SEEIN’ STARS!

July 23, 1938

“Feg” Murray was an American athlete, radio host and Olympic medalist who was also active as a sports cartoonist. His best known feature was the Seein’ Stars column (1933-1951), which featured trivia and news about Hollywood stars and their latest pictures.

Lucille Ball previously appeared in Feg Murray’s Seein’ Stars on August 14, 1936.  

Lucille Ball also appeared in Seein’ Stars on August 25, 1940. Because it was a Sunday, the strip was in color.  He depicted her in her hula skirt from Dance, Girl, Dance, with the interesting fact that she had to have guards with fire extinguishers standing by due to the fact it was highly flammable! 

On February 1, 1942, Feg commented in art about how long it took Ball to get into costume for the period film Valley of the Sun.

On October 4, 1942, her costumes were once again the subject of Feg’s pen. Her feathered dress in The Big Street took six workers eight hours a day for a week to create! 

On January 10, 1943, he wrote about how Lucille Ball’s use of a wheelchair in The Big Street mirrored real-life, claiming she spent three and a half years in a wheelchair after an automobile accident at age 17. 

What Feg doesn’t say, however, is that Ball had a stuntwoman to do most of the physical sequences. 

Lucille Ball learning jui-jitsu for The Affairs of Annabel would not be the last time she learned martial arts for a performance.  

In 1963, Ball learned Judo for an episode of “The Lucy Show.” 

Judo is a Japanese grappling sport derived from jujitsu while karate is primarily a striking unarmed martial art. Judo, however, is used primarily as a sport, while karate can be used practically for combat. In Louis Coppola’s book, he notes that the reason the writers titled the episode “Lucy and Viv Learn Judo” instead of “Lucy and Viv Learn Karate” was so ‘karate’ wouldn’t be confused with carrots, diamonds, or the carotid artery!  For the episode, Ball employed professional martial artists to teach her, and to be on screen in the episode. 

In “A Home Is Not An Office” (HL S5;E4), temp secretary Miss Quigley (Susan Tolsky) tells Harry that at secretarial school she learned typing, shorthand, and karate!  She demonstrates a few moves, much to the surprise of Kim and Harry.

in “Kim Cuts You-Know-Whose Apron String” (HL S4;E24), the episode was centered around Kim and her neighbor Sue Ann learning self-defense from a book. The authors of the real-life book were the show’s technical advisors!