December 5, 1977
Ringmasters
- Lucille
Ball - Telly
Savalas - Cindy
Williams - Michael
York
Stars
(in alphabetical order)
- Marty
Allen - Lucie
Arnaz - George
Burns - Lynda
Carter - Gary
Collins - Robert
Conrad - Jamie
Lee Curtis - Annie
Duperey - Lola
Falana - Peter
Fonda - Richard
Hatch - Earl
Holliman - Jack
Klugman - Tony
Lo Bianco - Penny
Marshall - Jimmy
McNichol - Kristy
McNichol - Lee
Meriwether - Mary
Ann Mobley - David
Nelson - Beth
Newfir - Valerie
Perrine - Mackenzie
Phillips - Deborah
Raffin - Richard
Roundtree - Susan
St. James - Tom
Sullivan - Ann
Turkel - Abe
Vigoda - Betty
White - Paul
Williams
Animals
- Valentine
– dromedary - Corky,
Charlie, and Taco – chimps - Rico,
Angel, Bill, Charlie, Walt, and Jerry – bulls - Aphrodite
and Cindy – dolphins - Tika
– baby elephant - Dumbo
– elephant - Romie
– tiger - Sunray
– horse - Doogie
– German Shepard
About
“The Circus of the Stars”
The
annual annual CBS television special ran from 1977 (taped in late
1976) through 1994. The first aired in January but subsequent
editions were generally broadcast in December as holiday specials.
Most were one hour long, although “Circus of the Stars II” ran
two hours. The shows featured TV and film stars performing
traditional circus acts. The stars were coached by professional
circus performers, who were generally just off camera or in the ring
with the stars during the act. In this edition, there were four
rotating ringmasters who introduce and identify the stars and their
acts. Their segments were taped separately and edited into the final
show. The ringmasters do not interact with the performers, with the
exception of Lucille Ball and Lucie Arnaz and the show’s final
moment.
Due
to the nature of the acts, there were often mistakes or accidents
that were left in the final cut of the show. For example, during the
very first edition, Gary Collins was mauled by a tiger, and it was
mentioned on this second edition when he returned for a non-animal
act. Performers frequently had to ad-lib around the inconsistency of
the animal acts. The show’s audio was an odd mix of pre-recorded
circus music and off-set voices shouting commands at the animals or
the celebrities. The acts were taped in front of a live studio
audience but were often edited for time. By today’s standards
(set by the likes of David Blane and David Copperfield) some of the
non-animal acts seem rudimentary and old-fashioned. The two-hour show
is often stretched to the point of redundancy and a couple of
celebrities make more than one appearance.
Lucie
Arnaz returned to “Circus in the Stars” in 1985 (#10). The
Ringmaster was Lucy’s Mame
co-star Beatrice Arthur.
This
program aired two weeks after “Lucy Calls The President”, the in
which Lucy worked with Vivian Vance, Mary Jane Croft, and Mary Wickes
for the last time. Earlier in 1977, Lucy lost her mother, Dede, who
was in the audience for most all of her appearances.
The first hour of the show competed with “MacNamara’s Band” (a comedy special) on ABC and “Little House on the Prairie” on NBC. The second hour was up against ABC’s “Monday Night Football” (Colts v Jets) and the movie The Storyteller on NBC. After “Circus of the Stars” CBS presented the action series “Switch.”
The Circus
Ringmaster
Lucy introduces Robert
Conrad (“Baa
Baa Black Sheep”) walking the tightrope then performing the
‘death-defying slide for life’, which involves him sliding down a
guide wire upside down with his feet in a loop.
The stunt goes wrong
halfway through and Conrad swings by one leg until he can be slowed
by attendants on the ground, one of whom is thrown to the floor by
the force of Conrad’s swinging body.
Lucy
next introduces her old friend Betty
White,
who works with a camel (actually a dromedary) named Little Valentine,
who does a variety of tricks. White (a known animal lover) ad libs
about Lawrence
of Arabia
when Valentine refuses to get up to answer the telephone! When
Valentine finally does the trick and White hangs up the call (from
the camel’s agent), Valentine keeps picking it up again.
