• Lucille

  • The Life of Lucille Ball
  • By: Kathleen Brady
  • Narrated by: C. M. Hébert
  • Length: 12 hrs and 48 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (667 ratings)

Access a growing selection of included Audible Originals, audiobooks, and podcasts.
You will get an email reminder before your trial ends.
Audible Plus auto-renews for $7.95/mo after 30 days. Upgrade or cancel anytime.
Lucille  By  cover art

Lucille

By: Kathleen Brady
Narrated by: C. M. Hébert
Try for $0.00

$7.95 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $17.90

Buy for $17.90

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

In 20 years of show business, Lucille Ball had only modest and sporadic success. Her television program, I Love Lucy, was her last chance to fulfill the ambition that had sustained her through the frustrations of her professional life and the anguish of a failing marriage. The role of Lucy Ricardo revealed her true gifts, but it changed her life immeasurably, and the remarkable individual who was Lucille Ball became slowly obscured in the shadows of Lucy.

This definitive portrait of Lucille Ball is based on the recollections of fellow performers, including Milton Berle, Ginger Rogers, Bob Hope, and Katherine Hepburn; her closest friends and family; and Lucille herself. From her childhood, when her virtual abandonment instilled in her a relentless drive for love and attention, through her struggling years in Hollywood and her troubled relationship with Desi Arnaz, Brady vividly recounts the story of this passionate and vulnerable woman.

Love Lucy? Search our list of classic radio shows featuring Lucille Ball.
©1994 Kathleen Brady (P)1996 Blackstone Audio Inc.

Critic reviews

"While Brady is a fan, she is also a fine biographer. Her admiration is both clear-eyed and penetrating. With insight and impressive detail, Brady goes beyond Ball's most famous creation, Lucy Ricardo, to expose the complex, determined woman." (Chicago Sun-Times)

More from the same

What listeners say about Lucille

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    431
  • 4 Stars
    154
  • 3 Stars
    63
  • 2 Stars
    13
  • 1 Stars
    6
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    382
  • 4 Stars
    119
  • 3 Stars
    52
  • 2 Stars
    9
  • 1 Stars
    8
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    383
  • 4 Stars
    128
  • 3 Stars
    42
  • 2 Stars
    7
  • 1 Stars
    5

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

A So-So Look at Lucy

While you'll learn nothing new in this well-crafted look at a TV icon and entire era, if you're a fan of Lucy, Desi and all the rest, you'll smile nostalgically at the facts you've known for a long, long time. Worth a listen if for nothing more than a friendly walk down memory lane.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

13 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Again, prep work and pronunciation issues

Not even for my love of Lucy can I overlook yet another ill-prepared reading of a book. Helen Brady, the performer for "Lucille: The Life of Lucille Ball" may be able to roll her R's for "arroz con pollo" but "cringingly" mispronounces general accepted names such as Garson Kanin as "Garson Cannon". Pantages, rather than with the expected emphasis on the second syllable, has the emphasis on the first, requiring the listener to rewind or playback to make sure they heard it correctly.

Are there editorial/performance meetings before such recordings? At least with the author performing their own work you know that however they pronounce something it is uniquely them. When a hired performer reads another's work, listeners who purchase/license work have some expectation of more than a soothing, modulated voice. We want accurate phrasing and pronunciation.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

I Love Lucy...evenmore

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes. It gave me an insight to who Lucille Ball was and her challeges and comedic genius.

What other book might you compare Lucille to and why?

The Life and Time of Charlie Chaplin.

What about C. M. Hébert’s performance did you like?

She was okay. It took me a while to get use to her sleepy style voice. But, the more I got into the book, the more I got into the story and not her voice.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Not really. It was nice to listen while I went for a run each day. It gave me something to look forward to instead of running

Any additional comments?

You need more books on comedian biography. I just downloaded an Abbott and Costello book, and was disappointed that it wasn't a story, but instead, it was their radio show, which I'm enjoying. But, I prefer a story. There are so many great comedians, like Red Skelton, Milton Berle, Laurel and Hardy, Fanny Brice, Mabel Normand (which in the Chaplin book, it was covered a little). Thank you.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Thorough study with perfect narrator.

I really enjoyed this book. She was a real person, very strong really who was surprisingly unhappy. Not miserable, just unhappy. She got totally ripped off but what was dealt to her and one can only wonder what might have happened had her husband been a real husband.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

not for me

not for me. it seemed to drag and couldn't get into it. I love Lucy but not this book

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Lucille

It was a great book. Well, all except the curse words. Thank you! I love Lucy!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Great story, not so great performance

this book was very interesting and informative. the performance was a bit lack luster and at times words were read incorrectly.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Bad performance

Names mispronounced , words mispronounced... was there a director here? Takes away from a decent story

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Quite detailed

The book is very well researched out. Dates, places and people are all organized in chronological order and presented in a halfway interesting manner. It impressed me the detail the author had gone to. Was kind of surprised at some of the language used in it, and some of the other things she did that are quite against my own personal religious beliefs. Still, if you want to know about the life of Lucille Ball Arnaz, this isn't a bad book to listen to.

Since I grew up watching her shows, I was curious.

For me, it seems difficult to find "decent" books to listen to. My first and favorite so far is "Gone with the Wind".

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Great book, held my interest!

As a big fan of I Love Lucy and the "olden days" of Hollywood, I found this book very interesting and learned a lot about Lucille Ball's life that I didn't know. Some things mentioned were repetitive and it seemed like the last couple chapters there were quite a bit negative comments about Lucille's appearance and behavior which even though may be accurate, the way it was worded was odd at a few points. Overall though, more great insight to her life and career from alternative compiled views!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!