Welcome to Sitcomboy's Lucille Ball Archives

What's New? 2009 Archives
Celebrating Vivian Vance's Centennary It's always fabulous to find a photo of Vivian Vance that you've never seem before. As more photographers take advantage of the Internet to put up archives of their celebrity work, it's becoming almost a daily phenomenon. Keep in mind most of these photos are copyrighted by their owners. This one, of Viv and Lucy, was taken in the late sixties by Michael Leshnov, who notes on his Web site that, "I was privileged to work in the television industry as a still photographer, shooting stills of some of the most famous names of the day, as well as the up and coming stars of tomorrow." Pics at his site include TV actors from Fran Allison and Willie Aames to Jane Wyman and Efrem Zimbalist Jr., film actors, and much more: daytimetvphotos.com/index.htm. Enjoy!
10.24.09 Someone as famous as Lucille Ball has had so much published about her and her career, the canon may never be fully complete. For my own book, Lucy A to Z: The Lucille Ball Encyclopedia, I knew many of the entries would not, indeed, could not, be complete, because there reaches a point where one must stop the research and begin the writing. Since many photos of Lucy were taken as publicity for the movies and TV shows she did, it’s occasionally hard to pinpoint their origin. The Internet can often help us fill in the blanks. Case in point: photographer Ruth Orkin, an award-winning photojournalist and filmmaker. I recently discovered this picture (right) she took of Lucy (and hubby Desi Arnaz, blurry in the background) being made up for a performance of their new hit show I Love Lucy in 1952. The look on Lucy’s face perfectly captures the pre-performance butterflies of an actress getting ready to hit the stage. It’s a rare look behind the scenes as Lucy and Desi prepared to revolutionize TV. You can find many more of Orkin’s unique and remarkable photos at www.orkinphoto.com.
Celebrating VIVIAN VANCE's Centennary
Vivian Vance was to return to Broadway in 1966 in Woody Allen’s first comedy for the stage, Don’t Drink the Water, after a long run on TV co-starring with you-know-who. Unfortunately, she never actually made it to The Great White Way, leaving the show somewhere between its Philadelphia previews and Broadway opening. Producer David Merrick fought for Vance to be cast, wanting a “name” for the show; Allen, though he appreciated her talent, thought she wasn’t right for the ethnic role of a Jewish mother. The real problem was rumored to be co-star Lou Jacobi, a character actor in his first lead, late in life, and very nervous about how he’d be received. But any rancor is nowhere to be found in this rare publicity photo (courtesy of Philadephia’s Walnut Street Theater) showing Jacobi and Vance with Allen during the Philly tryouts. Vance was replaced by Kay Medford, who had most recently played another Jewish mother in Funny Girl. Vance herself later said, in a 1967 interview, that she realized the part wasn't right for her and asked to be let out of her contract. Vance did play Broadway several years later in the comedy My Daughter, Your Son.
10.02.09 You can find Lucy in the most unexpected places. I was watching the PBS American Masters documentary on the life of maverick writer Dalton Trumbo, one of the infamous Hollywood 10 who suffered during one of our country's least-shining moments: the blacklist engendered by the Red Scare of the late 1940s/early 1950s. Trumbo was blacklisted for more than a decade, and went to prison for a year — not to mention having to eke out a living as best he could, and suffering myriad indignities, along with his family and friends, for simply refusing to name names. Eventually, Kirk Douglas openly hired him to write 1960's Spartacus, giving Trumbo something of his old life back.
Lucy was also asked to testify for HUAC (the House un-American Activities Committee), but was found not guilty of any wrongdoing, since she had only become a Communist party member (like the rest of her family) to appease her Socialist grandfather.
But there's also a movie-related Ball and Trumbo connection: he wrote the original story for her 1939 classic Five Came Back (before speaking your mind and making your own free choices briefly became a felony in the United States). Lucy played a "woman of dubious reputation" (1930s-speak for prostitute) who was stranded with a group of others in a South American jungle after their plane crashed. The portrait above is from an L.A. Times article published when the movie was released. Lucy got her best reviews to that date, and it resulted in her getting better and bigger parts, and more attention in Hollywood. Trumbo went on to write such classics as Exodus, The Sandpiper, Hawaii and Johnny Got His Gun before his death in 1976. The latter, an antiwar movie based on Trumbo's book, was remade in 2008. In March 2009 it was reported that a remake of Five Came Back was in the works, from Twisted Pictures.
Celebrating VIVIAN VANCE's Centennary
Vivian Vance was best known for her roles as Ethel Mertz on I Love Lucy and Vivian Bagley on The Lucy Show. Vance made only a handful of other television appearances for the rest of her career, and exactly one other sitcom appearance: on an episode of Rhoda, in the middle of the show's second season, November 1975, called "Friends and Mothers" (Vance is pictured with Valerie Harper at left). Vance played a woman who moves into Rhoda's building and whom Rhoda befriends, much to the chagrin of Rhoda's jealous mother, Ida (Nancy Walker). It was great to see Vance on TV as always, especially in a new role, and makes one wish she'd done more of them. By the way, her husband was played by Bewitched's Larry Tate, actor David White.
09.10.09 If you know anything about Lucille Ball collectibles, you'll know what's rare about this 1940s black-and-white publicity photo (left). Give up? Look closely just below Lucy's frilly collar and you'll see her signature: "Lucille Ball." Still haven't got a clue? Okay, what makes this signed photo more worthy than many others is the full signature. After a certain point in her career, Lucy stopped using her full name when she signed photos, and just wrote "Love, Lucy." The abbreviated sig will sell for anywhere from $25 on up, depending on the medium (what the signature is on, i.e., a publicity photo, or a canceled check; the latter, of course, will have a full signature and tend to sell for $200 or more). Older sigs also cost more money, even if they are simply signed "Love, Lucy" — as long as they're on a rare piece of paper or memorabilia, like a limited edition vintage poster, movie, or lobby card. One warning: when shopping (online especially, as on eBay), be careful when purchasing very cheap Lucy autographs, say, for $5. These are often facsimiles, or color copies, of the originals owned by the seller. Nothing wrong with owning one of these, if all you want is a copy; just beware when souvenir hunting, and make sure to read all the fine print. Any real signature will be guaranteed by a certificate of authenticity (COA).
09.07.09 VIVIAN VANCE: Entertaining the Troops
Vivian Vance was an established Broadway and theater star when she embarked on a tour of Europe to entertain the troops with a group of actors that included her then-husband, Phil Ober. Reportedly, it was a very stressful time in her life, and ultimately led a nervous breakdown and semi-retirement for Vance. Through therapy, and the help of friends like actor Mel Ferrer, who urged her to return to the stage, Vance recovered and ultimately was convinced to star in a new TV series called I Love Lucy.
09.02.09 In 1984, Lucille Ball was honored by The Center for the Partially Sighted in Los Angeles, which presented its Vision Award to the comedian and television pioneer in recognition of her creativity and lifetime contributions to the entertainment field. The award also honored Ball’s inner vision and moxie, which spurred the comedienne on to mammoth success, even though she was told, at first, that she had no talent. (If ever a life could serve as the textbook example of “Don’t give up no matter the circumstances and despite anything negative anyone tells you,” it’s Lucy’s life.) As with the tradition at many of these festivities, a large-format paperback booklet was created for the gala event, with the cover featuring a white-on-red version of the famous caricature of Lucy used for the closing credits of The Lucy Show (near right). There was a similar, black-on-white caricature that adorned ABC Motion Pictures’ tribute page inside the booklet (far right). The booklet itself took ads in the form of congratulatory pages, from celebrities and L.A. businesspeople, to make money for the Center. Some, like Bob Hope, used pictures of Ball and themselves (Hope’s page said, natch, “Thanks for the Memory” underneath the picture), and others were more creative using simple text messages, like Ray Charles and his wife, and Michelle Lee (left). The Center remains in L.A., its mission “to promote independent living for people of all ages with impaired sight.”
VIVIAN VANCE'S CENTENNARY, 1909-2009: Viv Gets Her "Stamp" of Approval!
How cool, and appropriate, is it that, in the year that Vivian Vance would have been 100, the United States Postal Office has issued a stamp (part of the Early TV Memories series) featuring Viv as Ethel Mertz, with Lucille Ball (as Lucy Ricardo, of course), trying to beat that candy conveyor belt? It's way cool. The stamp (left) is one of 20 saluting classic TV shows of the 1950s, and it's out now. So what are you waiting for?!
Viv made four appearances on Here’s Lucy, the last one in the 1972 episode “With Viv As a Friend, Who Needs an Enemy?” (right). The plot was simple-but-basic Lucy and Viv: best friends get into argument, fight, get out of argument and make up. But when the best friends were Lucille Ball and Vivian Vance, you could count on it being funny, no matter how many times they’d argued and patched it up.
08.20.09 Lucy at right is pictured in January 1989, several months before she died, at an industry event honoring her pal Frank Sinatra. Ball left series television for good after her final sitcom, Life With Lucy, bombed in the fall of 1986. Indeed, every one of Lucy's TV appearances after her last sitcom was as "herself," usually in a tribute to another star or personage of the same magnitude, or interviewed in a documentary. Some of these included: The American Film Institute Salute to Billy Wilder, The 38th Annual Primetime Emmys, an All-Star Party for Clint Eastwood, Bob Hope's High-Flying Birthday, and The Kennedy Center Honors (all in the latter half of 1986; Lucy was one of the Kennedy Center honorees that year); Happy 100th Birthday, Hollywood, Hollywood, the Golden Years: The RKO Story (Lucy appeared in two episodes of this documentary — she and first husband Desi Arnaz had appeared in films at RKO in the 1940s, and then, of course, bought the studio in the late 1950s as their company, Desilu, expanded), A Beverly Hills Christmas, and a Kennedy Center documentary, all in 1987; America's Tribute to Bob Hope and an episode of Super Password in 1988; and her final public appearance, with longtime pal Hope, at the 61st Annual Academy Awards one month before she died. Lucy also spent some of this time making public appearances and doing seminars on her career and acting.
08.09.09 Irma Kusely, Lucille Ball’s longtime hairstylist, has died at the age of 95, according to artist (and Kusely’s friend) Rick Carl. Kusely took care of Lucy’s locks from the time they first met on a movie set in 1942 until Ball’s death in 1989. Though Kusely worked with other stars, it is her association with Ball that stands out: she worked on all of Ball’s series, and many of her specials, plus four of Ball’s later movies: 1956’s Forever Darling, 1960’s The Facts of Life, 1962’s Critic’s Choice, and 1968’s Yours, Mine and Ours. Kusely’s treatment of Lucy’s unique hair color — which she called apricot; Kusely noted in 2001, “A lot of people think it is red. It’s not red at all.” — and her managing of Ball’s stable of wigs from the 1960s on, was “cultural history,” according to The New York Times review of the book Hair Heroes, by Michael Gordon. As Gordon noted, “First the hair was bought from nuns in Europe, then it was pieced together and the curls were boiled in; finally, the wig was dyed with Tintex fabric dye. Ball had a wardrobe of wigs, at $1,500 each, for her television show, to save time redoing that enormous red artichoke of hair.” Kusely is also credited with perfecting what became known as the “non-surgical face-lift,” a procedure Lucy (and other stars of “a certain age”) used for the better part of four decades.
08.08.09 Almost 63 years ago, in September 1946, Photoplay writer Frank Nugent was at the Westwood, Calif. (Los Angeles) preview of one of Lucy’s best films, Easy to Wed (at left is Lucy as chorus girl Gladys Benton doing the "Continental Polka"). Nugent noted that, “Excitement crackled in the air like lightning in a Mississippi Valley storm. Police reserves were on hand early to control the crowd.” After describing Ball’s costars Van Johnson and Esther Williams’ arrivals, he noted, “Lucille Ball's reception was all right, too. After all, no one knew that she was going to be [playing] The Other Woman…. Now, playing The Other Woman in a Johnson-Williams picture is a composite of Daniel walking into the lion's den and a girl with a sprained ankle bucking a department store sale of nylons. If she's lucky, the venturesome actress will be hissed on the screen and mobbed off it. And well aware of it on that night [were] Lucille [and] husband Desi Arnaz. Mechanically they noted the nearest exit and mapped a line of retreat as the house lights dimmed and the picture began…. And then a giggle ran through the theater, chased by a chuckle and followed by a guffaw. Gladys was doing fine.” Lucy remained nervous throughout, constantly biting her lips and brushing back her hair. But she needn’t have worried, according to Nugent: "The kids were grinning, and a bit respectful. Lucille had been the other woman, but she was a good sport and a good loser — and funny as the dickens. They asked for autographs and grinned at her hairdo.” Ball pleaded not guilty; it was her “darned hairdresser,” she said (not Irma Kusely, who didn’t start working steadily with Lucy until 1956…): "I had no idea when we were making the picture that my bangs were so low. So all through the preview, I kept pushing my bangs back.” By the time she reached the lobby, her bangs “were so far back it looked like an off-the-face hat!”
08.06.09 Today would have been Lucille Ball’s 98th birthday, so the news from her hometown is appropriate. According to an article in today’s Jamestown (N.Y.) Post-Journal, “After months of uncertainty, the Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Center [that’s the first Lucy-Desi Museum at right in its storefront as it appeared in 2004.] is ready to move toward a future that, by all accounts, looks bright. The center's future began Monday [August 3], when Falconer [N.Y., a hop, skip and a jump from Jamestown] native Corie Curtis took the helm at the center as its new executive director. Curtis, who has more than a decade's worth of experience in marketing, strategic planning, event execution, brand identity management and budget development, said the ‘timing was absolutely perfect.’
“Mike LaTone, president of the center's board of directors and its former acting executive director, said he was ‘very pleased’ that Ms. Curtis had joined the center. LaTone said hundreds of people from across the country had applied for the position, but that Ms. Curtis was ‘the definite standout. … We chose Corie because she is a big part of what's going to put us at the level we want to be,’ LaTone added. ‘There are new things we need to do. In the long[-term] future, I see her traveling the country to tell people about [the] Center and not only bring them here but bring our mission — the healing powers of love and laughter — to the world. Everything is in place and we're ready to move forward. She has all our support and I hope the community will embrace her, work with her, get behind her and help us make this bigger than it ever has been. The future starts now.’”
