PROPS!

“Here’s Lucy” props master Kenneth Westcott was in charge of sourcing and creating some usual items to make Lucy’s comedy work!  Here’s a look at some of the oddities seen on screen!

While it was amazing to book Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, Lucille Ball Productions also managed to get Taylor’s world-famous 68 carat Cartier diamond ring worth over a million dollars. It was guarded by private security while on the set and only used for close-ups like the above shot. Westcott created two replica rings for the medium and long shots which were crafted from chandelier crystals. Although he wanted to keep one after the shoot, Ball took one and Taylor took the other.

When Lucy Carter has a garage sale, one of the items is Lucy Ricardo’s polka dot Vitameatavegamin dress worn on “I Love Lucy!” This is a wonderful ‘Easter Egg’ for Lucy fans! 

When Craig is making a documentary about his mother, it involves hidden cameras and drilling holes in the walls!  Smile!  Lucy’s on Candid Camera!

For a talent competition featuring Kim and Frankie Avalon as Sonny and Cher, an applause meter was used to determine the winner. Needless to say, no meters were necessary when Lucille Ball was performing – 100 every time!

The props departments often needed to provide food – some real, some fake. Food also had to withstand the punishing heat of the lights and sometimes be edible. Actors had to be able to speak while eating, and continuity concerns meant that more than one of each item had to be available. 

Sometimes headlines helped tell the story. This prop newspaper was probably sourced from Earl Hays Press, which specialized in providing prop newspapers in Hollywood. This issue lacks one thing every real newspaper has. Can you guess what it is?  Do you remember the episode or the actor in the photo?

A ring that contains cyanide tablets! Desilu also produced “Mission: Impossible” so this unique item could be from the prop shelves. The tablets are probably candy.

A diamond bracelet is dipped into a tureen of cocktail sauce!  Westcott had to find the ideal fake jewelry and create a ‘cocktail sauce’ with a consistency that would photograph well, but not be too sticky or stain costumes.

A turtle neck sweater turns out to be more of a giraffe neck!  Craig is under the yarn!

A visit to the recycling center for hundreds of cans made this comic moment happen. On the “Here’s Lucy” DVD extras, there is footage of the crew and cast pitching in to clean up the cans before the filming can continue. Even Lucille Ball pitches in!   

A custard machine runs amok!  This close-up used frozen custard, but the long shots where the custard flows freely involved a non-frozen product. It also had to be edible!  

Someone had to figure out how Craig could play the drums over the telephone!  

Unfortunately, it’s not very likely that there’s any food in these dozen tin-foil covered casseroles.  

Can you guess the profession of the person who lives here?  Moooo!

In this episode, Westcott had to provide several versions of the same vase:  Harry’s prized pot, and the one Lucy tries to make to replace it!

There was usually a large gold-framed mirror on the landing of the Carter living room, but for one episode it was replaced by a cuckoo clock for the sake of a single gag. The robin needed to pop out on cue! 

Instead of baking a file into a cake, a little old lady hides a hacksaw under her shawl!  Westcott was in charge of sourcing the saw and baking the cake. The blade had to be dulled so the actress didn’t cut herself. 

This gag had to be constructed from scratch and also required a new desk for Harry so that the actor playing the hand could hide underneath, putting his hand through hole in the top of the desk.  A lot of effort for a laugh!

In the late ‘60s, this is what they thought a computer would look like!  EXMO-III is probably one of the biggest props ever built for the series. A crew member inside helped EXMO operate and even serve coffee!  

You won’t be shocked to learn that this desiccated chimp corpse (wearing a fright wig) was from an episode starring horror-master Vincent Price! Although it is similar to the dead monkey used in the film “Sunset Boulevard”, it is not the same prop!    

A (nearly) nude painting of Lucy!  It is now in the collection of the Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Center in Jamestown, New York.  Unfortunately, the painter was not credited!  

As property master, Ken Westcott was responsible for all of the props used in every scene of every show.

“I had to make sure if they did a retake, items in the original shot had to be in the same place.”

He has fond memories of his years with Lucille Ball, who sent him a four-page, handwritten letter thanking him for his diligence and patience throughout the years.

"She was a worker … we’d have a meeting Monday morning in her dressing room and all of her cast would come into her dressing room and they would read until noon. Then they would go out at the table in front of the set and they would read the script, and they would work on that. The next day, they would start rehearsing … on Thursday we did our show with a live audience.”

Lucy honored Westcott by naming the crazy prisoner played by Elsa Lanchester ‘Mumsie Westcott’. She also cast his daughter Debbie as one of Kim and Craig’s high school friends. He died in 2014 at age 93.