“Lucy and the Dummy”

(S5;E3 ~ October 17, 1955) Directed by James V. Kern. Written by Jess Oppenheimer, Madelyn Pugh, Bob Carroll, Jr., Bob Schiller and Bob Weiskopf. Filmed September 22, 1955 at Ren-Mar Studios. Rating: 46.5/66

Synopsis ~ Ricky brings home a wax head of himself made by the studio for trick shots. MGM Studios calls and asks him to perform for studio executives, but Ricky declines, saying he wouldn’t miss his ‘dipsy’ [‘deep-sea] fishing trip for the world. Lucy decides she will do the show alone – or is she? 

The same date this episode was filmed, September 22, 1955, commercial television (ITV) premiered in Great Britain, joining the venerable BBC. Naturally, Lucille Ball was on the cover of one of the very first TV guides in England. “I Love Lucy” would air on Sunday nights, as opposed to Mondays in the USA. Their first day of programming consisted of:

• 19:15 Opening Ceremony at Guildhall

• 20:00 Variety
• 20:40 Drama – excerpts from The Importance Of Being Earnest, Baker’s Dozen, and Private Lives
• 21:10 Professional Boxing – Murphy v Lazar, Southern Area Middleweight Championship from Town Hall, Shoreditch
• 22:00 News and Newsreel
• 22:15 Gala Night at the Mayfair
• 22:30 Star Cabaret Music by Billy Ternant and Orchestra
• 22:50 Preview of forthcoming programmes on ITV [”I Love Lucy”?]
• 23:00 Epilogue

During rehearsals, this episode was running three minutes short, so a sneak preview of MGM’s Guys and Dolls was inserted. The musical number added was Frank Sinatra singing “Adelaide,” a song written by Frank Loesser especially for the film. The number was not included in syndicated episodes or on the DVD release, most likely due to copyright issues.  However, the DVD does restore the spoken introduction to the clip, with the screen going to black and picking up with Lucy and ‘Ricky’s’ introduction.  

Coincidentally, Frank Loesser also wrote The Most Happy Fella, a Broadway musical that the gang went to see in 1957 and that Lucy and Desi invested in. 

The morning after the episode aired, many people called Sinatra and said they’d seen him on “I Love Lucy.” Apparently, ‘old blue eyes’ knew nothing about it. This is the only Desi / Lucy / Frank interaction until Sinatra confronted Desi about the Mafia stereotypes on Desilu’s “The Untouchables” (1959-63), although one biography of Lucille Ball said that she asked Sinatra to star in a musical situation comedy for Desilu. In 1984, when Variety Clubs International honored Lucille Ball with a televised “All-Star Party” Sinatra sang “You Are the Sunshine of My Life” to Lucy.

Ethel mentions how easily Fred gets seasick, “He gets queasy if I have too many waves in my hair.” This is the perfect set-up for later in the season when Lucy helps Fred get over mal de mer in “Staten Island Ferry” (S5;E12).

When Fred and Ethel drop by, Ricky and Lucy are still arguing about his going fishing. 

ETHEL: “They’re always showing the same old movie on this channel.”

In the mid-1950s television began to show feature films to fill programming hours. Because the film industry was wary of television and considered them rivals, their catalog of films did not feature much of a selection. Therefore, seeing the same film repeated on a TV station was an all-too-common occurrence. 

Lucy decides to use the disembodied head to create a dummy of Ricky and appear in the show herself singing and dancing to “I Get Ideas.” The song was first sung by Ricky in “The Publicity Agent” (S1;E31) but was continually interrupted by Lucy’s swooning while disguised as the Maharincess of Franistan! The best-known version of the song was by Tony Martin, but it was also covered by Louis Armstrong and Miss Peggy Lee, all in 1951.

Lucy previously cut comic capers with a dummy (mannequin) in a fur store window in “Lucy Changes Her Mind” (S2;E21).

Lucy plans to pretend to have Ricky become ‘suddenly ill’ during the performance so that she can carry on solo, but ‘Raggedy Ricky’ falls apart and soon Lucy’s plan does, too! 

Oops!  When ‘Raggedy Ricky’s’ head pops off, his neckerchief also comes off, too. I stays on the stage after Lucy has kicked the head into the wings. When she is taking her bows, it twice gets underfoot and threatens to trip up our redhead. 

To her surprise, everyone loves her comedy performance, and MGM offers her a year-long contract. But Lucy gets sad thinking about how much she’ll miss her family, and after a tortured night imagining her Hollywood success (six Oscars! No, twelve!), she ends up turning down her dreams of stardom.

Although both Lucy’s Mother (Kathryn Card) and Little Ricky (The Mayer Twins) are mentioned, neither appear in the episode. However, Little Ricky is heard crying in the next room. 

The evening’s emcee Chip Jackson (played by Lee Millar Jr.) introduced the clip, as well as Lucy and rag doll Ricky. Millar was best known as the voice of Jim Dear (Lady’s master) in Walt Disney’s classic Lady and the Tramp. He was following in the footsteps of his parents, Verna Felton and Lee Millar Sr. She had played Mrs. Porter in “Lucy Hires a Maid” (S2;E23) but was best known for an array of Disney voices, including Jim Dear’s Aunt Sarah. His father was one of the actors who supplied the ‘voice’ of Disney’s Pluto. This was Millar’s fourth and last appearance on “I Love Lucy,” although he would do an episode of “The Lucy Show” in 1964.

The episode ends with Lucy being offered a contract for her comedy dancing but turning it down to be a wife. This was also the ending of “The Audition” (S1;E6), and “The Mustache” (S1;E23). 

Over the final credits, the announcer says: “Theremin effects by Dr. Samuel Hoffman.“ During Lucy’s imaginings of Hollywood fame, a Theremin was heard, giving the sequence a dream-like, surreal quality. At the time, Hoffman was the ‘go-to’ man for this sort of thing. A virtuoso violinist, at 14 he became the youngest musician to play at Loew’s New York Roof Garden, and later formed his own orchestra (using the stage name Hal Hope). He also studied podiatry and became a foot doctor by day and band leader by night. In the 1940’s, Hoffman transferred his medical practice to Los Angeles. When Miklos Rosza was looking for a Thereminist to play for Alfred Hitchcock’s Spellbound, Hoffman was hired on the spot. He went on to play Theremin in dozens of Hollywood films, including (oddly) Lucy and Bob Hope’s 1950 comedy Fancy Pants. Sadly his career on the instrument ended with the invention of an electronic Theremin in 1959.

There is a brief deleted scene in this episode that has been restored on the DVD. We get to see more of Lucy backstage with Fred and Ethel before she goes on with the dummy. The scene directly followed the Guys and Dolls clip. 

FAST FORWARD!

In 1956 the gang travel to Miami Beach, where Ricky also goes “Deep-Sea Fishing” (S6;E7). Being from Cuba, it was one of Desi’s favorite leisure-time activities. 

In a 1966 episode of “The Lucy Show,” Lucy Carmichael is the dummy in the act when Paul Winchell’s Tessie Mahoney dummy doesn’t get to the theatre on time!

When a department store dummy in the window ‘loses his head’ Lucy Carmichael lends him hers in this 1965 episode of “The Lucy Show.” 

This training dummy plummets to his ‘death’ at the hands of Lucy Carmichael and Viv Bagley when they enroll to become Danfield volunteer fire fighters in a 1963 episode of “The Lucy Show.” 

In a 1970 episode of “Here’s Lucy”, Lucy Carter steals a wax dummy of Lawrence Welk for her dinner party! 

Mame Dennis (Lucille Ball) also has an encounter with a department store dummy in 1974′s Mame.