Lucille Ball (1911 - 1989 with hair dyed red

Colorized a photo of Lucille Ball in the early 1950s when she shifted dyeing her naturally brunette hair from blond to red and started becoming famous as a red-dead comedienne with her highly successful TV show I Love Lucy.

Lucille Ball (1911 - 1989)

I will forever wonder what if Lucille Ball (1911 - 1989) was cast as Scarlet O'Hara in the 1939 classic Gone With the Wind. She might have turned it into a comedy. She was among the many who actively campaigned to be given the role, along with Lana Turner and Joan Crawford. Bette Davis was the popular choice in a survey. Here's my 2nd colorized photo of the lovely Lucille Ball in the late 30s  A natural brunette, she dyed her hair blond during the first decade of her career as an actress appearing in 'B' movies and screwball comedies. It would not be until sometime in the early 50s when she dyed her hair red and the icon of Lucille Ball as a red-head stuck. Most people remember her more as a comedian in the TV series I Love Lucy

 

Young Lucille Ball in the 1930 before she dyed her hair red

The young actress and comedian Lucille Ball in a photo taken ca 1930. She was naturally blonde and eventually dyed her naturally blonde hair red that made her known as a red-head beauty.

Creative Liberties: Colorized Lucille Ball 1946

Here's the gorgeous Lucille Ball that everyone knows from the I Love Lucy TV show of the 50s and early 60s. A near Rita Hayworth look-alike in her 30s (born 1911) she was a ravishing beauty but somehow didn't project the same screen presence or acting panache as Rita and became known as the Queen of B-movies. Her talent lay in comedy having starred with the Three Stooges and the Marx Bros at the start of her screen career. She ended up in Television as a comedian with Cuban husband Desi Arnez in the highly successful I Love Lucy sitcom. In this portrait, Lucy was already 35, quite old by Hollywood standards in 1946. Her TV career would soon start 2 years later.

Creative Liberties
This 1946 vintage photo was easy to colorize except that I invested a little more time to indulge in some little creative liberties. Sometimes an image element is not something I was to appear in the final outcome and simply Photoshop it out.  I don't know what that furniture behind Lucille was and just removed it as irrelevant to the outcome I wanted.