Here's Lucy

By GINIA BELLAFANTE

The clown who laughs on the outside but cries on the inside is an image that appeals irresistibly to the biographers of comedians. Time and again, they portray those with a gift for humor as embittered souls behind the greasepaint. Fortunately, Kathleen Brady avoids this cliche in Lucille: The Life of Lucille Ball (Hyperion; 397 pages; $24.95). Without ignoring the darker aspect's of Ball's life, Brady, a former Time reporter whose previous biography was of pioneering muckraker Ida Tarbell, portrays a woman of impressive determination and resilience.

Brought up in Jamestown, New York, by a fun-loving mother and a dismissive stepfather, Ball headed to Manhattan in 1926 to pursue show business. Although she was not considered beautiful, she worked as a fashion model and an awkward chorus girl before winning a contract with RKO studios in Los Angeles.

She made movies like Bunker Bean, a comedy about a male stenographer who believes he is Napoleon.

Not until she was 40 did Lucille Ball become Lucy Ricardo. She was elevated from the ranks of the Ann Millers of the world forever, however, once I Love Lucy premiered in 1951. The show, created by Ball and her husband, bandleader Desi Arnaz, was an instant smash.

Offscreen, the couple's marriage was marred by Arnaz's drinking, gambling and incessant philandering. Ball was forgiving, but the pair finally divorced in 1960. Arnaz proved a poor manager of their joint Desilu production company, while Ball persevered, starring in another top-rated sitcom, The Lucy Show. "There's no way I'm going to stay here and become Mr. Ball," said Arnaz early on. If anyone in this immensely readable book fits the unlikely description of misery-stricken sitcom star, it's he.