This is an I-Heart podcast.

Guaranteed Human.

This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories, the show where America is the star

and the American people, coming to you from

the city where the West begins, Fort Worth, Texas.

In the world of entertainment, few names resonate as powerfully as Lucille Ball.

But long before she became a household name, she faced years and years of rejection, all before her breakthrough finally came

at the age of 40. Joining us now is Kathleen Brady, author of The Life of Lucille Ball, sharing

the story of the woman who changed American comedy forever.

One of Lucille Ball's childhood friends, Pauline Lopez,

explained Lucille Ball better than anyone ever could.

She said, Lucille would help a blind man across the street

whether he wanted to go or not.

Music across the street whether he wanted to go or not. She was born in Jamestown, April 26, 1911, Jamestown, New York.

When she was growing up, the flappers were in vogue.

The flappers might have been her style models, but she was born in Jamestown, New York,

to a very much a working family. Sadly, her father died when she was three. Dede, her mother,

remarried, and Lucille spent quite a bit of time with her stepfather's mother, who was a very strict woman of

Swedish heritage and didn't want Lucille to be out too late. She had to come home early for supper.

It was a hard, disciplined life. Grandma Peterson had an idea of how she was supposed to look

and she pulled her hair back and very severe.

But somehow she got hold of a mirror

...