“Ricky’s European Booking”

(S5;E10 ~ December 12, 1955) Directed by James V. Kern, and written by Jess Oppenheimer, Madelyn Pugh, Bob Carroll, Jr., Bob Schiller, and Bob Weiskopf. Filmed November 10, 1955 at Ren-Mar Studios. Rating: 46.4/73

Synopsis ~ Just a month after coming home from Hollywood, Ricky is booked on a tour of Europe with his band. Unfortunately, he can’t afford to take Lucy along. Lucy comes up with a scheme to raise the money herself by creating a fake charity and raffling off a new television.

The night this episode of “I Love Lucy” was filmed (November 10, 1955) Mary Jane Croft (Evelyn Bigsby) was heard as the voice of Cleo the Basset Hound on “The People’s Choice.”  Croft worked on nearly all of the NBC sitcom’s episodes from 1955 to 1958. 

Little Ricky’s wooden blocks are Hi-Lo Safety Blocks with inter-locking grooves made by Halsam Products Co., which was founded in 1917 by brothers-in-law Harold Elliot and Sam Goss, Jr. (“Hal+Sam”). Halsam was purchased by Playskool and they discontinued the Hi-Lo blocks in the early 1970s.   These same blocks were first seen in “Ethel’s Birthday” (S4;E9).  

When Fred correctly predicts exactly how Lucy will react to the news of Ricky’s booking, he says “Just call me Dunninger.” Fred is referring to Joseph Dunninger (1892-1975), known as ‘The Amazing Dunninger’ for his world-famous mentalist act. He was one of the pioneer performers of magic on radio and television.

When Ricky comes home to tell Lucy that he can’t take her to Europe, Lucy is wearing her brown top and skirt with the the vertical arrows. This is the second of three times Lucille Ball wore this Elois Jenssen creation. This time, her top is a lighter shade of brown than when she was jailed in Tennessee. 

Excited Lucy prematurely picks up the telephone to tell Caroline the good news. Lucy’s friend Caroline Appleby was played by Doris Singleton. The character was last seen in “Lucy and Harpo Marx” (S4;E28) and will make one more appearance in “Lucy and Superman” in 1957.  After hanging up with Caroline, Lucy calls Josephine, but Ricky cuts the call short to tell her the bad news.   

Ethel bursts in to say the butcher told her about Lucy’s trip to Europe. Through an elaborate game of telephone, Caroline Appleby told Marion Strong, Marion told the grocery boy, the grocery boy told the butcher, and the butcher told Ethel. Marion Strong was seen on camera four times. Marion Strong was played by Shirley Mitchell in three of her four appearances. The character was originated by Margie Liszt in her first episode.

LUCY: “Marion Strong is just a hop, skip, and a blab from Caroline Appleby.”

Cynical Ethel thinks Ricky doesn’t want to take Lucy along, intimating that Ricky might stray and break his marital vows!

ETHEL: “He’s a man, isn’t he? What a set-up for him: three glorious weeks in Europe; just a band; no wives along.”  

Ricky gets on the telephone to find a band manager. 

RICKY: “Barney, how would you like your old job back? Oh, you’re working for Cugie now, huh?” 

Ricky is referring to his rival (and Desi Arnazes’ friend and colleague) Xavier Cugat. Cugat was often mentioned by Ricky on the series. He eventually offers Fred the job, in recognition of his managing his own vaudeville act. 

Like Josephine, Barney is a character we never meet and never hear about again. Coincidentally (perhaps), an actor named Barney appears later in the script. Lucy mentions her mother, who will babysit with Little Ricky (another character mentioned but not seen in this episode) while they are away. 

Oops!  When Lucy holds up a protest sign “Ricky Ricardo Unfair” while marching through the living room, an audience member can distinctly be heard saying “He’s unfair!” 

Before going to Hollywood, the Ricardos used an ivy pattern coffee service. But now Lucy and Ricky are using the same service that they had at the Beverly Palms Hotel. This is the same style cup that Lucy doused her flaming nose in when meeting William Holden. The modern cups and saucers were made by Franciscan Ware. The Franciscan Tiempo style was produced from 1949 to 1954 and featured a squared shape.

Ricky says that the total expense for Lucy and Ethel to go to Europe will be $3,000. At first, Lucy and Ethel scrounge around their apartments to find the money. They raise: 

• $9.73 from in between sofa cushions 
• $29.25 in the sugar bowls 
• $28.16 from piggy banks 

• $15.36 from GTHP (Going Through Husband’s Pants)

All Ethel finds in Fred’s pants pockets are an old Woodrow Wilson button and some lint. Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, serving two terms from 1913 to 1921. Lint is lint. 

After rattling off the numbers listed above, Lucy says they have $200.16, when the total of the four sources mentioned actually only comes to $82.50.  This means that before the scene started, Lucy iterated income that totaled $117.66! 

Ethel thinks they should play the Irish Sweepstakes, but Lucy says the odds are too high. The Irish Sweepstakes were created in Ireland in the 1930s to help fund hospitals. Despite tickets being illegal outside Ireland, millions of tickets were sold in the US, the UK and Canada, where lotteries were generally illegal. In 1956, the “Sweeps” were as close as the US got to a lottery. It was previously mentioned in “Bonus Bucks” (S3;E21).  

To raise the remaining $2,800 Lucy comes up with the idea to hold a raffle. Ethel thinks that it may be dishonest because only needy causes hold raffles, a concern that Lucy quickly dismisses claiming they they are the neediest causes she knows. In real life, Lucille Ball was very philanthropic and raised money for a variety of charities. While it seems a little shallow of Lucy Ricardo to think she was ‘needy’, it bears remembering that this is a sitcom, not real life! 

