Pictorial Palette: Lucy

Gosh. Isn’t she lovely?

Our Pictorial Palette of the week is inspired by this delightfully whimsical piece of poster art from the 1943 film adaptation of Cole Porter’s DuBarry Was a Lady starring Red Skelton, Gene Kelly, and the woman of the hour: Lucille Ball.

Lucy’s centennial is tomorrow, something made even sweeter by the fact that 2011 also marks the 60th Anniversary of I Love Lucy, and celebrations are in full swing– both online and off, all over the globe. Proving, in a collective laughing voice, that the world will always love Lucy.

Because of Lucy, our fractured world has the rare, precious gift of a unified, collective memory. Laughter blurs the edges of race, class and creed, which make Lucy so much more than an actress-comedienne-pioneer-entrepreneur. She is an emotional thread in the fabric of who we are as a society. Which is why it is hardly surprising that the tributes to her are dizzying in their number.

Tune into Turner Classic Movies for a full ay of laughs with Lucy, in conjunction with their ever-popular “Summer Under the Stars” program, and the Hallmark Channel will host a 48-hour I Love Lucy marathon. (And yes, the Europe and Hollywood episodes will be heavily featured!) The web is awash with henna all weekend in celebration of everyone’s favorite not-so-natural redhead: True Classics is hosting a Lucille Ball Blogathon (of which we are proud participants) and tributes abound. Among them, a must-see is Life.com’s special gallery of never-before-published photos of the immortal comedienne. And meanwhile, back on terra firma, CBS Video has released 14 classic I Love Lucy episodes; the Warner Archive has released several of Lucy’s lesser known film comedies; the Hollywood Museum has opened a special exhibit , “Lucille Ball at 100 and I Love Lucy at 60,” which honors the Queen of Comedy with memorabilia from I Love Lucy all the way to  Here’s Lucy; and the Library of Congress presents “I Love Lucy: An American Legend” which explores the show’s history through the  family scrapbooks, photographs, scripts, and other documents from the Library of Congress.

All of this rather gives credence to a quote by Diane Sawyer that I’ve never forgotten: “It may be that during business hours, God and the angels sit around watching six hour documentaries. But in the back family room? They’re watching I Love Lucy.”