LIZ’S SUPERSTITIONS

October 21, 1949

“Liz’s Superstitions” (aka “Superstition”) is episode #59 of the radio series MY FAVORITE HUSBAND broadcast on October 21, 1949. This episode is sponsored by Jell-O. 

This was the seventh episode of the second season of MY FAVORITE HUSBAND. There were 43 new episodes, with the season ending on June 25, 1950.

Synopsis ~

A chirping cricket in the Cooper’s hearth is driving George crazy, but Liz is convinced it means good luck. When Liz insists that it isn’t lucky to banish a cricket, George gets upset with her superstitions.

“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 Cooper) 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.

Richard Denning (George Cooper) 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.

Bea Benadaret and Gale Gordon (Iris and Rudolph Atterbury) do not appear in this episode. 

GUEST CAST

Frank Nelson (Mr. Acme, from the Acme Exterminating Company) was born on May 6, 1911 (three months before Lucille Ball) in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He started working as a radio announcer at the age of 15. He later appeared on such popular radio shows as “The Great Gildersleeve,” “Burns and Allen,” and “Fibber McGee & Molly”.  Aside from Lucille Ball, Nelson is perhaps most associated with Jack Benny and was a fifteen-year regular on his radio and television programs. His trademark was playing clerks and other working stiffs, suddenly turning to Benny with a drawn out “Yeeeeeeeeees?” Nelson appeared in 11 episodes of “I Love Lucy”, including three as quiz master Freddy Fillmore, and two as Ralph Ramsey, plus appearance on “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour” – making him the only actor to play two different recurring roles on “I Love Lucy.” Nelson returned to the role of the frazzled Train Conductor for an episode of “The Lucy Show” in 1963. This marks his final appearance on a Lucille Ball sitcom. 

Anne Whitfield (Joanne Wood)  is best remembered for her signature role as the younger daughter of Phil Harris and Alice Faye on their hit radio show.  Although she never appeared on screen with Lucille Ball, she did a 1962 episode of Desilu’s “The Untouchables.” She is best known for playing Susan in the 1954 film White Christmas. She was 11 years old in 1949 when this episode of “My Favorite Husband” was broadcast. As of this writing she is 82 years old and living in Washington state. 

Joanne is one of the many children of the Cooper’s neighbor Mr. Benjamin Wood, usually played by Hans Conried. 

THE EPISODE

ANNOUNCER: “As we look in on the Coopers tonight we see a romantic little family scene. Liz and George are having dinner by candlelight.”

Liz loves dining by candlelight, but George isn’t so enthusiastic, facetiously mistaking Liz for the pot roast. Liz begins to cry, upset that George doesn’t appreciate her romantic gesture. Liz blames the dinner’s failure on her walking under a ladder that morning. George indicts Liz’s superstitions as…

GEORGE: “Silly, sentimental, feminine nonsense!” 

The roots of the superstition of knocking on wood may may be in Celtic or German folklore, in which supernatural beings are thought to live in trees, and can be invoked for protection. In these instances, people might knock on or touch wood to request good luck, or to distract spirits with evil intentions. The knocking was also supposed to prevent evil spirits from hearing your speech and as such stop them from interfering. Alternatively, some traditions have it that by knocking upon wood, you would awaken and release the benevolent wood fairies that dwelt there. In 1954, Lucy’s friend Danny Kaye released a film titled Knock on Wood. In this case, the ‘wood’ of the titled refers to a ventriloquists dummy. 

Liz explains that other superstitions can be considered helpful precautions.  

LIZ: “If you walk under a ladder it might fall on you. If a black cat walks in front of you, you might trip over it.”

Black Cats have long been associated with witches and witchcraft. They were commonly known as ‘familiars’ for those practicing the dark arts. They are also considered bad luck. The superstition was reinforced by the 1934 Universal horror film The Black Cat, based on the Edgar Allan Poe story. 

The superstition that it’s bad luck to walk under a ladder originated in ancient Egypt. An open stepladder or a ladder leaning against a wall forms a triangle and Egyptians regarded this shape as sacred (witness their pyramids).

