“Mertz and Kurtz”

(S4;E2 ~ October 11, 1954) Directed by William Asher. Written by

Jess Oppenheimer, Madelyn Pugh and Bob Carroll, Jr. Filmed July 1, 1954 at Ren-Mar Studios. 

Rating: 47.1/65

Synopsis ~ Fred’s old vaudeville partner is in town, so the Mertzes pretend to be wealthier than they really are to impress him. But it turns out that he has been doing some pretending as well!

This is one of five episodes filmed at the end of season three, but saved for the start of season four.  Although it was the last one filmed (the only episode of the series to actually film in the month of July), it was aired second in the new season. 

The week this episode first aired, Lucille Ball was on the cover of TV Guide. 

This edition of TV Guide later turned up on many episodes of “The Andy Griffith Show” which was filmed on the Desilu backlot. 

In real life, William Frawley had a vaudeville act with his wife, Edna Louise Frawley.  When the two divorced, Frawley was a solo act before his film career took off. 

Oops! Fred’s former vaudeville partner, Barney Kurtz, was named Ted Kurtz in “The Ballet” (S1;E19), although he was only mentioned, not seen.  

Barney is originally from Indianapolis, just like Fred. He is played by stage and screen star Charles Winninger. When the Arnazes were casting the part of Fred Mertz in 1951, Winninger was one of the actors considered for the role. In reality, both Frawley and Winninger were vaudeville veterans, although there is no record of them performing on the same bill.

Charles Winninger is probably best remembered for playing Cap’n Andy Hawks in the original 1927 Show Boat on Broadway. He reprised the role in the 1936 film (photo above). He became so associated with the character that he played various iterations of it on radio and in the 1953 film The Perilous Journey. He played Abel Frake in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s first film, State Fair (1945). In addition to Show Boat, his Broadway credits include playing Jimmy Smith in the 1925 production of No, No, Nanette as well as its sequel Yes, Yes, Yvette. Although he made only a handful of television appearances, he co-starred as Charlie Farrell’s father in “The Charlie Farrell Show” which was a summer replacement for “I Love Lucy” in 1956. Winninger died in 1969 at the age of 84.

According to Lucy, Fred and Barney were billed as “Laugh Till It Hurts with Mertz and Kurtz” – a comedy song and dance act. It is unclear how Ethel fits into the picture, but it is apparent that she was around during this time from her shared reminiscences at dinner. In “The Passports” (S5;E11) Lucy gets trapped inside of Fred’s old vaudeville trunk, which has ‘Mertz and Mertz’ (not ‘Mertz and Kurtz’) written on the side. 

Fred is nervous about meeting his former partner after so long, determined to prove he’s been successful, too.

ETHEL: “If he soft shoes through the living room one more time singing ‘Red Red Robin’, I’m gonna let him have it right in the beak!”

“When the Red, Red Robin (Comes Bob, Bob, Bobbin’ Along)”

is not sung during this episode, but William Frawley sang it in “Lucy and Ethel Buy the Same Dress” (S3;E3, above). Written in 1926 by Harry Woods, the song was popularized by Al Jolson (Frawley’s vaudeville rival). In 1953 it was recorded by Doris Day. On “The Lucy Show” Lucy’s all-girl barbershop quartet considers singing the song, too. 

Ethel comes over to borrow Lucy’s silver tray, her antique cruet set, her damask table cloth and napkins, and her good silver. 

ETHEL: “What else can I borrow that’s better than what I’ve got?”
LUCY: “How about Ricky?” 

Oops!  At one point, Ethel can’t remember Lucy’s ‘maid name’ and in a panic shouts “Lucy! Ducy! Desi! Bessie!”  Mrs. Ricardo had employed her own domestic help, Mrs. Porter, in “Lucy Hires a Maid” (S2;E23) although she was more housekeeper than proper maid. 

At dinner, Barney fibs about his command performances at the London Palladium and his visits to Buckingham Palace. In “Lucy Meets the Queen” (S5;E15) Lucy and Ricky perform for the Queen at the London Palladium and Lucy and Ethel see (from the outside) Buckingham Palace. 

Ethel asks Barney about a performer named Venus Jones, which in real-life is the name of Vivian Vance’s sister. While ‘Bessie’ (aka Lucy) clumsily serves dinner, Barney and the Mertzes ramble off such names as: 

• Sliding Jim Crane 
• Kravitz and Lane 
• The Shardi Sisters 
• The Flying Harrisons 
• Mr. and Mrs. Carl Guppy 
• The Costellos 
• Frank Parise 
• Adolph Gonzalez 
• and John Fugle the fire-eater 

Barney jokes that Alexander the Great, a mind reader, is now working for the Income Tax Department. 

