December 23, 1950
“The Christmas Stag” (aka “Jolly Rovers Christmas Stag”) is episode #111 of the radio series MY FAVORITE HUSBAND broadcast on December 23, 1950.
Synopsis ~ George says he is attending a holiday fundraiser, but Liz suspects it is nothing more than an excuse for a stag party. To discover the truth, Liz disguises herself as Santa Claus and infiltrates the party.
Note: In the title, the word ‘stag’ refers to a ‘stag party’, an all-male gathering, not to a male deer!
This was the 17th episode of the third season of MY FAVORITE HUSBAND. There were 43 new episodes, with the season ending on June 25, 1950.
“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.
Gale Gordon (Rudolph Atterbury) had worked with Lucille Ball on “The Wonder Show” on radio in 1938. One of the front-runners to play Fred Mertz on “I Love Lucy,” he eventually played Alvin Littlefield, owner of the Tropicana, during two episodes in 1952. After playing a Judge in an episode of “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour” in 1958, he would re-team with Lucy for all of her subsequent series’: as Theodore J. Mooney in ”The Lucy Show”; as Harrison Otis Carter in “Here’s Lucy”; and as Curtis McGibbon on “Life with Lucy.” Gordon died in 1995 at the age of 89.
Bea Benadaret (Iris Atterbury) 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 Ricardo’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.
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) does not appear in this episode.
GUEST CAST
The male voice(s) of the Passerby, the Gas Station Attendant, and the Floorwalker at Miller’s Department Store are all uncredited and unidentified.
EPISODE
ANNOUNCER: “As we look in on the Coopers this tonight, Liz and George are entertaining George’s boss Mr. Atterbury and his wife Iris. Dinner is over and the foursome is in the living room.”
The Jolly Rovers is a fictional service organization in fictional Sheridan Falls with the goal of rewarding the town’s newsboys. Their origins lie in the fact that years earlier a poor newsboy gave money to a down-and-out traveling salesman to help him get food and shelter during the holidays. When the salesman became successful, he decided to start the Jolly Rovers to reward all newsboys at Christmas time.
While George insists it is a charity event to benefit Sheridan Falls’ newsboys, the women are convinced it is really an opportunity for an all-male stag party. Liz is sure there will be drinking, dancing girls, and a showgirl popping out of a cake!
By the 1950s, scantily-clad women popping out of cakes (generally made of cardboard or other construction materials) was common during various social events such as office gatherings, conventions, and bachelor parties. The idea was depicted in the popular 1950 film Singing in the Rain, where Debbie Reynolds’ character jumps out of a cake.
Next day, Iris drops by on her way to the market. Both agree that the party is nothing more than an excuse for a stag party. At first, Liz wants to have her own ‘doe’ party – with all girls. The idea quickly seems silly and they decide to try to sneak in to the men’s party instead. Liz decides they will dress in men’s clothing borrowed from George’s closet. But first, Liz has to hide her hair.
LIZ: “After all, how many men have hair the color of mine?”
IRIS: “As a matter of fact, how many WOMEN have hair the color of yours?”
Lucy and Ethel disguise themselves as men to infiltrate a ‘daddy shower’ in “Ricky Has Labor Pains” (ILL S2;E14) in 1953. Like Liz and Iris, they are sure this is a stag party – and they are right – complete with drinking and naughty stories. Due to CBS standards, there are, however, no dancing girls or cakes with girls in them!
To test their disguises, they try to pass themselves off as men to a passersby on the street. Adopting a husky voice, Liz asks a stranger for the time. He instantly spots her as a woman because she forgot to take off her lipstick and is still carrying a purse!
Iris and Liz go home; their disguises have been a failure. Liz refuses to give up. The doorbell rings. It is a man come to pick up the Santa Claus suit for the party. Liz suddenly gets a new idea and tells him that the party has been cancelled.
End of Part One
Announcer Bob LeMond does a live commercial for Jell-O desserts for the holiday season.
ANNOUNCER: “As we look in on the Coopers again, Liz has just sent away the man who was to play Santa Claus, telling him the party has been called off. Then she breaks the news to Iris…”
Iris thinks she should be the Santa, since she is shaped more like Santa than Liz, but Liz is determined to be the Jolly Rovers Santa because the suit is in her closet and possession is nine tenths of the law!
On the way to the party dressed as Santa, Liz’s car runs out of gas. She pulls into a filling station, where the attendant recognizes her voice but refuses to sell her gas on credit because she hasn’t paid her past repair bills.
Dressed as Santa, Liz goes across the street to Miller’s Department Store to cash a check for gas money. The floorwalkers immediately mistake her for their regular store Santa, who is late back from his dinner break. They quickly usher Liz to Santa’s throne to greet the long line of waiting youngsters.
Liz cleverly gets out of doing Santa duty by shouting to the assembled customers that Miller’s will give everybody free items to everybody! The store manager agrees to let her cash a check if she’ll just leave the store immediately.
Meanwhile, at the Jolly Rovers’ holiday party, Rudolph announces that Santa Claus has finally arrived. Liz enters in full Santa regalia, and the men suspect nothing.
At first, Liz expects a scantily-clad girl popping out of a cake, but there’s only a tap dancer who had to cancel.
Liz then expects a naughty story about ‘the farmer’s daughter’, but gets the heart-warming tale of how the Sheridan Falls Jolly Rovers were established.
George notices that ‘Santa’ has dropped something.
GEORGE: “It’s a lipstick!”
‘SANTA LIZ’: “It possibly belongs to Rudolph, my red-lipped reindeer!”
When Rudolph tells Liz that it is time to give out the presents to the newsboys waiting in the next room, Liz gradually realizes that she’s been wrong all along. The party is indeed a charity event, not a holiday stag!
Mortified, she fakes illness in order to make a quick exit, but Rudolph insists Santa be escorted to the mens’ locker room to rest. On her way down the hall, Liz blurts out to her escort that she is in fact a woman. After a heart-wrenching confession about her motives, Liz realizes that her male escort is Iris!
IRIS: “You’re not the only one masquerading as a man.”
LIZ: “C’mon, let’s get outta here, boy!”
In the live Jell-O commercial Lucille Ball plays Penelope, a British explorer’s wife in deepest, darkest Africa, and Bob LeMond her ‘boy’. Gale Gordon plays Chumley, her proper husband. Their ‘boy’ comes in to sound the alarm about an imminent rhino attack, while Penelope and Chumley calmly converse about tea and the joys of Jell-O. Before listing the last Jell-O flavor, the Rhino devours Chumley.
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