Vintage Rachel: You Read It In Winchell...

It was a gathering of celebrities to celebrate Walter Winchell's 56th birthday in May of 1953!

Winchell was a popular gossip columnist and radio show host in Hollywood at the time. His radio show was the first time people, including Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, it seems, would hear that Lucille was expecting a baby. Lucille wrote in her posthumously published autobiography, Love, Lucy:

"Desi was fast asleep and I was knitting, listening to the radio. Walter Winchell came on the air and announced: 'After ten childless years of marriage, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz are infanticipating.' I dropped my knitting, ran into Desi's dressing room, and woke him up. 'We're going to have a baby!

Desi sat up, rubbing his eyes. 'How d'ya know? We aren't supposed to hear until tomorrow!'

I said, 'Winchell just told me.'

'How d'ya like dat!' was my Cuban's reaction."

Desi's Ricky Ricardo would sing a song he wrote on I Love Lucy, "You read it in Winchell that we're adding a limb to our family tree!"

The point here is: he was the TMZ of his day.

On May 13, 1953, the stars came out for Winchell's birthday at Ciro's, a Hollywood nightclub located on Sunset Boulevard. I never ever thought I'd see a photo of Marilyn Monroe and Lucille together, but at last, I came across these randomly one day and my little Old Hollywood heart began to flutter.