He helped make TV Guide Magazine a hit right out of the box. And we, in turn, helped make his life utterly confusing! On April 3, 1953, a chubby-cheeked newborn named Desiderio Alberto Arnaz IV — eventually known as Desi Arnaz Jr. — graced the cover of our very first issue with a cover line touting him as "Lucy's $50,000,000 Baby." Lucy, of course, was Lucille Ball, the madcap, flame-tressed star of America's most adored sitcom at the time, I Love Lucy, while Dad was Cuban bandleader Desi Arnaz — and both of them knew the value of publicity.
Lucy and Desi purposely scheduled little Desi's Cesarean birth for January 19, 1953, because, on that same night, Lucy Ricardo was going to deliver Little Ricky on I Love Lucy. The double baby blast caused a frenzy (a record 68.8 percent of all sets were tuned to CBS for the episode), and it shoved another major news event — the inauguration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower on the following day — out of the public consciousness. Life only got crazier from there.
***IF YOU OWN THIS ISSUE IT'S WORTH LOTS OF MONEY
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