“The Gossip”

(S1;E24 ~ March 24, 1952) Directed by Marc Daniels. Written by

Jess Oppenheimer, Madelyn Pugh, and Bob Carroll, Jr. Filmed on February 15, 1952 at General Service Studio. 

Synopsis ~ Lucy and Ethel bet Ricky and Fred breakfast in bed for a month that they can’t stop gossiping. Just to be sure they’ll win, the boys plant a juicy story about neighbor Grace Foster running away with the milkman. 

This plot closely follows “Gossip” (broadcast September 9, 1950), episode #96 of Lucille Ball’s radio show “My Favorite Husband,” except that the bet is $25, not breakfast in bed.

The same evening this episode first aired (March 24, 1952), Lucille Ball’s good friend Mary Wickes appeared in the “Studio One” presentation “Miss Hargreaves” on CBS.  Six weeks earlier, Wickes had played ballet mistress Madame LaMond on “I Love Lucy.” 

The date this episode was filmed (February 15, 1952), Hollywood character actress Ethel Wales died at age 73. Born in Passaic, New Jersey, her final screen credit was the Lucille Ball film Fancy Pants (1950). 

---

At the start of the episode, Lucy is gossiping on the telephone with her girlfriend Marge, a character we meet in “No Children Allowed” (S2;E22) and  “The Homecoming” (S5;E6) where she is played by Charlotte Lawrence.

The pendant Lucy wears in the first scene was one of Lucille Ball’s favorite pieces of jewelry.

In order to keep from gossiping, Lucy tapes her mouth shut and has to communicate through pantomime, something at which Lucille Ball was very adept. In many future episodes of her television series’ Lucy would play charades for comic effect.  Lucille Ball would also go on the game show “Body Language” and promote a box game by the same name. 

With her mouth taped shut, Ethel guesses that the gossip is about Betty and Jack. This should not be interpreted to be Betty Ramsey, who’s husband was named Ralph. Before guessing Betty, Ethel guesses it may be Blanche, Dorothy, or Luanne. The name Luann will be given to Luann Hall (Vivvi Jannis) in “The Charm School” (S3;E15).  The name Dorothy is given to Lucy and Ethel’s single friend Dorothy Cook (Sarah Selby) in “The Matchmaker” (S4;E4). There was never a character named Blanche on “I Love Lucy” mainly because Blanche Morton, played by Lucy’s friend Bea Benadaret, was a famous character on “The George Burns and Gracie Allan Show,” which preceded “I Love Lucy” on the CBS Monday night line-up.  

The story that Lucy pantomimes is then verbally translated by Ethel for Ricky and Fred – and the viewing audience, too!

Betty and Jack had a fight over another woman. 

Betty went in a club and saw Jack with the other woman. 

The two of them were caught kissing and drinking. 

Betty was so angry that she went over and started yelling at Jack. 

Betty got into a fight with the other woman. 

Jack tried to stop the two women from fighting, but a policeman came in and separated the two women. 

The policeman put the women in the Black Mariah, threw Jack in, too, and they went driving away with the siren on.

Black Mariah is a slang term for a police ‘paddy wagon’ a vehicle designed to transport several criminals at one time.  

In the bedroom scene, the show unusually makes use of voice over so that the audience can hear what Lucy and Ricky are thinking. 

When Lucy hears Ricky and Fred indulging in idle chatter about the goings on at the Tropicana, Lucy refers to them as “Hedda and Lolly” – the first of many references to gossip columnist Hedda Hopper and her rival Louella Parsons. Hopper famously played herself in an episode in season five as well as on the first episode of “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour.” 

Ricky’s gossip centers on how Marco, Ricky’s pianist, was talking about Joe the trombone player being a wolf (aka womanizer). 

RICKY: “This week it’s Nancy the harpist, last week was one of the girls in the trio, the week before that was the hat check girl.”

The names refer to real members of the Desi Arnaz / Ricky Ricardo Orchestra, but not their actual personal lives. Marco Rizo, pianist, was seen and heard on many episodes. Joe Miller was a brass player and Nancy the Harpist was played by Maryce R. Pickering.

