FANCY PANTS on LUX RADIO THEATRE

September 10, 1950

Lux Radio Theatre (1935-55) was a radio anthology series that adapted Broadway plays during its first two seasons before it began adapting films (”Lux Presents Hollywood”). These hour-long radio programs were performed live before studio audiences in Los Angeles. The series became the most popular dramatic anthology series on radio, broadcast for more than 20 years and continued on television as the Lux Video Theatre through most of the 1950s. The primary sponsor of the show was Unilever through its Lux Soap brand.

Fancy Pants was broadcast live from Hollywood on CBS Radio in front of a live audience.

Produced and Hosted by William Keighley

Written by Edmund Hartman, who also wrote the screenplay

Libby Collins is billed as a “Hollywood Reporter” during the Act One commecial break and Joan Taylor is guest for the Act Two commerical break.

THE CAST

Lucille Ball (Agatha Floud, American Debutante) 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 April 1989, Lucy made one more attempt at a sitcom with “Life With Lucy,” also with Gordon, which was not a success and was canceled after just 13 episodes. She died on April 26, 1989 at the age of 77.

Bob Hope (Mr. Arthur Tyler / ‘Humphrey’ aka ‘Oliver Grimes’ aka ‘Fancy Pants’) was born Lesley Townes Hope in England in 1903. During his extensive career in virtually all forms of media he received five honorary Academy Awards. In 1945, Desi Arnaz was the orchestra leader on Bob Hope’s radio show. Ball and Hope did three other films together. He appeared as himself on the season 6 opener of “I Love Lucy.” He did a brief cameo in a 1964 episode of “The Lucy Show.”  He died in 2003 at age 100.

Norma Varden (Gwendolyn Fairmore / ‘Lady Maude Brinstead’) is probably best known for playing Frau Schmidt, the somewhat circumspect housekeeper at the Von Trapp mansion in 1965′s The Sound Of Music. Lucy fans will remember her as weepy Mrs. Benson, who Lucy Ricardo convinces to swap apartments in “The Ricardos Change Apartments” (ILL S2;E26) in 1953. The London-born actress turned up on an episode of “The Lucy Show”.

Gail Bonney was seen in two 1950 films featuring Lucille Ball.  In March 1950, she played an uncredited bicyclist in A Woman of Distinction in which Lucille Ball had a cameo as herself. In September 1950, Bonney was seen in the Lucille Ball film The Fuller Brush Girl. Two years later, Gail Bonney played Mrs. Hudson in “The Amateur Hour,” (ILL S1;E14) hiring Lucy Ricardo to babysit her twin boys. She returned to do a 1965 episode of “The Lucy Show” titled “Lucy and The Ceramic Cat” (TLS S3;E16). Bonney’s final appearance on a Lucy sitcom was in a 1968 episode of “Here’s Lucy” titled “Lucy and Eva Gabor” (HL S1;E7).

Also featuring: Constance Cavendish (Effie Floud), Charlie Lung, Edwin Max, Robert O, and Dan O’Herlihy.

Fancy Pants is a 1950 American romantic comedy western film directed by George Marshall and starring Bob Hope and Lucille Ball. It is a musical adaptation of Ruggles of Red Gap. The Paramount film premiered on July 19, 1950.

Synopsis: In 1905, an American actor (Arthur Tyler) impersonating an English butler named Humphry is hired by a nouveau riche woman (Effie Floud) from New Mexico to refine her husband and her headstrong daughter (Aggie). Complications ensue when the town believes Arthur to be an Earl, and President Roosevelt decides to pay a visit. 

Music: The Fancy Pants theme by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans is used at the broadcast’s act openings. Although in the film Lucille Ball’s vocals were dubbed by Annette Warren, here Ball does her own singing of the title tune.

As in the film, Bob Hope sings “Home Cookin’” by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans.

Exit music is from “Round-up on the Prairie” by Aaron Kenny.

FANCY TRIVIA

Bob Hope tended to ad-lib dialogue, sometimes based on current events or his whim. These ‘mentions’ by Hope may have been unscripted. It is often difficult to determine if it is Bob Hope, Humphrey the butler, or actor Arthur Tyler speaking. Most of the references are anachronistic as the action takes place in 1905.

THEODORE ‘TEDDY’ ROOSEVELT ~ was the 26th President of the United States from 1901 to 1909. The youngest man ever to be elected President at age 42, he was a statesman, conservationist, and soldier. The action of “Lucy Wins A Racehorse” (1958) is set at the now defunct Roosevelt Raceway on Long Island. The raceway is named after the village of Roosevelt, which was named for him.

Bob Hope mentions Stopette, an underarm deodorant sold from 1941 until 1956. It was a longtime sponsor of the CBS game show “What’s My Line?”. Lucille Ball made six appearances on the show, one alongside Bob Hope. Time Magazine called Stopette “the best-selling deodorant of the early 1950s”

After a joke about being pelted with tomatoes, Bob Hope mentions Red Skelton, a comic actor who appeared with him in 17 film and television projects, six of which also included Lucille Ball. Skelton appeared as himself on “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour” in 1959.

