THE PASSPORTS

March 3, 1951

“The Passports” (aka “Passport Trouble”) is episode #121 of the radio series MY FAVORITE HUSBAND broadcast on March 3, 1951.

Synopsis ~ 

Liz is all set to get her passport and join George on a trip to Paris, until she discovers that the Hall of Records has no record of her birth!

Note: This program was a basis for the “I Love Lucy” episode “The Passports” (ILL S5;E11) filmed on November 17, 1955 and first aired on December 19, 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 / Long Distance Operator) 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.

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.

Ruth Perrott (Katie, the Maid) does not appear in this episode. 

GUEST CAST

Sarah Selby (Mrs. Elliott, Liz’s Mother) started as a radio actress and made her screen debut voicing Prissy the Elephant in Walt Disney’s Dumbo (1941). When “My Favorite Husband” transferred to television (without Ball, who was then two years into “I Love Lucy”), Selby appeared in an episode as a maid (above right). She also appeared on “I Love Lucy” as Dorothy Cook in “The Matchmaker” (ILL S4;E4) – the trapped ‘fly’ to Sam Carter’s ‘spider’. She is perhaps best known for her recurring role as a storekeeper on TV’s “Gunsmoke” from 1961 to 1972.

Although her first name is not stated here, in the past it has been both Adele and Louise. 

Jerry Hausner (Hall of Records Clerk) was a radio and television actor, best known as Ricky Ricardo’s agent in “I Love Lucy” and as the voice of Waldo in “Mr. Magoo” and several characters such as Hemlock Holmes, The Mole, Broodles and Itchy in “The Dick Tracy Show.”  On Broadway, Hausner had the role of Sammy Schmaltz in Queer People (1934). On radio, he was a regular on such shows as “Blondie”, “The Jim Backus Show”, “The Judy Canova Show”, “Too Many Cooks”, and “Young Love”. Hausner died of heart failure on April 1, 1993. He was 83 years old.

EPISODE

ANNOUNCER: “As we look in on the Coopers  tonight, they are at the Atterbury’s. Dinner is over and Iris and Liz are upstairs powdering their noses.”

Liz and Iris get dreamy about visiting gay Paree and Liz starts spouting French, which Iris pretends to understand. Rudolph calls Iris “Mademoiselle From Sheridan Falls”. Iris admits she doesn’t understand French and Liz doesn’t even know what she said! 

“Mademoiselle from Sheridan Falls” is a joke based on the song “Mademoiselle from Armentières” (aka “Hinky-Dinky Parlez-Vous”), a song sung by soldiers during World War One. On “I Love Lucy” it was heard in “The French Revue” (ILL S3;E7), “Equal Rights” (ILL S3;E4), “Paris at Last” (ILL S5;E18) and again in “The Passports” (ILL S5;E11),  on which this radio show was based

The boys say that the reason they cannot take them is because of the expense account only allows for two. Liz reasons those two should be her and Iris! The husbands give in and agree to take them along. George tells them the first step is to get their passports. Liz and Iris say they don’t have a birth certificate, the proof needed to obtain a passport. George says the Hall of Records may have duplicates. Liz says they will go down there first thing in the morning – half an hour apart so neither one learns the other’s age! 

Next morning at the Hall of Records, Iris is first to retrieve her birth certificate and shows it to Liz:

LIZ (reads): “Iris Ditbenner, born May twelfth, nineteen thumbnail.”  

The surname ‘Ditbenner’ will be repeated in “Kim Cuts You-Know-Whose Apron Strings” (HL S4;E24) in 1972, more than 20 years later! Both episodes were written by Bob Weiskopf and Madelyn Davis. In real-life, Bea Benaderet was born on April 4, 1906.  

LIZ: “You get around pretty well for a woman of your age.”

To even the score, Iris insists they both go in together to get hers. 

In the office, Liz gives her name to the Clerk (Jerry Hausner). 

