“Lucy in the Swiss Alps”

(S5;E21 ~ March 26, 1956) Directed by James V. Kern. Written by Jess Oppenheimer, Madelyn Pugh, Bob Carroll, Jr., Bob Schiller, and Bob Weiskopf. Filmed February 23, 1956 at Ren-Mar Studios. Rating: 43.9/62

Synopsis ~ After a mistake in booking, the Ricardos and Mertzes go mountain climbing in the Swiss Alps and get stranded in a cabin after an avalanche. 

This is the seventh of a dozen episodes set in Europe. 

On the day this episode was filmed (February 23, 1956), Desi Arnaz was awarded a Golden Globe Award for his contributions to television comedy. This was the first Globe Awards to include television. Lucille Ball evoked a colossal laugh from attendees when she exclaimed, “This is a most frightening audience!”

Ethel supposedly sat on Fred’s glasses while they were in Paris, so Fred mis-read ‘Locarno’ for ‘Lucerne’ and sent Ricky’s band to the wrong city. 

Lucerne is a compact city in central Switzerland that sits amid snow-capped mountains on the north end of Lake Lucerne. It serves as a gateway to hiking and skiing destinations in the nearby Rigi and Pilatus mountains as well as the Alps. Locarno, on the other hand, is an Italian-speaking resort city in southern Switzerland, on Lake Maggiore at the base of the Alps.It will take Ricky’s band nearly three hours by train to get from Locarno to Lucerne.

Oops!  The episode is set in Lucerne but outside there are big mountains. Although Switzerland is famous for the Alps, Lucerne is in the lowland. 

Just in case the band doesn’t arrive in time, Fred recruits a Swiss band who plays a very plodding oom-pah-pah version of “La Cucaracha.” They are much more at home playing das “Schnitzelbank,” a German-language song for children that is similar in its repetitive structure to Mitch Miller’s "Must Be Santa.”

Coincidentally, William Frawley performed an English version of

“Schnitzelbank,”

in the short World War II propaganda film “The Yankee Doodler.”

The Swiss bandleader is played by veteran character actor Torben Meyer. Meyer was born in Denmark in 1884 and did more than 70 European films before immigrating to the United States. He was generally cast as thick-accented waiters, butlers, and doctors. 

His most prominent role was in Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), but he also appeared as a wealthy Dutch banker in Casablanca (1942). Musical fans might spot him in Music in the Air (1934), Roberta (1935) also starring Lucille Ball, Call Me Madam (1953) starring Ethel Merman, Anything Goes (1956) NOT starring Ethel Merman, and Li’l Abner (1959). He was also strangled by the monster in Bride of Frankenstein (1935) and was a gypsy in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943). From 1910 to 1965 he appeared in 255 films and television shows! Meyer died in 1975 at the age of 90.

On the wall of the Ricardo’s hotel room there is a framed Medieval print from the "Codex Manesse” of Walther von Klingen, a medieval songbook written and illustrated between 1304 and 1340 in Zürich. Von Klingen (1220-1286) was a Swiss-born minstrel and composer.

After an al fresco picnic atop a mountain, it starts to snow and the gang take refuge in an abandoned cabin. 

Before the avalanche, Fred opens the cabin door and lets out a loud whistle, hoping to attract “one of those St. Bernards” because he could “use a shot of brandy.”  

The St. Bernard is a breed of very large working dogs from the Swiss Alps and northern Italy originally bred for rescue. Their name comes from the monks of a hospice located at the treacherous St. Bernard’s pass in the Western Alps. They are traditionally depicted with a small brandy barrel around their necks, supposedly for those stranded by avalanche to drink for warmth and sustenance while awaiting rescue. The monks claim that this story is apocryphal, despite it turning up in many films, cartoons, and television shows.

Lucy Ricardo previously encountered a St. Bernard named Cap when trying to hide from Ricky in William Holden’s mansion in “The Tour” (S4;E30). 

Lucy and Kim Carter struggle to bathe a large St. Bernard named Tinkerbell in “The Bow-Wow Boutique” (HL S6;E5).  

After five hours of being stranded in the cabin (although only a few minutes of screen time), Lucy remembers that she has saved one of her “man-sized” sandwiches from lunch. 

The last time Lucy had a comic encounter with a cheese sandwich it was just outside Cincinnati, Ohio – the ‘special of the day’ at Mr. Skinner’s One Oak Cafe in “First Stop” (S4;E13). Ironically, it was a SWISS cheese sandwich!

Ricky tries to see daylight up the flue of the stove, but gets a face full of soot instead. 

