More on Lucille Ball Items to be Auctioned

BEVERLY HILLS, CA -- Fans of the late great Lucille Ball are about to get an exceedingly rare chance to acquire many of the personal effects and mementos of the legendary comedienne – including love letters from Lucy to her second husband, Gary Morton, Lucy’s Rolls Royce, her personal address book and a trio of her favorite backgammon boards – as a trove of Lucy-related material readies for Heritage Auction Galleries Beverly Hills’ July 17 Signature® Music & Entertainment Memorabilia Auction.

This remarkable and likely once in a lifetime offering comes to Heritage via Susie Morton, who married Gary Morton in 1996, seven years after Lucy passed away in 1989. Susie Morton is perhaps better known as Susie McAllister, as she was known during her days as a professional golfer on the LPGA Tour.
“Susie has lived with these relics of Lucy and Gary’s life for more than 10 years,” said Doug Norwine, Director of Music & Entertainment Auctions at Heritage. “She did it out of respect for her late husband and out of respect for Lucy’s amazing legacy. Now she’s ready to part with these treasures as she remodels her house to make it completely her own.”

Lucille Ball, one of the greatest comedic talents of the 20th Century, and the star of television’s I Love Lucy, among her numerous stage and screen credits, was a notoriously private woman, and one who never let the broader public past her Hollywood persona and who treasured discretion above all else concerning her friends and family.

Now, for the first time, Lucy’s private side is being revealed in this amazing archive, especially as evidenced by the various groupings of correspondence between her and Morton that span the 28 years of their devoted marriage. The love letters are especially poignant, consisting of eight different items, including a pretty Valentine's Day card, and a three-page handwritten letter on Hudson-Rissman Decorative Accessories stationery, which the star has signed boldly in blue ink, "Lucy." This letter is quite touching – Lucy had forgotten that morning to wish Gary a Happy Birthday.

"... I love you,” she wrote, “and I know I must have hurt you so much this morning - Please forgive me..."
Lucy and Gary’s 1984 Silver Spur Rolls Royce marks one of the most interesting lots in the grouping and will give one fan an up-close-and-personal relationship with this stylish sedan owned and used by Lucy and Gary in the last years of their happy life together. The car features a white finish with tan vinyl hard top, boasts a powerful V8 engine and the innovative self-leveling suspension that made the model famous. It has vanity plates reading "GARY M” and, perhaps most stunningly, the odometer shows a mere 21,260 miles.
Anyone who knew Lucy well knew of her deep and abiding passion for the game of backgammon – she was known to be a world class player, to have a board in every room, and one by the pool – which she played on a daily basis, without fail. Included in this auction are three portable backgammon boards from Lucy’s personal collection, which will give collectors a chance to ponder the same points on one of three boards that the legendary redhead herself used to consider as she schooled her various opponents.

Also of note, among so many notable lots, is Lucy’s Personal Address Book dating to the mid-1960s. Its contents include addresses and phone numbers for dozens of celebrities of the time, among them Jack Benny, Edgar Bergen, Milton Berle, Dean Martin, Ethel Merman, Edward G. Robinson and many more, as well as her perennial TV co-stars Vivian Vance and Gale Gordon and her former husband, Desi Arnaz, complete with much annotation, some of it in Lucy's own handwriting.

Lucy was the recipient of numerous awards and honors during her prolific life, and several of these are up for auction as part of this collection, including her Hasty Pudding Woman of the Year Award from 1988, her TV Hall of Fame Lifetime Achievement Award from 1984 and her 1984 Vision Award from the Center for the Partially Sighted in Los Angeles.

Lucy and Gary were also avid art collectors, and devoted a great amount of passion to the paintings in their home. Besides the quality of the artwork, the couple were frequently photographed in front of their favorites and, where applicable, those photographs come with the work itself. Among the highlights are L'Opera, Paris by Regis (Count) de Bouvier de Cachard, pictured in the auction catalog cover, The Joker (1965) by Albert Locca, one of Lucy’s favorite pieces, and New York Traffic by Meinsdorff.

“This barely begins to touch the surface of how deep this archive goes,” said Norwine. “We have a huge selection of artwork, dishware, silverware, perfume bottles and various trinkets that came straight from Lucy. The things in this grouping are literally the things Lucy lived with every day during the last portion of her life.”

Heritage Auctions, founded by Steve Ivy and Jim Halperin, is the world’s third largest auction house, with annual sales more than $600 million, and 500,000+ registered online bidder members. For more information about Heritage Auctions, and to join and gain access to a complete record of prices realized, along with full-color, enlargeable photos of each lot, please visit HA.com.

Lucille Ball items going up for auction

 More information on the Lucille Ball items that are going up for auction this July 17th by Heritage Auctions.

Heritage Auctions announced the sale of rare personal effects and mementos of the legendary comedienne including love letters between Ball and her second husband Gary Morton, her 1984 Rolls Royce and her personal address book.

These items and more are being offered as part of Heritage Auction Galleries Beverly Hills’ July 17 Signature Music & Entertainment Memorabilia Auction. The love letters between Ball and Morton span their 28 year marriage and her address book includes listings for some legendary performers including Jack Benny, Edgar Bergen, Milton Berle, Dean Martin, and Ethel Merman.

The auction is being made possible due to the items coming to Heritage via Susie Morton, who married Gary Morton in 1996, seven years after Ball died in 1989. Morton is perhaps better known as Susie McAllister, a former professional golfer on the LPGA Tour.

