TV’s Famed Redhead Has Own Stamp

At a crowded ceremony Monday on what would have been Lucille Ball’s 90th birthday, the honorary mayor of Hollywood and representatives of the U.S. Postal Service unveiled a first-class stamp with the comic actress’ image.

It’s less the wacky Lucy and more the glam Lucy--the arched thin eyebrows, chandelier earrings, and red lips pursed seductively. You could buy the 34-cent stamp Monday in Los Angeles. Starting today, some 110 million of them are available at post offices across the country.

While philatelists and Lucy fans started buying the stamps in a tent outside the Hollywood History Museum, a capacity crowd of 300 inside listened to praise for Ball, whose “I Love Lucy” TV show debuted 50 years ago.

“The quintessential television comedienne,” said Jean Firstenberg, the director of the American Film Institute.

“Her brand of humor is timeless,” said Alan Kessler, a member of the U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors.

It was easy to find words to glorify Ball. What was more difficult was finding co-workers of the Hollywood legend, who died in 1989, to offer up those words.

Milton Berle, 93, wanted to come but couldn’t, according to David Mazer, U.S. Postal Service public affairs manager. Bob Hope, 98, sent a message through his publicist: “If it’s a Lucille Ball stamp, you don’t kiss it, you lick it.” (The stamps, by the way, are self-adhesive.)

Ball’s younger brother, Fred, from Phoenix spoke. He’s 86.

Mazer admitted, “It’s hard to find stars from that era healthy enough to come to this.”

And so, Virginia Mayo became the keynote star at the event in Hollywood’s historic Max Factor Building, stiflingly hot and filled to capacity. Yes, Virginia Mayo, the blond star of movies from the 1940s and 1950s.

“I have nothing to add because I didn’t know her that well,” Mayo said after she had been helped to the podium. There was a momentary awkward silence in the audience. But Mayo was unfazed. She waxed on eloquently about the Lucille Ball she had barely known.

“If you wanted to study comedy, she was the one to go to,” said Mayo, in a silky gray dress and sweater with matching jewelry. “She could get a laugh out of falling down.”

When she was done, Mayo started back to her seat, shooing away a helping hand. She leaned back to wisecrack into the microphone, “I don’t need any help. I can walk from here to there.”

Later, in a reception room for ceremony participants, she munched on a cookie before returning to her Thousand Oaks home.

“I’m 80--isn’t that awful?” Mayo said. “I can’t believe I’m that old.”

Mayo said she still works. (Her bio lists an appearance as herself on the late 1990s sitcom, “The Naked Truth.”) “I love the work but I won’t miss it when I get out of it,” she mused.

“Virginia said she was willing to come,” said Mazer. “We were thrilled.”

Johnny Grant, the honorary mayor of Hollywood and a fixture at all manner of star-commemorating ceremonies, served as the master of ceremonies.

“I was lucky to work with Lucy,” Grant, 78, told the crowd. “How many of you remember the episode where Lucy got hold of the usher’s uniform from the Chinese Theatre and fell into the cement? Well, I was the one who pushed her in the cement!”

Ball’s children, actress Lucie Arnaz, 50, and Desi Arnaz, 48, did not attend the festivities. “They were invited. I don’t know what happened,” Mazer said.

“We were very disappointed that the kids didn’t come,” Grant said. “They’re kids of Hollywood.”

However, organizers did get Suzanne La Rusch, a Lucy impersonator who not only looks like the 1950s Lucy but sounds like her. She posed for dozens of pictures next to a blowup of the stamp resting on an easel. In a side room, some of Ball’s movie posters and magazine covers were displayed. There was even an evening gown, slim and long (Lucy was tall) from her 1943 film, “DuBarry Was a Lady.”

Outside, stamp hobbyists grumbled about being turned away from the ceremony when the museum reached capacity.

“You come to these events to see the ceremony,” said George Franzen, 56, president of the Long Beach Stamp Club, “maybe take some pictures, get some autographs. Not stand out in the sun.”