MOTHER-IN-LAW

March 4, 1949

“Mother-in-Law” (aka “Mother Cooper Visits”) is episode #33 of the radio series MY FAVORITE HUSBAND broadcast on March 4, 1949 on the CBS radio network.

Synopsis ~ George’s mother comes to visit. Liz hopes to drive her out by spreading ragweed and other allergy-inducing plants around the house, but her plan backfires when George’s mother starts dating her allergist.

“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 (Dr. Griswold Stephenson) 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.

Gordon usually plays Rudolph Atterbury, George’s boss, but the character does not appear in this episode, although he is mentioned. 

Bea Benadaret (Laeticia Cooper, George’s Mother) 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.

This role of Mother Cooper had previously been played by Eleanor Audley. Bea Benadaret normally plays Iris Atterbury, but the character does not appear in this script. 

Ruth Perrott (Katie, the Maid) was also later seen on “I Love Lucy.” She first played Mrs. Pomerantz (above right), 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.

EPISODE

ANNOUNCER: “As we look in on the Coopers this morning, the members of the household are in various stages of preparing for the new day. George is in the shower singing “Old Man River”, Katie the maid is getting breakfast, and Liz is just coming into the kitchen.”

KATIE: “Good morning, Mrs. Cooper. Has Mr. Cooper finished  his shower yet?”
LIZ: “I don’t think so. He through toting the barge and lifting the bale, and he was getting a little drunk, so I guess he’s just about landing in jail now.”

“Old Man River” by Oscar Hammerstein II and Jerome Kern, was written for the 1927 musical Show Boat. A revival of the musical ran on Broadway in 1946. There was a radio adaptation in 1944. In “Never Do Business With Friends” (ILL S2;E31), Lucy Ricardo analogizes her housework without an electric washing machine to that of the slaves who sing “Old Man River”.

Liz tells Katie that her mother is coming to visit. She needs to break it to George by being sweet to him. When she goes in the breakfast room, George comes down to breakfast and tells Katie that his mother is coming to stay. 

KATIE: “I wish I’d known about this earlier. I could have sold tickets!”

Liz smooches George and George is as sweet in return, which tips Liz off that something’s up.  She decides to tell him outright that they are going to have a visitor.  George thinks Liz is expecting a baby! 

 LIZ: “She’ll arrive the day after tomorrow. On the Super Chief!” 

The Super Chief was one of the named passenger trains and the flagship of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. It claimed to be “The Train of the Stars” because of the various celebrities it carried between Chicago and Los Angeles. Lucy and Desi traveled aboard the Super Chief known as the “Forever Darling Express” to promote their film in 1956. 

In “The Ricardos Change Apartments” (ILL S2;E26),

Lucy calls the electric toy trains “the Super Chief” as it circles the room!

Liz breaks it to him that she is not expecting anyone – except her mother. George immediately confesses that his mother is also coming!  Neither George nor Liz want to tell their mothers not to come. George insults Liz’s mother as twice as repulsive and she dissolves into tears. They decide to send both mothers telegrams that the house is being fumigated for termites and not to come!

A while later, a telegram arrives for Miss Liz Elliott to confirm she’s not coming, but George’s mother sends a telegram to say she’s coming anyway!  Liz isn’t happy about it, but promises to try to be nice to her anyway.  

A few days later the doorbell rings and it is George’s mother.  Mother Cooper ignores Liz but isn’t happy when she’s ignored by Liz.  George’s mother has brought him a solid gold cigarette case with his name engraved on it.  She’s brought Liz a bottle of Air-Wick. 

Air-Wick is a brand of air freshener that is owned by the British company Reckitt Benckiser. It was first launched by creator Guy Paschal in 1943 in the United States, and is now sold worldwide.

Liz tries to keep her temper, even when Mother Cooper tells Liz she is on a diet of raw vegetables and goats milk – and that while she’s there they will all eat the same thing.  Liz puts her foot down – no goats milk!

