THAT NEVER HAPPENED!

February 28, 1934-1954

~FEBRUARY 28, 1938~

When the film started filming on August 8, 1938, Lucille Ball was not on the call sheet. Her supporting role had been taken by Frances Mercer, who would be in Ball’s next RKO film, Annabel Takes A Tour, later in 1938.

The leads, too, were not as promised. Hepburn and Fairbanks were replaced by Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda.

~FEBRUARY 29, 1949~

Alas, it remained just talk. No film pairing of Gable and Ball ever materialized, although he remained a favorite of Lucys Ricardo, Carmichael, and Carter.

The closest Ball got to “giving out with the kind of dialog Jean Harlow used to” was when she took on the role of Kitty Packard on the 1940 radio production of Dinner at Eight, played by Harlow in the 1933 film version.  Harlow died in 1937 at the tragic age of 26, so the item was likely a sentimental one.

~FEBRUARY 29, 1949~

Twentieth Century is a 1932 play by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur (The Front Page) based on the unproduced play Napoleon of Broadway by Charles B. Millholland, inspired by his experience working for the eccentric Broadway impresario David Belasco.  The play was filmed in 1933 starring Lucille Ball’s friend Carole Lombard in the role that Lucy is rumored for here.  Arlen and Harburg had written the music for the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, including the break-out hit “Over the Rainbow”, but there is no record of them writing a musicalization of Twentieth Century, nor was a production of the play with Ball ever staged.  After Dream Girl in 1947, Ball would not appear on stage again until 1960 in Wildcat.

In 1978, however, Cy Coleman, Betty Comden and Adolph Green created the stage musical, On the Twentieth Century, based on the film and the original play. It ran on Broadway for 460 performances, and was revived on in February 2015.  Coincidentally, the musical first starred Madeline Kahn, who, in 1973, was announced to play Agnes Gooch in Lucy’s film musical Mame, but was replaced before filming by Jane Connell.  The original cast also included another wacky redheaded television comedienne of the 1950s – Imogene Coca!

~FEBRUARY 28, 1954~

This Associated Press (AP) story by Wayne Oliver gets a lot of its predictions right, but some missed the mark.

“I Love Lucy” did run three more seasons, as predicted (not counting the hour-long specials), but when all was said and done, the total did not quite hit 200. They produced 179 half-hour episodes of “I Love Lucy,” not counting the pilot and the “Christmas Special”.  It also does not include filming of flashback intros, which were generally less than a few minutes.

Unfortunately, despite best intentions, no episodes of “I Love Lucy” (or the hour-long specials) were ever filmed in color.  Desi was being extremely optimistic in his speculation that color would be in wide use inside three years (1957).  In fact, it took more than ten years until color was common on CBS.  The network was reluctant to use the same color technology developed by their rival, RCA / NBC and was seeking to create their own.

While Spring Byington’s “December Bride” was a hit for Desilu, the pilot starring Charles Coburn based on material by A.J. Cronin, was not.  It was titled “Country Doctor” and featured Joseph Kearns alongside Coburn. It went unsold and unaired.

A bit of an ambitious, though logical expectation, based on the average output of seasons 1-3.  Season 4, however, only produced 30 new half-hours; Season 5 merely 26; and season 6 just 27.