This is the second of three times the corner drugstore set is used, conspicuously decorated with advertising for the show’s main sponsor, Philip Morris, including their ‘living mascot’ Johnny Roventini and their slogan “Call for Philip Morris!” The set was first used two weeks earlier when “Fred and Ethel Fight” (S1;E22) and again in “Redecorating” (S2;E8). 

Philip Morris took out a comic book-style print media ad based on the ‘breakfast in bed’ ending of “The Gossip”. 

Speaking of gossip, here’s a juicy story that might have made Hedda’s column: 

During rehearsals Lucy got into an argument with director Marc Daniels. He wanted the milkman to crawl on the bed, while Lucy wanted the him to walk around it. Lucy didn’t see the logic and reasoned that if it didn’t make sense, it wouldn’t be funny. Daniels couldn’t supply a good reason for the milkman to walk on the bed, so Producer Jess Oppenheimer sided with Lucy, and the milkman walked around the bed.

Lucy and Ethel independently come up with the idea to “borrow a cup of sugar / flour” as an excuse to see each other.  This was a common comedy trope of the time for introducing characters into a scene. Here, both Lucy and Ethel are playing on this trope, revealing that neither really needs flour or sugar!  

Just as Ethel is leaving, Lucy blurts out the gossip that Ricky has planted!  

Lucy and Ethel hear ghostly voices chiding them for gossiping. The voices are coming from the air vent next to the fireplace. The girls teach them a lesson! 

This is the second use of the furnace pipe (aka ‘the snooper’s friend’) as a source of information. 

When the boys come upstairs covered in soot, Lucy dubs them the “Coal Dust Twins,” a play on the Gold Dust Twins, the logo of a popular washing powder of the time. The twins (Goldy and Dusty) were two comically portrayed African-American children whose slogan was “Let us do the work for you.” The brand was phased out by the mid-’50s as competition grew and national sensibilities changed.

Lucy uses a brass clad fireplace bellows, with an old English pub design. 

Lucy and Ethel cannot keep from gossiping and blurt out Ricky and Fred’s contrived story that Grace and the milkman are going to Mexico for a quickie divorce before settling in Steubenville (Ohio). Ethel should have known that this was a made-up story because her husband Fred was born in Steubenville!  

In this episode, the Fosters are said to live in apartment 3B, which is the original number of the apartment the Ricardos get from switching with the Bensons (above) at the end of season two. In “The Anniversary Present” (S2;E3), the Fosters live in apartment 2A! 

Bobby Jellison played the milkman, the “cottage cheese Casanova” and “cow juice peddler” (as Bill Foster calls him). The actor would memorably return in season five to play Bobby the Bellboy at the Beverly Palms Hotel for a half dozen episodes. He played a bellhop again on a 1958 episode of “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour” set in Las Vegas.

Richard Reeves (Bill Foster) here makes his second of eight appearances on “I Love Lucy.” Although he appeared in five episodes of “The Adventures of Superman” and did a failed pilot for a Superboy spin-off, he is not related to George Reeves, who later guest starred on “I Love Lucy” as the Man of Steel. A physically imposing actor, he often appeared in comic book-themed TV shows. His last association with Lucy was in a 1963 episode of “The Lucy Show” playing a policeman. 

Ironically, the next time we hear of the Fosters it is Grace (Gloria Blondell) who gets the camera time, while Bill is away on business. In “The Gossip” Grace is said to be a blonde, but when she we see her in “The Anniversary Present” (S2;E3, above), she is a brunette.

Oops! When Ethel brings the breakfast to Fred (who is in Ricky’s bed) the tray features the Ricardo’s Franciscan Ivy dinnerware. If Ethel had really brought breakfast from her kitchen it would have been served on different plates.

FAST FORWARD! 

In 2001, a Polish remake loosely based on “I Love Lucy” titled “Kocham Klara” (”I Love Clara”), presented “Rumor” loosely based on this episode and co-written with the cooperation of the original “I Love Lucy” writers.  

Kuba and Jan accuse their wives of being the world’s greatest gossipers. Klara and Hanna say the opposite is true; their husbands love to gossip. A bet is established who will be caught gossiping sooner. The winner will receive breakfast in bed. Meanwhile, time goes by, and neither Klara nor Hanna intend to gossip. Kuba and Jan decide to inspire them to do so.