“Lucy and Ethel Buy the Same Dress”

“We’re going to be on television!”

(S3;E3 ~ October 19, 1953) Directed by William Asher. 

Written by Jess Oppenheimer, Madelyn Pugh and Bob Carroll, Jr. Filmed September 17, 1953 at Ren-Mar Studios. Rating: 57.3/80

Synopsis ~ 

Lucy and Ethel are excited to appear on TV with their club, until they buy the same dress, which tests their “Friendship”. 

This episode is based on an episode of Lucy’s radio show “My Favorite Husband” titled “Liz Appears on Television” aired April 23, 1950. In it, Liz (Lucy) and Iris (Bea Benaderet) buy the same dress for a TV appearance celebrating Friendship Week. On TV, Iris is replaced by Ethel and testimonials to friendship become a song.

After showing off Little Ricky (Michael and Joseph Mayer) to the club women, Lucy takes him to his room. In Lucy’s absence, co-president Ethel takes over the meeting.  

Oops! There seem to be a couple of edits between Ethel’s “The next thing on our agenda” and Lucy’s “I’ll take over now Ethel.”  Perhaps the episode was running long and was edited for time. After Lucy takes over the gavel, Ethel says “That’s doing pretty good, isn’t it?” to one of the club women. The line comes out of nowhere and relates to nothing that came before it. In addition, a portion of the beginning part of the meeting was deleted for syndication but restored for the DVD.

This is the first time since “The Club Election” (S2;E19) that we see Lucy and Ethel serving as co-presidents of the Wednesday Afternoon Fine Arts League, which Fred calls the “Claw and Cackle Club.” Similarly, in “Lucy Writes a Play” (S1;E17), Ricky calls it the “Claw and Cackle Society.”

Besides Caroline Appleby, the only member returning for this episode is Marion Strong.

Doris Singleton makes her fourth of ten appearances as Caroline Appleby.

This time, however, Marion is being played by a different actor. Shirley Mitchell takes the role of Marion Strong previously played by Margie Liszt. She went on to play the character twice more: in “Lucy Tells the Truth” (S3;E6) and “Lucy’s Club Dance” (S3;E25).

Cast member Hazel Pierce is also among the group but not identified as Grace Munson, the role she previously played. Pierce was Lucy’s camera and lighting stand-in and appeared in small roles in many episodes.

Actor Ruth Perrott is also in the scene, but also not given a character name. Perrott makes her third and final appearance on the series. She first played Mrs. Pomerantz, a member of the surprise investigating committee for the Society Matrons League in “Pioneer Women” (S1;E25), and also played a nurse when “Lucy Goes to the Hospital” (S2;E16). Perrott was a regular cast member of “My Favorite Husband” playing Katie the Maid. 

Later in the episode, Lucy lists the other club members: Luanne Hall, Jane Sebastian, and Rosalyn McKee. If Pierce and Perrott played one of these characters, that means that one club woman missed the meeting. These are all completely different club members than seen in “The Operetta” (S2;E5), probably because those actors were required to sing.

“We have a whole half hour on television!”

The half-hour is on Monday night from midnight to 12:30, so technically Tuesday morning. Monday was always “I Love Lucy” Night!

This is the first time that we learn that Caroline Appleby’s husband, Charlie, is the manager of a local television station. We will meet Charlie in “Baby Pictures” (S3;E5), just two weeks later.

Marion Strong memorably states that her qualifications to be chairman include being “Mistress of Ceremonies at the Senior Shenanigans of the Rappahannock School for Girls.” Although there is no such school, there is a St. Margaret’s School, an all-girls academy located on the banks of the Rappahannock River in northern Virginia.

LUCY: “Next to sugar, Cuba’s biggest export is ham.”

Others on Lucy’s planned bill of fare include:

• Luanne Hall playing piano
• Jane Sebastian’s bird calls
• Carolyn Appleby’s Lionel Barrymore impression (which Lucy thought was Bette Davis)
• Rosalyn McKee reciting Joyce Kilmer’s poem “Trees”

Louanne Hall would show up in “Charm School” (S3;15) played by Vivi Janiss. Jane Sebastian was the name of a real-life friend of Vivian Vance. Her name turned up several times, but she never was seen on screen.

