BALL and BERLE are BACK!

September 12, 1952

TV GUIDE ~ Volume 5, #37

This pre-national TV Guide for the New York region chose to colorize the photograph on the cover, which is a composite shot of Lucille Ball and Milton Berle, not one posed together. New York being the most important of the television markets, an attractive color cover was expected, while regions throughout the country used a one-color print and black and white (un-retouched) photos. 

New England chose green, maintaining the original monochrome of the photographs. 

In the original photograph, Lucille is smoking a cigarette.  The photographer and date of the photograph are not known with certainty. 

This is the fourth (of five) of Lucille Ball’s pre-national TV Guide covers. She was on the first National edition in April 1953, as well as a record 38 others!

Listings for Monday, September 15, 1952 include the season two premiere of “I Love Lucy,” “Job Switching” (ILL S2;E1), an episode that achieved iconic status in the annals of television history. 

In 1996, TV Guide included this episode as part of its “100 Most Memorable Moments in TV History” ranking it # 2. The special “TV’s Funniest of the Funniest,” ranked it first among the 30 funniest moments in TV history. Not surprisingly, this is one of Lucille Ball’s favorite episodes and was depicted on a TV Guide “I Love Lucy” collectible cover in October 2001.  

The listings also show “I Love Lucy” CBS lead-in “Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts”. Godfrey helped promote “I Love Lucy” during season one and would guest star as himself on “The Lucy Show” in 1965. 

Opposite “I Love Lucy” on NBC (and heavily promoted in the Guide) is “The Paul Winchell / Jerry Mahoney Show” starring master ventriloquist Winchell and his dummy Jerry Mahoney.  In 1966, Winchell played himself on “The Lucy Show” while Lucy substituted for Tessie Mahoney, Jerry’s cousin. Winchell went on to play character roles in a couple of other “Lucy” shows.  

At 10:45pm on channel 5, “Boxing Interviews” welcomed guest Grantland Rice. 

While reading the sports pages together in 1953′s “The Camping Trip” (ILL S2;E29), Ricky refers to Grantland Rice. Lucy says “Sure, I’ve heard of it, but I’ve never tasted it.” Grantland Rice (1880–1954) was a sportswriter known for his elegant prose. 

BALL & BERLE ARE BACK! 

The article promoted on the cover is found on page 8. It features an advance look at the new “I Love Lucy” episode with a still of Ricky licking chocolate off Lucy’s face. This would be America’s first glimpse of the now-legendary episode, which was filmed in March 1952.  The brief article announces that Lucille Ball will be having another baby and has adjusted her filming schedule so as not to interfere with airing new programs during her pregnancy leave. It adds the news that Lucy Ricardo will ALSO be expecting a baby!  The article goes on to announce some minor changes to Berle’s show as well. 

Just as Lucy ‘owned’ Mondays, Berle held down Tuesdays for NBC.  

Page 36 of the local New York edition allows for some small ads for restaurants and Broadway plays, two of which were Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals mentioned on “I Love Lucy.”  In “No Children Allowed” (ILL S2;E22), Lucy gets tired of hearing Ethel announce how she saved them from eviction even though their lease prohibits babies.  In front of everyone, Lucy says,

“That scene has had more performances than ‘South Pacific’!“ 

By the time the episode aired, the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein was in the 4th year of its 1,925 performances.

The King and I will be mentioned in “The Celebrity Next Door” (LDCH 1957) when Tullulah Bankhead gets frustrated during the PTA show by a youth choir. 

“Who are these children, left over from ‘The King and I’?” 

The Broadway musical had closed three years earlier, but the film version was barely a year old and earned five Oscars that year.

  These are just two of the many references to Rodgers and Hammerstein (aka Dick and Oscar) and their blockbuster Broadway musicals on “I Love Lucy.” 

Page 11 of the New York edition has an ad for Belmont Park, a now-defunct racetrack in Long Island. When just a struggling model and actress, Lucille Ball adopted the name Diane Belmont, inspired by Belmont Park. 

The back cover of the New York edition promotes WNBT (later WNBC, the NBC flagship station in Manhattan) and their Saturday night line-up.

“All Star Revue” with George Jessell, Dorothy Kristen, Tony Martin, and Joe DeMaggio.

In May 1952, Lucy and Desi joined Ed Wynn, one of the show’s rotating hosts on the series also known as “Four Star Revue”. This was also their first time on another network (NBC) since signing with CBS to do “I Love Lucy.”

“Your Show of Shows” starring Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca with guest Marilyn Maxwell. This was their season four premiere. 

Caesar appeared with Lucille Ball in the 1967 film A Guide for the Married Man and played himself on a March 1968 “The Lucy Show.” 

“Your Hit Parade” featuring Dorothy Collins, Snooky Lanson, June Valli, and Raymond Scott and his orchestra. The format was to sing the seven top rated popular songs for the week. This was their second season premiere. In June 1952, Milton Berle (who shares the cover with Ball) appeared on the show, presumably not as a singer! 

Speaking of Milton Berle…

Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz appeared on “The Milton Berle Show” on February 22, 1949, although Berle was out sick, replaced by Walter O’Keefe, delaying a Berle and Ball collaboration until 1950, when Berle hosted “Show of The Year: Cerebral Palsy Telethon” on June 10 and Lucy and Desi were guests.  In the decade that followed, Berle (on NBC) and Ball (on CBS) both became the biggest stars of television, but still managed to collaborate on each others shows, most notably in 1959 on “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour” episode “Milton Berle Hides Out at the Ricardos” (LDCH E11) and (in return) on “Sunday Showcase: The Lucy-Desi Milton Berle Special” on NBC also in 1959. He did three episodes of “The Lucy Show” and one “Here’s Lucy.”  Ball and Berle would also grace the cover of the third National Edition of TV Guide in April 1953, appearing in an illustration showing them as the ‘totem pole of television’ that also featured Imogene Coca, Sid Caesar, and Arthur Godfrey.  

That same week, TV Guide’s competition TV Digest featured Marion Marlowe and Frank Parker, two singers on the “Arthur Godfrey Show”, inferring a romantic relationship between the two. Lucille Ball was pictured among stars in an ad for subscriptions.  

Another competitor, TV Forecast, had Larry Storch of “Cavalcade of Stars” on their cover.