Key Points
Barbara Eden discusses her appearance on an episode of the classic sitcom I Love Lucy in a new exclusive interview with EW.
The I Dream of Jeannie star says that Lucille Ball “appreciated” that she avoided her husband, Desi Arnaz.
Eden will be honored on Sept. 5 at the Cinecon Classic Film Festival in Los Angeles.
Remember when Jeannie met Lucy? Well, sort of.
Barbara Eden, who turns 94 later this month, is known to audiences the world over for her portrayal of the title character in I Dream of Jeannie. But before she first appeared from a cloud of pink smoke in 1965 (and famously didn’t bare her naval), Eden was a steadily working actress, guesting on virtually every major series of the late ’50s and ’60s.
In addition to Gunsmoke, Perry Mason, and The Andy Griffith Show, Eden also had a memorable spot in 1957 on I Love Lucy, playing Diana Jordan, a knockout bombshell who catches the attention of Ricky and Fred… and the withering scorn of Lucy (Lucille Ball) and Ethel (Vivian Vance).
But off-camera, the situation was quite the opposite, as Eden tells Entertainment Weekly in an exclusive interview.
Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz on ‘I Love Lucy’
Credit: CBS/Getty
“Oh my goodness, [Ball] was wonderful,” Eden says. “She was absolutely wonderful to me. She made sure that my costume was right. She made it sexier for the part. I understand she had trouble, I know, with people because of him, but I went out of my way to stay out of his way.”
Eden confirms that by “him,” she means Ball’s real-life and TV husband, Desi Arnaz, who played Ricky Ricardo on I Love Lucy. Eden adds that “there was never” anything between her and Arnaz. “I didn’t go near it,” she says. “And I think she appreciated that because she really, really … wanted to put me under contract.”
At the time, Eden was just starting out in Hollywood, having made both her film and television debuts one year prior. Ball took a liking to the young performer, clocking her potential.
“She was doing a class for comedians, female comedians, and wanted to put me under contract for her class,” Eden explains.
But 20th Century Fox had other plans.
“That’s when Fox picked up my contract, and I went to Fox instead of her,” Eden relates.
At a 2022 ChristmasCon panel, Eden expanded on her feelings about both Ball and Arnaz. “I knew Desi was a playboy, so I knew I had to be careful there,” she said, according to PEOPLE. But despite feeling like she would need to “stay out” of Ball’s way, she discovered that the Yours, Mine and Ours actress was “lovely.”
“[Ball] was in her dressing room and she’s like, ‘Barbara, come here, come here.’ And I’m like, ‘Oh my God. It’s going to start. Here it is.’ She said, ‘Do you like that dress?’ And I said, ‘I love it. It’s fine, it’s fine, everything’s wonderful,'” Eden recalled. “She said, ‘Take it off.’ So I take it off. Do you know that Lucy and her assistant sat there and put those shiny things [rhinestones] on that dress? They punched them in. But it was to make the dress look better … That was Lucy.”
Barbara Eden on April 13 at the Beverly Hills Film Festival
Credit: Paul Archuleta/Getty
In addition to her TV roles, Eden was frequently on the big screen, including in the Elvis Presley western Flaming Star, as well as Voyager to the Bottom of the Sea, The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm, and All Hands on Deck, which costarred Pat Boone.
“Pat was just the nicest man I’ve ever met in my whole life, and he still is. He’s still just that kind and good person, you know? What I really remember about the whole film … was the fact that he had never kissed another girl except for his wife,” Eden says. “And in this particular scene, he had to kiss me. So it was no big deal for me. I’m an actor. I know what I’m doing.”
As Boone and Eden prepared for the scene, which was shooting on location on the deck of a ship, the camera crew was in the water “in a little lifeboat kind of thing.”
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“We were up on the top, the very top of this, and I looked over to the side because we were going to do the scene and to the kiss and blah blah. I looked over, and there was his wife and daughters standing there to see Daddy kiss somebody else. I mean, oh my goodness!” Eden chuckles.
Eden will appear with Boone at the Cinecon Film Festival in Los Angeles on Sept. 5 to discuss the movie and receive the organization’s Legacy Award.
For tickets and information about Cinecon, visit the website here.
Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly