LUCY on CAVETT

“The Dick Cavett Show” ~ March
7, 1974

Dick
Cavett (Host)
is
an American television personality, comedian, and talk
show
host
notable for his conversational style and in-depth discussions. He
appeared regularly on television in for five consecutive decades,
from the 1960s through the 2000s.
Cavett
has been nominated for at least 10 Emmy
Awards
and
has won three.
He married actress Carrie Nye in 1964. She died in 2006.

Lucille
Ball 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.

Fred
Foy
(Announcer)

Archival
Footage from “I Love Lucy”:
Lucille Ball (Lucy Ricardo), Harpo Marx (as Himself), Desi Arnaz (as
Ricky Ricardo), William Frawley (as Fred Mertz), Vivian Vance (as
Ethel Mertz)

Archival
Footage from Mame:
Lucille Ball (Mame), Kirby Furlong (Young Patrick), Jane Connell
(Agnes Gooch), Ned Wertimer (Fred Kates), Roger Price (Ralph Devine),
John Wheeler (Judge Breghoff), Bea Arthur (Vera Charles)

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“The
Dick Cavett Show” was
the title of several talk
shows
hosted
by Dick
Cavett
on
various television
networks.
From December 29, 1969  to January 1, 1975 it was aired on ABC late
night. Lucille Ball previously appeared on March 9,
1971 with Carol Burnett and her daughter Lucie. She would also appear on his first CBS variety show (also titled “The Dick Cavett Show”) on August 16, 1975.

The
Monday after this program aired (March 11, 1974), “Here’s Lucy”
broadcast its penultimate episode, “Where Is My Wandering Mother
Tonight?” (HL S6;E22).  

During
his opening monologue, Cavett references putting together a
“radicals” show, which was first discussed when he had Carol
Burnett as a guest (February 21, 1974). He says the show will air in
two weeks.

Before
bringing out Lucille Ball, Cavett runs a clip from Lucille Ball’s
screen debut, Roman
Scandals
(1933), unsure which of the blonde “slaves girls” is Lucy.

During
Cavett’s introduction of Lucille Ball, he notes that “I Love Lucy”
is seen four times a day, plus her current series (“Here’s Lucy”)
on Mondays. He adds that she has also done 76 motion pictures.
Discussing Roman
Scandals,
Lucy says she still has the g-string, but not the wig. Cavett adds
that the appearance of nudity was arousing to him as a young boy.

Lucy
says that she is fond of gambling, but she said the thrill was gone
once she had money. Lucy
and Cavett bond over being of similar heritage: Scottish / English
(sans Cavett’s “dose of German”).

Lucy
admits that as a young model / actress she pretended to be from Butte, Montana,
instead of Jamestown, to sound more interesting. Ball lived there
briefly as an infant and studied up on the town to lend credence to
her fib. Lucy recalls reading her grandfather’s Zane Gray novels, and
watching William S. Hart and Pearl White serials. She remembers
pretending to be Madeline and Sassafrasa with her girlfriend. Lucy
says that she now loves Jamestown.

Cavett
(about
Jamestown): “Is
there a plaque there someplace?”
Ball:
“No,
a plot. They have a hulluva cemetery.”  

Curiously,
upon her death in 1987, Lucille Ball was first interred at Forest
Lawn in Hollywood.  Her remains were later moved to the family plot
in Jamestown at the direction of her family. Today
the upstage New York town is virtually defined by being Ball’s
birthplace, with numerous plaques, murals, and statues.

After
a commercial, Lucy recounts (and slightly embellishes) the plot of
one of her favorite episodes of “I Love Lucy,” “Lucy’s
Italian Movie” (ILL
S5;E23) aka “Grape Stomping.” She talks about casting the
‘stocky’ Italian women to play Lucy Ricardo’s fellow grape stompers. According to Lucy, the women spoke no English and had to be directed via a translator.

It
is in this interview that Lucy puts forward the inaccurate idea
that the other actress in the vat was a real grape stomper from Napa
Valley when she was actually Teresa Tirelli D’Amico, an opera singer
and motion picture actress. 

Ball: (about her grape stomping partner) “She was half a ton!”

Ball:
(about
the stomping grapes) “It’s
like being in a vat of eyeballs.”

She
recounts how the fight with Tirelli in the vat got out of hand and
she was held under so long she thought she might drown!

Ball:
“To
drown in a vat of grapes was not the way I had planned to go.”

Cavett
says that one of his favorite episodes is “Lucy
Meets Harpo Marx”
(ILL S4;E28). He introduces a clip from the show where Lucy Ricardo
does the mirror routine with Harpo. Before it rolls, Lucy adds that
although Harpo was a dear man, he usually worked alone and could not
remember his own routine with her from take to take. Cavett adds that
the routine was based on one in the Marx Brothers films Duck
Soup,
which Lucy appears not to have known or had forgotten. Cavett laments
that, due to legal restrictions, they can only air one minute of the
show.

