August 03, 2007

Jamestown Loves Lucy

American Profile features a story about the Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Center.

As in this upcoming weekend, for the last 11 years Jamestown has welcomed thousands of fans from across the world to the Lucy-Desi Festival, celebrated every Memorial Day weekend, and Lucy’s Birthday Celebration, scheduled Aug. 3 to 5 this year to observe the 96th anniversary of her birth.

During both festivals, Lucy impersonators roam the streets and pose for photographs, and special guests such as Lucy’s longtime chauffeur, Frank Gorey, share memories of working with the queen of TV comedy. Writers and film editors of her various TV series discuss her work, and buses take visitors on tours of various Lucy-related sites, including the two-story home at 69 Stewart Ave. where she was born, and Lake View Cemetery, where the comedienne’s ashes are interred alongside her parents.

Jamestown Mayor Sam Teresi, 47, thinks Lucy’s enduring popularity has a simple explanation: “Lucy always put a smile on people’s faces,” he says.

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