TEMPO: BRINGING UP BABY

November 30, 1953

Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz were on the cover of the November 30, 1953, issue of Tempo (volume 1, no. 26), a digest-sized weekly news magazine. 

Tempo was published by Pocket Magazines Inc. and billed itself as “The Nation’s Only Pocket News Weekly.” It merged with Quick, another pocket-sized digest from the same publishers, to be known as Pocket & Quick magazine.  Lucy and Desi often appeared on the cover of the original Quick, but the combined magazine leaned much more toward male readers, featuring pin-up girls. 

The inside article (pages 35 and 36) is titled “Lucy & Desi: Bringing Up Baby” and discusses raising their newborn son, Desiderio Albert Arnaz IV (aka Desi Jr.), who was born ten and a half months earlier.  

Photographs include candid shots of the proud parents with their children, as well as one of Desi holding the Mayer Twins who began playing the role at the start of November 1953. 

The issue also contains photos and/or articles on Marilyn Monroe, Mitzi Gaynor, Betty Grable, Roy Rogers, Mara Corday, Jan Sterling, Judy Holliday, Corrine Calvet, Lauren Bacall, and others. 

The same date this magazine appeared on newsstands, “I Love Lucy” premiered “Too Many Crooks” (ILL S3;E9). In it, Lucy thinks her friend and neighbor Ethel is the notorious Madame X, while Ethel suspects the same of her! 

On November 30, 1953, Desi Arnaz threw a surprise 13th wedding anniversary party for Lucille Ball at Hollywood’s glamorous Mocambo nightclub. After a towering cake was served, a TV set was wheeled in and guests watched (what else?) “I Love Lucy”!  

Also on November 30, 1953, nationally syndicated columnist Bob Thomas reported on “I Love Lucy” after a brief interview with producer Jess Oppenheimer.  This wasn’t the only publication to dwell on the ‘red scare’ experienced by Lucille Ball on September 11, 1953 when she was accused of being a communist. 

Drew Pearson’s Washington Merry-Go-Round syndicated column offered a few theories on the controversy, bringing up Lucille Ball several times in the rather lengthy article. 

Meanwhile, on that same Monday, Bob Farrell’s New York at Night Column contained this cryptic quip, possibly in response to questioning whether her children would also go into show business. At the time, Little Lucie was 2 and Desi Jr. was less than a year old!  Time tells, however, that she was indeed “heir conditioned” as both her children went into show business as teenagers. 

On November 30th, the Bradenton (FL) Herald bragged that the trailer used in The Long, Long Trailer would be on display at a local mobile home dealership!  Although the film wouldn’t premiere for another month yet, the ‘trailer’ (pardon the pun) was already in movie theatres! 

Catching up with the weekends happenings on the West Coast, a North Caroline newspaper reported on Monday the 30th that the Arnaz family had ‘thrown the switch’ to light up the Christmas trees of Santa Claus Lane in Hollywood. The event actually occurred two days earlier, on November 28, 1953.  Other news outlets reported that Ball had ‘trouble’ turning on the lights, stating that only half of the trees initially lit up, with the remainder a few seconds later. Additionally, two streetcars stopped between the floodlights and the Arnaz family, putting them in virtual darkness just before the big moment. One report noted that it was like something out of a Lucille Ball script! 

[Please note that all newspapers did not publish syndicated columns or event stories on the same date!  The stories collected above reflect only the newspapers published on November 30, 1953, while other outlets may have published stories earlier or later.]