Editor’s Note: Welcome to Inside Out, our weekly roundup of stories about Staten Islanders making waves, being seen, supporting our community and just making our borough a special place to live. Have a story for Inside Out? Email Carol Ann Benanti at benanti@siadvance.com.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — He was known to the world as “Little Ricky,” the adorable little boy on “I Love Lucy,” the legendary TV show that took America by storm and would become a trailblazer in television history.
But his formal television name was Enrique Alberto Ricardo IV or Ricky Ricardo Jr., the fictional son of Lucy and Ricky Ricardo, who together portrayed one of the century’s real-life love stories — one that would rock America and transform television forever.
The 5-year-old, a child prodigy from Lafayette, La., was the oldest of six children. He was so passionate about the drums that he would play on all the neighborhood trash cans he could find.
His name in real life is Keith Thibodeaux. But he became known as Richard Keith, the stage name Desi Arnaz gave him on the famed sitcom. And he’s the only living cast member of the “I Love Lucy” show.
Thibodeaux, who would audition for “I Love Lucy” in 1955, was up against 200 other young actors for the role. But the precocious 5-year-old landed the role hands down.
Denise Boland, a Staten Island TV host and producer, who heads up “Remember This” with Denise Boland, an award-winning Community Media of Staten Island (formerly CTV) show that airs every Thursday at 8 p.m. on Fios Channel 35 and Spectrum Channel 79, is a lifelong “I Love Lucy” fan.
Boland met Thibodeaux at a “Meet and Greet” at the Chiller Theatre Expo Spring 2023 at the Parsippany (N.J.) Hilton. And it was there that he agreed to be interviewed and share what it was like to play the son of the famed Lucy and Desi.
Meeting Thibodeaux had been a lifelong dream of Boland’s, who asked the actor if he would come to New York. Thibodeaux’s response? “Invite us!”
“After hearing about auditions for the show, my dad took me to the Hollywood studio,” said Thibodeaux, who’s now 72. “I played the drums for Lucy and Desi. Desi stood up and laughed and said I think we found Little Ricky. And my dad signed a seven-year contract.”
He had relocated from Louisiana to Hollywood with his dad, mom, and five siblings.
But as time went by, the Thibodeaux family members were reunited in Hollywood.
“It was a very professional set with professional cameras filled with the top people in Hollywood,” Thibodeaux pointed out. “She (Lucille Ball) was very serious on the set and expected everyone to perform accordingly and make the show the success it was. There was a little pressure. Lucille Ball was very serious and wanted everything to be perfect.”
And “Little Ricky” had to know his lines — which he did.
Thibodeaux described the TV setting like acting in a Broadway play since the show played before a live audience without any breaks or retakes.
He recounts there was a teacher on set and he was the only child in the sitcom. But his dad was always on set with him and in time he acquired a position with the show.
And he remembers how much he looked forward to going home to play with kids on his block.
Throughout Thibodeaux’s stint on the show, he spent a good amount of time at several Arnaz homes throughout California and Lucille Ball would drive him, her children and others, to the beach or to a movie.
“We would go to the Del Mar Racetrack where we were sitting next to Jimmy Durante, who was giving us tips on horses. But throughout my time with them I also experienced a lot of their marital struggles — fighting and screaming,” he recalls. “But Lucille Ball just loved working with Vivian Vance and William Frawley, who was an old vaudevillian.”
However, Thibodeaux alludes to being closest to Desi Arnaz.
“He renamed me Richard Keith because he thought it would be hard for people to pronounce my last name. Thibodeaux is derived from the Cajun French part of Louisiana where I lived.”
He would go on to describe Desi as a very exciting guy always laughing a lot, playing the conga drums and they got along extremely well.
He would also speak of the show’s original three cameras format which allows cameras to get multiple views of the same scene allowing more space for the live audience — another first in the industry and the brainchild of Lucy and Desi.
The iconic sitcom premiered on Oct. 15, 1951, and aired Monday nights until its 179th episode that aired on May 6, 1957. According to the Lucy Desi Museum, there are 181 episodes including the pilot and a Christmas special. It was nominated for 21 Emmy Awards and won five times.
The original cast went on to reprise their roles in “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour.” A total of 13 episodes aired from 1957 until 1960.
Life after “I Love Lucy” saw the child actor land a role on the “Andy Griffith Show,” where he played Opie’s friend, John Paul Jason.
FELL ON HARD TIMES
The Thibodeaux family would leave California in 1966 when the young actor was 15 and return to Louisiana, where he joined a rock band by the name of “David and the Giants.”
Thibodeaux was candid about his drug abuse, and the years that he developed an interest in the occult and witchcraft and times when he dated witches. And he confided that he began to hear voices who made strange commands.
“In time I began smoking and drinking and got into the drug culture and took LSD, cocaine and heroin. It was like sex, drugs and rock n’ roll. I was in distress and suicidal and clinically depressed and heard voices telling me to throw myself out of my sports car. And then one night I was lying in bed and I was at the end of my rope. I said ‘God if you’re real I’m sorry for all the terrible things I’ve done and if you’ll save me out of this mess I made in my life, I’ll serve you. Are you all the things you say you are?” He said he heard God reply, “Yes I am,” which is quoted in the Bible.
Thibodeaux said God heard that prayer. Two weeks later he went to a prayer meeting with his mother in Louisiana where people were healed by the Lord. “The Lord touched my life,” he said. “Man looks on the outside — but God looks on the inside.”
Thibodeaux, who is now the executive director of Ballet Magnificant!, a professional Christian Dance company in Mississippi co-founded by his wife, Kathy Thibodeaux, says he’s sharing God’s love with people.
He wrote a book, “Life After Lucy: The True Story of “I Love Lucy’s” Little Ricky,” which is available on Amazon.
Thibodeaux resides in Springfield, Miss. with his wife Kathy. The couple are parents to a daughter, Tara, and a grandson, Ethan.
CELEBRATIONS – JULY 30 TO AUG. 5
JULY 30
Sunday is birthday time for Frank Besignano, Tamara Valles, Chris Pizzi and John Valitutto.
Sunday is wedding anniversary time for Dr. Daniel and Joanne Megna, for Fran and Anthony Legato Sr. and for Susan and Anthony Jannazzo.
JULY 31
The best of birthdays Monday to retired Justice Philip G. Minardo, Sandra Zummo, Mary Gannon, Nicole Palumbo, Linda Vinciguerra of Linda Lingerie Boutique, Robert Schnell, Dante Joseph Ciaramella who turns 10, Anthony Accardi, Josh Recio and Charlie Bernardi.
AUG. 1
Birthday greetings Tuesday to Ann Johnson, Bob Bowers, Anthony Mazzallo, Joseph Moramarco,Brianna DiGregorio, and Joe DiPilato. Happy birthday to Brian (the grill master) Moffett, who turns 55. Happy wedding anniversary retired Justice Judge Charles A. and Carol Kuffner.
