[In 1979 interview] I have worked like a dog all my life, honey.
Dancing, as Fred Astaire said, is next to ditch-digging. You sweat and you
slave and the audience doesn't think you have a brain in your
head.
[Fred Astaire] was a perfectionist. At rehearsal when you thought you had got it perfect he would say, "Go on, Annie, just one more time!" What I wouldn't give to do it just one more time.
At MGM, I always played the second feminine lead. I was never the star
in films. I was the brassy, good-hearted showgirl. I never really had
my big moment on the screen. Broadway gave me the stardom that my soul
kind of yearned for.
She (Lucille Ball) loved him (Desi Arnaz) with all her heart, he was a part of her, that always stayed with her.