No doubt about it, meeting and taking a few pictures of Lucille Ball was the highlight of my time in Hollywood. Even though these pictures were taken just a year before she died, Lucy was the life of the party and kept everybody laughing and smiling every moment they were near her. Just before this picture was taken, she asked me to hold on a moment while she fixed her lipstick. She pulled a tube out of her purse and without even looking in a mirror just started drawing circles around her mouth - round and round and round went the lipstick while Lucy laughed and carried on with those around her. She tossed the lipstick back in her purse, snapped it shut, looked up at me and smiled and that was it - she was good to go!
There's a reason why everyone loves Lucy; Her smile and her laugh were totally irresistable and gosh, she was just so dang funny. In this picture with Dolores Hope, (Bob's wife) Lucy was getting quite a chuckle out of the fact that every time I went to take their picture one of the guests walked in front of my camera. He wasn't messing with me - he just wasn't paying attention. Sure enough, just about every shot that came back had the guy's head in the picture. Thanks to Photoshop I was finally able to paint him out of at least this picture.
Someday when I can find it, I'll add a picture here that captures Lucy in a shot that shows off those amazing dancing legs of hers. Her floor-length gown was slit up to her hip on the side and at one point she looked at me, laughed and pulling back the front of her dress said, "Well, whaddya think of these gams? Not bad for an old lady, huh?"
Not bad indeed - they looked like the legs of a twenty year old girl. I laughed, said "whoa baby," snapped the picture and left Lucy to her adoring friends and the endless stream of people who wanted a few minutes with her.
Chances are good we'll never have another Lucille Ball ever again. And that's OK because I think we can count on the fact that she'll be with us in reruns till the earth stops spinning on its axis. I loved meetng her and getting to take a few quick and casual pictures of her at this party to honor Elizabeth Taylor. She was so gracious and so funny and it was just the most amazing thing ever to hear that voice and that laugh up close and in person.
The last thing I remember hearing her say, in response to someone asking her about her hair color, was: "Henna honey, Henna!" A few moments later Elizabeth Taylor entered the room and that was my cue to move on. But gosh, for a few minutes there I felt like the luckiest guy in the world; getting paid to take pictures of the woman who kept us in stitches with all that 'splainin she was always doing.
