‘The Queen Of Tuesday,’ Tells The Dramatized Love Affair Between Lucille Ball And Author’s Grandfather

Strauss says, “Lucile Ball was the most famous woman in America and at that time the most famous woman in the history of America, but she almost didn’t get to be that. She was a failure at that point. She had tried since she was 16 to be a big star. She was sent home being told ‘you’re not very talented, you’re not very pretty. Go home. Give it up.’ And she kept coming back and never really made it in New York. Then she went out to Los Angeles and never really made it there. She became a B-movie actress. She was fired by RKO and MGM, so television really was her last shot.”

Once Ball landed the main role on “I Love Lucy,” she requested that Arnaz, her husband in real life, play her husband in the show. CBS didn’t think Americans were ready to see an interracial couple on television. Arnaz was Cuban and Ball was a red-headed, white woman.

“The network did not want to take a risk on this. They thought ‘this is something that white America will not accept.’ She wanted to prove them wrong, she wanted to say ‘America is not as bigoted as you feel, so let’s give it a shot,’” said Strauss.

The underlying truth behind Ball wanting Arnaz to play her husband on the show was her fear of his cheating on her.  Strauss continues, “[Arnaz] was an inveterate philanderer. So, she said ‘the only way I can keep my marriage afloat is if I’m with him all the time, and so he needs to be my husband on the show.’ And it didn’t work, even though he managed to be cast as her husband. It was proof that America was ready for an interracial marriage.”

Fast-forward to the night that Strauss’ grandfather met Ball at a party hosted by Donald Trump’s father.

“This story is based on true events. When Fred Trump bought a big swath of land on Coney Island beach, which was the first amusement park in the country, he decided to tear down the landmark and build crappy housing. In order to blunt the criticism from the media, Trump’s father threw a party on the beach and invited celebrities and real estate people. My grandfather was a real estate person and at this party was Lucille Ball and many other celebrities. At the stroke of midnight, all the celebrities were directed to throw brick through this glass and steel landmark to destroy it. Because there were celebrities, it was deemed a picture-worthy event and so they avoided the criticism and it seemed like a glamorous event. That’s the opening of the book where Lucille Ball and my grandfather meet and I guess you could say where they fall in love…although it’s more complicated than that,” said Strauss.

Between chapters in the book, Strauss weaves between the story of Ball’s life, to his memories of his grandfather, back to the alleged love affair they shared with one another. He ultimately wrote this as an homage to his late grandfather and to one of the most well-known female icons of the 20th century.

“I wanted to write this book because in a way I really wanted to tell the story of Lucille Ball, not only was she the most famous woman of her time, but she was also this pre-feminist icon in a way,” he said. “She was the first woman mogul.”