S3;E15~
December 28, 1964
Synopsis
When
Lucy writes away for tickets to “The Danny Kaye Show” but is
turned down, she wangles her way in to see Kaye, first at a fancy
Manhattan eatery then at his ritzy hotel suite. In order to get her
into the show, Kaye offers to give her a walk-on role in the telecast
– but Lucy manages to hog the spotlight anyway.
Regular
Cast
Lucille
Ball (Lucy Carmichael), Gale Gordon (Theodore J. Mooney)
Vivian
Vance (Vivian Bagley), Jimmy Garrett (Jerry Carmichael), Ralph Hart
(Sherman Bagley) and Candy Moore (Chris Carmichael) do not appear in
this episode. Chris and Jerry, however, are mentioned.
Guest
Cast
Danny
Kaye
(Himself) was
born David Kaminsky in 1911 and left
school at the age of 13 to work in the Borscht Belt of Jewish resorts
in the Catskill Mountains. It was there he learned the basics of show
biz. In 1939, he made his Broadway debut in Straw
Hat Revue,
but it was the stage production of the musical Lady
in the Dark
in 1940 that brought him acclaim and notice from agents. Also in
1940, he married Sylvia
Fine,
who went on to manage his career. She helped create the routines and
gags, and wrote most of the songs that he performed. Danny could sing
and dance like many others, but his specialty was reciting
tongue-twisting songs and monologues.
In 1962 Lucille Ball guest-starred on his CBS TV program “The
Danny Kaye Show.”
A month before this episode of “The Lucy Show”
Ball made a second appearance on the program. The two appeared
together on variety and tribute shows from 1965 to 1986, a year
before his death from heart failure.
Leon
Belasco
(Bruno,
the Maitre d’) was
born in Russia in 1902. He was in three films with Lucille Ball
before playing the art store clerk in “Lucy
Becomes a Sculptress” (ILL S2;E15).
He previously played the violin in “No
More Double Dates” (S2;E21)
and
“Lucy Conducts the Symphony” (S2;E13).
This is his final appearance on the series.
Stanley
Farrar
(Man with Danny) was
seen on “I Love Lucy” in “Home Movies” (ILL S3;E20) and
“Staten Island Ferry” (ILL S5;E12). He will make one more
appearance on “The Lucy Show” in “Lucy and Arthur Godfrey”
(S3;E23).
Hal
Taggart (Man
with Danny) makes
the fourth of five appearances on “The Lucy Show” after having
been seen in the Lucille Ball film The
Facts of Life (1960).
Ray
Kellogg
(Henderson, the Doorman) played
the loud, barking Assistant Director (“Roll
‘em!”)
in “Ricky’s
Screen Test” (ILL S4;E6)
and later appeared in “Bullfight
Dance” (ILL S4;E22).
This is the second of his seven episodes of “The Lucy Show.” He
also did two episodes of “Here’s Lucy.” Just as in his other
screen credits, most most times he played policemen.
Sue
Casey
(Miss Holloway) was
a fashion model and actress who appeared in countless films. She
appeared in two Best Picture Academy Award winners which were
released 48 years apart: An
American in Paris (1951)
and American
Beauty (1999).
Casey was credited as ‘Miss Leg Girl’ on “Lucy Wants a Career,”
a 1959 episode of “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour.” This is her final
appearance with Lucille Ball.
Monty
O’Grady (Mr.
Martin) was
first seen with Lucille Ball in The
Long, Long Trailer (1953),
and played a passenger on the S.S. Constitution in “Second
Honeymoon” (ILL S5;E14).
He was at the airport when “The
Ricardos Go to Japan”
(1959).
He made a dozen appearances on the series and a half dozen more on
“Here’s Lucy.”
Estelle
Etterre (Grand
Plaza Hotel Guest) makes her penultimate screen appearance in this
episode, her only time sharing the screen with Lucille Ball in her 35
year career. She retired in 1966 and died at the age of 96.
Paul
Bradley
(Grand Plaza Hotel Guest) makes
the third of his six appearances on “The Lucy Show” in various
roles. He will also be seen in two episodes of “Here’s Lucy.”
Patrons
at the Park Royal Restaurant:
- Hazel
Pierce was
Lucille Ball’s camera and lighting stand-in throughout “I Love
Lucy.” She also made frequent appearances on the show. Of her many
on-camera appearances on “The Lucy Show” only once was she given
a character name and credited, in “Lucy
Plays Cleopatra” (S1;E1).
She was also an uncredited extra in the film Forever
Darling (1956). - Caryl
Lincoln &
Bert Stevens
were
a real-life husband and wife who made many appearances as background
players on the series. Lincoln was one of Lucy’s friends from her
Goldwyn Girl days. Stevens 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
along with Lincoln, probably appeared on other episodes as well. - Jerry
Rush
makes the first of his nine (mostly uncredited) appearances on the
series. He also did two episodes of “Here’s Lucy.”
Other
uncredited background performers play the other diners at the
restaurant, Danny Kaye’s female fans, and the extras in the airport
sequence of Kaye’s TV show.
This
is the final episode aired in 1964. In many markets it aired an hour
earlier than usual to allow for a CBS News program looking back at
1964.
At
the start of the episode, Mr. Mooney is in his scout master khakis
with short pants. He is taking his son along with Jerry and some other boys, on a camping trip. He did this twice previously in “Lucy and the
Scout Trip” (S3;E26) and “Lucy Becomes a Father” (S3;E9).
