“The Million Dollar Idea”

“Television!  We’ll go on television!”

(S3;E13 ~ January 11, 1954) Directed by William Asher. Written by Jess Oppenheimer, Madelyn Pugh, and Bob Carroll, Jr.  Filmed November 28, 1953 at Ren-Mar Studios. 

Rating: 62.7/83

It was the 79th episode filmed. This is the first new episode of the series in calendar year 1954. 

Synopsis ~ Lucy dreams of making millions by selling her homemade salad dressing. To help sales, Lucy and Ethel go on television, which brings in more orders than they can handle!

This ‘get rich quick scheme’ hearkens back to “The Girls Go Into Business” (S3;E1), where Lucy and Ethel buy a dress shop, combined with elements of  “Lucy Does a Television Commercial” (S1;30, above) where Lucy pitches Vitameatavegamin and (in her living room) Philip-Morris.

The episode opens with the foursome having dinner. This allows an opportunity for jokes about Ethel’s weight. At dinner Lucy is wearing the Elois Jenssen dress she previously wore in “Lucy Has Her Eyes Examined” (S3;E11)

and will wear twice more in 1954.   

Lucy’s leaf print tablecloth was made by Calaprint. This tablecloth was seen in several episodes and even appeared later in the Westport house in a kitchen scene when Lucy is ironing it.

Lucy’s ivy pattern dishes were from the Franciscan Ivy dinnerware from California-based Gladding, McBean, & Co. The set was first sold in 1948, so it was only a few years on the market when “I Love Lucy” series began filming in June 1951.

Lucy had the full dinner service including salt and pepper shakers, butter dish, and tea set with teapot (which is used in the next scene, set in the kitchen at breakfast the next day). 

The Ivy set was used throughout the series as well as on “Bewitched” (above, also directed by William Asher) and “The Donna Reed Show.” It even turns up used in the Lucy / Desi film Forever Darling (1956). 

For dessert, Lucy brings out a plate of bite sized pastries. When Ricky wants to talk about her being overdrawn at the bank, Lucy doesn’t want to discuss it while she’s eating. Rather than have to ‘splain her finances, Lucy eats a dozen of the treats while Ricky waits patiently! What the props department used for the sweets is unknown, but they make an audible crispy crunch when Lucy bites into them. Luckily for Lucille Ball re-takes were a rarity on “I Love Lucy!” 

Ricky: “There’s lots of wonderful salad dressings on the market made by people who know what they’re doing!” 

~ A BRIEF HISTORY OF SALAD DRESSING ~

• 1896 ~ Joe Marzetti opened a restaurant in Columbus, Ohio, and began to serve his customers a variety of dressings developed from old country recipes. He began packaging his dressings to sell to restaurant customers in 1919.
• 1912 ~ Richard Hellmann, a deli owner in New York, began to sell his blue ribbon mayonnaise in wooden containers. One year later, in response to a strong consumer demand, Hellmann began to market the mayonnaise in glass jars.
• 1925 ~ The Kraft Cheese Company entered the salad dressing business with the purchase of several regional mayonnaise manufacturers. This led to Kraft’s initial entry into the pourable dressing business with French Dressing as its first flavor.

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Everyone agrees that Lucy’s salad dressing is delicious so ‘the million dollar idea’ is born!  They decide to call their new product ‘Aunt Martha’s Old Fashioned Salad Dressing’ because it was Lucy’s family recipe. Curiously, Lucy and Ethel both have an Aunt Martha. We learn of Lucy’s Aunt Martha in this episode, and we learn about Ethel’s in “Face to Face” (S5;E7).  

To sell the salad dressing they go on “The Dickie Davis Show,” a four-hour (!) daily TV program produced at the station run by Caroline Appleby’s husband, Charlie. [Neither Appleby appears in the episode, although both have previously been seen on screen.] Although unheard of today, commercials like this, often done live, were frequently part of television shows. In fact, Lucy and Desi did many such commercials in character as the Ricardos promoting their sponsors like Philip-Morris, Sanka, or (later) Westinghouse.

Dickie Davis is played by Frank Nelson, who seems to have cornered the market on radio and TV hosts in the Lucy-verse, having already appeared as Freddy Fillmore twice as of the date of this episode. Fillmore will make one more appearance in “Ricky’s Hawaiian Vacation” (S4;E22) in March 1954. He also played talent scout Ben Benjamin and Westport neighbor Ralph Ramsey. It seems the writers had a penchant for alliterative names when it came to Nelson!  The actor has the distinction of being the only performer to play more than one running character (two or more appearances) on the series. 

Nelson’s own surname is used for the show’s main sponsor, The Nelson Photo Finishing Company, whose clever slogan is ‘Our Business is Developing.’ They are located at Leed and Hickox, non-existent NYC cross streets that likely reference Martin Leeds, a Desilu Executive, and Andrew Hickox, the Arnazes business manager. 

