THE LUCY STORY

“The
Ann Sothern Show” (S2;E1) ~ October 5, 1959

Directed
by  James V. Kern ~ Written by Leonard Gershe

Synopsis 

Lucy
Ricardo is mad at Ricky, so she packs her bags and moves into a hotel
managed by her old friend Katy O’Connor.  Finding out that Katy is
unmarried, Lucy is determined to fix her up with her boss, Mr. Devry,
using herself as bait. The plan backfires when Mr. Devry finds out
the truth and turns the tables on the girls.

Cast

Ann
Sothern (Katy
O’Connor) was born Henrietta Lake in 1909. She appeared
in the first “Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour” “Lucy
Takes a Cruise to Havana”
(1957)
as Susie MacNamara, the same character she played on her show
“Private Secretary” from 1953 to 1957. After that show was
shelved due to a contract dispute, Ball appeared in return crossover
on “The Ann Sothern Show” in 1959.  Sothern appeared with
Ball in five films between 1933 and 1943. On “The Lucy Show,” she
made seven appearances as Rosie Hannigan aka The Countess Frambois, a
countess down on her luck. She was nominated for an Oscar for her
final screen appearance in The
Whales of August in
1987. She is buried near her home in Sun Valley, Idaho, a place also
dear to Lucy and Desi.  

Katy
is the assistant manager of the Bartley House Hotel.  She is
unmarried.

Lucille
Ball (Lucy
Ricardo) was born on August 6, 1911 in Jamestown, New York. She began
her screen career in 1933 and was known in Hollywood as ‘Queen of
the B’s’ due to her many appearances in ‘B’ movies. With
Richard Denning, she starred in a radio program titled “My Favorite
Husband” which eventually led to the creation of “I Love Lucy,”
a television situation comedy in which she co-starred with her
real-life husband, Latin bandleader Desi Arnaz. The program was
phenomenally successful, allowing the couple to purchase what was
once RKO Studios, re-naming it Desilu. When the show ended in 1960
(in an hour-long format known as “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour”) so
did Lucy and Desi’s marriage. In 1962, hoping to keep Desilu
financially solvent, Lucy returned to the sitcom format with “The
Lucy Show,” which lasted six seasons. She followed that with a
similar sitcom “Here’s Lucy” co-starring with her real-life
children, Lucie and Desi Jr., as well as Gale Gordon, who had joined
the cast of “The Lucy Show” during season two. Before her death
in 1989, Lucy made one more attempt at a sitcom with “Life With
Lucy,” also with Gordon, which was not a success and was canceled
after just 13 episodes.

Don
Porter (James
Devry) played Mr. Devry for 46 episodes of “The Ann Sothern Show”
from 1959 to 1961. He previously played Peter Sands on “Private
Secretary” from 1953 until the show’s end in 1957. In 1974 Porter
had a reunion with Lucille Ball in three projects: a January episode
of “Here’s Lucy”; in the musical film Mame,
playing snooty Mr. Upson; and in the Lucille Ball special “Happy Anniversary and
Goodbye.”  He
died in 1997 at age 84.

Mr.
Devry is the manager of the Bartley House Hotel. He is an eligible
bachelor.

Ann
Tyrell
(Olive Smith) played Olive for 55 episodes of “The Ann Sothern
Show” from 1958 to 1961.  She previously played Vi Praskins on
“Private Secretary” from 1953 to 1957. Critics often said that
she was the “Ethel” to Ann Sothern’s “Lucy.”  Her last screen
credit was in 1964 and she died in 1983.  

Jack
Mullaney (Johnny
Wallace) played Mr. Wallace for 22 episodes of “The Ann Sothern
Show” from 1958 to 1959. His final screen credit was in 1980’s
remake Little
Miss Marker.
He died two years later at age 52.

