“The Black Wig”

(S3;E26 ~ April 19, 1954) Directed by William Asher. Written by Jess Oppenheimer, Madelyn Pugh, and Bob Carroll, Jr. Filmed March 25, 1954 at Ren-Mar Studio. Rating: 55.8/77

Synopsis ~ Lucy dons a black wig, believing it changes her appearance enough to test Ricky’s marital fidelity.

This episode is based on Lucy’s radio show, “My Favorite Husband,” episode #48 titled “Hair Dyed” and broadcast June 10, 1949.

This episode was filmed on March 25, 1954, the day of the 26th Annual Academy Awards. It was at this ceremony that William Holden won the Oscar for Stalag-17 that made him “I Love Lucy’s” first Academy Award-winning guest star just a year later. Nominees Richard Burton and Eddie Albert would be future “Here’s Lucy” co-stars. Presenters and performers like Elizabeth Taylor, Kirk Douglas, Dean Martin, and Donald O’Connor would also go on to be featured on “Lucy” television shows. 

Also on March 25, 1954, RCA began selling the first all-electronic color television sets. The RCA CT-100 had a 15-inch screen and sold for $1,000, which is the equivalent of nearly $8,000 in today’s money.

Admiral and Westinghouse sets had beaten RCA to the market but the RCA model had the ability to also handle black and white (called ‘backwards technology’), making it the industry leader. NBC, owned by RCA, became the leader in color TV, even adopting the colorful peacock as their network symbol. 

At the start of the episode the gang is returning from seeing a movie and Lucy is acting peculiar. Ricky explains that “Every time she goes to a movie she comes out as the heroine.” In this case the heroine is a raven-haired Italian whose husband has been taken to jail and left her with twelve children that she has to support by working in the rice field.

Lucy begins sensuously running her fingers through her hair, just as she would later do to impress film director Vittorio Philippi in “Lucy’s Italian Movie” (S5;E23, above). She even says the same Italian phrase: “Arrivederci, mi amore!”

This is the last time Lucy wears this Elois Jenssen original.

When Fred claims he didn’t understand the film, Ethel says that if it isn’t Donald Duck, it is over his head!  Donald Duck is an animated character from Walt Disney Studios that first appeared in 1934. At the time of the episode, a motion picture usually was preceded by a cartoon short. Donald Duck was the subject of hundreds of such films. The last Donald Duck film “Donald’s Diary” was released March 5, 1954 (three weeks before this episode’s filming) by RKO Studios, which would later become Desilu. Daisy, Donald’s girlfriend, was voiced by Vivi Janiss, who played LuAnn in “The Charm School” (S3;E15) and was one of the club women in “No Children Allowed” (S2;E22). Her first husband was Lucy favorite Bob Cummings. Coincidentally, the day this “I Love Lucy” episode was filmed, Donald’s creator, Walt Disney, won four Oscars for his various film projects, 

Ricky sarcastically calls her Lucille Magnani, a nod to Italian film actress Anna Magnani. Magnani gained international renown in Roberto Rossellini’s 1945 film Rome, Open City. A few weeks before this episode was filmed she released Jean Renoir’s The Golden Coach and Anita Garibaldi, a historical romance. The “I Love Lucy” writers could not have known then that she was just a year away from her Academy Award-winning role in Tennessee Williams’ The Rose Tattoo. 

Curiously, although Magnani was a brunette, she had shoulder length hair in her films. Lucy’s desire for a short Italian haircut is probably also inspired by Italian Gina Lollobrigida, who had several films in release at the time, and American Elizabeth Taylor, who sported short dark hair throughout much of the 1950s, including in her latest film at the time of this episode, The Girl Who Had Everything.

RICKY: “All people in the world are divided into two groups: men and women. Now, men have short hair, and women have long hair. That’s the difference between them. I don’t want my son to be confused. He should know whether he should call you mother or father.”

No doubt Caitlyn Jenner and the transgender community would have sent Ricky’s head spinning! In real life, Desi Arnaz did indeed prefer Lucy’s hair a bit longer. Lucy Ricardo’s trademark bun was born because of this. 

Ethel supports Lucy’s announcement that she wants an Italian hair cut, reminding them of when she styled her hair in a poodle cut.

ETHEL: “People couldn’t take their eyes off me.”
FRED: “Yeah. They thought you were Harpo Marx.”

A year later, Ethel would come face-to-face with the real Harpo Marx (above). It was nearsighted Carolyn Appleby who couldn’t take her eyes off Harpo!

Douglas Evans (Doug, the salon owner) had appeared with Lucy in the 1942 film Seven Days’ Leave as well as with William Frawley in 1950’s Kill the Umpire. This would be his only series appearance.