After
a break, Cavett asks Lucy who she misses now that they’re gone. She
immediately replies Hedda Hopper, then adds Betty Grable, Lionel
Barrymore, Bobby Darin, and her “marvelous friend” Carole
Lombard. When Cavett asks about ‘Bogie’, she says she didn’t know
Humphrey Bogart, let alone miss him. She recalls that Clark Gable
would often visit, even after his wife Carole Lombard’s death. Lucy
says she always wanted to work with directors John Ford and Cecil B.
DeMille. She was supposed to be in DeMille’s 1952 film The
Greatest Show on Earth,
but got pregnant with Lucie, so the part went to Gloria Graham
instead. 

In 1963, Lucille Ball guest-starred on an episode of the TV
version of the film.

Talking
of pregnancy, Lucy remembers not being able to use the word
“pregnant” on “I Love Lucy.”  

Ball:
“I
wanted to say “I feel like a pregnant goose” and they told me I
could say “I feel like an expectant swan.”  

Cavett
makes an odd comment about the bodily fluids in the film The
Exorcist that
makes the audience groan.

Cavett
rolls a one-minute clip from “Lucy
Goes To The Hospital”
(ILL S2;E16) where the Ricardos and Mertzes have calmly rehearsed
Lucy’s trip to the hospital, but all hell breaks loose when the
moment actually arrives. Resuming the conversation, Lucy remembers
that in preparation for depicting Lucy Ricardo as pregnant, they
assembled the sponsors, the network, and a panel of religious leaders
for advice.  

After
the clip, a noise above their heads startles Cavett and Lucy. It
turns out to be a light breaking. Lucy
remarks that she is hyper-aware of lighting and technical matters
because on “I Love Lucy” they innovated filming with three
cameras, which relied heavily on proper lighting. Over the years she
has had to ‘train’ new directors and technicians.  

Lucy
says she doesn’t recall getting any hate mail, but when she and Desi
divorced she got “sad mail” begging her not to do it.

Cavett:
“Are your feelings easily hurt?”
Ball:
“Yes,
I’m afraid so.”
Cavett:
“You
haven’t been toughened by years in a hard profession?”
Ball:
“No.
I’m very easily hurt.”

Lucy
says that she’s basically a happy person. She is pleased with her
home life, her well-rounded children, and her work. Cavett tries to
insinuate that her husband Gary Morton might have an inferiority
complex being married to a legend but Lucy contradicts him, saying
Morton hadn’t even seen that many “Lucy” shows when they married.
Lucy also sets Cavett straight that she’s never felt inferior or
limited as a woman.  

Turning
the subject to Lucy’s film Mame,
she says it took five months to shoot and a year and a half to
prepare. She says that ‘they’ waited a year and a half for her broken
leg to heal. Ball broke her leg in a skiing accident in 1972 shortly
before beginning season five of “Here’s Lucy.” The series
continued with new scripts incorporating her injury. Lucy says she’s
happy with the initial reviews of Mame
and glad to have made a ‘family’ picture. In the ensuing weeks and
months, the critical response to Lucy’s performance was not kind. It
is possible that they only showed Ball the positive reviews to spare
her feelings, which (as is stated above) were easily hurt.

Cavett
rolls a clip from an early scene where Mame introduces Young Patrick
to her friends at a gin and jazz-infused soiree. Lucille Ball seems
mildly distracted by the clip Warner Brothers selected, thinking it
was out of context.  

Cavett
gets Lucy to confirm that “Here’s Lucy” is ending. Lucy says that
she has six years ‘product’ (enough for syndication) and plans to do
a project with Jackie Gleason about Diamond Jim Brady. She says she’s
frustrated that he’s lost nearly 60 pounds. This project, with Lucy
as Lillian Russell, never got off the ground, despite a finished
script. Instead, Lucy and Gleason did a special called “Three for Two” (above) which would air the following year.

Cavett
asks Lucy about Desi Jr.’s “somewhat Playboy existence.” She says
that it does worry her, but he is learning fast. Her son had a
relationship with Liza Minnelli that was fodder for tabloid gossip
due to their age difference.

Ball:
“Yes, it bothers me. But I, too, love Liza. I miss Liza more than
he does. But you can’t domesticate Liza.”

Cavett
remembers seeing a documentary on Britain’s royal family where they
were all watching Lucy on television. Lucy says she’s never met the
Queen because every time she got invited to do a command performance,
she got pregnant. Lucy Ricardo, however, did have that honor in “Lucy
Meets the Queen” (ILL S5;E15) and briefly appear as HRH in “Lucy in London” (1966, above). 

Finally,
Lucy tells the strange but true story of how she helped find spies
during World War Two with the help of her dental fillings!  Driving
home from the studio late at night she heard Morse Code tapped out
which was emanating from the lead fillings in her mouth. Next day she
reported the location she heard the sounds to the authorities and
they discovered an underground Japanese radio station.

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This
Date in Lucy History – March 7

"Lucy
and Clint Walker”
(TLS S4;E24) – March 7, 1966