“Susie has lived with these relics of Lucy and Gary’s life for more than 10 years,” said Doug Norwine, Director of Music & Entertainment Auctions at Heritage. “She did it out of respect for her late husband and out of respect for Lucy’s amazing legacy. Now she’s ready to part with these treasures as she remodels her house to make it completely her own.”

Other items up for auction will include artwork, silverware and Ball’s favorite backgammon boards, a game which was reportedly a passion of the actress.

Lucille Ball's Rolls-Royce Up For Auction

Lucille Balls’ Rolls Royce will hit the market later this month at a Heritage Auction Galleries event in Beverly Hills, California.

The 1984 Rolls Royce Silver Spur sedan was owned and driven by the “I Love Lucy” television star and her second husband, Gary Morton. Love letters from Lucy to Gary, her address book and other personal items owned by the beloved actress will be offered on July 17, 2010. The car has a white finish with a tan vinyl hard-top and the odometer shows 21,260 miles. Other items include Ball’s personal address book with listings for phone numbers for famous celebrities of the era including Steve Allen, Jack Benny, Edgar Bergen, Milton Berle, Gypsy Rose Lee, Dean Martin, Ethel Merman and Edward G. Robinson as well as her former husband, Desi Arnaz, and her television show co-stars, Vivian Vance and Gale Gordon. The items were consigned by Morton’s third wife, former professional golfer Susie (McAllister) Morton who married him in 1996, seven years after Ball died.

Susie has lived with these relics of Lucy and Gary’s life for more than 10 years and kept them out of respect for her late husband and Lucy’s amazing legacy. Now she’s ready to part with these treasures as she remodels her house to make it completely her own,” said Doug Norwine of Heritage.

The Rolls has an opening bid of $25,000 and could sell for over $50,000.

2010 Lucy-Desi Days Fan Appreciation Weekend

The headliner on Saturday, May 29th during the 2010 Lucy-Desi Days Fan Appreciation Weekend will be Lucille Ball impressionist, Suzanne LaRusch! Suzanne will be bringing her one-woman show to Jamestown, "An Evening with Lucille Ball: 'Thank You for Asking,'" Directed by Lucie Arnaz, this amazing program is crafted in the spirit of the amusing lectures Lucille Ball gave throughout her career.

It's the Lucy the whole world loved, from "Ricardo" to "Mame", but, more importantly, it's an evening with the closest thing to the real Lucy, as you've never seen her before.

For more information or to register, visit http://www.aneveningwithlucilleball.com/.


Suzanne LaRusch was a Hollywood baby, the daughter of a propmaster, herself a child actress who appeared in her first commercial when she was 18 months old. Yet she credits her mother’s roots in upstate New York with giving her the ability to channel the star of “I Love Lucy” in her one-woman show, “An Evening With Lucille Ball: Thank You for Asking.”  Read more:
http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/weekend/2270492,051410-Lucy.article

Traversing the bridge between Lucy Ricardo and Lucille Ball, the production welcomes audiences into the never-before-published backstage stories that catapulted Ball to unprecedented fame, as well as into the tumultuous marriage that would eventually endure public scrutiny. LaRusch recently caught up with ShowBiz Chicago to discuss the process of delving into the famous red head’s life, both behind and in front of the rose-colored camera.  Read more:
http://www.hollywoodchicago.com/news/10663/theater-interview-lucy-were-home-with-performer-suzanne-larusch

“I love taking my experiences, good or bad, and sharing them if it makes the world a better place. And I had a bad experience with my losing my mother at what I thought was too early (an age),” said Arnaz. Read more:
http://timesnews.net/article.php?id=9023073

Featured interview with Suzanne Larush from Showbiz Chicago. "When I started out I did my homework as any actor would, watching many of her tapes, interviews, and episodes of the “I Love Lucy” show that I began to know backwards and forwards. I studied her make-up and mannerisms. My mother was born and raised in Buffalo, New York and Lucille was born and raised about sixteen miles south of there in Jamestown, and I realized that my mother had very similar mannerisms to Lucille. It may be regional, and I caught that early on. So when I would exaggerate my mother’s mannerisms and voice inflections, people thought it was dead-on Lucy. So I found learning points like that along the way." Read more:
http://showbizchicago.com/lucy-were-home-in-conversation-with-suzanne-larusch/

For more information on the 2010 Lucy-Desi Days Fan Appreciation Weekend and for schedule information, tickets, or for accomodations, visit the Lucy-Desi website at: http://www.lucy-desi.com/festival/festival_info.html

I Love Lucy Returns to Hallmark

Hallmark previously removed I Love Lucy from there scheduling but now they are bringing it back!

In a last minute schedule change, beginning Wednesday, April 28 (yes, tomorrow!), I Love Lucy returns to the schedule airing weekdays from 9am-12pm, replacing Martha Stewart programming and an hour of Touched by an Angel.

I Love Lucy will start with the episode "The Girls Want to Go to a Nightclub" on Wednesday morning at 9am. And in more good I Love Lucy news, the previously scheduled marathon that we announced has now been extended! The marathon will still run this coming Sunday (May 2), but now from 6am-4am instead...yes 22 straight hours! Previously it was slated for 9am-4am. Good news indeed! But hopefully the weekday morning block lasts a while! Stay with us if anything changes.