#desi aranz
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CURTAIN UP!
Lucy on Stage ~ Epilogue
Lucille Ball has influenced theatrical stage plays as part of her legacy to the entertainment industry. There have been theatrical presentations that merely mention her name, or present her as a character. Here are a just a few examples.
I Love Lucy ~ A three-act comedy adapted by Christopher Sergel from the television program by Jess Oppenheimer, Madelyn Pugh, and Bob Carroll Jr.
Act One opens in the Ricardos’ messy living room, based on the TV show’s eighth episode, “Men Are Messy.” Lucy and Ricky argue over finances. Lucy changes the subject by wanting to look up Ricky’s horoscope, from “The Séance.” She does this to encourage Ricky to ask Mr. Littlefield, owner of the Tropicana nightclub, for a raise (from “Ricky Asks for a Raise”). Peggy and Arthur, “The Young Fans” are also in the cast. Later, Mr. Littlefield comes over to the messy apartment and wonders how Ricky can manage the Tropicana if he can’t manage his own wife.
It is reported that in 1954, before television was widely available in Hawaii, Hilo High School put on the “I Love Lucy” play! The sister of a Hilo High School teacher living in Hollywood met with the publicity manager for Lucy and Desi and told them about the approaching production. Lucille Ball was reportedly “thrilled,” and asked for pictures of the Hilo High School cast. The “I Love Lucy” senior play had four daytime student performances and one night showing for the community. It was also staged at the Kilauea Military Reservation. The Arnazes sent them a congratulatory telegram.
“If you want to laugh until tears run down your cheeks and your sides ache go see ‘I Love Lucy,’ the hilarious comedy production by Hilo High School’s senior class. The cast literally had its audience rolling in the aisles.” ~ Thelma Olival in the Hilo Tribune Herald
After a few local and community performances, the Sergel script was withdrawn and is no longer in print.
In 1955, after “I Love Lucy” concluded its European Tour episodes, Hedda Hopper reported that Lucille Ball and Desi Aranz were in talks to appear in a stage musical produced by Rogers and Hammerstein.
“They're figuring on an original story to fit their personalities, and it will bring these two back to the stage for the first time in 15 years. Desi was in ‘Too Many Girls’ in 1940 and Lucille road-toured in ‘Dream Girl’ after she quit Metro. ~ Hedda Hopper, July 11, 1955
Needless to say, the project never materialized. Instead, Lucy and Desi opted for a sixth season of “I Love Lucy” set in Connecticut.
Bells Are Ringing (1956) is a Broadway musical by Betty Comden, Adolph Green and Jule Styne, which focuses on Ella Peterson (originally played by Judy Holliday), who works in the basement office of a telephone answering service. At a party attended by snobbish New Yorkers, the ensemble sings “Drop that Name”. One of the names dropped is Lucille Ball. The 1960 film adaptation (also starring Holliday and Lucille Ball’s friend Dean Martin) was directed by Vincente Minnelli, who had directed Ball in The Long, Long Trailer (1954).
“That's the way you play the game,
Drop that name!”
Little Shop of Horrors (1982) by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman follows a hapless florist shop worker who raises a plant that feeds on human blood and flesh. He has a romance with a fragile beauty named Audrey, who dreams of “Somewhere That’s Green.” The lyrics of the song imagine Audrey and Seymour married, settled down, and watching “I Love Lucy” with their children. When the film was made in 1986, the song was turned into a dream sequence that featured footage of “I Love Lucy’s” famous chocolate factory scene from “Job Switching” (1952).
“We snuggle watchin' Lucy
On our big, enormous twelve-inch screen!”
Baby (1983) is a Broadway musical by David Shire, Richard Matlby Jr, and Sybille Pearson that dealt with the effects of motherhood on three couples. During the song “I Want It All” the three expectant mothers (originally Liz Calloway, Catherine Cox, and Beth Fowler) sing about the famous and powerful women they emulate.. including Lucille Ball.
“I want to be Mother Teresa, Sally Ride, Lucille Ball
I want it all!”
Senator Joe (1989) was a Broadway ‘popera’ by Tom O'Horgan and Perry Arthur Kroeger that dealt with famous red-hunting Senator Joseph McCarthy. The show closed in previews due to accusations of financial misconduct by its producer.
(Photo courtesy of Perry Arthur Kroeger. Used by permission.)
Lucille Ball was accused of being a communist by McCarthy in 1953. The show featured large cut-out heads of Lucy and Desi (as well as Jackie Gleason and Howdy Doody), with their dialogue voiced by Michelle Fleischer and Tom Desrocher. The show played at the the Neil Simon (formerly the Alvin), the same venue where Lucille Ball’s name was dropped in Bells Are Ringing and Ball made her only Broadway appearance in 1960′s Wildcat. When Ball suddenly died in 1989, news reporters stood outside the theatre, which still displayed the marquee for “Senator Joe”!
I Loved Lucy is a play by Lee Tannen, based on his 2001 book of the same title about his friendship with Lucille Ball. The two person play (Lucy and Lee) presents their developing relationship over a series of conversations and backgammon games during the last years of her life.
The play has had numerous productions, including New York City and London, where it starred Sandra Dickinson as Ball and Matthew Scott as Lee. Tannen has also played himself in some productions.
An Evening With Lucille Ball: Thank You for Asking is a one woman show starring Suzanne LaRusch as Lucy, written and directed by Lucie Arnaz. It is structured after a series of real-life Q&As and seminars Lucille Ball conducted in the 1970s, enhanced with flashbacks to earlier periods in the actress's astonishing career and silent home movies. LaRusch was originally a strolling Lucy impersonator at Universal Studios who parlayed her uncanny imitation into this unique ‘sanctioned’ show as well as playing ‘Lucy’ in the 1997 feature film Timecop.
Lucy Loves Desi: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Sitcom is a staged radio play produced by L.A. Theatre Works from a script by Gregg Oppenheimer, son of “I Love Lucy” creator Jess Oppenheimer.
Originally an audio play, the show has since been staged and toured. Six performers play Lucy, Desi, Jess Oppenheimer, and the other central figures responsible for the launch of the series. The show employs projections and music.
The Cuban and the Redhead is a musical by Robert Bartley and Danny Whitman deals with the tumultuous relationship of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz and the creation of the television show that was their legacy.
The musical has had numerous readings and regional productions.
I Love Lucy: Live On Stage is a theatrical presentation of “I Love Lucy” scripts staged by Rick Sparks.
The show has toured extensively in the USA and Canada. The settings, costumes, and wardrobe contribute to bringing the television program vividly to life.
The Cher Show (2017) is a jukebox musical with a book by Rick Elice that tells the story of the life and career of Cher, using songs that she performed throughout her career. The part of Cher is played by three actresses. One actress (originally Emily Skinner) plays Cher’s mother Georgia Holt, and Lucille Ball. Holt was a background performer on “I Love Lucy” and “The Lucy Show.”
Everybody Loves Lucy by Elise McCann and Richard Carroll. In the cabaret show Francine Cain brings Lucille Ball to life, revealing the woman behind the image. As well as playing Ball, Cain also plays Edie, an amalgam of the women who watched “I Love Lucy” in the 1950s.
SIdekicked by Kim Powers is a one-woman about Vivian Vance. Set on March 2, 1960, Vance is about to turn herself into Ethel Mertz, America's most beloved side kick, for the final time. Although Lucille Ball is not represented on stage, she is the center of Vance’s world at the time.
The play has had several regional productions, including at Cape May Stage (NJ) where Sally Mayes (above) played Vance.
Love! Valour! Compassion! (1994) by Terrence McNally is a play about a group of gay friends that escape to a lakeside house. The character of Buzz (originally Nathan Lane) tells the audience that he owes his very existence to Lucille Ball. In the 1997 film version, Buzz was played by Jason Alexander.
Corpus Christi (1997) by Terrence McNally is a modern retelling of the story of Jesus' birth, ministry, and death. McNally mentions Lucille Ball in a scene between Joshua (the Jesus prototype) and a room service waiter.
Bring it On: The Musical (2011) is a musical with music by Tom Kitt and Lin-Manuel Miranda, lyrics by Amanda Green and Miranda, and book by Jeff Whitty loosely based on the 2000 film of the same name. It focuses on the competitive world of cheerleading and over-the-top team rivalries. During the song "I Got You" Lucy and Desi are mentioned. The song was performed during the televised Macy's Parade on Thanksgiving Day 2012.
MISCELLANEOUS LUCY
#Lucille Ball#I Love Lucy#Stage#Theatre#Lucy#Broadway#Terrence McNally#Vivian Vance#Desi Arnaz#Sally Mayes#Nathan Lane#Suzanne LaRusche#Sandra Dickinson#Matthew Scott#Lee Tannen#Bells Are Ringing#Baby#Musicals#Judy Holliday#Little Shop of Horrors
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CBS Radio staff composer-conductor Wilbur Hatch did the music for radio programs like My Favorite Husband and The Whistler. Lucille Ball and Desi Aranz were impressed by his work on I Love Lucy. Desi Aranz would employ Hatch on most of his programs from then on, including The Untouchables and the Mothers-In-Law.
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Julia Arnaz has a net worth of around $1 million. She rose to fame as a daughter of Desi Aranz and his former partner.
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BW’s Morning Article Link: Lucille Ball & Desi Arnaz Biopic In The Works ScreenCrush is reporting on a new biographic movie from Amazon Studios that will chart the career and marriage of Lucille Ball and Desi Aranz.
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One person who did have a dissuade Lucy was her ex-husband, Desi Arnaz, who at her request, read Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paul Zindel’s screenplay (Mame) and strongly recommended she would not do the picture. Arnaz’s reasoning: Lucy was a combination of Charlie Chaplin and Carole Lombard, her humor physical. Mame’s humor was verbal. Most importantly, Arnaz pointed out that Lucy had made a television career by playing a starstruck bandleader’s wife, not talented enough to live up to her own pretensions of being a vocalist. In fact, Lucille Ball’s one shot at a musical - Cy Coleman and Carolyn Leigh’s Wildcat (1960) - had a humongous Broadway failure.
A Fine Romance, Hollywood & Broadway: The Magic. The Mayhem, The Musicals
#Lucille Ball#Desi Aranz#I guess he was trying to warn her not to do it in a respectful way especially what happed with Wildcat on Broadway?#Mame#Broadway#But Lucy had a lovely voice in The Long Long Trailer with Desi#but I guess her voice had changed due to years of smoking#I found this quote in the book that I pulled out for research (college)#the book also said that the movie winded up not so good that there were no audiences in theatres across the country#which devastated Lucy personally :'(#Desi Arnaz
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Sixty years ago CBS debuted their brand new show, a comedy about an awkward, clumsy, hilarious women and her smooth talking, entertainer husband. It was the day that ‘I Love Lucy’ hit the airwaves and has pretty much never left them.
#Classic television#Desi Aranz#humor#I Love Lucy#Lucille Ball#opinion#other#television#tv#Vivian Vance
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TELEVISION aka GEORGE RUINS A NEIGHBOR’S TV aka THE TELEVISION SUIT
June 17, 1949
“Television” aka “George Ruins a Neighbor’s TV” aka “The Television Suit” is episode #49 of the CBS Radio series MY FAVORITE HUSBAND broadcast on June 17, 1949. It later served as the basis for the “I Love Lucy” episode “The Courtroom” (ILL S2;E7) first aired November 10, 1952.
Synopsis ~ Liz and George's visit to their next-door neighbors, the Stones, turns into a disaster when George tries to repair the Stones' new television set by himself.
REGULAR CAST
Lucille Ball (Liz Cooper) was born on August 6, 1911 in Jamestown, New York. She began her screen career in 1933 and was known in Hollywood as ‘Queen of the B’s’ due to her many appearances in ‘B’ movies. With Richard Denning, she starred in a radio program titled “My Favorite Husband” which eventually led to the creation of “I Love Lucy,” a television situation comedy in which she co-starred with her real-life husband, Latin bandleader Desi Arnaz. The program was phenomenally successful, allowing the couple to purchase what was once RKO Studios, re-naming it Desilu. When the show ended in 1960 (in an hour-long format known as “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour”) so did Lucy and Desi’s marriage. In 1962, hoping to keep Desilu financially solvent, Lucy returned to the sitcom format with “The Lucy Show,” which lasted six seasons. She followed that with a similar sitcom “Here’s Lucy” co-starring with her real-life children, Lucie and Desi Jr., as well as Gale Gordon, who had joined the cast of “The Lucy Show” during season two. Before her death in 1989, Lucy made one more attempt at a sitcom with “Life With Lucy,” also with Gordon.
