Lucille Ball, that is; look-alike contest all for fun

By Jo Ann Mathews
For The Sun News

Pleasant weather, jivin' music and a warm welcome in The Meadow at Silver Coast Winery in Ocean Isle Beach, N.C., set the stage for the fifth annual Purple Feet Festival on Saturday.

A highlight of this gathering in Ocean Isle Beach, N.C., is the Lucille Ball Look-Alike contest. Seven women entered the contest, and they all said they did it for the fun of it. Besides, they love Lucy.

Only one Little Miss Lucy, Caroline Rourk of the Holden Beach area of Supply, N.C., entered the contest, but she fit right in.

"It sounded like fun," said her mother, Kathy Rourk.

The contestants were judged on their resemblance to Lucy, on their ability to stomp grapes and on how they answered the question that Maryann Azzato, owner of the winery, posed to them: "What do you have to say to Ricky?" After they paraded on the concrete dance floor, the audience's applause determined the winner. Bottles of wine were the prizes.

Let's meet these courageous, enterprising and fun-loving women.

Mae Drezek, Lucy 2006

"I never had this [attention] before. I had no expectations," the newly crowned Lucy 2006 said. "When you're in the news, you're embarrassed. You ask, 'Why am I doing this?'"

The crowd cheered and clapped when Drezek, the last of the seven contestants, answered Azzato's question with, "Ricky, you have some 'splainin' to do!"

The crowd erupted with enthusiasm.

Drezek, 58, said she didn't bring a large contingent of well-wishers from Brunswick Plantation in Calabash, N.C., to cheer for her.

"I guess it's the look," she said to explain why the crowd chose her as the winner.

The "look" started when she went as Lucy to the Halloween party at Brunswick Plantation. The dress she wore moved from New York with her, but she found the wig at Colonial Mall in Myrtle Beach.

"I pinned the dress up, and the rest came to me," she said.

Kim Honan, first runner-up

"I figure I look like [Lucy]," the Boiling Spring Lakes, N.C., resident said. "She's a natural redhead," added her friend, Joan Blanchard, who was visiting from Fayetteville, N.C. Honan explained that she scoured vintage stores for her outfit, did some sewing and watched "Lucy" television shows to get into character.

"[My husband] has been calling me Lucy for weeks," she said. Chris Honan said he drove his wife to several places to get the perfect outfit. "I was all for it," he said of her entry in the contest. "I just liked participating - getting dressed up and participating," Kim Honan added.

Janet Abbott,

second runner-up

Silver Coast Winery is a special place for Janet and Bill Abbott, who live in both Sumter and Charleston. They are members of the wine club and were married in the winery's barrel room July 22.

"This dress is way old," Abbott said about her outfit. "It's one of those stay-at-the-back-of-the closet dresses. I don't throw anything away."

Bill picked out the yarn for her hair at Wal-Mart to complete the ensemble.

After being named a prize winner, Abbott, 49, said she'd be enjoying the two bottles of wine she won.

"There was good competition here," she said.

Lisa Collins

"I am a little like Lucy," this Holden Beach, N.C. resident said. "I love to stomp grapes. I do it annually here."

"She and Lucy both are hyper," added her husband, Shannon Collins.

"He's Ricky," Lisa Collins countered.

Collins, 44, who sells medical equipment for CVC Home Medical in Wilmington, N.C., said she put the outfit together herself. "I did this just to have fun."

"She got it out of her closet. I said, 'Go for it,'" Shannon said. "The hard part was getting her hair to stay in place."

"I have lots of hair," Collins said, adjusting the headband with its gigantic red bow.

Lillian Pittman

"I'm really getting into it. I'm dyeing my hair for it," this Calabash, N.C. resident said. "I even have a Lucy tag on my car."

She explained that her friend, Brenda Kans of Ocean Isle Beach, N.C., found the tag at Coastal Grand mall in Myrtle Beach and bought it for her.

