Lucy and the Missing Stamp

S3;E14 ~ December 21, 1964

Synopsis

When Lucy and Viv are selling vacuum cleaners door to door, Lucy
accidentally sucks up Mr. Mooney’s prize stamp worth $3,000. One of their potential customers unwittingly puts the stamp on an envelope and mails it, which means Lucy must contend with the US Post Office to get it back!

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

Mabel Albertson (Mrs. White) is probably best remembered by TV viewers as Darrin Stephens’ mother on “Bewitched” (1964-71). Her first appearance on “Bewitched” was aired just four days before this appearance (her only one) on “The Lucy Show.” In 1956, she had appeared with Lucille Ball in the film Forever
Darling. Her brother, Jack Albertson, appeared on “I Love Lucy” in “Bon Voyage” (ILL S5;E13) the same time when Forever Darling was in movie theatres.

Nestor Paiva (Mr. Perkins) firs appeared with Lucille Ball in the 1940 film The Marines Fly High. He played the Cuban Jailer in “Lucy Takes a Cruise to Havana,” the very first episode of “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour” in 1957. This is his only appearance on “The Lucy Show.”

Mr. Perkins is in charge at the Handy Dandy Vacuum Cleaners sales office.

Herb Vigran (Postman) playedJule, Ricky Ricardo’s music agent on two episodes of “I Love Lucy” in addition to playing movie publicist Hal Sparks in “Lucy is Envious” (ILL S3;23). He was seen in the Lucy-Desi film TheLong, Long Trailer (1953). He played the role of the baseball umpire (an eye doctor) in two previous episodes. He went on to play other characters in three more
episodes.

Robert S. Carson (Bennett, Postmaster) was a busy Canadian-born character actor making the first of his six appearances on the series. He also made five appearances on “Here’s Lucy.”

Despite the final credits, the character is never referred to by the name Bennett.

Flip Mark (Junior White) celebrating his 16th birthday the day after this episode first aired. He was born Philip Mark Goldberg in New York City. In 1965, he played a young Steve Olson on “Days of Our Lives.” He would appear on one more episode of “The Lucy Show.” Mark left show business to become a 911 operator.

Karl Lukas (Mail Sorter) was featured in the Lucille Ball films The
Long Long Trailer (1953) and TheFacts of Life (1960). This is his only appearance on the series. He played Stash Kadowski on nearly 100 episodes of “The Phil Silvers Show” (1955-58).

Sid Gould (Sid, Mail Clerk) made more than 45 appearances on “The Lucy Show,” all as background characters. He also did 40 episodes of “Here’s Lucy.” Gould (born Sydney Greenfader) was Lucille Ball’s cousin by marriage to Gary Morton. Gould was married to Vanda Barra, who also appeared on “The Lucy Show” starting in 1967, as well as on “Here’s Lucy.”

This is the second episode in a row to deal with collecting hobbies, first coins (numismatics), now stamps (philately).

The shot of Lucy in the mail bag seen during the opening title sequence of season 4 was taken from the final scene of this episode.

Mr. Mooney talks about acquiring a valuable un-canceled 1918
upside down airmail stamp. He buys for $3,000. He is referring to the “Inverted Jenny,” a stamp so rare that only 100 of them are known to exist. The last one sold at auction in 2015 sold for just over $1,000,000.

Lucy says that a standard 1964 airmail stamp costs eight cents. The price is now $1.20 for international airmail. The mail route poster on the wall behind the postmaster seems to suggest that Danfield is located on a large body of water – perhaps Long Island Sound.

This is the same city street set used in “Lucy, the Coin Collector”
(S3;E15) except that the yellow fire hydrant has been removed.

Postmaster: “Lady, we don’t mind the rain, or the snow or the sleet. It’s kooks like you that drive us nuts!”

The postmaster is paraphrasing the unofficial postman’s creed: “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.” It is inscribed on the James Farley Post Office in New York City, facing Penn Station.

The US Post Office has twice honored Lucille Ball with a postage stamp. Many other countries have also featured Lucille Ball and “I Love Lucy” on their nation’s stamps.

Callbacks!

Eleven years earlier, Lucy Ricardo also sold Handy Dandy vacuum cleaners in “Sales Resistance” (ILL S2;E17).

In that episode, Lucy tries to sell a vacuum cleaner to Mr. Simpson
(Verna Felton) much the same way Lucy and Viv do here to Mrs. White. This is the most direct callback to an episode of “I Love Lucy” thus far.

In the back room of the post office, Lucy contends with conveyor belts,sorting bins, and canvas bags. These were also Lucy Ricardo’s nemesis in the laundry sorting room in “Bonus Bucks” (ILL S3;E21).

Blooper Alerts!

Sitcom Logic Alert! Mrs. White probably would not have used the stamp to mail a letter. While she wouldn’t have realized it was a rare and valuable stamp, its face value was three times the cost of a normal airmail stamp of that time. It would be like somebody today using a stamp that cost $1.50 to mail a standard first class letter.

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