Ruby's Rap

by Ruby Comer

Tom Watson

Me-oh-my and the gatepost! I should be prepping for my speech in San Diego for two PWA resident homes, Fraternity House and Michaelle House (est. 1988). Instead, I’m sprawled out on my bedroom floor catching up on some newly released DVDs, like Christmas in Connecticut. I’ve always felt a kinship with Barbara Stanwyck’s character, columnist Elizabeth Lane. Once the movie is over, I plunk in another DVD which happens to be a most welcome holiday present—the complete fifth season of my fave sitcom of all time, I Love Lucy. (And I love all those spiffy disc extras.) Imagine: For over fifty years, this show has never been off the air! Most of the episodes in the boxed set are the Ricardos’ and Mertzes’ European tour. I’m watching episode #147, where Lucy finally gets her faux Jacques Marcel dress—a burlap potato sack and a horse’s feedbag!

This nifty gift was bestowed on me by Tom Watson, Lucille Ball’s publicist and business affairs associate for the last three years of her life. He has written several “Lucy” books, including I Love Lucy: The Classic Moments, and has been president of the We Love Lucy Fan Club since 1977. Tom is now coproducing the sitcom’s sixth season on DVD. He’s also the creator and host of www.lucyfan.com (since 1998). Whew, I thought I was a fan! Another Midwesterner, Tom hails from Indiana and attended –- wait till you hear this -- Ball State University. NATCH! But the school is not named after Lucille Ball, but the Ball Brothers, who made their fortune in canning jars. (Mary Jane Croft, an I Love Lucy alum, who played Betty Ramsey, also attended Ball State.) Mr. Watson also produces and sometimes even hosts events at the Lucy-Desi Museum in Jamestown, NY, Lucy’s hometown. Their mission statement:  To preserve and celebrate the legacy of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz and enrich the world though the healing powers of love and laughter (www.lucy-desi.com). 

Lucy is not Tom’s only passion. Through the years, he’s donated and volunteered countless hours (“I don’t think I do enough,” he modestly comments) to AIDS organizations. His partner of twenty-five years, Richard Brock, an RN, helped to establish the first AIDS unit at Los Angeles County+USC Medical Center.

As Lucy starves herself to force Ricky to buy her a designer dress, I have an urge to phone Tom.

Ruby Comer: Hey, Tom. It’s Ruby. I’ve got “Lucy in Paris” on my DVD! Thanks again, Toots, for your thoughtfulness.

Tom Watson: Glad you are enjoying it, Rube. [He’s the only one I allow to call me by this name. Must be because he’s a fellow Midwesterner.]

Tom, what involvement, if any, did Lucy have with the AIDS epidemic?

Her daughter, Lucie [Arnaz, A&U, July 2001], has been heavily involved with AIDS benefits, and still is. Lucille supported her on the work she did. One time, Lucille went to a benefit where Lucie was performing. At the time I Love Lucy was being recycled on video, and Lucille was happy when she discovered that the care package given to attendees included an I Love Lucy tape, which they were using for laugh therapy for AIDS patients.  

What better way to heal than through laughter—and Lucy?! You know—

[He interrupts.] Rube, one of the things that really blew her away and was the saddest days of her life was….[he stops to explain.] Unlike many people, she happened to like the film Mame, her last movie. She loved the singing, dancing, and she loved chorus people. In one of the rooms of her house hanging on the walls, she had song-and-dance stills from the movie. When she was working on a Bob Hope TV special that involved a lot of singing and dancing, she called an old friend who had worked with her on Mame, and asked him to come over and help her learn the numbers. He was surprised to see all these photos around the room. He pointed to many of the dancers in the photos and said, “He’s gone. He’s gone....”  They had died of AIDS. [There’s a silence.] This really put Lucy away for a while. She was so overwhelmed to hear this. She loved all those kids!

Where did you first meet Lucy?

