ARBOR DAY

Trees of the Lucyverse!

“I think that I shall never see

A poem lovely as a tree.” ~ Joyce Kilmer

(Everything Except Christmas Trees.)

“The Marriage License” (1952) ~ To correct an error on their original marriage license, Lucy and Ricky travel to Greenwhich, Connecticut to renew their vows. While there, Lucy makes Ricky renact his proposal at the tree bench where it first happened.  

LUCY: “Gee. I don’t remember this seat being so small, do you? I guess the tree grew in a little from each side.” 

RICKY: “Let’s face it, we’ve grown out a little from each side!”

“The Camping Trip” (1953) ~ Lucy wants to do everything Ricky does – including going on a camping trip to go fishing and duck hunting. To make sure she bests Ricky in hunting and fishing, Ethel tags along out of sight, hiding up a tree to make sure Lucy is a sure shot!  

LUCY: “These look like pretty good duck trees to me.”

RICKY: “This might come as a surprise to you, Lucy, but you find ducks on the water, not up in the trees.”

Later, Ricky spies Ethel in the branches. 

RICKY: “Ethel, you get out of that tree!”

“Lucy’s Last Birthday” (1952) ~ When the Friends of the Friendless marches through the park, a low-hanging tree branch snags Barbara Pepper’s hat knocking it to the ground. Pepper continues the scene hatless and (for consistency) also appears hatless in the next scene inside the Tropicana. 

“Lucy Writes a Play” (1952) ~ The title of Lucy’s first script is “A Tree Grows in Havana”, a pun on “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” a book and a film in the mid-40’s. There was even a Broadway musical of the same title starring Shirley Booth that closed two weeks before the episode filmed.

“Lucy Hires an English Tutor” (1952) ~ Ricky demonstrates his English skills by reading aloud from a children’s book. 

RICKY: “He spent his time in the forest cutting down booges from the trees.”

LUCY: “Wait a minute. Wait  just a minute. What is this booges?“

RICKY: (points to text)“Booges, right in there.”

LUCY:“That’s boughs.”

RICKY: “B-O-U-G-H is bough?”

LUCY: “Right.”

RICKY: “Bough.”

“Lucy is Enceinte” (1952) 

“We’re having a baby, my baby and me.

You’ll read it in Winchell’s

That we’re adding a limb to our family tree!”

“First Stop” (1955) ~ On the way to Hollywood, the gang has no choice but to stay at the run-down One Oak Cabins.  

• In “Lucy and the Stolen Stole” (1964), con-man Harry Barton (Buddy Hackett) lives on Old Oak Drive in San Fernando. 
• In Danfield, Hoffstedder’s Drugstore is located on Oak Street.
• When “Lucy is a Process Server” (1964), she is hired by a new employment agency located on Oak Street.

“Ethel’s Hometown” (1955) ~ To upstage Ethel on her ego trip homecoming, Fred performs an old vaudeville routine involving a rapidly growing tree! 

“The Tour” (1955) ~ Lucy scales a wall of the Richard Widmark estate to pick a souvenir grapefruit from his tree – then gets caught on the other side. 

“LIttle Ricky’s School Pageant” (1956) ~ Big Ricky’s role in “The Enchanted Forest” is to play a Hollow Tree.  

RICKY: “The only father in the whole school that is in show business, and they want me to play a hollow tree.”

LITTLE RICKY: “Why don’t you want to be a tree?”

RICKY: “Oh. Well, I’m a performer. I’ve been in show business since I was a…”

LITTLE RICKY: “I think you should be a tree. It’s more fun to cooperate than to be the center of attention.”

RICKY: “You’re absolutely right. I’ll be a tree.”

LITTLE RICKY: “Oh, boy! Daddy’s gonna be a tree! Daddy’s gonna be a tree!”

“The Ricardos Dedicate a Statue” (1957) ~ While seraching for Fred the dog, Lucy decapitates the statue by not looking in the rear view mirror!

LUCY: “I jumped in the car and forgot all about the trailer and backed right into that elm tree.”

Danfield’s Elm Tree Inn was mentioned in several episodes of “The Lucy Show”: “Chris’s New Year’s Eve Party” (1962),  “Lucy Teaches Ethel Merman to Sing” (1964), and “Viv Moves Out” (1964).  

• In “Lucy and Bob Crane” (1966), Crane says he owns a home on 993 Elm in Beverly Hills.  
• In Danfield, Mr. Mooney’s home is located at 429 Elm Street.

Rescuing Grandma Sutton’s cat from up a tree is the first call of the Danfield Volunteer Women’s Fire Brigade in “Lucy and Viv Are Volunteer Firemen” (1963). The incident is mentioned again in “Lucy Drives A Dump Truck” (1963). 

“Chris Goes Steady” (1964) ~ Lucy Carmichael and Mr. Mooney are stranded in a Jerry and Sherman’s tree house hoping to catch their kids eloping. They didn’t count on a snowstorm while they waited.     

“Lucy the Rain Goddess” (1966) ~ At a dude ranch, Lucy and Viv listen to a guide Tex Critter (Willard Waterman) explain the local foliage. 

TEX: “Now… this is a Joshua tree, and there’s a real romantic story behind it. You know all about the birds and the bees. Well, this is a love triangle between two Joshua trees and a little bee called the Joshua Tree Bee. See, the Joshua trees depend on this little bee to carry the pollen from one to the other. You know, it makes me feel poetic. Where would the Joshua tree be without the Joshua Tree Bee?”

“Lucy and Curtis Are Up A Tree” (1986) ~ In this unaired episode of “Life With Lucy,” Curtis is building a tree house for Kevin. When Kevin overhears his grandparents are planning to move out, he removes the ladder to the tree house stranding them in a rain storm.

The Arnaz-Morton family poses between the boughs of a tree (1965).

A plaque has been placed at the base of two tall palm trees where The Long, Long Trailer was filmed in 1954. A resort is now on the site where the trailer park was located in the film.