I Love Lucy

"I Love Lucy" was a very popular show in the early 1950s of course, but many don't know that there is a Brockport connection. Bernard Drake, who was head of the campus school here, and then a dean, had in his earlier years been principal of the high school in Jamestown, NY that Lucille Ball had attended. In 1956 an article in the Stylus described how she invited Drake to Jamestown for a get together of former friends and classmates, and to premier her latest movie, "Forever Darling." At the event Lucille Ball recalled how Drake had built up the drama program at the high school, and had given her much personal encouragement.

(Oh, in case anyone is wondering, Bernard Drake is one of two people the library is named after. The other is Ruth Drake, who was a campus school librarian here. Confusingly enough, they were not in fact related!)