TV GUIDE(S)

November 2, 1957

The November 2, 1957 edition of TV Guide (Vol. 5, No. 44, issue #240) featured Lucille Ball on the cover in a caricature by noted artist Al Hirschfeld. This was Hirschfeld’s tenth TV Guide cover. This was Lucille Ball’s eighth of 39 covers, having appeared on the cover of the very first national edition in April 1953. It was her second cover in 1957 and her second caricature. 

Albert Hirschfeld (1903-2003) was an American caricaturist best known for his black and white portraits of celebrities and Broadway stars. In 1945, Hirschfeld and his wife Dolly gave birth to a daughter named Nina. Hirschfeld is known for hiding Nina’s name (“NINA”), in most of the drawings he produced after her birth. From time to time he lamented that the gimmick had overshadowed his art.

In 2002, Al Hirschfeld was awarded the National Medal of Arts.

The inside article is titled “Desi Arnaz Tells Why He Abandoned ‘I Love Lucy’”.   At the end of the 1956-57 season, Lucy and Desi made the decision to end the half-hour “I Love Lucy” episodes that had been a ratings winner for CBS since October 1951.  The Ricardos and Mertzes, however, would live on in a series of hour-long programs later known as “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour”. The intervening weeks would be dedicated to producing stand-alone programming based on world literature and newly-developed Desilu pilots, like “The Untouchables.” 

The article features color photos from the new format’s first entry, “Lucy Takes A Cruise To Havana” feauring Ann Sothern, Hedda Hopper, Rudy Vallee and Cesar Romero. Although the episode begins pretty much where the half-hour series left off in 1957 Westport, it quickly flashes back to how Lucy and Ricky first met in 1940 Havana.  

An ad for the issue, which also contained articles on pop singer Guy Mitchell, Lucy’s former co-star Ginger Rogers, singer Jo Stafford, Lucy’s neighbor and friend Jack Benny, actor Peter Lorre, and child actress Margaret O’Brien. 

An ad for the ‘galaxy of stars’ appearing on the new “Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show”.   

The new format was much-anticipated, causing local TV guides and logs to also devote their cover to Lucy and Desi. The Chicago Daily Tribune’s TV Week (a Sunday supplement), called the new series a dream come true for Lucy and Desi. Although the characters “Take a Trip to Havana” the episode (with the exception of Desilu establishing footage) was shot in Hollywood. 

TV Life, another listings magazine, also put Lucy and Desi on the cover. Lucy had also been on the cover in 1956, and would be again in 1957. 

The inside article is titled “Laughs They Didn’t Want” and also details the creation of the new hour-long format and it’s first program, “Lucy Takes A Cruise To Havana”. 

That month TV Stage (not a listings magazine), also had Lucille Ball on the cover, although singer / actor Pat Boone was the main cover face.  Lucille Ball was the predominant cover figure on TV Stage in 1954, 1955, 1956, and earlier in 1957.