“Lucy Takes a Cruise to Havana”

(LDCH S1;E1 ~ November 6, 1957) Directed by Jerry Thorpe. Written by Madelyn Martin, Bob Carroll, Jr., Bob Schiller, and Bob Weiskopf. Filmed June 28, 1957 at Ren-Mar Studio.

Synopsis ~ The Ricardo’s are interviewed by Hedda Hopper about how they first met, which results in a flashback to Havana, Cuba in 1940.

A promotional still for the series premiere. Overall, each episode would center on a guest star (or several), and feature more music, including production numbers.

This is the very first of the 13 hour-long specials known in syndication as “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour,” although during its first season it was sponsored by Ford and titled “The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show.”

On November 2, 1957 Lucille Ball was featured on the cover of TV Guide again, in a caricature by noted artist Al Hirchfeld. Nina, his daughter’s name, was famously hidden in his drawings. Here the ‘Nina’ is in Lucy’s fur collar!

Hirshfeld’s rendering of Desi Arnaz was found on the article inside, titled “You Can’t Stand Still” in which Desi explains why he ended “I Love Lucy.”

The timing of the article was in order to promote “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour” premiering that week.

That week, TV Life also did a cover story an inside article (”The Laughs They Didn’t Want”) on the debut of “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour” and “Lucy Takes a Cruise to Havana.”

Unusually, this first episode was 75 minutes long. Desi insisted that the program required the added 15 minutes and convinced U.S. Steel to delay the start of their “The U.S. Steel Hour” program “The Locked Door.” Both shows received record ratings.

The original broadcast included promos for “Zane Grey Theatre” a western anthology series aired Wednesday nights on CBS hosted by Dick Powell.  Then in its second of five seasons, Cesar Romero did three episodes of the series.

The premiere episode is told in flashback format. In their Connecticut living room, Lucy and Ricky are being interviewed by Hedda Hopper, who wants to know how the Ricardos first met.

This telling of Lucy and Ricky’s first meeting contradictions the previously mentioned version that she went on a blind date arranged by Marion Strong.

Hedda Hopper returns to Desilu after being the subject of “The Hedda Hopper Story” (ILL S4;E20) in 1955. Hopper and Lucille Ball had starred in two films together in 1946. As one of Hollywood’s most powerful and colorful gossip columnists, her name was occasionally mentioned in “I Love Lucy” dialogue. Unfortunately, for syndication this episode had to be trimmed to an hour, and Hopper’s scenes were edited out as were Desi’s intro and wrap-up. These scenes were, however, restored for the DVD release. For the sixty minute repeats, Desi recorded voice-over narration to fill the gaps in the storyline.

Oops! In the opening scene, the Ricardos await Hedda Hopper’s arrival. Ricky’s handkerchief is in his left lapel pocket, but as Lucy begins to fix his socks, his handkerchief is on his right!

Little Ricky is reading “The Great Big Car and Truck Book” – a Big Golden Book by Richard Scarry, first published in 1951.

Here Ricky finally learns how to pronounce Hopper’s name. He continually called her Hedda HOOPER in Hollywood. The apple doesn’t fall far from the Latin-American tree: Little Ricky greets her by saying “How do you do, Miss Hepper!”

Although Keith Thibodeaux (aka Richard Keith) would be featured on 12 of the 13 “Comedy Hour” episodes, his on-screen credit would simply bill him as ‘Little Ricky’.

For those unfamiliar with Hopper’s trademark – her outrageous headgear – the show deals with it right off the bat, invoking the name of one of Lucille Ball’s movie and TV co-stars.

HEDDA HOPPER: “Bob Hope says it’s the only hat in Hollywood that gives him hay fever!” 

A flashback takes the action back to 1940, where Lucy and co-worker Susie are singles on a tropical cruise to Cuba. There they meet Ricky Ricardo and his pal Carlos Garcia. Lucy and Ricky’s rocky courting takes up the remainder of the episode, before returning to Connecticut in 1957 for the show’s conclusion.

The episode is book-ended by Desi Arnaz talking to the audience in front of a show curtain.

It had only been a year since the gang traveled to Cuba from Miami in “The Ricardos Visit Cuba” (ILL S6;E9).

