The first glimmer of this idea popped into my head 35 years ago, in 1983. Recently graduated from college, I was riding in a car on the way to a local writing conference, and one of the other passengers, a writer who had sold a television script, asked me what I was working on. I told her I hoped to write screenplays, and also novels. Of course, she next asked me what my novel would be about. At that moment, for reasons I can’t explain, this encounter between Desi, Lucille, and Fidel popped into my head. I don’t know where it came from. We often fail to consciously recognize signals in our surroundings that imprint thoughts. Some psychic performers and magicians take advantage of these subliminal messages to astound people with “mind reading” tricks. If a picture, or something said on the car’s radio, or something else triggered my imagination I have no memory of it. By definition, if it was a subliminal cue, I wouldn’t have been aware, and therefore will never remember, unless a hypnotist someday coaxes it from my subconscious. Whatever the origin, at least I had the good sense to write down the idea in my journal.
It’s not actually so surprising to me that I stumbled upon this story concept. I grew up with Lucy. Although the original half-hour sitcom series, I Love Lucy, aired and ended before I was born, from an early age I watched every episode in syndication. Those were the days when there were only a handful of television channels, and reruns were daily fare. I also watched Lucille’s later series, The Lucy Show and Here’s Lucy. Lucille Ball was so ubiquitous, to me, she may just as well have invented television.
Once I decided I was ready to take on this story, I began to ask myself what was most interesting about Lucille Ball, as a person and not as a performer. Of course, I concluded that the two were not easily separated. But I couldn’t understand why she tolerated Desi’s philandering and unrepentant alcoholism for nearly twenty years. Why would a woman of wealth and fame endure such hardship? It’s not easy to answer these questions. It’s well known that Desi and Lucille, despite their tendency to argue viciously, loved each other deeply, in ways that let them rationalize their marriage. I’ve speculated that another reason was Lucy’s insecurity. She adored being adored. She may have truly feared that her celebrity and her career as a performer were inseparable from her marriage. While the Arnazes were married, they were known as a couple, but Desi also had musical career. Lucille had no such solo act.
I can’t say there was not one ioata of truth in this story. For instance, it was absolutely true that by late 1959, Lucille and Desi Arnaz had agreed to divorce, which they did in the spring of 1960. It was also true that the Cuban Revolution had come to a head in January, 1959, a year before this story’s historical setting, when Fulgencio Batista fled the country in fear of the popular uprising inspired and led by Fidel Castro. Many of the characters in the story, beyond the three most important, are based on actual people, including Naty Revuelta, Celia Sánchez, Raúl Castro’s wife, Mirta, the infamous Meyer Lansky, and the unfortunate American renegade, William Morgan. Many of the others are fabricated.
In the years leading up to my first draft, I often daydreamed during duller moments about the situation I had concocted, in which Fidel Castro chose to take advantage of the Arnaz’s popularity to paint a favorable portrait of revolutionary Cuba. Curiosity led me to poke around the Internet. That’s when I learned about Lucille’s youthful brush with socialism. I also discovered the coincidental alignment of the superstars’ divorce with these historical events. It dawned on me that I could use the Cuban Revolution as a setting for Lucille to come to terms with the future she faced without Desi as spouse and partner. All that came to me when I actually began working out the story’s first scenes, all the while digging into the lives, words, accomplishments, and deeds of my characters’ real life namesakes.
By the time I’d invested a few dozen hours in rough chapters and research, the story had taken over. How could I not put these events and personalities together? Five years have passed since I wrote the scene in which Desi is intercepted by the CIA. Over the past two years, I’ve written five full drafts, supported by the insights of my brilliant editor, Lisa Poisso That’s a 35-year-old loose end finally tied up. Yes, it’s all a fabrication. Yet, my personal hope is that I’ve at least brushed against some measure of truth, not in events, but in sentiment and spirit.