It was in New York at an award reception. The room was full of Suits [uptight businessmen]. She was there with her family and she was seated at a table with a Suit on either side. They interspersed a Suit between everybody. At a convenient moment, I went over and asked her for an autograph and she nearly hugged me she was so bored!  Then she and I just started chatting.

She was relieved to see a human!  Tell me something about the real Lucy.

She had a keen appreciation of the fans. Unlike performer’s today, since Lucy came up through the old studio system she firmly believed that fifty percent of her job was doing her work and the other fifty percent was publicity -- to meet and greet the public, press junkets, cutting ribbons, and so on. She was not a Katharine Hepburn or Greta Garbo, as far as ‘go away I don’t want to meet the public.’ In fact, she was one of the most accessible stars. Her house was right there at corner of Roxbury and Lexington [Beverly Hills]. There  was no security fence, and people would ring her bell all the time.

Really [playing dumb]?!  I have to be honest, Tom.  When I was a young whippersnapper working for a small Beverly Hills paper, I actually rang her bell once, but no one answered [said with slight embarrassment]. I mean, I was not on assignment. I did it to meet her….

You too, huh? [Laughing.]  For Halloween she’d dress up like a witch from a costume she got at the studio.  When people came to the door, she’d answer it, and give them candy.  She’d really get into it. I think till this day, Rube, she still gets fan mail! [He giggles.] Right up until the day she died she was getting tons and tons of fan mail. She certainly didn’t have the Sunset Blvd. type of life where it was all over and she was living in her memories, because it was constantly going on.

I used to tell her, and she’d get mad when I said things like this. I would drive her places and I’d always say, I’m never afraid when I’m with you!  And she’d say, Why, because I can drive if something happens? I’d say, No. No matter where we go in this town, if we get a flat tire we can go up and ring a door bell even in the shadiest neighborhoods, because everybody knows who you are and no one is going to pull a knife.  She’d say, Oh my God. That scares me to death. I’d say, Lucy you’ve been in everybody’s life for two or three generations. You’re part of their family.  And she’d just laugh it off. 

Okay, Mister, what’s your fav I Love Lucy episode?

All 180 of them! [He chuckles.]  You know, I think it’s success has to do with the slapstick being tempered with a love story.  Okay wait a minute.  If I had to choose one it would be "The Sentimental Anniversary" (episode 82), where they’re in the closet toasting each other with champagne. It was the ‘kiss and make up’ that really made the show special for me.  No matter how crazy things got it always came back to love. [The Sixth season of I Love Lucy will be released in early April. Tom is hopeful that there will also be a boxed set of the 13 hour-long shows, The Lucille Ball- Desi Arnaz Show.]

Tom when I say, “AIDS,” what comes to mind?

Thirty-five different things! As you know, I lost a huge chunk of friends in the early days of AIDS. I had two sets of friends:  gay friends around my age and older people who were in their eighties. My older friends died of natural causes and my young friends died of AIDS. I turned around one year and realized that, My God,  I don’t even have a Christmas card list anymore.  It sounds pathetic and I don’t mean it to be, but I’m sure I’m not alone in this.

But my concern at the moment is the young gay community because [its members] have grown complacent and very AIDS-friendly. Fortunately, when I was coming of age this disease was not created yet (he chuckles), so there was not that fear hanging over you. Then I lived through the ‘death sentence’ of AIDS, which blessedly we got through, and because of chemistry we now have medicine. I just don’t think the fear has been passed down to them, and that they haven’t been properly schooled about the disease.  They feel invincible, possibly because of the drugs, or just foolish. I’m not sure which.

And in some circles, going condomless is the norm. This is a tough nut to crack.

Some are doing dangerous things again. [He sighs.] The media, too, has moved on. AIDS is no longer news. I just want kids today to understand they’re not invincible. They…. can….. get…..infected….!

Ruby Comer is an independent journalist from the Midwest who is happy to call Hollywood her home away from home. Reach her by e-mail at MsRubyComer@aol.com.

March 2006