George emphatically pounds the table when insisting that Liz give up her superstitions, and spills the salt. Naturally, Liz insists that he throw some over his shoulder to break the curse. He angrily rises from the table just as Katie is serving the coffee, and she spills it all over!    

When Lucy Ricardo is photo-bombing Fernando Lamas in “Lucy Goes to Sun Valley” (1958), he is banging the back of the pepper shaker. He then throws some over his right shoulder into Lucy’s face causing her to sneeze and ruin Ethel’s snapshot. Perhaps they do it differently in Lamas’ native Argentina, but the old superstition goes that when SALT is spilled throw a dash over your LEFT shoulder to blind the devil who lurks there. Here Lamas tosses PEPPER over his RIGHT shoulder!  The spilled coffee, however, is a similar result! 

Katie says she doesn’t believe in salt throwing but she does knock wood. 

KATIE: “I’m a wood-knocker, but I’m not a salt-thrower.”
GEORGE: “I’m trying to decide whether to be a maid-knocker or a wife-thrower!”

Next morning, Liz tells Katie that last night George broke a mirror and stomped on it just to prove it wasn’t bad luck!  He’s now bandaging his foot. 

Broken Mirrors are considered a sign of bad luck and if you break a mirror you are in for seven years of misfortunes. An ancient myth was that mirrors have magical powers, including the power to foresee the future and are thought to be devices of the Gods. Breaking a mirror would terminate its powers, the soul would be astray form the body, and misfortunes would be brought upon the one whose reflection it last held. It was the Romans who added the seven years bad luck. This derived from the belief that it took seven years for life to renew itself.

The doorbell rings. It is little Joanne Wood (Anne Whitfield) from next door. 

LIZ: “How are you?”
JOANNE: “Fine, thanks.”
LIZ: “How’s your father?”
JOANNE: “Fine, thanks.”
LIZ: “And your four sisters?” 
JOANNE: “Fine, thanks.”
LIZ: “And your six brothers?”
JOANNE: “Fine, thanks.”
LIZ: “And your mother?”
JOANNE: “Exhausted, thanks.”

Joanne has come over to return the umbrella her father borrowed. George insists it is not his umbrella and wants to open it to see the monogram. Liz warns him that it is bad luck to open an umbrella in the house. 

Legend has it that ancient Egyptians believed that opening an umbrella indoors – away from the sun – was a disrespectful act that would anger the sun god, who would then take out his wrath on everyone in the house in which the umbrella had been opened.

The reason we avoid opening umbrellas indoors today, however, is that they include a metal frame triggered by a spring mechanism that allows them to open quickly—and dangerously.

George insists on defying the superstition and a hammer pops out of the umbrella and lands on his foot! 

JOANNE: “Daddy wondered where that hammer was!”

Turns out little Joanne is also a wood-knocker!  

Liz reads the paper’s weather report and remarks about the disparity between the minimum and maximum temperatures. 

LIZ: “George, why is it that Min never gets as hot as Max?”

George is bothered by the sound of a cricket chirping in the hearth. Liz doesn’t want George to kill the cricket because it is bad luck. 

LIZ: “Run little Jiminy!”

For thousands of years, it has been considered lucky to have a cricket on the hearth, especially in Asian countries where crickets were once used as ‘watchdogs’: when danger approached, the cricket’s chirping would stop. Superstition dictates that it’s bad luck to kill a cricket, even on accident. Liz calls the cricket Jiminy after a character in Pinocchio, which was filmed in 1940 by Walt Disney. In the film, Jiminy Cricket sings "When You Wish Upon a Star”, widely considered the Walt Disney Company’s signature song.

George gives Liz an ultimatum: He is leaving the house until the cricket is gone. 

A commercial by Bob LeMond promotes Jell-O puddings with a quick and easy recipe for a chocolate roll.  

ANNOUNCER: “It’s been two hours since George, the mighty hunter, gave up the chase and returned to his cricket blind. Liz is still on the trail.”

Liz and Katie have been searching for the cricket all over the house, even tempting him out of hiding with a tin cricket left over from last Halloween. 

