in which, look! a ginger of the month post early in the month!

I’ll be bold and make the statement that every redheaded woman in the world (or, at least in America) holds Lucille Ball dearly to their hot-tempered hearts. She was one of the original Hollywood businesswomen, creating her own company and running her own show. She, literally, wore the pants. She was funny, smart, kind of crazy, and definitely mean and that is why I’ve loved her for almost fifteen years. She was the first woman to ever be pregnant on television, and this was before you could even say the word “pregnant”!

My first experience with this woman was “The Tour” episode of I Love Lucy. I hadn’t watched the show before then, but I figured I could jump in and get the gist. It was at the beginning of my, “this era sucks and I want to live in old-times” phase (which has yet to end), when I started watching Nick at Nite (which now only airs television shows from the nineties, which is stupid). YouTube sucks, for once, and doesn’t even have a clip of this episode, but I’ll give you a rundown in case you’ve no idea which one I’m talking about:

Lucy and Ethel go on a sightseeing bus tour (during the Hollywood episodes), and get off by Richard Widmark’s house. Lucy decides to climb the wall of Richard’s property to pick one of the grapefruits growing in his backyard as a souvenir. Of course, she gets trapped in the backyard. She figures her only way out would be to sneak through the man’s house and leave through the front door, but (again) of course, Richard comes home – and he’s with Ricky! Ricky is going on and on about the strange, almost stalking behavior of his wife, Lucy, and warning Richard about the extremes to which she is willing to go. All the while, Lucy is hiding behind curtains, furniture, and even underneath a bearskin rug. Eventually, she’s found out and they all have a good laugh.

Since first feasting my eyes on the antics of that older, faux-gingered woman, I knew I’d finally found my hero. I wanted to go as her for Halloween every year (though I never have), I wanted to be as comfortable in my own skin, I wanted to watch every episode of every television show she’s ever made (I am the lucky owner of the I Love Lucy boxset now!), and I’ve regretted – every day – that I missed my chance to meet her. She died nearly five years before I’d even really known about her. I always remember Carol Burnett’s story of the day she died, which also happened to be Carol’s birthday: every year, Lucy would send Carol flowers on her birthday with a little note. The day she died, Carol was beside herself in agony about the passing of one of her friends and biggest inspirations; and later that day, she received Lucy’s last flowers. Can you imagine? I’m a little misty just thinking about that!

Lucille Ball was the original Tina Fey and, one day, hopefully, I hope I can be the next on that list.