LIZ & THE GREEN WIG

January 20, 1950

“Liz & The Green Wig” is episode #72 of the radio series MY FAVORITE HUSBAND broadcast on January 20, 1950.

Synopsis ~ George goes over Liz’s accounts and discovers that she has listed $180 for miscellaneous expenses! George decides she can eliminate the $10 a week she’s spending on her hair. Liz buys a green wig to show George what might happen if she dyed her hair at home.

This was the 21st 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.

“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 (Sally, the Beautician / Miss Finley, the Librarian) 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.

Bea Benadaret generally plays Iris Atterbury, but the character does not appear in this episode

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

Hal March (Wig Store Clerk) first appeared on the “I Love Lucy” in “Lucy Fakes Illness” (ILL S1;E16) using his own name to play an actor posing as the doctor who diagnoses Lucy with ‘golbloots.’ March got his first big break when he was cast as Harry Morton on “The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show” in 1950. He eventually lost the part to Fred Clark who producers felt was better paired with Bea Benaderet, who played Blanche, and here plays Iris Atterbury. He stayed with the show in other roles, the last airing just two weeks before his appearance as Eddie Grant in “Lucy is Matchmaker” (ILL S2;E27). In 1966 he was seen on “The Lucy Show.”

Sam Hearn (Mr. Lefty) was a musical comedy performer on Broadway between 1915 to 1929.

Was a semi-regular character on Jack Benny’s radio program, normally playing Schlepperman.

He played Lucy’s childhood doctor, Doc Peterson, in “The Passports” (ILL S5;E11) and a ‘Kibitzer’ at Grand Central Station in “Lucy Wants A Career” (LDCH S2;E4). He died in 1964.

THE EPISODE

ANNOUNCER: “As we look in on the Cooper household this morning, George Cooper is seated at the breakfast table, Katie the maid is in the kitchen singing happily, and Liz has just tiptoed downstairs and into the kitchen.” 

KATIE (singing): “Oh, what a beautiful morning!  Oh, what a beautiful day. I’ve got a beautiful feeling, everything’s going my way.”
LIZ: “Shhhh!”
KATIE: “Oh, Mrs. Cooper. It’s you! I thought my lungs had sprung a leak!”

Katie is singing the opening number from the Broadway musical Oklahoma! by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein 2nd. The original Broadway production opened on March 31, 1943 and ran for 2,212 performances, finally closing on May 29, 1948. A film version was made in 1955. The musical was mentioned on “I Love Lucy” in “Lucy Tells The Truth” (ILL S3;E6) in 1953 and on “Here’s Lucy” in “The Big Game” (HL S6;E2) in 1973. 

Liz is tells Katie that it is time for George to review her household accounts for the previous year (1949) for the income tax people, and she knows she hasn’t managed to save any money. 

KATIE: “Well, maybe he’s forgotten.”
LIZ: “Not George. He has the memory of an elephant.”
GEORGE (from the other room): “Liz, is that you?  Come on in the breakfast room.”
LIZ: “There’s Dumbo now.”

Dumbo is a 1941 animated film by Walt Disney Productions. The main character is Jumbo Jr., an elephant who is cruelly nicknamed "Dumbo”.  Verna Felton (Mrs. Porter, Lucy Ricardo’s maid) was one of the voice artists on the film. The old adage “an elephant never forgets” may be a bit of a generalization, but science has shown that they do have remarkable memories. 

George wants to review the little black budget book he gave her a year ago. When she shows it to him, it is blank except for one week in January 1949!  She says he should just multiply the week by the number of weeks in a year – which she guesses are 65. 56? 24?  George finds that entries of January 8, 1949:

• newsboy – 50 cents
• cleaning – 1 dollar
• toothpaste – 39 cents
• G.T.L. – 10 dollars
• miscellaneous – 180 dollars

Under miscellaneous she has included rent, food, telephone, gas and electric.  

Liz explains that G.T.L. is her beauty parlor bill and that G.T.L. stands for ‘Gilding the Lily’.  

To adorn unnecessarily something that is already beautiful or perfect was known as gilding the lily. In 1935, Paramount released a film titled The Gilded Lily starring Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray. 

George reasons they could save $520 a year if Liz did her beauty treatments at home, instead of the beauty parlor. Liz warns that her red hair is not natural and that she needs to have it professionally done!

LIZ: “Or this glorious sunset will fade and night will fall on my scalp!”

When “Lucy Wants New Furniture” (ILL S2;E28) in 1953, Lucy Ricardo decides to do her own hair as a money-saving tactic. She ends up looking like a cross between Little Orphan Annie and a chrysanthemum. 

Since neither one of them can remember her original color, George agrees she should cancel her appointment at Sally’s Beauty Parlor and let her hair revert to its original color. To do his part, George has cancelled his membership at the athletic club. 

Announcer Bob LeMond does a live Jell-O commercial – the perfect dessert for those on a budget.

Part Two opens three days later with Liz searching through the sofa cushions for change. She finds three bobby pins, a nail file, a thimble, and a half a peanut butter and lint sandwich.  

