Synopsis
Now featuring exclusive new material including excerpts from Desi Arnaz’s unpublished second memoir and commentary by daughter Lucie Arnaz, here is the expanded edition of the New York Times bestselling memoir of Cuban American entertainment legend, TV pioneer, and I Love Lucy star Desi Arnaz.
This expanded edition of A Book features additions from Desi Arnaz’s uncompleted, never published second memoir, a new Afterword by Lucie Arnaz, Foreword by granddaughter Kate Luckinbill, and new photos throughout. Desi’s original work and the additions paint a comprehensive portrait of a man beloved and admired by family and people he worked with despite admitted personal failings, and to whom Lucy herself gave credit for the success of I Love Lucy and pioneering television production in its infancy. This full story of a life and legend now completes one of the most fascinating and revelatory Hollywood memoirs ever written.
In the author’s own words: “Welcome to A Book, in which I try to explain how a kid from Cuba found a way to make a living in the United States. It’s all here—the good, the bad, the beautiful, the ugly, the unbelievably lucky breaks, and the heartbreaking failures. . . . You will learn what Lucy and I had to do to convince people we could play husband and wife in I Love Lucy. Shortly afterward Lucie and Desi Jr. were born and our world was paradise. The irony of it all is how our undreamed-of success, fame, and fortune turned it into hell. It wasn’t easy to write about all of it, but as my son said, ‘There’s only one way to do it, Dad. Tell it like it was.’”
About the Author
Desi Arnaz was born into a prosperous and powerful family in Cuba in 1917, but a revolution changed the Arnaz family fortunes and took him to America. Talent, determination, and sheer desperation led to a career as a musician and, eventually, a role in the Broadway musical Too Many Girls. The film adaptation of that show introduced him to the one girl with whom he would fall in love and leave an indelible mark on history: Lucille Ball. Together they created what’s considered one of the greatest television shows of all time, I Love Lucy. While at it, across a career spanning five decades, Arnaz would alter the course of Hollywood and pioneer a new industry. The father of two children, Lucie Arnaz and Desi Arnaz, Jr., he died at the age of sixty-nine in 1986.
Lucie Arnaz is an award-winning actress and singer who made her television debut costarring on Here’s Lucy in the 1970s. Since then, she has had an acclaimed career in film and television as well as on the Broadway stage, with celebrated performances in shows such as The Jazz Singer, They’re Playing Our Song, and The Witches of Eastwick. She continues to star in theatrical performances across the United States and Europe. Lucie has been married to actor-author Laurence Luckinbill for forty-five years, and together they have five grandchildren and three grandchildren.
Kate Luckinbill has spent her life surrounded by show business and that guided her initial foray into acting. She graduated from the University of Miami Theatre Conservatory with a BFA and went on to write and perform her own one-woman show, Love, or Lack Thereof. After retiring from the stage at 25, Kate took another path, into the corporate world as a creative recruiter for the Fortune 50 and working with Snapchat, Amazon, Minecraft, and more. She has since found the balance of both worlds, working with her mother, Lucie, to maintain the Arnaz/Ball/Luckinbill legacies and estates, while also creating media such as a live audio production of an episode of The Twilight Zone. She has one beautiful son, Jeffrey Dodge.
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