1975-1979
[For Part One – Please Click Here!]
“The
Dean Martin Celebrity Roast: Lucille Ball” (February
7, 1975)
Director: Greg Garrison
Writers: Harry Crane, George Bloom,
Tom Tenowich, Milt Rosen, Don Hinkley, Peter Gallay, Stan Burns, and
Mike Marmer
Starring: Lucille Ball, Henry Fonda, Dean Martin, Ginger Rogers, Gale Gordon, Vivian Vance, Bob Hope, Jack
Benny, Milton Berle, Gary Morton, Don Rickles, Rich Little, Foster
Brooks, Nipsey Russell, Phyllis Diller, Dick Martin, Dan Rowan, Ruth
Buzzi
TRIVIA
Lucille
Ball is visible excited to hear that Fonda is roasting her. He tells
the story of how he and Lucy dated when she first arrived in
Hollywood. Public speaking and comedy where not Fonda’s forte, but he
delivers the material sincerely.
“The
Dean Martin Celebrity Roast: Jimmy Stewart” (May
10, 1978)
Producers: Greg Garrison, Lee Hale
Director: Greg Garrison
Writers: Harry Crane, Stan Burns, David Axelrod, Jay Burton, Robert L. Mills,
Mel Chase, Arthur Phillips, Martin Ragaway, Sol Weinstein, Howard
Albrecht, Jack Shea, Larry Markes
Starring: Lucille
Ball, Henry Fonda, Dean Martin, James Stewart, June Allyson, Greer Garson, Red Buttons, Barry
Goldwater, LaWanda Page, Eddie Albert, Foster Brooks, George Burns,
Tony Randall, Don Rickles, Janet Leigh, Rich Little, Milton Berle,
Jesse White, Orson Welles, Mickey Rooney, Ruth Buzzi
TRIVIA
Henry Fonda talks about the films they did together. Fonda introduces and narrates film clips of Stewart’s career. Henry
Fonda and Stewart first worked together on the film On
Our Merry Way (1948).
They also collaborated on How
The West Was Won
(1962), Firecreek
(1968), and The
Cheyenne Social Club
(1970). The were frequently seen on TV awards shows and tributes.
Lucille
Ball and Jimmy Stewart never appeared together in a dramatic context.
They often were guests on the same awards shows, tributes, and talk
shows. The first was “Hedda Hopper’s Hollywood” (1960) and the
last was Lucille Ball’s final public appearance on “The 61st Annual Academy Awards” (1989).
Fonda,
Ball, and Stewart, were all neighbors in Beverly Hills. Lucy talks
about his vegetable garden, a subject she has mentioned on other
programs. Lucy jokes about what a respectful neighbor he is. She
also ribs Stewart about his somewhat prudish reputation.
Lucy:
“Next
to Jimmy Stewart, Fred MacMurray is electrifying!”
“AFI
Life Achievement Award: Henry Fonda”
(March 15, 1978)
Producers: Eric Lieber, George Stevens Jr.
Director: Marty Pasetta
Writer: Hal Kanter
Starring:
Henry Fonda, Lucille Ball, Jane Alexander, Richard Burton, Bette
Davis, Kirk Douglas, Jane Fonda, Peter Fonda, James Garner, Lillian
Gish, Charlton Heston, Ron Howard, Jack Lemmon, Fred MacMurray,
Marsha Mason, Dorothy McGuire, Lloyd Nolan, Gregory Peck, Barbara
Stanwyck, James Stewart, Richard Widmark, Billy Dee Williams
TRIVIA
The
American Film Institue (AFI) is
an organization that educates filmmakers and honors the heritage of
the motion
picture arts in the United States.
It was founded in 1965 by a mandate from President Lyndon Johnson.
Their annual life achievement award began in 1973 and was awarded to
John Ford. The ceremony that honored Henry Fonda was the first and
only one not to have a host / presenter.
Henry
Fonda:
“I
dated Lucy once. I guess you could say I didn’t really plight my
troth. I cry myself asleep a lot because if I had plighted by troth
properly, they might’ve changed the name of that studio to Henrylu.”
Lucy’s
daughter, Lucie Arnaz, and her husband, Gary Morton, sit next to her
in the audience.
Film
clips from two out of three film collaborations with Lucille Ball,
The
Big Street
(1943) and Yours,
Mine and Ours
(1960), are included.