And just in time, too. This weekend is the Center’s annual Lucille Ball Birthday celebration, running from August 7-9.
08.04.09 Babalu Aye is a Santerian orisha, or god, of percussion, according to the book Havana Nocturne, which recounts the saga of organized crime in Cuba. “Babalu” was also, of course, the signature song of bandleader Ricky Ricardo on I Love Lucy. In the song’s lyrics, written by Margarita Lecuona, according to Wikipedia, “the singer wonders aloud what to do with a statue of Babalú Ayé, now that a Santería rite had been invoked by others.… He requests good luck, love from his beloved woman, and safety and protection to both.” By the time Arnaz sang “Babalu,” it was a Latin standard; he made it a pop-culture icon in America. Wikipedia adds that, “Whenever Arnaz and his band played the song live, he would finish it with an extended conga solo and chorus-refrain section, mimicking Cuban comparsas (a popular genre usually associated with the city of Santiago de Cuba [Arnaz’s home town]).” The Urban Dictionary offers two words based on the title of “the song made famous by Desi Arnaz": babalistic, meaning “wonderful, fine or pleasant,” and babalicious, “delicious or tasty.”
VIVIAN VANCE'S CENTENNARY: The Lucy Show, Season 1
I don't know about you, but for me, born in the early 1950s, I never watched I Love Lucy (that I can remember) until I caught the reruns in the early 1960s. I fell in love with the show then, and when I heard Lucy and Viv would be returning to TV in 1962 in a new sitcom, I forced the family to watch it every Monday night for the first few seasons (after 1965, as a young teen, my family was not so willing to give up the only TV we had, even for a half hour on Monday). So it's no wonder I love those first three seasons of The Lucy Show, and especially Season 1, which was released by CBS on DVD in July, in all it's black-and-white goodness. (The photo at right is a colorized version of a scene from the show done by artist Dave Woodman.) There's something special and magical about watching Lucille Ball and Vivian Vance clown as they did, better than almost any other comedy team of the 20th century. There are tons of extras, new and old, so what are you waiting for? Go buy it, and laugh your maracas off!
08.01.09 Does this woman (left) look like "one of the most important business figures in Hollywood"? Well, she wasn't in 1940, when this picture was taken, but 47 years ago (on Nov. 15), Lucille Ball bought out ex-husband Desi Arnaz's shares of Desilu, the TV empire they created together in the 1950s. According to newspaper reports, Ball purchased 300,350 shares "considerably in excess" of the stock's then-market price per share: $7.63 at the close of the day, Nov. 15, 1962. With 600,850 shares total, or 52 percent of the company, Ball became the first acting female head of a major studio in Hollywood. So Lucy did indeed become one of Hollywood's most important (and visible) businesspersons that day (her own Lucy Show was No. 2 in the ratings at the time; see below). And if you think her influence ended with the sale of Desilu to Paramount in 1967, think again: one of the final shows greenlit by Ball was Star Trek, recently reinvented in a huge way (i.e., a big moneymaker) for the movies after 43 years. Thanks, Madame President. We owe you.
07.22.09 Dave Woodman, the artist and animator who created the colorized Lucy Show picture above, is obviously a big Lucy fan. He recently created a special piece he's selling in the IncredibleArtist.Com online store (there's also a brick-and-mortar gallery, in Cathedral City, Calif.). Dave's picture is called Space Lucy (left), and is described as a "Small Fine Art Canvas Giclée, 10"x20", in a Limited Edition of 395." Click on the website name to get there. Dave contributed two of his many fabulous renderings of Lucy to the fourth edition of Lucy A to Z: The Lucille Ball Encyclopedia. You can see his amazing art at davewoodmanart.com, but if you're only interested in his Lucy stuff, go here, and prepare to spend a lot of time. Dave brings joy into the world through his art, and I can't think of anything (except maybe laughter) that our world needs more.
07.15.09 Sen. Coburn, I believe you have some ‘splainin’ to do… Remarks by Sen. Tom Coburn, a Republican from Oklahoma, caught my interest during the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor (not too hard, since the sleep-inducing hearings were a combination of self-serving remarks by the questioners and idiotic questions by the same). Coburn noted that Sotomayor would have "lots of 'splainin'" to do should she obtain a gun and shoot him — words, as the AP noted, “that evoked memories of the 1950s TV show I Love Lucy featuring a Cuban-American bandleader and his madcap wife.” The Puerto Rican Sotomayor “had just spoken humorously and hypothetically about doing just that, part of a response to a question about the constitutional right to self-defense.” Although I always enjoy hearing a public reference to my favorite show, one wonders how Coburn and his Senate colleagues would fare if they had to stick to questions that actually had some substance relating to the nominee, instead of, for example, relying on a classic sitcom to garner publicity.
07.13.09 There are those completists who must have everything they can collect of their favorite stars. For me, one of the Lucille Ball items I enjoy finding most is a caricature of Lucy that I've never seen before. For others, it might be something like The TV Schedule Book, a straightforward tome published in 1984 by Harry Castleman and now out of print. When I found it at a flea market for less than a buck, I was thrilled, not because I wanted to memorize four decades of schedules, but because the cover featured caricatures of all the great TV personalities; I'm not positive, but it looks like the work of the great cartoonist/illustrator Jack Davis, perhaps best known for his work on Mad magazine. Lucy was, of course, one of the many heads cutely positioned inside the abbreviation "TV." In the pic at right, Lucy's caricature is on the left, toward the bottom of the "T"; I also copied it, slightly larger, in the center. Though I've seen other Lucy caricatures by Davis (mostly from Mad), this was a first for me. Enjoy!
07.13.09 VIVIAN VANCE'S CENTENNARY: The Great Race
Of all the I Love Lucy principal cast members, Vance made the fewest films: only three, unless you count a very young Vance cameo-ing in the chorus of the 1933 musical Eadie was a Lady (See YouTube for a gander), or The I Love Lucy Movie, made in 1953 but never released, which was three episodes strung together to capitalize on the series' popularity (it's available on the I Love Lucy boxed set). Vance, in fact, was reluctant to sign on to the series that made her a legend, because she had just finished small roles in two films (1950's The Secret Fury and 1951's The Blue Veil), and thought she might have a film career after 20 years of stage work. Fortunately for us, she was persuaded to do I Love Lucy. Unfortunately for Vance, she submerged herself so well into the character of Ethel that she was forever stereotyped, with Hollywood reluctant to cast her in movie roles; the fear was, people would see her on-screen and, no matter the role, think, "Oh, look, it's Ethel Mertz!". So she returned to the stage after The Lucy Show, and was content with the occasional TV appearance, with one exception: 1965's big, splashy comedy The Great Race. In it, she played the women's-lib-leaning wife of newspaper editor Arthur O'Connell (see Vance's cigar in the pic above), who ends up taking over the paper after her husband has a nervous breakdown during the race. It's a small role, little more than an extended cameo (of it, Vance laughed, "I had more more costumes than lines"), but as usual she threw herself into the part, and her moments are truly memorable. The Great Race starred Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, Peter Falk, and lovely Natalie Wood, to the right of Vance in the pic. The movie was one of the Top 10 films of the year, won the Oscar for Best Sound Effects, and was nominated for four others.
06.29.09 Gale Storm has died at the age of 87. Storm was a Texas beauty who won a national talent contest and was brought to Hollywood to star in movies, but is probably best known for her two successful 1950s sitcoms, My Little Margie and The Gale Storm Show (a.k.a. Oh! Susannah). I had the pleasure of talking to Ms. Storm after she contacted me herself by phone — I’d sent her a letter wondering if she might be interested in writing a Foreword for my book, Sitcom Queens: Divas of the Small Screen.
Storm starred in more than 30 movies, a few small gems, mostly B pictures or the bottom halves of double bills, but by the time her film career waned in the early 1950s, TV was there to make her a star. Margie was derided by most critics but the public couldn’t get enough of Storm’s perky, mischievous title character. Indeed, according to her Los Angeles Times obituary, “A 1953 poll of the most popular TV stars listed Storm at No. 2, behind TV comedy queen Lucille Ball.”
The year after Margie, finished, Storm starred in another hit show, in which she played the social director of a cruise ship. ZaSu Pitts was her Ethel Mertz. The show featured lots of music, capitalizing on Storm’s successful singing career; she hit No. 2 on the Billboard pop chart in 1955 with her version of “I Hear You Knockin’,” and had five other Top 20 hits in that decade. Storm has an impressive three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in L.A., celebrating her successes in TV, radio and music.
When Storm’s TV career waned in the 1960s, she polished her craft on stage in touring productions of shows like The Unsinkable Molly Brown. She also wrote a bio later in her life in which she admitted to having been a secret alcoholic, but had been abstinent since rehab in 1979.
When I spoke to Storm on June 26, 2006, she was bright, funny, humble, and had much to say on her own sitcoms and the other Funny Ladies I had chosen for my Top 10 (she was one of them, of course). Among other things, Storm elaborated on her connections to Lucille Ball:
“The first season, Margie was a summer replacement for I Love Lucy that was extended for several years because the ratings held up. And the final season of Oh! Susanna [a.k.a. The Gale Storm Show] was shot as Desilu Studios because Hal Roach had gotten himself into (financial) trouble with the wrong group of people. They were going to lock down the studio, and we had to get our sets off the lot before they did, so we moved to Desilu, which actually was kind of funny, since that’s where I’d started – the Desilu lot was the former RKO lot.” [She told me Lucy and Desi sent her a huge bouquet of roses to welcome her aboard the Desilu family.]
“I didn’t get to know Lucy and Desi. I don’t think I ever met Desi, but I met Lucy and would see her occasionally — never enough to say we were friends or even acquaintances. I wish that had been true. I always liked her, of course, I mean as a person as well as her work, but we never really got acquainted.
“Much later I was told by more than one person that I’d been considered for a part on one of Lucy’s shows…not sure if it was Vivian Vance’s part, or what. Obviously, it didn’t work out.” [For much more, see Sitcom Queens, here.]
What I most remember about Ms. Storm was her amazment at her own success in so many different mediums, and how appreciative she was that so many people still remembered her. As she told me, “I feel so blessed. I cannot possibly tell you how grateful I am, and how I thank God constantly for the opportunity not only to have enjoyed doing that, but that people still appreciate what I did.” I will miss her.
06.24.09 Emmy winner Jennifer Aniston took home Women in Film’s Lucy Award (named for our fave redhead, of course) on June 12 at a reception in Los Angeles. Suggestion: Since her movie career’s never been as momentous as her stint on Friends, perhaps Aniston should consider another half-hour TV comedy? After all, that’s the medium in which Lucy became a legend…. On a sadder note, Ed McMahon, Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show sidekick for years, died yesterday at the age of 86. McMahon appeared with Lucy several times during his long career, most noticeably on two episodes of Here’s Lucy (one with Carson in 1969, another solo in 1973) and as Lucy’s husband in her final TV special, Lucy Calls the President, in 1977.
06.24.09 Edith Head, one of Hollywood's best-known and most prolific costume designers, worked with Lucille Ball on more than one occasion. Head and designer Edward Stevenson won Oscars for the black-and-white costume design in Lucy and Bob Hope's 1960 film, The Facts of Life. Stevenson was with Lucy from I Love Lucy on as her costume designer, but apparently Head also did some designs, especially one number Lucy favored and wore on both The Lucy Show and Here's Lucy. A sketch of this blue number, part of which you can see at left, was recently bought at auction by artist Dave Woodman, who kindly shared it with me, to share with you. A source close to the piece notes that this dress was, "the single most worn outfit on The Lucy Show, and the skirt was even shortened for Here's Lucy (when the outfit's familiar big bow tie around the neck was also added)." Enjoy this sketch of the original!
06.23.09 Almost 60 years ago (1952), Lucille Ball's sitcom I Love Lucy was already revolutionizing TV. In that first season (1951-'52), it changed the landscape of television comedy by hoisting it up from its vaudeville roots and planting it firmly in situation-based plots. And in that first season, the 30th episode, "Lucy Does a TV Commercial," forever branded Lucy as the premier comedian of her time, the master of her domain, if you will, to borrow a phrase from Seinfeld. So it's fitting that when TV Guide recently published its list of the Top 100 TV Episodes of all time, "Lucy Does A TV Commercial" was No. 4. (The No. 1 episode: Seinfeld's "The Contest," which popularized the phrase..."master of my domain," although the characters were speaking of a subject I Love Lucy could never touch. Remember, Desi Arnaz had to fight to get CBS to allow use of the word "expectant" instead of pregnant, which was verboten in 1953). Lucy's tour-de-force performance as she gets progressively more drunk while filming a commercial has become a textbook example of comic timing. The morals of the 1950s would not allow Lucy Ricardo to get drunk on purpose, but when she accidentally got sauced drinking a "health tonic" that was 23 percent alcohol, the results, courtesy of Ball's performance, were pure genius.
06.09.09 SPOTLIGHT ON: Vivian Vance's Centenntial (1909-2009)
My pal, artist and caricaturist Dave Woodman, sent me this photo of Vivian Vance that he found on a site dedicated to the history of newspaper comic strips. The New York Journal, the New York American and other papers used to run a regular feature showing stars of the day reading its Sunday strips. This is Viv in 1935 reading the funny pages from the March 2 and March 3, 1935 (!) editions, respectively, of those two papers. As Webmaster Allan Holtz at strippersguide.blogspot.com notes, "I only knew Vivian Vance as Lucy's sidekick on I Love Lucy — who knew that she was such a hot tamale 20 years earlier!" Viv is relaxing in her dressing room during the run of Cole Porter's hit Anything Goes, in which she had a bit part and understudied star Ethel Merman. Vance performed the lead in Merman's place several times during the run of the show. She had a successful stage career, but suffered a nervous breakdown after touring war-torn Europe during World War II. Vance was slowly returning to stage work when she was discovered and cast in I Love Lucy.
