“Lucy Writes a Novel”

“You’ll
get no more books from me, so go watch television!”

(S3;E24 ~ April 5, 1954) Directed by William Asher. Written by

Jess Oppenheimer, Madelyn Pugh, and Bob Carroll, Jr. Filmed March 4, 1954 at Ren-Mar Studio.

Rating: 51.5/75

Synopsis ~ Hearing that a housewife got $10,000 for writing a book, Lucy decides to become a novelist! Much to the chagrin of Ricky, Fred and Ethel, her subject will be a thinly disguised (and outrageously romanticized) version of her own life. 

The date this episode first aired was also the 43rd birthday of Gordon Jones. Like Lucille Ball, he was born in 1911. He had a wife named Lucille and appeared with Ball in two films and posthumously in an episode of “The Lucy Show” in 1963.

Before we talk about the episode itself, let’s talk about…

---

TYPE CASTING!

To type her novel, Lucy uses a Remington SJ Typewriter (top left), although the brand name has been taped over on the front of the typewriter facing the camera. Lucy already had a fling at being a writer in “The Operetta” (S2;E5, center) and in “Lucy Writes a Play” (S1;E17, bottom right) where she also combined elements of her own life with her writing. In that episode, Lucy used an Underwood Universal Typewriter. 

In the film Miss Grant Takes Richmond (1949), Lucille Ball had trouble with the typewriter ribbon! Remember those?

When Lucy Carmichael becomes a reporter at the Danfield Tribune, she loads paper in the typewriter that already has been typed on!  

As a secretary, Lucy Carter also had trouble with her typewriter in “Lucy’s Replacement” (HL S4;E19). 

Typewriter brand names were still being redacted in 1973′s “The Big Game” (HL S6;E2).  

Harry Carter didn’t have much luck with Lucy’s new (made in Japan) electric typewriter in “Lucy the Crusader” (HL S3;E5).

When Lucille Ball was looking to cast a bit player to play a lightning-fast typist on “Here’s Lucy,” Ball could think of no one faster than her own personal secretary, Wanda Clark, who got the role!  What Clark didn’t tell Lucy was that she was used to typing on an electric, and the on-set typewriter was a manual! 

---

Lucy says “My novel may turn out to be another ‘Gone with the Wind’!“ Margaret Mitchell’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Civil War saga was first published in 1936. Lucy naturally compares Ricky to Rhett Butler and herself to Scarlett O’Hara. When the Oscar-winning film version was being cast in 1938, Lucille Ball was considered for the leading role.

Lucy’s roman à clef is met with some disagreement from her husband: 

LUCY: "A lonely immigrant arriving in New York Harbor on a cattle boat. As your leaky Cuban cattle boat steamed into New York Harbor, tears cascaded down your cheeks as you saw the Statue of Liberty for the first time. You clutched your knapsack to you – your pitiful little bundle that contained all your worldly belongings – and you wept unashamedly. You made a vow that someday you would be a famous orchestra leader.”
RICKY: “You crazy or something? You know darn well I came here by plane – from Havana to Miami Beach – and I wasn’t lonely; I had 14 musicians with me.”

In the Lucy-verse, Ricky Ricardo was an established musician coming to America to seek fame and fortune, whereas in real life Desi Arnaz came to Miami alone on a boat – a poor teenager from Santiago, Cuba, fleeing Batista’s revolution. Lucy names him ‘Nicky Nicardo’ in her book. Nicky was also the first name of Desi’s character in The Long, Long Trailer (1953).

When Ethel Mertz (or as she is known in Lucy’s novel, Ethel Nertz) finds a hidden copy of Lucy’s tell-all tome rolled up in the window shade over the stove, she lights up the fireplace and tells Lucy: “We pulled down the kitchen blind and changed the name of your novel to ‘Forever Ember.’”  Fred remarks that “There’s nothing like a good book IN a roaring fire!”  Forever Amber is a 1944 romance novel by Kathleen Winsor set in 17th-century England. It was made into a film in 1947 starring Cornel Wilde, who appeared in “The Star Upstairs” (S4;E25). This is the first time the fireplace in the Ricardo apartment is actually lit and used for more than just leaning on the mantle.

