(S6;E5 ~ October 29, 1956) Directed by James V. Kern. Written by Madelyn Martin, Bob Carroll, Jr., Bob Schiller and Bob Weiskopf. Filmed September 24, 1956 at Ren-Mar Studios. Rating: 45.5/62
Synopsis ~
When the Venetian gondolier the Ricardos met in Europe shows up in New York, a series of misunderstandings results in Lucy working at a pizza parlor.
This is the last episode before the gang travels to Florida and Cuba.
Ricky says that Mario’s face is awfully familiar.
Well, it should be! Actor Jay Novello appeared in two previous episodes: as superstitious Mr. Merriweather in “The Seance” (S1;E7)…
and the nervous Mr. Beecher in “The Sublease” (S3;E31).
He later also appeared on two episodes of “The Lucy Show” (see below) but dapper Novello is probably best remembered for playing another Mario, Mayor Mario Lugatto on “McHale’s Navy” (1965).
The episode also features Italian-born Eduardo Ciannelli playing Mr. Martinelli, owner of the pizza parlor where Mario (then Lucy) is employed. Ciannelli starred on Broadway in 19 plays, starting in musicals, but re-inventing himself as a dramatic actor and earning a Tony nomination for his final appearance in The Devil’s Advocate in 1961. He eventually returned to Italy, where he died in 1969.
Finally, the episode features Aldo Formica, who was not an actor, but Hollywood’s most famous pizza chef then employed at Miceli’s Pizza. He was hired to teach Lucy how to twirl pizza dough in the air and also appeared in the episode. He made only one other screen appearance, also twirling pizzas, on “Maude” in 1975.
In the early 1960s he opened Aldolino’s Italian Restaurant in Asuza, California, which is still in business today. Their menu features a photo of this episode on the cover.
Peter Brocco (Dominic Orsatti) was a popular character actor with nearly 300 credits on film and TV. He also appeared on Broadway acting in Shakespeare alongside Estelle Winwood. On “I Love Lucy,” Brocco was seen as one of the judges when “Lucy Raises Tulips” (S6;E26) and acted with Lucille Ball in the film Miss Grant Takes Richmond (1949).
James Flavin (Immigration Officer) also appeared with Jay Novello in “Lucy and the Safe Cracker” (TLS S2;E5) where he played a cop named Sgt. Wilcox. He returned two episodes later to play Sgt. Wilcox again in another bank-themed episode, “Lucy and the Bank Scandal” (TLS S2;E7). Flavin appeared in four films with Lucille Ball, including playing a police sergeant in Without Love (1945). During his long career he played so many officers of the law that his IMDB photo is of him in a police uniform!
Louis A. Nicoletti (Waiter) was a regular “I Love Lucy” background player and later directed episodes of “The Lucy Show” and “Here’s Lucy.”
Keith Thibodeaux (briefly) plays Little Ricky. He has one line (”Hello, Daddy!”) and is on camera only a few seconds.
A perfectionist with props, Lucille Ball practiced making pizzas by throwing dough in the air at Miceli’s Pizza Parlor in Hollywood. She became so good at it that she later made pizzas for the cast and crew at Miceli’s.
Lucy tells Mario that he doesn’t have to go to work due to the “Taft-Hartley Visitors-from-Italy-Who-Work-in-Pizzerias-Get-Every-Third-Day-Off” Amendment. The Taft–Hartley Act is a 1947 federal law that prohibits certain union practices and requires disclosure of certain financial and political activities by unions.
While trying to guess where Mario is from, the mention Florence, Rome, Naples, Genoa, and San Remo.
LUCY: “I know! He’s that friend of the Lederers that was so nice to us.”
In real life, Frank and Marion Lederer were great friends of Lucille Ball. Frank Lederer and Lucy were both in the film A Woman of Distinction in 1950, but they also socialized off camera as well.
They finally realize that Mario was their Gondolier on the Grand Canal in Venice. Mario presents Lucy a slip of paper to locate his brother Dominic. Lucy says it says he is in San Francisco. Mario has only ten dollars to get there so he resolves to go to work; but at what?
LUCY: “It’s slack season for gondoliers in New York.”
FRED: “Unless you go down to Canal Street.”