A week later, George and Liz are drinking goats milk.  Liz is bleating like a goat and George nearly head butt Mr. Atterbury at the drinking fountain!  Mother Cooper asserts that “Mother Knows Best”.  

Katie the maid is angry because Mother Cooper has burst into her room to confiscate her roses.  Liz reminds her that Mother Cooper is allergic to roses. 

KATIE: “Four Roses?”  

Four Roses is a brand of Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey. The brand’s distillery in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky, was built in 1910 and the company’s warehouse for aging and bottling operations is in Cox’s Creek, Kentucky. 

Liz admits to Katie that she’s trying to get Mother Cooper to leave by putting various weeds and flowers discretely around the house. Just then, Mother Cooper arrives saying that she’s been to a specialist named Dr. Stephenson and he’s told her that he can rid her of her allergies if she just stays in Sheridan Falls and gets a shot every day for the next six weeks. Six weeks! Katie reveals that the ragweed Liz hid in Mother Cooper’s pillow was actually poison ivy! 

A few weeks later, Mother Cooper has been steadily going out with Dr. Stevenson. She saunters merrily through the house singing “Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life.”

“Ah! Sweet Mystery of Life” is from the 1910 operetta Naughty Marietta by Victor Herbert and Rida Johnson.  It was briefly sung by Mrs. Trumbull in “Ricky’s Movie Offer” (ILL S4;E6). 

George wants to know when they will meet this Mr. Stephenson, but Mother Cooper admits she is embarrassed by Liz. An indignant Liz insists that she has royalty in her blood – Lord Calvert. 

Lord Calvert was George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore (1580-1632) whose name was used on two products sold in 1949: Lord Calvert Coffee (made by Leverings) and Lord Calvert Canadian Whiskey. Liz might mean either! 

Dr. Stephenson has invited them all to dinner tomorrow night and George says they are going not matter what!

Before they go to dinner, Mother Cooper tells Liz to be sure to conduct herself correctly. Liz is resentful of her condescending attitude, but Mother Cooper says Liz can always learn something from someone like her who has a tremendous background. 

LIZ: “Well, just stay on that diet and it will go away!” 

Mother Cooper is sure Liz will ruin everything so Liz refuses to go. George isn’t pleased, but when she hears Mother Cooper may marry Doctor Stephenson, so she changes her mind. She confides in Katie she must break up the romance so that her mother-in-law doesn’t marry and move to town!  She decides to do everything wrong!

When they arrive at the Doctor’s for dinner, Liz suddenly adopts the attitude, jargon, and voice of a Brooklyn floozy!  

Lucille Ball adopted this same voice and demeanor in “Lucy Wants to Move to the Country” (ILL S6;E15) in order to appear undesirable to the owners of the Connecticut house, one of whom is played by Eleanor Audley, who, coincidentally, played Mother Cooper in two previous episodes of “My Favorite Husband”! 

Liz calls the Doctor ‘sawbones’, Mother Cooper ‘grandma’, and then asks the Doctor to look at her throat! 

DOCTOR: “Mrs. Cooper, would you take my arm for dinner.”
LIZ: “Sure, but I’d rather have a steak!” 

MOTHER (to Liz): “Ill sit on your left hand and George will sit on your right hand.”
LIZ: “How’ll I eat? Out of a nose bag?”

Liz is concerned that the lamb the maid is green. Is it spoiled?  Mother Cooper says it is mint jelly. 

MOTHER: “Take it on the lamb.”
LIZ: “Why, is the joint being raided?”

Mother Cooper is appalled at Liz’s behavior, but Dr. Stephenson is delighted!  He’s from Brooklyn himself!  He’s happy to be marrying into such a down-to-earth family!

LIZ: “Oh, no!”

In the bedtime tag, Liz and George are happy that his mother has left and life has returned to normal. Just then, the doorbell rings. Katie answers it an announces that they have another house guest – Liz’s Mother!  

End of Episode

The Announcer reminds listeners that Lucille Ball will soon be seen in the Paramount Picture Sorrowful Jones.