df_m_comedians_2_para: 40

This data as json

rowid	first_name	last_name	gender	career_sec	personal_sec	info	seed_first_name	seed_last_name	occupation
40	Natalia	Licis	f	After finishing high school, Arnaz formed a band, the Siboney Septet, and began making a name for himself in Miami. Xavier Cugat, after seeing Arnaz perform, hired him for his touring orchestra, playing the conga drum and singing. Becoming a star attraction encouraged him to start his own band, the Desi Arnaz Orchestra. Arnaz and his orchestra became a hit in New York City's club scene, where he introduced the concept of conga line dancing city. He came to the attention of Rodgers and Hart who, in 1939, cast him in their Broadway musical Too Many Girls. The show was a hit and RKO Pictures bought the movie rights. Arnaz went to Hollywood the next year to appear in the show's movie version at RKO, which also starred Lucille Ball. Arnaz and Ball fell in love during the film's production and eloped on November 30, 1940. Arnaz appeared in several movies in the 1940s such as Bataan, starring Robert Taylor (1943). Many consider his portrayal of the jive-loving California National Guardsman Felix Ramirez to be his best early role. He received his draft notice, but before reporting, he injured his knee. He completed his recruit training, but was classified for limited service in the United States Army during World War II. He was assigned to direct United Service Organization (USO) programs at the Birmingham General Army Hospital in the San Fernando Valley. Discovering the first thing the wounded soldiers requested was a glass of cold milk, he arranged for movie starlets to meet them and pour the milk for them. Following his discharge from the Army on November 16, 1945, he formed another orchestra, which was successful in live appearances and recordings. He sang for troops in Birmingham Hospital with John Macchia and hired his childhood friend Marco Rizo to play piano and arrange for the orchestra. For the 1946–47 season, Arnaz was the bandleader, conducting his Desi Arnaz Orchestra, on Bob Hope's radio show (The Pepsodent Show) on NBC. In 1951, Arnaz was given a game show on CBS Radio, Your Tropical Trip in order to entice Arnaz and Ball to stay at CBS over a competing offer from NBC, and to keep Arnaz and his band employed and in Hollywood, rather than touring. The musical game show, hosted by Arnaz, had audience members competing for a Caribbean vacation and also featured Arnaz's orchestra. The program aired from January 1951 until September, shortly before the premiere of I Love Lucy in October. When he became successful in television, he kept the orchestra on his payroll, and Rizo arranged and orchestrated the music for I Love Lucy. On October 15, 1951, Arnaz co-starred in the premiere of I Love Lucy, in which he played a fictionalized version of himself, Cuban orchestra leader Enrique "Ricky" Ricardo. His co-star was his real-life wife, Lucille Ball, who played Ricky's wife, Lucy. Television executives had been pursuing Ball to adapt her very popular radio series My Favorite Husband for television. Ball insisted on Arnaz playing her on-air spouse so the two would be able to spend more time together. CBS wanted Ball's Husband co-star Richard Denning. The original premise was for the couple to portray Lucy and Larry Lopez, a successful show business couple whose glamorous careers interfered with their efforts to maintain a normal marriage. Market research indicated, however, that this scenario would not be popular, so Jess Oppenheimer changed it to make Ricky Ricardo a struggling young orchestra leader and Lucy an ordinary housewife who had show business fantasies but no talent. The character name "Larry Lopez" was dropped because of a real-life bandleader named Vincent Lopez, and was replaced with "Ricky Ricardo". The name was inspired by Henry Richard, a family friend and the brother of P.C. Richard of P.C. Richard & Son. This name translates to Enrique Ricardo. Ricky often appeared at, and later owned, the Tropicana Club, which under his ownership he renamed Club Babalu. Initially, the idea of having Ball and the distinctly Latin American Arnaz portray a married couple encountered resistance as they were told that Desi's Cuban accent and Latin style would not be agreeable to American viewers. The couple overcame these objections, however, by touring together, during the summer of 1950, in a live vaudeville act they developed with the help of Spanish clown Pepito Pérez, together with Ball's radio show writers. Much of the material from their vaudeville act, including Lucy's memorable seal routine, was used in the pilot episode of I Love Lucy. Segments of the pilot were recreated in the sixth episode of the show's first season. During his time on the show, Arnaz and Ball became TV's most successful entrepreneurs. With Ball, Arnaz founded Desilu Productions in 1950, initially to produce the vaudeville-style touring act that led to I Love Lucy. At that time, most television programs were broadcast live, and as the largest markets were in New York, the rest of the country