THE CHRISTMAS CARDS

December 16, 1950

“The Christmas Cards” (aka “Christmas Card Pictures”) is episode #110 of the radio series MY FAVORITE HUSBAND broadcast on December 16, 1950.

This was the 12th episode of the third season of MY FAVORITE HUSBAND. There were 31 new episodes, with the season ending on March 31, 1951.  

Synopsis ~ 

Liz and George have their pictures taken for their Christmas cards, but then can’t agree on which shot to use.

“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.

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.

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.

Gale Gordon (Rudolph Atterbury) and Bea Benadaret (Iris Atterbury) do not appear in this episode, although Liz does have a phone conversation with Iris where her voice is not heard by the listeners. 

GUEST CAST

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

Professor Sergei Pagolovsky is a professional photographer, who also goes door to door selling his services. Novello generally plays Mr. Nagy, the Sheridan Falls Postman in love with Katie.  

EPISODE

ANNOUNCER: “As we look in on the Coopers this evening, George is sitting in the living room reading the paper, when Liz makes an announcement.”

Liz announces that this is the night they must pick our their Christmas cards.  Turns out, Liz is selling Kris Kringle Christmas Cards this year. So far, she only has three orders – including theirs. Card #14 reads…

LIZ: “This is the season of holly and spruce,
So Merry Christmas to you, Uncle Bruce!”

Or, if you don’t have an Uncle Bruce, #14A…

LIZ: “This is the season of spruce and holly, 
So Merry Christmas to you, Uncle Jolly!” 

George says his only Uncle’s name is Uncle Gilhooley.

LIZ: “This is the season that we know as Yule-y, 
so Merry Christmas to you, Uncle Gilhooley.”

When George finds out he has to pay retail, and doesn’t get a discount from his own wife, he insists they be printed from “George Cooper and Friend.”  To get her name on the card she foregoes her commission. 

She tries to sell cards to Katie, the Maid. But it turns out Katie is also working for Kris Kringle Christmas Card Company. Katie’s only sale was to herself. Liz quickly phones Iris Atterbury to make a sale, but same thing.Iris is a Kris Kringle Card vendor, too!  

The doorbell rings and it is a special delivery letter from George’s mother. It says that she can’t come for Christmas this year, but would like a photo of them. Liz reads where her mother-in-law tells George to stand apart from Liz so that she can cut her out later! Liz decides to make their Christmas Cards themselves!

Announcer Bob LeMond does a Jell-O commercial, giving a quick holiday recipe. 

ANNOUNCER: “As we look in on the Coopers once again it is two days later.  Two days that Liz has spent diligently carving a linoleum block to hand-print their Christmas cards.” 

Liz reveals the finished product but Katie can’t read the message because Liz didn’t carve the letters backward so that they come out the right way. As it is it says “REPOOC EGROEG dna ZIL morf SAMTSIRHC YRREM”! 

Linocut (also known as lino print, lino printing, or linoleum art) is a printmaking technique, a variant of woodcut in which a sheet of linoleum is used for a relief surface. The linoleum sheet is then inked with a roller and then impressed onto paper or fabric.

The doorbell rings and it is a salesman (Jay Novello). His product?  Personalized photo Christmas cards from the Pagolovsky Studio of Photographic Arts. Liz orders before the salesman has even finished his spiel.  Professor Sergei Pagolovsky himself will take the photos this afternoon. Liz immediately realizes that her mother-in-law will get a photo after all. 

That afternoon George and Liz report to the photo studio. Turns out the salesman is Professor Pagolovsky himself!  Liz does everything to make sure she is as close to George as possible. They take a photo with their heads together. 

Later, George brings home the developed photographs for Liz to see. They cannot decide on which one to use. The photos that Liz likes, George doesn’t. The photos the George likes, Liz doesn’t!  They go back and forth until they settle on one where they both look lousy!  

Lucy Ricardo also had trouble picking a good photo of herself when applying for a passport in “Staten Island Ferry” (ILL S5;E12) in 1956. 

Liz goes down to the photographic studio to change the photo. Reviewing the proofs, she chooses one she says will make George look good – but actually favors her.  A short time later, George also visits the studio to make a change. He picks a photo that he says will flatter Liz, but actually favors himself!  

When the cards arrive, Liz warns George that the Professor may have printed the wrong photo on their card – knowing she has changed it.  Opening the cards, she is surprised to see the photo that favors George!  She cries, refusing to send the cards.  She throws them in the fireplace. 

George tells her to go right out in the snow and buy some replacement cards. When he goes to the closet to get her coat, he comes back with some surprising news.  She doesn’t have to go out and get new cards because they have three boxes of fully stamped and addressed cards in the closet. He forgot to mail last year’s cards!  

In the live Jell-O commercial, Lucille Ball is Professor Dorothea Theodora, a famous lady archeologist in Egypt. LeMond is interviewing her for the Scientific Gazette. 

LEMOND / INTERVIEWER: “I’d like to ask you a question.”
LUCY / DOROTHEA: “Well, shoot the query, dearie.”

He asks her to read Egyptian hieroglyphics, which she translates into a description of Jell-O desserts. 

Ooops!  LeMond also translates the hieroglyphics and trips over the word ‘delectable’ at first saying ‘detectable’. Lucy, as Dorothea Theodora, ad libs “You can’t even read English”! 

END OF EPISODE