Television Academy Arts & Sciences Table Favor Honoring Lucille Ball

The Television Academy Arts & Sciences honored Lucille Ball on October 25, 1969 with an award and event proclaiming her “The First Lady of Television.” Held at the Beverly Hilton, the 14th annual affair was emceed by ‘Mr. Television’ himself Milton Berle in front of 1,000 members. Also in attendance was Lucy’s husband Gary Morton, two children, Lucie Arnaz and Desi Arnaz, Jr. and close friend Vivian Vance. During her emotional speech talking about Viv she said,

“I’m supposed to say something like ‘the vivacious, vital, Vivian Vance.’ But that isn’t it. We’ve been through so much together on the screen and off. Some good times, some bad times.”

This three inch gold plated metal table favor was given to guests that evening. The souvenir statue is made to look like a TV atop the academy’s acronym: ‘NATAS.’ An engraved insert features the Lucille Ball caracature drawn by Al Hirschfeld and the text ‘A Salute To Lucille Ball – October 25, 1969.’

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Happy Anniversary and Goodbye Yellow Wedding Gown

One of the first Lucille Ball Specials produced for TV under her production company – Lucille Ball Productions was Happy Anniversary and Goodbye which aired on November 19, 1974. Lucy starred alongside Art Carney as unhappily married couple, Norma and Malcom Michaels who are nearing their 25th anniversary.

Lucille wears this two-piece yellow gown after returning home from her daughter’s wedding. Made of a satin polyester, the custom-made ensemble features an oversized floor length dress with long sleeves, an empire waist and a slit neckline. It was oversized becuase Ball wore a bodysuit to give her the appearance of a “thicker” stature. Watch the show to find out why! The second piece is a lace-like, yellow and white floral design sleeveless duster that also matches the cuffs of the sleeves.

While arguing with Malcom in the opening scene, Art Carney talks about Norma spending $200 on a gown she’ll never wear again. In today’s money that would equate to roughly $1,200. This show is very different from the typical domestic portrayals and is far from the ‘Lucy’ character fans were use to at that time.

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Lucille Ball’s Scrapbook Photo with Red Skelton

When I Love Lucy changed its format from 30 mintues to a whole hour in 1957, the Desilu team renamed it “The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show” aka “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour.” For the second season, episode three, airing February 9, 1959 – ‘Lucy Goes to Alaska’ the guest star was fellow red-headed comedian Red Skelton. Towards the end of the show the duo perform a memorable pantomime sketch portraying tramps and finish with a song titled “Poor Everybody Else.”

This black and white 8×10 original publicity photo of Lucy and Red was retained by Lucille Ball for her scrapbook. The interior of the folder that displays the photo reads “Scrapbook – with Red “poor us” – poor everybody else” written entirely by Lucille. She was known to keep special photos, write ups in the press and momentos in huge scrapbooks throughout her career. This ‘Freddy the Freeloader’ act is brilliant for it was done by two of the best pantomime actors.

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The Lucy Show Audience Tickets

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.

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Lucille Ball Annotated Here’s Lucy Script “Lucy and Carol Burnett”

This final draft script from Here’s Lucy is dated June 19, 1970 for an episode entitled “Lucy and Carol Burnett..The Unemployed Twosome.” It contains multiple pages of Lucille Ball’s handwritten notes and corrections. Typically once a script is finalized, shows for which they were written for are filmed within a couple of months. This one however did not ultimately air until February 8, 1971 and was also renamed “The Hollywood Unempolyment Follies.” The headline with ‘Lucy and Carol Burnett’ was also dropped since it was previously used from Carol’s prior guest appearance. The script was written between Season 2 and 3’s hiatus so it’s possible it was kept until Carol was available to do the show.

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Life With Lucy Prototype Members Only Jacket

Lucille Ball and company began a new weekly series on ABC in the Fall of 1986 called “Life With Lucy.” Her return to TV in a sitcom was well publicized and highly anticipated with fans getting to see another version of the “Lucy” character they all love.

