YOUNG MATRONS’ LEAGUE PLAY

October 9, 1948

“Young Matron’s League Play” is episode #12 of the radio series MY FAVORITE HUSBAND broadcast on October 9, 1948.

Synopsis ~

George finds out that Liz is in the Young Matrons’ League play and finds a clever way to surprise her! 

Note: This episode was aired before the characters names were changed from Cugat to Cooper. It was also before Jell-O came aboard to sponsor the show and before the regular cast featured Bea Benadaret and Gale Gordon as the Atterburys.

“My Favorite Husband” was based on the novels Mr. and Mrs. Cugat, the Record of a Happy Marriage (1940) and Outside Eden (1945) by Isabel Scott Rorick, which had previously been adapted into the film Are Husbands Necessary? (1942). “My Favorite Husband” was first broadcast as a one-time special on July 5, 1948. Lucille Ball and Lee Bowman played the characters of Liz and George Cugat, and a positive response to this broadcast convinced CBS to launch “My Favorite Husband” as a series. Bowman was not available Richard Denning was cast as George. On January 7, 1949, confusion with bandleader Xavier Cugat prompted a name change to Cooper. On this same episode Jell-O became its sponsor. A total of 124 episodes of the program aired from July 23, 1948 through March 31, 1951. After about ten episodes had been written, writers Fox and Davenport departed and three new writers took over – Bob Carroll, Jr., Madelyn Pugh, and head writer/producer Jess Oppenheimer. In March 1949 Gale Gordon took over the existing role of George’s boss, Rudolph Atterbury, and Bea Benaderet was added as his wife, Iris. CBS brought “My Favorite Husband” to television in 1953, starring Joan Caulfield and Barry Nelson as Liz and George Cooper. The television version ran two-and-a-half seasons, from September 1953 through December 1955, running concurrently with “I Love Lucy.” It was produced live at CBS Television City for most of its run, until switching to film for a truncated third season filmed (ironically) at Desilu and recasting Liz Cooper with Vanessa Brown.

MAIN CAST

Lucille Ball (Liz Cugat) 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. “My Favorite Husband” 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.

Richard Denning (George Cugat) was born Louis Albert Heindrich Denninger Jr., in Poughkeepsie, New York. When he was 18 months old, his family moved to Los Angeles. Plans called for him to take over his father’s garment manufacturing business, but he developed an interest in acting. Denning enlisted in the US Navy during World War II. He is best known for his  roles in various science fiction and horror films of the 1950s. Although he teamed with Lucille Ball on radio in “My Favorite Husband,” the two never acted together on screen. While “I Love Lucy” was on the air, he was seen on another CBS TV series, “Mr. & Mrs. North.” From 1968 to 1980 he played the Governor on “Hawaii 5-0″, his final role. He died in 1998 at age 84.

Ruth Perrott (Katie, the Maid) was also later seen on “I Love Lucy.” She first played Mrs. Pomerantz, a member of the surprise investigating committee for the Society Matrons League in “Pioneer Women” (ILL S1;E25), as one of the member of the Wednesday Afternoon Fine Arts League in “Lucy and Ethel Buy the Same Dress” (ILL S3;E3), and also played a nurse when “Lucy Goes to the Hospital” (ILL S2;E16). She died in 1996 at the age of 96.

Bob LeMond (Announcer) also served as the announcer for the pilot episode of “I Love Lucy”. When the long-lost pilot was finally discovered in 1990, a few moments of the opening narration were damaged and lost, so LeMond – fifty years later – recreated the narration for the CBS special and subsequent DVD release.

GUEST CAST

John Hiestand (Cory Cartwright) served as the announcer for the radio show “Let George Do It” from 1946 to 1950. In 1955 he did an episode of “Our Miss Brooks” opposite Gale Gordon.

Bea Benadaret (Miss Worthingill, Play Director) was considered the front-runner to be cast as Ethel Mertz but when “I Love Lucy” was ready to start production she was already playing a similar role on TV’s “The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show” so Vivian Vance was cast instead. On “I Love Lucy” she was cast as Lucy Ricarodo’s spinster neighbor, Miss Lewis, in “Lucy Plays Cupid” (ILL S1;E15) in early 1952. Later, she was a success in her own show, “Petticoat Junction” as Shady Rest Hotel proprietress Kate Bradley. She starred in the series until her death in 1968.

