Too Many Girls : Lucille Ball's Singing

Lucille Ball's Singing

Was that really her or was it dubbed? I didn't think she was a singer, especially not one that good.

Re: Lucille Ball's Singing

Dubbed ! Unfortunatly singing was not Lucy's strong point - just listen to any of the musical numbers in I Love Lucy or Mame.

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Re: Lucille Ball's Singing

Hey wait,
I liked Lucy singing in Mame.
It made the picture.

Re: Lucille Ball's Singing

Lucy's singing made the picture in Mame? Sure it did, just like the direction and the performances, not to mention that awful screenplay. Put Mame side by side with Auntie Mame and the former is dead on arrival! It's a ghastly movie musical, one of the worst ever made. It's right up there with At Long Last Love, Lost Horizon, Man of La Mancha and A Chorus Line!

Lucy was a brilliant, gifted comedianne and a marvelous actress, but you're right,singing and dancing were never her strong suit. She was miscast as Mame, and it seriously needs a remake. If they weren't too old for the part now, (although Lucy was when she did it), I think either Ann Margret or Raquel Welch would make a good Mame. Now that I think of it, while it's been offered to Cher, and Glenn Close turned it down, maybe Liza Minnelli would be good in it. Something to think about anyway.

Re: Lucille Ball's Singing

Several years ago, I first heard that they were planning a remake, stage or film I don't remember, with Barbara Streisand. By that, I mean a remake of the non-musical film Auntie Mame. That movie, released in 1958, with Rosalind Russell repeating the title role from the Broadway comedy of the same name, was one of the most irreverently hilarious films of all time.

Later, I heard a remake of the film Auntie Mame was still being considered. But it would be updated to the present and Cher would star in it.

Re: Lucille Ball's Singing

Auntie Mame, the film of the play with Rosalind Russell recreating her stage role, has such a special place in my heart that I could never feel that any musical version could be as entertaining as it was. However, I am in agreement with Angela Lansbury that she was wrongly overlooked for the part of Mame after helping the show to be a smash hit on Broadway.

Lucille Ball was sixty-one or sixty-two when the filming of Mame was completed. The dancing in the movie had to be slowed down so that she could keep up with the others.

Re: Lucille Ball's Singing

She purposely sang bad on I Love Lucy.


I collect dead pigeons then I press them between the pages of a book.

Re: Lucille Ball's Singing

A radio singer, Trudy Erwin, sometimes spelled Irwin, dubbed for Lucille Ball.

Re: Lucille Ball's Singing

Thanks for this information.

Re: Lucille Ball's Singing


Trudy Erwin, sometimes spelled Irwin, dubbed for Lucille Ball.


She sounded lovely, but her voice didn't sound believable as how Ball would sing, if she could sing, to me.

Re: Lucille Ball's Singing

Same thing with the singer who dubbed Ball in the opening number of Du Barry Was a Lady.
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