This black satin members only jacket is believed to be a prototype, the only one created, as a possible gift to cast and crew. Featuring the Al Hirschfeld caricature and her signature ‘Love Lucy’ embroidered in hot pink and light blue on the chest, this jacket was given to Lucille’s cheauffeur and majordomo, Frank Gorey. Frank wore it to appearances at Lucy Conventions in the late 1990’s.

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Lucille Ball’s Personal Red Wig

Irma Kusely first worked with Lucille Ball in the 1940’s at MGM. Nearly a decade later they would reunite on I Love Lucy. Irma became Lucy’s hair stylist for next four decades. Kusely began her Hollywood career at Max Factor styling wigs where she learned the technique of how they were made by hand using real hair.

In the clip shown above from a 2001 Television Academy Arts & Sciences interview, Irma makes it clear about Lucy’s hair color – “It’s not red at all, it’s a golden apricot color.”

Irma’s career with Lucy spanned hundreds of appearances both on and off screen. In the early 1990’s she was asked to supply some of Lucy’s custom wigs for Universal Studio’s “Lucy: A Tribute” exhibit. This is one of those wigs, still styled and untouched since Irma did it over 30 years ago.

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Lucille Ball’s Travel Backgammon Board

By the late 1970’s and throughout the 80’s Lucille Ball played backgammon for hours on end with whomever was up for the challenge. She also often played at PIPS, a backgammon club in Beverly Hills founded by Hugh Hefner. Lucy even constructed permanent tables in her homes and often held private tournaments with friends.

Sometimes she would bring her own traveling set to PIPS like this one, which she would also take on trips to play on the go. The board and pieces can be seen with Lucy and her opponent in the photograph by Peter C. Borsari taken at PIPS.

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La Jolla Postcard from Vivian Vance to parents

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.

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Dolores “Lolita” Arnaz Portrait

Dolores (Lolita) Arnaz de Acha y de Socias was considered to be one of the most beautiful women in Cuba. For Lucy fans she was the mother of none other than, Desi Arnaz. Dolores was born in 1896 in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic and her father was a founding member of the Bacardi Rum Company in Cuba.

The Arnaz family lived a life of privilege until they lost everything in 1933 when the Cuban Revolution began. Desi helped his mother flee their home before it was destroyed, eventually coming to Miami. Desi continued to diligently care for his mother for the rest of his life and beyond until her passing on October 24, 1988.

This is an original, over-sized photo one owned by the family of Lolita where Desi handwrote on the back “1 Big one for me – D.A.”

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Lucille Ball’s Wool & Silver Fox Fur Coat

Lucille Ball once said, “I love furs. I actually like them more than jewelry.” This black wool coat trimmed in silver fox fur was one of her favorites. For their one year anniversary Lucy and Gary decided to head East to New York City and celebrate where they first met. During the Thanksgiving holiday hiatus, Lucy and Vivian Vance flew into Idlewild Airport to meet their husbands on November 15, 1962 where Lucy was photographed wearing the coat.

An image of Lucy and Viv taken on this trip inspired famed characture artist Al Hirschfeld to capture the dynamic dou which he rendered into the well-known sketch of Lucille holding her purse and cigarette. This artwork would be used over the years for such things as the 1984 Museum of Broadcasting event honoring Lucy as the First Lady of Comedy.

Lucy Carmichael would wear the coat as part of a disguise on the March 22, 1965 episode of The Lucy Show entitled, “Lucy and the Beauty Doctor.” It is most likely around this time Lucille gifted the coat to close friend and actress Carole Cook who often guest starred in the series and lent her voice as ‘Lady Cynthia’ for this particular episode. Carole would wear and retain the coat for over the next 50 years.

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Forever Darling Jamestown Premiere Poster & Newspaper

Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz traveled across the country in early 1956 to promote their second film for MGM, “Forever Darling.” The premiere was held on February 6th at the Palace Theater in Lucy’s hometown of Jamestown, NY. Both Desi and Lucy were awe struck by the amount of love and support the people of Jamestown showed them during their whirlwind two-day visit.

Shown here is an original poster which most likely hung in many stores and businesses throught the city along with a February 7, 1956 second edition of the Jamestown Post-Journal. The Arnaz’s covered the headlines with photos and articles throughout the paper documenting their journey.

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