Richard Denning (George Cooper) was born as Louis Albert Heindrich Denninger Jr., in Poughkeepsie, New York. When he was 18 months old, his family moved to Los Angeles. Plans called for him to take over his father's garment manufacturing business, but he developed an interest in acting. Denning enlisted in the US Navy during World War II. He is best known for his roles in various science fiction and horror films of the 1950s. Although he teamed with Lucille Ball on radio in “My Favorite Husband,” the two never acted together on screen. While “I Love Lucy” was on the air, he was seen on another CBS TV series, “Mr. & Mrs. North.” From 1968 to 1980 he played the Governor on “Hawaii 5-0″, his final role. He died in 1998 at age 84.
Ruth Perrott (Katie, the Maid) was also later seen on “I Love Lucy.” She first played Mrs. Pomerantz, a member of the surprise investigating committee for the Society Matrons League in “Pioneer Women” (ILL S1;E25), as one of the member of the Wednesday Afternoon Fine Arts League in “Lucy and Ethel Buy the Same Dress” (ILL S3;E3), and also played a nurse when “Lucy Goes to the Hospital” (ILL S2;E16). She died in 1996 at the age of 96.
Bob LeMond (Announcer) also served as the announcer for the pilot episode of “I Love Lucy”. When the long-lost pilot was finally discovered in 1990, a few moments of the opening narration were damaged and lost, so LeMond – fifty years later – recreated the narration for the CBS special and subsequent DVD release.
Gale Gordon (Rudolph Atterbury) and Bea Benadaret (Iris Atterbury) are mentioned, but not in this episode.
GUEST CAST
Hans Conried (The Process Server) first co-starred with Lucille Ball in The Big Street (1942). He then appeared on “I Love Lucy” as used furniture man Dan Jenkins in “Redecorating” (ILL S2;E8) and later that same season as Percy Livermore in “Lucy Hires an English Tutor” (ILL S2;E13) – both in 1952. The following year he began an association with Disney by voicing Captain Hook in Peter Pan. On “The Lucy Show” he played Professor Gitterman in “Lucy’s Barbershop Quartet” (TLS S1;E19) and in “Lucy Plays Cleopatra” (TLS S2;E1). He was probably best known as Uncle Tonoose on “Make Room for Daddy” starring Danny Thomas, which was filmed on the Desilu lot. He joined Thomas on a season 6 episode of “Here’s Lucy” in 1973.
Frank Nelson (Frank Stone) was born on May 6, 1911 (three months before Lucille Ball) in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He started working as a radio announcer at the age of 15. He later appeared on such popular radio shows as “The Great Gildersleeve,” “Burns and Allen,” and “Fibber McGee & Molly”. This is one of his 11 performances on “My Favorite Husband.” On “I Love Lucy” he holds the distinction of being the only actor to play two recurring roles: Freddie Fillmore and Ralph Ramsey, as well as six one-off characters, including the frazzled train conductor in “The Great Train Robbery” (ILL S5;E5), a character he repeated on “The Lucy Show.” Aside from Lucille Ball, Nelson is perhaps most associated with Jack Benny and was a fifteen-year regular on his radio and television programs.
Mary Lansing (Mary Stone) was best known for playing Martha Clark and ten other characters in Mayberry on “The Andy Griffith Show” and “Mayberry R.F.D.”, both filmed at Desilu. Lucy lovers might remember her as the voice of weepy Cynthia in “Over The Teacups”, the Broadway play that the Ricardos and Mertzes attend in “Ethel’s Birthday” (ILL S4;E9). She met Frank Nelson performing on radio. They married in 1933 and had two children. Lansing appeared with him frequently on the "Jack Benny Program" during the 1950s.
Alan Reed (Harry, the Judge) is probably best remembered as the voice of Fred Flintstone where he acted opposite Bea Benadaret (Iris Atterbury), who voiced Betty Rubble on the animated series. His only television appearance with Lucille Ball was on “The Lucy Show” in 1963, an episode which also featured Frank Nelson. In 1967, he did an episode of the Desi Arnaz series “The Mothers-in-Law”.
“My Favorite Husband” was based on the novels Mr. and Mrs. Cugat, the Record of a Happy Marriage (1940) and Outside Eden (1945) by Isabel Scott Rorick, which had previously been adapted into the film Are Husbands Necessary? (1942). “My Favorite Husband” was first broadcast as a one-time special on July 5, 1948. Lucille Ball and Lee Bowman played the characters of Liz and George Cugat, and a positive response to this broadcast convinced CBS to launch “My Favorite Husband” as a series. When Bowman was not available Richard Denning was cast as George. On January 7, 1949, confusion with bandleader Xavier Cugat prompted a name change to Cooper. On this same episode Jell-O became its sponsor. A total of 124 episodes of the program aired from July 23, 1948 through March 31, 1951. After about ten episodes had been written, writers Fox and Davenport departed and three new writers took over – Bob Carroll, Jr., Madelyn Pugh, and head writer/producer Jess Oppenheimer. In March 1949 Gale Gordon took over the existing role of George's boss, Rudolph Atterbury, and Bea Benaderet was added as his wife, Iris. CBS brought “My Favorite Husband” to television in 1953, starring Joan Caulfield and Barry Nelson as Liz and George Cooper. The television version ran two-and-a-half seasons, from September 1953 through December 1955, on air concurrently with “I Love Lucy.” It was produced live at CBS Television City for most of its run, until switching to film for a truncated third season filmed (ironically) at Desilu and recasting Liz Cooper with Vanessa Brown. In addition to being aired on the CBS Radio Network, the episodes were heard on the Armed Forces Radio Network, where the commercials were omitted.
THE EPISODE
“Television throws ‘My Favorite Husband’ for a loss, and the whole neighborhood into night courts.” ~ Mason City Globe-Gazette radio listing
As the episode opens, Liz and George are discussing their upcoming summer vacation. Liz has packed five suitcases - just for herself.
George is concerned that Liz’s swimsuit may be too skimpy, a subject explored again in “LIz Learns To Swim” (June 11, 1950) as well as on a couple of episodes of “I Love Lucy.”
Liz and George realize that they do not know any of their neighbors well enough to ask them to water their lawn while they are away. Liz knows the first names (Frank and Mary) of the Stones next door because she read a postcard that was accidentally delivered to their house. George says that he hopes Liz didn’t read the message, but Liz lets it slip that “Mrs. Stone’s mother had a lumbago attack at Lake Tahoe.” On “I Love Lucy” Fred Mertz also chastised his wife about reading postcards delivered to their tenants. In 1951′s “Drafted” (ILL S1;E11) Fred say about Ethel...
FRED: “Some people build model airplanes. Ethel reads postcards.”
At the Stone home, Frank and Mary welcome the Coopers. Frank Nelson (Mr. Stone) does his trademark “Weeeeeell!” and the audience laughs, recognizing it from “The Jack Benny Program.” Mrs. Stone (Mary Lansing) asks if they would like to watch television. The Coopers do not yet own a television set, but Liz casually remarks that they don’t miss it.
LIZ: “I crawl in the Bendix and sing and George watches me through the little window.”
The Bendix Corporation (1924-1983) licensed their name to a line of electric clothes washing machines. The 1937 Bendix Home Laundry had a glass porthole door, a rotating drum and an electrically driven mechanical timer. The machine was able to auto-fill, wash, rinse and spin-dry. Bendix Home Appliances was later sold to Avco who sold it to Philco.
In 1952, Lucille Ball actually played a talking washing machine in a full-length Westinghouse industrial film called Ellis in Freedomland.
Six years later, when Desilu partnered with Westinghouse to present “The Westinghouse-Desilu Playhouse,” Ball did another industrial film for them titled Lucy Buys Westinghouse where she actually got inside the machine, fulfilling Liz Cooper’s off-the-cuff comment of 1949.
The idea of Liz pretending to be performing on television by getting inside a household appliance also recalls when Lucy Ricardo hollowed out their television set to help Ricky picture her doing a TV commercial in the now-famous Vitameatavegamin episode of 1952.
On “I Love Lucy”, it was the Mertzes who did not yet own a television set. By the end of 1949, 4.2 million US homes had a television. By 1953, 50% of all American households owned one. The increase was credited to “I Love Lucy” and the 1953 Republican and Democratic National Conventions.
Frank turns on his TV and after it warms up (a common problem with early televisions), the only program on any station seems to be wrestling. One channel is actually airing lady wrestling!
MARY: “Oh, they have more than wrestling, Mrs. Cooper. Sometimes they have boxing and baseball.”
Televised sports, especially wrestling and boxing, were the primary attraction in the early days of television, especially for male viewers. Long-haired blonde wrestler Gorgeous George was even mentioned on “I Love Lucy.”
ETHEL: “Our grandmothers must have had arms like Gorgeous George.” ~ ‘Pioneer Women’
In “Ricky’s Movie Offer” (ILL S4;E6) the Grocery Boy asks Lucy what she’s supposed to be in her Marilyn Monroe dress and wig, Fred quips “Gorgeous George.”
Nearly every time Ricky and Fred watch television it is to see a boxing match, such as in “Ricky and Fred are TV Fans” (ILL S2;E30) in 1953. That episode, like this radio broadcast, also featured Frank Nelson.
When the TV reception is fuzzy, Frank and George feel they can fix it themselves, much to the disbelief of their wives. Frank takes the back off the set:
FRANK (reading): “Back of this set should be removed by a qualified television repairman only.”
On “I Love Lucy” the warning is similar:
FRED (reading): “Danger! High Voltage! Do not remove this back under any circumstances!”
Both Frank and George and Ricky and Fred cause their sets to explode by fooling around with some loose wires! The wrecked TV results in name calling by both couples and the Stones / Mertzes threaten to sue the Coopers / Ricardos.
Next morning at breakfast, the Coopers are worried that a lawsuit will prevent them from going on vacation. Katy the Maid reports that there is a strange man at the door, whom they immediately suspect may be a process server. Liz tells Katie to lie and say that they are away for a fortnight in the Catskills. Katie answers the door nervously,
KATIE: “They left for a catnap in the Fortskills. I mean a nightcap in the Footskills.”
The Process Server (Hans Conried) surprises the Coopers when they sneak out the back door. They have been served!
TRIVIA! Ironically, on TV the Process Server (Harry Bartell) at first asks the Ricardos where the Lewis apartment is, to throw them off the track. On “I Love Lucy,” Miss Lewis was an elderly tenant played for one episode (”Lucy Plays Cupid”) by Bea Benadaret, the actress who usually plays Iris Atterbury on “My Favorite Husband,” although she is not in this episode. Hans Conried appeared as Dan Jenkins and Percy Livermore on “I Love Lucy,” episodes that book-ended “The Courtroom” during season two!
George writes out Liz’s testimony, including stage directions telling her when to flirt with the Judge. Ricky Ricardo and Fred Mertz do the same thing on “I Love Lucy.” When Liz rehearses her testimony aloud, she states the date and time of the event as “June 13, 1949 at approximately 7:35pm” which was the real time and date of the broadcast. To keep the television version from becoming ‘dated’ - any reference to dates is purposefully omitted. Lucy instead tells the Judge (Moroni Olsen) the events happened “about three weeks ago.”
In the courtroom, George and Frank act as their own attorneys just as Ricky and Fred will do in “The Courtroom”. For economy sake, the radio script omits the character of the Bailiff who swears in the witnesses, although the character is part of the television script. Both scripts also include the flirtatious ‘stage directions’ for Lucy and Liz to appeal to the Judge’s vanity.
LIZ: “...when Mr. Stone suggested we watch television flutter eyelids at jury.”
On television, Lucy hikes up her skirts instead of fluttering her eyelids. Since TV is a visual medium, during her testimony she just does it, rather than says it.
TRIVIA: When the Ricardos and the Mertzes go to court again in “Lucy Makes Way for Danny” on the “Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour”, the judge who Lucy and Ethel try to flirt with by hiking up their skirts is played by Gale Gordon, who usually plays Rudolph Atterbury on “My Favorite Husband,” although he is not in this episode.
The final gag of the Judge’s TV also exploding is the same on radio and TV, except Liz intimates that they are headed for the city jail instead of the happy ending on television where the Judge encourages the couples to forgive one another and sends them home friends.
CODA
George and Liz are in bed and George cannot sleep. Liz encourages him to yawn to induce sleep. It works! ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
#My Favorite Husband#Lucille Ball#Gale Gordon#Bea Benadaret#I Love Lucy#the courtroom#television#The Television Suit#Frank Nelson#Mary Lansing#Alan Reed#Bob LeMond#Ruth Perrott#The Lucy Desi Comedy Hour#Bendix Company#Harry Bartell#Desi Aranz#William Frawley#Vivian Vance
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TV GUIDE
March 12, 1988
On March 11, 1988 Lucille Ball and Desi Aranz were featured (among others) on the cover of TV Guide (volume 36, number 11, issue #1824).