LIZ: “Elizabeth Cooper…I mean Elliott.  I wasn’t married when I was born.” 

He wants to know what year she was born. Liz whispers it in his ear. The clerk says there’s no record of an Elizabeth Elliott being born in 1917, although there was a Ralph Elliott. Iris knows that Liz’s mother is absentminded, and and wonders if she wrote Ralph and meant Elizabeth. The clerk looks again but returns empty-handed.  There is no record of her birth.  

The first name ‘Ralph’ was later assigned to the Ricardos’ Westport neighbor and also given to Vivian Bagley’s unseen husband on “The Lucy Show.” 

CLERK: “I’ve checked and double checked. There 579,432 names in my file and I have never lost a baby!  Good day!” 

TRIVIA:  There are several tidbits of information revealed here, in the the last episodes of the series: Liz was born in 1917, meaning she was 34 years old at the time, six years younger than Lucille Ball. Iris calls Liz’s mother absentminded, a trait that also was ascribed to Liz herself and held true for Lucy Ricardo’s mother on “I Love Lucy”. The population of fictional Sheridan Falls as of March 3, 1951 was 579,432 (not including Liz)! 

Weeping, Liz says that this can only mean one thing: she’s never been born!

End of Part One

ANNOUNCER: “As we look in on the Coopers once again they are getting ready to take a trip to Paris and Liz, who is trying to get a passport, has just found out there isn’t any  record of her birth!” 

Liz is upset as she tells George about her predicament. If she’s never been born they’ve never been married. George teases her saying he has always had his eye on the blonde secretary at the bank. As she starts to tear up, he tells her the simple solution: call her mother and get a notarized statement about where and when she was born. After George cracks a few jokes about her mother being a bit ‘squirrelly’, she picks up the phone to call long distance: Smithfield-493J.

TRIVIA: There are 20 locations in the USA named Smithfield. Using a letter in the final digit of a phone number was rare, but ‘J’ would represent ‘5′ on a rotary telephone. As per usual with Lucille Ball, Liz’s father remains unnamed and barely mentioned. 

Mrs. Elliott picks up the phone but even after a few moments of conversation with Liz calling her ‘mother’, she wants to know “Who is this?” George was right – squirrelly!  Liz tells her that George is taking her to Paris. Mrs. Elliott is glad George has stopped being such a tightwad. Liz asks about her birth. Mother recalls that she married Liz’s father in 1912 – so it must have been some time after that.

MOTHER: “I remember we were in Cedar Rapids when something was born. Which one are you?”  
LIZ: “I’m Liz!” 
MOTHER: “Oh, then that must have been Bill. He was a boy.”
LIZ: “I’m the redheaded one.”
MOTHER: “None of my children had red hair!”
LIZ: “Alright, mousey brown!”

Liz tells her that she needs to write an affidavit stating that she was born – in 1923. After all, as long she has her choice of birthdates why not legally be the age she’s been socially for the last six years. Mother reasons that if Liz is six years younger, then she must be too! Mother promises to sign the affidavit, have it notarized, and mail it to the Sheridan Falls Hall of Records. 

A few days later, the Atterburys and the Coopers have had their passport photos taken and are at the Hall of Records to get their passports. Iris admits that Liz looks a little ‘haunted’ in her photo. 

LIZ: “Haunted? I look wanted!” 

There are actually 23 locations named ‘Paris’ in the United States, including Illinois. Actress Barbara Stewart, who did many television shows for Desilu, was born there.

End of Part Two

LUCILLE BALL: “Bob LeMond!  Oh, Bob LeMond!” 

The live Jell-O commercial is set in a courtroom. Gale Gordon plays a judge,  Bob LeMond the defendant, and Lucille Ball is his lawyer. LeMond claims amnesia when he stole a million dollars – he passed up a box of Jell-O.  Lucille claims insanity!  

Newspaper ad from March 3, 1951, the date this episode aired.