Lucy and Arthur Godfrey

S3;E23~
March 8, 1965

Synopsis

Lucy
and Viv land Arthur Godfrey for their benefit show about the founding
of Danfield.

Regular
Cast

Lucille
Ball (Lucy Carmichael / Lucybelle)

Gale Gordon (Theodore J. Mooney / Conrad P. Field), Vivian Vance (Vivian Bagley / Bessie)

Guest
Cast

Arthur
Godfrey
(Himself / Daddy) was
born in New York City in 1903. He was a radio and TV host and had
his own television show “Arthur Godfrey and His Friends (later known as “The Arthur Godfrey Show” on
CBS, which was consistently in the top of the ratings, along with “I
Love Lucy.” He was concurrently the host of “Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts” (later known as “Talent Scouts”) which showcased such performers as Ken Berry, Wally Cox, Don Knotts, and Steve Lawrence, all of whom went on to appear with Lucille Ball.

His career was marred by his on air firing of Julius
LaRosa. CBS historian Robert Metz, in CBS: Reflections in a Bloodshot Eye, quoted Godfrey as having once told cast and staffers, “Remember that many of you are here over the bodies I have personally slain. I have done it before and I can do it again.”

Despite his ability to bring in profits, CBS executives who respected Godfrey professionally disliked him personally. This included CBS chairman William S. Paley. His career was also plagued by accusations of anti-antisemitism. He appeared in the movies 4 for Texas (1963), The Glass Bottom Boat (1966), and Where Angels Go Trouble Follows (1968). He briefly co-hosted “Candid Camera” with creator Allen Funt, but that relationship, like so many others, ended abruptly and acrimoniously. Arthur Godfrey died in 1983.

Max
Showalter
(Vinnie / Honest-But-Poor Piano Player) previously played Vinnie in “Lucy Gets
Amnesia” (S3;E4). He was
born in Kansas (like Vivian Vance) in 1917. He got the acting bug as
a toddler when mother took him to the local theater where she played
piano for silent movies. He acted in 92 shows at the Pasadena
Playhouse between 1935 and 1938 and made his Broadway debut in
Knights
of Song. On
Broadway, he played the role of Horace Vandergelder in Hello,
Dolly!
more
than 3,000 times opposite such luminaries as Carol Channing, Betty
Grable, and Ginger Rogers. Showalter made more than a thousand TV and
film appearances. Toward the end of his life he lived in Connecticut
(again, like Vivian Vance) and died there in 2000.

Showalter
is never referred to as Vinnie. He is the author of the benefit show where he plays the poor-but-honest piano player with a mysterious background.

Carole
Cook
(Mrs. Baldwin) was
seen as Lucy’s neighbor Thelma Green in four episodes. Cook was a
protege of Lucille Ball’s during the Desilu Playhouse years.
Although she was born as Mildred Cook, Ball suggested she take the
name Carole, in honor of Lucy’s great friend, Carole Lombard. Cook
also went on to appear in five episodes of “Here’s Lucy.”

Cook
is never referred to as Mrs. Baldwin. In the benefit show she sits
at a cafe table as part of the chorus.

Stanley
Farrar
(Mr. Gilbert) was
seen on “I Love Lucy” in “Home
Movies” (ILL S3;E20)
and
“Staten
Island Ferry” (ILL S5;E12).
He previously appeared in another celebrity-themed episode “Lucy
Meets Danny Kaye” (S3;E15).

Farrar
is never referred to as Mr. Gilbert.

Clyde
Howdy (Wilby, the Groom) was mostly seen in Westerns, except for the musical
films Bye Bye Birdie (1963) and My Fair Lady (1964).
This is his only credit with Lucille Ball.

Fury (uncredited) is one of three live horses used in the episode. The horse is likely named in order to sound more intimidating to Lucy. The horse Viv mounts goes unnamed.

Sid Gould (Riverboat Bartender, uncredited) made more than 45 appearances on “The Lucy Show,” and nearly as many on “Here’s Lucy.” Gould (born Sydney Greenfader) was Lucille Ball’s cousin by marriage to Gary Morton. He usually played delivery men and waiters.

Bennett Green (Riverboat Waiter, uncredited) was Desi Arnaz’s camera and lighting standby during “I Love Lucy”. He often does background work on “The Lucy Show” and also appeared on “Here’s Lucy.”

