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Show ENTERTAINMENT Life with "Mother" Lucy Lucille Ball's children have joined her on tv, where she is an exacting businesswoman and an even more exacting parent By PEER J. OPPENHEIMER Most mothers breathe a of relief each morning when they get their youngsters started to school and their husbands off to work. Not Lucille Ball. Her husband, Gary Morton, is executive producer on her new "The Lucy Show" tv series, and her two youngsters, Desi Arnai IV, 15, and "Little Lucie," 17, are all part of the show. "Instead of tearing the family apart, working together brought us closer," Lucy insists. "We each had our own interests before. Now we get home and begin to talk not only about the work we've been doing all day but about politics and everything else!" Both children made brief appear-ance- s on "I Love Lucy" when they were just tikes and Lucy still was married to their father, DeM Arnaz. Since then, only Desi IV has been actively involved in show business. He has had a musical trio that includes Dean Mat tin's son, Dino, and Billy Hinsche, whose parents are in real estate. "Desi still doesn't know what he gets for liis records," his mother says. "His money is put in savings bonds and investments. Until a short while ago, he used to get $5 a week, but now we have raised his allowance to $15, and he has to pay for his own lunches." Lucie doesn't have a regular allowance. She does have a credit card to buy clothes. "So far, she'a never taken advantage of it," says Lucy, but she admits that her daughter's generosity does present a problem. "Her girl friends will admire some clothes, and little Lucie will say, 'Go ahead, Uke it!' I had to put a stop to that in a hurry, particularly since half the time she was giving away my things! "They are spoiled all right, but the triumph is that they lived through being spoiled. They had to learn who their real friends are, and who are the leaners, the phonies. They've been hurt terribly several times. As when Lucie said to me, 'The only reason she liked me is because you're my mother.'" Having servants around the house caused additional difficulties for Lucy: "The children have to have chores to do around the house, even if we manufacture them. They have to take care of their rooms, do some work in the yard, and clean up the garage where they have a little theater. Even then, it is a constant struggle because they leave so much stuff lying around. But I just let it sit there until it disintegrates. There was a time when they would say, 'Well, let's go buy some more.' And I'd say. 'Oh, no we won't! " Asked which of her children is harder to raise, Lucy explained, HPS ru.av:t. ig.tf'u t. ...u "They go through stages. First it was the girl, then it was the boy. I have a feeling that posdbly from now on, it will continue to be Desi. When Lucie was 12 or so, there was little communication between us. It was all with her girl friends. I couldn't talk to her. But now we've become closer, and it is Desi who is harder to control since he has had a taste of freedom by traveling with the band." One serious problem was becoming friends with the man who replaced their natural father. But Gary Morton understood, and so did Lucy. "After all, they were only seven or eight when this strange man showed up. Gary was a nice man, but he was no father figure, and my children weren't about to accept him without a battle. They'd seen 'The Parent Trap' he movie where Hayley Mills tries to get her parents back together after they separated. They thought that if they took me to see the film often enough, I'd get the idea. I must have sat through that picture five times! But I kept telling them that their daddy was happily married, and so was I. Eventually, mostly thanks to Gary's patience, it all worked out" tixy feels her children never lived up to their potential in school. "Once I had to ground Desi for two months because his grades were so bad. I even ripped out the television to make him study. That wasn't too successful. For two months he tossed the basketball up on the wall, and all day long it would go, Whoup! "For a while I thought a military following Mom's lead. ..urn- - live Lucy's kids didn't accept Gary Morton at first, but he gradually won them over. Whoup! Whoup! Lucie and De$i t academy might be the answer. Actually, It was his idea. He'd seen the uniforms and the band and that drum marching along Whaml Wham! But soon he had nightmares when he came home! And boy, I got him out of there fast. I didn't generals. dig all those And those disciplinary rules! Once he got demerits for bending down to tie his shoelace when he wasn't supposed to! "I don't dig a going off to college unless he really knows what he wants and is ready to take something specific. Right now, both our children lean toward show business. But even if they weren't working in tv and wanted to go to a university, I'd rather have them travel a year first." As could be expected, Lucy supervises their dates. It has been two years since Lucie was first allowed to ride in a car with a boy while Lucy had them tracked all the way down Sunset Boulevard! Desi has Btarted to date only lately. Neither is allowed to go out during the week and on weekends only if their parents know with whom, where they go, and when they'll be back. "They have to call if they are late or there is any change of plans. They don't have the freedom to do just anything they want. "There were times when I told Desi we'd rather not have some of his acquaintances around. He wanted to know why, and I explained that they were older and had too much freedom, and I had a pretty good idea where it was leading. Sure enough, it turned out I was right." Lucy states this in terms and, indeed, her children have a reputation of being d and Lucy Carmichael (her tv role) may be scatterbrained, but Lucille Ball has no such record in business dea'.ings or in family dealings. well-like- well-behave- d. Family Weekly, September it, lttl It |