The National Comedy Center announced the acquisition of a substantial collection of production materials from I Love Lucy, marking the 75th anniversary of the show’s premiere. The materials include hundreds of previously unseen behind-the-scenes photographs and 35mm film prints that were originally owned by Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz.
Among the items in the collection is an original script draft representing the earliest known revisions to the pilot episode. The script dates to when the series was called The Lucille Ball Desi Arnaz Show, and the main characters were named Lucy and Larry Lopez rather than their later names. The script comes from the personal collection of original series writer Bob Carroll Jr., provided by his daughter Christina Carroll. The broader Carroll collection includes thousands of documents detailing his writing partnership with Madelyn Pugh and their extensive collaboration with Ball across multiple projects, spanning from My Favorite Husband through Life With Lucy.
The photographs in the collection capture Ball and Arnaz alongside other key figures including Pugh, Carroll, writer Jess Oppenheimer, cinematographer Karl Freund, and various audience members, executives, and family members who visited the Hollywood set during the show’s six-season run that ended in May 1957. The collection is being digitized and preserved through a collaboration between the National Comedy Center and Desilu, Too, the company led by Ball and Arnaz’s daughter, actress Lucie Arnaz.
The National Comedy Center plans to display selections from the collection publicly for the first time at its Lucille Ball Desi Arnaz Museum in Jamestown, New York next year. The museum will also feature 75 artifacts from the collection on social media over the coming months, including Ball’s costume from a 1950 stage tour, the original pilot episode, and various wardrobe pieces worn by Ball and Arnaz during the series.
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