Lucy and Paul Winchell

S5;E4
~ October 3, 1966

Synopsis

Lucy
convinces ventriloquist Paul Winchell to appear at the Annual
Banker’s Banquet.  When Winchell is running late, he asks Lucy to
stop by and pick up his dummies.  When she accidentally leaves them
in a taxi the understudy ‘dummy’ has to go on – Lucy!  

Regular
Cast

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

Mary
Jane Croft (Mary Jane Lewis) does not appear in this episode but Lucy
does have a phone conversation with her.

Guest
Cast

Paul
Winchell (Himself)
was born Paul Wilchinsky in 1922.  Coming into the public eye in
1948, he became one of the most famous ventriloquists since Edgar
Bergen.  He hosted the enormously popular children’s television show
“Winchell-Mahoney Time” (1964-68) in which he shared the
spotlight with Jerry Mahoney, one of his most popular characters.
Sadly, in a legal dispute over the syndication rights to the show,
all nearly 300 episodes were destroyed.  Winchell is fondly
remembered as the voice of Winnie the Pooh’s pal Tigger and (later)
Papa Smurf. He returns to “The Lucy Show” to play Doc Putnam in
two linked episodes, “Main Street U.S.A.” (S5;E17) and “Lucy
Puts Main Street on the Map” (S5;18), as well as doing two episodes
of “Here’s Lucy.” Surprisingly, Winchell was also an inventor
who is credited with the artificial heart, among other innovations.
He died in 2005.  

Snitchy
the Snail appeared
with Winchell on “The Dick Van Dyke Show” six months before this
“Lucy Show” appearance.

Tessie
Mahoney was
Jerry’s platinum blonde cousin.  She was named after Winchell’s wife
Tessie Nina Moore.  Many accused Tessie of just being Jerry Mahoney
in drag!  Like Winchell, Tessie was from Brooklyn (and sounded it).  

Jerry
Mahoney (above left) was
‘born’ around 1935.  He was Paul Winchell’s co-host on
“Winchell-Mahoney Time.”  Jerry Mahoney was
named after Winchell’s grade-school teacher, who encouraged him to
pursue ventriloquism. He was carved by Chicago-based figure maker
Frank Marshall. The original Marshall-carved Jerry Mahoney is now
‘living’ at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC.  

Knucklehead
Smiff (above right) was
‘born’ in 1951, sculpted by Winchell from a copy of Jerry Mahoney’s
head. He co-starred with Winchell and Jerry Mahoney on
“Winchell-Mahoney Time” and many other shows. Like Jerry Mahoney,
he now resides at the ‘Smiffsonian’ Institution, although neither are
currently accepting visitors!

Sid
Gould
(Show
Announcer Voice) 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
performed this same kind of uncredited voice over introduction when
“Lucy and George Burns” (S5;E1) performed together.  

Marge,
a voice on Lucy’s intercom is uncredited, as is the female voice of
the long distance operator.  Marge was also the name of Lucy
Carmichael’s sister, a character seen in “Lucy’s Sister Pays a
Visit” (S1;E15).  

Having
Paul Winchell as a guest star was Lucille Ball’s attempt to attract
younger viewers to “The Lucy Show.”  

Lucille
Ball seems to be having occasional vocal problems during this
episode.

Upon
meeting Paul Winchell, Lucy says
“I always read your column” mistaking
him for journalist Walter Winchell.  Paul Winchell quickly corrects
her. She then says “I
just get hysterical watching you and Charlie McCarthy”
mistaking her for ventriloquist Edgar Bergen.  Again, Winchell
quickly corrects her. Walter
Winchell (1897-1972)
was the narrator of Desilu’s “The Untouchables” and did the same
function for a parody episode on “The Lucy Show” titled “Lucy
the Gun Moll” (S4;E25).  Edgar
Bergen
(1903-1978) appeared with Lucille Ball in the 1941 film Look
Who’s Laughing.

Lucy
explains the bank’s interest rates to Paul Winchell:  

Lucy gave away toasters for new savings accounts back in Danfield when “Lucy
Takes a Job at the Bank” (S2;E21).  

In the previous episode, “Lucy the Bean Queen” (S5;E3) Lucy was redecorating her apartment.  The reveal is delayed as this episode has no scenes taking place in Lucy’s home.  

Mr.
Mooney returns to the office after failing to find a celebrity to
entertain at the Bankers Annual Banquet show.  Bob
Hope
is doing a show for the Girl Scouts in Pismo Beach; Jack
Benny
is on a tour of Fort Knox; Dean
Martin
just had an operation to remove a brass rail pressing on his foot.
All three of these performers have guest starred on “The Lucy
Show.”  Pismo Beach was thought to be a funny sounding name and was
often used as a punch line in comedy.  Fort Knox is an Army base in
Kentucky where much of the nation’s gold supply is held, so the
reference trades on Jack Benny’s characterization of a being a miser.
Dean Martin’s comic persona was that of a heavy drinker, so the
reference is to the foot rail found at bars.  

Lucy:
Oh, gee, aren’t there any other movie actors you could call?
Mr.
Mooney: Yes, yes, but they’re all too busy running for public
office.  

