Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 12, 1991 TAG: 9103120284
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The comedian even saved the stationery from the Detroit hotel where she and Desi Arnaz spent their honeymoon, Arnaz noted.
"I don't think there's a hope chest anywhere big enough to hold all this stuff," she said.
Some of Ball's possessions were lent to "Lucy: A Tribute," opening at Universal Studios Hollywood on March 22. The attraction is a 2,200-square-foot museum of costumes, photos, clips from the "I Love Lucy" television series, sets and home movies.
And there's plenty more. A second museum will open in Jamestown, N.Y., next year, near Ball's birthplace of Celeron. "Believe it or not, we still have a ton left," Arnaz said.
\ Sandra Dee, the perky teen queen of 1950s and '60s movies, says she dropped out of sight for the last 20 years as she battled alcohol, pills and eating disorders.
Dee, born Alexandra Zuck in Bayonne, N.J., 49 years ago, said in the March 18 edition of People magazine that her problems began when she was sexually abused as a child by her stepfather and pushed into stardom by her mother.
Dee, who turned to pills and alcohol, said she hit bottom after her mother died in 1988.
"I couldn't function," she said, adding that she began drinking more than a quart of scotch a day as her weight fell to 80 pounds. Dee credits her 29-year-old son, Dodd, with helping her turn her life around.
\ Lynn Whitfield, the star of "The Josephine Baker Story," says portraying the singer and dancer has taught her much about living her own life.
Baker, at one time the richest black woman in the world, died penniless 16 years ago at age 68. Illness, several divorces and other personal problems had taken their toll.
"I learned from who she was, the wonderful parts and the tragic parts, so that I could make some adjustments in my life, so I wouldn't end up 68, having lost everything, with no man, with children who are distant and with no career," Whitfield said.
"The Josephine Baker Story" premieres on Home Box Office on Saturday.
by CNB