A status crossed my facebook news feed which turned into a very long discussion. It was regarding the iconic Lucille Ball and the presence or lack of presence of African Americans on her show. After some research basically through the internet by a group of non-professional researchers [[including myself) we could find only one African American to appear on any on Lucy's four shows "I Love Lucy", "The Lucy Show", "Here's Lucy" and "Life With Lucy". I'm sure that it was still tough for women in the industry but Lucille Ball was a gold mine and I believe she had a lot of power. It would have been very fitting to see a Nat "King" Cole, Pearl Bailey, Ella Fitzgerald or Sammy Davis Jr. jamming with Ricky's band. Help me if I'm wrong but so far only came up with one. I wonder if this was intentional or just someone living in a box.
Here's the one clip we could find of black presence on a Lucy Show