Lucy
Themed Trip To LA
I just got back from a trip
to L.A. and thought I'd share some of my Lucy experiences.
I got a chance to go to
Lucy's grave. Thanks to some directions. I had a little trouble
finding it at first. There were flowers covering Lucy and her
mother's name but I eventually found it.
I found Lucy,
Desi, Vivian, Fred, and Gale's stars on the Walk of Fame and I
got a picture of John Waynes footprints at Graumans (Manns). I
tried to get my mom to come back at 1:00 am to help me steal them
but she didn't think that was too good of an idea.
I also got to the Lucy
Tribute at Universal Studios. I was there four years ago but
didn't get to spend much time in it. I spent a good two and a
half hours this time. It was nice because I went late in the day
and there were not a lot of people in it. I went over to the Lucy
Boutique and spent over a $100. The sales girl there thought I
was crazy.
I got a chance to drive
out to see Vivian's house and found Lucy's house on Ogden Drive
too.
I took the Paramount Studio
Tour my second day there. In 1988 when the studio celebrated an
anniversary they renamed the buildings after people who
contributed to the success of Paramount and one of them is the
Lucille Ball building. I actually got to go in that one and on
the wall there is a picture of Lucy and Ann Southern in her
personalized golf cart. Across from her building there is a grass
area named Lucy Park which was used in Happy Days and the Brady
Bunch. What is now the Paramount Commissary used to be the
old RKO dance studio where Lucy and Desi first met. I tried to
find out what stage I Love Lucy was filmed on but I got
answers from 21, 22, no that was at the Culver City lot. I
recalled someone on the list said Fra sier is now on the old
stage but the page when we were trying to get in to see Frasier
said it wasn't. By the way Frasier is taped on Stage 25.
Thursday had to be the best day of my trip. After my UCLA tour we went to go see Lucy's House on Roxbury. As you all know it's under construction. Luckily some of the construction guys were still there and said I could go in and look around. Well if I didn't die there. I went in the side, and down this little hall in to the main hall in front of the stair case . I got to look around her living room and then her den. We ran in to the contractor who was finishing for the day and was more than happy to show us around. In her den there was one of her old movie projectors. He said there were two but the owners gave one away. He said they didn't change much of the structure of the house (i.e. knocking down any walls) except they added a little to the back in the upstairs and they replaced all the old plaster on the walls inside and out. I got a chance to look around the back yard and in her guest house (which he said they didn't change anything in it). In the garage they had some of her appliances. I'm not sure if they were the one's from the main house or the guest house. I got to look around in her pool house and saw her pool. The contractor did give me a film reel(no film on it) that was in the den but apparently there were some friends of the owner's there who didn't want us to have it. I don't what the story was, I wasn't around at the time but oh well. I did manage to get a brick(my grapefruit) and the contractor gave me a porcelain thermostat off the wall of her cedar lined closet that was in her guest house. There were also a lot of plastic shoe boxes piled in there too.
Hope you enjoyed my
story.