Some
of the Riverboat Patrons are played by:

George
DeNormand
had
appeared in three films with Lucille Ball from 1937 to 1963. This is
the fourth of his many appearances on “The Lucy Show” and “Here’s
Lucy.”
William
Meader
had
appeared as an airport extra in “The
Ricardos Go to Japan,”
a
1959 episode of “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour.” He made many
appearances on “The Lucy Show,” most times as a clerk in Mr.
Mooney’s bank.
Alberto Morin was born in Puerto Rico, and appeared in some of Hollywood’s most cherished films: Gone with the Wind (1939), Casablanca (1943), and Key Largo (1948). He was Carlos, one of Ricky’s “Cuban Pals” (ILL S1;E28) and the Robert DuBois in “The French Revue” (ILL S3;E7). His many background appearances on “The Lucy Show” and “Here’s Lucy” were all uncredited.
Judith
Woodbury
makes
the fifth of her many uncredited appearances on “The Lucy
Show.” She also appeared on “Here’s Lucy.”
Hans
Moebus was a German-born actor who appeared as an uncredited
background performer in hundreds of films and TV shows, including the
Lucille Ball films DuBarry Was a Lady (1943), A Woman of
Distinction (1950) and The Facts of Life (1960). He was
on the dock during the “I Love Lucy” episode “Bon Voyage”
(ILL S5;E13). Moebus returned for one more episode of “The Lucy
Show.”

More
men and women singers round out the Riverboat chorus.

Unusually, this episode has no scenes taking place at the Bank or Lucy and Viv’s home, both regular locations for the series.

Danfield is a fictional town established to be in New York state, although its exact location is never established, except that it is a commuter city of Manhattan located near the train lines. For everything you ever wanted to know about Danfield, click here! The name Danfield may have been created by combining the names of two Fairfield County, Connecticut, towns: Danbury and Ridgefield.

“The human mind is like a cave. Beyond the light are dark passageways and mysterious recesses. I, Doctor Daniel Danfield, have explored those unknown retreats and know their secrets”

The name might also have been borrowed from the tremendously popular radio show “Danger, Dr. Danfield” heard on ABC radio from 1946 to 1947 and then in syndication. It starred Stephen Dunne as Dr. Danfield. Dunne had a small role in Miss Grant Takes Richmond (1949) with Lucille Ball and was in several episodes of the short-lived TV series “My Favorite Husband” based on Lucille Ball’s radio series. One of the show’s regular performers was Jay Novello, who also shows up on “I Love Lucy” and “The Lucy Show.” Other “Lucy” actors on the program included Herb Vigran, Howard McNear, Parley Baer, and Lurene Tuttle.

The songs for the show-within-the-show were written by Max Showalter (Vinnie), Bob Lees, and Peter Walker.

At
8pm on March 8, 1965, a half hour before this episode first aired,
Lucille Ball appeared on the CBS quiz show “I’ve Got a Secret”
hosted by Steve Allen. Gary Morton, Lucy’s husband, was one of the
panelists.

Arthur
Godfrey had been a huge television star in the 1950s, but by this
time was semi-retired. He was a very influential entertainer and
celebrity who made (and ended) many entertainers’ careers. His arrogance,
combined with rumors of strong anti-Semitism, made him almost
non-entity in show business by this time. Lucille Ball didn’t care.
She liked him, and thought that his work was solid.

The
Danfield Community Players previously staged a production of
Cleopatra starring Lucy and Viv at the start of season two.

The
show is to benefit the children’s wing of the hospital. Lucy and Viv
were helping fund the children’s hospital as far back as “Lucy the
Music Lover” (S1;E8, above).

At
the stable, Godfrey talks to Fury the horse using his famous
greeting: “How
are ya how are ya how are ya?” something
he started saying on radio. He then launches into one of his famous
on-camera commercial pitches – also to the horse – about sugar
cubes.

Arthur Godfrey tells Lucy his secretary Mary Ann is very protective of him. In real life, Mary Ann Van was Godfrey’s private secretary.

Godfrey describes himself as a “Virginia Ham”, a pun that plays upon the fact that he is a performer who (although born in New York) made his home at an estate in

Paeonian Springs, Virginia, outside Washington DC. This is likely where the scene with the horses is set and why Lucy tells Godfrey to visit “Danfield, New York. Lovely country. You’ll enjoy the trip up there.” In show business slang, a ‘ham’ is a performer who craves the spotlight and/or performs in an exaggerated style. Virginia Ham (the meat) is dry cured and sent through a process of slow smoking and aging that adds a notable rich flavor.

“The
Founding of Danfield” is
a two-act musical melodrama set on a riverboat in the south.

Lucybelle (Lucy) and her father (Godfrey) are broke and looking to
marry her off to wealthy Yankee Conrad P. Field (Mr. Mooney) in order to save their plantation, Southern Moon. She attempts to get his attentions by dropping her hankie.

