“The Saxophone”

(S2;E2 ~ September 22, 1952) Directed by William Asher. Written by

Jess Oppenheimer, Madelyn Pugh and Bob Carroll, Jr. Filmed June 6, 1952 at General Service Studios.

Rating: 67.5/65

Synopsis ~ When Ricky won’t take Lucy on tour, she dig out her saxophone in order to join the band! When that doesn’t work, she tries to convince him that leaving her behind might not be good for their marriage.

It was the 40th episode filmed but the 37th aired. It was the last filmed before an abbreviated summer hiatus (July 1952) in order to prepare for Lucille Ball’s pregnancy leave. 

The date this episode went in front of the cameras regional TV Guide (New York and New England) had Lucy and Desi on the cover: “The Marriage That Fooled Hollywood”!

The episode’s plot parallels real life in that “I Love Lucy” was created to keep Desi at home with Lucy, and not on the road where he might encounter admiring (female) fans. Here, Lucy wants to go on the road with Ricky to prevent him from meeting admiring (female) fans. 

Lucille Ball had briefly played the saxophone as a child. When the writers discovered this they asked Lucy if she could still play. She replied “No, but give me a week.” By the time rehearsals started she knew enough to get by. In fact, she practiced so much that she played a little too well and had to consciously remember to play the wrong notes. Writer Madelyn Pugh later said, 

“As for Lucy playing the saxophone – she was a writer’s dream. No matter what we asked her to do – ride a lawnmower, jump on a trampoline, walk on stilts – she never said ‘No,’ just ‘Give me a few days to learn it.’"

In his autobiography, A Book, Desi Arnaz said,

“We could’ve had Lucy fake playing the xylophone and the sax, while someone off-camera did it, but it wouldn’t have been as funny as Lucy struggling to do it well herself.“

The episode opens with Lucy in the attic. This is the only time in the series that we see the attic of 623 East 68th Street. In an steamer trunk Lucy finds a couple of her old hats. One is a fancy bonnet she says she wore on 5th Avenue for the Easter parade, which was not a formal parade, but an informal stroll on Easter morning in order to show off one’s Easter finery. The tradition started in the 1880s and inspired Irving Berlin to write the song "Easter Parade” for the 1933 Broadway musical As Thousands Cheer. The song later served as the basis for the 1948 MGM film Easter Parade.

The other hat is a floppy cloche Lucy says she wore during her Greta Garbo period. She even sucks in her cheeks to complete Garbo’s gaunt look. Swedish-born Greta Garbo was an Academy Award-winning film star who left show business in 1941. Unlike Lucy, who stayed in public life till her death, Garbo became a legendary recluse. 

Lucy also finds a mounted fish Ricky caught at Chautauqua Lake. Ethel dubs it a “rainbow sardine.” 

When she finds her saxophone, she mentions to Ethel that she was in the high school marching band in Celoron in order to date a football player.

Celoronis located on Lake Chautauqua, a small suburb of Jamestown, New York.

In later episodes, Lucy preferred to say she was from Jamestown – or West Jamestown, as in “The Passports” (S5;E11).

Lucy demonstrates her musical skill for Ethel on her newly rediscovered saxophone. She toots out a halting, off-pitch version of “Glow-Worm.” "The Glow-Worm” is a song from Paul Lincke’s 1902 operetta Lysistrata. It was originally translated into English by Lilla Cayley Robinson and was used in the 1907 Broadway musical The Girl Behind the Counter as a last minute replacement for another song. Johnny Mercer later expanded and revised Robinson’s lyrics for a recording by The Mills Brothers, the same year this episode aired. 

When Ethel requests “Star Dust” – it sounds exactly like “Glow-Worm”!  ”Star Dust“ (or “Stardust”) was composed in 1927 by Hoagy Carmichael with lyrics added by Mitchell Parish in 1929. It became an American standard and is one of the most recorded songs of the 20th century with over 1,500 recordings. Shame we never hear it! 

When his regular sax player gets ill just before the tour, Ricky gets on the phone to prospective replacements and calls Ralph Brady, who was the real-life saxophonist in the Desi Arnaz orchestra.

Brady has a solo riff (his ‘audition’) at the start of the scene at the Tropicana and is then asked to go to the office and make the deal.  

This frees up his chair for the next candidate – Lucy!  She has taken Fred’s advice to heart and dresses and talks like a stereotypical musician of the 1920s and ‘30s.  