This would be the last time Lucille Ball appeared on the cover of TV Guide during her lifetime. She was on the cover of the very first national edition in 1953 and was seen on 39 covers.
The inside article promoted on the cover is “IS TV GETTING BETTER OR WORSE?” by critic William A. Henry III.
The photograph used on the cover is likely a promo shot from Forever Darling (1956).
The cover also features the cast of “M*A*S*H” (1972-83): Alan Alda, Loretta Swit, William Christopher, Jamie Farr, Harry Morgan, Mike Farrell, and David Ogden Steirs. Only Farr acted opposite Lucille Ball, in “Lucy, the Rain Goddess” (HL S4;E15) in 1966. Harry Morgan was employed by Desilu as a regular on “December Bride” (1954-59) and a single episode of “The Untouchables” in 1962.
The cast of “ALF” (1986-90): Max Wright, Alf (Paul Fusco), Anne Schedeen, and Benji Gregory. That same week, Alf (Paul Fusco) and Lucille Ball both were guests on the Bob Hope birthday special.
The cast of “Cheers” (1982-93): Ted Danson and Kirstie Alley. In 1984, Danson attended the “All Star Party for Lucille Ball”. In August 1980, before she was a television star, interior decorator Kirstie Alley appeared on “Password” with Lucille Ball.
In the listings contained in this issue, Lucille Ball appeared on “Happy Birthday, Bob: 50 Stars Salute Your 50 Years at NBC” on May 16, 1988. The special also featured ALF (Paul Fusco).
#TV Guide#Lucille Ball#Desi Arnaz#1988#Bob Hope#Alf#MASH#Cheers#Ted Danson#Kirstie Alley#Paul Fusco#TV#Jamie Farr#Harry Morgan#William A. Henry III
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DEAN MARTIN
June 7, 1917 - December 25, 1991
Dean Martin was born Dino Paul Crocetti in Steubenville, Ohio and became one of the most popular and enduring entertainers of the mid-20th century. A singer, actor, and comedian, Martin’s career breakthrough came in 1946 through his partnership with comedian Jerry Lewis, billed as Martin & Lewis. They performed in nightclubs and later had numerous appearances on radio, television and in films.
Lucille Ball’s first appearance with Dean Martin was on his NBC radio show with Jerry Lewis in December 1948. Lucy was then the star of her own radio show, “My Favorite Husband” on CBS.
Following an end to their partnership in 1956, Martin established himself as a notable singer, recording numerous contemporary songs as well as standards from the Great American Songbook. His hit singles, including his signature songs "That's Amore", "Everybody Loves Somebody", "You're Nobody till Somebody Loves You", "Ain't That a Kick in the Head?" and "Volare".
He became one of the most popular acts in Las Vegas and was known for his friendship with Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr., who together formed the Rat Pack. Throughout his career, Martin appeared in 85 film and television productions. In the above photo at the Sands Casino, the Rat Pack is joined by Lucy and Danny Thomas (top) and Gary Morton (right).
In “Lucy and Wayne Newton” (HL SS2;E2) the Carters are driving down the Las Vegas strip when Craig notices that Dean Martin is playing at the Riviera. Kim says “He’s one of my favorites!”
“I'd hate to be a teetotaler. Imagine getting up in the morning and knowing that's as good as you're going to feel all day.” ~ Dean Martin
Part of Dean’s act involved his affection for alcoholic beverages. Jokes about Dean Martin’s drinking were common, even when Dean was not part of the show.
In “Lucy the Disc Jockey” (TLS S3;E26) Lucy tries to see the title of the song on a spinning turntable and gets dizzy, she says
“No wonder. It’s a Dean Martin album.”
In “Lucy the Stockbroker” (TLS S3;E25) Lucy discovers that Mr. Mooney is really hypnotized, not faking. Viv says
“He’s stiffer than Dean Martin.”
In “Lucy and Lawrence Welk” (HL S2;E18), Viv returns from the Universal Studios Tour and tells Lucy
“I saw...Dean Martin’s bartender.”
Lucille Ball adored working with Martin, despite the fact that their working styles were polar opposites. Ball was committed to rehearsals where Martin preferred to ‘wing it.’ Due to her great affection for him, she put up with it.
The first time Lucille Ball and Dean Martin appeared on the same television show (though not at the same time) came in 1950 on “Show of the Year: Telethon for United Cerebral Palsy” hosted by Milton Berle on NBC. It was broadcast from New York City with remotes from Philadelphia. (Photo, left to right: Gabby Hayes, Roger Clipp, UCP Poster Child, Jane Pickens, and Dennis James.)
Dean Martin never appeared on “I Love Lucy,” but his second wife did! Former Orange Bowl Queen Jeanne Biegger (billed only as Mrs. Dean Martin) appeared as herself wearing a Don Loper dress in 1955’s “The Fashion Show” (ILL S4;E19). The couple divorced in 1973. Martin then married Catherine Hawn, but the unioni lasted only three years. Martin’s first wife was Betty McDonald, who he married in 1941 and divorced in 1949. Martin had eight children.
“The three words you hear most around my house are 'hello,' 'goodbye,' and 'I'm pregnant.'" ~ Dean Martin
Dean Martin was one of the performers at the Friar’s Club Roast of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz on November 23, 1958. The event, held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, was not telecast.
It would be ten years before Lucy and Dean again appeared on the same show (again, not at the same time) with “The Bob Hope Buick Sports Show Awards” in 1961. The show primarily took place in Los Angeles, but Lucille Ball’s segment took place in New York City, where she was appearing in Wildcat.
Two years later, Bob Hope presented the “TV Guide Awards.” Lucille Ball is nominated for Favorite Female Performer, but is not present. A still photo of her is shown instead.
Starting in 1964, Martin was the host of the television variety program “The Dean Martin Show”, which was characterized by his relaxed, easy-going demeanor. Lucille Ball appeared on the show in 1966 along with singer Kate Smith.
In return, four days later Dean appeared on “The Lucy Show,” playing himself and his own stuntman, Eddie Feldman. Lucille Ball said that this was her favorite episode of “The Lucy Show.”
Both Lucy and Dean were part of “Jack Benny’s Carnival Nights” in 1968, although once again they do not share screen time. Martin does a quick cameo playing the Amazing Sleeping Man! The opening of the show was performed on the set of “The Dean Martin Show” complete with fire pole and sexy assistants!
Martin was in attendance at the “20th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards” where Lucille Ball won her fourth (and final) competitive acting Emmy,along with Bill Cosby (”I Spy”) and Don Addams (”Get Smart”).
In 1968, Lucille Ball (and many other stars) makes a cameo appearance on “The Dean Martin Christmas Show” to announce the donation of toys to children in hospitals. The cameos are filmed without Martin present.
A year later, the two were also on the bill for “Ann-Margret: From Hollywood With Love.” Dean Martin and Dean Martin sing a medley of country western songs and then do a sketch where the gender roles are reversed. Lucy, appearing in a separate segment, plays herself and an autograph hound named Celebrity Lu.
Lucille Ball (and dozens of other stars) make guest appearanced on “The Dean Martin Show’s” sixth season opener in September 1970.
In “Jack Benny’s 20th Anniversary Show” (November 1970) Lucy plays Jack’s maid, Janet, while Dean plays himself. Martin knocks on Jack’s dressing room door to wish him a happy anniversary and dance “The Anniversary Waltz” with him. The bit lasts less than 30 seconds.
Later in November 1970, “John Wayne’s Swing Out Sweet Land” featured Dean Martin as Eli Whitney (of cotton gin fame) and Lucille Ball as the voice of Lady Liberty.
In February 1975 “Dean Martin’s Celebrity Roast" was dedicated to Lucille Ball. On the dais, Martin presents Lucille’s friends and colleagues Bob Hope, Gale Gordon, Milton Berle, Henry Fonda, Ginger Rogers, Jack Benny, and Vivian Vance.
A year later it was Lucille doing the roasting, this time of her friend Danny Thomas. Also on Martin’s dais are Orson Welles, Milton Berle, and Gene Kelly.
Two year after that, in 1978, Lucille returned for yet another Dean Martin Roast, this time for her Beverly Hills neighbor, Jimmy Stewart.
In 1975, on of the Lucille Ball CBS Specials was “Lucy Gets Lucky” starring Dean Martin. Ball plays Lucy Collins, who travels to Las Vegas to see her favorite star perform. To get into the sold out show she must work a variety of casino and hotel jobs!
“NBC: The First 50 Years” (1976) was a four and a half hour extravaganza that naturally included clips of Dean Martin (who’s show was on the network) but also included Lucille Ball on “The Danny Kaye Show.”
“CBS Salutes Lucy: The First 25 Years” (1976) includes Dean Martin talking about how much he loves working with Lucille Ball.
At the start of 1980, Lucille Ball and Dean Martin are just two of the many guests in “Sinatra: The First 40 Years” celebrating his 64th birthday and 40th year in show business.
“Bob Hope’s Unrehearsed Antics of the Stars” on September 28, 1984 featured Lucy talking about her audition for Gone With The Wind and Dean Martin in a clip of a sketch with Hope about airline pilots.
In 1984′s “An All-Star Party for Lucille Ball” Dean Martin sings “When You’re Smiling” with special lyrics to suit the occasion: “When you’re Lucy, When you’re Lucy, You’re never off TV.”
Their last on-screen collaboration was to celebrate the opening of the Bob Hope Cultural Center at Palm Springs in “America’s Tribute to Bob Hope” in March 1988. Dozens of friends gather and offer comedy and musical performances to honor the building’s namesake including Lucille Ball, Dean Martin, George Burns, Ann-Margret, Dinah Shore, and Danny Thomas.
A further connection came offscreen when Lucille Ball’s son Desi Aranz joined with Dean Martin’s son Dino and Billy Hinsche to form a rock band known as Dino, Desi and Billy.
“I want to be remembered as a damn good entertainer, nothing spectacular. A good entertainer who made people enjoy themselves and made them laugh a little. I want them to think 'He was a nice guy. He did pretty good and we loved him.'" ~ Dean Martin
#Dean Martin#Lucille Ball#I love lucy#The Lucy Show#Dino Desi & Billy#bob hope#jack benny#Ann-Margret#Frank Sinatra#Las Vegas#Jimmy Stewart#Danny Thomas#Kate Smith#Bill Cosby#Don Addams#NBC#CBS#TV
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TOAST OF THE TOWN
“MGM’s 30th Anniversary Tribute” (S7;E23) ~ February 14, 1954
Directed by Robert Bleyer and John Moffitt
Ed Sullivan (Host) was a preeminent television variety show host who is best remembered for hosting his own show, at first titled “Toast of the Town” but later simply known as “The Ed Sullivan Show,” which became a staple of Sunday night viewing for millions of Americans from 1948 to 1971. As such, his name was often mentioned on “I Love Lucy” and Lucille Ball’s subsequent sitcoms. He introduced America to such entertainers as Elvis Presley, The Beatles, and The Supremes. Sullivan entered icon status when he and his television show were worked into the plot of the Broadway musical Bye Bye Birdie in 1960. The musical includes the song “Hymn for a Sunday Evening” which has a chorus that repeats Sullivan’s name in a choir-like harmony. Hope made an appearance in the 1964 film version. The theatre on Broadway in New York City where Sullivan did his weekly show was named after him in 1967. He died in 1974.
Dore Schary (Himself) was born Isadore Schary in Newark, New Jersey, in 1905. After working on Broadway he went to Hollywood were he eventually became head of MGM in 1948, ousting its founder Louis B. Mayer. He would helm the studio until 1956 and was in charge during Lucy and Desi’s filming of The Long, Long Trailer and Forever, Darling. In 1955 he was supposed to play himself on “I Love Lucy,” but backed out at the last moment and he was played by Phil Ober (Vivian Vance's husband) instead.
The MGM Stars
Lucille Ball (Herself / Tacy Collini from The Long, Long Trailer) was born on August 6, 1911 in Jamestown, New York. She began her screen career in 1933 and was known in Hollywood as ‘Queen of the B’s’ due to her many appearances in ‘B’ movies. With Richard Denning, she starred in a radio program titled “My Favorite Husband” which eventually led to the creation of “I Love Lucy,” a television situation comedy in which she co-starred with her real-life husband, Latin bandleader Desi Arnaz. The program was phenomenally successful, allowing the couple to purchase what was once RKO Studios, re-naming it Desilu. When the show ended in 1960 (in an hour-long format known as “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour”) so did Lucy and Desi’s marriage. In 1962, hoping to keep Desilu financially solvent, Lucy returned to the sitcom format with “The Lucy Show,” which lasted six seasons. She followed that with a similar sitcom “Here’s Lucy” co-starring with her real-life children, Lucie and Desi Jr., as well as Gale Gordon, who had joined the cast of “The Lucy Show” during season two. Before her death in 1989, Lucy made one more attempt at a sitcom with “Life With Lucy,” also with Gordon, which was not a success and was canceled after just 13 episodes.
