“The Girls Go Into Business”

(S3;E2 ~ October 12, 1953) Directed by William Asher. Written by Jess Oppenheimer, Madelyn Pugh and Bob Carroll, Jr. Filmed September 11, 1953 at Ren-Mar Studios. Rating: 56.2/79

Synopsis ~ Lucy and Ethel buy a dress shop behind their husbands’ backs, and soon find that it won’t be as easy as they anticipated.

The was the first episode filmed for season three, although the second aired. It was also the first episode filmed in the show’s new studio, Ren-Mar Studios. The show had out-grown their previous filming location at General Service Studios.

Lucy and Ethel weren’t the only women out shopping. On the day this episode was filmed, September 11, 1953, hundreds of women took to the streets of New York City to track down bargains as part of 1953 Dollar Days. 

This is one of the few times the off-screen story is more compelling than what was happening on TV.

The episode was filmed during the week Lucille Ball went through her ‘red scare’ and was labeled a Communist by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). Back in 1936, to please her grandfather, she agreed to register as a Communist. Lucy never planned to vote for the Communist party, never followed their beliefs, nor participated in any of their activities. On the evening of September 11, 1953, Desi Arnaz nervously went out to welcome the studio audience. He explained how Lucy was in no way a Communist, and that he himself had left Cuba to flee Communism. He begged the audience not to believe everything they read in the newspapers. He then introduced Lucy with this famous quote: 

“And now I want you to meet my wife, my favorite redhead, in fact, that’s the only thing RED about her and even that’s not legitimate.” 

The studio audience gave Lucy a rousing round of applause, and in December of that year the “I Love Lucy” cast was invited to perform at the White House, President Dwight Eisenhower thereby confirming her innocence.

The day after the filming, the Arnazes held a press conference at their Chatsworth Ranch. 

For more about Lucille Ball and Joe McCarthy, who headed the HUAC, click here!

Coming home from shopping, Lucy and Ethel bring their purchases into the bedroom.  The bedspreads are hobnail chenille Minuet Early American

produced by Morgan-Jones. Lucy’s bedspreads are placed with reverse side up so the pattern reads better on camera. 

This was not a casual choice. Morgan-Jones partnered with Desilu for the product placement, including permission to use Lucille Ball’s image in print advertising. 

This episode introduces the Mayer Twins, Michael and Joseph, who would play Little Ricky for the next three seasons. They assumed the role from the Simmons Twins, Richard and Ronald Lee. As in previous seasons, the bolster of the crib is embroidered with the Lucy and Desi stick figures that were then part of the opening credits. 

As Lucy and Ethel round the corner to Hansen’s Dress Shop to return their purchases, they pass the Morris Hull Book Shop.  Morris Hull (1906-89) was an author responsible for hundreds of pulp novels, although he usually wrote under the name Herbert O. Pruett. Cannery Anne (1936) was the only book published under his given name. 

Oops!  The backdrop is sagging quite a bit just to the left of the mailbox!

Hazel Pierce and Bennett Green, Lucy and Desi’s camera and lighting stand-ins, play a couple of passersby on the street. 

After Mrs. Hansen agrees to sell the shop to Lucy for $1,500 (”I’ll take it.”) there is an obvious edit in the scene before the customers enter. 

The shop’s regular ‘customers’ (actually Mrs. Hansen’s co-conspirators) were played by Barbara Pepper (Grace) and Kay Wiley, both frequent extras on the show. In fact, both were also customers of the butcher shop where Lucy covertly sells her side of beef in “The Freezer” (S1;E29). 

Mabel Paige (Mrs. Hansen) was born in New York City in 1880 and began acting at age 4. In the Southern states, she became a particular favorite and was dubbed ‘The Idol of the South.’ 

Between 1914 and 1953 she acted in more than 50 films. In her first silent movies she co-starred with a ‘pre-Laurel’ Oliver Hardy. Paige starred with Lucy in the movie Her Husband’s Affairs (1947) and played another character named Mrs. Hanson (an apartment building manager much like Fred Mertz) in The Mating of Millie (1948). Later that same year she was seen as Mrs. Lutz in Johnny Belinda. “The Girls Go Into Business” aired just four months before Paige’s death from a heart attack at the age of 73.

Mrs. Hansen’s ‘tale of woe’ is that her mother is in the hospital in need of an operation, her grandmother wrecked the car, and their house burned down.  All this induces a guilt-ridden Lucy to bump the sale price from $1,500 to $3,000, the original asking price.   

Sitcom Logic Alert!  Lucy figures that based on the fact that the two customers bought $200 in merchandise in five minutes, they would make $2,400 an hour, and $19,000 a day!  Even Lucy can’t be naive enough to think that they will do that sort of business!  Although Mrs. Hansen says she has “a long lease” she never discloses what the rent for the store is – just the selling price for the inventory. Lucy also fails to account for overhead.  Lucy does all these figures in her head, but pauses a moment to figure out that ten percent of $3,000 is $300!