Lucy’s hairdresser is named Roberta, named after real-life “I Love Lucy” season one hairdresser, Roberta ‘Bert’ French. Eve McVeagh makes her only appearance on the series but returned to work for Lucy in a 1973 episode of “Here’s Lucy.”

The night this episode was filmed (March 25, 1954), Eve McVeagh (Bert) appeared on an episode of “Dragnet” titled “The Big Drink” (S3;E30). It also starred Claude Akins, who will play himself (aka ‘Giant Native’) in “Desert Island” (S6;E8) and Olan Soule, who will play Little Ricky’s pediatrician in a December 1955 episode. 

When Ricky is ‘pretend’ flirting with Lucy, he says “I could even tich you how to Rumba.” According to Desi Arnaz’s autobiography A Book, this is the same pick-up line he used on Lucy in real life back in 1940.

The little Italian restaurant where Lucy and Ethel arrange to meet their husbands is called Tony’s. Interestingly, “The Diner” (S3;E27) and the “The Black Wig” had their filming and broadcast order switched. So, with a few cosmetic alterations, Bill’s Diner became Tony’s Italian Restaurant. The back wall of ice boxes is common to both sets.

The trope of a woman dropping a glove to get a man’s attention was popular in the early 20th century. A chivalrous man would stop and pick up the glove for a lady, thereby facilitating an introduction. It’s also considered bad luck to drop a glove, and then pick it up yourself.

When Ethel tries on the wig, Fred recognizes her immediately and says,

“What in Sam Hill have you done to your hair?”

‘Sam Hill’ is a euphemism for ‘hell’ a curse word not permitted on television in 1954. Writer H.L. Mencken suggests that it was derived from ‘Samiel’, the name of the Devil in Der Freischütz, an opera performed in New York City in 1825. Others suggest that it is merely because the two words sound similar.   

Sitcom Logic Alert! ~ Ricky and Fred immediately recognize their wives despite their disguises. Lucy and Ethel, however, are unreasonably gullible to believe that the boys would not recognize them or at least their voices. 

When Lucy asserts that the black wig is the latest fashion, Fred retorts that on Ethel, it looks more like “life with Luigi.” “Life With Luigi” was a radio comedy that transferred to television. It premiered on CBS one season after “I Love Lucy,” but was not a success, lasting only a year before briefly returning to radio. One of the ‘Italian’ characters was played by Alan Reed, who later voiced Fred Flintstone. Two years earlier, both “Luigi” and “Lucy” were part of “Stars in the Eye”, a 1952 CBS special that celebrated the opening of Television City Studios. 

Making plans for a disguised double date with their own husbands, Ethel says she hasn’t seen Fred move so fast since he “backed into a hot radiator in his union suit.”  A union suit is a type of one-piece long underwear.

The first union suit was patented in 1868 as "emancipation union under flannel”. Fred wore his union suit to model when “Lucy Becomes a Sculptress” (S2;E15). 

For her disguise, Ethel prevails upon her friend Mother Carroll, a wardrobe mistress at a Broadway revue. The name is probably an homage to series writer Bob Carroll, Jr.  Ethel ends up with not one, but several costumes: a Native American squaw (dress), a geisha girl (wig), and an Eskimo (coat). Lucy quips that she looks like “an ad for a trip around the world!”

Mrs. Trumbull (Elizabeth Patterson) and Little Ricky (the Mayer Twins) are mentioned but not seen on camera.

The waiter at Tony’s is played by regular day player Louis A. Nicoletti and the Man on the Street who picks up Lucy’s dropped glove is played by Desi’s stand-in and frequent extra Bennett Green. There is a second male passerby who also tries to pick up the glove, but he goes uncredited.  

Blooper Alerts!  

Oops! Unusually, this episode features more than a couple of line flubs: Bert interrupts Lucy mid-line and both Fred and Ricky have word transpositions in their scene together. 

Hit Your Marks!  A couple of times, the actors marks (tape on the floor) are  seen on camera! 

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FAST FORWARD

Lucy Carmichael also wore a black wig on several episodes of “The Lucy Show” (1962-68) – mostly while trying to disguise her telltale red hair. 

Lucy Carter also wore a darker wig when the situation called for it on “Here’s Lucy” (1968-72). 

After being a brunette in her film Mame (1974), Lucille Ball wore the dark wigs on several television interviews. 

Lucille Ball played a raven-haired vixen in “Danny Thomas’s Wonderful World of Burlesque” (1965) opposite comic actor Jerry Lewis, one of their few collaborations. 

For a song and sketch on “Ann Margret: From Hollywood With Love” (1969 both stars changed their hair colors, which were fairly similar off-screen. 

On her 1975 special “Three for Two” with Jackie Gleason, Lucille Ball went brunette for one of the three playlets. 

In 1995, some of the fringe along the front of Ethel’s costume was removed as part of the original dress’ restoration. The few strands came up for auction in 2007.