lucy said, 'Where?’
'Greenwich, Connecticut.’ I answered.
'You’re kidding, right?’
'No, I’m not kidding. I want to marry you and I want to marry you tomorrow.’
'Why couldn’t we just live together?’ She asked. She was way out of her generation.
I answered, 'No, I don’t just want to live together. I want to marry you and have some children with you and I want have a home. I am not like the image you have of me. Now, do you want to marry me or not?’
'Of course I want to marry you, you idiot, but aren’t we supposed to wait three days to have a permit or something?’
'I have a whole thing straightened out. I already have a permit and the judge to give us an exemption.’
'Well, how are we going to… don’t you have to work at the Roxy tomorrow?’
'Yes, but my first show is not til tomorrow until eleven o’ clock.’
She asked, 'You mean, we are going to drive over to Connecticut, get married and come back, then go to the Roxy to your dressing room… for a honeymoon?’
'That’s it for a week or so.’
'I knew when I met you, things weren’t going to be normal,’ she said.
'You love me, don’t you?’
'I love you very much.’
'Well, I love you very much too. So what the hell is there? I’ve got to go now, I’ll be back after the next show.’
When I came back, George Schaeffer was there with her He was the president of RKO. She hadn’t told him yet that we were getting married because I had said, ‘Don’t tell anybody anything. If the Roxy finds out, they’re liable to get nervous about me getting back in time for the show.’
Mr. Schaeffer knew me, of course, and as I came into the room. He was pointing furiously at me and trying to do it without Lucy noticing. I couldn’t figure out what the hell he was trying to tell me. Finally, Lucy noticed it.She said, ‘Dear….’
“Yes?”
‘Mr. Schaeffer is trying to tell you that your fly is open.’
I had changed my stage clothes in such a hurry that I had forgotten not only the zipper, but also my shorts. I said, “Oh, my God!” (After all, my bird could fly.)
She turned to Mr. Schaeffer and said, ‘He believes in advertising.’
That was a hectic day. I had one more show to do. I think I had a quick sandwich and a glass of milk, which Lucy had ordered from room service, and she went back with me to the Roxy. I did the last show. We went back to her suite and I said, ‘We better get to bed. We are going to have to sleep real fast.’
At 6 A.M. we got out of a nice warm bed and drove to Greenwich, Connecticut, to get married.”
- Desi Arnaz (A Book)
“It was then past midnight and there was no regular flight, so I chartered a private plane. In New York, I checked into the Hampshire House, slept until noon and waited for Desi to appear between shows at the Roxy. A woman interviewer arrived just minutes before Desi. I was still mad at him for having so little faith in me so I let him cool his heels while I went on letting myself be interviewed an article that wound up with a title 'Why I Will Remain A Bachelor Girl’. It wasn’t until late that night Desi and I were together. He told me why he was so upset about my staying on in Milwaukee. He had been arranging an elopement to Greenwich, Connecticut; already postponed five times!
'But I thought we decided that we couldn’t get married,’ I said.
'That’s right,’ he agreed. 'But we are.’”
- Lucille Ball (Love, Lucy)
November 30th, 1940“He left me at my hotel at 3 am, saying he’d picked me up again at eight, and I went to bed deliriously happy. Just before I went to bed, I remembered all my clothes were in Milwaukee with Harriet. All I had was the little black wool numbered I’d been wearing all day. When I thought all the appropriately beautiful things I had in my trunk but not available for eight am, I was fit to be tied. But Desi was much too elated to notice his bride wore black. I sat beside him in the back of the car while his business manager drove like sixty over the icy, treacherous winter roads to Greenwich. Desi had a noon show at the Roxy to make. Inwardly, I was terrified at what I was doing and wondered if I had chosen wisely. Aunt Lola had married a Greek and her life with him was no bed of roses. I knew how Latins can be, how jealous and possessive. But most of all I worried about whether I could make Desi happy.In many ways, marrying Desi was one of the boldest things I ever did. I had always gone with older men. I had also achieved some kind of stability in Hollywood, and Desi with his beautiful girls and good times seemed headed in another direction.In many ways, marrying Desi was one of the boldest things I ever did. I had always gone with older men. I had also achieved some kind of stability in Hollywood, and Desi with his beautiful girls and good times seemed headed in another direction. Yet, I sensed in Desi a great need. Beneath the dazzling charm was a homeless boy who had no one to care for him, worry about him, love him. And I wanted him and only him as the father of my children. All these thoughts drummed through my mind as we tore up the Merritt Parkway to Connecticut. Desi was singing. His dark eyes were shining, his face radiant, but his hands, I noticed, were shaking.