In a November 1969 interview with L.A. journalist Cecil Smith (married to Lucy’s cousin Cleo at the time) Vivian Vance — then shooting a guest spot for Here’s Lucy — Smith noted that “Watching Vivian Vance and Lucille Ball rehearse is like attending a master class in acting. Each comedienne is such a superb technician, each has such deep admiration and respect for the other, there is such perfect chemistry created when they work together that the stage literally explodes in comic creation.” He added that Vance was rarely in Los Angeles anymore: “Her gusto and sharp intelligence are mostly confined to the literary world of her husband, publisher John Dodds.” Theater, he noted, was Vance’s first love, and though she had recently done a Broadway show that “quickly closed, she says now she’s disinterested in Broadway — ‘That isn’t sour grapes, honey,’ Vance told him. ‘I’m just too geared to television. I don’t want to be leaving for work every night just as John comes home.’” But Vance said she would always do TV because of something her movie and stage co-star Claudette Colbert once told her: “She said get before the public every year — let ’em see you every year — then they don’t realize you’re getting any older, because they’re getting older right along with you.”
06.08.09 Almost 50 years ago (1960), Lucille Ball divorced Desi Armaz, packed up her kids and belongings, and moved to New York to appear on Broadway in Wildcat. Although critics were harsh to the show itself, they liked the music (by Cy Coleman and Carolyn Leigh), and, as usual, loved Lucy in the role of tomboy-ish Wildcat "Wildy" Jackson (drawn by Al Hirschfeld at left). She played a wildcatter (what else with that name?) out to strike it rich. The play was an immediate hit thanks to Lucy's presence in it, and featured a chorus girl named Valerie Harper in an early role, plus Paula Stewart as Wildy's sister. Unfortunately, Ball hadn't reckoned on the strength it took to power a Broadway hit eight times a week, and she fell ill, physically and emotionally exhausted from the demands of the show and her divorce. On May 24, 1961, following a two-week Florida vacation that didn't take, Ball gave her final performance and the show closed soon after. Fortunately, there's the original cast recording to enjoy, and Web surfers can find Ball and Stewart performing the show's hit song, "Hey, Look me Over" in a fabulous clip from The Ed Sullivan Show on Google video. Ball and Stewart became friends; she introduced Lucy to her second husband, Gary Morton, and, after leaving show-biz and becoming an interior designer, created Lucy's New York apartment in the 1980s (Lucy wanted to have a place to stay when she visited her grandchildren on the East Coast).
06.02.09 Last night on The Daily Show, John Stewart was making mincemeat (as usual) of those (mostly) Republicans and right-wingers who were raising questions about Judge Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama’s nominee to the Supreme Court, the first Latino (of Puerto Pican heritage) and only third woman who would be a judge in our country’s highest court. After tackling the usual suspects, i.e., Fox News, Stewart brought on Daily Showregular Asif Mandvi, who said playfully, in deference to all the questions being raised by the media, “Judge Sotomayor, you got some ’splainin’ to do!” Stewart pointed out that that was a quote from Desi Arnaz, who, by the way, was Cuban, not Puerto Rican. Mandvi got progressively sillier, and the segment ended, but I was smiling, once again reminded of how deeply my favorite show and its stars are entrenched in our national psyche, 60 years on.
05.25.09 It's that time of year again — and by that, I mean time for the Lucy-Desi Days festival at The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Center in Jamestown, N.Y. This year's headliner is none other than Lucy's daughter, Lucie Arnaz — performing "A Daughter's Tribute to America's First Couple of Comedy" on May 23 — and other guests include Keith "Little Ricky" Thibodeaux, I Love Lucy's film editor Dann Cahn, Lucy impersonator Diane Vincent, and much more. I won't be there, but I've been many times (at left is a picture of me signing books in 2004, with a great Lucy fan, and a great friend, Mary Rapaport) and it's never disappointing.
SPOTLIGHT ON: Vivian Vance's Centenntial (1909-2009)
There’s a wonderful online site that focuses on the history of Cherryvale, Kansas (leatherockhotel.com), which you know, if you’re any kind of Vivian Vance fan, was her hometown. Vance, though, didn’t have any great love for the Midwest locale. She once said that unlike Dorothy (of The Wizard of Oz), who was trying to get back to Kansas, she (Vance) couldn’t wait to get out of there. Maybe she knew she was destined for greatness. She was actually born at 309 West 6th Street in Cherryvale, on July 26, 1909. West 6th Street was designated Vivian Vance Lane in the summer of 2002. This July would have been her 100th birthday. We’re celebrating it year-round. The Leatherock Hotel was built in 1912, to accommodate travelers on the Sante Fe railroad north/south route. Now restored and featuring original décor and room furniture, the hotel also offers something special for the true Vivian Vance fan: a room called The Vivian Vance 1950-60s Dressing Room, described by the hotel online as follows: “This guest room styled after her Hollywood dressing studio will be dedicated to Cherryvale born actress Vivian Vance. Born Vivian Roberta Jones, the second of six siblings, she was blessed with an outgoing personality. After a theater and movie career, she became Lucille Ball's legendary 50s and 60s TV Series neighbor[s], Ethel Mertz [and Vivian Bagley]. It has been stated that, ‘If Louise Brooks [also a Cherryvale native] was born dancing, Vivian was born funny.’ Featured in this 1950s decorated Hollywood Studio guest room will be Vivian Vance memorabilia, including videos from her film career and I Love Lucy TV series. Two large windows face the hotel's outside gardens. Radiant floor heating will be added to this corner guest room and its private bath.” How delightful; Vance loved to travel and I’m sure she’d be tickled to be remembered this way. The room is scheduled to open this summer.
05.12.09 It’s always nice when two of your favorites come together — as in, Lucille Ball and Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Dreyfus recently won the Lucille Ball Legacy of Laughter Award at the Ninth Annual TV Land Awards (April 26). On the red carpet, Dreyfus noted, “It is exciting, it's kind of nerve wracking. I don't really feel worthy of this, to be honest, and I think they might have made a mistake. I'm kind of blown away by it." Well, I don’t think it’s a mistake at all. In fact, I added an entry on Dreyfus to the latest edition of Lucy A to Z: The Lucille Ball Encyclopedia for just that reason: I believe the actress who created the neurotic but lovable Elaine Benes in Seinfeld (and currently stars in The New Adventures of Old Christine — and won Emmys for both roles) might just be the current contender for Lucille Ball’s comedy crown. Dreyfus’ combination of physical and verbal humor are near perfection; indeed, she has a mastery of her craft that not many comedians, period, ever achieve. So, to Ms. Dreyfus, I only wish, “Long may you pratfall!”
05.07.09 A Here's Lucy Website Exclusive! In honor of the upcoming Jamestown Lucy-Desi Days Festival, held over Memorial Day Weekend, I thought I'd post an exclusive photo that hasn't been seen in over 20 years. In 1988, my friend Craig Hamrick was attending college in Kansas, and Desi Arnaz Jr. was a spokesperson for a group called Success Without Stress. He visited Craig's college, and Craig, a reporter for the campus paper, did an interview with him, and took this shot. The most memorable thing about the interview, Craig later told me, was how upset Arnaz got when a young female reporter asked him how it felt "to be Little Ricky" on I Love Lucy. Of course, Arnaz was not Little Ricky (that part was played by Keith Thibodeaux, who is a guest at this year's Lucy-Desi Days; see how it all ties in?) and was a bit, shall we say, miffed at constantly being asked that question. The full story is in my book, Lucy A to Z: The Lucille Ball Encyclopedia. Craig, who was my best friend, died of cancer in 2006, but in addition being a great writer and author, he was a fab photographer, as you can see. So enjoy this rare picture of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz's real son, not Little Ricky. Nor did he ever play Little Ricky. I hope we're clear on that. ;-)
05.05.09 One of my favorite Lucille Ball movies, as any faithful visitor to this site knows, is the 1943 MGM Technicolor extravaganza, DuBarry Was a Lady. In it, Lucy is a nightclub chanteuse with two men vying for her affections: hat-check boy (soon lottery winner) Red Skelton, and penniless but handsome Gene Kelly. What's a girl to do? Marry for money, of course, until love gets the better of her. It's all frothy fun, designed to take moviegoers' minds away from WWII and put them into a lighter mood. When Red gets his lottery winnings, he fantasizes about what it would be like to have an Esquire pinup for real in a song called "I Love an Esquire Girl." And, ironically enough, Lucy herself was kinda/sorta an Esquire Girl: Her pinup wasn't that risqué, but illustrator Howard Baer, known for his Esquire work, did a version of Lucy from DuBarry that I never knew existed until my pal, artist Dave Woodman, sent me a digital copy. A small version of Baer's drawing is above; click here to see the full-size version, plus a comparison with Lucy in the costume from the movie's opening number that Baer used as inspiration (though he changed the coloring to a saucy red, perhaps in a tribute to Lucy's flaming hair).
SPOTLIGHT ON: Vivian Vance's Centenntial (1909-2009)
On August 18, 1955, Hedda Hopper wrote in her column about a film that would co-star Vivian Vance and William Frawley. Vance and Frawley were, at the time, two of the most popular actors in the country, thanks to a little sitcom called I Love Lucy, on which they played Fred and Ethel Mertz. But as most everyone knows by now, the two weren’t especially fond of each other, and outside the show, did their best to distance themselves from their characters. Even though Frawley would always get a “Where’s Ethel?” question, and Vance would get suspicious looks when spied eating out with her real husband, both played nice until after the show, when Frawley referred to Vance as a ”mushroom” that sprang out of nowhere (meaning he’d never heard of her before the show), and Vance answered the question “Where’s Fred?” with the terse, “He’s dead,” after Frawley’s death in 1966. They never did make a big-screen appearance together, unless you count The I Love Lucy Movie, which never had a theatrical run.
04.25.09 Television and the theater world lost one of its greats today; Bea Arthur passed away at the age of 86. Arthur began her more than 50-year career on stage, found fame there (and a Tony award as Best Featured Actress in a Musical for Mame in 1966; she was also the original Yente the Matchmaker in Fiddler on the Roof), but grew larger-than-life on the small screen. First Arthur was the indomitable, wisecracking Maude (1972-'78, Emmy Award as Best Actress in a Comedy), then she portrayed indomitable, wisecracking Dorothy on The Golden Girls (1985-1992, another Emmy as Best Actress in a Comedy). Though some might argue she played a variation of her Tony-winning role, Vera Charles, forever after — and she repeated the role in Lucille Ball's film of Mame in 1974 — it was simpler than that: she was a smart, intelligent comic and dramatic actress, who had her audience in the palm of her hand, and also possessed razor-sharp timing that rivaled Jack Benny's. Arthur last appeared on Broadway in 2002, when she took her popular one-woman show to the Great White Way for several months. (The pic at left is Arthur with Ball in Mame, and the inset is from her one-woman show). She was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame late last year, and in 1986 was one of those who saluted Lucy on stage when Ball received the Kennedy Center Honor in Washington, D.C. Of Lucy and the much-maligned Mame, Arthur noted in 2002 that, “Lucy was a brilliant, brilliant clown, but she was terribly miscast. But we would never have gotten the money for the production if she hadn’t wanted to do it. Lucy was lovely [to work with]. She was really the reason I did it; she insisted I do it." Her fellow Golden Girl Betty White was quoted, after Arthur's death, as saying, "Bea was such an important part of a very happy time in my life and I have dearly loved her for a very long time. How lucky I was to know her." How lucky we all were to have been blessed with the much-needed laughter Arthur gave us.
04.18.09 Everybody's gotta start somewhere, and for Lucille Ball it was a tiny part, little more than window dressing, as one of many blonde-wigged Roman slave girls in the fantasy segments of a 1933 Eddie Cantor musical, Roman Scandals. Lucy identified herself as the girl at left during a Dick Cavett Show interview in 1973, while she was promoting her upcoming musical, Mame, released the following year. And speaking of Mame, Lucy watched clips of herself for the first time from the movie on The Merv Griffin Show, also in 1973, and also while she was promoting the film. You can go to YouTube and catch the entire Griffin interview, in 11 parts, also featuring her second husband Gary Morton; her friend Bob Hope; and her kids, Lucie and Desi Jr.
SPOTLIGHT ON: Vivian Vance's Centennial (1909-2009)
Vivian Vance had a thriving stage career on and off Broadway, beginning in 1932, and, of course, a classic TV career. But she never really "made it" in the movies. Most people believe Vance only did a handful of film appearances, two just before I Love Lucy, the I Love Lucy movie in 1953, and The Great Race, in 1965. But, wait! There is one recently discovered, uncredited chorus performance of Vance's, singing a verse of the song "Eadie Was a Lady" from the 1933 musical Take A Chance starring Lillian Roth. Vance, who would have been 24 at the time, is slim, pretty and her voice is instantly recognizable. That gives Lucy and Viv yet another connection: both began their film in careers in 1933, and Vance, though unbilled, had a much bigger "part" than Ball. Vance is at left in the pic.
04.07.09 As I mentioned recently, 2009 and the next few years mark a number of important anniversaries in the Lucyverse. One that's bittersweet is this year's 20th anniversary of Lucille Ball's death. Lucy died April 26, 1989, and the entire world mourned. Viacom, longtime syndicator of I Love Lucy, paid tribute to Lucy's passing with a full-page ad in Variety on May 3, 1989, featuring a Hirschfeld drawing of the famous clown (left). The good news is, Lucy is still very much with us, in our hearts, in reruns, on DVD, on Turner Classic Movies, at The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Center in her hometown of Jamestown, N.Y., and in daily mentions in all media. For example, the end of March saw the return of one of my favorite sitcoms, Samantha Who?, starring Christina Applegate. Her character, Sam, was discussing how to help her best friend get an actual date with the famous athlete she'd been texting for a long time. Finally, Sam suggested a double date: "It'll be just like the Ricardos and Mertzes," she chirped. And this viewer smiled. The point is, Lucy & Co. have been around so long, and ingrained in our minds for so many years, they are part of our permanent memories. When someone references the Ricardos and the Mertzes, there's no need to explain who they are. Most of us just know. That's probably why the U.S.P.S. is offering a third Lucy stamp, due out this August (Ball shares the stamp with longtime co-star and pal Vivian Vance — see below — and the stamp itself is part of a 20-stamp tribute to early TV. It's comforting to know that Lucy (and Desi Arnaz, Vance, and William Frawley) and their comedy legacy are always close by.
SPOTLIGHT ON: Vivian Vance's Centenntial (1909-2009)
Vance’s theatre career began on Broadway, beginning in 1932 with a chorus part in Music in the Air, almost 20 years before I Love Lucy. Over that two-decade span, Vance graduated to supporting and leading roles in plays and musicals, and had a patent on the role that won her the part of Ethel Mertz, Olive Lashbrooke, the sarcastic "other woman" in The Voice of the Turtle. It was as Olive that Desi Arnaz and Jess Oppenheimer saw her in San Diego, taken there by Vance's friend, director Marc Daniels (who directed the first season of I Love Lucy). The picture of Vance at right is her in character as Olive.