Ricky and Fred also got a face full of soot when eavesdropping on their wives through the furnace pipe in “The Gossip” (S1;E24). Lucy dubs them the “Coal Dust Twins,” a pun on the Gold Dust Twins, the logo of a popular washing powder of the time represented by two black boys. 

The dialogue references the 1954 MGM musical Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. Not coincidentally, MGM had just released the Lucy / Desi film Forever, Darling. 

“You remember that picture ‘Seven Brides for Seven Brothers’? Somebody shot a pistol and it caused a great, big avalanche.” 

Sure enough, Lucy slams the door causes an great, big avalanche, burying the cabin. Later, Ethel asks “How’d they get out in ‘Seven Brides for Seven Brothers’? Lucy replies that “They waited for the spring thaw!” 

Coincidentally, the avalanche scene in the film was shot in Sun Valley, Idaho, a favorite resort destination of the Arnazes and also the setting of a 1958 episode of "The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour” (above). The film’s male lead, Howard Keel, would appear in a 1969 episode of “Here’s Lucy” and Ruta Lee (who played Ruth, one of the seven brides), would do two episodes of “The Lucy Show,” including one as herself. 

In “Ricky Needs an Agent” (S4;E29), “Seven Brides for Seven Cubans” is just one of the off-the-cuff titles Lucy suggests MGM’s Mr. Reilly produce for Ricky rather than release him from his contract – but to no avail – “heeee’s released!” 

This is the second time an “I Love Lucy” European vacation episode emulated the plot of an MGM motion picture. The first was “Second Honeymoon” (S5;E14) which duplicates several memorable plot points from the 1953 MGM film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes starring Marilyn Monroe. 

Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM) was also heavily promoted during the trip to Hollywood as they had just produced Lucy and Desi’s first film The Long, Long Trailer (1954). 

When they think the end is near, Lucy cries that she’s too young to die. Ethel tearfully adds “So am I.” Fred facetiously smiles as if he’s about to say something rude, but doesn’t, but the studio audience snickers anyway. Fred then confesses that he’s charged the Ricardos $10 more in rent each month than the rest of his tenants. Ethel admits that she’s always given the Ricardos back the extra $10. In turn, Ethel confesses that she was really 19 when they married. Fred admits that he always knew that she was really 24. Ricky wisely declines to confess anything, just in case they are rescued. Smart Cuban! 

Fast Forward!

Just three episodes later, in “Lucy’s Bicycle Trip” (S5;E24), Lucy complains that her traveling companions are not adventurous enough and talks about their visit to Switzerland.

LUCY (to Ricky and the Mertzes): “You wouldn’t climb to the top of the Eiffel Tower. You wouldn’t ride the ski lift in Switzerland. You won’t swim in the Mediterranean and now you don’t want to bicycle along the Italian Riviera.”

This confirms that there were many adventures in Europe that were not depicted in the episodes. Apparently, Lucy wanted to go skiing but got some resistance. 

Lucy and the gang also frolicked in the snow during several “Comedy Hours”: “Lucy Goes to Sun Valley,” “Lucy Makes Room for Danny” (above), and “Lucy Goes to Alaska”, which all feature snow scenes.

A new partner at the Unique Employment Agency (Tony Randall) took Harry and Lucy mountain climbing in a 1971 episode of “Here’s Lucy.” 

During the 1960s Lucille Ball and Gary Morton vacationed in Switzerland, staying at the Palace Hotel in Gstaad. The luxury hotel opened in 1913. It is still in business today. 

Throughout the ‘60s and ‘70s, the hotel gained a reputation as a celebrity getaway destination. Besides Lucy, actors like Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Sophia Loren, Grace Kelly, Roger Moore, and many others spent a great deal of time there. [The above snapshot and postcard were part of a collection of Lucille Ball’s travel photos that was auctioned off.] 

In 1991, People Magazine did a story on the romance between Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz and quoted Lucy’s close personal friend Lillian Briggs:

“Desi was the love of Lucy’s life. It was romantic, passionate, everything you could imagine in a love affair, and she was deeply hurt by what happened. They had tried like three times to get a divorce, but Lucy had always stopped it. Finally she planned to move to Switzerland, take her kids and get out of Hollywood.”

Lucille Ball would have been in good company in Switzerland. In 1953, film comedy legend Charlie Chaplin escaped the pressures of Hollywood and took permanent residence

Corsier-sur-Vevey overlooking Lake Geneva. Had Lucille Ball followed suit, we would have been deprived of “The Lucy Show” and “Here’s Lucy” – so Switzerland’s loss was our gain!  

In 2021, the new Paramount Plus streaming service used images of Lucy and Ricky climbing the mountain in their roll out commercial, featuring stars and characters from CBS and Paramount shows. Fittingly, Lucy and Desi are in black and white!