FROM CARS TO CURTA I NS , no detail escaped set decorator Ellen Brill’s painstaking attention.
A REFUGE F I T FOR THE QUEEN OF COMEDY. Lucy’s feminine and regal dressing room was one of production designer Jon Hutman’s favorite sets.
HOLLYWOOD HOT SPOTS AND HISTORIC HAUNTS Award-Winning Production Designer and Set Decorator Combine Research and Imagination to Re-create Lucy and Desi’s World
THE R I CARDOS ’ I CON I C APARTMENT will be instantly recognizable to fans.
In Being the Ricardos , production designer Jon Hutman and set decorator Ellen Brill take audiences on a trip to a more glamorous era, when stars seemed to live in an extravagant universe all their own, as well as into the more prosaic reality of a couple shooting as many as 35 episodes a year of a groundbreaking TV show. “Defining each of the film’s different worlds was compelling for me,” Hutman says. “Lucille and Desi’s private life is one piece. Their professional relationship is another. Making I Love Lucy is a third. Each has a unique emotional core.” Brill used color to help define the film’s different eras and as a barometer of the state of the couple’s tempestuous romance. “When Lucille meets Desi, everything is colorful and passionate, so we featured reds and deep, vibrant colors,” she says. “As their relationship starts to change the palette gets paler until it becomes completely neutral.” Since the I Love Lucy sets would be familiar to most audiences, Hutman and his team pored over reams of material to ensure their authenticity. Lucy and Desi’s cozy New York apartment was also painstakingly re-created. “We reframed and re-matted art,” remembers Brill. “We found some very
close matches and some that were exact. We also rented pieces for the kitchen and re-created the bedroom set, down to the same wallpaper.” But when photos revealed that Ball and Arnaz’s ranch in Chatsworth was surprisingly modest, Hutman took some artistic license with the location. “I cheated a bit to add that movie-star quality,” he explains. “We found a house with acres of land and a living room that conveyed the simplicity, but with enough scale and architectural detail to feel glamorous.” Landmark locations like Hollywood nightclub Ciro’s, where Arnaz courted Ball, were re-created on the retired ocean liner the Queen Mary, a masterpiece of Art Deco design. The CBS network offices were reimagined at the historic Ebell of Los Angeles, a women’s organization in the tony Hancock Park neighborhood. Its blend of Spanish Revival and Art Deco features provide a sense of Los Angeles’ history. “My favorite set is Lucille Ball’s ultra-feminine dressing room, complete with a copy of a portrait from the Lucille Ball Desi Arnaz Museum in New York,” Hutman says. “We got permission to put Nicole’s face onto it.”
Indulge your delectation in this confection custom-concocted just for the Ricardos. Send that special someone this special sweetness and send their heart a-pitter-pattering louder than Ricky’s conga drum.
THE BACKSTAGE OF THE DES I LU PLAYHOUSE features a vintage makeup table.
15
Made with FlippingBook - Online Brochure Maker