Desi Arnaz 1977 Detroit Book Tour TV interview audio

Back in 1977 Desi Arnaz visited Detroit to promote his biography "A Book."  I was 13 at the time.  I wrote about this in a previous blog.

He did a morning tv show interview and my mom recorded it for me on my little cassette recorder (aren't mom's great?).

He did an evening talk show "The Lou Gordon Show" on WKBD Channel 50 which I recorded. Lou got him a little upset as he probed into Desi's sex affairs while married to Lucy....or was it before he was married?  I was hoping for a call in show but the program was pre-recorded.

Anyhow, I recently unearthed the audio cassette containing these two interviews and here is the link to it so you can hear both of these shows:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/g2e4gtu83pplaxs/desi%20interview%20final%20edited.mp3?dl=0

Just remember, this is audio recorded off of TV....long before VCRs and DVRs were handy. It is also pretty crackly, so don't expect stereophonic or even hi-fi sound...but you will get to hear Desi at the age of 60 talk about his life and career. Pretty fascinating stuff.

At the end there is a Kaiser Broadcasting Company jingle, Channel 50 ID, and even a "coming up next on I Love Lucy" voiceover credit from the show prior to Lucy.

Will They Love Lucy in the 80s?

In the 1980s Lucy came back with a failed sitcom called "Life With Lucy." It was all upbeat before it aired, as you can read about in this article from July 6, 1986.

 I had forgotten that Desi was talking to CBS in the early 80s about an "I Love Lucy" special. Read what he said about that in this Bettelou Peterson article from the Detroit Free Press.

Desi Arnaz dies in his daughter's arms 1986

 Here are some more obituary articles about Desi Arnaz. Hard to believe it has been almost 27 years....

Lucy: The First 25 Years 1976

In 1976 I was 12 years old! That same year I clipped this article out of the newspaper. CBS was going to have a salute to Lucille Ball's 25th anniversary on television. Wow! As you can see from the article (from the Detroit News most likely), there was hope that this might be a Luci (Luci?) and Desi TV reunion on that show. Well, it didn't happen. Desi saluted Lucy in a filmed segment. But hey, at least he was on the special.

I recall the show very well and in those pre-VCR and dvd days I set up my little cassette recorder and captured some of the audio from that tv show which I listened to for years.

 This is one of the first articles in my Lucy scrapbook started all those years ago. My sister Monika provided the first page art work. She was 11 at the time!

There is a man out there who calls himself "Lucy's Biggest Fan." I'm sure the guy is sincere, but after all these years, this blog will be proof of perhaps a rival he or Lucy never knew of!