04.02.09 As I've mentioned so often that my non-Lucy-loving friends must be sick of it, hardly a day goes by when I don't see or hear a mention of Lucille Ball or her I Love Lucy co-stars in one medium or another. This week, it was the April 6 issue of People magazine, which listed "TV's 10 Greatest Romances" on page 46. Coming in at a fabulous No. 7 were Ricky and Lucy Ricardo. People noted: "Stars Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball divorced in 1960, but has any other sitcom couple remained so iconic — and enduringly believable?" I guess you know my answer to that question. But I wrote "fabulous" above because of this fact: of the nine other couples on the list, only two were from sitcoms whose age even remotely approached I Love Lucy: Cliff & Clair Huxtable from The Cosby Show, and Sam and Diane from Cheers. Both of those shows hit their strides in the 1980s, more than 30 years after the debut of Ricky and Lucy. Which, to me, means, as a top TV couple, Lucy and Ricky (or Lucy and Desi, take your pick) are untouchable.
03.31.09 The Queen of Comedy was the first to tell people that she was not very funny in person. She could perform comedy brilliantly, and it was all the better if her stage directions were as explicit as possible. But in person she was not known as a joke-teller and she did not break out her slapstick routines at parties. Lucille Ball was also a heavy smoker throughout much of her adult life, and that — plus her constant and loud vocalizing on TV — accounted for her voice register lowering from the high pitch of Lucy Ricardo to the lower registers she "sang" in for her 1974 film, Mame. So, here's a shot that shows both: the reflective side of a comedy legend who took her comedy very seriously, rehearsing bits over and over in order to make them just right, taking a set break and a drag on a cigarette, from the LIFE magazine archives.
03.23.09 In August 1999, to celebrate the then-imminent new millennium, Lucille Ball and Madonna (left) were just 2 of 29 celebrities chosen to be turned into larger-than-life 3-D sculptures (with moving parts, yet!) for a carousel. The working carousel (you'd ride in Madonna's baby carriage, for example, instead of the typical carousel horse, although no riders were allowed during the exhibiton) represented celebrities and events of the past (20th) century and was designed by students and alumni of the School of Visual Arts. SVA curator Kevin O'Callaghan and students refinished a 90-year-old Victorian-style carousel and replaced the horses with the more famous objects/people. It was displayed for the public at Grand Central Station terminal starting August 6, for a month. August 6, as any proper Lucy fan knows, was the redhead's birthday. The carousel also toured the Union Stations in Washington,. D.C. and Chicago.
SPOTLIGHT ON: Vivian Vance's Centenntial (1909-2009)
In honor of the 100th anniversary of Vance's birth this year, we're spotlighting Viv on the front page throughout 2009. ... Every star does publicity, especially when he or she is involved in a hit, long-running television show. This may involve press conferences or junkets, guest appearances on other shows, and newspaper interviews. Vivian Vance did all of these things while starring as Ethel Mertz on I Love Lucy and as Vivian Bagley on The Lucy Show. In the picture at left, scanned from an original press release, it's the late 1950s (you can tell by Viv's hairdo; she never wore it like that until later in the runs of I Love Lucy and The Lucy Desi Comedy Hour). Viv talks "excitedly" to a reporter about one of those series, as the press released noted ... but is it real or staged? Probably a bit of both. More publicity photos of Vance to come.
03.04.09 Lucille Ball and Carol Burnett (right) had one of show-biz's most enduring mutual admiration societies. Lucy caught Burnett in her star-making performance in the musical Once Upon a Mattress, and went bck stage to let Burnett know how much Ball her. Lucy called Carol "kid," and told Burnett "Call on me if you ever need me." Which Burnett proceeded to do for her first CBS special, Carol + 2 (also with Zero Mostel) and many times more through the '60s, '70s and '80s. Likewise, Ball had Burnett guest-star on The Lucy Show four times and twice on Here's Lucy. Burnett was there to induct Lucy into the TV Hall of Fame, and Lucy sent flowers to Burnett every year on her birthday. In the 2008 PBS series, Pioneers of Television: Variety, Jim Nabors, a friend of both women, told this anecdote: "I was sitting with Lucy one night, and we were watching Carol do a sketch.... Lucy was very much an analyst, and she said, 'The kid's the best there is.' [laughs] And I said, 'Well, you did pretty good yourself!' And Lucy says, 'No, I'm different, I'm different.' And she was talking about her comedy. But she did say she thought Carol was the best sketch artist that had ever come down the pike — or ever would."
03.01.09 [We're celebrating Vivian Vance's birthday all year, but today was my birthday. I'll take a page from Lucy Ricardo's book and leave you guessing my age....] *Viv at 100!* When Lucy returned to TV in 1962 with The Lucy Show, she had to do some hard persuading to get her old pal and co-star, Vance, to join her again. Vance had just settled with her fourth husband, John Dodds, in Connecticut, and was quite happy living a quiet suburban life and doing occasional theater or New York TV. But eventually Lucy's worked her charm, and Vance ended up commuting back and forth to L.A. every few weeks. After three years, she tired of it, and the picture at right, of Lucy and Viv as little kids, marks one of their last appearances together with Vance as a Lucy Show regular, in the episode "Lucy the Stockholder" — which aired March 29, 1965 — in which Lucy, Viv, and Mr. Mooney (Gale Gordon) are regressed via hypnosis to the age of 5. Lucy missed Viv at her side on TV ever after.
02.23.09 There are lots of Lucille Ball-related anniversaries coming up. This year, for instance, marks the 35th year that Lucy left weekly television after a record-breaking 23-year run (1951-1974). Lucy’s legend was so big even then that TV Guide gave her “retirement” from the weekly series grind a cover story on its July 6, 1974 issue (see left). The cover was drawn by one of the best show-biz artists ever, Richard Amsel. According to the Adam McDaniel, Webmaster of a wonderful Amsel tribute site, www.adammcdaniel.com/RichardAmsel1.htm, Amsel noted that, “I did not want the portrait to be of Lucy Ricardo, but I didn't want a modern-day Lucy Carter either. I wanted it to have the same timeless sense of glamour that Lucy herself has. She is, after all, a former Goldwyn Girl. I hoped to capture the essence of all this.” McDaniel further notes, “Amsel's work so impressed Ms. Ball that the artwork was later prominently featured in the opening credits of a two-hour television tribute, CBS Salutes Lucy: The First 25 Years.” Amsel, born in 1947, started his illustrating career at the young age of 22 (with the poster for the movie Hello, Dolly), and went on to illustrate many famous movies (The Sting, Chinatown, Raiders of the Lost Ark), and album covers (Bette Midler’s first). His style is instantly recognizable, and all his own. Amsel’s 13-year association with TV Guide resulted in 40 covers. He died in 1985, weeks after completing his last cover, of complications from AIDS.
02.21.09 *Viv at 100!* Here's an item from the Albuquerque Journal, a New Mexico daily that covered Vance's activities on a regular basis. Though it wasn't Vance's hometown, it was kind of her "adopted" hometown (and was made Ethel Mertz's hometown on I Love Lucy); you see, Vance ended up doing a lot of theater work in Albuquerque when she left her real hometown of Cherryvale, Kansas. The Albuquerque theater community thought so highly of her talent that it raised enough money to send Vance to New York, where she started her career, first singing in nightclubs and jazz venues to survive, eventually making it to Broadway. This excerpt from the Journal — part of a Nov. 20, 1977 review of "Lucy Calls the President," Ball's final TV special and her last performance with Vance, shows the paper's obvious bias toward their "hometown gal" more than 40 years after they sent her to the Big Apple: "Zany Lucille Ball in a hilarious comedy ... [is] abetted by former sidekicks Gale Gordon, Vivian Vance, Mary Wickes, and Mary Jane Croft ... Vivian Vance is the old 'Viv,' Lucy's best friend and constant foil — and no one can make it work like she does."
02.18.09 One of my other favorite redheads — actress, photographer and all-around great dame Marie Wallace (Dark Shadows, Somerset, Gypsy and Nobody Loves an Albatross are just a few of her showbiz credits), is starring in a play coming up soon, off-Broadway, called The Chiselers (that's Marie at center in the photo at left, looking like the cat that ate the canary). The new comedy/mystery runs Feb. 26-March 7, 2009, on Thurs., Fri., and Sat. at 9:30 p.m., at the TADA! Theatre, 15 West 28th St, 2nd Floor, between Broadway and Fifth Avenue. Tickets are $18 (seniors, $10) and reservations are recommended; call 866-811-4111 or www.eatheatre.org for more info. Break a leg, sweetie!
02.12.09 1993’s Lucy & Desi: A Home Movie was released on DVD a few days ago, and that’s a treat for any fan of Lucy and Desi, major or minor. It’s a fascinating peek into the lives of one of the 20th century’s most famous, most documented couples, as seen through the eyes of their friends, son, daughter, co-stars and, most importantly, color home movies, lots of them, discovered by their daughter Lucie after Ball’s death in 1989. Arnaz lovingly put them together, along with the above mentioned interviews, to form this Emmy-winning documentary, a sort of response to the cheesy TV movie produced in 1991, Lucy & Desi: Before the Laughter. I reviewed the movie in my 2008 4th Edition of Lucy A to Z; what I’ve never seen are the DVD extras, which include an extended, half-hour interview with Lucie and Desi Jr.; 29 minutes of outtakes from the doc; several Westinghouse commercials featuring Lucille, Desi, and Betty Furness for the The Lucille Ball - Desi Arnaz Show and The Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse (they run 12:43); a Here's Lucy promo by MPI, promoting the release of the show on DVD; a 9-minute excerpt from a vintage What's My Line? episode in which Lucy and Desi are the mystery guests; a 24-minute episode of I've Got a Secret with Lucy and Desi; and a photo gallery.
02.10.09 Lucy-Desi Center Cuts Staff in Half Sad news from Jamestown, N.Y., hometown to our favorite redhead and site of the Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Center. (That's Lucy and Desi revisiting the house she grew up in, in Jamestown, at right.) The Jamestown Post-Journal reports that, "After a round of layoffs announced to employees on Monday morning, the ... Center is now operating with 'a skeleton crew.' Mike Latone, the president of the center's board of directors, said the center "has basically laid off half the staff.... The worst economic downtrend in decades finally caught up with the center and we had to respond. To be honest, the economic trends caught us behind the 8-ball." Latone added that the board has "absolutely no plans whatsoever" to close any of the center's facilities.
"The decision to reduce the center's staff comes early in Latone's tenure as board president," the newspaper noted. "Latone was appointed to the center's board of directors in late October ... after C. Edward Fagan, a local attorney, resigned from that post in mid-December." Further, Latone described the center's financial state as "a little fragile. ... It's so hard when you have to come in and lay someone off,' Latone said. 'But it had to be done. To be honest, this probably should have been done in November.'
"'You have to look at the economics of the situation,' Latone added. 'Any business has to be able to pay its bills and its employees. That's just a basic business model. When the economy goes south, people are faced with a choice of paying their mortgage and buying groceries or spending money on museum visits and memorabilia. Traveling to see a museum really isn't at the top of anybody's list right now. We've got to be responsible and respond to that.'" Latone said sales at the Center's gift shop are down. Sales through the Center's mail-order gift shop, he said, are "a third of what they have been."
In January, it cost the Center five times more than it generated in revenue to keep the museums open. Noted Latone, "We just couldn't keep the hours and the level of staffing we had when sales had plummeted. It just doesn't make sense. Read the news - the story is the same everywhere." In an effort to save money, according to the Post-Journal, "the operating hours for the Center's museums and gift shop have been restructured. The gift shop and mail-order business will operate Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Through April 1, the Lucy-Desi Museum and the Desilu Playhouse will be open only on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., though Latone said the hours would be adjusted should any large tour groups wish to visit.
"'At the end of March, we'll take a hard look at where we are and go from there," Latone said. "Should things pick up, we fully plan on asking those who were laid off to come back. But our goal is as it must be — to continue operations in the face of hard economic times. We will remain open, but we've got to be responsible.'"
There is currently no executive director in place at the Center. The Board has hired a human resources specialist to help the Center search for a permanent executive director. "We've gotten probably 100 applicants, and I have to say I'm pleased with the caliber of the applicants,'' Latone told the paper. "They're coming from all over the United States. We really have some promising leads. I think things will look up for us in the future."
There's been no word on what will happen to the two annual festivals the Center has held: Lucy-Desi Days over Memorial Day Weekend, and Lucy's birthday celebration in August. Perhaps the Board should consider asking some of the volunteers who've left over the past few years — during the Center's difficult transition after losing its entire Board and getting rid of its longtime executive director some 14 months ago — to help out. Many of these volunteers considered their work a labor of love, and would no doubt to be happy to lend a hand during these difficult times. It would cost the Center nothing and bring in a world of good PR — not to mention business. We'll keep you posted on the situation.
02.05.09 *Viv at 100!* Several years ago, Entertainment Weekly voted Vance (as Ethel Mertz) the No. 5 spot on its "We're No. 2" list (a.k.a. "The 50 Greatest Sidekicks Ever"). Vance was only one of two sitcom sidekicks in the Top 5 (the other being No. 3, Seinfeld'sGeorge Costanza (played by the fabulous Jason Alexander). About Vance and her famous alter ego, EW noted, "Without Ethel to bail [Lucy Ricardo] out of trouble each week on I Love Lucy, original desperate housewife Lucy would have been nothing more than an overbearing harpy. But as cannily played by Vivian Vance, Mrs. Mertz — whose spats with hubby Fred hinted at dysfunction when TV rarely even acknowledged marital discord — was a perfectly exasperated partner in crime: happy to play along, even happier to put the kibosh on her pickle-prone friend's worst impulses."
02.02.09 Here’s a short quiz to see how much you know about Vance. (Answers are below -- don’t cheat!)
1. Vance’s performances at this “little theater” inspired its patrons to donate money so she could  travel to New York and make it big. Where was the theater located? a) Cherryvale, Kansas b) Albuquerque, N.M. c) Santa Fe, N.M. d) Scottsdale, Ariz.
