A Guide To I Love Lucy
But even though Lucy was dropped from consideration on the TV show, she still thought that a TV series starring her and Desi would save their marriage. But first they had to have to convince the American public to accept them as a couple. So they put together a vaudeville act, and toured with it across America.
The act was billed as "Desi Arnaz and his Band with Lucille Ball". It was a 20-minute long series of slapstick routines about a movie star who is married to a bandleader. She tries to join her husband's act. At one point, Lucy dressed up as a character called the "Professor", a Red Skelton-type dressed in an oversized tail coat and a crushed hat. She came running up the aisle, seeking an audition with the band. She would bring out a cello, and cause comedy as she tried to play it. Desi would bring out a group of horns, similar to those that seals play in circuses, and asks the Professor to play them. Lucy imitated a seal, flipping her tails and overlong sleeves and waddling on her stomach, and played them. For the finale, Lucy and Desi would perform the song "Cuban Pete".
The act opened at the Paramount Theater in Chicago on June 2, 1950, to excellent reviews. On June 9, they opened at the famous Roxy Theater in New York City, and played there for two weeks. Then after a few days of rest, they played at the Paramount Hotel in Buffalo, New York, from June 30 to July 3. On July 6, they played the Riverside Theater in Milwaukee. During all this time, their act was a critical and financial success.
But the tour was interrupted in July, when Lucy found out that she was pregnant. She had been pregnant once before, in 1941, and she had miscarried. Now she was pregnant again, but in late July she miscarried again. Then in late October, Lucy found that she was pregnant again, and this time she was determined not to lose the baby. She cancelled all of her engagements, except for the radio version of "My Favorite Husband", which she could still do.
The Arnazes' agent, Don Sharpe, tried to convince CBS to make a pilot film for a proposed series starring Lucy and Desi. The head of CBS, William S. Paley, was still reluctant. Despite the successful road show, he still thought that it wouldn't work, and he refused to finance a pilot film.
Then the ad agency for General Foods (the sponsor for "My Favorite Husband") suggested an idea to Lucy: "Make your own pilot film. That way, you'll own it and you can negotiate with anybody and not be under a network's employ. So the Arnazes asked CBS "If we made the pilot film ourselves, could we get air time?" CBS said okay.
Everybody warned Lucy and Desi that they were committing career suicide. In 1950, television was still an infant medium that was just catching on. Some people said that television was a great new medium that would replace radio. Other people said that it was a cheap imitation of the movies, and that it was very low quality. Television was seen as the "bottom of the barrel" for the acting profession. Movies were seen in the highest regard for actors, and even Broadway was considered a safer bet than television. And while television was putting radio programs out of business, it still had an image of being the "bottom of the barrel". Lucy had highly paid movie commitments, and Desi was doing well with his band. If they stopped these commitments, and tried TV, they were going for broke. But Lucy felt that it was either working together, or good-bye marriage.
Desi's band had been booked into Ciro's, a nightclub on the Sunset Strip in Hollywood. He also had just debuted in his own radio series, "Your Tropical Trip", a combination variety and game show. And who knows what movie producers had next for Lucy? But Desi cancelled his band booking and his radio show, and Lucy left the movie business, and they threw away an estimated $500,000 that they might have made.
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