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Lucille Ball Turns 100: 10 Ways to Celebrate Lucy's Birthday
by Kim Potts, posted Aug 6th 2011 10:00AM
Today marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of one of comedy and television's most talented icons of all-time: Lucille Ball. Short of heading to the drugstore to buy some red hair dye, what else can you do to celebrate Lucy's 100th birthday? AOL TV has a few suggestions for you. And don't forget to check out our list of 15 things you didn't know about the multi-talented star.Celebrate Lucy's birthday by...
1. Heading to Jamestown, New York -- Lucy's hometown -- for the annual Lucy Fest, the Lucille Ball Festival of Comedy (August 3-7). You can take a tour of Lucy-related sites, see Lucy and Desi Arnaz impersonators, visit the Lucy Desi Museum and Desilu Playhouse (which includes exact recreations of 'I Love Lucy' sets) and buy Lucy goodies at the gift shop.
2. Being a Lucy. As part of the Lucy Fest celebration, organizers are trying to set the Guinness World Record for the most people dressed as Lucille Ball. On Aug. 6, $5 will get you registered to participate and a costume you can wear to help Jamestown set the record.
3. Gluing yourself to the TV for 'I Love Lucy' marathons. Hallmark Channel's kicks off Aug. 6 at 6AM and continues through Aug. 8 at 8AM, while MeTV's Lucy birthday celebration marathon begins Aug. 5 at midnight, airs through Aug. 8 at 8AM and includes episodes of 'I Love Lucy,' 'The Lucy Show' and 'We Love Lucy' (repackaged installments of 'The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour') and Lucy guest stars like Milton Berle, Dean Martin, Carol Burnett and George Burns.
4. Tuning in for Sirus XM's RadioClassics channel's 'Redhead Radio: 100 Years of Lucille Ball' (Aug. 6, midnight ET), a weekend-long salute to Lucille Ball that includes dozens of her classic radio performances from the 1940s, as well as interviews with fans, historians and celebs who've been influenced by Lucy.
5. Reading 'Lucille Ball FAQ: Everything Left to Know About America's Favorite Redhead,' a wonderful new book chock full of Lucy tidbits, a timeline of her life and career and details of her many movie, TV and stage projects, and 'Desilu: The Story of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz,' the just-rereleased book that unfolds the story of "one of the most powerful couples of the Golden Age of Television," with input from Lucy's family and friends.
6. Snagging the snazzily-packaged 'I Love Lucy: The Complete Series' DVD box set. 'The Lucy Show' and 'Here's Lucy,' Ball's follow-up TV series, are also available on DVD.
7. Visiting the Paley Center in New York or Los Angeles, where, from Aug. 5 through Sept. 3, fans can check out a variety of Lucy's TV shows and appearances, including selected clips that haven't been seen since they originally aired. And in October, the Paley Center continues the Lucy celebration to mark the 60th anniversary of the 1951 premiere of 'I Love Lucy,' while the Hollywood Museum is also honoring Lucy with an exhibit of costumes, scripts and other memorabilia through Nov. 30.
8. Flipping to Turner Classic Movies on Aug. 6 (6AM ET), where, as part of the cable network's 'TCM Summer Under the Stars' marathon, the whole day is devoted to Lucy's movie appearances.
9. Peeping LIFE.com's new gallery of never-published Lucy photos, taken from the magazine's archives and by some of its best photographers.
10. Playing with Lucy and Ricky Barbies or Lucy paper dolls.
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