Pittman, 58, who was named Lucy 2004, said her two sons tease her about being just like Lucy. She recalled the time she used a vacuum to clean the soot from an oil-burning stove, but hadn't changed the vacuum bag. It exploded, scattering its contents throughout the living room. She was covered in soot and sobbing as she tried to clean up the mess.

"Now that's just what Lucy would do," her sons had told her.

What's worse, in the process, the doorbell rang and her boyfriend appeared on the doorstep. The two did not end up marrying.

Julie Mullins and

Jodi Blankenship

Mullins of Sunset Beach, N.C. said she loves Lucy, loves wine and the contest sounded like fun.

Besides, "Who doesn't like to dress up?" she said.

She raided her daughter's closet for her outfit and came to the event with co-worker Jodi Blankenship of Shallotte, N.C. Both are veterinary technicians at Seaside Animal Care in Calabash, N.C. "I love Lucille Ball," Blankenship said. "She's my idol."

The most memorable part of the contest was the grape stomping, Blankenship said.

"It was very massaging. It was smooth."

Caroline Rourk -

Little Lucy 2006

Caroline Rourk, 6, of Supply, N.C. said she was happy she entered the contest.

"I got to smash grapes," said Caroline, who wants to come back next year. "I'll wear the same thing."

Her mom, Kathy Rourk, said the pair put the outfit together that morning.

Source:
http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/myrtlebeachonline/15570448.htm

Diane Vincent Speaks About Portraying Lucy

It may be hard to see it under her black wig and heavy eye makeup, but Diane Vincent ---- who's playing the faux Chinese landlady Mrs. Meers through Sept. 3 in "Thoroughly Modern Millie" at Vista's Moonlight Amphitheatre ---- is a redhead at heart.

The L.A.-based actress is one of only two people in the world licensed by Lucille Ball's estate to portray the flame-haired television comedian. When she's not performing onstage, Vincent has a full-time job at Universal Studios playing Lucille Ball's television alter-ego Lucy Ricardo from CBS's "I Love Lucy," and she performs as Lucy at events all over the country, including the semi-annual Lucy festival in Ball's hometown of Jamestown, N.Y.

Vincent, who moved at age 7 to L.A. from Indianapolis (her father was an actor), said she'd been told over the years that she resembled Ball, but it wasn't until 1995, when she saw an audition notice for Lucy Ricardo impersonators at Universal Studios, that she decided to give the character a try.

After nine months of auditions, she landed the job and she now works as a "strolling entertainer" at the L.A. theme park's Lucille Ball museum.

Vincent said playing Lucy is in her blood, having grown up watching "I Love Lucy" reruns on television and knowing every line and episode by heart.

"I've absorbed the character by osmosis, I've got natural comedic sensibilities and some people say I remind them of Lucy," Vincent said. "I don't really look like her, but I've got the right facial structure, so once you add the wigs, the lips and lashes, it all comes together. I just try to capture the comedy and heart of her."

Vincent said playing Lucy is a pleasure because Ball is such a revered icon.

"People who respond to Lucy and see her in 3-D want to feel the love of the show and try to embrace that. She's so loved and it's an honor and a privilege to play her," she said.

Thanks to cable TV networks such as Nickelodeon and TVLand, the popularity of "I Love Lucy" endures and even seems to be growing, said Vincent, who added that she has no plans to give up the Lucy role.

"It's been a great ride and it's been a good living and I'll do it as long as the face holds up," she joked, adding that as she ages she can play some of Ball's TV and stage characters from later in life. "After I'm done with Lucy Ricardo, then I can be Lucy Carmichael, then Lucy Carter, then 'Mame' Lucy, and then finally 'Stone Pillow' Lucy."

This is an excerpt. Read the full article.

Just the Way They Did It on 'I Love Lucy'

Middaugh, a member of Pietra Santa's wine club, said the Grape Stomp reminds her of the classic episode of "I Love Lucy" where Lucille Ball tries her luck at stomping grapes.

"I've seen it in 'I Love Lucy' and I would just like to try it, or at least watch it in person," she said.

