lucy

"Once in his life, every man is entitled to fall madly in love with a gorgeous redhead." Lucille Ball

We Love Lucy

By Jane Marie

The ever-popular television program, I Love Lucy and its stars, Lucille Ball (Lucy Ricardo), Desi Arnaz (Ricky Ricardo), and Ethel and Fred Mertz (Vivian Vance and William Frawley) won a permanent place in our hearts. Remember Lucy and Ethel in the candy factory at the fast moving assembly line or Lucy playing the showgirl with a hat so huge she couldn’t hold her head up or the grape stomping scene in Italy? Oh, oh, what about the cheese she wrapped in a blanket, pretending it was a baby, to smuggle it back to the States?

The first show premiered on October 15, 1951. The program ran for six seasons until June 24, 1957 for a total of 180 episodes. The show aired in the United States every Monday at 9 p.m. on CBS. It was filmed on Fridays before a live audience in Hollywood.

Due to technical problems, the first episode filmed, Lucy Thinks Ricky is Trying to Murder Her, was actually aired the fourth week.

Lucy’s real life pregnancy was written into the second season in Lucy Goes to the Hospital, a thing not done before in television. Little Ricky was born January 19, 1953, and the viewing audience exceeded 40 million! Little Ricky’s part was played by twin boys.

Vitameatavegamin was the elixir Lucy sold on a television commercial that made her tipsy as she sampled it.

The title of Lucy’s first novel was Really Gone With The Wind. Naturally, she wrote Ricky, Fred and Ethel into the story.

In the episode where Lucy’s former classmate visits, the classmate asks for a donation to her charity. When Lucy generously says, “Put me down for five,” she doesn’t realize she has promised to give $5,000.

1954 and 1955 shows featured the two couples driving cross country from New York to California so Ricky could star in a movie in Hollywood entitled Don Juan. The movie is later cancelled. Ricky played a band leader and managed the Tropicana Club. In the 1956-1957 season, Ricky opened his own night club called Ricky Ricardo Babalu Club.

In Lucy and John Wayne, John Wayne made seven different sets of his boot prints for the sidewalk in front of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre because Lucy and Ethel tried to steal them, Ricky and Little Ricky walked in the wet cement and so did a dog.

In the episode where the Lucy and Ethel bet Ricky and Fred that they can be pioneer women, they bake bread. Lucy misread the recipe and put in 13 cakes of yeast instead of three. When baked, it produced an eight foot loaf that pinned Lucy against a cupboard door. The bread was real and was served to the audience after the show was shot.

I Love Lucy won one Golden Globe and four Emmys. But all was not well on the set. Vivien Vance and William Frawley didn’t get along. They were offered a “Fred and Ethel” spin-off, but Vance declined because she didn’t want to work with Frawley any more than she had to. When Frawley died in 1966, Vance said, “Champagne for everyone!” Vance died in 1979.

Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, Desiderio Alberto Arnaz IV, were married on November 30, 1940 and divorced on May 4, 1960.. They had two children, Lucie Desiree Arnaz and Desi Arnaz, Jr.

"It wasn't love at first sight. It took a full five minutes." Lucille Ball

Desi was born in Santiago, Cuba on March 2, 1917, making him six years younger than Lucy, who was born on August 6, 1911 in Jamestown, New York. Desi left Cuba in 1934 and moved to Miami. He played in Xavier Cugat’s Latin band. After a year, he left to start his own band, which popularized the conga line in the United States.

In the early years, Lucy had bit parts as a show girl and Ricky had minor roles in movies. He was drafted during World War II and, along with Lucy, got their actor friends to perform for the troops. After the war, the marriage had its ups and down, with Lucy going so far as filing for divorce because Ricky was not the most attentive of husbands. When his band’s bus crashed, they took it as a sign and renewed their vows.

Lucy was the star of a radio comedy called My Favorite Husband from 1948 to 1951. I Love Lucy was based on this program, but Lucy wouldn’t do the TV show unless Desi played her husband. They owned a five acre ranch in the San Fernando Valley called Desilu, the same name they used for their production company. They made pets of chickens, calves, ten cats, and five dogs.

Trivia fans will appreciate the following:

Since the Ricardos only had a living room, kitchen and bedroom in their apartment setting, whenever they had dinner parties, they moved the ever-changing style of couch to the side and set up a lace covered dining table in the living room. The early episodes had a counter in the kitchen where they put two stools so Lucy and Ricky could face the audience when they ate.
Lucy’s true hair color was not red, but a mousey brown.
A tiny picture of Lucy was on the first cover of TV Guide. The rest of the space was filled with Desi Arnaz, Jr. as a baby.
Philip Morris sponsored the show for four years and then General Foods took over in 1955. The performers used Max Factor makeup.
The names originally considered for Lucy and Ricky Ricardo were Lucy and Larry Lopez. Lucy’s full name on the show was Lucy Esmeralda MacGillicuddy Ricardo. Ricky was Enrique Alberto Ricardo y de Acha III.
Lucy followed her success with I Love Lucy with two series that did well, The Lucy Show and Here's Lucy;

Desi Arnaz died December 2, 1986. Lucy, who had married comedian Gary Morton, died April 16, 1989.

Lucy was an American gem, a ruby-haired treasure, for all of us to love, and do we ever!

↑
What's this?

Contest News

Using the information on this site and linked to this site is done at your own risk. No promises or guarantees of any kind are intended or implied.