“The Ricardos Visit Cuba”

(S6;E9 ~ December 3,1956) Directed by James V. Kern. Written by

Madelyn Martin, Bob Carroll, Jr., Bob Schiller and Bob Weiskopf. Filmed October 18, 1956 at Ren-Mar Studios. Rating: 45.9/64

Synopsis ~ While visiting Florida, the Ricardos and the Mertzes take a side trip to Cuba to visit Ricky’s relatives. 

For a long time, CBS removed this episode from syndication due to the political situation with Cuba. The Cuban revolution started in 1953 and by the time this episode aired guerrilla warfare was starting to occur throughout the country. 

The original title of the episode was “The Ricardos Visit Havana”. Uncle Carlos was renamed Uncle Alberto, to stay closer to Desi’s real family tree. 

For the flight from Miami to Havana, the gang once again flies Pan American Airways, the same carrier they took home from Europe. 

The airline folded in 1991. 

The Pan Am flight attendant was played by Barbara Logan.

Ricky reads to his son from the book “Three of Us.” Lucy hopes Ricky’s family will like her. 

ETHEL: “What if they don’t [like you]? What are they going to do?  Start another Spanish-American War?”

The Spanish–American War was an armed conflict between Spain and the United States in 1898. Hostilities began in the aftermath of the internal explosion of USS Maine in Havana harbor in Cuba, leading to US intervention in the Cuban War of Independence.

At the time, Pan Am owned the historic Hotel Nacional de Cuba where the Ricardos and the Mertzes stay.

Ten years earlier the hotel was the site of a mob summit later depicted in the film The Godfather Part II (1974). The same year this episode was filmed and aired, Nat King Cole wanted to stay at the Nacional, but was not allowed to because he was black. He still fulfilled his contract to perform at the nearby Tropicana, the club that served as the inspiration for Ricky Ricardo’s NYC nightclub.

In the episode, Ricky is performing at the hotel’s new nightclub, the Casino Parisién. It opened in January 1956 with a show starring Eartha Kitt. Fidel Castro closed the Casino in October 1960, almost two years after his overthrow of Batista. Both the Nacional and the Parisién are still in operation today, although the Casino has since been re-named the Cabaret

Parisién.

UNCLE ALBERTO: (To Lucy) “Where did you get that beautiful red hair?”
LUCY: “Oh, I get it every two weeks.”

Unsurprisingly, Ricky has a large family: 

Uncle Alberto, Uncle Eduardo (a judge), Uncle Pedro, Aunt Rosa, Uncle Rafael, Aunt Silvia, Aunt Maria Pepa, Uncle Jorge, Uncle Guillermito Menendez Nandine, Manuel, Amberta, Amparo, Pepe, Enrique, Josefina, and a pair of twins! 

• Mary Emery reprises her role as Ricky’s (unnamed) mother. She first played the character in “Lucy’s Mother In Law” (S4;E7). This would be her last screen role before retiring. 
• Jorge Trevino (Uncle Alberto) started making films in Mexico in 1934. He would also appear as a Judge in the very first episode of “The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour” called “Lucy Takes a Cruise to Havana” (1957). Desi Arnaz’s grandfather was named Alberto, an executive at Bacardi, and it is also Desi’s middle name. 
• Mexican-born Rodolfo Hoyos Jr. also appeared as one of the two Spanish-speaking party guests in “Lucy’s Mother in Law” (S4;E7). 
• Lillian Molieri played ‘Dream’ Carlotta in “Ricky’s Old Girlfriend” (S3;E12).
• Manuel Paris was a Spanish-born actor who appeared in more than 150 films, including as an extra in Casablanca (1943). His credits include Cuban-themed films like Havana Rose and Cuban Fireball (both in 1951). He died in 1959.  
• Abel Franco was born in El Paso, Texas. He did more than 50 films and television shows, mostly as Mexican characters. 
• Amapolo Del Vando was born in Seville, Spain and came to America at age 9.

Trying to replace the cigars she sat on for Uncle Alberto, Lucy goes shopping.  Things don’t go as planned when she accidentally steps on a $15 box of Corona Grande cigars just as Uncle Alberto and Ricky come through the shop door.  

The Cigar Store Owner was played by Nacho Galindo, a Mexican-born actor whose first film was Week-End in Havana (1941). Eight years later he was in Holiday in Havana (1949) and – along with Manuel Paris – Cuban Fireball in 1959.

Lucy’s fellow cigar-roller is named Angelo, but the actor goes un-credited.

The episode finishes with two songs: “Babalu” and “A Lucky Guy.” By this time, Philip Morris was no longer a sponsor, so the word “lucky” was no longer banned to avoid suggestion of Lucky Strike cigarettes (aka Luckys). This episode was actually sponsored by Lilt Home Permanent and Sanka. The song was written especially for this episode.  

Venezuelan-born actor Eddie Le Baron played the nightclub emcee.

This rendition of “Babalu” is probably the most memorable of its many in the series, since Little Ricky joins his father playing the miniature conga drum that Big Ricky used as a child and the scene is set in the nation of Ricky’s birth. Keith Thibodeaux (Little Ricky) later said that the song was in the wrong key for him, so he had to squeak out the really high notes. It only makes the scene more poignant.

BACK TO THE FUTURE!

Been there, done that, got the t-shirt!

The first episode of “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour” (1957) was a flashback to 1940 and set in Havana, Cuba, where Lucy McGillicuddy met Ricky Ricardo. Although filmed in Hollywood, a second unit was sent to Havana to get establishing footage.  When violence broke out in Cuba, Desi Arnaz instructed them to pack up and come home. 

In Lucille Ball’s 1969 appearance on “The Carol Burnett Show,” two flight attendants encounter a mysterious passenger (Harvey Korman) with a Fidel Castro-like beard, cigars tucked in his breast pocket, and a thick Spanish accent.

LUCY: “Where are you from, sir?  Havana?”
KORMAN (alarmed): “Havana? What makes you think I’m from Havana?”
LUCY: “Well, if it’s one thing I know, it’s a Cuban accent.”

Fan Fiction – Cuban Style!