Lucy asks about Nancy, the harpist, who was also a real member of the orchestra.  Ricky also mentions Marco.  Marco Rizo was the orchestra’s pianist and Desi’s childhood friend.  Both Nancy and Marco are in the above photo with Desi.

When Ricky tells Lucy she can’t come on the tour, she hatches a plan to make him wary of leaving her home alone: a secret lover.  

Lucy pretends to be reading the November 1951 issue of Holiday Magazine. Holiday was a travel magazine published from 1946 to 1977 with more than one million subscribers at its height. The magazine employed writers such as Truman Capote, Joan Didion, James Michener, and E.B. White. The magazine was relaunched as a bi-annual publication in 2014, located in Paris, but written in English.

When Lucy asks Ricky for “a piece of the paper” she opens it so that the camera has a clear view of ads for Schaefer Beer and Johnnie Walker Whiskey. 

This same copy of the newspaper also appeared on in “Job Switching” (S2;E1), a week earlier. In the late 1940s, Lucille Ball did print ads for Schaefer Beer.  

Ricky recruits Jule, his musician’s union agent, to send over a few guys to participate in a scenario that will get back at Lucy for making up a mystery lover. 

One of TV’s busiest character actors Herb Vigran (Jule) makes his series debut in this episode and immediately returns in “The Anniversary Present” (S2;E3) to play the same character. He will also play Mrs. Trumbull’s nephew Joe, the washing machine repairman, in “Never Do Business With Friends” (S2;E31) and Al Sparks, the publicist who turns Lucy and Ethel into Martians, in “Lucy is Envious” (S3;E23). Vigran also played the man who sold Lucy and Desi The Long, Long Trailer (1953) and returned to work for Lucy in six episodes of "The Lucy Show” between 1963 and 1966.

The handsome man hiding in the closet is played by Charles Victor, who makes his only appearance in the series. Victor was just 5 days older than Lucille Ball.  Three other men are also hidden in there, but they go un-credited.  

Count on Lucy to turn the tables once again and get back at Ricky!  One of the boys must have spilled the beans to Lucy, who then got Jule in on the act.  

FAST FORWARD!

Lucy Ricardo picked up the sax again in “Lucy’s Club Dance” (S3;E25)…

and in “Ragtime Band” (S6;E21), although in that episode “Sweet Sue” is the only song Lucy can play, not “Glow Worm.”

Lucy Carmichael played the sax in 1964′s “Ethel Merman and the Boy Scout Show” (TLS S2;E19) while a skeptical Mr. Mooney (Gale Gordon) looks on. 

In 1971′s “Lucy and Her All-Nun Band” (HL S4;E8),

Lucy Carter subs on sax for a sick sister. [Say that three times fast!] The episode features noted saxophonist Freddy Martin.

When "Lucy Competes With Carol Burnett” (HL S2;E24) in the 1970 Miss Secretary Beautiful Pageant, Mrs. Carter’s talent is a playing the saxophone. Although Lucille Ball usually played either “Sweet Sue” or “Glow-Worm,” this time she attempts “Little Brown Jug.”

Bandleader Phil Harris has not one, but two sax players in his orchestra when he appeared on a 1974 episode of “Here’s Lucy”. 

Lucy Barker wants to pass on her love of the saxophone to her granddaughter (Jenny Lewis) on an episode of “Life With Lucy” (1986).

SAXY MERCH!

CLOSET CASE! 

Writer Madelyn Pugh remembers: 

"For some reason, Bob [Carrol Jr.] and I liked the idea of people hiding in a closet. We used it in this show, and in a couple of other ‘Lucys.’ We even used it in the pilot of ‘The Mothers-in-Law’ fifteen years later – and it always got a laugh!”

When the boys are “Drafted” (S1;E11, bottom right), seven surprise party guests are hidden in the closet. Lucy and Ricky hide in the closet to celebrate their “Sentimental Anniversary” (S3;E16. left) and Lucy hides in the closet of the “New Neighbors” (S1;E21, top right) when caught snooping around their apartment.

“The Mothers-In-Law” (1967-69) was a sitcom created by Desi Arnaz starring Eve Arden and Herbert Rudley (above, in the closet) as well as Kaye Ballard and Roger C. Carmel. 

Among the “couple of ‘Lucys’” mentioned by Pugh is a 1973 episode of “Here’s Lucy” where Lucy Carter, her family, and friends all get locked in her living room  closet.  Six is the same number of people stuffed in the closet during 

“Drafted” (S1;E11) bringing things full circle!