A famed Afro-Cuban music band leader and minor movie star, Desi Arnaz rose from nightclub performer to television magnate during the golden years of black-and-white television. Born Desiderio Alberto Arnaz y de Acha III on March 2, 1917, in Santiago, Cuba, to a wealthy family. Arnaz accompanied his father into political exile in Miami when the family's fortune was destroyed and his father became persona non grata under the Fulgencia Batista regime. At the age of seventeen, Arnaz's musical talent was discovered by renowned band leader Xavier Cugat, and by 1937 he was leading his own band in Miami Beach. Arnaz began to make a name for himself as a band leader, drummer, and singer in New York City and Miami Beach nightclubs when Afro-Cuban music was making its first and largest impact on American popular music of the late 1930s and early 1940s.

Lucille Ball and...