July 10, 1987
By CAROL HOWARD News-Review staff writer
Hans Borger loves Lucy.
Lucille Ball, that is.
The 23-year-old Petoskey man, who wasn’t even around for Lucy’s golden era during the 1950s, collects books, record albums, videocassette tapes, photos, T-shirts and mugs, all dedicated to his beloved Lucy.
For any cave dwellers out there who may not know of whom we speak, Lucille Ball is one of the best known comediennes in America. Along with her husband, the late Desi Arnaz, the two reigned as queen and king of comedy on their outrageously successful television show, “I Love Lucy,” during the 1950s. The show also made stars of Vivian Vance and William Frawley who played Lucy and Desi’s landlords, Ethel and Fred Mertz.
After she divorced Arnaz in 1960, Lucy went on to star in her own sitcoms, “The Lucy Show” and “Here’s Lucy” in the 1960s and 1970s.
Borger, who is news director at WMBM, a Petoskey radio station, said his love for the zany redhead goes back to his after-school days.
“When I was a kid, I’d come home from school and watch reruns,” Borger said. “Shows like "Lucy” and the “Brady Bunch.’"
But he didn’t start collecting Florence Henderson memorabilia, he chose Lucy. It must have been the storylines, he said.
"You can watch it (the show) over and over and still find it funny,” he said. “Somehow you know everything’s going to turn out all right in the end. And you go away with a smile when the show is over. You can’t say that with very many other programs."
"The chemistry among the four (actors) was something that made the show the hit that it was,” Borger said. "And, as Lucy says, they were lucky.”
Borger turns up his nose at current comedy programs.
“In the 1980s they try and make comedy shows about things like AIDS. That doesn’t seem very comical."
Borger also admits, because of Lucy, he loves things from the 1940s and 1950s.
"It kind of influenced my whole way of thinking,” he said. “I love the music of (that era). I kind of live in the past."
When Borger has time off, he says he’ll kick back and watch an old Lucy episode or one of her game show appearances on his videocassette recorder. It’s still a daily routine, he said.
If Borger gets tired of watching Lucy, he can read about her in the Lucy library he has accumulated.
He has a dozen or more books about her life. (She’s 75 now). He gets newsletters from the "We Love Lucy” fan club, where he’s maintained membership for the past 10 years. He keeps up scrapbooks with Lucy newspaper clippings and magazine articles.
He makes no bones about his devotion: “I could talk about this forever,” he said.
He’s never met Lucy in person, but he did meet Desi Arnaz near Detroit in 1976 during an autograph session.
“He was signing his autobiography. There he was with a glass of beer and a big, fat cigar,” Borger said.
Borger said a controversial topic under discussion among Lucy fans and anyone interested in television history is whether or not the 179 “I Love Lucy” episodes will be colorized. (1)
“I feel it would be great,” Borger said. “(I think) if Desi could have filmed them in color, he would have."
Hmmm, that means Lucy’s red hair would be red.
There’s also an all-points-bulletin out for the "lost” pilot episode of “I Love Lucy,” Borger said. Borger’s read about it and knows why it’s a hot item. (2)
“For one thing, there were no Mertzes,” he said. “And it wasn’t Ricky and Lucy Ricardo, it was Larry and Lucy Lopez. But they found out there was already a bandleader named Lopez so they had to change the name."
Does Borger have some favorite episodes? "Oh, just like everybody else, I like the Vitameatavegamin show (where Lucy films a commercial for an alcohol-laced tonic until she gets drunk),” Borger said. “And the one called "Sentimental Anniversary” where wind up celebrating their anniversary in their closet. And the one where Lucy tells Ricky she’s going to have a baby.“
Borger said he plans to keep on collecting all he can about Lucy. "As long as I have the money."
And what if she shows up again on the tube? Will Borger give her another try?
"If she was just standing there, doing nothing, I’d watch it,” he said. “If you are a diehard fan, that’s just the way it goes."
Lucy and Ricky Lucy Quiz
So you claim to be an "I Love Lucy” fan? Here’s a test to just see how much you really know (answers at end of test):
1. What is Lucy Ricardo’s maiden name?
2. When Lucy, Ricky, Fred and Ethel go to Hollywood, for whom does Lucy disguise herself with a long, putty nose?
3. Where was Ethel Mertz born? (Hint: it’s in New Mexico.)
4. Name the movie Ricky supposedly contracted to film in Hollywood.
5. One day a group called “The Friends of the Friendless” consoled Lucy in a park. Why was Lucy upset?
6. What day of the week does Lucy and Ethel’s women’s club, the Wednesday Afternoon Fine Arts League, meet?
7. In the famous candy-making episode, what unusual gifts do Ricky and Fred buy their wives after the two women are fired?
8. What musical instrument could Little Ricky play?
9. What is Lucy Ricardo’s middle name?
10. What was the plot of the first episode aired?
ANSWERS: 1. MacGillicuddy; 2. William Holden; 3. Albuquerque; 4. Don Juan; 5. No one remembered her birthday; 6. Friday; 7. 5 pound boxes of candy; 8. Drums; 9. Esmeralda; 10. Lucy thinks Ricky is planning to murder her.
From “The ‘I Love Lucy’ Quiz Book” by Bart Andrews.
# # #
FOOTNOTES FROM THE FUTURE
(1) In the early 1980s, the Museum of Broadcasting (now the Paley Center for Media) began actively searching for the long-lost “I Love Lucy” pilot. During the 1970s all traces of the pilot had disappeared; not even Desi Arnaz or Lucille Ball owned or knew where to find a copy. In December 1989, a film print was found in the possessions of the late Pepito Perez, who had appeared in the pilot as a clown. Pepito’s widow, Joanne Perez, had read about the search for the pilot in TV Guide and recalled that her husband had been given a copy. CBS aired the pilot as an hour-long special hosted by Lucie Arnaz on Monday (the same day of the week “I Love Lucy” traditionally aired), April 30, 1990. Over 30 million viewers tuned in.
(2) “The ‘I Love Lucy’ Christmas Show” was the first episode CBS aired colorized on December 18, 1989. The ‘wraparound’ segments (the non-flashback parts) were broadcast in the original black and white, but were also colorized starting in 1990. Currently, in addition to the Christmas episode, there are 14 fully-colorized “I Love Lucy” episodes (out of 179):
- “Lucy Does A TV Commercial”
- “L.A. at Last!”
- “Lucy and Superman”
- “Job Switching”
- “The Million Dollar Idea”
- “The Fashion Show”
- “Lucy and Harpo Marx”
- “Pioneer Women”
- “Lucy’s Italian Movie”
- “Lucy Visits Grauman’s”
- “Lucy Gets Into Pictures”
- “Lucy Goes To Scotland”
- “Bonus Bucks”
- “The Dancing Star”
A DVD was released featuring 11 of the colorized episodes, five of which were screened in movie theatres nationwide prior to the DVD release.
In January 2008, Hans Borger self-published his autobiography “The Little Grownup: A Nostalgic Michigan Boyhood”.
Papermoon Loves Lucy 
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