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Start giftingBall of Fire
This audiobook uses AI narration.
We’re taking steps to make sure AI narration is transparent.
Learn moreAs a movie actress Lucille Ball was, in her own words, "queen of the B-pluses." But on the small screen she was a superstar—arguably the funniest and most enduring in the history of TV. In this exemplary biography, Stefan Kanfer explores the roots of Lucy's genius and places it in the context of her conflicted and sometimes bitter personal life.
Ball of Fire gives us Lucy in all her contradictions. Here is the beauty who became a master of knock-down slapstick; the control freak whose comic alter ego thrived on chaos, the worshipful TV housewife whose real marriage ended in public disaster. Here, too, is an intimate view of the dawn of television and of the America that embraced it. Charming, informative, touching. and laugh-out-loud funny, this is the book Lucy's fans have been waiting for.
Stefan Kanfer was a journalist, critic, and editor, as well as the author of sixteen books, including the bestselling biographies Groucho and Ball of Fire. Kanfer, the first by-lined cinema critic for the New York Times, was the recipient of many writing awards and was named a Literary Lion of the New York Public Library. He died in 2018.
Nan McNamara is an AudioFile Earphones Award-winning narrator and garnered the "Best Audiobook of 2016" distinction for her narration of Mister Monkey by Francine Prose. Her twenty-plus years as a professional actress on stage, television, and film translate into audiobook storytelling that AudioFile magazine calls "richly observed," "heartbreaking," and empowers her to "smoothly shift to whatever character, time, or emotion she is portraying." Nan has narrated nearly 100 titles in numerous genres. She is also the recipient of the Los Angeles Drama Critics Award, LA Weekly Award, StageRaw Award, Robby Award, and Scenie Award for her numerous stage performances (including Wit, for which she shaved her head) and has recorded hundreds of voice-overs for radio/TV, video games, and promos. Nan's film/television work includes portraying powerhouse attorney Bonnie Pearl on Major Crimes, a recurring stint on Switched at Birth as Brenda Powers, having fun with Emmy winner Tony Hale in Not That Funny, being killed by Jamie Kennedy in the opening of Foreclosed with Marlee Matlin and Paul Sorvino, and being reunited with her two kidnapped children on Criminal Minds. Originally from St. Paul, Minnesota, Nan received her bachelor's degree in theater (cum laude). Ever the optimist, one of her lifelong dreams is for the Minnesota Vikings to reach the Super Bowl.