Desi Arnaz (Himself / Nick Collini from The Long, Long Trailer) was born in Cuba in 1917 and immigrated to America as a youngster. He was a musician who married Lucille Ball in 1940 after meeting her on the set of 1939’s Too Many Girls, which he had done on stage in New York. In order to keep him ‘off the road’ Ball convinced producers to cast him as her husband in a new television project based on her radio show “My Favorite Husband.” The network was convinced. In 1951, Arnaz and Ball began playing Lucy and Ricky Ricardo, roles they would be identified with for the rest of their lives. The couple had two children together, Lucie and Desi Jr. In 1960, Ball and Arnaz divorced. Desi became a producer, responsible for such hits as “The Mothers-in-Law” (1967-69). He re-married in 1963. Desi Aranz died in 1986, just a few years before Ball.
Lucy and Desi enter to the tune of “The I Love Lucy Theme”.
Fred Astaire (Himself / Tom Bowen from Royal Wedding / Don Hewes from Easter Parade) was one of the most famous performers in Hollywood, known for his dancing, singing, and directing. He did four films with Lucille Ball between 1935 and 1945, three with his dance partner, Ginger Rogers. Astaire received an honorary Oscar in 1950. He died in 1987 at age 88.
Ann Blyth (Herself / Kathie Ruder from The Student Prince) was nominated for an Oscar for her appearance in 1945's Mildred Pierce. Blyth was equally at home in musicals, a specialty of MGM.
Cy Charisse (Herself) was born Tula Ellice Finklea in Amarillo, Texas. She was best known as a dancer in the MGM movie musicals of the 1950s. She did two films with Lucille Ball in the mid-1940s. She died in 2008 at age 86.
Van Johnson (Himself) co-starred in Too Many Girls (1940), the film that introduced Lucille Ball to Desi Arnaz. He was also seen with Lucy in the films Easy to Wed (1946) and the recently released Yours, Mine and Ours in 1968. He played himself on one of the most popular episodes of “I Love Lucy,” “The Dancing Star” (ILL S4;E27) as well as an episode of “The Lucy Show.” He starred in The Romance of Rosy Ridge (1947) and the 1954 film The Caine Mutiny. He died in 2008 at age 92.
Howard Keel (Himself / Adam from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers / Frank Butler from Annie Get Your Gun) was discovered by Oscar Hammerstein II during auditions for John Raitt’s replacement in Broadway’s Carousel in 1946. After that, he also went on to play Curly in Oklahoma! He is probably best remembered for his role in MGM’s Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954), a film that was mentioned on “I Love Lucy.” On TV he played Clayton Farlow on “Dallas” (1981-91). His only acting appearance with Lucille Ball was on a 1969 episode of “Here's Lucy.” Keel died in 2004.
Gene Kelly (Himself / Don Lockwood from Singin' in the Rain) was an Oscar-winning performer who did four films with Lucille Ball between 1943 and 1967. In 1978 Lucille Ball was seen on the TV tribute special “Gene Kelly: An American in Pasadena.” In 1980, Kelly turned up on “Lucy Moves To NBC.” A Hollywood legend for his effortless dancing, Kelly died in 1996 at age 83.
Ann Miller (Herself) was a performer best known for her singing and tap dancing in movie musicals, as well as her shapely legs. It is said that she was discovered by Lucille Ball while doing a show at a nightclub in San Francisco. She subsequently did four films with Lucille Ball, including Too Many Girls (1940), the film that introduced Lucy to Desi Arnaz. Miller died in 2004 at age 80.
Walter Pidgeon (Himself / Frederick Alderson from Executive Suite) was a Canadian-born actor who was nominated for two Oscars in 1942 and 1943. He died in 1984 at age 87.
Jane Powell (Herself / Ellen Bowen from Royal Wedding) was best known for her role as Milly in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954). After 1957, her film roles disappeared and Powell began performing on stage.
Debbie Reynolds (Herself) was nominated for an Oscar for playing The Unsinkable Molly Brown in 1964. Her first big hit was playing Kathy Selden in MGM's Singin' in the Rain in 1952. She died in 2016 at age 86.
Lana Turner (Herself) was one of Hollywood's most popular actresses and also a favorite of Fred Mertz. She was best known for her femme fatale roles. She was nominated for an Oscar in 1957 for Peyton Place. Turner was seen with Lucille Ball in Du Barry Was A Lady (1943). She died in 1995 at age 74.
Esther Williams (Herself / Eve Barrett from Neptune's Daughter) was an actress best known for her aquatic roles. Lucille Ball starred with Williams in Easy to Wed (1946) and Ziegfeld Follies (1945). Williams was mentioned on “I Love Lucy” in 1955.
Also Appearing
Lionel Barrymore (Himself) was the patriarch of the Barrymore acting family of stage and screen. His most famous role was that of the nefarious banker Mr. Potter in It's A Wonderful Life (1946). Barrymore had difficulty walking later in life, which accounts for the fact that he does not enter with the other MGM stars in the opening number, and why he is discovered sitting in the screening room after the first clips segment.
Edmund Purdom (Prince Karl from The Student Prince) was an English-born actor who also appeared in MGM's Julius Caesar. Purdom holds the distinction of being the only personality to have their hand/footprints removed from the forecourt of Grauman's Chinese Theater because industry insiders felt the honor was too soon, having only done three credited films. He spent his later life in Italy and died there in 2009.
Johnny Green (Himself, Conductor) was a composer and MGM's General Musical Director. He conducts the orchestra for the program.
Julia Meade (Herself, Mercury Spokeswoman) became a household name showing off dream cars of the '50s like Lincoln and Mercury bedecked in evening dresses and strings of pearls, while describing the cars with perfectly manicured hands running up and down the upholstery. She died in 2016 at age 90.
ANNIVERSARY TRIVIA
To mark their 30th anniversary, MGM also had a ten-minute orchestral overture produced for symphony orchestra comprised of themes from eleven of their great musicals. Johnny Green conducted the overture, which was filmed in Cinemascope and in color to run along with their motion pictures in cinemas.
MGM also issued a record album consisting of excerpts from the soundtracks of many of their musicals.
MGM also hosted a press event with a small number of their stars which turned up on newsreels nationwide. Louis B. Mayer and Dore Schary shook hands in front of a large cake.
TOAST OF THE TOWN
After Ed Sullivan makes some welcoming remarks, the opening number introduces the celebrities, who get out of a white limousine and walk the red carpet, greeted by fans who shout their name and the cameras of the press. These celebrities included Lucy and Desi, who are the only couple introduced and the only ones only introduced by just their first names.
Sullivan introduces MGM studio executive Dore Schary, who invites him to his private screening room. This is actually just an adjacent set on the soundstage.
One year later, Schary was to play himself on an episode of “I Love Lucy,” but withdrew at the last moment. The role was taken by Vivian Vance's husband, Phil Ober. Some said that Schary was reluctant to do television as it was supplanting MGM's film attendance, but Schary's official reason was illness. Because Ricky Ricardo (like the Arnazes) would work for MGM, it made sense to mention Schary's name early in the Hollywood episodes. Lucy's forgetful mother, Mrs. McGillicuddy (Kathryn Card), often said “Who's Dore Schary?”
In the screening room, Sullivan and Schary engage in some friendly banter (obviously read off teleprompters) in which Schary gets in a plug for MGM's upcoming film Julius Caesar directed by Joseph Mankewicz. Sullivan introduces a retrospect of MGM's first three decades, which includes a title card, and a film clip for the following movies:
THE BIG PARADE (1924) starring John Gilbert and Rene Adoree
BEN HUR (1925) starring Ramon Novarro and Francis X. Bushman
MIN AND BILL (1930) starring Wallace Beery and Marie Dressler
DINNER AT EIGHT (1933) starring Marie Dressler and Jean Harlow
MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY (1935) starring Charles Laughton and Clark Gable
SAN FRANCISCO (1936) starring Clark Gable and Jeanette MacDonald
BOYS TOWN (1938) starring Mickey Rooney and Spencer Tracy
GRAND HOTEL (1932) starring Greta Garbo and John Barrymore
A NIGHT AT THE OPERA (1935) starring Groucho Marx and Margaret Dumont
THE PHILADELPHIA STORY (1940) starring Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant
GONE WITH THE WIND (1939) staring Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh
Sullivan adds that Gone With The Wind will be re-released in 1954. He mentions a few films that were not included in the clips: Mrs. Miniver, The Yearling, Battleground, Ivanhoe, Mogambo, Quo Vadis and Knights of the Roundtable.
Noticeable by its absence is The Wizard of Oz (1939) which (a lot like Lucille Ball herself) was only considered a classic after being seen repeatedly on television. The musical fantasy film was not aired on TV until 1956, two years after this program.
When the tribute is over, Sullivan and Schary are joined in the screening room by Lionel Barrymore, the patriarch of the fabled Drew / Barrymore acting dynasty. Barrymore introduces a young singer named Debbie Reynolds, who, dressed in overalls in a backstage setting, performs a number called “Applause, Applause” which she sang in the 1953 MGM musical Give A Girl A Break.
Blooper Alert! After the number, when Sullivan and Schary are seen in front of the curtain, the audio cuts out and only slowly returns during their conversation.
Sullivan and Schary do a live promo for their sponsor, Mercury automobiles. Schary says that Mercury cars were prominently featured in their new film The Long, Long Trailer and screens a montage of clips from the Vincente Minnelli film. Although most of the clips are of the car (which towed the title trailer), there is one classic clip of Lucy trying to make dinner in the moving trailer and one of Desi singing – both stars doing what they did best. The film premiered four days after this program aired.
After the clips, Sullivan is standing in front of a brand new 1954 Mercury which contains Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz in the front seat. (The car in the film was a 1953 model.) Sullivan reminds the audience that he gave Lucy and Desi the Emmy Award for “I Love Lucy” sponsored by Philip Morris. Desi has a couple of lines; Lucille merely laughs.
Blooper Alert: During the Mercury spot, Sullivan is looking into the wrong camera.
Hearing orchestral music, Sullivan approaches Dore Schary who introduces Edmund Purdom and Ann Blyth doing a live scene from their upcoming film The Student Prince, which will be released in June 1954. Because Purdom's singing voice was dubbed by Mario Lanza in the finished film, he does not sing, although Blyth performs “Deep in My Heart, Dear.”
Back in the screening room, Sullivan and Schary promote Ann Blyth's appearance in the upcoming MGM film Rosemarie. Schary presents a promo for the new film Executive Suite, which features William Holden, June Allyson, Barbara Stanwyck, Frederic March, Walter Pidgeon, Shelley Winters, Paul Douglas, Dean Jagger, and Nina Foch. Douglas, Winters, and Douglas would all guest star in “Lucy” sitcoms.
Schary introduces Howard Keel from the upcoming MGM musical Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. Stepping into a barn setting, Keel becomes Adam, his character in the film, and along with his six 'brothers' sings “Sobbin' Women.” The film opened in July 1954. In March 1956 it was mentioned on “I Love Lucy.”
Sullivan introduces the evening's conductor Johnny Green, and Jane Powell, who sings “The Jewel Song” from the opera Faust by Charles Gounod.
Back in the screening room, Schary introduces another round of clips, this time from famous MGM musicals:
ANNIE GET YOUR GUN (1950) starring Betty Hutton, Howard Keel, Keenan Wynn and Louis Calhern singing “There's No Business Like Show Business” by Irving Berlin
NEPTUNE'S DAUGHTER (1949) starring Esther Williams and Ricardo Montalban singing “Baby, It's Cold Outside” by Frank Loesser
SINGIN' IN THE RAIN (1952) starring Gene Kelly singing “Singin' in the Rain” by Nacio Herb Brown and Arthur Freed
ROYAL WEDDING (1951) starring Fred Astaire and Jane Powell singing “How Could You Believe Me When I Said I Loved You When You Know I've Been A Liar All My Life” by Burton Lane and Alan J. Lerner
BECAUSE YOU'RE MINE (1952) starring Mario Lanza and Doretta Morrow singing “Because You're Mine” by Nicholas Brodzsky and Sammy Cahn
EASTER PARADE (1948) starring Judy Garland and Fred Astaire singing “Easter Parade” by Irving Berlin
Back in the screening room, Ed Sullivan informs the audience that the show is coming from the brand new CBS Television City in Hollywood. Julia Meade shows the model of Television City. This is the same model shown by Jack Benny on “Stars in the Eye” the show that celebrated the new studio in 1952. It also featured Lucy and Desi. Meade turns this segment into a live commercial for Mercury.
