Lucy and Hotels

From 1951 to 1960 the Ricardos and the Mertzes traveled to 8 countries and 13 states!  Naturally, they had to find lodgings in a variety of hotels, motels, inns, and other accommodations along the way.  

The first time we see the Ricardos away from home for the night is in 1952′s “The Marriage License” (S1;E26) where Lucy and Ricky re-new their vows in Greenwich, Connecticut, only a few miles from where they will eventually live during season six.  

They stay overnight at the Eagle Hotel, which is run by a jack-of-all-hats proprietor, Bert Willoughby (Irving Bacon) and his wife, Mrs. Willoughby (Elizabeth Patterson).  

Wealthy Cynthia Harcourt (Mary Jane Croft) took digs at the Waldorf-Astoria while canvassing for donations in 1954′s “Lucy is Envious” (S3;E23).  The episode finds Lucy and Ethel dressed as women from Mars atop the Empire State Building to fulfill their pledges!

Lucy also took a room at the Waldorf, a popular hotel for visiting dignitaries, when she pretended to be the Maharincess of Franistan in 1952′s “The Publicity Agent” (S1;E31).  “Hail, Tiger!” 

New York’s Sherry-Netherland Hotel was where bachelor Eddie Grant (Hal March) stayed when he was in town in 1953′s “Lucy is Matchmaker” (S2;E27).  In this episode, we get a glimpse of the hotel lobby, as well as Grant’s room.  

There’s even a scene in the hotel corridor where a male passerby (Phil Arnold) mistakes Lucy and Ethel for a couple of “good time girls!”  

We see a fictional Inn in “The Operettta” (S2;E5).  Lucy pens the musical “The Pleasant Peasant” which featured Fred as Squire Quinn, innkeeper at the Inn on the River Out.  

The road trip to California naturally included a couple of hotel stays.  “First Stop” (S4;E13) finds the gang having no choice but to stay at the run-down One Oak Cabins and Cafe, which promises “Good Accommodations! Wonderful Food!” but supplies neither.  It is run by the equally run-down Mr. Skinner (Olin Howland).  

The cabin (he’s only got the one) is inconveniently located next to the railroad tracks.  A sign over the bathroom door says “Home Sweet Home” but it proves to be anything but!  The gangs flees in the middle of the night, forfeiting the $17 fee.

The next overnight stop we see is the Texas Ann Motel in Amarillo, which begins the leg of the trip to “Ethel’s Home Town” (S4;E15) of Albuquerque, New Mexico.  

It is in this hotel room that Lucy and Ricky (and Fred and Ethel) hear Little Ricky speak his first words via long-distance telephone call.  Unfortunately, this short scene is often cut in syndication to make room for more commercials.  

The gang finally arrive at what is probably the most famous hotel of the series, the fictional Beverly Palms Hotel in Hollywood, California!  From February 7, 1955 to October 24, 1955, the Ricardos and the Mertzes would call this home. The establishing shot of their Pontiac pulling into the hotel driveway was actually filmed at the real-life Beverly Carlton, now known as the Avalon Hotel Beverly Hills.

At the hotel we see the Ricardo’s third floor suite – living room and bedroom…

…the swimming pool (where we meet Harpo Marx and Hedda Hopper)…

…and the Mertzes room, where Lucy hides from Ricky when she gets her foot stuck in a bucket of cement at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre.  

One of the most memorable characters of the series is Bobby the Bellboy (Robert Jellison), who somehow gets dragged into Lucy’s schemes in half a dozen Hollywood-set episodes.  

A timid maid (Iva Shepard) seems to be the only one who can supply Ricky an alibi for staying out all night in “Don Juan and the Starlets” (S4;E17).  

While in California, the couples take a break from marriage and the girls retreat to (usually) sunny Palm Springs, where they are virtual shut-ins at an un-named hotel due to a non-stop rainstorm.

When the sun finally does come out, Lucy and Ethel encounter Rock Hudson while lounging by the hotel pool (which naturally was just the Beverly Palms pool, slightly re-dressed).

In real life, the Arnaz family had a second home in Palm Springs, and in 1957 they opened the Desi Arnaz Western Hills Hotel, which is now known as the Indian Wells Resort Hotel.  

After a successful road trip to Hollywood, the gang went international with a trip to Europe.  Their first overnight was on a floating hotel called the S.S. Constitution, where (after an unusual boarding via helicopter) Lucy hoped for a “Second Honeymoon” (S5;E14).  

The show even reproduced the real-life ship’s Boat and Bottle Bar.  

First stop is England, where the foursome stay at the (fictional) Wimbelshire Hotel in central London, with a balcony that overlooks Buckingham Palace.  The bellboy is played by Sam Edwards.

The chambermaid who teaches Lucy to curtsey in “Lucy Meets the Queen” (S5;E15) is played by future “Beverly Hillbillies” star Nancy Kulp, doing her best cockney accent.  

Although there is an episode titled “Lucy Goes To Scotland” (S5;E17), it is really just a musical comedy dream she has in after seeing a London show.  The town square of mythical Kildoonan features a whimsical Kildoonan Inn.  Any resemblance to Lerner and Loewe’s 1947 musical “Brigadoon” is purely intentional!  

There are three episodes set in Paris, where the group stays at Hotel Royal, where the Ricardo’s room naturally has a view of the Eiffel Tower.  

The next hotel we see is in the Swiss town of Lucerne (not Locarno, Fred).  We never learn the hotel’s name, but Lucy says that they make “man-sized” sandwiches for picnics on the Alps. 

