Actor and director Ross Martin began his career in the late 1940’s but is best known for portraying Artemus Gordon on CBS’s Western The Wild Wild West in the 1960’s. Martin ventured into the Desilu orbit in the late 50’s appearing in various productions like Whirlybirds and The Twilight Zone. This is when he most likely became friends with Lucille Ball.
In 1970, he first directed Lucille on season 3, episode 14 of Here’s Lucy entitled “Lucy, the Part-Time Wife.” Then again in 1971 for the episode “Lucy and the Raffle.” The photo of Ross and Lucy shown here was taken during this filming. The following year the two would appear on an episode of Password with Allen Ludden.
Martin lived in Ramona, CA about 35 miles northeast of San Diego. The walls of his billiards room and bar area was said to have many signed photos of celebrities as children or babies. This framed toddler photo of Lucille Ball was one of them. Lucy inscribed in the white areas:
“Now hear this! Ours is a long friendship. Love Lucy”
“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.
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.
Here’s Lucy premiered on CBS in late September of 1968. The third sitcom for ‘Lucy and Co.’ centered around the Carter family who lived in Southern California. Lucille Ball starred alongside Gale Gordon, who portrayed brother-in-law Harrison Carter, and her children Lucie Arnaz and Desi Arnaz Jr. as her on screen kids Kim and Craig. The show ran for six successful seasons, ending in 1974.
This navy blue baseball hat was gifted to the cast and crew during the series’ run. The patchwork font of Here’s Lucy adorns the front along with an embroidered replication of the Lucille Ball Productions logo and caricature of Lucy by artist Al Hirschfeld. Very few of these exist today as they were not made for the general public.
A change in format was necessary for the Lucy series after Lucille Ball sold Desilu to Gulf & Western in 1967. The rights and ownership were now under their control so she formed Lucille Ball Productions and created a new sitcom called Here’s Lucy.
The Carter family lived in Los Angeles with Lucy’s character employed as a secretary at “Carter’s Unique Employment Agency” owned by brother-in-law Harry, played by co-star Gale Gordon. Lucille’s real-life children portrayed her on screen kids with Lucie Arnaz as Kim and Desi Arnaz Jr. as Craig. The show ran for six seasons from 1968 to 1974.
Here are two original audience tickets – one to the December 11, 1969 filming in season two and the other for a July 9, 1971 episode from season four. There are a few noticable difference between the tickets. For the first couple of seasons the show was filmed at Paramount Studios (formly Desilu). Now a tenant, Lucy and company began to have issues with their new “landlords” so it was decided to move to more favorable conditions at Universal Studios where they remained for the rest of the show’s run. Second, the Lucy image was changed from the 60’s sketch to a favorite of hers by Al Hirschfeld. Lastly, a member of the cast is absent on the ticket from 1971. After the third season Desi Arnaz Jr. left the series to pursue other career opportunities but would return for one last appearance in the fifth season espisode “Lucy and Joe Namath.”
A ‘Lucille Ball Special’ was an occasional show presented in prime-time after Here’s Lucy finished its run in 1974. Fans were able to see Lucille in various avenues all produced by her production company – Lucille Ball Productions.
One of the last of these specials was 1977’s “Lucy Calls the President.” Lucy plays ‘Lucy Whittaker’ a housewife opposide ‘Floyd,’ her husband played by Ed McMahon, who live in Bundy, Indiana. Lucy calls The White House when then President Jimmy Carter did weekly radio shows. Carter tells Lucy he’ll be in the area to discuess the matter of her call which evolves to a dinner at her home. When word gets out in this small town, all her friends want to be invited.
These friends are thankfully a wonderful reunion of favorite ‘Lucy’ co-stars including Gale Gordon, Vivian Vance, Mary Wickes and Mary Jane Croft. This show as amazing as it was also turned out to be one of sadness and unfortunate ‘lasts.’ Lucille’s mother DeDe had recently passed before filming and it was the first show she was not in the audience for. Lucy was emotional espeically at the begining of filming. Vivian Vance also found out she had bone cancer and this would be their last on screen performance together.
Presented here is an original production used script from the show as well as an audience ticket. It was filmed in Burbank, CA for CBS on Friday, September 2, 1977. As seen on both pieces a title for the special was yet to be determined.
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.
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.
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.
CBS commemorated its 50th anniversary in March of 1978 with a week long celebration entitled CBS: On The Air, running for a total of nine and a half hours of shows from Sunday March 26th to Saturday April 1st. The specials featured nearly all of CBS’s stars from past and present performing to reflect on their history. Lucy and Co. owned Monday nights so it was only fitting she was part of Monday’s segment – “Have a Laugh on Us.”
Lucille Ball alongside Bea Arthur, at the time star of Maude, did a musical dance number which began as a vaudeville, pantomime act and ended with an elegant, showstopping chorus line and a comedic pie in the face. For the dramatic finish Lucy wore this two-piece pink ensemble.
The triple-layered gown is made of silk chiffon and features a high empire waist, large angel sleeves and an attached floor-length neck scarf. The bodice of the gown also has a built-in corset complete with boning and padded bust. A sleeveless, floor-length over coat that is made of a thick twill-like material lined in silk fuchsia, features a train and ornate beading with rhinestones all along the front hem. The whole outfit easily weighs close to, if not over 20 pounds but the gosh did this dress move and flow while she was dancing. That same year Lucille wore only the gown to a TV special honoring Milton Berle called A Tribute to Mr. Television.
The American Weekly, a Sunday supplemental newspaper published from 1896 to 1966, held annual polls for television starting in the early to mid 1950’s. People were able to cast their vote for their favorite programs in various categories.
I Love Lucy was presented with this award for best comedy drama series for the 1952-1953 season. Lucy and company won at least four of these awards throughout their run. All were proudly displayed in Desi’s office at Desilu Studios among many of the other trophies.