In this episode, we hear the first of Ethel’s three different middle names: Here Fred calls her Ethel Louise (the same as William Frawley’s ex-wife); in “The Million Dollar Idea” (S3;E13) her middle name is Roberta (Vivian Vance’s actual middle name); and in “Ethel’s Home Town” (S4;E15) it is Mae (“Ethel Mae Potter, We Never Forgot Her!”).

Although we never see the rest of the acts on the TV show, Fred auditions with “When the Red, Red Robin (Comes Bob Bob Bobbin’ Along).” Written in 1926 by Harry Woods, the song was popularized by Al Jolson, with whom William Frawley had a long-standing rivalry. The same year this episode first aired it was recorded by Doris Day.

The highlight of the episode is undoubtedly Lucy and Ethel’s performance of the Cole Porter classic “Friendship.” While the song is now closely song is associated with the 1934 musical Anything Goes, it was actually written for Ethel Merman and Burt Lahr to sing on Broadway in DuBarry Was a Lady (1939).

Lucy played Merman’s role in the 1943 movie version of DuBarry with Red Skelton and Gene Kelly. When Lucy and Ethel perform it here, she repeats some of the same choreography she did in the film. Merman, unhappy that Lucy took her role in DuBarry and was now singing ‘her’ song on national television, insisted that “Friendship” be inserted into a 1954 TV version of Anything Goes starring Burt Lahr that she did just six months later. The song has remained in Anything Goes ever since. The song has been performed as both a duo and a trio.  

When using reverse psychology to try to get Ricky interested in being emcee of their show, Lucy facetiously suggest Dan Jenkins, who Ethel says plays tissue paper and comb. This is also the name of the second hand furniture dealer played by Hans Conried in “Redecorating” (S2;E8). In real life, Dan Jenkins was the name of a reporter who supported the Arnazes. 

Ethel says she got her dress at Macy’s, while Lucy got hers at Gimbel’s. Macy’s will be extensively promoted in “Lucy Meets Orson Welles” (S6;E3), and Gimbel’s (basement) will be mentioned by Ethel in “The Fashion Show” (S4;E19). The flagship stores of the two department stores were extremely competitive, as famously depicted in the film Miracle on 34th Street (1947) featuring William Frawley. Of the two, only Macy’s is still in business today.

Wardrobe designer Elois Jenssen joined the series for season three. This was her second episode and she had the formidable task of creating two identical dress that were both realistic and sturdy, but easily pulled apart on camera. She also designed the wrap-around blouse Lucy wears during the club meeting and other episodes. Lucy loved it so much that she often wore it in real life as well.

Just before Lucy and Ethel rehearse “Friendship” for the boys, Ricky is reading the September 21, 1953 edition of Life Magazine. 

For this episode, the desk and piano switch positions in the apartment so that Desi can face the camera while playing the piano for Lucy and Ethel’s rehearsal. 

Of the foursome, it was always Ethel who was able to play the piano, not Ricky.  Naturally, in this scene it can only be Fred or Ricky since Ethel is singing a duet with Lucy. In this case, the piano accompaniment was performed just off-screen by a professional pianist (possibly Marco Rizo) and Desi just mimes it.  

Ooops!  For a few seconds, Desi’s hands come nowhere near the keys! 

Mrs. Trumbull (Elizabeth Patterson) is mentioned as baby sitting with Little Ricky, but does not appear in this episode.

When leaving for the TV studio, Ricky gets a pack of Philip Morris cigarettes from a plainly labeled carton in the hutch, a quick visual plug for the sponsor’s product.

Ricky’s solo on the TV show is "Vaya con Dios.” The Spanish-language song was written by Larry Russell, Inez James, and Buddy Pepper, and first recorded by Anita O’Day in December of 1952. Les Paul and Mary Ford had a #1 recording of the song in 1953, the same year this episode premiered. In fact, when Ricky is introducing his song, he says “It’s become quite popular in the last couple of months.” Later in the season, Lucy includes footage of Ricky singing this song in her “Home Movies” (S3;E20).

FAST FORWARD!  

Mattel issued Lucy and Ethel Barbie Dolls based on this episode. 

In a 2000 episode of the quiz show “Jeopardy!” (S26;E95), this episode was the subject of a $200 clue in the category “Classic Sitcom Episodes”.