LUCY: “All we have to do for our needy cause is come up with a good phony name.”

Ethel offers the name ‘Two Bundles for Britain.’ Lucy says “No. It has to be real.” 

In fact, Bundles for Britain was real!  The war relief effort was started in 1940 by American Natalie Wales Latham (above) as a knitting circle in a store front in New York City. Socks, gloves, hats, sweaters, and scarves were made and shipped to Britain. Within Sixteen months, Bundles expanded into an organization with 975 branches and almost a million contributors. By 1941, Bundles had also shipped ambulances, surgical instruments, and medicines, along with used clothing of all sorts. The group is mentioned again in “Bon Voyage” (S5;E13) when Fred says that the sea air has increased Ethel’s appetite on the ship. 

FRED: “Wait till she finds out the food’s free. She’ll be the biggest bundle Britain’s ever seen.”

Lucy and Ethel finally dub their bogus charity Ladies Overseas Aid. 

LUCY: “We’re ladies, we want to go overseas, and boy do we need aid!” 

At the drawing, the TV is won by Hazel Pierce, Lucy’s camera and lighting  stand-in and frequent series extra. Ethel even says her real name out loud when she wins. Pierce usually doesn’t have lines but here quite naturally exclaims “Oh! That’s me! I won!”

Vivian Vance’s camera and lighting stand-in Renita Reachi (foreground) is in the crowd as well.

Dorothea Wolbert also uses her own name to play a surprise visitor – the head of the real (at least in the Lucyverse) Ladies Overseas Aid all the way from Indiana. Wolbert began doing silent films in 1916. She specialized in playing maids, cleaning women, and little old ladies. She passed away three years after this episode aired. In the original script, her character name was named Mrs. Osborne.

Barney Phillips (Mr. Jamison, the man from the District Attorney’s Office) is probably best remembered for playing the bartender with the third eye in the 1961 “The Twilight Zone” episode “Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?.” Just before this appearance on “I Love Lucy,” he played a recurring character on “Dragnet.”

Henry Antrim (Mr. Feldman of Feldman’s Appliance Store) appeared in the Oscar-winning film The Heiress in 1949. An accomplished stage actor, he appeared in eight Broadway plays from 1936 to 1945. In the original script his character was named Mr. Mellman. As a side note, it appears that Feldman’s Appliance Store does a big business in doorbells!  This wall unit was probably pulled from pre-existing stock and previously used in another television show or film on the Desilu lot. 

Series regular and Assistant Director Louis A. Nicoletti (left) plays the Recording Engineer. He is in the booth with three other uncredited, bespectacled gentlemen. 

Ricky and The Pied Pipers appear recording the theme song for the Arnazes upcoming film Forever, Darling. The Pied Pipers are a singing group first formed in 1938. They most famously sang with Tommy Dorsey and Frank Sinatra, who was originally a member himself. The group is still performing today. Over the years, 16 different vocalists have performed as the Pied Pipers, most notably Jo Stafford. They appeared with Lucille Ball in Du Barry Was a Lady in 1943. In this episode, the group is comprised of Lee Cotch, Clark Yokum, Allen Davies, and Sue Allen. 

“Forever, Darling” (the song) was written for the film by Sammy Cahn and Bronislau Kaper. It was (naturally) released on MGM Records.

Sadly, the song was generally edited out of the syndicated version of this episode but was restored for the DVD.

Interestingly, although the Pied Pipers recorded the song with Desi for records, in the Forever, Darling film itself soundtrack it is sung by the Ames Brothers. On February 5, 1956, Desi Arnaz and the Ames Brothers appeared on “The Ed Sullivan Show” singing “Forever, Darling” to promote the film. 

While in the recording studio Ricky receives an exciting call from the steamship company about their crossing. There is no mention of the S.S. Constitution because the deal between American Export Lines and Desilu had not yet been finalized. The studio scene heavily promotes MGM the film’s distributor, who Ricky worked for when in Hollywood. On the way out the door, Ricky pats a Leo the Lion plush doll on the head and says “Bye, Leo!” 

Leo was a puppet that was featured on the CBS show “MGM Parade” hosted by George Murphy (above). Murphy’s introductions and interviews were set in an office decorated with Oscars, plaques, and a lion puppet in a tuxedo nicknamed ‘Little Leo’ inspired by the roaring lion that started MGM films. Murphy and his guests would often converse with the puppet during the show. Lucy and Desi appeared on “MGM Parade” in February 1956 to promote Forever, Darling, although they only talked to Murphy, not Leo. Although this seems like an insignificant passing moment on “I Love Lucy,” viewers of both shows in the 1950s would have easily recognize Leo sitting by the door.

---

FAST FORWARD!

This plot was recycled on a 1971 episode of “Here’s Lucy” which finds Lucy Carter holding an illegal raffle to pay the taxes on the new car her daughter Kim (Lucie Arnaz) has won. The episode also features a government official and a little old lady! 

Looking for cash between the sofa cushions also yielded a political button in a 1969 episode of “Here’s Lucy.” Lucy’s daughter Kim (Lucie Arnaz) finds a ‘Win With Willkie’ button. Wendell Willkie was the 1940 Republican nominee for President. 

Using the same search method, Lucy Carmichael found a ‘Vote for Dewey’ button under the sofa in “Lucy Gets the Bird” (TLS S3;E12). Thomas E. Dewey was the Republican presidential nominee in 1948, but lost to President Harry S. Truman in one of the greatest upsets in presidential election history.

In a 1962 episode of “The Lucy Show,” Lucy Carmichael visits Herb’s Appliance Store to find out about a television set. Herb seems to stock far fewer doorbells than Mr. Feldman.