Speaking of business, Lucy tells Ethel she’s used up her allowance until June the 12th — 1978! Ironically, in the previous episode Lucy had a nightmare that Ricky left her for a sexy Cuban dancer and she was reduced to begging outside their theater, 25 years in the future – 1978!  [The episode was filmed and aired in late 1953.] For information on what Lucille Ball was really doing in 1978 click on the date!.

In their early ‘infomercial,’ Ethel plays ‘one of the country’s leading home economists’ Mary Margaret McMertz, a spoof on Mary Margaret McBride (1899-1976), a pioneering broadcaster and one of the nation’s most popular voices on radio. McBride was first heard on WOR as the host of a daily woman’s program. 

Under the pseudonym ‘Martha Deane’ McBride portrayed a fictional grandmother telling stories, offering advice, interviewing guests, and skillfully pitching products. During her career, she was heard on all three networks: CBS, NBC, and ABC, retiring the year this episode aired. 

To test the salad dressing, McMertz brings on an ‘average housewife selected at random’: Lucy, calling herself Isabella Clump, a nasal-voiced frump.

Product Placement ~ On Lucy’s stove top are three shakers: salt, pepper, and Accent, a seasoning blend comprised primarily of MSG. 

Owens of Illinois

marketed a three-shaker set, which Lucy owned. As the series soared in the ratings, subliminal placement of such products became more common – even if the item was never used or mentioned.

Lucy and Ethel charge 40 cents a quart for their dressing. After Ricky subtracts the cost of the ingredients they are left with a profit of just three cents, which they promised to Caroline. They quickly realize that they have more orders than they can keep up with and aren’t making any money, so they go back on the show to ‘un-sell’ their product. 

When Fred brings up the first sack of mail filled with order for the Salad Dressing, he says it is the “morning mail.” There was a time when the US Post Office made two deliveries a day: Morning Mail and Afternoon. The practice gone the way of the morning and evening editions of the newspaper. 

Lucy then uses her maiden name to become ‘average housewife selected at random’ Lucille McGillicuddy (“Cancel! Cancel! Cancel!”). 

When that, too, backfires, they buy store-made salad dressing at 50 cents a quart, 10 cents more than what they were originally charging, and affix their own labels on them!  

Oops! Lucille Ball makes a rare dialogue error towards the end of the episode. She says they have 1,153 orders, but later tells Ricky there are 1,133 jars. 

• On their way to deliver their orders, Lucy calls Ethel by her middle name, Roberta, which was Vivian Vance’s real middle name. 

• Previously, in “Lucy and Ethel Buy the Same Dress” (S3;E3),

  Ethel’s middle name was Louise (William Frawley’s ex-wife’s first name). 

• When she visits her hometown in season 5

  her middle name is Mae (Vivian Vance’s mother’s middle name). “Ethel Mae Potter – We Never Forgot Her”. 

Apparently, someone ‘forgot her’ middle name! 

Sitcom Logic Alert!  Lucy lives on the fourth floor walk-up brownstone. How will she and Ethel (on skates) manage shopping carts full of glass jars?!?

As the two Salad Dressing Delivery girls skate out the front door, Lucy says to Ethel:

LUCY: “You take the East Side and I’ll take the West Side and I’ll be in Jersey a-fore ya!”  

Lucy is paraphrasing "The Bonnie Banks o’ Loch Lomond“, a well-known traditional Scottish song first published in 1841. The original lyrics are: “O ye’ll tak’ the high road, and I’ll tak’ the low road, and I’ll be in Scotland a’fore ye.” To make sure the spoken reference is understood by viewers, the orchestra plays the song with a Scottish sound as the episode ends. 

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FAST FORWARD!

Lucy also got her skates on in an episode of “The Lucy Show” and in the feature film Mame. 

Nearly two years later, in November 1955, Jackie Gleason’s “The Honeymooners” also did a memorable spoof on television commercials when Ralph Kramden (Gleason as ‘Chef of the Future’) and Ed Norton (Art Carney as ‘Chef of the Past’) try to sell their newest ‘get rich quick’ gadget, the “Handy Housewife Helper.” The question is, “Can it core a apple?”  

In 1938, while a contract player with RKO, a brunette Lucille Ball contributed her recipe for salad dressing to a cookbook titled Famous Stars Favorite Foods.  Onions, oil, and salt are also ingredients in Aunt Martha’s Salad Dressing. Not being much of a cook, chances are this entry was handled by RKO’s publicity department. 

On April 19, 2019, CBS broadcast a colorized version of this episode in primetime along with

“Bonus Bucks” (S3;E21) under the umbrella title of “Funny Money Special”. These two episodes bring the total number of colorized half hours to 16. 

Nostalgia merchants and marketeers have produced a variety of Lucy merchandise and collectibles based on this episode:

• a heart-shaped plate; 
• various holiday ornaments; 
• kitchen aprons;
• video boxes;
• tin signs;
• a picture puzzle in a Aunt Martha’s Salad Dressing jar (above); 
• foreign postage stamps