Todd Purdum

Savior Cugat, the rumba band leader, and the next thing you know, he's playing at the Waldorf Astoria in New York. So I think his head must have been spinning by all the various changes in his life that came when he was still really in his late teens.

Savior Cugat, the rumba band leader, and the next thing you know, he's playing at the Waldorf Astoria in New York. So I think his head must have been spinning by all the various changes in his life that came when he was still really in his late teens.

Well, I think it has to do with the fact that you didn't leave your country by choice, that your country was taken away from you and you had to come here and make your life over. It's interesting in the context of today's immigration debate, because, of course, Desi, as I mentioned, was politically conservative. But he also was a really shining example of what happens in America today.

Well, I think it has to do with the fact that you didn't leave your country by choice, that your country was taken away from you and you had to come here and make your life over. It's interesting in the context of today's immigration debate, because, of course, Desi, as I mentioned, was politically conservative. But he also was a really shining example of what happens in America today.

Well, I think it has to do with the fact that you didn't leave your country by choice, that your country was taken away from you and you had to come here and make your life over. It's interesting in the context of today's immigration debate, because, of course, Desi, as I mentioned, was politically conservative. But he also was a really shining example of what happens in America today.

uh when diversity is seen as a strength and you know ultimately his success in getting i love lucy on the air and becoming the all-american husband and father that he became in the 1950s was proof that the country would accept this guy who had a funny accent and came from another place and had a kind of exotic background that he'd be seen as a very capable all-american guy

uh when diversity is seen as a strength and you know ultimately his success in getting i love lucy on the air and becoming the all-american husband and father that he became in the 1950s was proof that the country would accept this guy who had a funny accent and came from another place and had a kind of exotic background that he'd be seen as a very capable all-american guy

uh when diversity is seen as a strength and you know ultimately his success in getting i love lucy on the air and becoming the all-american husband and father that he became in the 1950s was proof that the country would accept this guy who had a funny accent and came from another place and had a kind of exotic background that he'd be seen as a very capable all-american guy

Well, like so many people of my generation, I wasn't old enough to see I Love Lucy in an original run, but I watched it in reruns as a child over and over. I'm sure I could recite many episodes from heart.

Well, like so many people of my generation, I wasn't old enough to see I Love Lucy in an original run, but I watched it in reruns as a child over and over. I'm sure I could recite many episodes from heart.

Well, like so many people of my generation, I wasn't old enough to see I Love Lucy in an original run, but I watched it in reruns as a child over and over. I'm sure I could recite many episodes from heart.

The story of Desi, the artist and the businessman, struck me as something that in this moment in our culture when we're reexamining people whose contributions might have been overlooked because of the way they looked or the way they sounded or the way they weren't part of the mainstream... It seemed like a moment worth reexamining.

The story of Desi, the artist and the businessman, struck me as something that in this moment in our culture when we're reexamining people whose contributions might have been overlooked because of the way they looked or the way they sounded or the way they weren't part of the mainstream... It seemed like a moment worth reexamining.

The story of Desi, the artist and the businessman, struck me as something that in this moment in our culture when we're reexamining people whose contributions might have been overlooked because of the way they looked or the way they sounded or the way they weren't part of the mainstream... It seemed like a moment worth reexamining.

And an old friend of mine from college, the late playwright and actor Doug McGrath, told me that he thought everyone understood Lucy's contributions, but that Desi was kind of an undersung hero. And the more I looked at it, the more I became convinced that he had a really compelling story that deserved telling.

And an old friend of mine from college, the late playwright and actor Doug McGrath, told me that he thought everyone understood Lucy's contributions, but that Desi was kind of an undersung hero. And the more I looked at it, the more I became convinced that he had a really compelling story that deserved telling.

And an old friend of mine from college, the late playwright and actor Doug McGrath, told me that he thought everyone understood Lucy's contributions, but that Desi was kind of an undersung hero. And the more I looked at it, the more I became convinced that he had a really compelling story that deserved telling.

Yeah. Desi Arnaz was the first person to say that the entire thing depended on the brilliance of Lucille Ball. There's one moment where she trips over a cable on the set one day and he turns to her and say, amigos, if anything happens to her, we're all in the shrimp business. So he knew exactly.

Yeah. Desi Arnaz was the first person to say that the entire thing depended on the brilliance of Lucille Ball. There's one moment where she trips over a cable on the set one day and he turns to her and say, amigos, if anything happens to her, we're all in the shrimp business. So he knew exactly.

Yeah. Desi Arnaz was the first person to say that the entire thing depended on the brilliance of Lucille Ball. There's one moment where she trips over a cable on the set one day and he turns to her and say, amigos, if anything happens to her, we're all in the shrimp business. So he knew exactly.