Neither of the boys appears in this episode, however.
Mr.
Mooney’s friend, Mr. Crawford, is a network executive. Mr. Mooney
also mentions his (never seen) wife Irma and her bridge club.
When
Lucy asks Mr. Mooney to put her in touch with Mr. Crawford (to get
tickets for Kaye’s show), he replies that he would be reluctant to
put her in touch with Mr. Ed! This is a reference to the TV series
about a talking horse, “Mr. Ed” (1958-66), also seen on CBS.
The
Park Royal is a fictional Manhattan restaurant. Its name implies it
may be located on or near Central Park or Park Avenue.
The
Grand Plaza Hotel is also a fictional New York City establishment.
The name is meant to evoke the famous Plaza Hotel, which sits on the
west side of Grand Army Plaza.
When
Danny Kaye joins Lucy in the doorman’s coat he makes a joke that he’s
just been to Yankee Stadium for a ‘double-header’! “Lucy and Bob
Hope” (ILL S6;E1) had scenes taking place at the legendary
ballpark. Hope and Kaye appeared together in the 1959 film The
Five Pennies,
as well as honoring Lucille Ball on a 1976 CBS Tribute show.
Danny
Kaye telephones Bill Paley to see if he has any spare tickets to give
Lucy. William S. Paley (1901-90), was
the chief executive who built the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS)
from a small radio
network into
one of the foremost radio
and
television
network
operations
in the United States.
In “Lucy’s Barbershop Quartet” (S1;E19) Viv
mentions Barbara Cushing, who is a soloist in her church choir. In
real life, Barbara
Cushing
was
better known as Babs Paley, wife of William S. Paley.
The
opening of “The Danny Kaye Show” is here underscored with the
music to “Hey, Look Me Over,” a Cy Coleman song from the Broadway
musical Wildcat
introduced by Lucille Ball in 1960.
On
the phone, Paley mistakes Danny Kaye for Danny Thomas. Lucy had
appeared with Thomas on “Lucy Makes Room for Danny,” a 1958
episode of “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour.” “The Danny Thomas
Show” (aka “Make Room for Daddy”) was filmed on the Desilu lot.
He also guest-starred on “Lucy Helps Danny Thomas” (S4;E7), above, and a 1968 episode of “Here’s Lucy.”
The
best Paley can do is two tickets for “The Jackie Gleason Show”
next April. At the time this episode was filmed, Jackie Gleason had a series
on CBS called “Jackie Gleason: American Scene Magazine.” Gleason will make a cameo appearance as bus driver Ralph Kramden on a 1968 episode of
“Here’s Lucy.”
On
his TV show, Danny Kaye invites Lucy to dance along with him as he
sings “All
By Myself” by
Irving Berlin in 1921. The song was
covered by many singers, among them Bobby Darin in 1961 and Sue Raney
in 1963.
Callbacks!
When
Lucy smashes Danny Kaye’s cigar into his face, he says, “I’m
just lucky she didn’t set fire to my nose.”
In the classic episode “Hollywood at
Last!”
(ILL S4;E16) Lucy
Ricardo sets fire to her own putty nose while pestering William
Holden.
Lucy
Ricardo crushed Uncle Alberto’s cigars in “The Ricardo’s Visit
Cuba” (ILL S6;E9).
She
also dumps a tray of food on Kaye’s head at a fancy restaurant just
as she’d done to Holden at the Brown Derby in “Hollywood at Last!” (ILL S4;E16).
Lucille
Ball is also involved in a fashion show in “The Fashion Show”
(ILL S4;E19) and will be again on a 1968 episode of “Here’s Lucy.”
In
another reference to “I Love Lucy,” Lucy tells Danny Kaye she can
play "Glow Worm” on her saxophone. She’d croaked out that
tune many times as Lucy Ricardo.
“Lucy
Meets the Queen” (ILL S5;E15) was doubtless inspired by Danny
Kaye’s November 1948 Command performance for King George and
Princess Elizabeth at the Palladium Theatre. In fact, Kaye is
referenced in this episode:
Lucy
(to the Bellboy): Have you ever seen the Queen?
Bellhop:
No, ma’am. But I came frightful close during the coronation. I
just missed her. But I did catch a glimpse of him.
Lucy:
Philip?
Bellhop: No, ma’am. Danny Kaye.
In
a
1959 episode of
“The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour” Lucy complains about how many meals
she’s cooked as a housewife:
Ricky
(reading Variety): It says here that Danny Kaye is going to
London to give another command performance for Queen Elizabeth.
Lucy:
I wonder what the Queen is cooking for Phil tonight?
Blooper
Alerts!
Location Scout! “The
Danny Kaye Show” was shot in Los Angeles, California. Lucy
Carmichael lives in Danfield, New York. In the opening dialogue of
his TV show, Kaye admits to being in New York, so perhaps this was
supposed to be a rare exception to their normal West Coast filming
schedule.
Pole Vaulting! When
Lucy barges through the crowd waiting for a table at the restaurant,
she knocks over the velvet rope barrier pole. The Maitre d’
calmly rights it again.
Backstage Logic Alert! In
the middle of Danny Kaye’s TV monologue, Lucy’s suitcase bursts open
and clothes fly out. It is unlikely, however, that a prop suitcase
that was not supposed to be opened on air would have anything inside
it.
Papermoon Loves Lucy 
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