WHY I LOVE LUCY

January 25, 1952

Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz appeared on the cover of TV Guide (pre-National edition, volume V, #4) on January 25, 1952.  The inside article “Why I Love Lucy” was written by Desi Arnaz.  This was Lucille’s second of five covers of the pre-national edition before she graced the cover of the very first national edition on April 3, 1953. 

In the New York region (above) the black and white photograph was colorized against a white background. 

In other regions, a different color background was used. In New England (above) it was yellow. 

Not all regions used the same images or published material at the same time. The Washington-Baltimore region didn’t use the story “Why I Love Lucy” by Desi Arnaz until February 7, 1952, two weeks after most other regions. They also used a different image, this one a press photo from “Lucy Thinks Ricky is Trying To Murder Her” (ILL S1;E4) first aired on November 5, 1951. 

The December 8, 1951 issue of “TV Forecast” used the same photograph but here Desi is cropped out and the image is reversed. Lucy’s teardrop earring also failed to make the cut! 

The uncropped black and white photograph.

The photograph also appeared on the cover of Ric Wyman’s book For The Love of Lucy.

Desi was cropped out of the photo when it was used on a special edition of Newsweek in 2017. 

Among the letters to the editor, a viewer of “I Love Lucy” points out that an on-screen photographer didn’t follow the usual procedures for the press camera used in the episode!  

The shutterbug viewer is probably referring to the photographer played by Harry Shannon in “Men Are Messy” (ILL S1;E8), first aired on December 3, 1951. 

The episode listed in this issue of TV Guide was “Lucy Fakes Illness” (ILL S1;E16) aired on Monday, January 28th. The episode earned a rating share of  57.4/77.

“I Love Lucy: You Would Too, If You Were I” by Desi Aranz. [Sadly, no legible scans of the text were available for perusal.]

This issue was casually left on the coffee table while Lucy was packing during “Breaking the Lease” (ILL S1;E18), filmed on January 5th and aired on February 11, 1952.    

January 25, 1952, the date this issue hit the newsstands, was also the date that “I Love Lucy” filmed “The New Neighbors” (ILL S1;E25). 

The back cover advertises the January 1952 daytime schedule for WNBT, the flagship station of NBC, now known as WNBC-TV. “I Love Lucy” was a CBS-TV show.