On October 12, 1951, three days before the official television premiere of I Love Lucy, an audience packed the Desilu Playhouse to watch the filming of an episode called “The Audition.” This was the sixth I Love Lucy show of season one where Lucy Ricardo replaces a clown named Buffo for an act at Ricky’s club. Lucy is referred to as “the professor” and is dressed in an oversized blue suit who plays the cello. Shown here is an original ticket to that show. Tickets were complementary and given out in excess to fill the roughly 300 member audience each week. Accounting for all the episodes of I Love Lucy and number of people in each audience, over 50,000 tickets would have been made during the series run. However so few still exist today making them a rarity and highly collectible among fans.