Hope mentions Jergens Lotion, a product marketed by the Andrew Jergens Company, founded in 1882 in Cincinatti, Ohio.

Bing Crosby is winkingly mentioned by Bob Hope. Hope and Crosby were screen partners, filming seven ‘Road’ pictures between 1940 and 1962.

The Act One commercial for bath size Lux Soap refers to the RKO film His Kind of Woman, starring Robert Mitchum and Jane Russell, who is said to be a Lux girl. The film is set in Mexico and produced by Howard Hughtes. The film wouldn’t be released for 11 months after the broadcast.

Telling a dramatic story, Bob Hope mentions Lipton Tea (“They cut off our Liptons!”). During the story, Hope starts to laugh and momentarily pauses before getting back on script. Historically, Thomas Lipton started selling tea in Scotland in 1871, his name eventually becoming synonymous with the product.

Talking about poor western hospitality, Hope mentions Spade Cooley, a musician and actor from Oklahoma who found success in Hollywood. Cooley was part Cherokee Indian. His biggest hit was “Shame On You”. Ten years after this broadcast, he was convicted of murdering his wife.

CART BELKNAP: “What happened to that big elephant you were riding?” HUMPHREY: “He’d gone to Washington to get ready for ’52.” (Hope ad libs after audience laughs) “I never dreamed of that!”

Hope is referring to the elephant that is the symbol of the Republican party. In 1950, it was expected that Democratic President Harry S. Truman would seek a third term. Truman had become President after the death of Franklin Roosevelt and then went on to win his first full term in 1948. In 1952, America would have had a Republican in the White House since 1933. As it turned out, Truman decided not to run in 1952, despite being exempt from term limit legistlation he himself signed into law. The winner was indeed a Republican, Dwight Eisenhower.

HUMPHREY: “Water! Water! Anything that’ll save my life! A packet of Chesterfields!” Hope was a spokesperson for the cigarette. The brand was manufactured by a subsidiary of Philip-Morris, the tobacco company that sponsored “I Love Lucy” in 1951. The studio audience laughs at this ad-lib.

HUMPHREY: “I’m no Earl. I’m not even Humphrey. I’m an Arthur Tyler, an actor: AFTRA, AGVA, and SAG. And paid up!”

Hope’s ad-lib refers to the performers unions American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA), American Guild of Variety Artists (AGVA), and the Screen Actors Guild (SAG). At the time of broadcast, Ronald Reagan was president of SAG. Recently, SAG and AFTRA merged to create SAG-ATRA. Needless to say, these labor unions did not exist in 1905.

During the second act commercial break, Joan Taylor and William Keighley mention Paramount’s Here Comes the Groom starring Jane Wyman and Alexis Smith, both said to be “Lux Lovely”. The Frank Capra film was released September 20, 1951 and won a 1952 Oscar for Best Song: “In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening.” Coincidentally, Gail Bonney, who is heard in this radiocast, appears uncredited as a telephone operator in the film.

After singing “Home Cookin’” with Ball, Hope quickly quips “Thank you, Margaret.“ In June 1950, Hope had joined songstress Margaret Whiting and the Starlighters to release a single of the song – sans Lucy. The mention of Margaret causes the studio audience to erupt in laughter, and the actress playing Effie has to say: “Listen! I’m talkin’ to you!”

HUMPHREY: “I’ve been practicing the royal sneer all morning. I’ll soon be getting fan mail from Basil Rathbone.”

Basil Rathbone was an actor best known for his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes in a series of films. In 1954, Hope and Rathbone starred together in the light comedy Casanova’s Big Night. Rathbone had previously guest starred on Hope’s 1941 radio show.

HUMPHREY: “The whole day on horseback! I may find a new place to put my Dr. Scholl’s foot pads!”

Dr. William Mathias Scholl was born on June 22, 1882 in La Porte, Indiana. He learned about foot care and shoes thanks to his grandfather, who was a shoemaker in Germany. He founded the Dr. Scholl’s company in 1906.

HUMPHREY: “Listen Aggie, I can’t ride a horse. I can’t even ride a jack ass. Even after all those road pictures we did together.”

Hope is making a snide joke about Bing Crosby, who (at that point) starred with him in five “Road To…” films, most with Dorothy Lamour. Two more would follow in 1952 and 1962.

After Act Three, Libby Collins and Mr. Keighley announce a contest to identify a mystery Hollywood Lux girl. They say that her first name is June. [It was later revealed to be June Allyson.]

At the conclusion of the story, Bob Hope and Lucille Ball are briefly interviewed by Mr. Keighley. Hope mentions a contest to win a world premiere of his next film, My Favorite Spy, in the listener’s hometown. The film premiered on Christmas Day 1952.

Keighley promotes next week’s Lux Radio Theatre, Sunset Boulevard, starring the original film stars Gloria Swanson and William Holden, and featuring Nancy Gates.

A final commercial suggests washing stockings in Lux.