January 13, 1950
“Liz Teaches Iris To Drive” is episode #71 of the radio series MY FAVORITE HUSBAND broadcast on January 13, 1950.
Synopsis ~
The Atterburys have bought a new car but Rudolph refuses to teach Iris how to drive. Liz readily volunteers to be Iris’s driving instructor.
This was the 20th episode of the second season of MY FAVORITE HUSBAND, the second of the new year and of the new decade (1950). There were 43 new episodes, with the season ending on June 25, 1950.
This episode served as the basis for
“Lucy Learns To Drive” (ILL S4;E12), filmed October 28, 1954, and first aired on January 3, 1955.
“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.
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.
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.
GUEST CAST
Frank Nelson (Mr. Rogers, Insurance Adjuster) was born on May 6, 1911 (three months before Lucille Ball) in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He started working as a radio announcer at the age of 15. He later appeared on such popular radio shows as “The Great Gildersleeve,” “Burns and Allen,” and “Fibber McGee & Molly”. This is one of his 11 performances on “My Favorite Husband.” On “I Love Lucy” he holds the distinction of being the only actor to play two recurring roles: Freddie Fillmore and Ralph Ramsey, as well as six one-off characters, including the frazzled train conductor in “The Great Train Robbery” (ILL S5;E5), a character he repeated on “The Lucy Show.” Aside from Lucille Ball, Nelson is perhaps most associated with Jack Benny and was a fifteen-year regular on his radio and television programs.
EPISODE
ANNOUNCER: “As we look in on the Coopers, it’s early evening and they’ve just finished dinner.”
LIZ: “It needs fixing. The isinglass curtains are all shot and we need new wicks in the headlamps.”
Liz is facetiously describing early automobiles (and previous to that, horse-drawn carriages) that were fitted with clear celluloid side curtains that acted as windows, although they were not actually made of isinglass, as purported. Headlamps were battery operated, not candle powered, as Liz suggests.
Liz says that because the battery is always going dead, she has to hang out of the car and push it like a scooter!
LIZ: “I’ve got a right leg like Betty Grable and a left leg like Gorgeous George.”
GEORGE: “You’re being ridiculous. Your leg is nothing like Betty Grable’s.”
Betty Grable (1916-73) made two films with Lucille Ball when they were both at RKO in the mid-1930s. A pin-up girl, she was famous for her platinum blonde hair and shapely legs. In the late 1940s, 20th Century Fox insured her legs with Lloyd’s of London for a quarter of a million dollars. George Raymond Wagner (1915-63) was a professional wrestler known by his ring name Gorgeous George. He was famous for his platinum blonde hair and muscular legs. In the 1950′s his name was mentioned on several episodes of “I Love Lucy.”
A car horn sounds and Rudolph and Iris Atterbury pull up in their brand new car. Iris wanted a canary yellow car with leopard skin upholstery, but because Rudolph is a bank president, they always get black.
IRIS: “I feel like I’m riding in a hearse. One day we accidentally cut through a funeral and half the cars followed us home.”
RUDOLPH: “Lotus Bud, keep that up and the cars won’t be following you accidentally.”
While the boys are looking at the car, Liz and Iris conspire to ask Rudolph if he will teach Iris to drive. Rudolph flatly says no.
RUDOLPH: “I couldn’t have it on my conscious that I put another woman driver on the streets.”
Liz steps up to volunteer to teach Iris to drive. George forbids her to do it and Rudolph makes Iris promise not to let her!
Followers of the series will remember that George taught Liz to drive on November 13, 1948 when they were still named the Cugats.
In “Lucy Learns To Drive” (ILL S4;E12), Lucy Ricardo has just one lesson from Ricky before she’s volunteering to teach Ethel to drive.
Next day, Liz picks up Iris for her first driving lesson. They notice the Atterbury’s new car in the driveway and Liz reasons they should do the lesson in her new car, rather than hers.
After adjusting the seat to fit Iris’s girth, Liz attempts to guide her student through the pedals. She finally finds the starter, which is on the dashboard, not the floor like it is in Liz’s car. After a few lurches, they are motoring down the street – weaving all over the road. Liz calls Iris’s attention to the rear-view mirror.
