KISSING THE YEAR IN!

December 29, 1951

Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz appeared on the cover of TV-Radio Life on December 29, 1951, the final issue of the year.  

FORECASTS FOR ‘52

Of the predictions by Fleetwood Lawton (as told to Arlene Garber), the prospect of color television is mentioned. Lawton was correct: a successful color television system based on a system designed by RCA began commercial broadcasting on December 17, 1953. CBS was developing it’s own technology, and refused to use the RCA / NBC system, causing color TV to be more than a decade away for the Tiffany network.  Lucille Ball was not seen in color until the early 1960s.  

Lawton’s prediction that the Korean War would end in early 1952 did not come to pass. The conflict ended in July 1953.  

Lawton’s prediction that the 1952 presidential race would depend on who the Republicans nominated assumed that incumbent Democrat Harry S. Truman would seek another term. Instead, he withdrew from the race and Adlai Stevenson ran instead. In November 1952, Stevenson was defeated by Dwight David Eisenhower, who ran as a Republican. 

The issue includes a profile of Cy Howard, a television writer and producer by Ted Hilgenstubler titled “I’m A Lonesome Guy”.  Howard was the writer-producer of “My Friend Irma” on radio and television, a series that featured Gale Gordon’s mother Gloria Gordon and likely gave Mr. Mooney’s wife her first name on “The Lucy Show.”

In 1963, Howard partnered with Desilu for the Ethel Merman pilot “Maggie Brown” which was never sold to series. He was also Executive Producer on the Desilu series’ “Guestward Ho” (1960) and “Fair Exchange” (1962-63).  He won a 1969 Emmy Award for writing “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.” 

The magazine’s listings include a new episode of “I Love Lucy” titled “The Adagio” (ILL S1;E12) first aired on New Year’s Eve. 

This was not Lucille Ball’s first time on the cover of Radio-TV Life.  She had appeared on the cover in 1949, 1950, 1953, 1956, and 1958. The magazine began life as Radio Life in March 1940, only listing Los Angeles radio programs. It became Radio Life & Television in 1949 and TV Radio Life in 1950, finally becoming Television Life with radio as a footnote a year later. It ceased publication in 1958.