A clicker, sometimes called a cricket, is any device that makes a clicking sound, usually when deliberately activated by its user. They were originally used for training animals, but were also marketed as party favors. 

Liz develops a mysterious call and response code using her tin clicker, thinking she is flirting with him!  

The doorbell rings. It is Mr. Acme (Frank Nelson) from the Acme Exterminating Company. He is dismayed to learn that he’s been called out for a single cricket. 

The fictional Acme Corporation features prominently in the Warner Brothers Road Runner / Wile E. Coyote cartoons as a running gag featuring outlandish products and complicated contraptions fail catastrophically. The Road Runner cartoon short “Fast and Furry-ous” was released in September 1949 and introduced the Acme Super Outfit. The word ‘acme’ is derived from Greek meaning the peak, zenith, or prime.

Mr. Acme sprays a DDT bug balm in the room and charges Liz $5.00. 

In the 1940s DDT (Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane)

was heavily advertised for home and agricultural use. In the late 1960s and early ‘70s DDT was frequently in the news regarding its harmful effects on humans, wildlife, and the environment and was eventually banned. On “The Lucy Show” the DDTs were a long-haired pop group and on “Here’s Lucy” they were the letters of Harry’s college fraternity, Delta Delta Tau. Both times the writers were punning on the pesticide which was in the news regularly. 

Before she can pay him, the cricket chirps. He is still alive!  Mr. Acme says that female crickets make no sound so Liz’s tin cricket is useless. He adds that they can’t see from behind so he sneaks up behind the cricket with a glass jar. It evades him again. 

MR. ACME: “I’m going to resort to plan 4X!”
LIZ (dramatic voice): “A deadly new insecticide?”
MR. ACME: “Worse than that!”
LIZ (dramatic voice): “Atomic fission?” 
MR. ACME: “Worse than that! I’m going to smash him over the head with a mallet!”

In the process, the bookcase falls! 
The cricket chirps. 
He tries again. A lamp breaks!
The cricket chirps. 
He tries again. A vase shatters! 
The cricket chirps. 
He tries again. The coffee table crumbles! 
The cricket chirps. 

He removes every stick of furniture from the room.

MR. ACME: “There are only three of us in this room. Only two of us will leave here alive.”
LIZ: “I hope one of them is not a cricket!” 

George opens the door and then Joanne walks in, looking for her pet cricket (whose name is Rollo). The cricket jumps into her hand, much to the aggravation of Mr. Acme. The room is a shambles, but they intended to redecorate anyway. The end! 

In the Lucille Ball / Bob LeMond live Jell-O commercial, Liz longs to be in one of those daytime radio serials (aka soap operas). 

[organ music plays]

LEMOND: “Listen now to ‘Jell-O’s Other Pudding”. 

The title is a pun on the popular radio soap “John’s Other Wife” (1936-1942). 

Lucy plays Grandma Chocolate and Bob LeMond plays Dr. Jell-O discussing her daughter Butterscotch. Lucy then plays Little Vanilla, Grandma Chocolate’s rambunctious granddaughter. 

In the usual closing bedroom tag, Liz and George are sleeping when a neighborhood cat screeches. 

GEORGE: “What’s that?”
LIZ: “Well it ain’t Bing Crosby.”

A huge multimedia star from 1934 to 1954, Bing Crosby was a leader in record sales, radio ratings, and motion picture grosses. Lucille Ball did a few motion pictures with Crosby’s ‘Road’ co-star Bob Hope. Crosby was mentioned on five  “I Love Lucy” episodes. In one, Ricky says that in Hollywood, he’s “Gonna make that Crosby look like a bum!”  Although they never acted together on screen, Lucille Ball and Bing Crosby were seen on several of the same variety shows.

Liz tells George to do something about the cat, but he doesn’t know how. Liz solves the problem by throwing something at it. 

GEORGE: “What did you throw at him?”
LIZ: “Our cat!  Goodnight, George!” 

Announcer Bob LeMond reminds listeners to watch for Lucille Ball in Miss Grant Takes Richmond. 

The film had opened on September 20, 1949.