“Ricky’s Movie Offer”

(S4;E6 – November 8, 1954) Directed by William Asher. Written by Jess Oppenheimer, Madelyn Pugh and Bob Carroll, Jr. Filmed September 16, 1954 at Ren-Mar Studios. Rating: 47.4/66

Synopsis ~ A Hollywood talent agent wants to audition Ricky for a part in a film. Naturally, everyone in the building wants to get into the act! 

This storyline kicks off the gang’s adventures in Hollywood. The writers were looking to freshen up the show and get them out of the New York apartment. Taking the Ricardos and the Mertzes to California would bring new plot possibilities as well as lots of famous guest stars. This is also the first mention of Don Juan, the character that he is eventually slated to play in a film. 

The episode begins with Fred installing new locks, even though he had just done so less than a year ago.  

Little Ricky (one of the Mayer Twins) actually speaks!  He says “hi” to Fred and then “gracias” (although the latter sounds a lot like “grazie” or “thanky”).  

Oops!  After Fred secures the chain lock to the front door, with the chain mounted onto the frame of the door, he then slides the chain into the door’s slide-catch to demonstrate how strong it is. When Ethel barrels through the door the chain is ripped off the frame, leaving the chain (and the piece that was screwed to the frame) dangling from the slide-catch attached to the door, but in Ethel’s closeup the chain is still mounted to the door’s frame. The scene was likely edited from different takes. 

Fred’s new-found security obsession comes from Ethel reading a newspaper article about burglars disguised themselves as salesmen. 

LUCY: “Most door-to-door salesmen I’ve met are very honest.” 

Lucy has a short memory. She’s forgetting about Harry Martin (played by Sheldon Leonard), who sold her various Handy Dandy products including a vacuum cleaner in “Sales Resistance” (S2;E17). Not to mention slick second-hand furniture salesman Dan Jenkins (Hans Conried) in “Redecorating” (S2;E8).

Ethel mistakes the talent scout Ben Benjamin (the ubiquitous Frank Nelson) for an intruder and Lucy conks him on the head with a vase. This is the second time a talent scout has visited the Ricardo apartment. The first was Mr. Murdoch (John Brown) in “The Mustache” (S1;E23). Like Murdoch, Benjamin is in for a rough time!  

Although it seems like a made-up name, Ben Benjamin was actually the name of Madelyn Pugh and Bob Carroll, Jr.’s (the show’s writers) real-life agent. Nelson had a propensity for alliterative names playing Freddy Fillmore, Dickie Davis, and Ralph Ramsay. This is Nelson’s seventh guest appearance on the show.

Another Fine Sieg Heil! Lucy and Ethel then do a ‘Weekend at Bernie’s’ by sitting the unconscious talent scout upright on the sofa like nothing had happened. Ethel combs his hair, and for a few seconds puts the comb under his nose making the lifeless Benjamin looks exactly like Adolf Hitler.  Some more optimistic viewers claim he looks like Oliver Hardy. What do you think?

During the fracas, Frank Nelson’s trousers get a tear on the right leg. When Benjamin comes to, Lucy tries to act casual, as if in mid-conversation.

LUCY: “Do you mean to tell me that Elizabeth Taylor looks just as pretty off screen as she does on?” 

Hollywood starlet Elizabeth Taylor will be mentioned again in “Hollywood Anniversary” (S4;E23) along with her husband Michael Wilding. Lucille Ball will find out if she really is as pretty off-screen as on when she and husband Richard Burton guest star on a 1970 episode of “Here’s Lucy.” 

When Ricky hears that Hollywood wants him to star in a picture about Don Juan, he asks “Is it going to be cinemascopy and stereonopic?”  Lucy translates that he means “CinemaScope” and “Stereophonic”, motion picture technology for picture and sound replication. CinemaScope allowed movies to be filmed and shown in widescreen. It was barely a year old at the time of filming and lasted until 1967. Stereophonic refers

using two or more channels of transmission and reproduction so that the sound seems to surround the listener and to come from more than one source.

Sitcom Logic Alert! Ricky must have been keenly focused on Mr. Benjamin’s arrival, else why doesn’t he at least notice (let alone comment on) the badly broken door frame and many shards of pottery on the floor?

