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‘Being the Ricardos’ and Communism: The Truth Behind Lucy’s Red Scare Rosemary Rossi Tue, December 21, 2021 at 5:59 PM EST 7 min read Yahoo "The only thing red about Lucy is her hair, and even that is not legitimate" – Desi Arnaz responding to a report that his wife, Lucille Ball, was a Communist The nation was stunned when, on Sept. 6, 1953, radio personality and gossip columnist Walter Winchell dropped a blind item on his show: What top redheaded television comedian has been confronted with her membership in the Communist Party? Ball, in her autobiography, "Love Lucy," described the details of that night and how the events that followed in clearing her name played out, which are also depicted in the new film "Being the Ricardos" starring Nicole Kidman as Ball. What follows is the truth behind the Red Scare. That night in September, Ball — who was home alone with her two children, Lucie and Desi Jr. — was listening to Winchell's radio program. She later said that her first thought was, "Oh my gosh, do they think Imogene Coca is a communist?" referring to the funny lady who was making millions laugh opposite Sid Caesar on "Your Show of Shows." Moments later, the phone rang. It was her husband Desi, who was spending the weekend with poker buddies at their Del Mar beach house. He asked if she had been listening to Winchell. "Do you believe that about Imogene?" she asked, it never having crossed her mind that she was the "redheaded television comedian" Winchell was talking about. Ball wrote in her autobiography about that conversation with her husband: "He said as if scolding a small child, 'He's not talking about Coca! He means you!' 'Me?' I said." Desi said he was heading home and a team of people would be there about 1 a.m. to discuss the situation. "'Honey,' he said, seriously, 'you're in trouble.'" Lucille Ball headline New York Daily News The House Committee on Un-American Activities was created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloyalty to the country by private citizens, public figures and organizations suspected of having fascist or Communist ties. In 1947, the committee held hearings going after the motion picture industry, alleging its creation of Communist propaganda and influence. After refusing to answer the committee's questions, The Hollywood Ten were blacklisted by the industry. What followed was hundreds of artists – including Charlie Chaplin, Orson Welles and "Over the Rainbow" lyricist Yip Harburg – were boycotted by the studios and forced to either work outside of the country or underground. "For years, I had known about Hollywood's insidious blacklist. The mere accusation of red activity against someone, a writer, actor or director could put that person under a permanent cloud, whether he was guilty or not. An actor could be cleared for one show and not for another all on the same network," Ball said. "The most vicious thing about this blacklist was that anyone, even the most ignorant crank, could point the finger at someone and the charge could hold." Ball had gone through two closed-door hearings on the matter, both before the FBI and the Un-American Activities Committee, and had been cleared by both. Still, she knew that Winchell's broadcast could ruin her. Lucille Ball communist card Lucille Ball's 1936 voter registration card Arnaz rounded up Ball's team, including Desilu officials, men from MGM, CBS and Philip Morris, who was the "I Love Lucy" sponsor. She told them that she registered as a Communist in 1936 for her grandfather, who had raised her. "That was the year my grandfather, Fred, held all his political meetings in a garage at 1344 North Ogden Drive. He had a friend running for city council on the Communist ticket and he insisted that [my mother] DeDe, [my brother] Freddy and I registered so we could vote for him. We did it to please daddy. He'd had one stroke already, and the least little argument got him all upset," Ball later said. So in the spring of 1952, Ball talked to some FBI men for several hours at a meeting arranged at the Arnaz family ranch in Chatsworth, California. "The records show that I had registered as a Communist voter in 1936. I never voted, however. And after two years, my registration lapsed," Ball said. "The FBI said that I had once been named to the California State Central Committee of the Communist Party. I said, this was news to me, and that if my name was there, it was listed without my knowledge or consent."