Lucy Gets Her Maid

S3;E11
~ November 30, 1964

Synopsis

To
impress a local women’s club, Lucy hires a maid. But to
afford a maid, she must take a job – as a maid! When her new
employer hosts a dinner party she recruits Viv to help out – only
to have to serve dinner to the very women she is hoping to impress.
A quick-change parade of international costumes is contrived to
remain incognito.

Regular
Cast

Lucille
Ball (Lucy Carmichael), Vivian Vance (Vivian Bagley), Gale Gordon
(Theodore J. Mooney)

Jimmy
Garrett (Jerry Carmichael), Ralph Hart (Sherman Bagley) and Candy
Moore (Chris Carmichael) do not appear in this episode.

Guest
Cast

Kathleen
Freeman
(Miss Putnam) previously played the character of Kathleen, but is
making the third of her appearances playing various other characters
on the series. Freeman was
‘born in a trunk’ to a family of vaudevillians. She made her
stage debut at age two in her parents’ act. Equally at home on
screen and stage, Freeman was appearing on Broadway in The
Full Monty in
2001 when she died of lung cancer.

Freeman gets entrance and exit applause from the studio audience!

Norma
Varden
(Mrs. Van Vlack)
last
appeared with Lucille Ball and Vivian Vance in “The
Ricardos Change Apartments” (ILL
S2;E26) as Mrs. Benson, the weepy woman in apartment 3B who swapped
apartments with Lucy and Ricky after her daughter got married and
moved out. She
is probably best known for playing Frau Schmidt, the somewhat
circumspect housekeeper at the Von Trapp mansion in 1965′s The
Sound Of Music. She
first met Lucille Ball when she played Lady Maude in Fancy
Pants in
1950.

Van
Vlack is the surname of one of Lucille Ball’s childhood friends,
Marion Strong Van Vlack, who was also a character on several episodes
of “I Love Lucy.”

The
Danfield Art Society members are played by:

Jean
Vachon
making the fifth of her six appearances on “The Lucy Show,” all but this
one uncredited.
Paula
Ray
making the first of her three appearances on the series. This is the
only one where she gets screen credit.
Caryl
Lincoln was
one of Lucy’s friends from her Goldwyn Girl days. This is the
fourth of her seven appearances on the series, often appearing with
her husband, fellow extra Bert Stevens. This
is the only episode where she receives screen credit.
Luree
Wiese
makes her only appearance on “The Lucy Show” but will make a
single appearance on “Here’s Lucy” in 1970.

As
a movie star and mother, Lucille Ball had a maid named Harriet
McCain.
She was employed by Lucy from the late 1940’s until the 1980s.
Because Harriet was a woman of color, Ball insisted that the
elevators in her townhouse be integrated, a first for her
neighborhood. When McCain was hospitalized before her death, Ball
paid all her medical expenses.

Lucy
says that the Danfield Art Society
is the most prestigious club in town. This is the group’s first mention on the series.

Viv
says she doesn’t want to work that hard to become a member of an
organization that is comprised solely of woman. Now the YMCA, on the
other hand…. Danfield’s new YMCA
was
often mentioned during the first season, with scenes set there during
“Lucy Digs Up a Date” (S1;E2).

Lucy
figures it costs $3.00 for popcorn and candy at the movies. Today,
popcorn and candy can cost as much or more than the movie ticket
itself.

A
maid will cost Lucy $40 a week. In today’s money that would be a
salary of $365.

Lucy
mistakes the Social Register with Social Security. The United States
Social Security act was
signed into law by President
Franklin Roosevelt
in
1935. In 1961, the early retirement age was lowered to 62 from 67 for
reduced benefits.

Mrs.
Van Vlack decides to call Lucy ‘Hilda,’ after her former maid.
Coincidentally, Verna Felton (who played Mrs. Porter, Lucy Ricardo’s
short-lived maid) played a character named Hilda on the radio show
“December Bride” (1952) and its TV sequel “Pete and Gladys”
(1960). On those shows, Hilda was the best friend to the main
character – much like Ethel Mertz and Vivian Bagley.