In the previous episode, Miss Worthingill was played by Elvia Allman. In 1949, Bea Benadaret will play the regular role of Iris Atterbury, Liz’s best friend. 

Hans Conried (Adrian LaHoya, Costume Designer) first co-starred with Lucille Ball in The Big Street (1942). He then appeared on “I Love Lucy” as used furniture man Dan Jenkins in “Redecorating” (ILL S2;E8) and later that same season as Percy Livermore in “Lucy Hires an English Tutor” (ILL S2;E13) – both in 1952. The following year he began an association with Disney by voicing Captain Hook in Peter Pan. On “The Lucy Show” he played Professor Gitterman in “Lucy’s Barbershop Quartet” (TLS S1;E19) and in “Lucy Plays Cleopatra” (TLS S2;E1). He was probably best known as Uncle Tonoose on “Make Room for Daddy” starring Danny Thomas, which was filmed on the Desilu lot. He joined Thomas on a season 6 episode of “Here’s Lucy” in 1973. He died in 1982 at age 64.

Jay Novello (Cabbie) appeared on “I Love Lucy” as superstitious Mr. Merriweather in “The Seance" (ILL S1;E7), Mario the gondolier in “The Visitor from Italy” (ILL S6;E5), and nervous Mr. Beecher in “The Sublease” (ILL S3;E31). He also appeared on two episodes of “The Lucy Show,” but Novello is probably best remembered for playing Mayor Lugatto on “McHale’s Navy” in 1965.

Beatrice, Miss Worthingill’s assistant, and the Stage Manager are played by uncredited performer. 

THE EPISODE

While George is singing in the shower, Liz tells Katie the Maid not to tell him that it is opening night of the play. Liz gets a telephone call from Mrs. Worthingill, director of the play, to remind her that Adrian will be at her home for a costume fitting at 10am sharp! Liz is momentarily taken aback, thinking she is talking about the world famous costume designer Adrian, not Adrian La Hoya. 

Adrian Adolph Greenburg (1903-1959), widely known simply as Adrian, was an American costume designer whose most famous work was for The Wizard of Oz and hundreds of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films such as Du Barry Was A Lady (above) starring Lucille Ball. He was usually credited onscreen with the phrase “Gowns by Adrian”.

George comes down to breakfast and says that he has the day off because the bank is closed. Liz needs an excuse to get George out of the house for her fitting. She tells George she’s sick.  

LIZ: “Look at my tongue. There’s a coat I.J. Fox would be proud of!”

I.J. Fox is one of the nation’s leading furriers. The company is based in Boston, where in 1934 they built a historic art deco store on Washington Street. 

George then thinks Liz might be expecting a baby. George decides to go golfing, only if Liz will promise to call the doctor. 

Later, Katie answers the doorbell. It is Adrian the costumer (Hans Conried). George comes home unexpectedly and sees Liz wearing a bustle and thinks that she is swollen and assumes Adrian is the doctor. 

GEORGE: “What’s wrong with my wife?”
ADRIAN: “Nothing. It’s not as bad as it looks. All I have to do is to take few inches off of her hips and tighten the droop  in her back. Her peplum is dragging.” 

Confusion reigns with the costumer and George talking at cross purposes about Liz’s condition / costume. George leaves the house and learns from Adrian’s waiting cabbie that he’s not a doctor, but a costumer, and that Liz is in the play. George is suspicious of Adrian’s integrity with his wife. 

The Cabbie says that his wife was having a weekly Monday night rendezvous with a man at the Laundromat. 

GEORGE: “What did you do?”
CABBIE: “I bought her a Benidx. Now I don’t know where she goes on Monday nights.”