During Hopper’s interview we learn that before marrying Ricky, Lucy was a ‘private’ secretary in New York, in the same office as Susie MacNamara, played by Ann Sothern. Sothern had just finished playing the same character on the CBS sitcom “Private Secretary.” This is considered one of television’s first ‘cross-over’ appearances. One year later, Desilu produced “The Ann Sothern Show” which ran three seasons. She returned in 1965 for “The Lucy Show,” playing Lucy’s old friend Rosie Harrigan, the Countess Frambois.

The pair made five films together between 1933 and 1943 and although Sothern was announced to play the lead in the 1943 film DuBarry Was a Lady, the part eventually went to Lucille Ball. Later, Sothern is quoted as saying,

“Lucy used to complain that she got all the parts I turned down. Now I produce the [Ann Sothern] show, and she owns the studio. I guess that settles that.”

The ship that Lucy and Susie sail on is the RMS Caronia, which was a real-life Cunard Line vessel. However, the ship did not enter service until 1949 and this episode is set in 1940. Cunard was then known as Cunard-White Star Line.

Single Susie calls the ship the SS YWCA (Young Women’s Christian Association). Bachelorette Lucy mentions that she heard that this was the ship’s ‘maiden’ voyage – making a pun about the lack of available men on board.

Lucy says that the cruise cost $84.50, which is the equivalent of more than $1,500 today, a considerable sum on a secretary’s salary, let alone for skinflint Fred Mertz. Susie remarks that she’s had more fun on the Staten Island Ferry for a nickel. Lucy didn’t have much fun on the “Staten Island Ferry” (ILL S5;E12) when helping Fred get over seasickness.

Coincidentally, Fred and Ethel Mertz are on the ship as well – on a belated Honeymoon cruise – even though they were married in 1928! The length of the Mertzes marriage varies throughout “I Love Lucy” and this episode is no exception. Curiously, Fred’s seasickness is not mentioned here. Here, Ethel (Vivian Vance) looks noticeably younger and Fred (William Frawley) has a full head of hair!

ETHEL: “You pay more attention to that hair than you do to me. Sometimes I wish you were bald.”
FRED: “Oh, yeah? Well, don’t worry. That’s one thing that’ll never happen to me!”

The last time we saw Fred with hair was when he wore a toupee to the bald party in “Ricky Thinks He’s Going Bald” (ILL S1;E34). In 1957, Fred compares himself to famously bald Yul Brynner. Brynner had won the Best Actor Oscar the year before for The King and I. The movie will be mentioned by Tallulah Bankhead in the next episode of “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour”, “The Celebrity Next Door.”

Frank Nelson plays the Caronia’s Cruise Director. The actor has the distinction of being the only person to play more than one recurring character on the series: Freddie Fillmore (three appearances) and Ralph Ramsey (two appearances), in addition to five other one-off characters. Curiously, when “I Love Lucy” ended, he was playing the Ricardo’s Connecticut neighbor, but it was decided not to feature Ralph and Betty Ramsey on “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour.” They are, however, occasionally mentioned.

When the Cruise Director lets it slip that Rudy Vallee is aboard, he says:

“If Mr. Cunard ever hears about this I’ll be demoted to the Albany Night Boat.”

From the late 1800′s until 1941 (a year after this episode is set and 16 years prior to broadcast), the “Night Boats” from New York City to Albany could carry as many as 2,000 passengers up and down the Hudson River in luxury. They were also notorious for their romantic assignations. Passengers could be young couples on a weekend trip, married people evading detection by their spouse, or ladies of the evening.

There was even a Broadway musical in 1920 called The Night Boat. Two years earlier the song “Take the Night Boat To Albany” (music by Jean Schwartz; lyrics by Sam M. Lewis and Joe Young) was part of the Broadway musical Sinbad starring Al Joleson. In 1928 it inspired a silent film. But by 1941, the trip could be made by car, train or even airplane, so few cared about the “Night Boat” and it was discontinued.

Bemoaning the lack of men on the ship, Lucy says that they are showing the movie One Hundred Men and a Girl, a 1937 film starring Deanna Durbin.  On the SS Constitution headed to Europe, Lucy analogizes the male to female ration by calling it the SS Noah’s Ark!