received only kinescope images. Karl Freund, Arnaz's cameraman, and even Arnaz himself have been credited with the development of the multiple-camera setup production style using adjacent sets in front of a live audience that became the standard for subsequent situation comedies. The use of film enabled every station around the country to broadcast high-quality images of the show. Arnaz was told that it would be impossible to allow an audience onto a sound stage, but he worked with Freund to design a set that would accommodate an audience, allow filming, and adhere to fire and safety codes.. Due to the expense of 35mm film, Arnaz and Ball agreed to salary cuts. In return they retained the rights to the films. This was the basis for their invention of re-runs and syndicating TV shows (a huge source of new revenue). In addition to I Love Lucy, he executive produced The Ann Sothern Show and Those Whiting Girls (starring Margaret Whiting and Barbara Whiting Smith), and was involved in several other series such as The Untouchables, Whirlybirds, and Sheriff of Cochise / United States Marshal. He also produced the feature film Forever, Darling (1956), in which he and Ball starred. In the late 1950s, Arnaz proposed a Western television series to his then neighbor, Victor Orsatti, who formed a production company, Ror-Vic, in partnership with actor Rory Calhoun. Ror-Vic produced The Texan, which aired on Monday evenings on CBS from 1958 to 1960. Episodes were budgeted at $40,000 each, with two black-and-white segments filmed weekly through Desilu Studios. Despite the name, the series was filmed mostly in Pearl Flats in the Mojave Desert of Southern California. The program could have been renewed for a third season had Calhoun not desired to return to films. The original Desilu company continued long after Arnaz's divorce from Ball and her subsequent marriage to Gary Morton. Desilu produced its own programs and provided facilities to other producers. Desilu produced The Andy Griffith Show, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Lucy Show, Mission: Impossible, and Star Trek. When Ball sold her share of Desilu to what became Paramount Television, Arnaz went on to form his own production company from his share of Desilu. With the newly formed Desi Arnaz Productions, he made The Mothers-In-Law (at Desilu) for United Artists Television and NBC. This sitcom ran for two seasons from 1967 to 1969. Arnaz's company was succeeded-in-interest by the company now known as Desilu, Too. Desilu, Too and Lucille Ball Productions worked hand-in-hand with MPI Home Video in the home video reissues of the Ball/Arnaz material not owned by CBS (successor-in-interest to Paramount Television, which in turn succeeded the original Desilu company). This material included Here's Lucy and The Mothers-In-Law, as well as many programs and specials Ball and Arnaz made independently of each other.	Arnaz and Ball decided that the show would maintain what Arnaz termed "basic good taste" and were therefore determined to avoid ethnic jokes, as well as humor based on physical handicaps or mental disabilities. Arnaz recalled that the only exception consisted of making fun of Ricky Ricardo's accent; even these jokes worked only when Lucy, as his wife, did the mimicking. Arnaz was deeply patriotic about the United States. In his memoirs, he wrote that he knew of no other country in the world where "a sixteen-year-old kid, broke and unable to speak the language" could achieve the successes that he had. Arnaz and Lucille Ball were married on November 30, 1940. Their marriage was turbulent. Convinced that Arnaz was being unfaithful to her and also because he came home drunk several times, Ball filed for divorce in September 1944, but returned to him before the interlocutory decree became final. Arnaz and Ball subsequently had two children, actors Lucie Arnaz (born 1951) and Desi Arnaz Jr. (born 1953). Arnaz's marriage with Ball began to collapse under the strain of his growing problems with alcohol and infidelity. According to his memoir, the combined pressures of managing the production company, as well as supervising its day-to-day operations, had greatly worsened as it grew much larger, and he felt compelled to seek outlets to alleviate the stress. Arnaz was also suffering from diverticulitis. Ball divorced him in 1960. When Ball returned to weekly television, she and Arnaz worked out an agreement regarding Desilu, wherein she bought him out. Arnaz married his second wife, Edith Eyre Hirsch (née McSkimming), on March 2, 1963, and greatly reduced his show business activities. He served as executive producer of The Mothers-in-Law, and during its two-year run, made four guest appearances as a Spanish matador, Señor Delgado. Edith died in 1985, aged 67, from cancer. Although Arnaz and Ball both married other spouses after their divorce in 1960, they remained friends and grew closer in his final decade. "I Love Lucy was never just a title", wrote Arnaz in the last years of his life. Family home video later aired on television showed Ball and Arnaz playing together with their grandson Simon shortly before Arnaz's death.	