---

James
V. Kern
directed 22 episodes of “The Ann Sothern Show.” He began
directing “I Love Lucy” in 1957 at the end of the Hollywood
episodes and did a total of 40 episodes. His final directing work was for “My
Three Sons.” He died in 1966. His place of death is listed as
Desilu Studios.

James
Gershe
wrote a baker’s dozen of episodes of “Private Secretary” and half
a dozen of “The Ann Sothern
Show.” He is best remembered for his Broadway play Butterflies
Are Free,
as well as the screenplay for the 1972 film. He wrote two episodes of
“The Lucy Show,” one of which featured Ann Sothern. Gershe was
nominated for an Oscar for 1957’s Funny
Face.

Ann
Sothern and her sister, Bonnie Lake, wrote the series’ theme song
“Katy”.

---

About her good friend, Lucille Ball once remarked, “The best comedienne in this business, bar none, is Ann Sothern.”

Unlike
most Desilu shows, “The Ann Sothern Show” was not
filmed before a live studio audience as Sothern reportedly did not
like to play comedy in front of an audience. A laugh
track was
used throughout the run. For a time, some episodes featured a
disclaimer during the end credits reading “Audience Reaction
Technically Produced.”

This
episode of “The Ann Sothern Show” is sponsored by Tang, a
fruit-flavored drink first sold in powdered form in 1959 (meaning it
was brand new when it was a sponsor) by General Foods. Sales of the
beverage mix were weak until 1962, when NASA used
it on John
Glenn’s Mercury
and
Gemini missions.
Since
then, it has been closely associated with the US space program,
leading to the misconception that Tang was invented for or by NASA.
Sothern and her cast would often appear in commercials for the
sponsors’ products at the end of the episode. She would then sign off
with, 

“Well,
goodnight everybody. Stay happy!”.

During
its first two seasons, “The Ann Sothern Show” aired on
Monday nights at 9:30pm on CBS immediately following Desilu’s “The
Danny Thomas Show” (aka
“Make
Room For Daddy”).
The
series’ first two seasons received decent ratings, however, at the
start of the 1960-61 season, the series moved to Thursday nights at
9:30pm opposite the ABC hit
show “The
Untouchables”, also filmed by Desilu.
The ratings plummeted and CBS canceled the show in the spring of
1961.

Cable
channel Nick
at Nite aired “The
Ann Sothern Show” from
1987 to 1990. To date, no plans for a DVD release have been
announced. 

Ann
and Lucy first became acquainted back in 1933, when both made brief
appearances as bathing beauties in a Darryl Zanuck melodrama Broadway
Thru a Keyhole.  Although Ball has a line of dialogue, Sothern is hard to find in the chorus. 

This
cross-over represents the only time Lucille Ball would play Lucy
Ricardo without Desi Arnaz as Ricky. In reality, Lucille Ball and
Desi Arnaz’s marriage was ending. They would announce their
separation after the final episode of “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour”
in April 1960, six months after this cross-over episode of “The Ann
Sothern Show” aired.

Like
“I Love Lucy,” “The Ann Sothern Show” featured characters
named Ethel (Alice Pearce), Fred (Arch Whiting), and Richy (Jimmy
Phillips). The show also employed some of “I Love Lucy’s” best character actors: Doris Singleton, Charles Lane, Elvia Allman, Ross
Elliott, Paul Dubov, Howard McNear, George O’Hanlon, John Emery,
Lurene Tuttle, Richard Reeves, Herb Vigran, Eleanor Audley, Jack
Albertson, Van Johnson, Lawrence Dobkin, Jesslyn Fax, Jack Chefe,
Norman Varden, and Joseph Kearns.

“The
Ann Sothern Show” premiered on CBS on October 6, 1958, the same
night that “Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse” presented “Lucy Goes
To Mexico”, the season two opener of “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour.”
For the rest of the 1958-59 season, “The Ann Sothern Show” would
serve as lead in for new episodes of “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour.”

