Todd Purdum

Yes, Lucille Ball went to see him near the end of his life. They had a bond that time couldn't shake. It's really like a star-crossed, one of the great love affairs of all time. People who knew them said they really were one of the great love affairs of all time. Their capacity to hurt each other was almost as powerful as their love, I suppose, and they just couldn't manage to be together.

Yes, Lucille Ball went to see him near the end of his life. They had a bond that time couldn't shake. It's really like a star-crossed, one of the great love affairs of all time. People who knew them said they really were one of the great love affairs of all time. Their capacity to hurt each other was almost as powerful as their love, I suppose, and they just couldn't manage to be together.

Yes, Lucille Ball went to see him near the end of his life. They had a bond that time couldn't shake. It's really like a star-crossed, one of the great love affairs of all time. People who knew them said they really were one of the great love affairs of all time. Their capacity to hurt each other was almost as powerful as their love, I suppose, and they just couldn't manage to be together.

Yes, Desi's grandfather was a doctor in Santiago de Cuba, the second largest city in Cuba in southeastern part of the island. The family legend has it that he was attached to Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders at San Juan Hill.

Yes, Desi's grandfather was a doctor in Santiago de Cuba, the second largest city in Cuba in southeastern part of the island. The family legend has it that he was attached to Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders at San Juan Hill.

Yes, Desi's grandfather was a doctor in Santiago de Cuba, the second largest city in Cuba in southeastern part of the island. The family legend has it that he was attached to Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders at San Juan Hill.

Desi's own father was a pharmacist who then built a second career as the mayor of Santiago, the reform mayor from the mid-1920s to the mid-1930s, building all kinds of public works, drinking water, a beautiful esplanade on the waterfront. And his mother's family, his mother's father was an executive at Bacardi, the giant Cuban rum company.

Desi's own father was a pharmacist who then built a second career as the mayor of Santiago, the reform mayor from the mid-1920s to the mid-1930s, building all kinds of public works, drinking water, a beautiful esplanade on the waterfront. And his mother's family, his mother's father was an executive at Bacardi, the giant Cuban rum company.

Desi's own father was a pharmacist who then built a second career as the mayor of Santiago, the reform mayor from the mid-1920s to the mid-1930s, building all kinds of public works, drinking water, a beautiful esplanade on the waterfront. And his mother's family, his mother's father was an executive at Bacardi, the giant Cuban rum company.

So Desi grew up as an only child with every conceivable privilege, a beautiful house in town, a big motor car, an island, a summer house on the bay with a motor launch and a Norwegian fishing skiff and a ranch in the country where he learned to ride horseback and everything.

So Desi grew up as an only child with every conceivable privilege, a beautiful house in town, a big motor car, an island, a summer house on the bay with a motor launch and a Norwegian fishing skiff and a ranch in the country where he learned to ride horseback and everything.

So Desi grew up as an only child with every conceivable privilege, a beautiful house in town, a big motor car, an island, a summer house on the bay with a motor launch and a Norwegian fishing skiff and a ranch in the country where he learned to ride horseback and everything.

So he really was on track to become a spoiled, rotten kid, I think, until the family lost everything in 1933 when the regime of Gerardo Machado, which had become corrupt and was overthrown, and they fled to Florida. And Patessi, except for one time... In a USO tour in World War II, he never went back to the island again.

So he really was on track to become a spoiled, rotten kid, I think, until the family lost everything in 1933 when the regime of Gerardo Machado, which had become corrupt and was overthrown, and they fled to Florida. And Patessi, except for one time... In a USO tour in World War II, he never went back to the island again.

So he really was on track to become a spoiled, rotten kid, I think, until the family lost everything in 1933 when the regime of Gerardo Machado, which had become corrupt and was overthrown, and they fled to Florida. And Patessi, except for one time... In a USO tour in World War II, he never went back to the island again.

And he was a political conservative in real life and was very strongly anti-Castro. He never really felt that he could go home again.

And he was a political conservative in real life and was very strongly anti-Castro. He never really felt that he could go home again.

And he was a political conservative in real life and was very strongly anti-Castro. He never really felt that he could go home again.

His father had been a supporter of the Machado regime, which is itself a kind of tragic story because Machado arose in the 1920s as a reform-minded, progressive politician who then, once he got in office, became corrupted by power. He suspended normal electoral processes and really kind of became a dictatorial figure and president.

His father had been a supporter of the Machado regime, which is itself a kind of tragic story because Machado arose in the 1920s as a reform-minded, progressive politician who then, once he got in office, became corrupted by power. He suspended normal electoral processes and really kind of became a dictatorial figure and president.