In Greenwich, we spent a harried two hours seeing a judge about waiving the five-day waiting period and getting the necessary health examination. Desi had planned to marry me at the office of Justice of the Peace John J.O'Brien. He had forgotten only one thing, a wedding ring. Desi’s business manager ran into Woolworth’s and bought me a brass one. Although Desi later gave me a platinum ring, that little discolored brass ring rest among the diamonds and emeralds in my jewel case for years.At the last moment, the justice of the peace decided that we needed a more romantic spot than his office for the wedding, so he drove us out into the country to the Byram River Beagle Club. After the short ceremony, we ate our wedding breakfast in front of a bright fire in the club’s lounge. Outside, a fresh mantle of snow hung on the pine trees. After all the indecision we’d been through, Desi and I were dazed with happiness. We kissed each other and the marriage certificate again and again. It still has my lipstick marks on it. ’I’m going to keep this forever and ever,’ I told Desi, clutching it to my black-wool-covered bosom. This marriage had to work. I would do anything, sacrifice anything, to make Desi happy.Then our intimate little moment together turned into bedlam. Reporters rushed in the doors of the Beagle Club. Desi phoned the manager of the Roxy at 11:55 a.m.‘You’re on in five minutes,’ said Manny calmly, thinking that Desi was in his dressing room at the theater.‘That’s what I called you about,’ said Desi. ‘I’m een Connecticoot.’‘You can’t be in Connecticut!’‘I know,’ laughed Desi. ‘But I am. I been marrying Lucille.’On the car radio driving back to New York we heard the news of our elopement. My mother heard it too, in California.”- Lucille Ball (Love Lucy)—————————————“Probate Judge Harold L. Nape waived the five-day wait required by Connecticut law, and Justice of the Peace John P. O'Brien performed the ceremony at the Byram River Beagle Club at noon on Saturday, November 30, 1940.I’d forgotten to buy a wedding ring and I didn’t know we had to get a Wassermann test. That was the one thing the judge couldn’t waive. While Lucy and I went to get the test, Deke Magaziner, my business manager, and Doc Bender, the friend of Larry Hart’s who was my theatrical agent, went to get a ring. All the jewelry stores were closed because it was Saturday, so they came back with one from the five-and-dime store.
‘That’s terrible,’ I told them.
Lucy overheard us and asked, ‘What’s the matter?’ I told her what had happened and showed her the ring. She said, ‘I love it!’ It got greener and skinnier as the years went by, but she never took it off. Even after I gave her a real nice one in our church wedding in 1949, she insisted on keeping the five-and-dime green one on also.I Iooked at the time and it was obvious that there was no way I could make the first show, I called the manager’s office at the Roxy. When he answered, he presumed I was backstage because it was just about an hour before show time and he knew I liked to get there early to warm up my drum. I had to put a light inside it to get the head tight and I never trusted anyone else to do that. I also had to check my guitar and see that the strings weren’t broken.He said, ‘Oh, hi, Desi, how’s everything back there?’‘I’m not back there.’‘Oh, you’re not in the theater yet?’‘No. I’m not in the theater.’‘Where are you?’‘I’m in Greenwich, Connecticut.’‘You’re in Greenwich, Connecticut?’ He screamed. ‘We’ve got a full house and we’ve got a line that goes all around the block. There is no way you can make the eleven o'clock show!’‘I know that. That’s why I am calling you.’“What am I going to do with all these people? What am I going to tell them?’ he asked.“Well, I think if you tell them the truth,’ I said. ‘They’ll forgive us and I’ll be there for the second show. I promise you.”“What are you doing in Greenwich, Connecticut, if you don’t mind telling me about it?”“I’m getting married.““You’re getting married?”The last thing anyone in New York expected me to do was get married. ‘Who are you marrying?’‘I’m marrying Lucy, Lucille Ball, the girl who was in the picture with me.’‘That’s wonderful!’ he said.‘Judge O'Brien has arranged for a motorcycle escort to take us back to the Roxy. I promise you I’ll be there for the second show. I’ll even bring Lucy onstage and tell the audience what happened.’