S3;E25~
March 29, 1965
Synopsis
When
Lucy gets a small refund on her taxes, she intends to become a
stockholder in Mr. Mooney’s bank. As a new ‘owner’ she helps to get
the account of a wealthy eccentric doctor but mistakenly becomes
involved in one of his hypnotic regression experiments.
Regular
Cast
Lucille
Ball (Lucy Carmichael), Vivian Vance (Vivian Bagley), Gale Gordon
(Theodore J. Mooney)
Guest
Cast
Harvey
Korman (Mr.
Phillips, Stockbroker) previously played Mr. Slater, the Camp
Director in “Lucy, the Camp Cook” (S3;E6). Korman is
best known as a cast member of “The Carol Burnett Show”
(1967-77), four episodes of which featured Lucille Ball. He will
make two more appearances on “The Lucy Show.” In 1977 he had his
own show on ABC which lasted just one season. At the time of this
episode he was a regular on “The Danny Kaye Show” (1963-67) which
aired Friday nights on CBS. Lucille Ball guest starred on the episode
aired on Saturday, October 24, 1964, the night before her show, which
generally aired on Mondays.
Joseph
Mell (George,
Bank Guard) previously
played Bailiffs in “Lucy the Meter Maid” (S3;E7) and “Lucy
is Her Own Lawyer” (S2;E23).
His first role on the series was
as
a Butcher in “Together
for Christmas” (S1;E13).
Mell also appeared in a 1969 episode of “Here’s Lucy.” In 1964
he appeared in the TV special “Mr. and Mrs.” (aka “The Lucille
Ball Comedy Hour”), which featured many of the Desilu regulars and
was directed by Jack Donohue, who also directed this episode. In
1971, he was a Taxi Driver on “Lucy and the Lecher,” a cross-over
episode of Danny Thomas’s “Make Room for Granddaddy” in which
Lucille Ball played Lucy Carter, her character from “Here’s
Lucy.”
Elliott
Reid
(Dr. Oscar Kurtzman) had previously appeared on the series in “Lucy
Visits the White House” (S1;E25) and had
played Edward Warren, a parody of Edward R. Murrow, in “The
Ricardos Are Interviewed” (ILL S5;E7).
He also made two appearances on “Here’s Lucy.”
Dr.
Kurtzman represents a million dollar research foundation.
Lynne
Allen (Miss
Thompson, Dr. Kurtzman’s Assistant) had only seven screen credits to
her name, this being her last.
James
Gonzales (Bank
Teller) 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.”
Betty
Lou Barto (Bank
Teller) makes her one and only appearance on screen, according to
IMDB.
Sid
Gould (Mr.
Sommers, Bank Customer) 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.”
Carole
Cook
(Mrs. Valance, Bank Customer) makes her third appearance as Mrs.
Valance. She was
also seen as Lucy’s neighbor Thelma Green in four episodes. She was
a protege of Lucille Ball’s during the Desilu Playhouse years.
Although 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.”
Hal Taggart (Mr. Williams, Bank Customer, uncredited) makes his fifth and final appearance on “The Lucy Show” after having been seen in the Lucille Ball film The Facts of Life (1960).
George DeNormand (Bank Customer, uncredited) had appeared in three films with Lucille Ball from 1937 to 1963. This is the just one of his many appearances on “The Lucy Show” and “Here’s Lucy.”
Hazel Pierce (Bank Customer, uncredited) 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).
Alberto Morin (Bank Customer, uncredited) 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.
Douglas
Deane (Radio
Announcer, voice over) was previously glimpsed as a hotel guest in “Lucy Goes
to Vegas” (S3;E17). Between 1945 and 1955 he starred in four
Broadway musicals, including the original cast of Guys
and Dolls.
An
uncredited voice plays Mr. Phillips’ secretary Miss Rose. Other
background actors play additional customers and clerks at the bank.
This episode was intended to be the season 3 finale, but due to constant pre-emptions by the network, it turned out to be the second to last instead. It was filmed in color, but originally aired by CBS in black and white.
The episode opens with Lucy listening to an exercise program on her trusty transistor radio. The prop turns up on many other episodes and even makes the trip to California with Lucy!
Trying to do exercises while making breakfast, Lucy breaks a few eggs. Raw eggs were responsible for the longest laugh on “I Love Lucy” in “Lucy Does the Tango” (ILL S6;E20) as well as for comic effect in “Men Are Messy” (ILL S1;E8), “Ricky Thinks He’s Going Bald” (ILL S1;E34), “Ricky’s Hawaiian Vacation” (ILL S3;E22), “Lucy, the Camp Cook” (S3;E6), and “Lucy The Robot” (S4;E23).
Lucy
gets a letter from the Internal Revenue which turns out to be an
income tax refund of $38.23. That would be the equivalent (adjusting
for inflation) of more than $300 today. Lucy decides to invest it all in the stock market and pays a visit to a nervous broker (Harvey Korman). When he finally hears that she has just $38.23 he nearly has a nervous breakdown.
LUCY: “Are you sure you feel alright, Mr. Philips?”