“General
Electric’s All-Star Anniversary”
(September 29, 1978)
Director:
Dick
McDonough
Writers:
Monty
Aidem, Jeffrey Barron, Bob Howard, Paul Keyes
Cast:
John
Wayne (Host), Lucille Ball, Henry Fonda, Albert Brooks, Alex Haley,
Pat Hingle (as Thomas Edison), Bob Hope, Cheryl Ladd, Michael Landon,
Penny Marshall, Denise McKenna, Donny Osmond, Marie Osmond, Charlie
Pride, John Ritter, Red Skelton (as Old Man Watching a Parade),
Suzanne Somers, Jimmy Stewart (as Mark Twain), Elizabeth Taylor,
Leslie Uggams, Jimmie Walker, James Whitmore (as Will Rogers), Cindy
Williams, Henry Winkler, Sha-Na-Na
Synopsis:
John
Wayne hosts this 90-minute ABC variety show. He gives a capsulized
running history of the past 100 years between musical numbers,
vignettes, and vintage film clips. Leslie Uggams and the group
Sha-Na-Na perform musical numbers and Albert Brooks does a routine
about holding auditions to find a new national anthem.
TRIVIA
Although
video of this special is scarce, photographs show Lucille Ball
interacting with host John Wayne and performing a fast-paced dance
number. There are no photos or other records of Henry Fonda’s role in
the celebration.
John
Wayne also hosted a similar patriotic variety show, “Swing Out,
Sweet Land,” in 1971. Lucille Ball did a serious monologue as the
internal voice of the Statue of Liberty. Bob Hope and Leslie Uggams
were also involved in both shows. Mark Twain was a character in both.
This
special was ostensibly to mark the General Electric Corporation’s
(GE) 100th Anniversary, which came as a surprise to many as it had just
celebrated its 75th Anniversary in 1970! Although the company was formed in 1895 by the
merger of several smaller companies, GE eventually decided that its
Anniversary should be marked by the day Thomas Edison himself formed
the company in 1878. This change was primarily for advertising
purposes – and this special was one of those marketing strategies.
From
1953 to 1962, GE sponsored the anthology series “General Electric
Theatre” which, like “I Love Lucy,” was aired on CBS. It was
hosted by future US President Ronald Reagan. Henry Fonda played clown
Emmett Kelly in “The Clown” aired on March 27, 1955.
In
1952, Lucille Ball was featured in a print ad campaign to promote GE
Ultra-Vision television sets.
“America
Alive!” (November
9, 1978)
“America
Alive!”
was
a short-lived hour-long NBC daytime show which featured consumer
tips, relationship advice, entertainment news and reviews, and
comedy, from its home studio in New York City as well as remotes from
Los Angeles.
Cast:
Jack
Linkletter (Host), Lucille Ball and Gary Morton (Co-Hosts), Henry
Fonda (Guest)
TRIVIA
While
Lucy and Gary were in a California studio, Lucy was supposed to
interview Henry Fonda, who was in their studio in New York. The
following day, host Jack Linkletter infers that it wasn’t strictly an
interview. Linkletter doesn’t specify what happened and there are no
video records of the interview.
The
following day, Lucy spent the entire hour taking questions from an
audience of students at UCLA.
“The
36th Annual Golden Globe Awards”
(January 27, 1979)
Lucille
Ball was the recipient of the Cecil B. DeMille Award. Henry Fonda was
in attendance to support his daughter, Jane Fonda, who won for Coming
Home and
received the Henrietta Award for World Film Favorite. Fonda was also
a presenter.
SPEAKING OF HENRY….
In
1971’s “Lucy
& Carol Burnett: The Hollywood Unemployment Follies” (HL
S3;E22) the ensemble sings “Hooray
for Hollywood” with
specially-written lyrics that mention Henry
Fonda
and
his children Jane and Peter.
In
1973’s “Lucy
and Joan Rivers Do Jury Duty”
(HL S6;E9), Lucy and Joan are on a deadlocked jury they compare to
the film Twelve
Angry Men
(1957) starring Henry Fonda as the holdout juror.
“Lucy
Moves to NBC”
(February 8, 1980) kicks off with a tour bus driving through Beverly
Hills and the tour guide’s voice announcing the homes they are
driving past, including the Henry Fonda’s. When the bus reaches
Lucille Ball’s Roxbury Drive mansion, Lucy gets out of the bus –
having hitched a ride from after her downtown shopping trip. In real
life, the Arnaz family actually did live in the same neighborhood as
Henry and Shirlee Fonda as well as James and Gloria Stewart and Jack
Benny and Mary Livingstone.
Henry
Fonda died in 1982.
Shirlee Fonda: “She
[Lucy] was always calling or coming over to see him when he was ill.
And after he died, she was one of the ones who always included me in
social gathering. When I gave that first party after Henry’s death, I
said, ‘Lucy, you have to be there and help me get though this.’ And
she was there for me, for 100%”
Lucille
Ball died in 1989.
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