Dore Schary introduces Lana Turner (backed up by Nick Anderson, John Erickson, Steve Forest, Edmond Purdom) who perform “A Great Lady Has an Interview,” by Roger Edens and Kay Thompson, a song sequence originally performed by Judy Garland in Ziegfeld Follies, a 1946 film that also starred Lucille Ball.
Surrounded by the MGM stars, Sullivan and Schary say goodnight.
On This Date in Lucy History ~ February 14
"Don Juan and the Starlets" (ILL S4;E18) ~ February 14, 1955
“Lucy Dates Dean Martin” (TLS S4;E21) ~ February 14, 1966
#MGM#Toast of the Town#The Ed Sullivan Show#Ed Sullivan#Dore Schary#Lucille Ball#Desi Arnaz#30th Anniversary#CBS#Television City#1954#TV#Lionel Barrymore#Debbie Reynolds#Fred Astaire#Lana Turner#Julia Meade#Jane Powell#Ann Blyth#Van Johnson#Ann Miller#Walter Pigeon#Howard Keel#Edmond Purdom#Esther Williams#Gene Kelly#Cyd Charisse
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K.O. KITTY
“The Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse” ~ November 17, 1958
Produced by Bert Granet, Quinn Martin
Directed by Jerry Thorpe
Dances and Fights staged by Jack Baker
Written by Bob Carroll, Madelyn Davis, Quinn Martin (story)
Synopsis: Los Angeles dance teacher Kitty (Lucille Ball) is delighted when she learns that she has inherited a boxer from her late Uncle Charlie. But the boxer turns out not to be a canine, but a prize fighter named Harold Tibbetts (Aldo Ray), a muscle-bound country boy.
Cast
Desi Arnaz (Himself, Host) was born in Cuba in 1917 and immigrated to America as a youngster. He was a musician who married Lucille Ball in 1940 after meeting her on the set of 1939’s Too Many Girls, which he had done on stage in New York. In order to keep him ‘off the road’ Ball convinced producers to cast him as her husband in a new television project based on her radio show “My Favorite Husband.” The network was convinced. In 1951, Arnaz and Ball began playing Lucy and Ricky Ricardo, roles they would be identified with for the rest of their lives. The couple had two children together, Lucie and Desi Jr. In 1960, Ball and Arnaz divorced. Desi became a producer, responsible for such hits as “The Mothers-in-Law” (1967-69). He re-married in 1963. Desi Aranz died in 1986, just a few years before Ball.
Lucille Ball (Kitty Winslow) was born on August 6, 1911 in Jamestown, New York. She began her screen career in 1933 and was known in Hollywood as ‘Queen of the B’s’ due to her many appearances in ‘B’ movies. With Richard Denning, she starred in a radio program titled “My Favorite Husband” which eventually led to the creation of “I Love Lucy,” a television situation comedy in which she co-starred with her real-life husband, Latin bandleader Desi Arnaz. The program was phenomenally successful, allowing the couple to purchase what was once RKO Studios, re-naming it Desilu. When the show ended in 1960 (in an hour-long format known as “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour”) so did Lucy and Desi’s marriage. In 1962, hoping to keep Desilu financially solvent, Lucy returned to the sitcom format with “The Lucy Show,” which lasted six seasons. She followed that with a similar sitcom “Here’s Lucy” co-starring with her real-life children, Lucie and Desi Jr., as well as Gale Gordon, who had joined the cast of “The Lucy Show” during season two. Before her death in April 1989, Lucy made one more attempt at a sitcom with “Life With Lucy,” also with Gordon, which was not a success and was canceled after just 13 episodes.
Most sources list Kitty's surname as ‘Williams.’ Her last name is clearly spoken twice in the teleplay as ‘Winslow.’
Aldo Ray (Harold Tibbetts, below center) was born as Aldo DeRe and nicknamed 'the Rugged Romeo'. In 1964 he worked again with Lucille Ball in Bob Hope's “Have Girls, Will Travel” (1964). His career waned in the 1970s. He died in 1991.
William Lundigan (David Pierce, above left) was a genial 'B' movie and TV actor. His career began in 1937. His last television role was in 1971. He was a good friend of William Frawley (Fred Mertz) and served as pallbearer at his funeral. Lundigan died in 1975.
Harry Cheshire (Mr. Brubaker) did three films with Lucille Ball between 1947 and 1950. He played Sam Johnson, a Texan who sells Lucy and Ricky “Oil Wells” (ILL S3;E18) in 1954. His best-known role was as Judge Ben Wiley in the TV series “Buffalo Bill, Jr.” (1955). He died in 1968 at the age of 76.
Jesse White (Barney Snyder, below right) is probably best remembered for playing the lonely Maytag repairman on TV commercials airing from 1967 to 1988. A busy character actor, White subsequently starred opposite Lucille Ball on a 1972 episode of “Here's Lucy.” He died in 1997.
Sid Melton (Louie, above left) also appeared on the “Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse” as a bellboy in “Lucy Goes to Alaska” (February 1959) and as a construction worker in “Milton Berle Hides Out at the Ricardos” (September 1959). He played one of the jockeys in “Lucy Wins a Racehorse” (February 1958). He later played Charley Halper on "Make Room For Daddy” (filmed at Desilu) and Alf Monroe on "Green Acres” (aired on CBS).
Frankie Van (Himself, Referee) was a stand-in and background performer whose more than 50 credits are nearly all as referees in films and television shows about boxing. Fittingly, his last screen credit was as a referee in Rocky (1976).
In this script, Van is called by his real name.
Freddie Beshore (Tommy Thompson, uncredited) picked up boxing while serving in the United States Navy during World War II. During his career he was the Heavyweight Champion of the Pacific Coast. During the late 1940s and early 1950s he was a top heavyweight title contender.
Norman Leavitt (Policeman, uncredited) appeared with Lucille Ball in the 1950 film A Woman of Distinction as well as The Long, Long Trailer (1953). The character actor also appeared on three episodes of “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour” and two episodes of “The Lucy Show.”
About “The Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse”
After the end of the half-hour “I Love Lucy” episodes, Desi Arnaz convinced CBS to purchase an anthology series titled “Desilu Playhouse” which would feature different hour-long dramas every week along with monthly stories of the Ricardos and the Mertzes, something begun a year before.
Thirteen hour-long “I Love Lucy” adventures were eventually made and sold to syndication as “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour,” ten of which were produced under the Westinghouse sponsorship. The appliance company paid a then-record 12 million dollars to sponsor the show.
Desi Arnaz hosted the show and introduced the stories. Desi, Lucy, Vivian Vance, and William Frawley, were often involved in the lengthy studio-filmed commercials, with Betty Furness spokesperson for the Westinghouse products. Although it wasn't around long, the show gave birth to pilots for “The Untouchables” and “The Twilight Zone.”
In the summer of 1958, in anticipation of their partnership, the cast of “I Love Lucy” played themselves in an industrial film (known as “Lucy Buys Westinghouse”) that toured the Desilu Studios, promoted “Lucy Goes to Mexico”, and highlighted Westinghouse appliances. The film was never in theatrical release or broadcast, but only shown Westinghouse dealers and corporate clients.
The Desilu Playhouse was also an actual little theatre on the Desilu backlot which hosted classes for actors and put on workshop shows for agents and industry insiders. When Lucille Ball joined RKO in the 1930s, the program was headed by Ginger Rogers' mother, Lela. Lucy wanted to continue the tradition. It was depicted in both “The Desilu Revue” (December 25, 1959) and “Hedda Hopper's Hollywood” (January 10, 1960).
About “K.O. Kitty”
In the title, “K.O” is boxing term short for “Knock Out,” when a fighter has hit his opponent so hard that he hits the mat and cannot get up again.
This is the first time that Lucille Ball acted on television not playing Lucy Ricardo. Lucille Ball was supposed to do several more non-Lucy Ricardo roles on the series, but this was the only one that ever materialized. The series ended in 1960, along with the Arnaz marriage. “The Desilu Playhouse” went into syndication, minus the Lucy-Desi Comedy Hours. In 1962, Desilu sold those 13 shows back to CBS for $750,000.
Quinn Martin (Producer / Story) was married to “Lucy” writer Madelyn Pugh Davis from 1955 to 1960. His production company was later responsible for such hits as “The Streets of San Francisco” (1972-77), “The Fugitive” (1963-67), and “Barnaby Jones” (1973-78) earning him four Emmy nominations. He also produced nine other episodes of “The Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse.”
Like “I Love Lucy” and “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour,” the episode uses a laugh track. Unlike most of those shows, there was no studio audience. “K.O. Kitty” followed “Lucy Goes to Mexico” (October) and was followed by “Lucy Makes Room for Danny” (December), a cross-over episode with “Make Room for Daddy.”
Earlier in 1958, boxing made the cover of Life Magazine when Sugar Ray Leonard beat Carmen Basilio.
Boxing had been a major attraction on television, the highlight being the “Playhouse 90” presentation of “Requiem for a Heavyweight” in 1956 on CBS. It was directed by Rod Serling (”The Twilight Zone”) and starred Jack Palance.
A country boy out of his element, Harold Tibbetts (Aldo Ray) is reminiscent of when Tennessee Ernie Ford visited the Ricardos on “I Love Lucy.” Like Cousin Ernie, Harold has an enormous appetite and can't return home because he has no money. He also tends to speak with homespun wit.
Harold also resembles another visitor to the Ricardo apartment, Mario (Jay Novello), the “Visitor From Italy” (ILL S6;E5). Like Harold, Mario had no cash to and had to go to work – in his case making pizza.
But “K.O. Kitty” most closely resembles a 1967 episode of “The Lucy Show” titled “Lucy, the Fight Manager” (TLS S5;E20) starring Don Rickles as a washed-up boxer named Eddie who Lucy Carmichael decides to train at home. Lucy dubs herself 'Killer Carmichael' and even jumps rope in tandem with Eddie, a stunt she learned to do for “K.O. Kitty.” Despite being by different writers, both scripts contain characters named Louie.
Lucille Ball also played characters named Kitty in the films Follow the Fleet (1936), Without Love (1945), and The Facts of Life (1960). A name featuring two-syllables ending with 'y' made reminded the listener of 'Lucy'.
Eight months later “The Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse” did another story about prizefighting titled “The Killer Instinct” starring Rory Calhoun and Janice Rule. It was based on the career of ex-boxer Joe Barnum.
The Episode
Desi Arnaz introduces the program, noting that it is a special episode because it stars “his favorite redhead” Lucille Ball.
The story opens with Kitty at work, teaching dance. She is trying to get Mr. Brubaker (Harry Cheshire) to do the Cha-Cha.
Kitty: “Your feet are doing the cha-cha-cha but your hips are back in the rumba class.”
During the dance lesson, we learn that Kitty is engaged to an up-and-coming lawyer named David (William Lundigan) who won't marry her until he gets a partnership in his law firm, Abbott Parker and Jones. She tells Mr. Brubaker that he is dancing with an 'heiress' due to her Uncle Charlie dying and leaving her a diamond stick-pin, a gold pocket watch, and a dog – a boxer, to be precise.
David (William Lundigan) tells Kitty he is going away on a business trip to San Francisco for a week. During their romantic dinner, there is a knock on the door and the boxer arrives – Harold Tibbetts, professional prize fighter. Tibbetts admits he's not really from Ogalala, Nebraska, but from Crockett – just “a hoot and holler” away.
Harold: “I'm so hungry, my stomach's a-growlin' like hound dog's just smelled a weasel in a hen house.”
Overcome with a sense of loyalty to her Uncle Charlie, Kitty agrees to manage Harold. She arranges for Harold to fight the impressive Tommy Thompson, a powerhouse that no one wants to go up against. Kitty cannot afford the gym fees so trains him at her apartment.
The name Tommy Thompson was also the name of a producer who worked extensively with Lucille Ball starting in 1964. In 1958 he was on the Desilu lot working as assistant director on “The Danny Thomas Show”
Kitty sends Harold off to the store to buy training supplies while she stays behind at the gym to observe and pick up some pointers on boxing. First, she indulges in a little shadow boxing. Next she tries to use a punching bag, but it punches back – right in her face. Remembering how to jump rope from her childhood, she jumps into a boxer's reps keeping time with a schoolyard rhyme. These are all prime opportunities for Lucille Ball to indulge in some of her well-hone physical comedy skills.
Back at the apartment, there is a montage of scenes of Kitty training Harold. He knocks the punching bag out the window, shatters a mirror while shadow boxing, and crashes to the floor while jumping rope. Kitty decides that the best training for klutzy Harold would be dancing lessons.
They begin lessons by dancing to “I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Baby” by Jimmy McHugh and Dorothy Fields. The song was introduced on Broadway in Blackbirds of 1928.
The dance lesson scene is nearly identical to when Lucy Ricardo taught awkward Arthur Morton (Richard Crenna) to dance in “The Young Fans” (ILL S1;E20) in 1952.