“It doesn’t make you an actor just because you’ve been shouting ‘Babalu’ and beating on a cowhide!”  

Practicing his script for the audition (the same lines that will be heard in the following episode “Ricky’s Screen Test”), Ricky even tries out the dialogue imitating Humphrey Bogart.  

When Lucy tries to give Ricky line readings, he replies:

RICKY: “Who do you think you are? Sarah Bernhardt?” 

Sarah Bernhardt (1844-1923) was a French stage actress who starred in some of the most popular plays of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. She also played male roles, including Shakespeare’s Hamlet. She made several theatrical tours around the world, and was one of the first prominent actresses to make sound recordings and to act in motion pictures.

But the episode is best remembered for Lucy’s impersonation of Marilyn Monroe. Fred incorrectly guesses she is supposed to be Humphrey Bogart in a wig! 

To impress Benjamin she pours herself into a tight-fitting, off-the-shoulder fushia velvet gown with pink fox sleeves. 

Hal King helped Lucy with her Marilyn make-up.  A platinum blonde wig completes the look. 

Although Lucy never worked with Monroe, she did meet her a year earlier at Ciro’s Nightclub on Sunset Strip, along with Betty Grable, and Red Skelton.

Coincidentally, on the same day this episode was first aired, Monroe was on the cover of Tempo Magazine. 

When Pete the Grocery Boy asks Lucy what she’s supposed to be in her Marilyn outfit, Fred replies “Gorgeous George,” a professional wrestler known for his flamboyant style and blonde hair. Churning butter in “Pioneer Women” (S1;E25) Ethel says her grandmother must have had arms like Gorgeous George!

Mrs. Trumbull

(Elizabeth Patterson)

visits Lucy on the premise of returning a cup of sugar she had borrowed, which is an old TV trope to give a character a reason to enter. Mrs. Trumbull bursts into a frail version of “Ah! Sweet Mystery of Life” from the 1910 operetta Naughty Marietta by Victor Herbert and Rida Johnson.  

Before you know it the word is out and everyone wants to get in the act: Ethel shows up as a Spanish dancer singing “The Habanera”, Fred is dressed as a matador, Mrs. Trumbull wears a mantilla and sings “Cielito Lindo,” and Pete the grocery boy (James Dobson), plays a perfunctory rendition of “In A Little Spanish Town” on the trumpet. This was Dobson’s only appearance on the series, although he was seen on a 1965 episode of “The Lucy Show.”  

PETE: “When I play the trumpet, I’m real gone, man.”
LUCY: “Then go, man, go.” (shoos him out the door)

The Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions defines “real gone” as “really cool; mellow and pleasant.”  At the time, slang like this was most often heard from jazz and blues musicians.  

In the original script there was also a little neighbor boy named Jimmy O’Malley, who was famous for singing "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling.” For various reasons, the lines were cut from the script after the dress rehearsal. In the original script, Lucy quips: 

“When he sings, Irish eyes are the only ones that ARE smiling!" 

Instead of Mrs. O’Malley pitching her Irish son, it was changed to Mrs. Sawyer pitching her French poodle. Lucy tells Mrs. Sawyer on the telephone, 

"I’m sure he [Mr. Benjamin] wouldn’t be interested in your French poodle. You see, this is a Spanish picture.” 

After a day of impromptu auditions, Lucy says: 

“I never knew this neighborhood was so full of frustrated performers. At last I found out where vaudeville went to die!”

STAR-STRUCK FAST FORWARD

Marilyn Monroe was mentioned in at least 5 episodes of “I Love Lucy” with the plots of  “Second Honeymoon” (S5;E14), “Changing the Boys Wardrobe” (S3;E10), and “Mr. and Mrs. TV Show” (S4;E5) indirectly referring to her without using her name. 

Although Lucille Ball and Humphrey Bogart never acted together, he was mentioned prominently on “Here’s Lucy” in October 1969, December 1969, and in February 1971 (above). 

Famed actress Sarah Bernhardt was mentioned on “Here’s Lucy” in December 1972 as well as being the subject for poster art used throughout the series. The art deco poster by Alphonse Mucha (1897) turned up in several different episodes.

Next to her diamond ring, Elizabeth Taylor was perhaps the biggest guest-star ever to appear on “Here’s Lucy.”