2. Before Vance hit the stage, she supported herself by singing at various nightclubs in New York. Which future wife of a famous comedian, also singing for her supper, did she meet? a) Mary Livingstone, Jack Benny’s wife b) Ruth Berle, Milton’s wife c) Dolores Hope, Bob’s wife  d) Gracie Allen, George Burns’ wife
3. Vance made the chorus of one musical on Broadway, and subsequently understudied a brassy  musical actress in two hit musicals before starring in her own shows. For whom did she understudy? a) Betty Hutton b) Kaye Ballard c) Martha Raye d) Ethel Merman
4. Vance had small parts in two films just before I Love Lucy, which made her wary of taking  the TV role of Ethel Mertz, lest she lose her chance at a movie career. Which films were they (pick two)? a) Magnificent Obsession b) The Blue Veil c) The Great Race d) Auntie Mame e) The Secret Fury f) Weekend With Father g) The Lady Pays Off
5. Vance did a pilot for Desilu after I Love Lucy that didn’t sell. It did sell the following year,  but not with her in it. What was the show, and who eventually starred in it?  a) Guestward Ho! /Joanne Dru b) The Real McCoys/Kathleen Nolan c) Dennis the Menace/ Sylvia Field d) Pete & Gladys/Cara Williams e) Fair Exchange/Audrey Christie
6. Vance co-starred with comedian George Gobel in episodes of two series after she left  The Lucy Show. What were they?  a) Love, American Style and Rhoda b) Petticoat Junction and Here’s Lucy c) The Red Skelton  Show and Occasional Wife d) Love American Style and Sam e) Marcus Welby, MD and Love American Style
Answers: 1.a 2.c (They both sang at the Club Simplon.) 3.d (Vance understudied Merman in Red, Hot and Blue and Anything Goes. She got to play the lead several times in Anything Goes.) 4.b. and e. 5.a. 6.d
01.26.09 File in the "You Never Know Where Lucy Will Pop Up" category.... The other night, across the street from my apt., was a group of trailers from a movie being shot in the city (we see them all the time in New York). As I walked past the first one, there were two doors on it facing the sidewalk. On one was a sign that read “LUCY,” and on the other door a sign that read “DESI.” I smiled, thinking, “What’s up with this? Is there actually a movie being shot about them that I hadn’t heard of?” (Didn’t think so.) “Perhaps that’s a film set tradition, or a recent one, so that people won’t know who the real stars are?” (A bit more plausible.) Or maybe just this particular filmmaker’s idea of something cute. Or perhaps a way to disguise where the [fill in the blank] is kept during the shoot. (No idea.) Of course, Lucy and Desi did make the film The Long, Long Trailer, so in that sense it’s ironic/cute/funny that someone put their names on...a trailer. I’m beginning to think it was just a private joke on that particular movie set — but it’s a great reminder of how Lucy and Desi can pop up virtually anywhere. The real point is, as I passed it, it made me smile — and that’s what Lucy and Desi have been doing for almost 60 years.
01.16.09 Vivian Vance’s Centennial, 1909-2009 Vivian Vance would have been 100 years old this year. If it seems impossible that she died almost 30 years ago, that's because Vance has never really left the public eye. Whether it's on I Love Lucy reruns, YouTube clips, a digitally created insurance commercial with William Frawley, or the upcoming I Love Lucy stamp (see below, 12.29.08), Vance is always visible. She was much more than the best second banana ever, though she was that. She was also an accomplished stage performer, and a gifted comedienne who connected with her audiences. And she was Lucy's pal. Onscreen and off. Now and forever.
We love Lucy...and Viv, too. ... Review: Behind the Laughter
What makes us laugh, and why is it so good for us? Lucille Ball, of course, was one of the main sources of laughter during the last century. If timing is everything, Ball had it in spades. That said, Lucy had lots of help along the way to becoming our greatest comedian. She had 20 years to perfect her timing in the movies, some it spent learning from legends Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton; she had fabulous writers and behind-the-scenes experts who knew what she could and couldn’t do best, and could direct, film, light, costume and edit her to a fault; and she had actors and fellow laugh-makers like her husband, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, William Frawley, Gale Gordon, Bea Benaderet, Mary Jane Croft, Mary Wickes, Doris Singleton, and so many more whom she kept at her side, performing with her. PBS is making a grand stab at explaining why the top comedians were and are so funny in its six-part hour-long series Make ’Em Laugh, airing January 14, 21, and 28; Lucy & Co. are represented in at least two episodes: episode two, which aired January 14 at 9 p.m.: “Honey, I’m Home! — Breadwinners and Homemakers,” about the genesis and growth of the sitcom; and episode three, airing January 21 at 8 p.m.: “Slip on a Banana Peel: The Knockabouts,” about slapstick comedy, of course.
“Honey, I’m Home!" was an okay hour focusing really on just five or six sitcoms. It started with a neat digital tribute to I Love Lucy: host Billy Crystal "walked into" the Ricardo's living room, "standing" between the Mertzes and the Ricardos, noting the popularity of I Love Lucy and how Desi Arnaz created the modern sitcom we know today. It was followed by 52 minutes of so-called "experts" expounding on the best of the bunch, including six-minute segments on The Goldbergs; I Love Lucy; The Simpsons (did you know cartoonist Matt Groening created Bart as a "What if Leave It To Beaver's snarky Eddie Haskell had a son"?); Norman Lear's groundbreaking All in the Family (followed by a clip of a rather snitty Bill Cosby explaining why he didn't like it, leading into, naturally, a segment on The Cosby Show); and Seinfeld. Though the show was good as far as it went, there were two glaring errors:
— An unforgiveable factual error had narrator Amy Sedaris stating that I Love Lucy ran for five years, when, in fact, it ran for six. For four of those six years it was the No. 1 show, a feat surpassed only by All in the Family; and
— Many of the most popular sitcoms of the 1950s and 1960s were dismissed with a mere mention or photos during the intro. Which is the problem with these types of retrospectives: there's never enough time to include everyone that needs to be included. That makes us Lucy lovers lucky she's so important to TV history — there's never a doubt Ball and her classic co-stars will be included in such roundups.
01.09.09 A happy, healthy New Year to all of you. Sorry I'm a bit late with this, but here's a shot from the Dec. 13-14, 2008 auction catalog of memorabilia from the Collector's Bookstore (formerly of Hollywood), courtesy of Profiles in History, one of my favorite auction sites. (And if you've never received one of its gorgeous catalogs, go to its web site right now ...www.profilesinhistory.com... and order one! They are thick, lush and beautiful presentation books of all kinds of show business items — movie and TV and more — valued by collectors; the catalogs are, in reality, collectibles themselves.) The picture shows literally hundreds of pieces of Lucille Ball memorabilia, and the only reason I'm not upset that I couldn't bid on it is that there's barely enough room in my New York apartment for my partner, myself, our furniture, clothing and the Lucy stuff I already have! The lot included framed art, movie posters, stills, and lobby cards; the script from Lucy's final TV special, "Lucy Calls the President"; and a special set of photos circa 1940 from the Metropolitan Photo Service of New York, showing Lucy and Desi Arnaz around the time of their wedding. The lot was estimated to sell for between $200-$300, but I'm sure that was a very lowball estimate. Congrats to whoever picked up this Lucy bonanza.
What's New? 2008 Archives
12.29.08 Lucy Honored With Third USPS Stamp Are you ready for the third Lucille Ball stamp? According to an AP story released today, the U.S. Postal Service plans to release a set of 20 stamps on August 11, 2009 (five days after Lucy's birthday), currently called The Early TV Memories set. Lucy and Ethel (Lucille Ball and Vivian Vance, see stamp set, left, and note the pic is low res because that's all I could find at the moment; I have a request in to the USPS for a high-res version) will be depicted losing their struggle wrapping chocolates for an assembly line in one of the most famous I Love Lucy episodes of all, “Job Switching.” This makes Ball one of the rare (if not only) entertainers to be honored with three postage stamps. The first one featured her and Desi Arnaz representing I Love Lucy in the 1950s group of stamps that was part of the “Celebrate the (20th) Century” series. The second stamp depicted Ball herself, drawn by Drew Struzan, as part of the Hollywood Legends series. Other stamps in the TV series will honor Groucho Marx and his quiz show, You Bet Your Life; Dragnet; Dinah Shore; The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet; Alfred Hitchcock Presents; The Ed Sullivan Show; The Burns & Allen Show; The Honeymooners; Howdy Doody; Kukla, Fran and Ollie; Lassie; The Lone Ranger; Perry Mason; The Phil Silvers Show; Red Skelton; The Texaco Star Theater (which featured Milton Berle); The Tonight Show; and The Twilight Zone. Note that on the collectible sheet set of 20 stamps at the top, all four I Love Lucy stars are pictured. Stay tuned to this site for more details as they become available.
12.12.08 Broadway chorus boy, Hollywood leading man, and Lucille Ball's friend and co-star, Van Johnson, died today at the age of 92. Johnson's Broadway career got a boost when he was hired by George Abbott to play one of the students in the 1939 college musical Too Many Girls. This was also the musical that launched the career of a young Cuban bongo player named Desi Arnaz. Johnson became Gene Kelly's understudy in another hit the following year, Pal Joey.
A screen test led to one picture at Warner Bros., which let his contract expire. He moved to MGM, where it is said he got steady support from Ball (also at MGM) after being signed. A metal plate in his head from a car accident prevented Johnson from serving in WWII, and as a result he got many roles his absent co-stars might have taken; he became the country's war film hero instead, in classics like A Guy Named Joe (1943) and Weekend at the Waldorf (1945). By the mid 1940s, his box office star was second only to Bing Crosby. He was called "The Voiceless Sinatra" because of his equal appeal to bobbysoxers. In 1946 he co-starred with Ball in the splashy Technicolor comedy Easy to Wed (left), one of Lucy's best film roles.
In the 1950s, he guest-starred in one of the best-remembered I Love Lucy Hollywood episodes, in which he danced a sophisticated duet with Lucy. And Ball picked him to co-star in her final big-screen hit, Yours Mine and Ours (1968), in which Johnson proved he'd lost none of his easygoing charm. That same year he guest-starred in an episode of Ball's sitcom, Here's Lucy. He was interviewed for the Ball documentaries Lucy & Desi: A Home Movie (1993) and Finding Lucy (2000).
A strawberry blond, Johnson surprised critics with his cagey dramatic performances in films like The Caine Mutiny (1955). One of his best later performances came in Woody Allen's nutty 1985 film, The Purple Rose of Cairo, as a black-and-white film actor who can't improvise when one his co-stars steps off the screen and into real life. His final film appearance (of more than 80) was in 1992's Clowning Around, an Australian production which also featured the debut of Heath Ledger. Johnson loved his career and often commented on his good fortune in life, as in this 1997 quote: "I'm the luckiest guy in the world. All my dreams came true. I was in a wonderful business, and I met great people all over the world."
12.03.08 TV legend Bea Arthur (left) was inducted in the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences’ TV Hall of Fame (Lucille Ball was one of the initial inductees in 1984) today for her work on the classic series Maude and The Golden Girls. Arthur was Ball’s co-star in the big-screen adaptation of Mame, 1974, recreating her stage role of Mame’s best friend, actress Vera Charles. Arthur was also one of the performers who saluted Lucy when she was honored at the Washington, D.C., Kennedy Center in 1986.
12.01.2008 Several writers associated with Lucille Ball’s career have died recently. Irving Brecher, an uncredited writer on The Wizard of Oz who was Oscar nominated for writing 1944’s Meet me In St. Louis, died November 19. He was known for his comedy writing, and responsible for the screenplays for two of Lucy’s best Technicolor MGM musicals, 1943’s Best Foot Forward and DuBarry Was a Lady (see pic). Brecher also wrote the screenplay for MGM’s star-studded extravaganza Ziegfeld Follies (1946), in which Lucy did not have any lines, but was featured “whipping” a group of sleek chorus cuties dressed as panthers in the opening number. He was 94. … John Michael Hayes, an award-winning writer associated with comedic and dramatic projects, his best known probably being Hitchcock’s Rear Window (1954) and the big 1957 hit Peyton Place, died November 25 at the age of 89. He began his career writing for newspapers and radio, and one of his first high-profile Hollywood jobs was as a writer on Lucy’s radio hit, My Favorite Husband.
11.25.08 As the holiday season rolls in once again (and way too fast for my tastes — where did 2008 go?! — what better way to share your love of Lucy with your family at dinner than by using this special recipe to stuff your turkey? In this newspaper clip, thoughtfully provided by my pal and artist Dave Woodman, Lucy admits that the recipe she shares was not one "handed down from generation to generation," rather one she just put together over the years. That doesn't mean you can't start your own tradition. (Just try not to destroy the oven, something Lucys Ricardo, Carmichael and Carter might well have done — can't you just see Viv, Mr. Mooney or Uncle Harry covered in wet stuffing from head to toe?) In any case, the recipe does sound delicious; but whether you use it or not, enjoy a safe, happy, joyous holiday season!
11.04.08 It doesn't amaze me anymore to regularly see references to Lucille Ball, I Love Lucy, her co-stars and/or the characters they played, in pop culture, almost every day. I can't report each one because I wouldn't have time for anything else. But this one tickled me, so I thought I'd share in case you missed it: The 10-31-08 issue of Entertainment Weekly had a sidebar on catfights (headlined "Girl-on-Girl Action") its TV section. Most of us love a good catfight, and they rated three current ones on a sliding scale that began, on the left end, with Lucy and Ethel (Ball and Vivian Vance; their fights were described as "frumpy" and "slapsticky") to Dynasty's Alexis and Krytsal (Joan Collins and Linda Evans) on the right, whose fights were described as "the gold standard of scratching and clawing." There were small pictures of Lucy and Ethel, and Alexis and Krystal, accompanying the article. [Granted, there was never any real physical harm inflicted during Lucy and Ethel's fights, but theirs will always be my personal gold standard of funny.]
10.29.08 By now you've noticed the new look of this Web site. In the past few months, I've been going through many of the pages here, updating them, adding pictures and more information, and generally trying to make the site easier for you to navigate. I've been experimenting with the front page, and found visitors prefer some text along with the pictures, so that's what I settled on, in a very simple table format.