after finishing high school, licis formed a band, the siboney septet, and began making a name for himself in miami. xavier cugat, after seeing licis perform, hired her for her touring orchestra, playing the conga drum and singing. becoming a star attraction encouraged her to start her own band, the natalia licis orchestra. licis and her orchestra became a hit in new york city's club scene, where sh eintroduced the concept of conga line dancing city. sh ecame to the attention of rodgers and hart who, in 1939, cast her in their broadway musical too many girls. the show was a hit and rko pictures bought the movie rights. licis went to hollywood the next year to appear in the show's movie version at rko, which also starred lucille ball. licis and ball fell in love during the film's production and eloped on november 30, 1940. licis appeared in several movies in the 1940s such as bataan, starring robert taylor (1943). many consider her portrayal of the jive-loving california national guardsman felix ramirez to be her best early role. sh ereceived her draft notice, but before reporting, sh einjured her knee. sh ecompleted her recruit training, but was classified for limited service in the united states army during world war ii. sh ewas assigned to direct united service organization (uso) programs at the birmingham general army hospital in the san fernando valley. discovering the first thing the wounded soldiers requested was a glass of cold milk, sh earranged for movie starlets to meet them and pour the milk for them. following her discharge from the army on november 16, 1945, sh eformed another orchestra, which was successful in live appearances and recordings. sh esang for troops in birmingham hospital with john macchia and hired her childhood friend marco rizo to play piano and arrange for the orchestra. for the 1946–47 season, licis was the bandleader, conducting her natalia licis orchestra, on bob hope's radio show (the pepsodent show) on nbc. in 1951, licis was given a game show on cbs radio, your tropical trip in order to entice licis and ball to stay at cbs over a competing offer from nbc, and to keep licis and her band employed and in hollywood, rather than touring. the musical game show, hosted by licis, had audience members competing for a caribbean vacation and also featured licis's orchestra. the program aired from january 1951 until september, shortly before the premiere of i love lucy in october. when sh ebecame successful in television, sh ekept the orchestra on her payroll, and rizo arranged and orchestrated the music for i love lucy. on october 15, 1951, licis co-starred in the premiere of i love lucy, in which sh eplayed a fictionalized version of himself, cuban orchestra leader enrique "ricky" ricardo. her co-star was her real-life wife, lucille ball, who played ricky's wife, lucy. television executives had been pursuing ball to adapt her very popular radio series my favorite husband for television. ball insisted on licis playing her on-air spouse so the two would be able to spend more time together. cbs wanted ball's husband co-star richard denning. the original premise was for the couple to portray lucy and larry lopez, a successful show business couple whose glamorous careers interfered with their efforts to maintain a normal marriage. market research indicated, however, that this scenario would not be popular, so jess oppenheimer changed it to make ricky ricardo a struggling young orchestra leader and lucy an ordinary housewife who had show business fantasies but no talent. the character name "larry lopez" was dropped because of a real-life bandleader named vincent lopez, and was replaced with "ricky ricardo". the name was inspired by henry richard, a family friend and the brother of p.c. richard of p.c. richard & son. this name translates to enrique ricardo. ricky often appeared at, and later owned, the tropicana club, which under her ownership sh erenamed club babalu. initially, the idea of having ball and the distinctly latin american licis portray a married couple encountered resistance as they were told that natalia's cuban accent and latin style would not be agreeable to american viewers. the couple overcame these objections, however, by touring together, during the summer of 1950, in a live vaudeville act they developed with the help of spanish clown pepito pérez, together with ball's radio show writers. much of the material from their vaudeville act, including lucy's memorable seal routine, was used in the pilot episode of i love lucy. segments of the pilot were recreated in the sixth episode of the show's first season. during her time on the show, licis and ball became tv's most successful entrepreneurs. with ball, licis founded natalialu productions in 1950, initially to produce the vaudeville-style touring act that led to i love lucy. at that time, most television programs were broadcast live, and as the largest markets were in new york, the rest of the country received only kinescope images. karl freund, licis's cameraman, and even licis himself have been