Happy New Year's From Everything Lucy

Have a Very Happy and Healthy New Year's Eve!


Coming up on the Everything Lucy Blog is very important news on the whys and wherefores of the crisis at the Lucy-Desi Center and Museum. As recently reported, all the board members of the center resigned including Lucie Arnaz and Desi Arnaz, Jr. And the root of the resignations and the problems at the center all come down to the Executive Director and the Assistant Director. More coming soon on this crisis.

Lucille Ball Film Preserved in Library of Congress

The Library of Congress has selected 25 motion pictures into their National Film Registry to preserve the nation's movie heritage.

Currently there are 475 films in the registry. Dance, Girl, Dance (1940)starring Lucille Ball as a strip-tease artist along with Maureen O'Hara.

Other films selected include Back to the Future (1985), Dances With Wolves (1990), and Wuthering Heights (1939). Read the full list at the Library of Congress web site.

Lucille Ball Associates to be on Radio

Stu Shostak's guests for his weekly live call-in talk show on Shokus Internet Radio this Wednesday, December 12th at 7pm EST (9pm PST) will be Lucille Ball's closest confidants, Wanda Clark, her personal assistant for 27 years, and Frank Gorey, originally her driver and later her "major domo" for close to 40 years. Both will share behind-the-scenes stories and memories of what it was like to know and work for the famous redhead who was loved by millions for her antics on television and in the movies in a career that spanned over 50 years. Listeners are invited to participate by calling toll-free at (888) 746-5875.

"Stu's Show" airs live each Wednesday at 4:00 p.m. PST on Shokus Internet Radio with rebroadcasts at the same time daily. Access to the station's feed is free, with no registration required, and is available by choosing one of the audio player links on the Shokus Internet Radio web site or via Itunes by selecting Radio/Eclectic and then locating the station's name alphabetically in the list.

Shokus Internet Radio is a service of Shokus Video, and is "TV on the radio for baby boomers", with live call-in talk shows featuring TV celebrities, interactive telephone game shows, classic stand-up comedy from the great comedians, and big band, easy listening music during the morning and afternoon drive times.

The Humor Project and TV Land Sponsor Legacy of Laughter with Lucie Arnaz

The very talented Lucie Arnaz will be joining The Humor Project during their June 20-22, 2008 international conference on "The Positive Power of Humor and Creativity" at Silver Bay Conference Center on majestic Lake George in upper New York State. Sponsored by TV Land, Lucie will be moderating a panel entitled "LOL: Legacy of Laughter" that will feature a number of our world-class conference speakers. In addition, Lucie will be doing an up-close-and-personal concurrent workshop and will be accepting the Laughtime Achievement Award on behalf of her parents, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. You may have noticed last week that Lucy and Desi were voted by TV Land viewers to be #1 among the 100 Greatest TV Icons in history.

Information about the 52nd international conference will be available later this month. This learning-filled, fun-fueled program will also be described in their 2008 Sourcebook, which will be available soon and be mailed in early January. The earlier you register for the conference the lower the prices. For more information or to preorder your tickets, they can be reached at 518-587-8770 to order conference registrations as holiday gifts.

Lucie, Desi Jr. Depart With Clark, Rapaport; Spots Filled With Locals

Another story on the departure of Lucie and Desi Arnaz from the Board of the Lucy-Desi Center from The Post-Journal in Jamestown, New York.

Four members of the Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Center board of directors, including Lucie Arnaz and Desi Arnaz Jr., have left the board and have been replaced with local residents, organization officials confirmed Tuesday.

Other departures include Wanda Clark, Lucille Ball’s longtime personal secretary, and Mary Rapaport, a Buffalo area resident and an active supporter of the Lucy-Desi community.

Lucy-Desi Center Adds New Board Members

At a meeting of the board of the Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Center earlier this month new directors were elected. Added to the Center’s board were Chautauqua County Director of Planning & Economic Development and Industrial Development Agency CEO William Daly, Jamestown attorney C. Edward Fagan, Ludwig Auction & Realty Co. owner Charles L. Ludwig, and Chautauqua Home Rehabilitation and Improvement Corporation Deputy Director Carolyn Seymour. These new members fill vacancies left by Lucie Arnaz, Desi Arnaz, Jr., Wanda Clark and Mary Rapaport.

In announcing the additions to the board, Executive Director Ric Wyman said, “We have made significant strides since the Center was established nearly six years ago. With two buildings on the corner of Third and Main welcoming thousands of visitors to downtown Jamestown each year and plans to open a significantly expanded Lucy-Desi Museum in 2008, it’s been a time of great growth.