PHILLIPS: “Oh, fine. I haven’t felt this way since 1929.”
Mr. Phillips is referring to the stock market crash of October 1929 that plunged the United States into the Great Depression.
After buying a single share of the Danfield Bank for $32, Lucy the stockholder pays the bank a visit. She warns the lackadaisical guard (Joe Mell) that she has a nine year-old nephew who is quicker on the draw than him. Lucy Carmichael only ever mentioned one sibling, Marge, who was seen in “Lucy’s Sister Pays a Visit” (S1;E15) in 1963. In that episode she eloped, and no child was ever mentioned – certainly none that could be 8 years old in 1965. Of course, power hungry Lucy may be fibbing to the Guard to scare him into keeping his job!
Lucy is so grateful for her refund that
she wants to send “Lyndon” a thank you note. To further extend
the joke, there is a large framed portrait of President Johnson over
Mr. Mooney’s desk. Lyndon Baines Johnson was the 36th President of the United States, assuming office from the Vice
Presidency after the assassination of John F. Kennedy. He was
re-elected in November 1964 by an overwhelming majority. Two weeks
earlier, “The Lucy Show” was pre-empted for his televised address
to Congress.
We
learn that Mr. Bainbridge is Chairman of the Board of the Danfield
Bank.
Viv unfavorably compares Mr. Mooney to her ex-husband (Ralph), although she does not use his name.
In return, Mr.
Mooney calls Lucy “The Lady Wolf of Wall Street” and Viv “Typhoid
Mary.” Real-life financier Bernard Baruch (1870-1965) was known as
“The Lone Wolf of Wall Street.” Mary Mallon (1869-1938)
was a cook known as “Typhoid Mary” because she was an
asymptomatic carrier of the typhoid virus. She is said to have
infected 22 people, three of whom died. Mr. Mooney’s analogy of Lucy
with Baruch is obvious given her new-found ownership in the bank, but
equating Viv with Mallon seems to indicate that she is not a welcome
person to have around.
To land the account of a wealthy but eccentric doctor (Elliott Reid), Lucy and Viv pay him a visit – only to be mistaken for volunteers for his experiment. Lucy and Viv play along to get the account.
This
is not Lucy’s first brush with hypnosis. In “Lucy Conducts the
Symphony” (S2;E13) she remembers that Harvey Simmons hypnotized a
man during a party so she then does the same thing to hypnotize Wally
Cox. In season five, Lucy will have an encounter with Pat Collins
“the hip hypnotist,” a real-life
nightclub performer.
A publicity image of Lucy and Viv riding the large hobby horse during the age regression experiment was used on the Season 3 DVD cover.
VIV (child-like): “My name’s Vivian. I take dancing lessons. I can kick over my head.”
LUCY (child-like): “Okay. Kick it over here and I’ll kick it back.”
When
pretending to be hypnotized, Lucy walks on stilts, something she
previously did in “Lucy’s and her Electric Mattress” (S1;E12) and
will do again in “Lucy
Bags a Bargain” (S4;E17).
Naturally, the studio audience rewards her skills with applause.
Discovering
that Mr. Mooney is really hypnotized, not faking, Viv says “He’s
stiffer than Dean Martin.” Dean Martin was a well-known
singer and actor who had a reputation for drinking (getting ‘stiff’). He will play
himself on an episode of “The Lucy Show” in season four. In 1975
he appeared with Lucille Ball in a TV movie titled “Lucy Gets
Lucky.”
Lucy
calls Mr. Mooney out for being dressed like Little
Lord Fauntleroy.
This is the name of a novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett (The
Secret Garden).
The
Fauntleroy suit (also
known as the Buster
Brown suit),
created a fad for formal dress for American middle-class children. This look was widely parodied in both film and television. The book was filmed in 1936 (above).
Callback!
Fred Mertz dressed like Little Lord Fauntleroy in “Lucy Hires an English Tutor” (ILL S2;E13). In “Changing the Boys’ Wardrobe” (ILL S3;E10) Fred calls Ricky Little Lord Fauntleroy. Ricky responds saying,
RICKY: “Nobody’s gonna call me little Fontle-roo-ey"!”
In
“The
Kleptomaniac” (ILL S1;E27) Lucy
Ricardo is hypnotized by a psychiatrist (Joseph Kerns) and regresses back to her childhood.
Lucy
Ricardo acts childish by filling the apartment with kids toys in “The
Ricardos Change Apartments” (ILL S2;E26).
In “The Business Manager” (ILL S4;E1) Ricky thought Lucy was playing the stock market, but she was actually just buying groceries from the corner market! He confuses Lucy’s purchase of a can of All Pet for Mrs. Trumbull’s cat with a listed stock!
Desilu was a publicly traded company and as such sold stock. Above is a sample stock certificate for 100 shares of Desilu signed by Lucille Ball and Edwin Holly.
Blooper
Alert!
Giggle! When
the Doctor is undoing the hypnotic spell, one single studio audience
member loudly chuckles, despite the fact that it is not a funny line.
Papermoon Loves Lucy 
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