LIZ: “That’s so you can put on lipstick while you’re driving and still keep one hand on the wheel.”
LIZ: “They’re all the same, you just stick your hand out the window and wave it.”
IRIS: “How can they tell what you’re going to do?”
LIZ: “They can’t, but when they see it’s a woman’s hand, they just stop and let you do it!”
Although now a relic of the past, hand signals were a common part of driver education in the early part of the 20th century. In the late ‘30s, Joseph Bell patented the first electrical device that flashed – and in 1939, Buick introduced turn signals as a standard feature. Still, electrical turn signals didn’t become widespread until the early to mid-1950s.
Liz tells Iris it is time for her to ‘solo’ by driving around the block alone. Iris is terrified but does it. While she is gone, Liz tells Katie the Maid about her driving lesson with Iris when suddenly…
…Iris smashes headlong into the back of Liz’s car! They realize they will have to explain this to George and Rudolph!
End of Part One
Bob LeMond does a live commercial and gives a recipe for a Jell-O salad with pineapple and dates.
ANNOUNCER: “On a quiet side street in Sheridan Falls stands a monument to womanhood: two cars smashed together. And on the curb surveying the wreckage are Iris Atterbury, the smasher, and Liz Cooper, the smashee.”
Liz, Katie, and Iris try to get the cars apart by jumping up and down on the bumpers.
IRIS: “What’s supposed to happen, Liz?”
LIZ: “I dunno, but this is what men always do!”
IRIS: “Are you sure you’re not leaving out anything?”
LIZ: “Oh, I forgot! Iris, you stand down there and swear.”
In “Lucy Learns To Drive” (ILL S4;E12), the Cadillac and the Pontiac also get hooked together, and Lucy and Ethel try jumping up and down on the bumpers to separate them. When Lucy remembers the part about swearing, she does it in Spanish, to imitate Ricky, her Cuban hothead husband.
They don’t come unhooked, so Liz suggests they drive the cars down to Bill Fisher’s Beauty Shop, a ‘front’ for a secret garage in the back that specializes in ladies fenders.
LIZ: “I get all my work done there!”
On the road to the shop, people are staring and honking. Iris notices someone trying to pass. It is a car just like Iris’s new one. Iris notices that there’s nobody driving! It is her new car, come unhooked, and passing them on the highway! As they start to go up a hill, the new car loses power and rolls back down the hill backing into the front of the Cooper’s car! They try to think of what to say to their husbands, and agree to tell them the cars where stolen and they don’t anything about it. Playing along gamely, Iris innocently replies “What cars?”
This same scene is featured on “I Love Lucy” with the same line, this time spoken by Ethel.
Next day at the bank, Rudolph and George are talking to Mr. Rogers (Frank Nelson), the insurance adjustor, about the cars. The plan is to tell Liz that Iris ratted on her and hope Liz will squeal and reveal the truth.
RUDOLPH: “What’s good enough for Humphrey Bogart is good enough for me.”
Rudolph is referencing the film Tokyo Joe starring Humphrey Bogart (1899-1957), which was released in November 1949.
When Liz enters the office, she overhears Mr. Atterbury on a deliberately staged phone conversation with Iris in which she confesses and is forgiven. Angry at the betrayal, Liz cracks like an egg, but as she spills the real story, Iris rushes in! She reveals that Rudolph tried to trick her and Liz admits she fell for it! Thankfully nobody believed the real story! So Liz launches into a tall tale about an 80 foot tall giant with a purple beard and three eyes who picked up the cars….
End of Episode
In the live Jell-O commercial, Lucille Ball and Bob LeMond visit deepest darkest Africa. Bob is an explorer, Lucille is his number one girl-boy. Native drums are beating. Lucille compares them to a primitive pay telephone talking about Jell-O. They suddenly stop.
BOB / EXPLORER: “Why did they stop?”
LUCILLE / #1 GIRL-BOY: “They went to get change. They have to deposit five cocoanuts for the next three minutes.”
<plunk plunk plunk> Drums continue and so does the message about Jell-O. The Jell-O singers adapt their jingle for the African setting as cannibals:
Papermoon Loves Lucy 
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