“Lucy and Bob Hope”

(S6;E1 ~ October 1, 1956) Directed by James V. Kern. Written by Madelyn Martin, Bob Carroll, Jr., Bob Schiller, and Bob Weiskopf. Filmed on June 5, 1956 at Ren-Mar Studios. Rating: 48.7/71

Synopsis ~ Sighting Bob Hope at Yankee Stadium, Lucy hopes to persuade him to appear at Ricky’s club. To get close enough to him, she disguises herself first as a hot-dog vendor, then as a tobacco-chewing baseball player. In the finale, she joins Bob and Ricky to perform at Ricky’s nightclub, the newly-re-named Club Babalu.

On an episode of “The Ed Sullivan Show” that aired the day before season six premiered, Desi announced that plans for the new season included visiting New Orleans and having Jack Benny and Maurice Chevalier as guest stars. As usual with Hollywood, plans changed: 

• The New Orleans trip was later switched to Florida. 
• Jack Benny, the Arnaz’s real-life neighbor, never guest starred on “I Love Lucy,” but did three episodes of “The Lucy Show” and five of “Here’s Lucy.” 
• Maurice Chevalier, who had been imitated in “The French Revue” (S3;E7), would guest star in a 1958 episode of of "The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour.”

This is the first episode of the final season of the half-hour series.  Season six brings a lot of changes to the show due largely to the departure of co-creator, head writer, and producer Jess Oppenheimer. 

This is also the first episode for Robert de Grasse as director of photography. De Grasse had worked on five films with Lucille Ball. 

Keith Thibodeaux makes his series debut as Little Ricky.  He is the eighth and final person to play the role on screen. He was chosen from an open casting call, despite Lucy’s doubts about his acting skills. His drumming and his resemblance to Desi won him the role. He would go on to play the character for 23 more half-hour episodes, and 12 of the 13 hour-long episodes. Although he took the stage name Richard Keith, he was always billed as simply “Little Ricky,” which may have contributed to the confusion between him and Lucy and Desi’s real son, Desi Arnaz Jr. After “I Love Lucy” ended in 1960, he stayed in the Desilu family playing one of Opie’s friends Jimmy John Jason in 13 episodes of “The Andy Griffith Show.”  He was very briefly seen in an episode of “The Lucy Show” in 1964.  His is now married and has a Christian rock band called David and the Giants. 

After Little Ricky’s first scene, when he scampers off to his bedroom for a nap, the studio audience give him a round of applause.  Mid-scene applause was a rarity on “I Love Lucy.” 

Ricky has become part owner of the Tropicana and is re-opening it under the name Club Babalu.

Writer Bob Carroll reasoned that Ricky Ricardo was making around $20,000 a year by season six, so he could afford such an investment.

When hearing that Lucy and Ethel are out shopping for the re-opening of the Club, Fred typically reacts:

FRED: “If you hadn’t bought a piece of the Tropicana, I wouldn’t be buying a piece of Saks Fifth Avenue.”

When “The Girls Go Into Business” (S3;E2) buying Hansen’s Dress Shop they excitedly say “Saks Fifth Avenue, look out!”

Saks Fifth Avenue is a chain of luxury department stores owned opened in 1867. Its main flagship store is located on Fifth Avenue, New York City. 

The props people used genuine Saks gift boxes with their distinctive thatched pattern.

Fred refers to Ethel’s ‘charga-plate’ the predecessor to the modern credit card. Used until the early ‘60s, they were made of aluminum or white metal plates, about the size of a dog tag, and embossed with the customer’s name and address. Fred threatens to “pound the letters down” indicating that they did not have a number, as modern credit cards do. Charga-plates were issued mostly by department stores, but also by a few oil companies. American Express, a company frequently mentioned on the series during the trip to Europe, was still two years away from issuing its first card when this episode was first broadcast. 

Bob Hope was born Lesley Townes Hope in England in 1903. During his extensive career (in virtually all forms of media) he received five honorary Academy Awards. He died at the age of 100.

In 1945 Desi Arnaz was the orchestra leader on Bob Hope’s NBC radio show. Prior to this episode, Lucille Ball and Bob Hope had made two films together: Sorrowful Jones (1949) and Fancy Pants (1950). After this episode they did two more films together: The Facts of Life (1960) and Critic’s Choice (1963). Hope made a cameo appearance in a 1962 episode of "The Lucy Show” that starred Jack Benny. Lucy and Hope appeared together in dozens of television programs, including Ball’s final appearance at the 1989 Oscars. 

When “I Love Lucy” was the top show on television, Hope walked up to Desi and said “YOU are getting laughs”?

When talking about Hope to Fred, Ricky mentions the name of his real-life agent, Jimmy Saphier. Saphier helped hope take his act from musicals and radio into film and television. He remained Hope’s agent until his death in 1974. 

Bob Hope owned a part of the Cleveland Indians so a baseball themed plot seemed natural, including a scene set at Yankee Stadium during an Indians / Yankees game. 