Hoping
to impress the new maid, Lucy replaces all their Mickey Spillane
detective paperbacks with encyclopedias. Mickey
Spillane
(1918-2006) was
an American crime novelist, whose stories often feature his signature
detective character, Mike
Hammer.
More than 225 million copies of his books have sold internationally.
In 1964 alone Spillane released four novels.

Miss
Putnam asks Lucy whether there’s a color TV in the kitchen. Viv says
yes, “If
we drag it in from the living room.” Lucy
replies that it is a “light
beige walnut.”
CBS was still airing “The Lucy Show” in black and white, despite
it being filmed in color.

Miss
Putnam gets a telephone call from Gladys Wentworth who gives her a
stock market tip.

So
they won’t be recognized by the members of the Danfield Art Society,
Lucy and Viv don a series of disguises to serve their ‘international’
dinner:

Russian
Borscht
(actually Viv’s consommé with ketchup) – Lucy wears a napkin as a babushka
and puts on a shawl. She hums “The Song of the Volga Boatmen,” a
traditional Russian folk song as she ladles out the soup.

French
Bread
– Lucy makes a beret from a black pillow and ties a red checkered
table cloth around her waist. She sings “Frere Jacques” as she
distributes the baguettes.

Italian
Antipasto
– Viv makes an Italian chef’s outfit from uniforms found in the
kitchen closet, making a mustache from the fringe on a throw pillow.
She sings “O Solo Mio” while presenting the platter. The
Neapolitan song was written by Giovanni
Capurro
and
Eduardo
di Capua
in 1898.

Spanish
Wine
– Lucy puts a lace curtain on her head and wraps herself in a lace
tablecloth. Holding a bunch of parsley in front of her face, she
sings “In a Little Spanish Town,” a
song by Mabel
Wayne, Sam M. Lewis, and Joe
Young
written in 1926.

Turkish
Shish-Ka-Bob
– Viv wraps a pink and red silk scarf around her head and cinches a print table throw around her waist. She hums “The
Streets of Cairo, or the Poor Little Country Maid”
(also known as “The Snake Charmer Song”) written by James
Thornton in the late 19th century. Vivian Vance gyrates her hips with her back to the camera,
earning a few surprised gasps and laughs from the studio audience.

Baked
Alaska
– Lucy puts a dust mop on her head and wears a powder blue fur
jacket while Viv throws potato flakes in the air from the kitchen
door. She sings “Jingle Bells” – a song Ricky Ricardo called
“Yingle Bells” on “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour.” Ball and
Vance sang the song on the long-lost Christmas episode of “I Love
Lucy.”

Colombian Coffee
– Viv takes the same pink and red scarves and wraps them around her
waist while putting a floral arrangement on her head like Carmen
Miranda. She chants “Cha-cha-cha” as she serves the coffee.

Callbacks!

In
“Lucy
Hires a Maid”
(ILL S2;E23) Lucy
Ricardo hired Mrs. Porter, a maid who intimidates her and behaves
more like the employer than the employee. Both maids dislike
children, are overly concerned about their own meals, and demand to
be addressed by their last names.
As in 1953, Lucy ends up waiting on the maid, not the other way
around.

In
“Pioneer Women” (ILL S1;E23) Lucy Ricardo and Ethel Mertz go out
of their way to please The Society Matrons League headed by Mrs.
Pomerantz (Florence Bates, left) and Mrs. Pettibone (Ruth Perrot, right), a very close model for the Danfield Art
Society, but much snootier. It was based on a similar organization on Lucille Ball’s radio show “My Favorite Husband.”

Lucy
Ricardo pretended to be a maid to impress Fred’s vaudeville partner
in “Mertz and Kurtz” (ILL S4;E2, right) while Ethel pretended to be a
maid to impress Tallulah Bankhead in “The Celebrity Next Door,” a
1957 episode of “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour.”

Blooper
Alerts!

Lucy
buys Miss Putnam’s lunch from the delicatessen and brings it home in
a pink box. This is one of the same cake boxes used in “Lucy’s
Contact Lenses” (S3;E10) from Hoffstedder’s Bakery.