The world was really jazzed up 100 years ago this day when Desiderio Alberto Arnaz y de Acha III was born.
He's better known as Desi Arnaz. And I, like many others, know him best through his portrayal of Ricky Ricardo, the husband of Lucy Ricardo, on the TV show I Love Lucy.
He was an extraordinary person in the world of performing arts, especially for being the right-hand man of the "Queen of Comedy"--would that make him like Princes Albert or Phillip, a Prince Consort? There was no shortage of opportunities for him to display his musical prowess on I Love Lucy, with all the numbers he performed with the band at the Tropicana, and in other places, too, like Europe, where he got to meet Queen Elizabeth II. Certainly among his most well known was Babalu, which is one I really enjoy. While it appears in snippets in various episodes, it appears full-length in the episode when the Ricardos and Mertzes go to Havanna to visit Ricky's family, and then Ricky and Little Ricky perform "Babalu" together. He has quite a voice for the wide variety of songs he sings.
He offered a nice Hispanic flair to a US sitcom. It's pretty classy when he fires off a round of fast-paced Spanish. And then there's the way he pronounces words with his Hispanic accent, like "sperience" for experience, "fis-a-kee-a-trist" for psychiatrist, and "dipsy fishing" for deep-sea fishing.
It's amazing to see how well he handled all of Lucy's craziness, and sometimes got sucked into crazy situations like when he waited so long to stop while on their road trip to California that they were forced to have a dinner of stale cheese sandwiches and sleep in the crummiest of cabins. His days in Hollywood certain provided many unforgettable moments, as did the bets he and Fred entered into with Lucy and Ethel, which drive them to dress like it's the Gay 90's, and scramble to find a good hiding spot in their Florida hotel for a big fish.
Indeed, he made for some great company with Lucy, and so that makes today's occasion a memorable one indeed.
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