“You can’t get some kids off the phone!”
Ringmaster
Michael
York (Cabaret) introduces Richard Harris’s real-life wife Ann
Turkel (The
Cassandra Crossing)
and Gray Otter, a Native American knife-thrower who uses tomahawks.
With Turkel against a wooden board and covered with a sheet he throws
tomahawks at her. The fourth and fifth hatchet bounce precariously
off the wood instead of sticking into it, so Gray re-attempts the
trick again and succeeds.
York
introduces Earl
Holliman
(“Police Woman”), who performs a magic act. His assistant is
Mackenzie
Phillips
(“One Day at a Time”) who he appears to stretch from behind a
door with holes for her head, hands, and feet.
Ringmaster
Cindy
Williams (”Laverne and Shirley”) introduces Richard
Roundtree
(the
Shaft films
1971-73).
He leaps from a great height, through a ring of fire, into
a inflated target below.
Lucy
introduces “Hollywood’s bravest new find” Tony
Lo Bianco
(F.I.S.T.) who enters a cage occupied by a leopard, who he puts through a
variety of tricks.
Cindy
Williams introduces the Amazing Allen Brothers – comedian Marty
Allen
and chimps Charlie (who turns somersaults), Corky (who walks on
stilts), and Taco, who bolts from the ring into the audience area.
The other chimps get into a brawl and Allen says “Next
year, can I work with some people?” Allen
was featured in the the first seven editions of “Circus of the
Stars” through 1983, the most of any star.
Lucy
introduces former Miss America Mary
Ann Mobley
(“Tattletales” and “Match Game”) and blind actor / singer /
composer Tom
Sullivan
(Airport
’77),
who do a cradle act on the trapeze. Sullivan’s wife, Patricia
Steffen, and their daughters, watch from the audience. There is an
edit in the tape after they walk into the ring to get Sullivan time
to mount the trapeze.
Ringmaster
Telly
Savalas
introduces a ‘beauty and the beast act’ starring Susan
St. James
(“McMillan and Wife”) herding six bulls in a ring.
As the bulls low at the end of the act, St. James mock faints.
Michael
York introduces George
Burns (Oh!
God!)
doing magic.
His assistant is Lola
Falana.
Burns puts her in a cage and makes her disappear, replaced by a
cougar.
York
presents Peter
Fonda
(Outlaw
Blues, Futureworld, Easy Rider)
and Lee
Meriwether
(“Barnaby Jones”).
Fonda rides a motorcycle on a high wire while
Meriwether does acrobatics beneath.
York
introduces Valerie
Perrine
(Slaughterhouse
Five, Lenny)
on location at Sea World for her dolphin act. She water skis on the
backs of two dolphins, Aphrodite and Cindy. Perrine falls off the
dolphins’ backs and falls into the water three times.
Telly
Savalas relates that last year
Gary Collins (The
Night They Took Miss Beautiful) was
mauled by a tiger during the show. This year, he opts for something a
bit safer – walking a high wire. A voice-over informs viewers that
Collins has only practiced the act five feet in the air, as opposed
to the 40 feet he presently is. He is also working without a net.
After a few basic tricks, Collins dances on the high wire.
His wife
Mary
Ann Mobley
and friend Beth
Newfir
join him to perform the wheel barrel walk.
Savalas
brings on Jack
Klugman
(“Quincy”) who ‘summons’ Annie
Duperey
(Bobby
Deerfield)
to repeat her trapeze swing act.
She then assists Klugman in an
escape act.
Savalas
introduces a taped segment in which singer / songwriter Paul
Williams
goes skydiving. Once he alights (just outside his circus ring target)
Williams and a dozen men waiting for him on the ground mount
motorbikes and zoom away through the desert.