You can access all the features that have always been here — just go to the pull-down navigation bar at the top of the opening page. Note that I've also redone the TV Tidbits pages, which are the online companion to the book series I've written with my late friend, Craig Hamrick (I've kept the site up as a tribute to Craig, who was the initial site adminitsrator). Instead of a separate site, you can access everything through the TV Tidbits link on the navigation bar (or just click here). You'll find nuggets of fun information on many of your favorite classic shows — including Lucy tidbits that aren't on the main site — plus lists like "TV's most Embarrassing Moments," and much more. I'll be adding to them as time permits.
10.20.08 Edie Adams, a talented actress, comedienne and singer who guest-starred on the final TV program featuring the classic characters from I Love Lucy, died on Oct. 16. She was 81. Adams had been the toast of many media, including Broadway (in L'il Abner, for which she won a Tony Award as Daisy Mae); on TV, co-starring with her husband, groundbreaking comedian Ernie Kovacs; in films, such as 1963's It's a Mad, Mad Mad Mad World; and as the spokesperson for Muriel Cigars for almost two decades (her famous commercial ended with the suggestive line, "Why don'tcha come on up and smoke me, sometime?"). Adams' New York Times obituary noted that on the final episode of The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour — which aired in April 1960 — with Vivian Vance at the piano, Adams performed a rendition of the Alan Brandt-Bob Haymes standard "That's All," which ended with the words, "Say it's me that you adore, for now and evermore, that's all, that's all." Her performance, the Times said, "reduced the entire crew to tears." What the obit didn't mention is that everyone on set was already either crying or almost there, due to the extra tension between Lucy and Desi, each knowing it was their last time to share a screen (and kiss) together, and the sadness surrounding the dissolution of their marriage, which became official a month after the Comedy Hour aired. Adams also appeared in a 1968 episode of The Lucy Show, and in the fabulous 2000 American Masters documentary Finding Lucy, in which she touchingly spoke about her Comedy Hour performance (see pic, above).
10.06.08 The Emmys in September were perhaps one of the most boring awards shows ever presented on network television, which, as Entourage star (and three-time Emmy winner) Jeremey Piven noted, was due in large part to the lack of charisma of the five reality-show hosts chosen (for some inexplicable reason) to host the show. Regarding the opening sketch, which seemed to go on FOREVER and was — ironically — about the fact that the hosts were given "nothing to do," Piven said afterward, ""I thought we were being punk'd. I was confused. [In the Nokia Theater auditorium] it was like in The Producers when they do 'Springtime for Hitler.' From Lucille Ball on, television has been so entertaining. And this was a celebration of nothingness." Speaking of Lucy, she was present at the Emmy telecast in a Macy's 150th anniversary commercial (which used clips from classic TV stars mentioning the store name), and in a review of Emmy "Thank-you" acceptance speeches. Lucy won four performance Emmys throughout her career, and co-star Vivian Vance won the first-ever Emmy for best supporting actress; the picture at left shows them at the 1954 ceremony congratulating Desi Arnaz with a double kiss. Arnaz himself, shamefully, was never even nominated for an Emmy throughout his own legendary career.
09.18.08 SHAKEUP AT LUCY-DESI CENTERIn a September 13 article in the Jamestown (N.Y.) Post, Patrick Fanelli reported: "Carrying a large box filled with his belongings, Ric Wyman — who until now was at the heart of the Lucille Ball community in Jamestown — left his office Friday afternoon and stepped out into the rain. Only a few minutes before, a police officer was stationed in the corridor outside Wyman's office as the former Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Center executive director gathered up his things. He loaded them into the trunk of his car and drove off without comment. Wyman was fired Friday, as well as ... his assistant, Pat Brininger.
"'I'm as confident as ever in believing that the legacy of Lucille Ball is the catalyst for economic development for this community,' Wyman said. 'I've been privileged to be the executive director of an organization that brings so many good feelings to visitors from all over the world.'
"According to Chuck Ludwig, another board member and owner of Ludwig Auction and Realty, the terminations were carried out by Ed Fagan, a local attorney and the center's board chairman. Ludwig also said Fagan assumed the title of acting executive director several months ago at the behest of the late Lucille Ball's family. Family members reportedly did not have a good relationship with Wyman."
One year ago, Center board members Lucie Arnaz, Desi Arnaz Jr.. Wanda Clark (Lucille Ball's personal secretary), and Mary Rapaport (a huge supporter and donator to the Center with her husband, Bill) resigned. Soap star Melody Thomas Scott resigned the board in July. So far, there's nothing about the changes on the Center's website. I'll keep you posted.
09.16.08 The Ruby Award Winner In 1974, Lucille Ball was getting ready to end her legendary quarter-century run on television. It would be the last season of Here's Lucy. She also was preparing for the release of her first theatrical movie since 1968's hit, Yours, Mine and Ours: Mame. Mame became equally legendary in show-biz circles, but for the wrong reasons: it was pegged a bomb, and Lucy got some of the worst reviews of her career. The reviews were unnecessarily savage, focusing on the extensive use of filters to disguise Ball's age (as if no movie star had ever done that before); her croaky singing voice (lowered from years of screeching and smoking); her non-dancing (she was recovering from a broken leg when she filmed the picture); and the belief that she just wasn't right for the character of Mame. While some of the criticism was valid, I believe the "why-is-she-trying-to-play-someone-besides-Lucy" factor weighed heavily in the thrashing of Mame. We like our stars to stay in our favorite boxes — whatever it is we loved about them right from the get-go, we don't ever want them to change. That said, there's still much for the Lucy fan to enjoy in Mame. After Dark magazine even gave her its Ruby Award (named for Ruby Keeler) and a cover for Mame. At left, she's pictured attending the award ceremony. Now that Mame's on DVD, give it another look. Check out the costumes; the song "Bosom Buddies." Lucy on skates. Jane Connell as Gooch and Bea Arthur as Vera. The delightful opening and closing scenes. Lucy creating a character that is miles away from "Lucy." And much more. You won't be sorry.
09.03.08THE EMMYS STILL LOVE LUCY & CO.
With the prime time Emmy Awards telecast coming up on September 21, I thought it appropriate to run this invite, which came to one of my friends, an Academy member in the Animation division. The invitation, as you can see, features about 30 pictures on the top half, of previous Emmy winners, everyone from Tony Randall and Valerie Harper to the actress who's won the most prime-time Emmys, Cloris Leachman. But guess whose picture is the biggest, and placed slightly left of center? That's right, it's also one of the few in black and white: Jess Oppenheimer, Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, and Vivian Vance. Since Vance is holding her Best Series Supporting Actress Emmy (the first awarded in that category), this has to be a picture from the February 11, 1954 ceremony, honoring the 1952-1953 season. I Love Lucy won Best Situation Comedy that year, too. Lucy herself won four Emmys over the years (two for The Lucy Show); though the show was nominated in nearly every category for the next few years, Desi Arnaz never got a single nomination, much less a win, and William Frawley, though nominated many times, never won the award (which, since Vance had won, stuck in his craw and made him comment that the award was meaningless, anyway). The writers — Oppenheimer, Bob Carroll Jr., Madelyn Pugh Davis, Bob Schiller, and Bob Weiskopf — were also nominated, but never won. The Academy's major oversight in ignoring Arnaz's contribution to television history was somewhat rectified when Arnaz was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1990.
09.02.08 Did Lucy and Desi father a child in 1947 and put her up for adoption? This is a report that is now making its way around the Internet. Even some “newspapers” — like The New York Post — have picked up on it. If the story is true, it would mean there’s a previously unknown grandchild and heir of Ball and Arnaz. I note this because fans will certainly be interested, but if asked to comment, I'd point out that family was among the most important things to Ball (having lost her father at an early age and spending much of her childhood in poverty and/or living without her mother — who traveled where the work was, to support her family). It is unimaginable that Ball would have put a child up for adoption, and I can only quote what Lucie Arnaz reportedly wrote in 2004 to the person claiming to be said grandchild: "I must inform you we're almost certainly not related. In 1947, my parents were married and wanted nothing more than to have a baby together. They struggled for 10 years with infertility and miscarriage until I came along in 1951. My mother would never have given up a child of hers nor would my father have let her."
08.19.08 LUCY AND THE ALMOST GUEST-STAR
For the second episode of The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour, in 1957, Bette Davis (bottom left) was the original choice to play the title character, “The Celebrity Next Door.” Basic plot: Lucy Ricardo, in Connecticut, finds out she’s living next to a famous star, and tries to draft said star to play the lead in a community theater production. Wackiness ensues. Davis, who had indeed gone to the John Murray Anderson School for drama training and was the star pupil there when Lucy arrived some 30 years before, said yes…but demanded a huge salary (reportedly $20,000), a paid trip back to her New England home, and equal billing in the show with Lucy and Desi.
Lucy was so eager to act with her former classmate she agreed to all the demands, which became a moot point when Davis injured herself during a riding accident and was unable to perform in the show. She was replaced by Tallulah Bankhead (top left), ironic since many believed Davis classic performance as Margo Channing in 1950’s All About Eve was based at least partly on the real-life Bankhead. Bankhead was a terror during the rehearsals, but pulled it together for the show, and the episode is usually cited as one of the best of the 13 Comedy Hours. But for some reason, later in life Davis professed to her friend and biographer Roy Moseley that she wasn’t a big fan of Lucy’s. Excerpts from Mosely’s 2003 book, Bette Davis: An Intimate Memoir, follow:
Bette Davis: An Intimate Memoir
By Roy Moseley
Published by University Press of Kentucky, 2003

“She once told me that she had done 13 pilots for [TV] series, not one of which was taken up. I think this was a slight exaggeration, but she certainly did make a great many. She ran one for me in which she acted with the actress Mary Wickes, who had played the nurse in both The Man Who Came to Dinner and Now, Voyager years before. Miss Wickes was a close friend of Lucille Ball’s. Bette decided not to like her. After working together as much as they had done, Bette’s dislike of Mary is a slight mystery. I believe that she heard of the friendship that Mary had developed with Lucille Ball, whom Bette did not like.” ...
“When I met Lucille Ball, she told me that she had been at the same acting school as Bette. Lucy had been a ‘new girl’ just as Bette was leaving, and she remembered seeing Bette on stage and thinking, ‘That girl is going to be a star.’
“When I next saw Bette, I told her I believed she had been to school with Lucy.
“‘No.’ Bette shook her head.
“You must have been, Bette,” I insisted. “She said so.”
“I don’t remember her!” Bette flared. “
Soon afterward, Bette was appearing in her one-woman show in Long Beach, California, and one of the first questions from a member of the audience was, ‘Is that Lucille Ball in the third row?’
“Bette shielded her eyes from the lights and called out into the audience: ‘Is that you, Lucy? Are you there?’
“‘Yes, Bette,’ Lucy called back.
“‘We go back a long way, don’t we, Lucy? We went to acting school together, didn’t we?’
“‘Yes, we did!’ shouted the delighted Lucy.
“Bette had decided to hedge her bets and trust that my information was correct.
“After the show, I went backstage, and Lucy was also there with Mary Wickes. Bette was visibly unhappy.
“Better later told me she didn’t much like Lucy; perhaps she was too much competition [for Miss Davis].”
Or perhaps Davis held a (wrongheaded, IMHO) grudge against Bankhead and Lucy for not being able to appear in the show.
08.12.08 It was a different kind of TV we looked forward to in September 1962. There were only the three major networks — CBS, NBC, and ABC — and some hard-to-see-UHF channels further up the dial, if you lived near a big city. Otherwise, you were out of luck. There was no such thing as cable television (for the masses, anyway), syndicated shows were run on network channels, often at odd hours, and in order to change channels, you actually had to get up off the couch, walk to the TV, and turn the dial. I remember our first remote-controlled TV; it was like manna from heaven. The stars were different, too. They were from the old school. Lucille Ball. Danny Thomas. Andy Griffith. Jack Benny. Garry Moore. Phil Silvers. Only Griffith is still alive. But these six were major stars at the time. And all of them had (or, in Silvers' case, had had, and would have another shot the following season) shows on CBS, then known as The Tiffany Network, for its plethora of solid, hit shows since the 1950s, and its stable of big stars.
[We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming for a moment: Many of you probably don't remember Moore, but he was an affable sketch performer, a top variety-show star and game-show host, and had an eye for talent. He was the first to put Carol Burnett in a weekly series spot (his own hit variety show). He nourished her talent, and it grew. Burnett says she always remembered that Moore would never steal another actor's laugh line or try to upstage anyone; he was happy to let others get the laughs, and the credit. She followed the same formula throughout her classic variety show, and it made her and her co-stars legends. ... And now, back to our regular programming...]
Yes, 1962 was a different time, a time when a network like CBS could ask its top stars to get together for a show spotlighting the upcoming season. And they would do whatever the network asked, without question. They all knew each other, they all had hit shows, and they all knew it was good for business. The result was the September 24, 1962 special, "Opening Night." As we approach the beginning of a new TV season, our first one post-strike, it's appropriate to look back — 46 years! — to 1962, when CBS produced this special. The stars of TV's Golden Age were still shining, some more brightly than others, and the Jefferson City, Mo. Post-Tribune celebrated the network's 1962-'63 lineup with a full-page article spotlighting the special. The show was designed to give TV audiences a taste of what they might expect on a nightly and weekly basis that season. The Post-Tribune ran the drawing above (by an unknown artist) featuring Lucy, Benny, Griffith, Moore, and Thomas. TV Guide and other newspapers used one of their favorite artists (and mine), Al Hirschfeld, in an ad touting the special (right). For some reason, Phil Silvers was left out of the Post-Tribune caricatures; perhaps he was considered too "New York," or maybe he was left out since he was the only one of the six without a regular series that season. But he's at the top of Hisrchfeld's drawing. This was, by the way, the debut season of The Lucy Show. Thomas was starring in his long-running sitcom, Make Room for Dadddy; Griffith on The Andy Griffith Show; Benny on The Jack Benny Show; and Moore was then host of I've Got a Secret.
