July 13, 1949

Lucille Ball, who once told me that she like Harry Cohn too much to ever sign a contract with him, has eaten “them” words and signed a long-term deal with Columbia! The first movie the fire-alarm redhead will make is “Confessions of a Diaper Salesman" which, as you can guess, is an all-out comedy. (1)

Getting back to Lucille and Harry, she told me months ago when I interviewed her for the Sunday papers, "Harry Cohn and his wife are good friends of mine and I want to keep our friendship.” What Lucille meant is that Mons. Cohn has a reputation for being difficult. She didn’t want to be tied up with Columbia in case that happened. I suppose this contract will start rumors all over again that she is up for "Born Yesterday.” But I still think, when that movie rolls, that Lana Turner will be the star. (2)

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FOOTNOTES FROM THE FUTURE

(1) “Confessions of a Diaper Salesman” had appeared in the March 1949 issue of Fortune Magazine (p. 76) and was bought by Columbia Pictures.  It was reported in the April 6, 1949, Los Angeles Times (above) that Ball was to film it after “The Fuller Brush Girl”.  It was to be produced by Richard Berger with supervision by S. Sylvan Simon.  By January 1950 the project had disappeared from Columbia’s schedule and was never mentioned again. 

Later in the same column, it is reported that Lucille wanted Columbia to produce Leland Lawrence’s “The Promotion of Miss Pringle”.  This is another project that never came to be.  Interestingly, Little Ricky’s off-screen teacher was named Miss Pringle on “I Love Lucy.”

(2) “Born Yesterday” was a Broadway smash hit purchased by Columbia. Its star, Judy Holliday, swore she wasn’t interested in making the film (for various reasons), so the hunt was on for a star to play Billie Dawn. Naturally, Lucille Ball was named. Her former fiancé Broderick Crawford was to play the role of Harry Brock, created on stage by Ball’s “Lucy Wants a Career” co-star, Paul Douglas, who also was not interested in the film. There was even talk of Lucille stepping into the London production of the play or doing a stock production. When all was said and done, MGM refused to loan out Lana Turner to star, as Parsons predicted. Holliday changed her mind and played the role to great acclaim with the aforementioned S. Sylvan Simon producing, his last production before his untimely death at age 42.  

Also on July 13, 1949….

Lucille Ball and Edmond O’Brien have a well-developed plan for a package picture titled “The Gentleman and the Redhead,” written by actor O’Brien and his brother Liam, who was identified with “Chain Lightning,” starring Humphrey Bogart and Eleanor Parker, at Warner Bros. Their intention is to film the feature  entirely in New York before the end of the year. Its setting is the Empire State  Building and Miss Ball is to appear as a salesgirl at a cigar stand hired to feign great love for O’Brien. (1) The stars will probably undertake the film without a definite release, which is becoming increasingly the custom because the potential picture shortage affords a better market than ever before for completed productions. “The Gentleman and the Redhead” may Miss Ball’s starring subject “The Fuller Brush Girl” at Columbia. Also O’Brien may direct.  A “redhead” epidemic seems to be brewing because Metro has “The Reformer and the Redhead” for Lana Turner. (2)

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FOOTNOTES FROM THE FUTURE

(1) “The Gentleman and The Redhead” eventually became a period western titled “The Redhead and the Cowboy” filmed entirely in Arizona!  Although Edmond O’Brien starred (but did not write or direct), and his brother Liam was one of the writers, Lucille Ball did not play the redhead.  The role in the black and white oater went to Rhonda Fleming, while Lucy was busily creating “I Love Lucy” for television. The Paramount film opened in March 1951.  

(2) Like “Born Yesterday,” Lana Turner also did not star in “The Reformer and The Redhead.”  The 1950 MGM comedy instead starred June Allyson as the redhead, although again – the film was not in black and white! 

Red-Headed Woman (1932) starring Jean Harlowe

Redhead (1941) starring Dale Martin

July 8, 1954

Lucille Ball revealed today she and husband Desi Arnaz will break up their television series team in two years and work mainly behind the TV camera. 

The Arnaz’ eight million dollar contract with their sponsor will expire in the spring of 1956. Then the adventures of Lucy and Ricki Ricardo on CBS’ popular “I Love Lucy” will be retired, according to the carrot-topped comedienne. 

‘I’m not going to work forever,” she said. “I want to stay home and take care of my two children.” (1)

Lucy and Desi still may appear together, she added, “on one of those occasional one-hour variety shows in color.” (2) But they will not play the Ricardo characters. (3) 

Even now they are planning to split and do singles in theater movies if a good script for the two of them isn’t offered by Hollywood studios. (4)

After "I Love Lucy” ends, the Arnaz’ will continue to both produce and direct other TV shows. (5) Their company, Desilu Productions handles technical production of “I Love Lucy”, “Our Miss Brooks”, “The June Havoc Show”, “December Bride”, “Where’s Raymond” and “Make Room for Daddy.” (6)

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(1) Lucille’s idea of staying home and raising the children after 1956 didn’t last very long.  She found that she was the sort of person not happy unless she was working, and went from TV to Broadway back to TV again, where she mostly stayed for the rest of her career. 

(2) The “occasional one-hour variety shows” did indeed materialize: “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hours”, 13 shows over three seasons. They were presented as part the “Desilu Playhouse” series, which was first sponsored by Ford, then by Westinghouse.  Most all included celebrities and music, but none were in color.  CBS was still holding out hope they might develop their own color processing and broadcast technology, instead of using RCA’s, who owned their rival NBC. 

(3) Much to their chagrin, they did indeed play The Ricardos. The public wanted it, and the Arnaz’ complied. 

(4) Although Lucy and Desi did make two feature films during the run of “I Love Lucy” – The Long, Long Trailer and Forever, Darling – as a couple (basically playing variations on Lucy and Ricky), solo movie projects did not materialize.  

(5) Both Lucy and Desi were active as producers, but did not really direct very much. Lucille is only credited with directing one TV pilot for NBC “Bungle Abbey” which did not go to series. She is credited with co-directing one episode of “Here’s Lucy.”  Desi started directing toward the end of the “Lucy-Desi Comedy Hours” because they had alienated their usual directors.  He, like Lucy, directed one failed sitcom pilot, “The Carol Channing Show,” but then directed a handful of episodes of his series “The Mothers-in-Law”.  

(6) These were just a few of the projects that Desilu was involved in.  There were many more.  

• “Our Miss Brooks” (1952-56) starring Eve Arden, actually started on radio.  It shared many of Ball’s favorite performers, including Gale Gordon. 
• “The June Havoc Show” aka “Willy” (1954-55) was a sitcom about a female lawyer. It lasted just one season. 
• “December Bride” (1954-59) was probably Desilu’s most popular shows. Desi even guest-starred on it as himself. 
• “Where’s Raymond?” (1953-55) starring Ray Bolger, had him transforming into different characters through each girl’s imagination.  
• “Make Room for Daddy” aka “The Danny Thomas Show” (1953-65) was their longest-lasting hit, even spawning spin-offs.  When the series moved to CBS, “Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour” did reciprocal cross-over episodes with “Make Room for Daddy”.