Cindy
Williams introduces her “Laverne and Shirley” co-star Penny
Marshall
with Tika, a baby elephant. In her inimitable ‘Laverne’ way,
Marshall coaxes the Tika through a series of tricks. Setting a table
for Tika, Marshall serves her milk and Pepsi, the beverage her TV
character often drank. Giving the elephant a harmonica to play with
its trunk, Marshall is mortified when Tika drops it down her
cleavage!
Williams
brings on a group act tackling the trapeze: David
Nelson (“Ozzie
and Harriett”),
Richard
Hatch
(“The Streets of San Francisco”), Beth
Newfir
(“Wonder Woman”),
and Jamie
Lee Curtis
(“Operation Petticoat”).
Lucille
Ball tells the story of how she was supposed to play the role of the
elephant girl in Cecil B. DeMille’s epic circus film The
Greatest Show on Earth
(1952) but became pregnant with a little girl.
Now all grown up,
Lucie Arnaz
is on “Circus of the Stars” as the elephant girl. She enters
riding the largest of four elephants. Lucie’s four elephants do
pretty much the same tricks that Penny Marshall’s elephant did in the
previous segment. Seated on the elephant’s trunk, Lucie collides with
another elephant when they do
a spin. Like her mother, she gets some comic mileage out of the goof.
As a finale, Lucie lays on the ground
and allows the elephant’s foot to hover inches
from her face. This is the same stunt that the elephant girl (played
by Gloria Grahame) did in The
Greatest Show on Earth – a stunt Lucy would have had to do, if she had done the film.
Before doing it, Lucie calls out
“It’s alright, Mom!”
After
Lucie finishes her act, the show cuts to the audience giving a
standing ovation. The next shot is of Lucille Ball standing in the
ring, so the ovation was for Lucy, not Lucie. Ball brings out her
daughter who says “I
made it!”
and pats her mother’s tummy in acknowledgment that it was because of
her that Ball turned down the role in 1952 film.
Ball did get to do
“The Greatest Show On Earth” when it became a Desilu TV series in
1963. She played an equestrian dealing with an orphaned circus boy (Billy Mumy) in
what turned out to be her first dramatic role for television. This is
the only time in this “Circus of the Stars” that the Ringmaster
(Lucy) is on the set with one of the acts.
After
a break, Lucy welcomes back Tony
Lo Bianco
who is now working with a tiger, a German Shepard, and a horse –
all in one “never before seen” act.
Michael
York brings back (for the third time) Mary
Ann Mobley,
who performs aerial acrobatics.
Cindy
Williams welcomes brother and sister Jimmy
(“The Fitzpatricks”) and Kristy
McNichol
(“Family”). They perform the classic magic act where Kristy is
encased in a box and Jimmy passes swords through it. When Jimmy
pulls the swords out again, one gets stuck and he ad libs “caught
in the stomach.”
Telly
Savalas introduces Lynda
Carter
(“Wonder Woman”) performing an equestrian act.
In
a twist, ringmaster Michael York introduces fellow Ringmaster Cindy
Williams and they perform a circus act together. Cindy thinks she’s
been asked to do Shakespeare with him, but he puts her in a
hand-cranked washing machine and a flattened Williams (a prop) comes
out. He puts the flat Cindy in a circus canon and fires it at a tube
suspended in air. The real (3D) Cindy emerges unscathed.
For
some inexplicable reason, there is a cutaway to audience members who
are look-alikes for Henry Kissinger and Farrah Fawcett Majors! Cindy
is back in her ringmaster suit, and she presents Deborah
Raffin
(Nightmare
in Badham County).
Raffin performs on an aerial swing that makes 360 degree circles in
the air.
Abe
Vigoda
(“Barney Miller”) introduces the Ringmasters to say goodnight and
say their highlights of the evening: Lucille Ball, Telly Savalas,
Cindy Williams, and Michael York.
The
various star acts and all four ringmasters parade into the ring and
the credits roll.
This Date in Lucy History ~ December 5
“Nursery School” (ILL S5;E9) ~ December 5, 1955
“Lucy and the Monkey” (TLS S5;E12) ~ December 5, 1966
Papermoon Loves Lucy 
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