Loving Lucy: Centennial Celebrations

Lucy loving is breaking out all over! August 6 will be Lucille Ball's 100th birthday, and October 15 will be the 60th anniversary of the first airing of I Love Lucy.

Here's a calendar of upcoming events and celebrations. I’ll be in New York City for the Paley Center screenings, and I hope to get to D.C. for the Library of Congress exhibition. Unfortunately, I won't be in
Jamestown (Lucy’s birthplace) for its centennial Lucy Fest.

• Jamestown, N.Y., Aug. 3-7, 2011: Lucille Ball Festival of Comedy Lucy Fest. Lucy's birthplace celebrates her 100th birthday, returning to a festival format that started in 1991. The headliners are Joan Rivers and Paula Poundstone. "Be a Lucy" by dressing as Lucy Ricardo for a Guinness World
  Record event, and attend a recreation of Lucy radio shows. There will also big a parade, baseball game and other family-friendly events. For the full schedule and more information see http://www.lucycomedyfest.com/. The Lucille Ball Desi Arnaz Center, 2 W. Third St., Jamestown, NY 14701. Phone 716-484-0800. Email info@lucy-desi.com.
  
  Also see the articles Love Lucy? and Celebrating the world's most famous redhead, from The Morning Call of Allentown, Penn.
• Los Angeles (Hollywood), Calif., Aug. 3 through Nov. 30, 2011: The Hollywood Museum presents Lucille Ball at 100 and I Love Lucy at 60, showcasing memorabilia saluting the careers and romance of Hollywood's most famous lovebirds. On Aug. 4, the museum and CBS DVD Paramount Home Entertainment are paying tribute to Lucy in a gala reception.
• Washington, D.C., Aug. 4, 2011, through Jan. 28, 2012: I Love Lucy: An American Legend, exhibit at the Library of Congress. Free and open to the public, I Love Lucy: An American Legend explores the show’s history through the Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz family scrapbooks as well as photographs, scripts, printed and manuscript music and other documents from the library. Location: Library of Congress James Madison Building, 101 Independence Ave. S.E., Washington, D.C. 20540. Phone 202-707-2905. Email pao@loc.gov.
• New York, N.Y., Aug. 5 through Sept. 3, 2011: We Love Lucy: Screenings at the Paley Center. The Paley Center Celebrates Lucille Ball’s Centennial: A look at Ball’s unparalleled work in the medium of television. Compilation screenings: “A Variety of Lucy” and “Lucy Rarities.” Location: Paley Center for Media (formerly the Museum of Television and Radio), 25 W. 52nd St., New York, NY 10019. Contact information is online.
• New York, N.Y., Sept. 28 through Oct. 30, 2011: The Paley Center Celebrates I Love Lucy’s 60th Anniversary. Compilation screenings: “Classic Lucy and Desi” and “Eventful Lucy Moments.” Location and contact information under previous Paley Center listing.
• Washington, D.C., Oct. 15, 2011, Lucie Arnaz at the Library of Congress. (That’s all the information available now at LucieArnaz.com.)
  
  
  Shout-outs (just because) to Lucy fans:
  • Everything Lucy
  • Greg in Hollywood’s I Love Lucy Friday
  • Michael Stern (Lucy’s #1 Fan)
  • The Weekly Charlow

Remembering Shirley Bookey, 1926-2011

My partner Seth's mother, Shirley Bookey, passed away Friday. I knew her for several years before her stroke in 2008, as she welcomed me into her home in Great Neck for frequent visits. Now that I live in the same home I see and feel her influence every day. She was always kind to me, and she continued to be as she lived her final years. Her senses of creativity and justice live on in her sons, Seth and Sandy. I am grateful to have known her.



Read Seth's tribute: Remembering Shirley Bookey, 1926-2011.

(I'll pass along to Seth any pertinent messages; my email address is here.)

Promoting Libraries at Breakfast

I was surprised to see, on the back of a cereal box, a full-panel promotion for libraries, including exhortations to use the library for:

• Reference services
• Business services
• Internet access
• Books-by-mail
• Interlibrary loan
• Literacy services

There's a lot of copy promoting the use of the library for kids with a boy (or a girl with a pageboy haircut) behind books and two hip teen girls in front of some stacks. "Consider the library next time you are looking for a place to hang out." (Should we hang out at the abandoned factory? No, let's try the library instead, since ShopRite says so.)

Anyway, the cereal box was a nice surprise for a library fan/librarian like me.

See a bigger (PDF) copy of the box in Google Docs.