S2;E24 ~ March 16, 1964
Synopsis
When
Lucy gets a flat tire, a handsome rich Italian man comes to her
rescue. On a date night out, Lucy accidentally spills pasta on him
and she must break in to a local cleaners to retrieve his other suit
so they won’t miss the St. Patrick’s Day dance. Breaking in through
the skylight, Lucy falls into vat of green dye.
Regular
Cast
Lucille
Ball (Lucy Carmichael), Vivian Vance (Vivian Bagley), Gale Gordon
(Theodore J. Mooney)
Candy
Moore (Chris Carmichael), Jimmy Garrett (Jerry Carmichael) and Ralph
Hart (Sherman Bagley) do not appear in this episode.
Guest
Cast
Cesare
Danova
(Umberto Fabriani) was born in Italy in 1926. He appeared opposite
Elizabeth Taylor in Cleopatra,
but much of his role was cut to highlight the romance between Taylor
and Richard Burton. Danova was on the short list to play the lead in
Ben-Hur
(1959) but Charleton Heston was cast instead. In 1978, he played the
Mayor in National
Lampoon’s Animal House.
This is his only appearance with Lucille Ball.
Umberto
is a millionaire (several times over, according to Mr. Mooney) who is with the firm of Fabriani and Fabriani,
partnered with his elderly father.
Jay
Novello
(Tony DiBello) was
born Michael Romano in Chicago in 1904 to Italian parents and was
fluent
in the language before learning English. He played Mr. Merriweather
in “The
Seance” (ILL S1;E7)
and
returned to the series to play the nervous Mr. Beecher in “The
Sublease” (ILL S3;E31)
and
Mario Orsatti, the “Visitor
from Italy” (ILL S6;E5).
Novello previously played ex-con candy store owner Mr. Bundy in “Lucy
and the Safecracker” (S2;E6). Coincidentally, Novello’s second
wife went by the nickname ‘Lucy’. In 1965 he played the recurring
character Mayor Mario Lugatto on “McHale’s Navy.”
Tony
DiBello is the proprietor of Tony DiBello’s Italian Restaurant.
Steve
Carruthers (Maitre
d’, uncredited) was one of the passengers on the S.S. Constitution in “Second
Honeymoon” (ILL S5;E14). He was seen in
the Lucille Ball / Bob Hope film The
Facts
of Life. This
is the first of his two
appearances on “The Lucy Show.”
James
Gonzales
(Restaurant Patron, uncredited) was
a popular Hollywood extra who first acted with Lucille Ball in the
1953 film The
Long, Long Trailer.
He was previously seen on the series as Stan Williams in “Lucy
Digs Up a Date” (S1;E2).
He was seen in more than 20 episodes of “The Lucy Show” and 3
episodes of “Here’s Lucy.”
Bert
Stevens
(Restaurant Patron, uncredited) made
many appearances as background players on the series. He was the
brother of actress Barbara Stanwyck, whose given name was Ruby
Stevens. He was seen in the Tropicana audience for the Flapper
Follies when “Ricky
Loses His Voice” (ILL S2;E9)
but probably appeared on other
episodes as well. He often appeared with
his wife, Caryl Lincoln, one of Lucille Ball’s friends from her
Goldwyn Girl days.
Jean
Vachon (Restaurant Patron, uncredited) makes
the second of her six appearances on “The Lucy Show,” all but one
uncredited.
A
other dozen other uncredited background actors play the diners at Tony
DiBello’s.
This episode was filmed on February 6, 1964.
As
season two goes on, the plots feature less of Vivian Vance, who was
tiring of her commute from Hollywood to her Connecticut home.
Coincidentally,
the day before this episode first aired (March 15, 1964) Richard
Burton and Elizabeth Taylor married. They had just starred as lovers
in the film Cleopatra (above),
which also featured Cesare Danova (Umberto). Lucy Carmichael played
Cleopatra on the season two opener of “The Lucy Show.” Burton
and Taylor would appear with Lucille Ball in a 1970 episode of
“Here’s Lucy.”
