
Ball of Fire
The Tumultuous Life and Comic Art of Lucille Ball
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Narrated by:
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Nan McNamara
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By:
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Stefan Kanfer
About this listen
As a movie actress Lucille Ball was, in her own words, "queen of the B-pluses." But on the small screen she was a superstar - arguably the funniest and most enduring in the history of TV. In this exemplary biography, Stefan Kanfer explores the roots of Lucy's genius and places it in the context of her conflicted and sometimes bitter personal life.
Ball of Fire gives us Lucy in all her contradictions. Here is the beauty who became a master of knock-down slapstick; the control freak whose comic alter ego thrived on chaos, the worshipful TV housewife whose real marriage ended in public disaster. Here, too, is an intimate view of the dawn of television and of the America that embraced it. Charming, informative, touching. and laugh-out-loud funny, this is the book Lucy's fans have been waiting for.
©2003 Stefan Kanfer (P)2022 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
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Love, Lucy is the valentine Lucille Ball left for her fans—a warm, wise, and witty memoir written by Lucy herself. The legendary star of the classic sitcom I Love Lucy was at the pinnacle of her success when she sat down to record the story of her life. No comedienne had made America laugh so hard, no television actress had made the leap from radio and B movies to become one of the world’s best-loved performers. This is her story—in her own words.
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What a great book
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Brando is perpetually fascinating, both for the power of the characters he portrayed and for his tumultuous personal life. Best-selling biographer Stefan Kanfer seamlessly intertwines the man and the work to give us the fullest and most illuminating appraisal yet. Kanfer takes us from Brando's troubled childhood to his arrival in New York in the 1940s, where he studied with the legendary Stella Adler and became, at age 23, the star of Broadway in A Streetcar Named Desire.
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so boring, made me not like brando
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What a great book
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so boring, made me not like brando
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
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BARBRA IS LIKE BUTTAH!
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In 20 years of show business, Lucille Ball had only modest and sporadic success. Her TV program, I Love Lucy, was her last chance to fulfill the ambition that had sustained her through the frustrations of her professional life and the anguish of a failing marriage. The role of Lucy Ricardo revealed her true gifts, but it changed her life immeasurably. This definitive portrait of Lucille Ball is based on the recollections of fellow performers, her closest friends and family, and Lucille herself.
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A So-So Look at Lucy
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What listeners say about Ball of Fire
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
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Performance
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- Mina64
- 06-16-22
Ball of AWESOMENESS!!
This is an awesome listen/read!!
I Love Lucy! And I Love this book! Give it a listen or a read!!
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