Searching through sofa cushions for money was a common trope on Lucycoms. In “Ricky’s European Booking” (ILL S5;E10), Lucy Ricardo tried to find enough money to join her husband in Europe. She finds exactly $9.73 but needs $3,000!  Using the same search method, all Lucy Carmichael found was a ‘Vote for Dewey’ button in “Lucy Gets the Bird” (TLS S3;E12). During “Lucy and the Used Car Dealer” (HL S2;E9), Kim is looking for enough cash to buy a used car, but only finds a ‘Win With Willkie’ button. 

Liz decides to take a different tact: she will buy a green wig and tell George that it is her own hair after trying to dye it at home!  But first, she is going to make George sorry he took control of their finances. She heads down to the bank. 

Although it is never directly stated, the idea for the episode may have been inspired by the 1948 RKO film The Boy With Green Hair, an allegorical war story in Technicolor produced by Dore Schary. 

At the bank, Mr. Atterbury laments to George that he has a headache and his eyes are jumpy. He has a television hangover from watching six hours of TV!  

MR. ATTERBURY: “You sit down to watch Ed Wynn and six hours later you find yourself sending in for a Hopalong Cassidy hat.” 

“The Ed Wynn Show” was a variety show broadcast from September 22,1949 to July 4, 1950 on the CBS Television Network. Comedian and former vaudevillian Ed Wynn was the star of the program. Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz made their television debut as a couple on the show on Christmas Eve 1949, just a few weeks after this episode of “My Favorite Husband”. “Hopalong Cassidy” made the leap from books and movies to the small screen on June 24, 1949, kicking off the legacy of the Western on television. These were not new, but simply cut-down versions of the feature films that were in cinemas from 1935 to 1948.

Liz comes into the office with Miss Finley (Bea Benadaret again), the librarian. Liz owes her 16 cents for an over-due book and needs George to pay the fine for her.  

Liz returns some time later with Mr. Lefty, the news agent (Sam Hearn), who calls George “Coopie” and Mr. Atterbury “Attababy”!  Liz owes him some money and she’s come to collect.

MR. ATTERBURY: “Well, there’s Kukla and Fran. Where’s Ollie?” 

“Kukla, Fran and Ollie” was an early television show using puppets. It was created for children, but soon watched by more adults than children. It was broadcast from Chicago between 1947 to 1957. Comedienne Fran Allison starred, interacting with puppets, Kukla and Ollie whose puppeteer was the show’s creator, Burr Tillstrom.

After paying Mr. Lefty he leaves.  [Sam Hearn earns a rare round of applause from the studio audience for his brief appearance.]  George threatens Liz not to return with any more silly bills. Liz tells him that she is going home to dye her own hair!  

Liz goes to the wig store where the clerk (Hal March) is surprised that she wants a green wig!  

CLERK: “Do you mind if it has a false nose attached to it?”

The clerk wants to know her size and assumes that Liz’s red hair is a wig!  Liz tries on a green wig. 

LIZ: “With this green hair and this green dress, I look like I’m peaking out of a pickle.” 

Little did she know then that in a 1973 episode of “Here’s Lucy” she literally would be “peaking out of a pickle”!  

Liz returns to the bank to show George her newly greenified hair!  Mr. Atterbury thinks he is seeing things thanks to his TV hangover.  Liz says she didn’t have any henna so she used Easter egg dye!  

Lucille Ball actually donned a green wig after Lucy Carmichael fell into a vat of of green dye in “Lucy Meets a Millionaire” (TLS S2;E24).  She comes close again with a feathery green head covering in “Lucy Goes to Vegas” (TLS S3;E17).

Mr. Atterbury is cracking up. He believes himself to be Hopalong Cassidy’s horse!  George escorts him home, leaving Liz to do the sums they neglected due to her distractions. 

End of Episode

In the live Jell-O commercial Bob LeMond plays an archeologist discovering ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. Lucille Ball plays the ghost of an ancient Egyptian, for which she adopts a Mexican accent because “who knows what an Egyptian sounds like!”  Lucille tells Wilbur Hatch to play Egyptian music like “My Mummy Done Tole Me.”  

“Blues in the Night” (aka “My Mama Done Tole Me”) is a blues song written by Harold Arlen, with lyrics by Johnny Mercer, for the 1941 film Blues in the Night. It became a standard and was covered by many artists. Eddie “Rochester” Anderson, would occasionally sing the beginning of the song on the Jack Benny radio program.

LUCY / GHOST: “My father was King Tut and my grandfather was King Tut-Tut.” 

Lucy / Ghost reads the hieroglyphics depicted by the little box and big red letters. 

LUCY / GHOST: “Straw-berry, rasp-berry, che-herry, and or-ange, and le-mon. I can’t read the next word.”
BOB / ARCHEOLOGIST: “Is it obliterated?”
LUCY / GHOST: “No, I think it is lime.”
BOB / ARCHEOLOGIST: “That’s amazing!”
LUCY / GHOST: “No, I think it’s lime. Two thousand years ago we liked all six delicious flavors: straw-berry, rasp-berry, che-herry, or-ange, le-mon, and amazing.”
BOB / ARCHEOLOGIST: “No!”
LUCY / GHOST: “Obliterated?”
BOB / ARCHEOLOGIST: “No!!”
LUCY / GHOST: “I’m only kidding. I knew it all the lime!  Goodnight!”