Vivian Vance’s “The Voice of the Turtle” Program from La Jolla Playhouse

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.

Lucille Ball Large 1960’s Photo inscribed to Jess Oppenheimer

Jessurun (Jess) Oppenheimer was called “the brains” behind I Love Lucy. He was the series creator, producer and head writer. It was in radio where Lucy and Jess would first work together on My Favorite Husband that eventually spawned, arguably, the most popular TV show of all time.

This oversized photo of Lucille taken in the mid to late 1960’s has been framed and matted with Lucy’s inscription to the “force” behind the ‘Lucy’ show, simply put:

Dear Jess with my Love Lucy”