David returns unexpectedly from San Francisco to find Kitty and Harold in a carefree clinch. Kitty attempts to explain what is going on but it devolves into an argument and David storms out.
Using Kitty's dance steps and her singing “I Can't Give You Anything But Love” from ringside as inspiration, Harold surprisingly wins his bout against Tommy Thompson.
He then wins a second fight.
And a third!
With a fourth K.O. under his belt thanks to Kitty, he eyes the title!
Barney Snyder (Jesse White) and David conspire to get Kitty out of the fight game – for both their sake. Snyder and Louie (Sid Melton) show up at Kitty's apartment, guns drawn, to convince Lucy that they are crooks, and that the fight is fixed.
Meanwhile, back at the gym, 'Two Step Tibbetts' (as he's now called) is waiting for Kitty to arrive knowing he can't win the fight without her singing ringside while he spars. David arrives to tell Harold the bad news that Kitty will be detained. He learns from Harold that earlier that day they decided that this would be his last fight. David offers to sing instead of Kitty, but Harold can't remember the name of the song – except that the word 'love' was in the title.
Still at gunpoint, Kitty watches the match from home on TV. When Barney and Louis become engrossed in the fight, Kitty hides in the closet. This is very reminiscent of “Ricky and Fred are TV Fans” (ILL S2;E30) where Lucy and Ethel manage to evade the police when they can't take their eyes off a televised boxing match.
Meanwhile, back at the ring, Harold is taking a beating while David rattles off the title of every 'love' song he can think of, including a few bars of “I Love You Truly,” a traditional wedding song.
Barney and Louis confess to Kitty that they made up their story about being mobsters. Their guns are actually cigarette lighters! They spill the beans to Kitty about their plans. In order to get to the stadium as fast as possible, Kitty pretends she's going to have a baby and gets a police escort. Kitty and David rush to the ringside in time to sing the song, which everyone in the stadium joins in. At the final moment, Harold lands a knock out punch and wins the fight. David and Kitty make-up with a kiss as the program ends.
Ringside With Lucy
Lucy Ricardo and Ethel Mertz ended up at the fights in the last scene of 1951’s “The Girls Want to Go to a Nightclub” (ILL S1;E1), the very first “I Love Lucy” episode ever aired.
Everyone but Lucy and Ethel seem to be watching the fights on television in “Ricky and Fred are TV Fans” (ILL S2;E30).
This Date in Lucy History ~ November 17
"Lucy and the Used Car Dealer" (HL S2;E9) ~ November 17, 1969
#K.O. Kitty#Lucille Ball#The Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse#Westinghouse#Desilu#Boxing#Aldo Ray#William Lundigan#Desi Arnaz#Bert Granet#Quinn Martin#Jack Baker#Jerry Thorpe#Bob Carroll#Madelyn Davis#Harry Cheshire#Sid Melton#Jesse White#Frankie Van#Freddie Beshore#Norman Leavitt#1958#CBS#TV#Don Rickles#The Lucy Show#I Love Lucy#The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour#The Killer Instinct#Life Magazine
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THE DESILU REVUE
“The Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse” ~ December 25, 1959
Produced by Bert Granet & Lucille Ball
Directed by Claudio Guzman
Written by Bob Schiller & Bob Weiskopf
Original Music by Walter Kent & Walton Farrar
Synopsis: The Desilu Playhouse is hosting a Christmas Party and the action flashes back to the group's first opening night, at which Lucy was a nervous wreck as their producer. In between songs and dance numbers, Lucy, Vivian, Bill, and Desi indulge in some classic “I Love Lucy” antics when Desi bans Lucy from backstage. Naturally, she finds a way in!
Starring...
Lucille Ball was born on August 6, 1911 in Jamestown, New York. She began her screen career in 1933 and was known in Hollywood as ‘Queen of the B’s’ due to her many appearances in ‘B’ movies. With Richard Denning, she starred in a radio program titled “My Favorite Husband” which eventually led to the creation of “I Love Lucy,” a television situation comedy in which she co-starred with her real-life husband, Latin bandleader Desi Arnaz. The program was phenomenally successful, allowing the couple to purchase what was once RKO Studios, re-naming it Desilu. When the show ended in 1960 (in an hour-long format known as “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour”) so did Lucy and Desi’s marriage. In 1962, hoping to keep Desilu financially solvent, Lucy returned to the sitcom format with “The Lucy Show,” which lasted six seasons. She followed that with a similar sitcom “Here’s Lucy” co-starring with her real-life children, Lucie and Desi Jr., as well as Gale Gordon, who had joined the cast of “The Lucy Show” during season two. Before her death in April 1989, Lucy made one more attempt at a sitcom with “Life With Lucy,” also with Gordon, which was not a success and was canceled after just 13 episodes. She died on April 26, 1989 at the age of 77.
Desi Arnaz was born in Cuba in 1917 and immigrated to America as a youngster. He was a musician who married Lucille Ball in 1940 after meeting her on the set of 1939’s Too Many Girls, which he had done on stage in New York. In order to keep him ‘off the road’ Ball convinced producers to cast him as her husband in a new television project based on her radio show “My Favorite Husband.” The network was convinced. In 1951, Arnaz and Ball began playing Lucy and Ricky Ricardo, roles they would be identified with for the rest of their lives. The couple had two children together, Lucie and Desi Jr. In 1960, Ball and Arnaz divorced. Desi became a producer, responsible for such hits as “The Mothers-in-Law” (1967-69). He re-married in 1963. Desi Aranz died in 1986, just a few years before Ball.
Desi also narrates the program.
Special Guest Star
Hedda Hopper was born Elda Furry in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania. She was one of Hollywood’s most powerful and influential columnists. She appeared on “I Love Lucy” and “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour.” Among her hundreds of films as an actress, she did two with Lucille Ball: Bunker Bean (1936) and That’s Right – You’re Wrong (1939). Hopper was best known for her flamboyant hats. In films and television, Hopper has been portrayed by such actors as Fiona Shaw (RKO 281), Jane Alexander (Malice in Wonderland), Katherine Helmond (Liz: The Elizabeth Taylor Story), Helen Mirren (Trumbo), Tilda Swinton (Hail, Caesar!), Judy Davis (“Feud”), and Holly Kaplan (”Hollywood”).
With...
William Frawley was already a Hollywood veteran when he was hired by Desi Arnaz to play Fred Mertz on “I Love Lucy.” After the series concluded he joined the cast of “My Three Sons” playing Bub Casey. His final appearance before his death in March 1966 was as a stable groom on an episode of “The Lucy Show,” also featuring Ann Sothern.
Vivian Vance was born Vivian Roberta Jones in Cherryvale, Kansas in 1909, although her family quickly moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico where she was raised. She had extensive theatre experience, co-starring on Broadway with Ethel Merman in “Anything Goes.” She was acting in a play in Southern California when she was spotted by Desi Arnaz and hired to play Ethel Mertz, Lucy Ricardo’s neighbor and best friend. The pairing is credited with much of the success of “I Love Lucy.” Vance was convinced to join the cast of “The Lucy Show” in 1962, but stayed with the series only through season three, making occasional guest appearances afterwards. She made a total of six appearance on “Here’s Lucy.” She also joined Lucy for a TV special “Lucy Calls the President” in 1977. Vance died two years later.
Guests...
John Bromfield (Audience Member) was best known for playing the title role in the Desilu / CBS series “U.S. Marshal.” He retired from acting in 1960 to become a commercial fisherman. In 1959, he was married to Larri Thomas, who appeared in “Lucy Wants a Career” (1959) on “The Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse.” He died in 2005 at age 83.
Spring Byington (below) received an Academy Award nomination for her role as Penelope Sycamore in You Can't Take It with You (1938). She appeared in twenty Broadway plays between 1924 and 1935. She made her film debut as Marmee March in 1933's Little Women. Her career included a seven-year run on radio and television as the star of “December Bride,” a Desilu / CBS production. The show followed “I Love Lucy” on the CBS Monday night line-up from Fall 1954 to Spring 1959. Desi Arnaz played himself on a 1956 episode of the series. She was a former MGM contract player who appeared in films from the 1930s to the 1960s. She played the “Batman” character J. Pauline Spaghetti in 1966. Byington made an appearance on the Desilu series “The Greatest Show on Earth” in 1964. Her final roles were as Major Nelson's mother on “I Dream of Jeannie” in 1967 and as the Mother General on “The Flying Nun” in 1968. She died in 1971 at age 84.
William Demarest (above) was best remembered as Uncle Charlie on “My Three Sons,” a role created after the death of William Frawley. This is one of two times Demarest and Frawley appeared together on screen. The other was in The Farmer's Daughter (1940). He was nominated for an Academy Award in the biography, The Jolson Story (1946). Demarest did three films with Lucille Ball, including Sorrowful Jones (1949). He died in 1983 at age 91.
Lita Baron (Audience Member, below) was born Isabelita Castro and played Ricky Ricardo's former dance partner Renita Perez in “Cuban Pals” (ILL S1;E28). She also appeared in the films Club Havana (1945) and Don Ricardo Returns (1946). Despite this, Baron was actually born in Spain, not Cuba. From 1948 to 1970 she was married to actor Rory Calhoun and had appeared on his CBS / Desilu series “The Texan.”
Rory Calhoun (Audience Member, above) starred in many Westerns in the 1950s and '60s and was famous for his black cowboy hat. As a young man he spent some time in prison. Born Francis Timothy McCown, his screen name was given to him by David O. Selznick. In 1959 he was appearing in the CBS / Desilu show “The Texan” (1958-60).
Bonita Granville (Audience Member) was nominated for an Oscar in 1937 for These Three. She was also known as Nancy Drew from the serials of the 1930s. In 1959, Granville became producer of the TV series “Lassie” and this is probably the reason she is in the audience here.
Lassie is one of the most famous canine stars in Hollywood history. From 1954 to 1974, Lassie had her own series. The collie also starred in numerous films. She was mentioned on “I Love Lucy.”
George Murphy (Audience Member) started singing and dancing on Broadway at age 25. There he is credited with introducing Bob Hope to his wife Dolores. In Hollywood, he became Screen Actors Guild (SAG) President and was eventually elected US Senator. He was given a special Oscar in 1950. Murphy was in four films with Lucille Ball between 1934 and 1941. He starred with Desi Arnaz in The Navy Comes Through (1942) and Bataan (1943). In 1959, Murphy and Desi switched roles when Desi took a role in his own anthology series “The Westinghouse-Desilu Playhouse” and Murphy acted as guest host. Murphy interviewed Lucy and Desi for “MGM Parade” in February 1956. He died in 1992 at age 89.
Ann Sothern appeared in the first “Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour” “Lucy Takes a Cruise to Havana” (1957) as Susie MacNamara, the same character she played on her show “Private Secretary” from 1953 to 1957. In return Lucille Ball played Lucy Ricardo on her show in 1959. Sothern appeared with Ball in five films between 1933 and 1943. On “The Lucy Show” Sothern made three appearances as Rosie, the Countess Framboise. She was nominated for an Oscar for her final screen appearance in The Whales of August in 1987. She is buried near her home in Sun Valley, Idaho, a place also dear to Lucy and Desi.
Danny Thomas was born Amos Muzyad Yakhoob Kairouz in 1912. His screen career began in 1947 but he was most famous for appearing on television in the long-running show “Make Room for Daddy” (1953-64), which was shot at Desilu Studios. When the series moved from ABC to CBS in 1957, Thomas and the cast starred in a rare TV cross-over with “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour” titled “Lucy Makes Room for Danny” (December 1958). In return, Lucy and Desi turned up on Thomas’s show. Fifteen years later, Lucy and Danny did yet another cross-over when Lucy Carter of “Here’s Lucy” appeared on “Make Room for Granddaddy.” In addition, Thomas also played an aging artist on a 1973 episode of “Here’s Lucy.” He died in 1999.
Bess Flowers (Audience Member, uncredited) was dubbed ‘Queen of the Extras’ in Hollywood and is credited with more than 700 film and TV appearances from 1923 to 1964. She was seen in the audience of Over the Teacups in “Ethel’s Birthday” (ILL S4;E8) and The Most Happy Fella during “Lucy’s Night in Town” (ILL S6;E22). Flowers also made five uncredited appearances on “The Lucy Show.” Not surprisingly, she was a founding member of SEG, the Screen Extras Guild (now part of SAG) in 1945. She appeared in more films with Lucille Ball than any other performer.
Cast of the Desilu Workshop...
Robert Osborne was the host on Turner Classic Movies from its inception in 1994, in large part due to his knowledge of film. It was Lucille Ball who suggested that Osborne combine his interest in classic film and training in journalism, and write instead of act. Osborne took this advice and produced "Academy Awards Illustrated" a book which then begat his years at The Hollywood Reporter. He also became the official historian of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He also acted in “Chain of Command” for the “Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse,” also in 1959, and also with Hugh O'Brien. Osborne died in 2017 at age 84.