Lucy sits writing postcards by her open window with a view of the Swiss Alps.

The room is even decorated with traditional Swiss art: 

a framed print from the “Codex Manesse” by Zurich-born minstrel and composer Walther von Klingen.

The elevator is out of service at the Hotel Grande in Florence, Italy, where the foursome have rooms on the fifth floor.  Funny that living in a five-story walk-up brownstone in New York City never left them as winded as these stairs do in Florence!  

The gregarious proprietor is named Signore Nicoletti (Vincente Padula), whose name is a nod to frequent “I Love Lucy” day player, Louis Nicoletti.  

When in Rome (for her famous grape stomping escapade), Lucy and company stay in a centrally-located ‘albergo’ whose name goes unmentioned.  

We do meet their bellboy (Saverio LoMedico), who translates a magazine article for Lucy about Vittorio Filippi’s upcoming film, “Bitter Grapes.” 

“Lucy’s Bicycle Trip” (S4;E24) begins in an un-named hotel room in San Remo, Italy, where Lucy takes a dip in the Med.  On their bike trip along the Riviera, the gang stay the night in a farmer’s barn!  After some trouble at the border, they finally arrive in Nice, France.  

Although the title of the episode is “Lucy Goes to Monte Carlo” (S5;E25) the title card that opens the show says “Nice, France.”  In the previous episode Lucy telephones Ricky in Nice at the Plaza Hotel, but the episode seems to place the Monte Carlo casino very nearby when they are actually 15 miles apart.  The above insert show is of the real-life Hotel de Paris in Monte Carlo. 

The room (wherever it is located) is very glamorous, and Lucy and Ethel dress appropriately to match!

The restaurant where Lucy and Ethel go to eat also houses a casino, where Lucy gets into a trouble casually gambling her way into a small fortune!  

The same hotel is seen in the following and final episode of the trip, “Return Home from Europe” (S5;E26), where Lucy gets the idea to disguise the cheese as a baby!  

In season six, the gang travels to Miami Beach, Florida (the boys by train, and Lucy and Ethel by car with a suspected hatchet murderess).  While there, they stay at the brand new Eden Roc Hotel, which opened in 1956 and is still in business today.

They spend two episodes in Miami Beach, before taking a quick jaunt to…

...Havana, Cuba, where Ricky Ricardo was born!  While there, they stay at the stately Hotel Nacional. 

Ten years earlier the real-life hotel was the site of a mob summit later depicted in the film The Godfather Part II (1974).  The hotel is still in business today, and anxiously awaiting the return of American tourists. 

In 1940, Lucy McGillicuddy and her ‘private secretary’ friend Susie MacNamara (Ann Sothern) also stayed in Havana, as part of a singles cruise!  Back then their lodgings were far more modest.  All this is depicted in the very first episode of “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour” in 1957.  

In “Lucy Hunts Uranium” (1958) the group traveled to Las Vegas and stayed at the iconic Sands Hotel and Casino. 

Once again Robert Jellison (aka Bobby the Bellboy) turns up to play a bellboy and Maxine Semon is their chambermaid.  The Sands was razed in 1996 to make way for the Venetian.  

The following year their destination was Sun Valley, Idaho, also a favorite destination of the Arnazes. The centerpiece of the resort town is the 220-room Sun Valley Lodge, which opened in December 1936 and is still in operation today.  While there they run into Latin-American heartthrob Fernando Lamas.  

Louis Nicoletti plays the Lodge desk clerk. You may remember that the actor’s name was given to the desk clerk of the hotel in Florence, Italy!

When “Lucy Goes to Mexico” in 1958, she actually stays at San Diego’s iconic Hotel del Coronado.  

When it first opened in 1888, it was the largest resort hotel in the world.  It has been featured in at least a dozen films, perhaps most memorably in Some Like It Hot.  It is still welcoming guests today. 

When Alaska became the 49th state in January 1959, Lucy and the gang went to Nome. Unfortunately, they arrived a day earlier than their hotel booking, and are forced to share a single room with one bed!  An army cot, a sleeping bag, and an unwieldy hammock round out the sleeping arrangements!  

The desk clerk who greets guest star Red Buttons is played by William Newell.  

The bellboy of the unnamed Nome outpost is played by Sid Melton. 

Although not strictly a hotel, in “Lucy’s Summer Vacation” (1959), the Ricardos are double-booked into a well-appointed Vermont cabin with movie stars Ida Lupino and Howard Duff.  

The penultimate hotel the Ricardos and Mertzes book is the furthest of all – the Hotel Teito in Tokyo, Japan, in a 1959 episode of “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour.”  The real-life hotel was razed in 1960. 

Although they are not billed as ‘maids,’ the kimono-clad women who show them their rooms are played by Sondi Sonsai and Linda Wong.  None of the actors ever left Hollywood; the entire episode was filmed at Desilu Studios in Hollywood.   

The final destination in the final episode takes Ricky and guest star Ernie Kovacs to a posh country club hotel in “Lucy Meets the Mustache” (1960). 

The desk clerk is played by Louis Nicoletti, who had also done the same duty at the Sun Valley Lodge.  

The bellboy is played by Dick Kallman, a young actor who was taking acting classes from Lucille Ball on the Desilu / RKO lot. 

Finally, and perhaps most appropriately, Bennett Green plays the waiter who takes away the room service. Green had been with “I Love Lucy” since the very beginning as Desi’s camera and lighting stand-in, as well as playing small roles in many episodes.  

And, as Edie Adams sings the last time we see the Ricardos and the Mertzes, 
“that’s all.”