Canal Street is a major east–west street in Lower Manhattan, New York City. It runs through the neighborhood of Chinatown, and forms the southern boundary of Little Italy. At one time, the area did actually feature a canal, but it was filled in by 1819 and Canal Street opened a year later.
Fred’s pun doesn’t go over well with Ethel, who jabs him with her elbow. For the audience, the joke relies on knowing New York City, and only gets a mild chuckle from the California studio audience.
Viewers only saw visits to Florence, Rome, and San Remo. If we had seen an episode titled “Lucy Visits Venice,” it might have featured a guest star like Pat Boone and had Lucy filling in for Mario in the gondola. Maybe!
PIZZA PRESENT-A!
We not only get to see the inside of Martinelli’s Pizza, but the exterior as well.
Trying to convince Mr. Martinelli to let her sub for Mario, Lucy fibs “People from Rome write me for my pizza recipe.” Actually, it is Naples, not Rome, that is famous for its pizza. Margherita pizza was invented in Naples in 1889, and it’s still popular in the city today.
Oops! When Lucy is at the pizzeria attempting to spin the pizza the tray of dough balls in front of her goes from nearly empty to full between shots.
There is also the sticky oven door saga:
- When Lucy first ditches the unsuccessfully thrown dough into the top over, the door to the bottom oven pops open. She shuts it and continues.
- It happens a second time when she bumps into the ovens, so she tosses in that dough and slams it shut again.
- A second later it happens a third time and Lucy just shuts it and continues.
- Although Lucy throws yet another wad of dough in the top oven and slams the door hard, there is a nearly imperceptible edit which indicates that perhaps the lower door popped open yet a fourth time! Knowing Lucille Ball, she likely called “Cut!” and asked someone to fix the damn oven door!”
Lucy tosses the pizza dough high in the air and it gets sucked up the vent and doesn’t come down! There was probably a stagehand hanging from the rafters to catch it.
The disappearing dough then plops down on the curb outside the pizzeria window! It looks like an actual concrete street curb, so this quick insert shot was probably filmed outside the studio.
Thanks to High Definition television, a close-up of the pizza ovens reveals that these are not real ovens, but wooden facsimiles made by Desilu. The grain of the painted wood is clearly visible. The handle is a wooden dowel.
Oops! Lucy hid the bulk of her mistakes in the other ovens, so why is this one the only one belching black smoke?
Pizza industry aficionados have claimed that a New York pizzeria in 1956 would not have had a machine to flatten the dough. At that time they were still doing it by hand. Machines were much more common in Los Angeles pizzerias.
PIZZA PAST-A!
When “Lucy Changes Her Mind” (S2;E21) she can’t decide between Italian and Chinese food, so Fred suggests “Ravioli Foo Yung or Chicken Chow Pizza”!
When in Rome – make pizza jokes! In “Lucy’s Italian Movie” (S5;E23) there are two!
The plot for this episode bears more than a passing resemblance to “Tennessee Ernie Visits” (S3;E28) and “Tennessee Ernie Hangs On” (S3;E29) in which a visitor from out of town overstays his welcome and will not accept charity to move on.
PIZZA FUTURE-A!
In 1969′s “Lucy and the Generation Gap” (HL S2;E12),
the proprietor of Murphy’s is named Murphy Irving Fong, originally from San Francisco. Lucy Carter avoids eating pizza to preserve her figure. Her son Craig says “Look what it did for Sofia Loren” so Lucy digs in.
Lucy Carmichael get a make-over that’s actually on a hidden camera television show in “Lucy and the Beauty Doctor” (TLS S3;E24). The phony beauty treatment includes tomato sauce, provolone, and olive oil – turning Lucy’s face into a living pizza!
In 1968′s “Lucy and Miss Shelley Winters” (HL S1;E4), Lucy catches Shelley snacking on a pizza pie she’s hidden in the record player between the LPs. Could one of them be “That’s Amore?”
Jay Novello returned to work with Lucille Ball as a former safe cracker turned candy maker in 1963′s “Lucy and the Safe Cracker” (TLS S2;E5).
Their last collaboration was as another Italian character, restaurateur Tony DiBello in 1964′s “Lucy Meets a Millionaire” (TLS S2;E24).
SELLING PIZZA!
A puzzlement! The box is actually shaped like a pizza box!
Papermoon Loves Lucy 
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