“The Audition” was filmed on October 12, 1951, a mere three days before the official television premiere of I Love Lucy. This was the sixth episode of the show 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.
This act was initially conceived by the Arnazes along with Pepito & Joanne Perez as part of a vaudeville style act Lucy and Desi used, touring the country proving to CBS audiences across America would accept them. They also used the skit for the I Love Lucy pilot.
Part of Lucy’s costume were these cotton finger cots. Each used to cover the fingers of her left hand as she takes them off in dramatic fashion to the beat of the drum. The entire costume was originally on display at Universal Studios Hollywood ‘Lucy A Tribute’ exhibit for over 20 years. The rest of the outfit is now displayed alongside the prop cello in Lucy’s hometown of Jamestown, NY at the Lucy-Desi Museum.
In July of 1951 Vivian Vance was performing at the La Jolla Playhouse in the production of “The Voice of the Turtle.” This would be the stage where Desi Arnaz and Jess Oppenheimer watched their soon to be ‘Ethel Mertz’ portray Olive Lashbrooke in the Saturday, July 28th matinee.
The program shown here is the original copy Vivian Vance kept for her archives. Viv’s sister Lou Ann Graham inherited all of her programs from her years of stage performances. These were sold to the public in Lucille Ball’s hometown of Jamestown, NY during one of the annual festivals.
A polka dot dress was a signature look of Lucy Ricardo and to this day, Lucy and polka dots are synonymous with one another. Throughout her television career Lucille Ball wore variations of this pattern in the form of dresses in the 1950’s to blouses in the 60’s and 70’s.
On October 6, 1958 the premiere episode of the second season of TheLucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show (The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour in syndication) aired, entitled “Lucy Goes to Mexico.” The Ricardos and Mertzes are in San Diego, staying at the Hotel Del Coronado because Ricky is doing a USO show with Maurice Chevalier onboard the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier Yorktown. Lucy and the Mertzes decide to go south into Tijuana on a routine souvenir hunt. In true fashion, Lucy gets into trouble when a stowaway causes problems as they attempt to come back across the border.
Lucy wears an iconic polka dot dress for nearly the entire episode. Presented here is her stunt double’s dress, an exact replication to the one Lucille Ball wore. It can be seen on Lucy’s stand-in who’s running from the Policia through the streets of Tijuana. The unique polka dot pattern confirms this as the one Lucy Ricardo wears is slightly different and is currently in a private collection.
The two piece, A-line dress is made of a light brown silk-taffeta with beige polks dots. A long sleeve jacket features a zipper front, off-white canvas trim on the cuffs and waist along with a very large notched collar. Inside the jacket is a CBS garment tag attached near the zipper. The short sleeve dress features the same off-white canvas trim on the sleeve hems and has a full length zipper with hook and eye closures on the back. A sheer white silk lining can be found on the inside of the body.
This look was the inspiration of a large wooden statue carved out of a tree stump that once stood in the Lucille Ball Memorial Park from the late 1990’s to early 2000’s. The park banks Lake Chautauqua in Lucy’s hometown of Celeron, NY and is the current home of a beautiful bronze statue by Carolyn Palmer of Lucille Ball as Lucy Ricardo wearing a polka dot dress.
This colorful silk caftan-style blouse was owned and worn by Vivian Vance. Designed by Don Loper it features a floral painted-like pattern, 3/4 length kimono sleeves, side seam slits and a boat neckline. Viv gave the blouse to her little sister Lou Ann Graham who kept it for many years before consigning the piece for an auction held in Lucille Ball’s hometown of Jamestown, New York in the mid 2000’s.
The 1960’s saw a return of the “Lucy” character when Lucille Ball started a new weekly comedy series called The Lucy Show. Teaming up with old pal Vivian Vance, the dynamic duo brought back the hilarity that was beloved the world over.
Lucy Carmichael, a widow with two kids and Vivian Bagley, a divorcee with one kid share a home together in ficticious Danfield, New York in a show that first aired on October 1, 1962. It was hit, lasting six seasons until early 1968.
Presented here are two audience tickets to a filming of this iconic sitcom. The first is from the eighth show of the second season for the episode “Lucy Decides to Redecorate” which was filmed on June 20, 1963. This season was the start of the series being filmed in color, giving fans the chance to finally see the red-head in all hues on TV. Special note – the ticket lists Vivian Vance as a co-star.