The Bendix Corporation (1924-1983) licensed their name to a line of electric clothes washing machines. The 1937 Bendix Home Laundry had a glass porthole door, a rotating drum and an electrically driven mechanical timer. The machine was able to auto-fill, wash, rinse and spin-dry. Bendix Home Appliances was later sold to Avco who sold it to Philco. Bendix was mentioned again on “My Favorite Husband” in “Television” (Jun 17, 1949). 

George decides to have a talk with Miss Worthingill. George arrives just as an actor has dropped out of the play. Miss Worthingill sees George and gets an idea.

MISS WORTHINGILL: “Come in, Mr. Barrymore!  That profile!  That noble carriage!  That resonant voice!  That wavy blonde hair!  Those white teeth!  Those flaring nostrils! You’re gorgeous. What did you say your name was?”
GEORGE: “Cugat. George Cugat.”
MISS WORTHINGILL: “Gorgeous George!”

Miss Worthingill is referring to John Barrymore (1882-1942), born John Sidney Blyth, a stage, screen and radio actor of distinction. He was known for his dramatic flare and classic profile. She then calls George ‘Gorgeous George’ (to the delight of the audience). George Raymond Wagner (1915–63) was a wrestler known as Gorgeous George because of his blonde hair. He was mentioned on “I Love Lucy” in “Pioneer Women” (ILL S1;E25) and “Ricky’s Movie Offer” (ILL S4;E6).

George agrees to play the part on the proviso that Miss Worthingill not tell Liz that he is subbing for the ailing actor until they meet on stage. 

George goes to Adrian’s costume shop with Cory for a fitting and is given a pair of skimpy tights, which he objects to wearing. 

CORY: “George is allergic to tights. He was doing a quick change on the stage in college once. When called for his tights, they thought he said lights!”  

This same gag was told by Fred Mertz to Barney Kurtz in “Mertz and Kurtz” (ILL S4;E2) in 1954. 

George tries on the tights and finds them tight. Adrian disagrees, saying:

ADRIAN: “The costumer is always right!”

This clever wordplay takes a moment to earn its laugh. Adrian is punning on the old business motto that “the customer is always right,” a phrase that dates back to 1909, originally coined by London retailer Harry Selfridge to assure customers that they would get good service at his store.

Adrian offers George a suit of armor, but his son has the legs as mufflers on his car. Adrian gives George the tights and a girdle to take home, just in case.  When Liz leaves the room, George ducks out to get to the theatre. Liz finds the girdle and tights in George’s suit pocket and suspects marital infidelity!  

Fred Mertz wore a suit of armor in a play starring Lucy in “The Celebrity Next Door” (LDCH S1;E2) starring Tallulah Bankhead. Ricky tried on a suit of armor during pre-production for Don Juan in “Hollywood at Last!” (ILL S4;E16, right).

Adrian arrives with the armor for George. To keep his identity a secret, George wears his visor down.  Liz plays Lady Alice and George is Sir Edward in an unnamed costume drama. 

Oops! In the previous episode, the Young Matron’s League play Liz auditioned for was a modern play titled John Loves Mary. 

LIZ / LADY ALICE: “Hark! Do I hear a footfall?” 

This will also be Lucy Ricardo’s first line of dialogue during her big scene in “Ricky’s Screen Test” (ILL S4;E7) for Don Juan. 

Onstage in their scene, Lady Alice lifts the visor and sees it is really George!  She instantly starts to have an argument in a stage whisper about the girdle she found in his pocket. 

Liz throws a lit cigarette into George’s armor and extinguishes it with a seltzer bottle, ruining Miss Worthingill’s play. Later, Liz is trying to extricate George from the suit, now rusted shut and tells him if he doesn’t tell her the truth about the girdle, he will have to go live at the Smithsonian Institute. 

Smithsonian Institution (dubbed ‘the Nation’s attic’) are museums located primarily in Washington DC. The Smithsonian was first mentioned in reference to Ethel’s old washing machine in “Never Do Business with Friends” (ILL S2;E31) and will be mentioned again in reference to the antique Cadillac that Fred buys for the trip to Hollywood in “Getting Ready” (ILL S4;E11). A portrait of Lucille Ball is part of the Smithsonian Portrait Gallery. 

Liz and George kiss and make-up and the episode ends!