LUCYBELLE: “You want me to play hankie-panky with a Yankee?”

But Field is tempted away by the allures of the vamp Steamboat Bessie (Viv).

Lucybelle, meanwhile, is smitten with the riverboat’s honest-but-poor piano player
(Vinnie).

To compete with Bessie, Lucybelle transforms
herself into Dixie Lucy doing a striptease in the process. We discover that the piano player is the long-lost son of Mr. Field. All ends
happily (naturally) and Lucybelle and the piano player state their
life-long dream: to settle down and found a town. Discovering her (now) rich -but-honest piano player husband-to-be is named Dan Field, she resolves that it will also be the name of their new town.

The
musical melodrama features original songs written (in the context of
the script) by the character of Vinnie and sung by Arthur Godfrey
(who also plays the banjo), Lucy, and Viv. This mirrors real life as Max Showalter wrote the songs for the episode.

During the show, Gale Gordon does one of his famous cartwheels, the second of his eight cartwheels on a Lucycom.

Lucy
gets to play a very Scarlet O’Hara-like character in a broad comic
style. Lucille Ball was considered for the role of Scarlet in
1939’s Gone With
the Wind.
“Founding of Danfield” chorus member Hal Moebus was an extra in
the Oscar-winning film.

To express his thanks for being on the show, Godfrey sent Lucy and Gary this brass seashell-shaped plate engraved “Lucy / Gary / With Love / Arthur Godfrey." It came up for auction in 2010.

Callback!

TV aristocracy according to a June 1952 local TV Guide.

In December 1952, this local TV Guide cover featured Godfrey (and his wife Mary Bourke) and promoted an inside article about “Lucy’s Baby”, several months before the birth.

In 1953, Lucille Ball and Arthur Godfrey were atop the TV totem pole on the cover of TV Guide, the 3rd national edition and the second to feature Lucille Ball! The caricature also featured Milton Berle, Imogene Coca, and Sid Caesar. Note that Lucy is holding Little Ricky and a pack of Philip Morris cigarettes while Godfrey plays the ukulele. Lucille Ball appeared on the cover of TV Guide 39 times while Godfrey scored 16 covers.

That same year, Godfrey and Ball graced the cover of TV Fan Magazine. Inside articles on the stars were titled “How TV Saved Lucy’s Marriage” and “The Other Side of Arthur Godfrey.”

On the news stands at the very same time was an issue of TV Show Magazine with Godfrey on the cover and an inside article titled “Lucy’s Baby” by ‘Ethel Mertz’!

A sampling of magazine covers featuring and / or mentioning Godfrey and Ball during the 1950s, when both were at the height of their popularity.

Disguising
themselves as fox hunters dressed in full riding regalia, Lucy
repeats some of the same language and comic business she first did on
“The Fox Hunt” (ILL S5;E16). As in 1956, Lucy mounts the horse
backwards. She also “rode to hounds” in the movies Annabel
Takes a Tour (1938) and Mame (1974).

These January 1959 ads brag that “Arthur Godfrey Time” and “I Love Lucy” are ‘tops’ in weekday morning syndication. These CBS affiliates ran them back-to-back.

In 1964, Godfrey and Ball both had weekday radio programs on the CBS Radio Network.

The character of Vinnie played by Max Showalter was first seen in “Lucy Gets Amnesia” (S3;E4). In that episode his surname is Meyers and he is said to be from the Jamestown branch of Mr. Mooney’s bank in order to account for him knowing Lucy from their childhood.

Fast Forward!

On May 1, 1966, Lucille Ball and Arthur Godfrey participated in a CBS documentary titled “The Magic of Broadcasting” which was produced by Lee Mendelson.

The antebellum dress worn by Lucille Ball as Lucybelle would be briefly seen again in "The Hollywood Unemployment Follies” (HL S3;E22)…

…and worn (with comic embellishments) by Lucy Carter as Scarlet O’Hara in “Lucy and Flip Go Legit” (HL S4;E1).

On March 13, 1978, Lucille Ball made a guest appearance on “Gene Kelly…An American in Pasadena”. Her entrance had her standing up in the audience shouting for Godfrey, who wasn’t there. Perhaps she was thinking of…

On March 27, 1978, Lucille Ball and Arthur Godfrey both participated in “CBS On The Air” representing Monday nights in the week-long celebration of their first five decades.

Blooper
Alert!

Although
“The Founding of Danfield” runs for 15 minutes screen time, only
the last minute hints at the founding of the town. Lucy Carmichael
and Mr. Mooney will only live in Danfield for three more episodes
until moving to California at the start of season 4.

Papermoon Loves Lucy