The other ticket is from a fifth season, October 27, 1966 filming of the episode entitled “Lucy and the Monkey” and does not list Viv or any co-stars. Vance left the series at the end of the third season but would return occasionally as a guest star. By this time Gale Gordon was the primary co-star and foil to Lucy’s antics.
In the Summer of 1951 Vivian Vance was on stage at the La Jolla Playhouse in the production of “The Voice of the Turtle.” While staying at the La Jolla Palms Hotel, Vance wrote to her parents with this postcard postmarked July 16, 1951 which reads:
“This is the greatest place since Italy – we just love it – and so cool cool. We’ll be here 3 week – Love Vivian”
The show opened on Tueday, July 24, 1951. Around this time the ‘Lucy‘ crew was desparately searching for someone to play Ethel Mertz on a new TV show set to begin production in a few weeks. Director Marc Daniels recalled an actress he’d worked with that was performing at the La Jolla Playhouse. Desi Arnaz and Jess Oppenheimer drove down to see the Saturday, July 28th matinee. They found their Ethel and the rest is history.
Lucille Ball ventured into a regular radio show in 1948 with CBS’s My Favorite Husband. Ball starred in the program as “Liz Cooper”, a slightly zany housewife, alongside her husband “George”, a business man, played by Richard Denning. The show was based on the book by Isabel Scott Rorick called Mr. & Mrs. Cugat.
It was very popular with high ratings and CBS decided to turn the radio show into a television series by 1950, keeping Lucy as the main character with Denning recurring his role as well. She refused wanting her real husband, Desi Arnaz to be her TV husband. Writers for the show were Bob Carroll, Jr. Madelyn Pugh Davis and Jess Oppenheimer who also all moved to the TV version. They were the brillant minds that turned Lucille into the LUCY we all know and love.
This is an original audience ticket for the May 10, 1950 recording, admitting entrance into the Columbia Square Playhouse on Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood.
For the third episode of the new Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show (aka The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour) the Ricardos and Mertzs are in Las Vegas for Ricky’s band performing at The Sands Casino. Fred MacMurray and June Haver are the special guest stars with MacMurray joining the two couples in hunting for uranium around the desert.
Shown here is an original audience ticket for the November 15, 1957 filming of the episode. Tickets for all the LBDAS are much larger than previous I Love Lucy tickets or any future ‘Lucy series’ for that matter with more of an invitation, square style.
This show had a couple of ‘firsts’ for the series. It was the first epsiode to go outside the studio for location filming as well as the debut of Lucille Ball’s and Lucy Ricardo’s new hairstyle, dubbed by Irma Kusley as the “artichoke cut” which Lucy had variations of for the rest of her life.
Vivian Vance owned and wore this oversized, off-white silk shawl. It features an ornate floral pattern embroidered in a champagne color with very long tassels around the hem for added drama. Viv gave the wrap to her little sister Lou Ann Graham who kept it for many years before consigning the piece for an auction held in Lucille Ball’s hometown of Jamestown, New York in the mid 2000’s.
The Brown Derby was once an iconic restaurant in Hollywood and the surrounding area. It was a place where one could spot their favorite movie stars enjoying a meal – “Remember, they’re just people like you and me.” Said to be birthplace of the Cobb Salad, the building was also shapped like the hat which it was named.
Lucy Ricardo, Fred and Ethel Mertz went to ‘the watering hole’ in a famous epsiode of I Love Lucy, seeing the likes of Cary Grant, Eve Arden and of course William Holden. This original dinner menu from ‘The Derby’ was used by a fan to obtain an autograph from William Frawley. Bill inscribed on the back in part…”hello and good wishes.”
Based on this response, Vivian Vance was writing a book in the early 1970’s. Postmarked on February 14, 1974 this postcard sent to a Mr. Michael Marcel, she states – “I am writing my book – Viv and will be unable to grant your request for it’s all in my book.” To our knowledge this project never came to fruition so could there be an undiscovered autobiography somewhere out there?
It is amazing to see costumes and props being utilized multiple times. This brass serpent bracelet is one such item that spanned the course of two decades and three different Lucille Ball series. It was first seen on Vivian Vance’s (Ethel Mertz) arm in the I Love Lucy episode “Charm School” from season 3 which aired on January 25, 1954. Then Lucy Carmichael wore it on the first episode of season 2 of The Lucy Show – “Lucy Plays Cleopatra” that aired on September 30, 1963. Several years later it makes a final appearance on Lucie Arnaz’s arm, on the season 2 Here’s Lucy episode “Lucy and the Generation Gap” airing on December 8, 1969.
