Revisit Lucille Ball in conversation with Frank Sinatra, Carol Burnett, Bob Hope & more
With blazing red hair and a fiery wit to match, Lucille Ball was a living legend in the comedy world and beyond, bringing her personality to the stage, screen, and radio for six decades. Now, SiriusXM is dedicating an all-new, limited-run channel to one of the funniest women in the history of comedy. Let’s Talk to Lucy, named after her 1960s CBS Radio show of the same name, will be available on SiriusXM’s Channel 104 starting on Thursday, August 5th. The special programming will also be available on the SiriusXM app and Stitcher.
Lucille Ball’s work is still beloved worldwide, almost 90 years after she arrived in Hollywood. In between starring in four television series and more than 70 films, Lucy would jump from set to set — tape recorder in hand — to talk about all aspects of life with some of the biggest names in Hollywood history, including Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Dean Martin, Carol Burnett, Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, and dozens more. Those recordings eventually made it onto the air when CBS Radio broadcast them as Let’s Talk to Lucy from 1964 until 1965. However, for the last 50-plus years, they’ve never been heard publicly again — until now.
On the new channel, listeners will finally get to experience these amazing conversations in their entirety. In addition to hearing from classic Hollywood icons, modern-day stars will also join the channel to pay tribute to the five-time Emmy Award winner. Amy Poehler, Rosie O’Donnell, Tiffany Haddish, Ron Howard, Carol Burnett, Debra Messing, Joy Behar, Robert Klein, Barry Manilow, Sean Astin, Kathie Lee Gifford, Seth Rudetsky, Danny Burnstein, and Randy Rainbow, among many others, will answer some of the original questions asked by Lucy herself back in the day.
“Although I have been caretaking these ancient tapes for over 30 years, I had never really listened to them all and had no idea how many remarkable people Mom had talked to on these radio shows,” Lucie Arnaz, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz’s daughter, said. “It’s a treasure trove of personal information from some of the greatest talents of American entertainment and my family and I can’t wait to share them with the rest of the planet.”
Born in 1911 in Jamestown, NY, Lucille Desiree Ball was destined to become a star. A model and amateur stage actress in her youth, Lucy moved to Hollywood in 1934 where she appeared in her first movie, Roman Scandals. From 1948 to 1951, she starred in the CBS Radio serial comedy My Favorite Husband, which was brought to television in 1951 as I Love Lucy, starring Ball and her husband, Desi Arnaz. Their award-winning and groundbreaking show was rated No. 1 for four of its six seasons. Married for 20 years, the couple had two children — Lucie and Desi — and owned Desilu Studios.
During her lifetime, Lucy received five personal Emmy Awards, including the 1989 Governors Award. She has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, was inducted into the TV Hall of Fame, and is the recipient of the Kennedy Center Honor and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 1998, she was named among Time magazine’s “Time 100: The Most Important People of the [20th] Century.”