Billed as “Bob Osborne” in the opening number.
Roger Perry also appeared in “Ballad of a Bad Man” for “Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse” in 1959 written by Desi Arnaz. He later starred in Desilu's “Mannix” and “Star Trek.” He died in July 2018 at age 85.
Howard Storm married fellow Playhouse cast member Marilyn Lovell in 1959. He started directing in 1975. In 1959 he appeared in the CBS series “Hennessy” and the following year made an appearance on the Desilu series “The Untouchables.”
Billed as “Howie Storm” in the opening number.
Jerry Antes graduated from Hollywood Professional School in 1944. In “Hedda Hopper's Hollywood” Lucille Ball calls him by name in their brief promotion of the Desilu Playhouse. Prior to this, Antes was a dancer who made three appearances on “The Alan Young Show” (1950).
Majel Barrett was later cast as Nurse Chapel on Desilu’s new space adventure series, “Star Trek.” During this time she had a relationship with the show’s creator Gene Roddenberry, marrying him in 1969, the same year the series was canceled. She was part of most all iterations of “Star Trek” until her death in 2008. In 1962 she played a secretary in “Lucy is Kangaroo for a Day” (TLS S1;E7).
Billed as “Majel Barret” in the opening number.
Mark Tobin appeared on the TV series “Lock-Up” in 1959. He made two appearances on the original “Star Trek,” one as a Klignon. He also played a Klignon on “Star Trek: Voyager” in 1999.
Robert Barron made the 'B' movie Tank Commandos in 1959. He only has one other credit of record, a 1964 appearance in the film The Ballad of a Gunfighter. He died in 2002 at age 78. This may be due to the misspelling of his surname.
Billed as “Rob Barran” in the opening number.
Fran Martin
Billed as “Frances Martin” in the opening number.
Gary Menteer started his career as a dancer, but later transitioned to being a writer, director, and casting agent, earning two Emmy nods for “Punky Brewster” (1984-88). He died in 2016 at age 76.
Janice Carroll started playing background characters and uncredited roles in 1951. In 1959 she appeared in the Desilu series “U.S. Marshal.” Her final screen appearance was in 1987. She died in 1993 at age 61.
Carole Cook made four appearances playing Thelma Green on “The Lucy Show,” although she also played Mrs. Valance in three episodes and a variety of other characters in eleven others. Although she was born as Mildred Cook, Ball suggested she take the name Carole, in honor of Lucy’s great friend, Carole Lombard. Cook also went on to appear in five episodes of “Here’s Lucy.”
Georgine Darcy was most famous as Miss Torso in the Hitchcock thriller Rear Window (1954), her screen debut. In 1958 she made a single appearance on “Make Room for Daddy” filmed by Desilu. Her final appearance was on Desilu's “Mannix” in 1971. As part of the Desilu Playhouse, she was also seen in “Hedda Hopper's Hollywood.” She died in 2004 at age 73.
Dick Kallman was next cast as a bellboy in the final “Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour” “Lucy Meets the Mustache” (1960). Kallman replaced Tommy Steele on Broadway in the musical Half a Sixpence. The actor was killed during a robbery in 1980.
Bob Travis had only one previous screen credit, appearing on “The Jack Paar Tonight Show” in September 1958.
Billed as “Bob Trevis” in the opening number.
Marilyn Lovell was a singer who appeared in Hollywood and New York. Her first husband was Desilu Playhouse member Howie Storm. Her second husband was Carol Burnett's musical director Peter Matz. In 1959 she made an appearance on CBS's “Tightrope.” She died in 2012 at age 80.
Billed as “Marilynn Lovell” in the opening number.
John O'Neill was primarily a singer, who sang the title tune of the Western series “Wagon Train” (1958-59). He appeared in Young Jesse James (1960), and is rumored to have been one of the whistlers for the theme of The Good, The Bad, And the Ugly (1966).
Billed as “Johnny O’Neill” in the opening number.
About “The Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse”
After the end of the half-hour “I Love Lucy” episodes, Desi Arnaz convinced CBS to purchase an anthology series titled “Desilu Playhouse” which would feature different hour-long dramas every week along with monthly stories of the Ricardos and the Mertzes.
Thirteen hour-long “I Love Lucy” adventures were eventually made and sold to syndication as “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour,” ten of which were produced under Westinghouse sponsorship. The appliance company paid a then-record 12 million dollars to sponsor the show, which resulted in the cancellation of their prestigious “Studio One” anthology show. Desi Arnaz hosted the show and introduced the stories from in front of a show curtain (ostensibly at the Desilu Playhouse).
Desi, Lucy, Vivian Vance, and William Frawley, were often involved in the lengthy studio-filmed Westinghouse commercials and promotions, with Betty Furness spokesperson for the Westinghouse products.
Although it wasn't around long, the series gave birth to pilots for “The Untouchables” and “The Twilight Zone.” In fact, many entries proved to be pilots for series, not all of which were produced.
In the summer of 1958, in anticipation of the partnership, the cast of “I Love Lucy” played themselves in aun industrial film that toured the Desilu Studios, promoted “Lucy Goes to Mexico” and highlighted Westinghouse appliances. The film was never broadcast, but only made to show Westinghouse dealers and corporate clients. Years later it was colorized for video.
The Desilu Playhouse was an actual little theatre on the Desilu backlot which hosted classes for actors and put shows for agents and industry insiders.
When Lucille Ball joined RKO in the 1930s, the program was headed by Ginger Rogers' mother, Lela. Lucille wanted to continue the tradition.
About “The Desilu Revue”
In late 1959, sixteen of the workshop actors joined the “I Love Lucy” cast in creating a holiday special. The show aired on Christmas Day 1959 and featured gossip columnist Hedda Hopper as well as many other stars then working on the Desilu lot.
Hopper also took the opportunity to shoot footage for her own TV special, “Hedda Hopper's Hollywood”, with Lucy cross-promoting her special.
This is essentially a musical variety show starring the members of the Desilu workshop, actors Desilu was grooming to appear in series’ or launch their careers in films. Among the most famous to participate were Robert Osborne (future host of Turner Classic Movies) and Carole Cook, who went on to play character roles on Lucy's sitcoms and on Broadway. Majel Barrett would become known as “the mother of Star Trek” (a Desilu series) and wife to Gene Rodenberry, the show's creator.
This program was aired only once. It is one of just a handful of holiday programs produced by Lucille Ball. A Christmas 'tag' was added to episodes of “I Love Lucy” until it was fleshed out into a full-length flashback show during season six. “The Lucy Show” produced two Christmas themed episodes, and one for New Year's Eve.
The show opens with Lucille Ball driving a golf cart through the studio streets laden down with a stack of Christmas presents and a decorated Christmas tree. Desi Arnaz narrates. Inside the Desilu Playhouse, the cast are decorating the theatre and singing “Jingle Bells.” Hedda Hopper arrives and compliments the tree:
Hedda Hopper: “It would make a stunning hat!”
Hopper is going to do a column on the 'kids' of the workshop. As Lucy dashes off to check on the catering from the commissary, Desi tells Hedda how nervous Lucy was during the opening night of their first workshop production. Flashback to opening night – and Lucy is backstage busily checking in with all of the ‘kids’ in the workshop.
Lucy has prevailed upon nearly everyone at Desilu to pitch in. William Demarest and Spring Byington are working on costumes. Lassie delivers opening night flowers to Lucy. Vivian Vance is doing make-up. William Frawley is the stage doorman.
Lucy reprimands Janice Carroll for peeking through a hole in the curtain to see her mother – it is bad luck. Lucy asks Desi to conduct the orchestra instead of their usual conductor. Ann Sothern (wearing a tiara and fur stole) takes tickets – in between signing her autograph for fans.
Danny Thomas is outside operating the huge searchlight. He tells Lucy that he started in show business as an usher in the movies with a tiny flashlight – and look at him now!
Desi enters the auditorium with his baton to start the show, but cannot find the entrance to the orchestra pit. After a few words with audience member George Murphy, he jumps the railing.
Lucy barrels through the stage door to deliver her last minute notes to the cast but is stopped by Bill Frawley, remembering Desi's orders to keep Lucy away from the cast. His behavior surprises Lucy.
Lucy: “Bill Frawley how can you be so mean?”
Frawley: “Don't think of me as Bill Frawley. Think of me as Fred Mertz.” [evil laugh]
The 16 workshop members sing the opening number “We Wanna Be By You” written for the show by Walter Kent and Walton Farrar.
Next up is a jazz dance routine featuring Georgine Darcy, Jerry Antes, and Gary Menteer.
Vivian discovers Lucy trying to sneak backstage through a dressing room window. Lucy threatens to tell the audience Vivian's real age if she doesn't let her in! Bill Frawley discovers Lucy giving notes to the cast. His scowl scares Lucy into leaving the same way she came in!
Johnny O'Neill sings “Fast Freight” by Terry Gilkyson while accompanying himself on the guitar. The song was a 1958 hit for The Kingston Trio.
Dick Kallman (sporting a goatee) and Carole Cook do a beatnik number called “Hip To The Blues” by Baker, Young, Raskin, and Burger.
Marilyn Lovell sings the torch song “I Still Remember.”
During the intermission, Lucy and Vivian bury themselves in fur coats up to their eyeballs to listen to the producers’ chatter about the first act. The only thing they overhear is that Ann Sothern has lost her gloves!
Act Two opens on a busy Parisian street with an American sailor on leave. The sailor sings “I'm in Love With Paris.” An Army officer sitting at a café table sings “Alone In Gay Paris.”
In the dressing room, Bob Osborne reads a note from Lucy written on the mirror in lipstick. It references using a hand mike in “the bandstand number.” Curiously, no such song is in the show. Perhaps it was cut or (more likely) never existed.
Carole Cook sings a comedy song called “Whistler's Mother” by Mike Stewart and Shelley Mowell. In it, Cook is seen as a tableau vivant of the famous painting come to life. She steps out of the frame and transforms into a vamp.
A barbershop-style song “Summertime is Summertime” by Walter Kent and Kim Gannon is sung by four of the men in candy striped suits and straw boaters. It opens up into a gay nineties dance number. It finishes with a cake walk to “Hey Do Ya Love Me Honey” led by Roger Perry singing and playing the piano.
The program returns to the present and the Desilu Playhouse Christmas Party with Desi telling Hedda Hopper what happened on opening night. The workshop members sing “Let's Pretend It's Christmas Eve” while Lucy, Desi, Bill, Vivian, and Hedda look on adoringly.
Overcome with emotion, Vivian Vance impulsively gives Bill Frawley an affectionate kiss on the cheek and whispers “Merry Christmas” to him. Surprisingly, he returns the favor. Considering the well-known friction between the two, this is either very convincing acting or the pair had mended fences knowing their decade working together was finally drawing to an end. Vance had just nixed an “I Love Lucy” sequel about the Mertzes, despite the fact that Frawley was open to the idea.
Not a camera trick! Make-up by Fred Phillips!
#The Desilu Revue#Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse#Westinghouse#Desilu#Lucille Ball#Desi Arnaz#Hedda Hopper#Vivian Vance#willliam frawley#Christmas#Revue#1959#Robert Osborne#Carole Cook#Majel Barrett#The Desilu Playhouse#RKO#Claudio Guzman#Bert Granet#Bob Schiller#Bob Weiskopf#The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour#Hedda Hopper's Hollywood#Walter Kent#Walton Farrar#John Bromfield#Spring Byington#William Demarest#Lita Baron#Rory Calhoun
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Newly-recorded audio book of Desi Aranz’s autobiography, voiced by Juan Pablo Di Pace.
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INTERVIEW OF A LIFETIME: LUCILLE BALL
December 6, 1977
Barbara Walters (Host) was born in Boston in 1929. She first became known as a television personality in the early 1960s, when she was a writer of 'women's interest stories' on “The Today Show.” In 1976, she became the first female co-anchor of a network evening news on the “ABC Evening News.” From 1979 to 2004, she worked as co-host and a producer for the ABC news magazine “20/20.” In 1997, Walters created and co-hosted “The View,” a daytime talk show with an all-female panel. She retired as a co-host in 2014, but still serves as executive producer. In 1996, Walters was ranked #34 on the TV Guide "50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time" list. Lucille Ball was #1. In 2000 she received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. In 2001, she appeared on “I Love Lucy's 50th Anniversary Special.”