Oops!  When Susie darts into the utility closet to hide that she is lurking around to meet Rudy Vallee, her dress gets caught in the door!  When the shot changes, the dress is no longer caught in the door, and Susie and Lucy come sauntering out – their scheming revealed to one another.

When Rudy Vallee jumps ship (literally), we see that one of the many single ladies on the ship is played by Lucille Ball’s camera and lighting stand-in, Hazel Pierce, continuing her relationship with Desilu that began in 1951.

Singing star and bandleader Rudy Vallée plays himself. He is probably best remembered as boss Biggley in the Broadway musical and 1967 film How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. Vallee later played “Batman” villain Lord Marmaduke Fogg. He played himself again on a 1970 episode of “The Lucy Show.”

Susie infers that Lucy already has a a few boyfriends: Harold, who works in shipping at their office, and Wilbur in accounting.

The chase sequence (Rudy Vallee fleeing the clutches of Lucy and Susie) was obviously edited together from multiple takes. The cuts are noticeable on the door slams.

The dialogue mentions of one of his most popular songs “My Time Is Your Time.” Lucy tells Vallee that she’s had trouble keeping his fans from “swinging over to the Bing somebody-or-other.”  She is referring to popular crooner Bing Crosby, of course. Vallee responds that he had similar problems with Nelson Eddy. Vallee gets to briefly croon his a few bars from his hits “Vagabond Lover,” “The Maine Stein Song,” and “The Whiffenpoof Song.” During a disagreement, Vallee calls Ricky an “unpleasant peasant” a possible reference to “The Pleasant Peasant” operetta Lucy wrote for the Wednesday Afternoon Fine Arts League in “The Operetta” (ILL S2;E5).

Ricky’s Cuban pal (and fellow cabbie) Carlos Garcia is played by Cesar Romero. The Latin-American performer is probably best known today for his portrayal of the Joker on TV’s “Batman.” He guest starred with Sothern on “Private Secretary” the year before this episode, and on “The Ann Sothern Show” the year after. He guest starred on a 1969 episode of “Here’s Lucy” as a possible date for Lucy Carter, echoing the plot of this episode. Although both Romero and Vallee played “Batman” villains, they never appeared in episodes together.

“Our Ship is Coming In” by Arthur Hamilton is the very first production number of the series. The song forwards the plot as in a Broadway musical, instead of the usual ‘performance-based’ songs found on the show. The singing was pre-recorded and lip synched on the set.

The number briefly features dancer Barrie Chase, one of Fred Astaire’s TV dance partners.  When the show was repeated in July 1962, CBS promoted Chase as one of the Guest Stars because, by then, she had gained fame as Fred Astaire’s dancing partner on three acclaimed television specials.

Choreography was by Jack Baker, who started working at Desilu during season six of “I Love Lucy” and continued doing dance staging until “Here’s Lucy.”

Actor doubles were employed for the carriage ride through Havana.

The episode features second unit footage filmed in Cuba, although the actors never left the Hollywood sound stage. During the summer of 1957, the Cuban revolution started to escalate with the murder of Castro collaborator Frank Pais. Desi told editor Dann Cahn to get the footage and get out as soon as possible.

On first seeing Ricky, Susie calls him “the one with the shoe-button eyes,” which he has been called many times before. At first, Lucy prefers Carlos – because of his mustache. Cesar Romero was extremely proud of his mustache, and refused to shave it even to play the Joker on “Batman.” Desi, conversely, was always clean shaven, except for one episode of “I Love Lucy.”

SUSIE: “You’re only going for a sight-seeing tour. You’re not going to marry the guy!” 

When Carlos expresses a preference for Susie, Ricky says he doesn’t like redheads!

CARLOS: “It’s only for one evening. You’re not going to see her again anyway!”

“Cielito Lindo” had been previously sung on four episodes of “I Love Lucy” and would also be heard in a future “Comedy Hour” episode. Here, Lucy remarks that she learned the song in High School and sings along, forcing Ricky to honestly assess her voice (for the first time, chronologically speaking) as terrible!  It was written by composer Quirino Mendoza y Cortés, who died the same year this episode aired.

Ricky and Carlos take the girls to El Tambor (which translates to “The Drum”) owned by Ricky’s Uncle, although we never learn which one.

