24 V I D E O A G E January 2022 Being the Ricardos is a movie produced by Amazon Studios that had a limited theatrical release during December, and stars Australian Nicole Kidman and Spanish Javier Bardem as American Lucille Ball (playing Lucy Ricardo) and Cuban Desi Arnaz (playing Ricky Ricardo). The movie, which is available on Amazon Prime, revolves around one of the 180 episodes of the TV series I Love Lucy that ran on the CBS TV network from 1951 to 1957. Ball and Arnaz married in 1940 and divorced in 1960. The careers of two prominent international television executives evolved around Lucille Ball (1911-1989): Australian Bruce Gordon and American Michael Jay Solomon. Gordon’s career began in Sydney in 1962 as the head of Sales for Desilu Studios’ produced content in Australia and Asia. Desilu Studios was the production company created in 1950 by the husband and wife team of Ball and Arnaz (19171986) that produced the I Love Lucy shows, as well as many others. Solomon’s career began in 1957 atUnitedArtists. In 1964, he moved to MCA (now NBCUniversal). In 1978, he co-founded Telepictures. In 1989, he became president of Lorimar Telepictures. And four years later, he was tapped as president of Warner Bros. International Television, a position he held until 1995. He’s now chairman of Solomon International Enterprises. In 1974, Gordon became president of Paramount International Television, a position he held until 1997. He’s now chairman of WIN TV network in Australia. In addition to I Love Lucy, Ball was involved with and starred in two other TV comedy series: The Lucy Show, which produced 156 episodes for CBS between 1962 and 1968, and Here’s Lucy, which had 144 episodes (24 of them in color), also for CBS, between 1968 and 1974. Here’s Lucy was produced by Lucille Ball Productions since Desilu had been sold to Paramount in 1967 by Ball, who had acquired Arnaz’s shares in Desilu in 1962 (and thus became the first woman to run a major TV studio). Recalls Solomon: “It took me almost a year to get her lawyer, Mickey Rudin, to make this deal. We put up a guarantee of $3 million, and after three years returned to Lucy $8 million. That helped enormously the great reputation that Telepictures had in the industry.” Solomon also explained that Telepictures acquired worldwide rights to Here’s Lucy, and that the sitcom wasn’t on the market. According to historical accounts, Here’s Lucy was not offered in syndication because there were two other Lucy-related shows already in syndication: I Love Lucy, distributed by Viacom, and The Lucy Show distributed by Paramount. In order to film I Love Lucy in Los Angeles (in 1951 all TV shows were shot in New York City), and use film(instead of the low-quality kinescope recording), Ball and Arnaz decided to contribute to the production costs in exchange for owning the IP of the show, which in 1957 was sold to CBS. To secure the rights to Here’s Lucy, Telepictures execs had to do a lot of convincing. Solomon recalls that famous financier Mike Milken, who was their partner, introduced them to a law firm, which in turn got them in touch with Rudin, who visited Solomon and his partners in their New York City offices in 1981. Solomon added that, even though he and his partner, Michael Garin, negotiated with Rudin, they did not meet Ball. But, he said, “our syndication guys [headed by Dick Robertson] did.” Rudin (1920-1999) served as Ball’s lawyer for 25 years. He practically invented the role of the entertainment lawyer, and also represented other Hollywood stars, including Frank Sinatra, Liz Taylor, and Marilyn Monroe. Today, the first two series are licensed by ViacomCBS, while the third one (Here’s Lucy) was distributed byWarnerMedia. There are also other distributors in the picture, like MPI Media Group from Illinois, and Paul Brownstein Productions in Los Angeles. Neither, however, replied to our inquiry for a comment. Also, contacting the Lucy Desi Museum in Jamestown, N.Y. (Lucy’s hometown) in an attempt to clear up the IP rights’ ownership question failed to yield any results. According to Dixon Q. Dern, who represents Lucie Arnaz (Lucy’s daughter), all licenses for Here’s Lucy have expired and thus returned to Lucille Ball Productions, which is owned by Lucy Arnaz. Michael Jay Solomon on How He Got Here’s Lucy Television History Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz in front of the entrance gate to their Desilu Studios Michael J. Solomon with his Italian wife, former movie actress Luciana Paluzzi Solomon The American international television executive offers insight about the licensing rights to series spotlighting the iconic comedic actress Lucille Ball
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