Lucille Ball was born on August 6, 1911 in Jamestown, New York. She began her screen career in 1933 and was known in Hollywood as ‘Queen of the B’s’ due to her many appearances in ‘B’ movies. With Richard Denning, she starred in a radio program titled “My Favorite Husband” which eventually led to the creation of “I Love Lucy,” a television situation comedy in which she co-starred with her real-life husband, Latin bandleader Desi Arnaz. The program was phenomenally successful, allowing the couple to purchase what was once RKO Studios, re-naming it Desilu. When the show ended in 1960 (in an hour-long format known as “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour”) so did Lucy and Desi’s marriage. In 1962, hoping to keep Desilu financially solvent, Lucy returned to the sitcom format with “The Lucy Show,” which lasted six seasons. She followed that with a similar sitcom “Here’s Lucy” co-starring with her real-life children, Lucie and Desi Jr., as well as Gale Gordon, who had joined the cast of “The Lucy Show” during season two. Before her death in 1989, Lucy made one more attempt at a sitcom with “Life With Lucy,” also with Gordon, which was not a success and was canceled after just 13 episodes.
Gary Morton was a comedian who worked the famed ‘Borscht Belt’ in the Catskills Mountains. He met Lucille Ball shortly after her divorce from Desi Arnaz and they married in November 1961. At her request, Morton gave up his nightclub career and became a producer of “The Lucy Show.” Morton also served as a warm-up comic for the show’s studio audience. He appeared in several episodes of both “The Lucy Show” and “Here’s Lucy.” Morton passed away in 1999.
Lucie Arnaz (Archive Footage)
Desi Arnaz Jr. (Archive Footage)
Desi Aranz Sr. (Archive Footage)
Earlier in the evening of December 6, 1977, ABC aired new episodes of “Laverne and Shirley” (a show often compared to the antics of Lucy and Ethel) and “Three's Company” (a show Ball admired, and hosted a retrospective of in 1982).
When the show was repackaged for the Lifetime Network, Barbara Walters taped a new introduction and conclusion to the interview as well as new voice-over narration, referencing events from 1977 to Ball's death in 1989. She introduces the show by telling viewers that Lucy talked frankly about her failed marriage to Desi Arnaz, with her second husband, Gary Morton, sitting beside her.
Portions of the interview were later incorporated into "Barbara Walters: 20 Years at ABC."
The interview starts in the living room of Ball's Roxbury Drive mansion in Beverly Hills, California.
Lucy: “There's always one room you live in. Play games in. The plants grow better in.”
Lucy tells Walters that they have 85,000 feet of home movies. She screens one called “The Fat Little Cowboy” starring a two and a half year-old Desi Jr. and a four year-old Little Lucie. While the film is being screened in the living room, Lucy tells Walters that the two are much closer now than they were as children.
Showing stills of her children in “The Lucy Show” and “Here's Lucy,” Walters flashes back (again through still photos) to when Lucy met Desi Arnaz and the creation of “I Love Lucy.”
Walters: (voice over) “There has never been a success like Lucy.”
Walters' narration talks about Lucy's divorce from Desi in 1960.
The interview moves outdoors to the patio, the narration noting that Lucy was 66 at the time, Desi Arnaz was still alive, and the subject of the divorce was still painful.
Walters: “When you and Desi were married you had everything!”
Lucy: “We had nothing. He had his own band and was in a play in New York.”
Ball firmly tells Walters that while she was acting, Desi was building the business, although nobody would believe it was him doing the building. She says he didn't deserve some of the names they called him. Lucy asserts there was an anti-Latino bias against Arnaz.
Walters: “And then it fell apart.”
Lucy: “That was his problem.”
Walters quotes Lucy as saying that with Gary Morton, she didn't make the same mistake twice.
Lucy: “He's not a loser. I married a loser. He could win, win, high stakes. He worked very hard, but he had to lose. Everything he built, he had to break down. He still claims he's the same way.”
Walters asks whom takes care of whom. Gary says they take care of each other, but Lucy insists it is all Gary.
When first marrying Gary, she was cautious. She didn't want to rob him of his individuality. Lucy mentions that Gary finds solace in golf and that Lucy never minded that.
Walters asks if it is true that Lucy doesn't 'think funny.' Lucy agrees saying she can do funny things other people write down in detail, but she doesn't think funny. She and Gary say they make each other laugh. Gary says she'll do 'Lucy-isms'. Lucy gives an example of a 'Lucy-ism': when making a chopped chicken liver platter for guests, the top came off the salt shaker creating a mound of salt atop the food. To try to fix it, she rinsed it in the sink. They went out to dinner that night.
Gary says Lucy's best quality is her warmth. Gary is hard-pressed to come up with her worst quality but Lucy says it is that she hates that he takes naps.
Lucy says she lives by the ‘think positive’ ideals of Dr. Norman Vincent Peale.
Walters asks Lucy what it was like when she stopped doing series television in 1974. “Traumatic,” says Ball. She thinks she stayed on a bit too long, but only stuck it out because her children were on the show. She says she always prided herself on “when to get off.” Walters wonders if the Lucy Ricardo character could work today as well is it did 25 years ago. Lucy hints that people may be getting tired of “the new stuff” and want what they know and want to see again.
Gary Morton says that Lucy (the character) is seen all over the world and there is no limit when something is funny. Lucy says she always felt her audience needed a show that had a beginning, a middle, and a happy ending.
Lucy: “They're trying to make entertainment out of newsreels. What we see in news, which is not very happy these days. To me, that's not entertainment.”
Walters asks Lucy if she ever watches “I Love Lucy” Lucy says no, but that she sometimes runs across one turning the dial. She tells Walters about CBS's reluctance to accept Desi as her husband on TV. Lucy fully expected the show to end after a just year.
Walters: “They say you're very tough to work for. Are you? Are you a perfectionist?”
Lucy: “Perfectionist? I have an attention to detail. That's the way I learned my craft.”
Gary says Lucy tends to be a protective mother. Walters says that Lucy's onscreen and off-screen pregnancy was big news, getting bigger ratings than the inauguration of the President and the coronation of the Queen. Lucy says she wasn't aware of any of that because she was busy having the baby, but learned about it afterwards.
Walters wondered if she was worried about having a baby so late in life. Lucy says no one warned her about the risks. Her daughter was born by by C-section, so Lucy was in pain after the birth and cried with joy so much that holding her newborn child actually hurt.
Prodded by Walters, Lucy tells the story of first hearing that she was pregnant on the radio. Apparently, in 1950, radio gossip columnist Walter Winchell had spies in the lab and intercepted the results of Lucy's pregnancy test before the couple could be notified. Lucy lost the child.
Walters wonders how Lucie and Desi Jr. differentiated between their parents' real life and their television lives. Gary says they eventually grew up and realized the difference. Lucy used the fantasy world of their show as a form of escape from reality. She says “I had to pretend, but it helped.”
Walters wraps up the interview (in the updated wrap-around segment) by saying that Lucy died in 1989, but that her legacy is as one of the greats of television history.
This Date in Lucy History – December 6th
"Lucy Wants to Move to the Country" (ILL S6;E15) – filmed December 6, 1956
"Lucy Saves Milton Berle" (TLS S4;E12) – first aired December 6, 1965
"Lucy in the Jungle" (HL S4;E13) – first aired December 6, 1971
#Barbara Walters#Lucille Ball#Lucy#Gary Morton#Lucie Arnaz#Desi Arnaz#Desi Arnaz Jr.#Interview#Lifetime TV#1977#TV#ABC TV#I Love Lucy#The Lucy Show#Here's Lucy
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WHY I LOVE LUCY
January 25, 1952
Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz appeared on the cover of TV Guide (pre-National edition, volume V, #4) on January 25, 1952. The inside article “Why I Love Lucy” was written by Desi Arnaz. This was Lucille’s second of five covers of the pre-national edition before she graced the cover of the very first national edition on April 3, 1953.
In the New York region (above) the black and white photograph was colorized against a white background.
In other regions, a different color background was used. In New England (above) it was yellow.
Not all regions used the same images or published material at the same time. The Washington-Baltimore region didn’t use the story “Why I Love Lucy” by Desi Arnaz until February 7, 1952, two weeks after most other regions. They also used a different image, this one a press photo from “Lucy Thinks Ricky is Trying To Murder Her” (ILL S1;E4) first aired on November 5, 1951.
The December 8, 1951 issue of “TV Forecast” used the same photograph but here Desi is cropped out and the image is reversed. Lucy’s teardrop earring also failed to make the cut!
The uncropped black and white photograph.
The photograph also appeared on the cover of Ric Wyman’s book For The Love of Lucy.
Desi was cropped out of the photo when it was used on a special edition of Newsweek in 2017.
Among the letters to the editor, a viewer of “I Love Lucy” points out that an on-screen photographer didn’t follow the usual procedures for the press camera used in the episode!
The shutterbug viewer is probably referring to the photographer played by Harry Shannon in “Men Are Messy” (ILL S1;E8), first aired on December 3, 1951.
The episode listed in this issue of TV Guide was “Lucy Fakes Illness” (ILL S1;E16) aired on Monday, January 28th. The episode earned a rating share of 57.4/77.
“I Love Lucy: You Would Too, If You Were I” by Desi Aranz. [Sadly, no legible scans of the text were available for perusal.]
This issue was casually left on the coffee table while Lucy was packing during “Breaking the Lease” (ILL S1;E18), filmed on January 5th and aired on February 11, 1952.
January 25, 1952, the date this issue hit the newsstands, was also the date that “I Love Lucy” filmed “The New Neighbors” (ILL S1;E25).
The back cover advertises the January 1952 daytime schedule for WNBT, the flagship station of NBC, now known as WNBC-TV. “I Love Lucy” was a CBS-TV show.
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CHICK CHANDLER
January 18, 1905
Chick Chandler was born Fehmer Christy Chandler in Kingston, New York. By the age of 12, he was appearing as a dancer and entertainer in local stage shows. At 16, although he was being groomed for a military career, he dropped out to work in vaudeville and to study dance. Chandler maintained a successful career throughout the 1920s as a dancer and comedian in vaudeville and burlesque. In 1932, he landed a role in the Broadway play The Great Magoo. Spotting him, David O. Selznick signed him to a film contract at RKO, telling the press that Chandler was "a cross between Lee Tracy and James Cagney."
Although he did a low budge western in 1925, his first RKO feature was Sweepings (1932) starring Lionel Barrymore, although he remained uncredited.
The following year he was credited in Blood Money (1933) which also starred a young RKO background performer named Lucille Ball.
Chandler’s first television experience was doing two episodes of “The Bigelow Theatre”, a CBS anthology series that also featured William Frawley in three episodes just prior to “I Love Lucy.”
Lucy-lovers will best remember Chandler as Billy Hackett, Albuquerque newspaper reporter in “Ethel’s Hometown” (ILL S4;E16). The episode was filmed on November 25, 1954 and first aired on January 31, 1955. This was his one and only appearance with Lucy on television.
In 1957, he returned to Desilu to film an episode of “December Bride” titled “The Piano Show.” Producer Desi Arnaz made an appearance on the series as himself in February 1960.
In November 1960, he did an episode of Desilu’s “The Real McCoys” titled “Father and Son Day.”
On the very same evening he made an appearance on Desilu’s “The Ann Sothern Show” in “Go-Go Gordon”.
A month later, in December 1960, he did the second of his two episodes of “The Danny Thomas Show”, the first one had been in 1958. She show was filmed at Desilu Studios. “Lucy Makes Room for Danny” (LDCH S2;E2) was a cross-over episode with “The Danny Thomas Show” (formerly “Make Room for Daddy”) to mark their move to CBS from ABC. In return, the Aranz’s played The Ricardos in a January 6, 1959 episode titled “Lucy Upsets the Williams Household.”
In 1963, Chandler did an episode of Desilu’s one-season wonder “Angel” featuring Keith Andes and Harvey Korman. The series was created by Jess Oppenheimer.
In February 1966, he was seen in an episode of “Gomer Pyle USMC” filmed at Desilu Studios titled “Gomer and the Phone Company”. The episode featured Parley Baer and Olan Soule. In November 1966, Gomer Pyle showed up on an episode of “The Lucy Show.”
Chandler’s final screen appearance was in a 1971 episode of “Bonanza”, his sixth of the series.
In February 1925, Chandler became engaged to Ziegfeld performer, beauty contestant winner, and model Dorothy Knapp. Knapp broke off the engagement to pursue her career and Chandler then became involved with 17-year-old Sallie Sharon. The pair formed a vaudeville team, but never married. On April 4, 1931, Chandler married Eugenia "Jean" Frontai, a former performer with David Belasco's theatrical company. They were married 57 years, until Chandler's death from a heart attack on September 30, 1988. Jean Chandler followed her husband in death the very next day in the same hospital. They had no children.
#Chick Chandler#Lucille Ball#I Love Lucy#Billy Hackett#Ethel's Hometown#Bonanza#Blood Money#December Bride#Gomer Pyle USMC#The Danny Thomas Show#angel#The Real McCoys#Sweepings
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