The original Yankee Stadium (built in 1923) was located in the Bronx, New York City, and was the home field of the New York Yankees, one of the city’s Major League Baseball franchises. At one point Ricky, fearing Lucy and Bob Hope will run into each other at the game, says “there’s 80 thousand people out there.”  That’s a slight exaggeration.  Yankee Stadium actually held just over 57,500 sports fans.  The stadium hosted 6,581 Yankees regular season home games during its 85-year history. It was razed in 2010 to build a new stadium one block north.

Although there is one establishing shot (above) of the stadium exterior, the sequence was not filmed on location, but at Desilu Studios in Hollywood. The day before this episode aired, the Yankees’ regular season had concluded with a loss to the Boston Red Socks and Cleveland losing to the Detroit Tigers. Two days after this episode first aired, the Yankees entered the World Series against the (then) Brooklyn Dodgers, winning in game seven. 

When he first signed on to play Fred Mertz in 1951, William Frawley had it in his contract that if the Yankees were ever in the World Series, he would be granted time off to attend the games. This clause resulted in a few ‘Fred-less’ episodes early in the show’s run. Frawley’s final motion picture was the Yankees-themed Safe at Home with Ralph Houk (above), Mickey Mantle, and Roger Maris as themselves. Mantle is mentioned by Frawley at the start of this episode. 

In “Ragtime Band” (S6;E21), Ethel sarcastically refers to Fred as “Babe Ruth” when he gets thrown out of Little Ricky’s little league game. Yankee Stadium was commonly called “The House that Ruth Built.” 

LITTLE RICKY: “Who’s Joe ‘Maggio?”
FRED: “’Who’s Joe ‘Maggio?’ You talk more like your father everyday.”

In “Lucy is Enceinte” (S2;E10), Fred gives Lucy a signed baseball for his future ‘godson’. When he asks Lucy to read out the signature, she at first says “Spalding,” the ball’s brand name, but then finds it is signed by Joe DiMaggio, a center fielder who played his entire 13-year career for the Yankees.

During the filming of this episode Bob Hope used cue cards, reportedly the first time they had been used on “I Love Lucy.” Hope was a busy star and an old friend, so Lucy didn’t insist that he memorize his lines like other actors on the show. 

The cue cards were held by prop man Jerry Miggins, who also had the thankless job of throwing the baseball that hits Hope on the head!

On his first entrance, a young fan (David Saber) asks Hope for an autograph. Before granting it, he asks the boy “Have you seen my latest picture, ‘The Iron Petticoat?’”  The boy eagerly replies, “Yes, sir.” 

However, The Iron Petticoat (1956) co-starring Katherine Hepburn, didn’t premiere in the US until early January 1957, three months after this episode aired. In the same breath, Hope manages to promote his television show and remind us that he owns a piece of the Indians. Coincidentally, the film was produced and directed by Ralph and Betty!  Not the Ramseys, but Betty Box and Ralph Thomas.  

Before Lucy takes over, the hot dog vendor is played by Bennett Green, who was also Desi’s camera and lighting stand-in and appeared in the background of many episodes, often being given a line or two.

When Lucy is disguised as a hot dog vendor she asks Hope to pass hot dogs and money back and forth – even making change – he quips “All of a sudden, I feel like UNIVAC.”  UNIVAC (UNIVersal Automatic Computer) was an early computer made by Remington Rand that at the time was used mainly for weather forecasting, but later that month would correctly predict that outcome of the 1956 Presidential election.

Sitting in the box next to Hope is Dick Elliott (”Mr. Mustard”) and Maxine Semon (”Miss Relish”), who both order hot dogs from Lucy with Hope as the go-between. 

Dick Elliott did two films with Lucille Ball and two others with Bob Hope before playing Tourist from Topeka at the top of the Empire State Building in “Lucy is Envious” (S3;E23).

Maxine Semon was one of the Nurses when Little Ricky went to the hospital in “Nursery School” (S5;E9) and the hotel maid when “Lucy Hunts Uranium" (1958).  

Lucy’s pestering proves such a distraction that Hope doesn’t see a vital play of the game. 

HOPE: “Oh, no! Al Rosen hits a home run and I gotta miss it!” 

Albert Leonard Rosen (1924–2015), nicknamed “Flip” and “The Hebrew Hammer”, was a third baseman and right-handed slugger for the Cleveland Indians from 1947 to 1956. Although the writers couldn’t have known it when the episode was filmed in June 1956, Rosen played his last Major League Game the day before this episode first aired, retiring for health issues. Even more coincidentally, Rosen (who lived to age 91) died in Rancho Mirage, California, the same place Desi Arnaz had built a home and a hotel, just outside Palm Springs. 

Lou Krugman (Paul) made such a positive impression on Lucy as the director in “Lucy Gets Into Pictures” (S4;E18) that the role of the Club Babalu’s manager was created especially for him, although he only played it once more. He made three appearances on “The Lucy Show” between 1963 and 1965.