“None of this could have happened without the generosity of Lucie Arnaz and Desi Arnaz, Jr., who not only served as our founding president and vice-president but who also provided countless valuable objects from their parents, created the Center’s Legacy of Laughter seminar series, and offered support in many other ways.”

Wyman noted that the Center is experiencing its strongest year to date, with new records set for numbers of admissions, on-line traffic, and Lucy-Desi Center Acquisitions Society memberships. The two Center-sponsored annual festivals this year attracted visitors from 37 states, plus Australia, Canada, Croatia, England, Germany, and Puerto Rico. In addition, the Lucy-Desi Center has developed Lucille Ball/Desi Arnaz/“I Love Lucy”- related school curriculum that meet New York State Education Department standards, offered workshops in Laughter Yoga, and partnered with local Girl Scouts, senior facilities, and the Hispanic community. Last summer, the weekly magazine American Profile shared a major story with its three million readers entitled “Jamestown Loves Lucy.”

New Everything Lucy Site Design

You'll notice not only on the Everything Lucy Blog, but also the main "Everything Lucy" website that it has a new look and feel!

This is the promised change almost two-years in the making! It will also more then likely be the very last redesign the site goes through.

For those not aware, youns.com and this blog is owned and run by only one individual and this includes several blogs! This adventure began as a much needed rehaul of the existing site along with the several subwebs that it contained. It had become very dated, not only in look but also in feel and to remain a viable website, it had to be redesigned. As I am a web designer by profession as well as an artist, I was the one to take on the responsibility instead of farming it out. Incidently, I was also the one who programmed the site as well. Now, I don't pretend to be a programmer nor am I, and that can be seen by those who view "under the hood" of the web site and this is one of the main reasons that it took 2 years to get done. I do not have the money to farm the coding of the site out so I had to take the code that I orginially had and "retrofit" it to the new design. This took alot of investing time and trial and error to get it to fit into the new design. So, I don't profess to be a programmer and this is why it has taken so long to get up and running AND this is the main reason that I will not try to do this again!

All the content that existed before in the old site is still retained, although I have added some new content to various sections, it should still be very familiar to those who have frequented the site before. The main "youns.com" site has always existed as a placeholder for three additional subwebs that had always been separate in content and therefore could have always been their own site all by themselves. Therefore, I created 4 distinct and different designs only with a small common design element between them all and I created separate URLs for each of the sites so it will be easier to remember and will stand on it's own. The main site (http://www.youns.com) which is a "kick-off" to the 3 subwebs which include "Everything Lucy", "Online Pet Memorials" and "Ancestry".

Everything Lucy (http://everythinglucy.youns.com) - This subweb is a site that is all about Lucille Ball as is this blog. This was and hopefully still is one of the best resources and knowledge-base on one of my favorite comedians. It is exclusively devoted to Lucille Ball and her career and life. One of the first and formost web sites that featured Lucille Ball on the internet and now it has it's own exclusive Everything Lucy Blog which is updated very frequently with all the news on the internet about our favorite red-head.

Online Pet Memorials (http://petmemorials.youns.com) - This subweb is dedicated to my departed pet, Q-Bert, who passed away 8 1/2 years ago now. It is a free pet memorial site that anyone in the world can post a memorial to their departed pet, whether it be dog, cat or even frog! The Photo Album feature has been updated and should be a joy for all those present and future. Hopefully this site will be a blessing for everyone as a resource to help them through their grief and as a living testament and memorial to the love of their departed pet.

Ritchey and Diehl Ancestry and Geneology (http://ancestry.youns.com) - This subweb is devoted to my ancestry which I've been collecting data on for a number of years and have created a CD-rom of all the published material that has previously existed in different publications. Now I have included it all in one place and available on one CD-rom for all those interested in and related to the Ritchey and Diehl families that I originate from.

I'll be sending out an email blast to those who have requested to be on the various mailing lists for the interested sections of the web to inform them of the new design shortly.

For those who are regular readers to the Everything Lucy Blog, you'll notice that many of the images "disappeared". This is because the location of those original images have changed and I am still trying to find a way to update those older archived Blog entries to update this image location. If anyone knows how, please let me know!

Anyway, while the new design is still fresh there may be quirks that I have not caught. So if you run into anything, please let me know from the contact us page on the main Youns.com site.

Enjoy and let me know what you think! They'll be more changes on the way!