It is unclear if any of these are real-life vaudeville personalities or the writer’s inventions. 

After dinner, Fred and Barney perform a couple of songs a cappella. "Oh By Jingo!” was a 1919 novelty song by Lew Brown and Albert Von Tilzer originally featured in the Broadway show Linger Longer Letty and heard on screen in Incendiary Blonde (1945) starring Betty Hutton. 

“I Want A Girl Just Like The Girl (That Married Dear Old Dad)” was written in 1911 by vaudevillians Harry Von Tilzer and William Dillon. It is heard in Show Business and The Jolson Story (1946). It has since gone on to become a barbershop quartet standard.

Fred repairs the lock on the Ricardo’s front door, something he will do again in “Ricky’s Movie Offer” (S4;E6), just a month later.  Both times Fred swears the lock is fixed and someone immediately comes barreling through the door!

Stephen Wootton (Little Barney) was nine years old at the time of filming and had been acting since the age of seven. He returned to Desilu for 1959 episode of "Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse” which was introduced by Desi Arnaz and starred William Frawley. He left acting in 1962 and died in 2014. In the photo above, the woman at the next table is Hazel Pierce, Lucy’s camera and lighting stand-in and frequent extra.  Both look like lost souls!  

LET’S REVUE!

At the Tropicana, Ricky stages a Gay ‘90s revue for Barney, set in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Fred and Barney play dairymen attending a convention, Lucy and Ethel are bathing beauties, and Ricky is the handsome lifeguard. The girls make their entrance in a wicker rolling chair, the sort actually used on the Boardwalk in Atlantic City and still seen today. Atlantic City was a popular spot for conventions. 

"Peach on the Beach” by Vincent Youmans and Otto Harbach was originally written for the 1925 Broadway musical No, No, Nanette which (coincidentally) starred Charles Winninger. The story involves three couples who find themselves together at a cottage in Atlantic City in the midst of a blackmail scheme.

Oops!  The song is supposed to end with a soft shoe instead of finishing the lyric “We’d make a peach of a —” but one of the girls starts to sing “pair” before stopping herself! 

CONVENTIONEER FRED: “Would you like a mint smash?”
BATHING BEAUTY ETHEL: “Not on your tintype!”

A mint smash is a cocktail usually containing whisky, mint, and fruit. A tintype is 

a photograph taken as a positive on a thin tin plate. Both items were typical of the turn of the last century. 

“By the Beautiful Sea” was written by Harry Carroll and Harold R. Atteridge in 1914. The song was originally recorded by the Heidelberg Quintet, topping the early American music charts in the summer of 1914, during the outbreak of World War I.

When Lucy and Ethel and Barney and Fred step inside the bath house, there is a noticeable edit in the film before the number starts to allow the actors time to change clothes. 

“They Go Wild Over Me” was written by Joseph McCarthy and Fred Fisherin 1917. McCarthy also wrote the lyrics for the 1919 Broadway show Irene. Desi Arnaz lifted weights all week to make his biceps visibly pop on cue during the song.

“On the Boardwalk to Atlantic City” was written by Josef Myrow and Mack Gordon for the 1946 film Three Little Girls in Blue, about three sisters from Red Bank NJ who spend their inheritance on a trip to Atlantic City, where they hope to snare rich husbands. A version of the song by the The Charioteers was a #12 hit in 1946, the same year it was covered by crooner Dick Haymes, who (bringing things full circle) had appeared in State Fair with Charles Winninger!

There are three performers who do not sing that appear in the act. They are not identified or credited. Beside Hazel Pierce and Stephen Wooten, there are two male audience members that are also unidentified and uncredited. 

FAST FORWARD! Hard to Get Good Help…

Maid For You!  In the second episode of “The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour,” Lucy asks Ethel to be her maid to impress Tallulah Bankhead. Ethel is highly insulted, forgetting that four years earlier she asked Lucy to do the very same thing when Barney came to town. In a 1964 episode of “The Lucy Show” both Lucy and Viv pretended to be maids for Mrs. Van Vlack (Norman Varden).  

Lucy’s maid uniform is now in the collection of the Lucy-Desi Museum in Jamestown, New York. However, upon comparison with the one Lucille Ball wore in this episode, they are not exactly the same. 

Dolls By Maria created this one-of-a-kind dolls based on Lucy and Ethel’s Atlantic City gay ‘90s wear.