LUCY: “I’m not a foreigner. I’m an American.”

Veteran “I Love Lucy” bit player Louis Nicoletti plays the waiter at El Tambor, although he does not attempt any kind of an accent. He later went on to be assistant director of both “The Lucy Show” and “Here’s Lucy.”

The second original song is “That Means I Love You” in which Ricky courts Lucy by way of conga drum. It was especially written for the show by Arthur Hamilton.

After a disturbance in an outdoor cafe, Lucy and Susie end up in a Havana jail cell.

At the police station a drunk dumps a bottle of Bacardi Rum into a water jug. In real life, Desi Arnaz’s maternal grandfather Alberto was once an executive at Bacardi.  Earlier Ricky says “Our Cuban rum is very famous.”  Lucy says she doesn’t drink.

The spiked water jug later causes Lucy and Susie to get intoxicated, something Lucille Ball was proficient at from drinking all that Vitameatavegamin in “Lucy Does a TV Commercial” (ILL S2;E1).

Lucy has an unusual way of boarding a ship!  This is the second time we’ve seen Lucy Ricardo on a ship, the first being the crossing to Europe on the SS Constitution during season 5 of “I Love Lucy.”  In 1971, Lucy Carter would cruise to Hawaii (again with Vivian Vance) in a two-part “Here’s Lucy.” In 1974 she strolled the deck of The Queen Mary with Robert Preston in a scene from Mame.

 

• Jorge Treviño (the Judge, above) had played Ricky’s Uncle Alberto in “The Ricardos Visit Cuba” (ILL S6;E9).
• Nestor Paiva (the Jailer) had previously appeared with Lucille Ball in The Marines Fly High (1940). In 1958 he appeared in a Thanksgiving episode of “The Ann Sothern Show.”
• Argentinian-born Vincente Padula (Ricky’s Uncle, El Tambor Owner) had appeared as a Parisian drunk in “Paris at Last” (ILL S5;E18) and as the (sober) Italian hotel desk clerk in “Lucy Gets Homesick in Italy” (ILL S5;E22). He also guest starred in a 1960 episode of “The Ann Sothern Show.”
• Joaquin Del Rio (The Drunk)
• Another Desilu vet, Paul Cristo, is seen as one of the Cubans. The year before he was seen in the audience of The Most Happy Fella during “Lucy’s Night in Town” (ILL S6;E22). A Latino, he returns to the “Comedy Hour” in “Lucy Goes To Mexico” (1958). He made two appearances on “The Lucy Show,” both in 1962.
• Paul Revel (Cuban) was a popular Hollywood background player for 30 years.
• The episode includes a live horse!

When she show returns to the present day living room in Connecticut, we learn that Susie and Carlos broke up after a brief relationship. We also learn that Ricky only stayed with Rudy Vallee’s band for one night before being traded to Xavier Cugat for a xylophone player.

As we know Fred eventually went bald and tells Ethel “If it’s good enough for Mrs. Yul Brynner, it’s good enough for you!”  comparing himself to the Oscar winning star of The King and I, one of the most famous bald actors in Hollywood.  Fred compared himself to Yul Brynner in “Country Club Dance” (ILL S6;E25) just a few months earlier. In 1957, Mrs. Yul Brynner was Virginia Gilmore. The couple divorced in 1960.

FAST FORWARD!

Lucy was also locked up in “Tennessee Bound” (ILL S4;E14)…

…and in “New Neighbors” (ILL S1;E21).

Lucy Carmichael wound up behind bars in a 1967 episode of “The Lucy Show”.

Lucy Carter was caught drinking with her cellmate (Elsa Lanchester) in a 1973 episode of “Here’s Lucy.”

Lucy and Sothern also got inebriated together on “The Lucy Show” in 1965.

On May 25, 2007, Dann Cahn, the original film editor on “I Love Lucy” and who went on to build and manage the entire Desilu post-production department for nearly a decade was a special guests at the “Lucy-Desi Days” Festival in Jamestown, NY. “Lucy Takes A Cruise To Havana” was screened.

In “The Simpsons” November 13, 2016 episode “Havana Wild Weekend” (S28;E7), Homer is looking forward to his trip to Cuba so he can finally use the Spanish he learned on “I Love Lucy”!