Oops! Mrs. Hansen can’t need money all that much, since she leaves a bill lying on the floor!  

Mabel Paige does a brilliant job of portraying a little old lady with a the heart of a cash register!  

MRS. HANSEN: Oh,
you’re the dearest, sweetest girls in all the world and how do you
want to handle the down payment?
LUCY: Uh, well, what did you
have in mind?
MRS. HANSEN (bluntly): Money.

Leaving the shop as new business owners (and fulfilling the promise of the title), Lucy says “Saks Fifth Avenue, look out!” Saks Fifth Avenue is a chain of luxury department stores that opened their flagship store in New York City in 1867.  Their iconic beige basket weave gift boxes will be regularly seen on the show during season six. 

Christening their newly-purchased boutique causes a minor rift between the girls. 

ETHEL (about re-naming the shop): “I think it ought to be a combination of both our names, like Ethelu’s.”
LUCY: “Ethelu’s? Well, that doesn’t sound very good.”
ETHEL: “Well, what would you suggest?”
LUCY: “Well, something that rolls right off your tongue like Lucyeth’s.”
ETHEL: “Lucyeth’s? Well, that rolls right off your tongue, all right. You couldn’t keep it on your tongue if you tried.”

Lucy isn’t excited about Ethel’s proposed name Ethelu for the dress shop but the name of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz’s production company is a portmanteau of similar construction – Desilu.  While it may seem silly to quibble about whose name comes first, this is Hollywood, where such things are so important that they are written into contracts.  Some stars would reject group photographs of themselves if they did not appear on the left because their name would not be listed first in the description.   

The girls compromise by having two different signs. 

While the girls are playing shopkeeper, Little Ricky’s usual babysitter Mrs. Trumbull is mentioned, but not seen on camera. 

In this episode, Lucille Ball wears both styles of polka-dot print dress: the one with the bib collar, and the one with the pointed collar.  These two dresses will make dozens of appearances on the show and become iconic looks for Lucy. 

A chance meeting with the boys outside the dress shop (the signs now flipped back to Hansen’s) finds Ricky and Fred returning from the drug store holding a carton of Philip Morris cigarettes. Desi makes sure the sponsor gets plenty of exposure by turning the box toward the camera and not carrying it in a paper sack. The boys walk off talking about their favorite subject – boxing. 

Lucy disguises herself as a little old lady who has been in an accident to bilk more money from a possible buyer, a Mr. Ralph S. Boyer (a character we never see), which is also the real-life name of Vivian Vance’s brother-in-law.  

All Lucille Ball’s ‘Little Old Ladies’ were strictly stereotyped depictions of senior citizens, something more appropriate to a vaudeville routine, than filmed television.  This sort of representation continued well into Here’s Lucy in the 1970s.  Click here to read about one such occurrence. 

In the above screen shot, Lucille Ball opens her mouth so wide we can see her fillings!  These are doubtless the fillings that helped capture Japanese spies during World War II, a story that well may be apocryphal.  Decide for yourself by clicking on this link to read the story. 

Emory Parnell plays the cop on the beat.  Although this is his only series appearance, the veteran character actor was in three films with Lucille Ball and seven with William Frawley.   

Mr. Boyer buys the shop for $3,500. Lucy and Ethel think they’ve made a nifty profit – until they boys tell them the building sold to developers for $50,000!   

WTF? For some reason Lucille Ball has her hair in a completely different style for this final scene.  Did Lucy Ricardo have time to go to the beauty salon after signing the papers at the bank and before coming home to brag to the boys?  It is likely that this short scene was filmed at another time and added to the print later. 

FAST FORWARD BUSINESS!

Lucy and Ethel also go into business in “The Million Dollar Idea” (S3;E13)  selling Lucy’s family recipe for salad dressing.

In “The Diner” (S3;E27), the Ricardos and the Mertzes also opened a business.  Like the dress shop, there is a disagreement about the name and the signs indicate the compromise: A Little Bit of Cuba and A Big Hunk of America.  

“Lucy and Viv Become Tycoons” (TLS S1;E2) selling their family recipe for caramel popcorn. 

In a rehash of the argument in

“The Girls Go Into Business,”

Lucy wants to call it Carmichael’s Caramel Corn and Viv wants it named Vivian’s Caramel Corn.  The episode also features a nosy policeman. 

Undaunted, the next year “Lucy and Viv Open a Restaurant” (TLS S2;E20) to make money, but find that customers aren’t coming.  

Desi Arnaz’s curtain speech the night this episode was filmed, declaring that Lucy was not a communist, was recreated in the TV bio-film Lucy (2003) starring Rachel York as Lucy and Danny Pino (above) as Desi.