Grandpa's Girl

"The most popular of all television stars," cried Walter Winchell on his Sunday night broadcast, "[has been] confronted with her membership in the Communist Party." Winchell named no names. But five days later California's Congressman Donald L. Jackson told the tale--solely, as he explained it, to quash "unfounded rumors." Lucille Ball, redheaded star of I Love Lucy and television's current queen of queens, had admitted under oath to having registered as a Communist in a Los Angeles election back in 1936.

The Congressman gallantly went on to say that there was no evidence that Lucy "is or ever was a member of the Communist Party." Lucy's husband and co-star Desi cried: "The only thing red about this kid is her hair--and even that is not legitimate." But it was Lucy herself who explained how she could have innocently registered as a Communist; she had done it all for Grandpa.

Grandpa, she said, was Fred Hunt, a radical and a self-appointed friend of the workingman with whom Lucille, then a struggling young movie bit-player, her mother, her brother and a sister were living in 1936. Grandpa's radicalism, she recalled, kept the household in an uproar. When the Balls hired cleaning women, Grandpa drove them away by telling them they weren't being paid enough. But Grandpa was 71 and subject to heart attacks. When he insisted that the Balls register as Communists in 1936, they all did for fear that he would pop an artery.

Lucy's story seemed to do the trick. Los Angeles newspapers ran headlines which read: LUCY NO RED and FANS STILL LOVE HER, DESI TOO. The sponsor (Philip

Morris) forgave her; so did the network (CBS) and her last studio (M-G-M). At a poolside press conference, Lucy announced that she had "faith in the American people," and was getting thousands of letters of commendation from them. But Lucy didn't appear to have forgiven Columnist Winchell. She was asked how she thought he had discovered her secret. "Walter Winchell," she replied acidly, "knew I was pregnant before I did myself."

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