In
another coincidence, the episode of “Make Room for Daddy” that
followed “The Lucy Show” on CBS on March 16, 1964, also had an
Italian theme. The guest star was Italian born singer singer Piccola
Pupa, a young performer Danny Thomas claims to have ‘discovered.’
Ironically, when this episode was filmed, Lucille Ball herself was a millionaire. Lucy and Desi were the first millionaire TV stars in history.
Dede’s
Dress Shop is mentioned for the second episode in a row. Dede Ball
was Lucille Ball’s mother.
The name ‘Tony
Di Bello’ was created by the writers as a nod to the name of
their secretary Elaine’s father, Mr. Tony Di Bello.
Mr.
Mooney invites Umberto and Lucy to join him and his wife Irma at the
St. Patrick’s Day dance. This episode was first broadcast on St.
Patrick’s Day eve 1964. In real-life, Cesare Danova was a fan of all
things Irish. He ever carried a small leprechaun around with him
wherever he went.
When
Lucy spills pasta in Umberto’s lap, he says his other tux is at
Oscar’s Cleaners. Lucy Carmichael says that she has known Oscar for
years. He is unmarried and a trophy-winning bowler for his team,
Oscar’s Tigers. Reading from a distance, Lucy mistakenly thinks his
name is Oscar Stigers.
Oscar’s
Cleaners is next door to a Florist shop owned by Meryl. Lucy does not
know Meryl’s surname either. Mr. Mooney says the one person who
knows everyone’s last name in town is George the mailman.
Lucy
asks Mr. Mooney for a dime for the pay phone. In New York, it cost
ten cents to use a payphone until 1982, when it was raised to twenty
five cents. In the early 1950s (during “I Love Lucy”) the cost
was only five cents. Today, pay phones are nearly obsolete due to the
proliferation of mobile (cell) phones.
Lucy
ends up getting covered in green dye. Unfortunately, although filmed in color, CBS originally
broadcast this episode in black and white!
Callbacks!
In “Bullfight Dance” (ILL S4;E23) Fred and Ethel croon “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling” by Ernest R. Ball (no relation). This is the closest the series gets to a St. Patrick’s Day mention. Fred Mertz was said to be of Irish extraction.
The
finale of “Lucy’s Italian Movie” (ILL S5;E23) had Lucy dyed
purple when she had a fight in a wine vat of grapes.
That episode,
too, was originally broadcast in black and white, but was colorized
in 2013.
When
the gang went to Europe on “I Love Lucy” it was Ethel (Vivian
Vance) who was in charge of learning Italian, while Lucy learned
French.
The
note Lucy Carmichael writes on the back of her check reads: “Dear
cashier, be a love and clear this before you-know-who gets back.” The message is very similar to the note Lucy Ricardo wrote on the back of a
check in “Job Switching” (ILL S2;E1), “Dear teller, be a lamb
and don’t put this through until next month.”
A heavily disguised Lucy and Ethel meet their husbands at Tony’s Italian Restaurant in “The Black Wig” (ILL S3;E26).
In “No More Double Dates” (S1;E21) Lucy’s boyfriend Harry (Dick Martin) suggests going to Tony DiBello’s for Italian food.
There was trouble at the cleaners (in this case Chinese Laundries) on “Here’s Lucy” in both “Lucy the Laundress” (HL S2;E17) and “Lucy and the Chinese Curse” (HL S4;E18).
It’s Not Easy Bein’ Green!
Lucille Ball may also have been green when playing a woman from Mars in “Lucy is Envious” (ILL S3;E23) in 1954, but since the episode was filmed in black and white, we will never know for sure!
LUCY RICARDO: “My face! My hair! Oh, no! I’m looking at the world through green colored eyeballs!”
Green light bulbs turn Lucy (and everyone else) green when “Lucy Fakes Illness” (ILL S1;E16). Again, because the episode was filmed in black and white, viewers never see the effects of the ‘gobloots’ (aka green bulb)!