Fremont resident Sheryle Eagle also said the TV icon sparked her interest in participating.

"I'm ready," Eagle said. "I mean Lucy looked like she was having such a good time, I think I may just do it."

This is an excerpt. Read the full article here:
http://www.freelancenews.com/news/contentview.asp?c=193431

Official impersonator will attend celebration

Everyone loves Lucy8/5/2006 - Official impersonator will attend celebration
Source: http://post-journal.com/articles.asp?articleID=5264
By ROBERT W. PLYLER

This weekend, Jamestown will celebrate the birthday of our city’s most famous citizen and the city will be full of celebrities, come to join in the celebrations.Among them will be one who will look very familiar. This is because she looks and dresses like Lucy Ricardo, the fictional character who made Lucille Ball a star. Her name is Diane Vincent.Ms. Vincent is a resident of Los Angeles. She is one of only two women in the world who have been officially licensed to imitate the zany redhead. She has been coming to Jamestown celebrations since 1999.We spoke with her by telephone, recently, as she prepared to go on stage at the Hollywood Bowl, for her final performance in The Sound of Music, in which she was performing opposite television actor John Schneider and the immortal Marni Nixon who did the actual singing for three of the finest musical films in history.‘‘I am a singer, dancer and actor in my own right,’’ she laughed when I asked if she wore the red wig under the wimple. ‘‘When I was growing up, people didn’t used to run over and tell me I looked like Lucy.’’Throughout the coming weekend, Diane Vincent will be going from event to event, adding a bit of Lucy to people’s experience. Doing the same will be Rhonda Medina, who imitates Ethel Mertz, Lucy’s perennial partner in mayhem.Among their activities will come Saturday at 3:45 p.m., when they will help to re-create the ‘‘Visitors from Italy’’ episode of I Love Lucy, when Lucy caused chaos in a pizza parlor. You’re invited to be part of the episode, if you’re chosen, based on your advance knowledge of the episode.At 4:30 p.m., they’ll be conducting a public trivia contest, based on the television series and the career of Ms. Ball, also.So how does a singer, dancer and actor who was born after I Love Lucy was no longer being produced, come to be an imitator of a fictional character? She answered, ‘‘I was appearing in a production of the musical Pal Joey, back in the late 1980s. My costume included a red wig, big eyelashes and a big red lipstick mouth. Someone took a photo of the cast and when it was printed, people often commented that it appeared Lucy was in the show.’’Struck by the similarity, not long afterwards, she saw an advertisement for people to audition for the Universal Studios Theme Park as a number of celebrities, including Lucy. She auditioned by standing on a stage and answering a battery of questions in character as Lucy. It took nine months for the studio to make the selection, but she’s been doing Lucy ever since.‘‘I work at the park, 40 hours per week, plus I appear in shows when I can and it’s not infrequent that people in Hollywood want impersonators of various stars to come to parties, openings of new facilities and so on. I do as many as I can,’’ she said.Is there a particular costume that she always wears when portraying Lucy? She said she is gradually acquiring a wardrobe of Lucy costumes. ‘‘At first I just had the blue and white, polka dot dress, which is the one she wore most frequently in the series — in 25 different episodes, in fact,’’ she said. As time goes by, she has worked with a dress maker to watch episodes of the series, identify costumes which the actress wore, and produce them in real life.You might see her in the costume in which Lucy stomped grapes or in which she wrapped chocolates in paper or in quite a few other ensembles. She says this weekend there’s going to be a surprise outfit, which she thinks people will like.One of the problems in creating her growing wardrobe turns out to be color. ‘‘Since the series was filmed in black and white, people made up their minds what color everything was, but different people might have assigned different colors,’’ she said. ‘‘Our best guide has been the paper doll books, for which the authors researched the colors and shades of everything as closely as possible.’’This weekend, our community will be playing host to hundreds of visitors, from all around the world, come to pay tribute to one of our own. Why not get yourself a schedule and drop in to as many activities as you can?

Thanks to Sharon (gidgetgrape) for contributing this news!