Desilu was a powerhouse in the television industry by the late 1950’s. Thus, a department called Desilu Sales Inc. was created to handle the sales, marketing and distribution of its shows and productions to markets across the country. Promotional items were created as gifts that were not available to the general public, such as this rare coffee mug.
The gold rimmed, off-white ceramic mug features a Lucy Ricardo stick figure along with Lucille Ball’s signature and the Desilu Sales logo underneath. What makes this particular mug extra special is a name was printed in the “Hi!” bubble. Could this be Bill Frawley or Bill Asher? Hard to say but most of these were made without a name. Other promotional gifts included pencil cups, ashtrays, letter openers and more. See the previous posts of Desilu Sales items as examples.
“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.
Elizabeth Patterson was a veteran character actress before she famously became known as Matilda Trumbull, neighbor to Lucy and Ricky Ricardo on I Love Lucy. Like most actors from the golden era of Hollywood, Patterson began her career in the theatre with her first Broadway appearance in 1913’s Everyman. Her first movie was a silent film made in 1926 called The Boy Friend.
Elizabeth’s introductory appearance on television was in fact I Love Lucy for the 1952 episode “The Marriage License.” She portrayed Mrs. Willoughby who marries the Ricardos for a second time in Greenwich, Connecticut (honoring where Lucy and Desi were wed in real life). She was then cast as Mrs. Trumbull after Little Ricky was born.
This is a holiday card sent by the actress. The single sided piece of red cardstock with a metallic gold border, measures roughly 8 inches by 3 inches and features Patterson’s writing and signature printed in white that reads:
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.
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.
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.
William Frawley writes to a friend by the name of Roger in this personal letter dated April 10, 1953. Bill thanks him for his visit in Hollywood and also lets him know he is scheduled to be in New York City early June to appear on Milton Berle’s show.
Handwritten notes and letters from Frawley are quite rare and what is even more interesting is that this was done on his own personalized I Love Lucy stationery. It is unknown if the other principle actors from the show had similar letterhead of their own or something Bill made for himself.
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.
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.”
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.
At the end of the 5th season of I Love Lucy, creator and head writer Jess Oppenheimer left the show. At his farewell party he presented ‘Oppy Awards’ to select members of the cast and crew in appreciation of their long and devoted service. These bronze statuettes looked similar to an Oscar but more like Jess – a little man with glasses, bald and hands that were discreetly positioned in front of his crotch. Made of plaster and attached to a wood base each award stands 10.5 inches tall and has a bronze plaque affixed to the front. This particular “Oppy” award was presented to Dann Cahn, editor of I Love Lucy.
William Frawley came to Hollywood in 1933 after some success in vaudeville and Broadway. Much of his work in films was as a character actor well before being known as the lovable Fred Mertz on I Love Lucy. This uncommon photo card of Bill is from the late 20’s-early 30’s and has been signed in blue ink. Unfortunately his last name is spelled incorrectly, which may not have been a good thing seeing it was most likely a publicity card used by studios for casting talent.