Peter Leeds (Mr. Krausfeld, Yankee Stadium Guard) had played a reporter interviewing the Maharincess of Franistan in “The Publicity Agent” (S1;E31), as well as appearing as the garage manager in The Long, Long Trailer (1953). He often played policemen on television, and returned to work with Lucy as a cop in a 1971 episode of “Here’s Lucy.” 

In his brief scene, we learn that Mr. Krausfeld has a wife named Phoebe.

Henry Kulky (Trainer) was born on August 11, 1911 in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, just five days and 400 miles from Lucille Ball!

Ralph Sanford (Security Guard) had appeared with Lucille Ball in her 1940 film Dance, Girl, Dance and three films with Bob Hope.

When Lucy disguises herself as a baseball player, she wears a Cleveland Indians uniform with #19 on it.  This was the number worn by Bob Feller (1918-2010), who, like Al Rosen, also played his entire career for the Indians and also retired the day before this episode was first aired. Lucy probably didn’t know it, but had Ricky not tipped off part-owner Bob Hope that this was Lucy in disguise, he certainly would have known it was not Feller! 

When Hope says that he has a specialty song and dance number about baseball for three people, Ricky replies:

RICKY: “Well, I’m not exactly Gene Kelly, but I’d love to do it with you.”

Gene Kelly was

a Hollywood legend for his effortless dancing. Two years before this episode aired, Lucy and Desi had appeared with Kelly in “MGM’s 30th Anniversary Tribute.” The Oscar-winning performer did four films with Lucille Ball between 1943 and 1967. In 1978 Lucille Ball appeared on the TV tribute special “Gene Kelly: An American in Pasadena.” Two years later he appeared with Hope and Lucy in “Lucy Moves to NBC.”  Kelly died in 1996 at age 83.

When Ricky will not let Lucy be the third person in the number, she bursts into tears.

HOPE: “Aw, now. Come, come. Ballplayers never cry.”

This line, coupled with Lucy in a baseball uniform, cannot help but remind present-day viewers of the 1992 film A League of Their Own, where Tom Hanks utters one of the most famous lines in film history: “There’s no crying in baseball!”  The film was directed by Penny Marshall, whose career in front of the camera was often compared to that of Lucille Ball. Her brother, actor / director Garry Marshall, who has a small role in the film, wrote for “The Lucy Show” between 1964 and 1966. 

The song "Nobody Likes the Ump” was written especially for this episode with lyrics by Larry Orenstein, the same man who wrote the songs for the musical dream in “Lucy Goes to Scotland” (S5;E17). The music was written by Eliot Daniel.  Jack Baker did the choreography.  Baker, Daniel, and Orenstein all get a spoken credit at the end of the episodes. 

The song includes a soft shoe break for Hope.

HOPE: “If Marge sees this, Gower’s finished!” 

Hope is referring to Marge and Gower Champion, stage and screen choreographers and dancers were married from 1947 to 1973. 

Oops!  As the song ends, Lucy appears to still have the tiles attached to the bottom of her shoes. As the audience applauds, Lucy’s tiles vanish from her shoes!

Desi Arnaz hurt his back badly while rehearsing this number, so filming was postponed from a Thursday night to a Tuesday night.

“Thanks for the Memory” was written in 1938 by Ralph Rainger and Leo Robin for the film The Big Broadcast of 1938 starring Hope and Dorothy Lamour, although in the film Hope sang the song with Shirley Ross. It became associated with Bob Hope, who used it as his theme song. Here it features new lyrics that pertain to the episode.

HOPE

(after being kissed by Lucy): “I may never go back to NBC!”  

He did, of course. Ball was loyal to CBS until 1980, when she announced that she was going to NBC with a big primetime television special.  Sadly, the partnership only resulted on her appearing in more Bob Hope specials.  Both NBC and CBS passed on her final series, “Life With Lucy” which was picked up by producer Aaron Spelling’s network of choice, ABC. 

The episode’s sponsors were Squeeze Bottle Lilt, and Instant Sanka. 

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FAST (BALL) FORWARD!

In return for appearing on “I Love Lucy,” the cast did a guest spot on a Bob Hope special on NBC just three weeks later. In the sketch Hope wonders what “I Love Lucy” would be he had married Lucy instead of Desi. The set is a duplicate of the Ricardos’ living room. Lucy and Vivian Vance play their usual roles, but Bob Hope plays Ricky and Desi plays Fred. William Frawley played Captain Blymore, a tenant in the building. For some reason Lucy is hiding a seal in the closet. Of course, she is asked to play the seal’s musical instrument just as she did in “The Audition” (S1;E6) when playing the ‘saxavibratronophonovitch.’ Here she calls the instrument a ‘dramazuzaxylaphonavitch.’ Hope makes fun of Ricky’s English using the same line he did on “I Love Lucy” – “You’re trying to tell me something.” He also manages to make a Cleveland Indians joke. The skit is included on the DVD “Lucy’s Lost Episodes.”

Baseball, little league, and softball were the themes of several episode of “The Lucy Show,” 

After Lucille Ball’s death, Bob Hope hosted a TV special honoring his friend.