Arriving
at Katy’s office, Lucy says she has been trying for weeks to get
Ricky to take her away for the weekend. That morning, Lucy found a
note from Ricky on her pillow:

“Dear
Lucy. Had to go skin-diving with Charlie Snyder. Be home around nine.
Next weekend we go for sure.”  

On
“I Love Lucy” no one named Charlie Snyder was ever mentioned, nor
did Ricky Ricardo ever show an interest for skin-diving. Throughout
the episode, there is no mention of Little Ricky, the Mertzes, or the
fact that Lucy Ricardo lives in Westport, Connecticut. It is probably
assumed that the viewing audience knows Lucy’s backstory from the
past eight years of “I Love Lucy” and “The Lucy-Desi Comedy
Hour.”  

Determined
to teach him a lesson, Lucy checks in to the hotel that Katy manages,
the [fictional] Bartley House Hotel.
It is revealed that Lucy is staying in one of the Bartley’s finer
rooms, Suite 341. Two other real-life Manhattan hospitality
establishments are mentioned: the Plaza Hotel and the Pierre Hotel.
The Plaza is on the corner of 5th Avenue and 59th Street and opened
to the public in 1907. The Pierre is a luxury hotel that opened in
1930 and is situated on Fifth Avenue at 61st Street, facing Central
Park.

Lucy
says that she calls herself ‘Lucille’ when things get serious. In
fact, on “I Love Lucy” Lucy never called herself Lucille, nor did
anyone else. Her full name was only used when dealing with official
identification like passports or birth certificates.  

Lucy
tells Katy that their mutual friend Edna Philips has two kids and a
beagle. Lucy compliments the beagle.   

When
Lucy finds out Katy is still not married, she is determined to play
matchmaker and fix her up with her boss, Mr. Devry. Lucy Ricardo
played matchmaker several times on “I Love Lucy,” fixing up Sam
“the fly” Carter and Dorothy “the spider” Cook in “The
Matchmaker” (ILL S4;E4); “Lucy
is Matchmaker” (ILL S2;E27) where
she tries to fix up Eddie Grant and Sylvia Collins; 
and “Lucy
Plays Cupid” (ILL S1;E15, above) where
she sets her bow in the direction of the elderly Miss Lewis (Bea
Benadaret) and the neighborhood butcher Mr. Ritter (Edward Everett
Horton).

Katy
calls her boss “bloodless Devry” and says Lucy might as well have
fallen for “a stuffed pimento.” Mr. Devry overhears these remarks and
is determined to prove them wrong.

Thinking
Lucy has fallen in love with Mr. Devry herself, Katy calls Lucy “Madame
du Barry.”
Ball had portrayed the character, in Du
Barry Was a Lady (1943).
Sothern was originally scheduled to play the role, but had to drop
out of the film when she discovered she was pregnant. The real-life
Madame du Barry (1743-93) was the last mistress of French King Louis
XV.

Mr.
Devry decides to turn the tables on Lucy and makes amorous overtures
to her. When packing to leave, Katy finds Lucy’s suitcase contains the Bartley’s  (largely monogrammed) hotel towels. 

To
get her to stay, Katy slips a handful of Rock-a-Bye Sleep Tablets
into Lucy’s champagne. To get back at her, while Katy is in the
bedroom, Lucy puts the tablets inside Katy’s chocolates.  

Realizing
they have slipped each other a mickey, they sing “Rock-a-bye Baby”
to each other preparing to nod off. Luckily, Mr. Devry rescues them
from their slumber. 

Lucy Ricardo also had too many sleeping pills
when she rode the “Staten Island Ferry” (ILL S5;E12) to help Fred
get over his sea sickness.

---

This
Date in Lucy History
~ October 5, 1959

“Ricky’s
‘Life’ Story”
(ILL S3;E1) – October 5, 1953

“Lucy
and the Winter Sports”
(TLS S3;E3) – October 5, 1964

“Lucy
and the Drum Contest”
(HL S3;E3) – October 5, 1970