LUCY CARMICHAEL: “Who’d they make these pajamas for – the Jolly Green Giant?”
Stuck in isolation in “Lucy and the Astronauts” (TLS S4;E5) Lucy has to wear over-sized men’s green pajamas. The Jolly Green Giant is the advertising character used to promote Green Giant Frozen Vegetables.
VIV: “Take off that hat! It looks like a fresh crop of crab grass!”
When “Lucy Goes To Vegas” (TLS S3;E17), she wears the emerald green spangled gown and matching green feathered hat won for being Bigelow’s Department Store’s one millionth customer.
Fast Forward!
A year later, Lucy will wear this same salmon colored gown (with a different red wrap) in “My Fair Lucy” (ILL S3;E20) when she goes to a fancy soiree with the Countess (Ann Sothern).
The backdrop used for the Danfield street depicts the Iris Theatre. This same backdrop will be used again outside of Madame Fifi’s Fur Shop when “Lucy Gets Amnesia” (S3;E4).
This may be an homage to Los Angeles’ legendary Iris Theatre, which reportedly had the first electric sign in Hollywood. It may also be an homage to the character Iris Atterbury, Liz Cooper’s sidekick (played by Bea Benadaret) on Lucille Ball’s radio show “My Favorite Husband.”
Lucy Carter dated a prospective millionaire played by Don Knotts in “Lucy’s Last Blind Date” (HL S5;E16).
When Lucy Carter meets a homeless man in the park, she believes him to be a ‘Howard Hughes-like’ millionaire she read about in the newspaper and “Lucy, The Philanthropist” goes into action!
Blooper
Alerts!
Stolen Valor? Mr. Mooney speaks Italian quite well. He says he “picked up a few words in the Army." In “Lucy and the Submarine” (S5;E2, above), however, Mr. Mooney says he was actually a Navy housing officer stationed just outside of Wichita during World War II. Is he a pathological liar of the victim of forgetful writers?
Noises Off! When Umberto arrives unexpectedly (with Lucy in pajamas and curlers) a high pitched voice in the audience clearly says “Oh, no!” Lucy’s husband Gary Morton can also be heard laughing on the soundtrack. Later, when Umberto mentions having taken a taxi, a voice from the audience clearly echos “Taxi!”
Boom Shadows! When Lucy drops to the floor behind the sofa upon Umberto’’s sudden appearance at her front door, the shadow of a boom microphone passes over Lucy.
Fickle Furniture! For this episode, the large oval dining room table has been replaced by a smaller round table for Lucy’s ‘ghostly’ get-away gag. Although it is nearly identical, the living room sofa was either adapted or duplicated to allow Lucille Ball enough space to freely roll underneath it.
Let Your Fingers Do the Walking! When
Lucy is trying to remember Oscar’s last name to look him up in the
telephone directory, Mr. Mooney is looking through the Yellow Pages,
which are organized by business names, not surnames. They would not
need to know Oscar’s last name to find his work phone number, just his home number.
Broken Fingers! When Mr. Mooney roughly drops the phone book the second time it comes loose from the hard blue cover that connects it to the phone and the book breaks in two! When Gale Gordon needs to look up “George the Mailman” he has to bend down (out of frame) to pick it up off the floor and scoop up the tattered book to complete the scene.
Sitcom Logic Alert! Lucy immediately knows that Oscar’s bowling trophy must have been made by the National Bowling Company in Chicago. Lucy is a font of useless knowledge!
Dry Dye! As
Umberto races into the back room of the cleaners to rescue Lucy, he
bumps into the vat of green dye and it moves quite easily. If it was
actually full of liquid, the weight would prevent it from moving at
all. Also, when Lucy is fished out she isn’t
dripping wet, despite the sloshing sound effects to the contrary.
Color Correction! When Lucy is lifted out of the vat, viewers can see that her tights and the soles of her shoes are not green!
Gimme a Sign! Why is there a sign with prices for cleaning services posted in the back room of the laundry, where no customers will ever see it?
Papermoon Loves Lucy 
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