Lucy plans to name the sequel to her novel “Sugar Cane Mutiny,” a play on Cuba’s main export and the 1951 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk. The book was turned into a Broadway play which premiere just two months before this episode was filmed and was mentioned by Lucy’s high school drama teacher Miss Hannah (Ellen Corby) in “Lucy Meets Orson Welles” (S6;E3). Two months after “Lucy Writes a Novel” aired, the book was made into a feature film starring Van Johnson, who starred in “The Dancing Star” (S4;E27).

Surprisingly, Lucy’s receives an acceptance letter from Dorrance and Company Publishers. Founded in 1920, Dorrance Publishing is a real firm still operating in Pittsburgh, PA. Unfortunately, they want to include it in a writing textbook, heading up the chapter “Don’t Let This Happen To You.”  

Try and Stop Me by Bennett Cerf can by glimpsed on the Ricardo bookshelves in “The Inferiority Complex” (S2;E18) and “Ricky Has Labor Pains (S2;E14).  

Pierre Watkin (Mr. Dorrance) had appeared with Lucille Ball in the films Bunker Bean (1936), DuBarry Was a Lady (1943), and Her Husband’s Affairs (1947). He returned for a 1959 episode of “The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour.”  Watkin was hired to take over the role of Perry White on “Adventures of Superman” but star George Reeves died shortly after and the show was canceled. Reeves guest-starred on “I Love Lucy” as the man of steel in “Lucy and Superman” (S6;E13) and coincidentally also appeared as Brent Tarleton in the film Gone With The Wind.

Dayton Lummis (Mel Eaton) returns to the series after playing producer Bill Parker in “Lucy Has Her Eyes Examined” (S3;E11). Lummis was born on August 8, 1903, in Summit, NJ. He went on to play Ricky’s MGM Studio rep in “Hollywood at Last!” (S4;E16).

A NOVEL FAST FORWARD

The novel Gone With the Wind makes a cameo appearance in “Lucy’s Lucky Day” (HL S4;E15). Lucy Carter finds an overdue library book – Gone With The Wind – which she says took out when it was first published. 

For More About Lucille Ball’s Unique Relationship to GONE WITH THE WIND Click Here!

The Caine Mutiny turns up in “Lucy and Eva Gabor” (HL S1;E7). A member of Lucy’s Bridge Club (Gail Bonney) asks Eva for her autograph, on a copy of The Caine Mutiny, the 1951 Pulitzer Prize–winning novel by Herman Wouk. Seems Lucy’s pal didn’t buy Eva’s book, so she grabbed something off her home bookshelf for her to inscribe!

Okay, nobody in “Lucy the Crusader” (HL S3;E5) actually reads Philip Roth’s racy 1969 novel Portnoy’s Complaint, but during Lucy Carter’s neighborhood meeting to talk about consumer gripes, a woman recognized as Mrs. Portnoy (Kathleen Hughes) stands up to voice a complaint – about a malfunctioning garage door!  

In that same episode, Lucy reads Eva’s hot new novel Valley of the Puppets, which was clearly inspired by Jacqueline Susann’s Valley of the Dolls, first published in 1966. 

In “Milton Berle Hides out at the Ricardos” (LDCH September 29, 1959), Milton Berle had just published his first (and only) novel, Earthquake written with John Roeburt. Lucy takes an interest in it to convince Berle to star in the Westport PTA show. 

Arouse and Beware by MacKinlay Kantor and Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald turn up on the newsstand paperback rack of the Danfield train station in “No More Double Dates” (TLS S1;E21).  Lucy is too busy avoiding Viv and her date to take time for reading!