LUCILLE BALL & CAROL BURNETT - FRIENDS ’Til the End

THESE COMEDY LEGENDS SUPPORTED AND INSPIRED EACH OTHER FOR THREE DECADES

- LOUISE A. BARILE

On the second night of her off-Broadway run as Princess Winnifred in Once Upon a Mattress, Carol Burnett peeked out though the curtain at the audience. In the second row sat a familiar-looking woman with flaming red hair. "I thought, 'Oh my God, oh my God, it's Lucille Ball," recalls Carol. "I don't know if I can get through this evening."

After the show, Lucille paid a visit to Carol's dressing room to say hello. "She was so supportive," remembers Carol, who was just 25 at the time. "She called me 'Kid.' She said, 'Kid, if you ever want anything or need me, give me a call,' which was so sweet."

That backstage meeting in 1959 became the genesis of a warm friendship between Carol and Lucille that lasted for the next 30 years. The women would appear in TV specials together, guest-star on each other's shows and share private time out of the spotlight.

Lucille even threw Carol's baby shower when she was pregnant with her second daughter, Jody. "It was a black-tie baby shower. With men attending," Carol says. "Her husband then was comedian Gary Morton, and he opened all the baby gifts and did routines on everything. It was just hysterical."

MUTUAL ADMIRATION