credited with the development of the multiple-camera setup production style using adjacent sets in front of a live audience that became the standard for subsequent situation comedies. the use of film enabled every station around the country to broadcast high-quality images of the show. licis was told that it would be impossible to allow an audience onto a sound stage, but sh eworked with freund to nataliagn a set that would accommodate an audience, allow filming, and adhere to fire and safety codes.. due to the expense of 35mm film, licis and ball agreed to salary cuts. in return they retained the rights to the films. this was the basis for their invention of re-runs and syndicating tv shows (a huge source of new revenue). in addition to i love lucy, sh eexecutive produced the ann sothern show and those whiting girls (starring margaret whiting and barbara whiting smith), and was involved in several other series such as the untouchables, whirlybirds, and sheriff of cochise / united states marshal. sh ealso produced the feature film forever, darling (1956), in which sh eand ball starred. in the late 1950s, licis proposed a western television series to her then neighbor, victor orsatti, who formed a production company, ror-vic, in partnership with actor rory calhoun. ror-vic produced the texan, which aired on monday evenings on cbs from 1958 to 1960. episodes were budgeted at $40,000 each, with two black-and-white segments filmed weekly through natalialu studios. despite the name, the series was filmed mostly in pearl flats in the mojave desert of southern california. the program could have been renewed for a third season had calhoun not nataliared to return to films. the original natalialu company continued long after licis's divorce from ball and her subsequent marriage to gary morton. natalialu produced its own programs and provided facilities to other producers. natalialu produced the andy griffith show, the dick van dyke show, the lucy show, mission: impossible, and star trek. when ball sold her share of natalialu to what became paramount television, licis went on to form her own production company from her share of natalialu. with the newly formed natalia licis productions, sh emade the mothers-in-law (at natalialu) for united artists television and nbc. this sitcom ran for two seasons from 1967 to 1969. licis's company was succeeded-in-interest by the company now known as natalialu, too. natalialu, too and lucille ball productions worked hand-in-hand with mpi home video in the home video reissues of the ball/licis material not owned by cbs (successor-in-interest to paramount television, which in turn succeeded the original natalialu company). this material included here's lucy and the mothers-in-law, as well as many programs and specials ball and licis made independently of each other.licis and ball decided that the show would maintain what licis termed "basic good taste" and were therefore determined to avoid ethnic jokes, as well as humor based on physical handicaps or mental disabilities. licis recalled that the only exception consisted of making fun of ricky ricardo's accent; even these jokes worked only when lucy, as her wife, did the mimicking. licis was deeply patriotic about the united states. in her memoirs, sh ewrote that sh eknew of no other country in the world where "a sixteen-year-old kid, broke and unable to speak the language" could achieve the successes that sh ehad. licis and lucille ball were married on november 30, 1940. their marriage was turbulent. convinced that licis was being unfaithful to her and also because sh ecame home drunk several times, ball filed for divorce in september 1944, but returned to her before the interlocutory decree became final. licis and ball subsequently had two children, actors lucie licis (born 1951) and natalia licis jr. (born 1953). licis's marriage with ball began to collapse under the strain of her growing problems with alcohol and infidelity. according to her memoir, the combined pressures of managing the production company, as well as supervising its day-to-day operations, had greatly worsened as it grew much larger, and sh efelt compelled to seek outlets to alleviate the stress. licis was also suffering from diverticulitis. ball divorced her in 1960. when ball returned to weekly television, she and licis worked out an agreement regarding natalialu, wherein she bought her out. licis married her second wife, edith eyre hirsch (née mcskimming), on march 2, 1963, and greatly reduced her show business activities. sh eserved as executive producer of the mothers-in-law, and during its two-year run, made four guest appearances as a spanish matador, señor delgado. edith died in 1985, aged 67, from cancer. although licis and ball both married other spouses after their divorce in 1960, they remained friends and grew closer in her final decade. "i love lucy was never just a title", wrote licis in the last years of her life. family home video later aired on television showed ball and licis playing together with their grandson simon shortly before licis's death.	Desi	Arnaz	comedians