Mr.
Mooney is likely referring to Ronald Reagan, who ran for Governor of
California in 1966 and won (after this episode aired).  He held
office until 1975 before setting his sights on the Presidency.  In
1980 he was elected 40th President of the United States, an office he held until 1989.  His
screen acting career began in 1937 and lasted right up until he
became Governor. Reagan appeared with Lucille Ball on two episodes
of “The Ed Sullivan Show” in the mid-1950s.  

Paul
Winchell gets a phone call from someone named Gary asking him to play
golf.  This is probably and inside joke about Production Consultant
(and Lucille Ball’s husband) Gary
Morton’s
fondness for playing golf.

In
the opening scene at Paul Winchell’s home, his character Irving
Think
(a mouse) is standing next to the telephone and
Ozwald
(with another figure’s head attached) is propped up on the sofa.
Ozwald was a commercially available doll resembling Humpty Dumpty
that required the user to paint eyes and a nose on his or her own
chin and hang the puppet upside down to create the character.  

After
Winchell offers to lend Lucy one of his dummies, Lucy and the episode
enters (what Winchell later calls) “the twilight zone.”
Winchell’s most famous dummies, Jerry Mahoney and Knucklehead Smiff,
become animated on their own, without any help from Winchell
(although he may still be providing the voices live).  It is a
surreal moment for a show that tries to keep one foot in a somewhat
farcical version of reality (except perhaps for “Lucy the
Superwoman” S4;E26).  

Lucy
describes her boss as Diamond Jim Mooney after Winchell says he
sounds like “the
last of the big spenders.”  James
Buchanan Brady
(1856–1917)
was an American businessman, financier and philanthropist
of
the Gilded
Age
who had a particular affinity for precious stones and jewelry.  His
had a longtime relationship with actress and singer Lillian Russell.
At one point, a TV biopic was planned starring Jackie Gleason with
Lucille Ball as Russell, but it never came to pass.

Jerry
Mahoney and Knucklehead Smiff have a food fight with spaghetti, eggs,
and cream pies, something they often did on “Winchell-Mahoney
Time.”  

Mr.
Mooney gets a telephone call from his boss, Mr. Cheever, a character
who won’t actually appear until the end of the season (played by Roy
Roberts).  

Although
Lucille Ball was game to conquer any comic task the writers created
for her, becoming an accomplished ventriloquist in a week was a tall
order, so Mrs. Carmichael’s lips move when manipulating the dummy she
borrows from Paul Winchell as workplace therapy.  

The
Bankers Annual Banquet and Show is being held at the Beverly Ritz
Hotel. Backstage there is a Fallout Shelter sign. After the Cuban
Missile Crisis in 1961 (the beginning of the ‘Cold War’ between
Russian and the United States), President Kennedy instructed that
sturdy large-capacity structures be designated fallout
shelters
in case of attack. The yellow and black sign with three triangles
inside a circle was used to alert the public that the building was
designated such a structure.  The saloon door scenery used in the
silent movie sketch of “Lucy Meets Mickey Rooney” (S4;E18) is
also there, although the painted side is turned away from the camera.

As
Tessie Mahoney, Lucy suggests that they sing “Your Dime is My Dime”
because they are performing for an audience of bankers. This is a pun
on the song “My
Time is Your Time” written
by Leo
Dance and Eric Little in 1924.

It was made famous by Rudy Valle who guest starred as himself on
“Lucy Takes a Cruise to Havana” (1957), the first “Lucy-Desi
Comedy Hour,” and does so again in a 1970 episode of “Here’s
Lucy.”  

Winchell
(voicing Lucy / Tessie and himself) sings “What Does This Audience
Want?” an original song written especially for this episode.  The
lyrics reference Milton
Berle,
who appeared in “Lucy Saves Milton Berle” (S4;E13).  

Callbacks! 

Ventriloquist Max Terhune played himself in “Ricky Loses His Temper” (ILL S3;E19). Terhune was a skilled vaudevillian who specialized in ventriloquism. On the Orpheum Circuit his dummy was known as Skully Null but was re-named Elmer Sneezeweed in the movies. Terhune was listed as one of the top ten money-making stars in Westerns for 1937, 1938 and 1939, appearing as Max ‘Alibi’ Terhune in a string of B-movie ‘oaters.’  

Actually
a call forward – to the stage and film musical Chicago
in
which a woman (Roxie Hart) becomes a ventriloquist’s doll during the
musical number “We Both Reached for the Gun.”  Here, Lucy takes
on the persona of Tessie Mahoney, sitting on Paul Winchell’s knee
wearing a platinum blonde wig and pink dress singing “What Does
This Audience Want?”

Blooper
Alerts

Paul
Winchell wants to open a savings account at Westland Bank.  Although
certainly this is within the bounds of reality, it is likely that a
big star like Paul Winchell would have his finances administered by a
Business Manager and would not be going to a local bank for a savings
account.  

Mr.
Mooney’s Dictaphone explodes just by Lucy touching it.  

None
of Lucy’s file cabinets are labeled.  With Lucy’s wacky filing system
it doesn’t really matter anyway!

“Lucy Meets Paul Winchell” rates 4 Paper Hearts out of 5