“Well, there’s nothing I can do but say good luck to both of you and congratulations.’”Justice O'Brien then told us, “Look, I don’t want to marry you in my office. Let’s go over to the Byram River Beagle Club.”“What’s that?” I asked,“Well, it’s a club we have here, a country club. It’s a very nice place.”It really was most lovely setting. A rambling river going by, beautiful flowers and trees, the mountains in the background. There was a glass-enclosed area in back where the ceremony took place. The judge had called ahead and had them cool some champagne and put flowers all over the place. The view Lucy and I looked at during the wedding was a Christmas card. We thanked Justice of the Peace O'Brien for taking us there. It’s something neither of us ever forgot, and we corresponded with him many years until he passed away.- Desi Arnaz (A Book)
November 30th, 1940 - Announcing their marriage and celebrating at the Roxy Theatre in New York City.
“At the stage door of the Roxy we elbowed through a mob of cheering fans. Desi carried me over, the threshold of his dressing room. Inside we found it packed to the walls with reporters and photographers. Desi led me on the stage, still in that darn old black dress, and thousands of people roared their good wishes and pelted us with rice, thoughtfully supplied by the management.
It was November 30,1940, the most momentous day of my life so far. I phoned the Hampshire House; Harriet had finally arrived with my clothes. She had been my inseparable companion, at home and on the set, for years. She was flabbergasted. ‘Who did we marry?’ She asked. In my usual efficient way, I hurried over to the Hampshire House and checked out while Desi celebrated his marriage with some friends in his dressing room.
Desi had been staying at the Hotel Maurice with his mother we decided to begin married life in style at the Pierre. I thought Desi would be delighted to find me all settled there when he finished his last Roxy show that night, but instead he was furious.’I won’t have my wife riding around New York alone in a taxi!’ he stormed. I couldn’t believe my ears.
‘You sure are possessive as hell all of a sudden,’ I told him.We glared at each other and then fell helplessly into each other’s arms-the way so many of our quarrels were to begin and end for years to come. Friends gave our marriage six months: me, I gave it a week.”
- Lucille Ball (Love Lucy)
“By the time we got back to New York, the Journal-American had a headline about it; and photographers and movie fans, most of whom knew Lucy better than they knew me, plus the ones who knew me from Broadway, La Conga and of course the Roxy, made up quite a mob. The stage manager was a nervous wreck. ‘Desi, you got fifteen minutes. Twelve minutes you got …. you got to change…’
Finally I said, ‘Kids, sorry, I got to go. You know I missed the first show already.’ They were all laughing and congratulating us. They were really very nice, not a clothes-tearing mob but friendly and happy.
Lucy went upstairs with me and of course, as soon as we got to my dressing room, I had to do it. The first threshold I carried her over was the one at its door. They had a beautiful bucket of Mumm’s Extra Dry in the dressing room and flowers for Lucy. The management really went all the way.I never had such an ovation in my life as when I went onstage. The theater was just packed. Very few people had left after the announcement during the first show, and many more had to be let in from the street, the ones who had been waiting in line. The management even had to get permission from the tire department so the people could stand in the aisles, at least until they saw Lucy and me.
After thanking the audience for their wonderful reception I said, ‘I’d like you to meet my very lovely bride of just an hour.’ And I brought out Lucy.The Roxy had many tiers, four or five going higher and higher, and the management had sent out for small packages of rice. Everyone in that theater had one of these little packages. It looked like a snowstorm when they put the spotlights on and we saw this cascade of rice coming down from way up in the last tier onto the stage. I don’t know how long jt took them to clean out the mess, but it was really a sight. We kissed and we cried and we threw kisses at them and they got up and shouted and screamed and threw rice at us.”
- Desi Arnaz (A Book)
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