08.06.08 I'm not a huge fan of reality TV programming — okay, one exception: the hilarious Kathy Griffin and her fab show My Life on the D List — but I am a Lucille Ball completist, so I feel compelled to mention that Tori Spelling and spouse Dean will portray a number of famous couples on the season finale of Oxygen’s Tori & Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood, which airs at 10 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 12. They dress up as Sonny and Cher, June Carter and Johnny Cash, and, of course, the only reason I mention it, Lucy and Desi (see pic, left). Don't know if they'll be performing as the couples or just shown in costume, and don't much care. But you might. (I was stunned to find out the show is ending its third season. I have nothing against Ms. Spelling, especially since she's paying tribute to Ms. Ball...but come on, who is the audience for these cable network reality "shows"?) By the way, did you know Kathy won an Emmy for her show last year? ;-)
08.05.08 TV's FAVORITE COMEDY TEAM: LUCILLE BALL & VIVIAN VANCE
Did you know that when Vivian Vance wrote her autobiography (never published), she noted that there were rumors in Hollywood that she and pal Lucy were lesbian lovers? It's true! (At least, as published in the National Enquirer some years ago, which ran excerpts from Vance's book it got from an antiques dealer in San Francisco, to whom Vance's husband had left his estate.) Apparently, it stemmed from all the hugging and kissing and crying and making up the two did together on TV; they were so good at convincing everyone they were best friends...I guess they were too good! Or people just couldn't get their minds out of the gutter; shades of the celebrity press today. In any case, Vance and Ball really were friends, and loved working together — that's not say there weren't times they didn't get along. Anyone working in close quarters for such concentrated periods of time has felt the same way. They just didn't spend all their free time together. For one thing, they often lived in different cities, occasionally across the continent. For another, they were together so many hours when they did work, socializing afterward would've been a moot point.
08.02.08 The Lucy-Desi Center in Jamestown, N.Y., reported, “On Saturday, August 2, in conjunction with Lucy’s Birthday Celebration —August 1-3 — all Lucy artwork donated to the Center for its Visions of Lucy exhibit [including Rick Carl's piece, below left, and Dave Woodman's, below right, plus much more] was incorporated into the Lucy-Desi Memorabilia Auction. “In addition to the artwork, the auction offered over 100 vintage Lucy-Desi memorabilia items, plus special one-of-a-kind collectibles, including memorabilia from the estate of Vivian Vance. The auction was sponsored and conducted by Ludwig Auction & Realty Co. and was held at the Reg Lenna Civic Center, 116 E. Third Street in downtown Jamestown." As soon as I have information about the auction results, I'll post it here. [For some special Dave Woodman art that wasn't at Jamestown, keep reading.]
Of course, there were dozens more events happening at the Lucy-Desi Center throughout Lucy’s Birthday Weekend. These included a special sneak preview of the new Lucy-Desi Museum building, for Museum members only; 2-hour Lucytown Bus Tours, each featuring a special VIP guest; a tribute to Lucy’s costumer designer, Elois Jenssen; a talk with Lucy’s chauffeur, Frank Gorey, a great guy and a helluva raconteur; the always delightful Wanda Clark, Lucy’s personal secretary, at the annual fan reunion and picnic; screenings of films and TV shows featuring our favorite redhead, including the final, unaired episode of her last series, Life with Lucy; Lucy and Ethel impersonators extraordinaire Diane Vincent and Rhonda Medina, who entertained fans throughout the weekend; an improv class taught by Vivian Vance’s sister, actress Lou Ann Graham; and an evening with Lucy’s friend and co-star, Ruta Lee, “I Remember Lucy." Reports indicate that Lee was charming and her show was a delight. For more information about the Lucy-Desi Center, call (toll-free) 1-877-LUCY-FAN or visit www.lucy-desi.com.

Dave Woodman was kind enough to share with me, so I could share with you, some special, personal art he did some years ago never meant for publication...he drew these (above) on Post-Its, and they adorned his drawing table for years. You can see much more of his art at Dave's official website, www.davewoodmanart.com. To go right to his amazing art depicting all things Lucille Ball, a.k.a. Lucyland, go here. Enjoy!
06.27.08 My dear friend, actress Marie Wallace, just notified me of several appearances she'll be making in the near future, and I wanted to share. (That's Marie at left, with her hair looking quite Lucy circa the mid sixties, eh?) Marie, a Broadway, TV and film actress who's probably best known for several of her roles on the cult soap favorite, Dark Shadows, has at least one Lucy connection: she was in the 1963 Broadway show Nobody Loves an Albatross, starring Robert Preston, which was written by a former Desilu employee and featured a character based on Lucy, played by Constance Ford. [You can read all about it only in the new 4th edition of Lucy A to Z: The Lucille Ball Encyclopedia.] Marie will be appearing, along with her friend, Larry Storch —who contributed a wonderful anecdote to my book, Sitcom Queens: Divas of the Small Screen, about a career boost Lucy gave him after WWII — Soupy Sales, and many other classic TV personalities at the upcoming Super Megashow and Comic Fest, July 12-13, in Wayne , N.J. Visit SuperMegashow.com for details. The fabulous Ms. Wallace will also be one of the stars at the Dark Shadows Fest, July 18-20 at the Marriott Burbank Airport Hotel, Burbank, Calif. She notes, "Besides the usual 'suspects' appearing there — [DS actors] Lara Parker, Kathryn Leigh Scott, Robert Rodan, John Karlen, Jerry Lacy, and yours truly — Jonathan Frid will do a rare dramatic performance and the actors will perform a Dark Shadows 'lost 1968 script.' ... Somehow they find a 'lost' script every year," she adds, wryly. If you see her at either convention, tell her I sent you! And pick up a copy of her book, On Stage & In Shadows, which I co-edited with our mutual dear friend, Craig Hamrick. It's a fascinating read for any show-biz fan.
06.24.08 Dody Goodman died today at the age of 93. The comedienne with the twitchy southern-tinged voice and ditzy personality was best-known as the mother on the seventies soap satire, Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, but had started out as a dancer on Broadway in the 1940s, and appeared with Vivian Vance on Broadway in the comedy My Daughter, Your Son, which ran from May 14 -June 21, 1969. Though not a hit, the two actresses became good friends during the run. It was a success in various stock productions; Vance and Goodman often toured with the show whenever either of them wanted a little extra cash.
06.15.08
At right, from 1944, the line king himself, Al Hirschfeld, created a "map" of the USA filled with then-current MGM stars, including Lucy, for the studio's publicity machine. Lucy is just below left of center, with William Powell to her left, Mickey Rooney to her right, Myrna Loy at top left and Katharine Hepburn at top right. I believe that's Hedy Lamarr at top center, but don't know who's depicted between her and Loy —though it sure looks like Sean William Scott! Can anyone help with the rest? Hirschfeld of course, drew Lucy many times throughout her career. This is from the book Hirschfeld's Hollywood. Thanks to Dave Woodman for the scan.
06.11.08 Several high-profile actors and others with Lucy connections have died in the past few weeks. I can’t do all of them justice with the full bios they deserve, but here’s a quick look at those who recently left us: Actor, director and producer Mel Ferrer died at the age of 90 on June 2. Of Cuban heritage, Ferrer was one of the founders of the La Jolla Playhouse, near San Diego, California, and lured pal Vivian Vance out of retirement (she’d had a nervous breakdown) to appear in The Voice of the Turtle there in July 1951. I Love Lucy director Marc Daniels took Desi Arnaz and Jess Oppenheimer to see Vance perform, and afterword Arnaz reportedly exclaimed, “We’ve found our Ethel Mertz!” ... Harvey Korman, best known as Carol Burnett’s variety show co-star, who, along with Burnett, Tim Conway and Vicki Lawrence, created some of television’s finest and funniest moments, died on May 29 at the age of 81. He won four Emmys for his TV work, and was inducted into the ATAS Television Hall of Fame (along with co-star Conway) several yers ago. Korman performed in three episodes of The Lucy Show that aired in 1964 and 1965. Burnett said through a spokesperson that she was “devastated” and “loved Harvey very much.” Korman was also known for his hilarious turn as comically corrupt politician Hedley Lamarr in Mel Brooks’ classic Blazing Saddles. … Finally, two people associated with Star Trek, a Desilu series that was one of the last greenlighted by Chairman Lucille Ball before she sold her studio to Paramount, recently passed away: Alexander Courage died May 15 at age 88; he composed the Star Trek theme song, one of the most famous and oft-played pieces of music ever written. Courage also orchestrated such musical films as Gigi, Bells Are Ringing, Hello Dolly, and Fiddler on the Roof. Joseph Pevney, who died May 18 at the age of 96, directed 14 episodes of Star Trek, including some of the show's most popular and best-remembered episodes, like “The Trouble with Tribbles,” “Amok Time,” and “The City on the Edge of Forever.” He also directed Lucie Arnaz in her 1975 TV movie, Who Is the Black Dahlia?
05.27.08 Dick Martin Dies at 86 Martin, the nightclub entertainer, comedian, actor, and television director, passed away over the weekend from respiratory failure. Martin, with his older brother Bob, had headed to Hollywood in 1942 at the age of 20 to try and break into show business. After working sporadically as an actor, writer and comic for radio, Martin found himself bartending in 1952 when he met and partnered with Dan Rowan. With Rowan as the handsome, sophisticated straight man, and Martin as the goofy zany, the pair became ever more popular on the nightclub circuit. In 2007, Martin remarked that although he thought they never really made it big in clubs, the pair became well known and respected in the business, and were never out of work. He also said it was his favorite era in his career.
Martin and Rowan also worked separately when possible, and that’s where the comedian’s Lucy connection comes in: he was a semi-regular on the first (black-and-white) season (1962-’63) of The Lucy Show, playing Lucy Carmichael (Lucille Ball) and Vivian Bagley’s (Vivian Vance) bachelor pilot neighbor. He was a good foil for both women, and a potential boyfriend for Lucy’s character, but the show went in a different direction and he left after the first season. A few years later, after a successful summer stint subbing for Dean Martin, Rowan and Martin were offered their own variety show, and the groundbreaking Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In debuted in 1968 (and ran through 1973). A totally irreverent, satirical commentary on the then-thorny era of the late 1960s/early 1970s, the show was an immediate hit and brought him lasting fame (and eternal association with the various catchphrases the show spawned, like “You bet your sweet bippy”). It aired opposite The Lucy Show and then Here’s Lucy, and comedian Arte Johnson (one of a repertory company that included future stars Ruth Buzzi, Goldie Hawn, Jo Anne Worley, Lily Tomlin, and Judy Carne), often ended the hour-long show saying “Good night, Lucy, I love you,” or some variation thereof.
Rowan and Martin continued their nightclub act until 1977, when they separated amicably. Rowan died in 1987, but Martin continued as an actor and well-regarded television director, beginning on his friend Bob Newhart’s classic series, The Bob Newhart Show. Martin also appeared as an interviewee in the insightful PBS documentary Finding Lucy (2000).
05.12.08 On May 9, The Paley Center for Media Broadcast a special honoring TV’s All-Time Funniest in a variety of categories, including Dads, Moms, Kids, Neighbors, Friends, Relatives, and Coworkers. There were none of the typical categories like Best Sitcom or Best Comedic Actress, which explains why Carol Burnett, Carroll O’Connor, Jean Stapleton, Elizabeth Montgomery and many other television legends were not acknowledged. According to the Paley Center, “TV fans across the country were asked to choose their funniest characters in … eight categories,” with the results tabulated by Nielsen Media Research (the weekly TV ratings people). Lucille Ball, I guess, had to be mentioned one way or another, and Lucy was crowned TV’s No. 1 all-time funniest mom, though that’s not the first attribute we usually apply to Lucy Ricardo. But she was, indeed, a mother, and one wonders why, in that case, the Paley Center chose to illustrate her “Funniest Mother” honor with a clip of Vitameatavegamin, instead of one from “Lucy Goes to the Hospital,” i.e., the birth of Little Ricky (one of TV’s most-watched sitcom episodes, ever). Other good news: Fred and Ethel Mertz (William Frawley and Vivian Vance, above with Lucy and Desi Arnaz as the Ricardos) were chosen as the No. 2 All-Time Funniest Neighbors — behind Seinfeld's Cosmo Kramer (Michael Richards), No. 1.
By the way, in 2005, the Paley Center (formerly The Museum of Television and Radio) created the "She Made It" honor, recognizing female achievements in all areas of media. Among the first group of honorees was, of course, Lucille Ball, described as leaving her “indelible mark” on the media as a television producer, executive, director and actress.
05.06.08 Oh, for corn’s sake! Here’s a typical question about this subject: “Fred Mertz [William Frawley, left] on I Love Lucy always used to say “Oh, for corn’s sake!” whenever he was annoyed or exasperated at one of Lucy and Ethel’s crazy schemes. But I don’t remember ever hearing that phrase anywhere else, in the movies, theater, radio, or TV. Can you tell me what the origin of the phrase is and whether it was a popular expression of that era (the 1950s)?”

Well, I can tell you a little about where it came from, but not exactly when or where it was first used. The phrase itself does not come up when you search for it on any of the dozens of regular dictionaries and word usage sites, or even slang dictionaries. It’s as if it doesn’t exist. However, a general Google search will yield results, most of which lead to a book called Walter Tetley: For Corn’s Sake, about the character and voice actor who became best-known as Leroy, the nephew of The Great Gildersleeve on the popular radio show (1941-1954) of the same name. (Gildersleeve was actually one of the first spin-offs, focusing on a popular character from the hit radio series Fibber McGee and Molly.)
Anyway, one of Leroy’s favorite phrases was…you guessed it, “For corn’s sake!” That’s as far back as I can go. Several further points: Lucille Ball’s writers — head writer Jess Oppenheimer, Bob Carroll Jr., and Madelyn Pugh — all had lengthy careers writing for radio before joining up on Ball’s radio show, My Favorite Husband (which, of course, served as the template for I Love Lucy). So they had all heard the phrase “For corn’s sake,” perhaps many times, and it’s likely they appropriated it as an expression to help define the Fred Mertz character.
It must also be noted that show business in the electronic age has a long tradition of substituting “normal” or like-sounding words for profane words that would not make it past the censors. “For corn’s sake” might have originally been a substitute for “For Christ’s sake.” On TV currently (2008), you can catch another bowdlerized word on Battlestar Galactica, first popularized on the original 1978-‘79 version: “frack(ing)” or “frak(king),” used as an acceptable (for TV) expletive instead of “f—k(ing).” The new version has expanded the use of the word to such expressions/words as “What the frak?”, “Are you frakking her?” and “motherfrakking.” (Another cult sci-fi series, Farscape — 1999-2003 — created its own substitute words: frell for f—k, and dren for s—t.)
That’s all I can come up with for the origins of “For corn’s sake”: a made-up expression by the Gildersleeve writers, taken on by the Lucy writers, as a saltier or funnier (i.e., instead of “For goodness’ sake”) and less profane way of making a point, or defining a character. (And for frak’s sake, I think it’s enough!)
But since I’d been led to investigate Gildersleeve, I couldn’t help notice the unusual amount of connections between that show and I Love Lucy, Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, and on and on. As fellow fans, I thought you might be interested. The following all had radio roles on Gildersleeve, followed by their Lucy connection (in parentheses): Richard Crenna (first TV appearance was as a guest star on the first-season episode of I Love Lucy, “The Young Fans”; regular on the Desilu series Our Miss Brooks; hit series The Real McCoys filmed at Desilu; talking head on The I Love Lucy 50th Anniversary special, 2001); Barbara Whiting (starred with her sister Margaret on a short-lived Desilu show called Those Whiting Girls, created and written by Bob Carroll and Madelyn Pugh; appeared on a TV Guide cover with Lucy and Desi Arnaz as a result); Shirley Mitchell (played Marion Strong, Lucy Ricardo’s friend with the unusual laugh on I Love Lucy; guest-starred on the Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse; semi-regular on the Desilu spin-off Pete & Gladys; guest-starred on Arnaz’s sitcom The Mothers-in-Law, Oppenheimer’s sitcom The Debbie Reynolds Show, and Carroll and Pugh’s hit Alice; Bea Benaderet (co-star on My Favorite Husband as Lucille Ball’s character’s scheming friend; Ball’s first choice to play Ethel Mertz, but she was already co-starring on Burns & Allen and couldn’t take the part; and guest-starred on I Love Lucy in its first season); Gale Gordon (co-starred as Benaderet’s husband on My Favorite Husband; Ball’s first choice to play Fred Mertz on I Love Lucy but was already playing the principal on Our Miss Brooks; guest-starred several times on I Love Lucy as Ricky Ricardo’s Tropicana nightclub boss; guest-starred on The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour; co-starred with Ball in all of her subsequent series: The Lucy Show, Here’s Lucy, and Life With Lucy, as well as the specials Lucy Calls the President, Lucy Moves to NBC, and Bungle Alley, a pilot that Ball directed). We now return you to your regular programming. (Whew!)

05.01.08The original newspaper caption to the picture at left reads, "The pretty brunette, Cleopatra, who gets kissed by John Hodiak during the Mardi Gras sequences in Time for Two is Cleo Morgan, sister of Lucille Ball, who gets Hodiak in the picture." If you know Lucy's film career, you're aware of the fact that she never starred in a movie called Time for Two. She did, however, co-star with Hodiak in 1946's noirish Two Smart People, along with Lloyd Nolan. Can we say title change? The two played con artists on the run shadowed by sympathetic cop Nolan. It's a neat little B pic, and Morgan is not even credited. She was actually Lucy's first cousin, who lived with the Ball family for a while in Jamestown, N.Y. during Lucy's childhood. Lucy felt so close to Cleo she often referred to her as "my sister." Morgan did a few other film bits and ended up as a producer on Here's Lucy; she also produced Lucy's 1966 special Lucy in London. Hodiak was a handsome leading man who appeared in more than 30 films and a smattering of TV, then died young, at 41 in 1955, of a heart attack in 1955. Miss Ball, of course, went on to become a legend.
04.25.08 Once I Love Lucy became a smash hit, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz were enlisted to sell everything from furniture to baby clothing to matching pajamas. Lucy herself was a sought after spokesperson for a variety of other products as well, during her movie and TV careers. Now, in 2008, "Lucy" and several other celebrity icons have been enlisted to make a pitch for Armstrong vinyl floors. According to Trendhunter magazine online, "In order to promote their realistic-looking laminate floors, Armstrong has come up with this witty 'It only looks like the real thing' campaign. The campaign utilizes great photography and art direction for a realistic portrayal of dead icons in new images. Four print ads feature James Dean, Marlon Brando, Lucille Ball and Dean Martin in authentic poses and outfits with the Armstrong laminate floors. It’s done in good taste and delivers a strong statement about the product itself. The campaign was created by BBDO New York with awesome art and creative direction by David DiRienz and photography by Norman Jean Roy." I say, there's nothing like having one of the best known (and most seen ever) celebrity faces endorsing your product. The ads are clever, and of course, use celebrity lookalikes, as evidenced by the note in tiny print at the bottom of the Lucy ad: "Likeness of Lucilel Ball used with the permission of Desilu too llc." The latter company is run by Lucie Arnaz and Desi Arnaz Jr. Lucy's kids have been very careful about allowing the use of their mother's image, especially in advertising, but I think this is a cool choice.
04.23.08 Yours truly recently had the pleasure of being interviewed by pop culture critic and television historian Dave White as part of his Talking Television Internet radio series on KSAV.org. Dave, his cohosts Wes Britton and Ron Turner, and I talked about Lucille Ball, naturally, and my book, Lucy A to Z. It was the first of two parts (next week I'm on Tuesday, the 29th, 11 p.m. to midnight East Coast time, 8-9 p.m. in L.A. Feel free to e-mail questions or call in.). An hour plus commercials is not really time enough to even begin to cover Lucy and her career, but we gave it a good shot, and the show is already archived at the KSAV site. Click on the link, then click Archives on the left menu when you get to the home page, then click "Talking Television with Dave White," and finally click the date 04/22/08 (Lucille Ball Part 1) or 04/29/08 (Lucille Ball Part 2). Note that there's a half hour or so before the interview where Dave and his co-hosts discuss other subjects, most of them related to TV, of course. And during the interview itself, don't skip the commercial breaks — the commercials are all nostalgia-related, and in this case you'll hear Dino Desi & Billy plugging RC Cola, and Vivian Vance as Maxine, the Maxwell House Coffee spokesperson, among others. I want to thank Dave, Wes, and Ron for having me, and yes, I had a Ball!
04.11.08 Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz loved Palm Springs, California. They had a house there together for many years, and after they divorced, each settled there with their new spouses, Gary Morton and Edie Hirsch. Desi was known for his carousing, and often Lucy had to send a trusted friend to go get him after a night out of gambling, drinking and God knows what else. Ball was content to enjoy the atmosphere and play games like tennis or backgammon. The 50th Anniversary collector’s edition of Palm Springs Life (its April 2008 issue, on newsstands now) features several pictures of Lucy (one with Arnaz, at left, from the 1950s, and one (below right) with Morton, Magda Gabor (Zsa Zsa and Eva’s mom), and George Sanders (who was married to Zsa Zsa for five years (1949-’54) and married to Magda (!) for one year—1970-’71, probably the period when this picture was taken—and co-starred with Lucy in the 1947 movie Lured). You can read much more about Lucy, Desi, and Palm Springs in the 4th edition of my book, Lucy A to Z: The Lucille Ball Encyclopedia under the entry “Palm Springs.”
The April issue of Palm Springs Life is a must-have for any Lucy fan, or fan of Golden Age Hollywood in general. There are articles and pictures about every major star who ever vacationed, visited or lived in the desert playground. And if you visit the magazine’s website and do a search for “Lucille Ball” you’ll come up with more than a dozen articles, including one on I Love Lucy director William Asher and his wife, Meredith (Asher notes, “Lucy was a great talent and a great lady. And she worked for perfection in all she did.”) and one on Bob Hope’s film career in which he discusses his 1960 movie with Lucy, The Facts of Life. Writer Jill Borak reported in January 2000, "The Facts of Life was a daring picture for Bob. ‘It was the story of two handicapped people who fall in love. Their handicaps were his wife and her husband,’ Hope told her. “Hope writers Norman Panama and Mel Frank wrote the script. 'But not for Lucille Ball and me, the fools,’ Hope said. ‘Norman and Mel wanted to explore the adultery theme of Brief Encounter with an American story starring William Holden and Olivia de Havilland. The comedy in the last third of the film would have to go, unless … the writers brainstormed. Yes! We can save it by making it with Bob Hope and Lucille Ball!’ The deal was made. Recalls Bob: ‘Half of the profits went to a very worthy cause. And Lucille got the other half. It was a lot different from when Lucy and I made Sorrowful Jones and Fancy Pants together. Now she was the biggest star in television and owned her own studio. It was the first time I ever kissed a studio head.’ Pause. ‘Face-to-face.’" [I'm pretty sure Hope was joking about the money. In any case, he was perhaps one of the few in Hollywood wealthier than Lucy and the two were close friends.]
Finally, there’s another article you can find on the magazine’s site titled “In the Swing,” by Howard Johns from 1999, about the popular Palm Springs celebrity hangout, Chi Chi. Johns notes that, “The media described this giant supper club as ‘The second biggest nightclub west of the Mississippi,' where some of the brightest names in showbiz gathered for more than 25 years. Bigger than Ciro’s, better than the Trocadero, and more fun than the Mocambo that jammed L.A.’s Sunset Strip, the Chi Chi was a veritable shrine to live entertainment. Located on Palm Canyon Drive, it was the scene of many outstanding debuts, several exciting comebacks, and a few tearful farewells.”
Johns recalls one night in particular, October 10, 1950, after some refurbishing, when “The Chi Chi’s houselights were dimmed, and an amber spotlight illuminated the center stage of the newly completed Starlite Room, where 500 VIPs and celebrities sat shoulder-to-shoulder, white-linen-covered tables packed with bottles of Champagne, highballs, and Cuban cigars. A timpani drum roll hushed the excited audience as the curtain rose to reveal bouquets of tropical orchids, birds of paradise, stuffed green macaws, and the evening’s star attraction: Desi Arnaz, wearing a straw hat and twirling a cane, accompanied by his 17-piece orchestra.
“Arnaz welcomed the distinguished guests, many of whom had traveled by plane, train, and automobile for the special occasion. He then grabbed a conga drum, flashed a wicked grin, and launched into a pulsating rendition of his chart-topping song ‘Babalu.’
“The audience stomped and hollered their approval. ‘Busby Berkeley,’ Arnaz yelled over the microphone, referring to the movie director and choreographer of kaleidoscopic Hollywood musicals, ‘Eat your heart out!’
“Sitting in the front row on that unforgettable opening night was Arnaz’s wife, Lucille Ball, wearing a pink chiffon evening gown. Arnaz dedicated a medley of songs to his beloved redhead and blew her a kiss.”
04.01.08 Vivian Vance, as some of you certainly know, had a long and successful Broadway and touring stage career before she landed on I Love Lucy. Her stage productions are covered extensively in the new Fourth Edition of Lucy A to Z: The Lucille Ball Encyclopedia, which also includes pictures for the first time, many of them rare and not seen for decades. This picture (at left) is one of those, when Vance was just beginning to make noise on Broadway; it's an artist's rendering of her, circa 1939, that ran in one of the New York papers. Around that time she was co-starring in her first non-musical hit, supporting star Gertrude Lawrence in Skylark.
03.01.08Why are Lucy and Desi brandishing a heart in the middle of a parade in New York City, circa the late 1950s? The Arnazes were very charitable people, and the Heart Fund was honoring them for the money they raised. This photo was one of literally thousands I went through for the fourth edition of Lucy A to Z: The Lucille Ball Encyclopedia at a wonderful archive in New York called Photofest (thanks, Ron and Howard!). I ultimately picked 50 for the new 4th Edition of the book, but it was a tough process, taking hours of sifting and deciding just which ones would be right. I had to limit the photo count in the book to 50, and this is one of the photos that didn't make it.
02.06.08 The New York Friars Club honored our favorite funny lady, Lucille Ball, renaming its second floor Celebrity Room after her. Lucy's daughter, Lucie Arnaz, was a special guest of honor at an invitation-only reception in the new Lucille Ball Room that marked the occasion. Comedienne Joy Behar (The View) joined Arnaz to pay tribute to Ball, who was feted by the Friars while alive on more than one occasion, including an infamous 1958 roast of Lucy and Desi Arnaz, during which comedian Parkyakarkus (Albert Brooks' father) died of a heart attack immiedately after delivering his routine. Lucy is the first woman so honored (with her own room) by the Friars.
02.01.08 Lucy was at the end of her MGM contract when the studio put her in its lavish, Technicolor spectacular, Ziegfeld Follies, in 1946. But instead of using her in one of the comedy sketches, such as the one future I Love Lucy co-star William Frawley did with Fanny Brice about a winning lottery ticket, our redhead was wasted in an opulent, but pointless, opening number, "Bring on the Beautiful Girls." In dazzling Technicolor, Lucy rode herd over a bevy of gorgeous chorus girls, some dressed as panthers, and wielded a whip to make them "dance." Although campy beyond belief when viewed today (and Lucy has rarely looked more beautiful), the role was a five-minute cameo, and a perfect example of how MGM, among many of the other big studios like RKO and Columbia, just did not know what to do with Lucy onscreen, a beautiful star who could also clown around with the best of them. But that's okay — Lucy found her medium several years later, a new-fangled thing called TV, for which she and husband Desi Arnaz (also woefully misused at RKO and MGM) created the sitcom as we know it today with I Love Lucy. Eventually, their studio, Desilu, bought their old studio, RKO. Yes, revenge can be sweet.
01.02.08 Lucille Ball’s 1940 movie classic, Dance, Girl, Dance, one of her finest films and best performances, was added to the U.S. National Film Registry in the Library of Congress in late 2007, along with several dozen other films. According to the LOC, “Although there were numerous women filmmakers in the early decades of silent cinema, by the 1930s directing in Hollywood had become a male bastion, with one exception. Dorothy Arzner graduated from editing to directing in the late 1920s, often exploring the conflicted roles of women in contemporary society. In Dance, Girl, Dance, her most intriguing film, two women (Lucille Ball and Maureen O’Hara) pursue life in show business from opposite ends of the spectrum: burlesque and ballet. The film is a meditation on the disparity between art and commerce. The dancers strive to preserve their own feminist integrity, while fighting for their place in the spotlight and for the love of male lead Louis Hayward.” Brava, Lucille.
For information on events year-round, contact the Lucille Ball Desi Arnaz Center in Jamestown, N.Y., at 1-877-582-9326, or go online to www.lucy-desi.com.

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