Lucy Goes to Vegas
S3;E17~ January 18, 1965
Synopsis
When Lucy and Viv win an all-expenses paid trip to Las Vegas, they haven’t got any spending money, so Lucy decides to disguise herself as a wealthy heiress in order to get comped into the shows. When she’s pressed into gambling by a Texas oil tycoon, she makes a windfall for him – but not for herself.
Regular Cast
Lucille Ball (Lucy Carmichael), Vivian Vance (Vivian Bagley)
Gale Gordon (Theodore J. Mooney), Jimmy Garrett (Jerry Carmichael), Ralph Hart (Sherman Bagley) and Candy Moore (Chris Carmichael) do not appear in this episode.
Guest Cast
Jim Davis (Mr. Cardenas, below right) is probably best remembered for playing Jock Ewing on “Dallas” for which he was posthumously nominated for an Emmy Award in 1981. Most of his 179 screen credits were in Westerns. This is his only appearance opposite Lucille Ball.
The character may have been named for famous Las Vegas juggler / acrobat Rudy Cardenas, who worked with Lucy and Desi on the road.
Dick Winslow (Hotel Clerk, above left) appeared in the films Thousands Cheer (1940) and Easy To Wed (1943) with Lucille Ball. This is the first of his two appearances on the series. He also did two episodes of “Here’s Lucy.”
Robert S. Carson (Mr. Kelstrom, above right) was a busy Canadian-born character actor making the second of his six appearances on the series. He also made five appearances on “Here’s Lucy.”
Hollis Morrison (Chauffeur) made his screen debut as a Party Guest in Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961). This is his only appearance with Lucille Ball.
Gary Goldaper (Pit Boss, above left) was better known as Gary Morton or Mr. Lucille Ball. Goldaper was his birth name. He previously was billed under his professional name in “Lucy Takes Up Golf” (S2;E17). Before meeting and marrying Lucille Ball in 1961, he was a comedian who worked the famed ‘Borscht Belt’ in the Catskills Mountains. At her request, Morton gave up his nightclub career and became a producer of “The Lucy Show.” Morton also served as a warm-up comic for the show’s studio audience. In early episodes of the series, his loud guffaw can be heard on the laugh track. He will make two more appearances on the show as well as three appearances on “Here’s Lucy.” Morton passed away in 1999.
Sid Gould (Tourist at the Slot Machine) made more than 45 appearances on “The Lucy Show,” all as background characters. He also did 40 episodes of “Here’s Lucy.” Gould (born Sydney Greenfader) was Lucille Ball’s cousin by marriage to Gary Morton (born Gary Goldaper). Gould was married to Vanda Barra (aka Mrs. Sid Gould), who also appeared on “The Lucy Show” starting in 1967, as well as on “Here’s Lucy.”
Virginia Barbour (Waitress) only has two screen credits on her resume; this episode, and “Lucy’s Mother-in-Law” (ILL S4;E3) on “I Love Lucy”, where she played assistant to mind reader Professor Bonanova. She was married to Louis Nicoletti, who played a dealer in this episode.
Brenda Howard (Waitress) aka Breena Howard appeared with Lucille Ball in the 1963 film Critic’s Choice.
Howard has her back to the camera during her brief scene.
The casino dealers and croupiers are played by:
Jimmy Ames appeared with Lucille Ball in The Long, Long Trailer in 1953. This is his penultimate screen credit.
Louis A. Nicoletti was an integral part of the Desilu family working behind the scene and on screen on “I Love Lucy” and “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour.” This is the last of his three credited appearances on “The Lucy Show” but in 1966 he becomes the show’s assistant director, a job he also did for two seasons of “Here’s Lucy.” He was married to Virginia Barbour, who plays a waitress in this episode.
Larry Dean was a mime who specialized in playing a robot. He also did this on episodes of “Lost in Space” and “Bewitched.” He previously played the mechanical butler in Bigelow’s store window in “Lucy and the Ceramic Cat” (S3;E17). He returns to “The Lucy Show” in “Lucy and the Robot” (S4;E23), as well as playing non-mechanical characters here and in one more episode.
Bob Harris was a Hollywood stuntman making his only appearance on “The Lucy Show.”
Douglas Deane (Casino Patron, below left) only made a dozen screen appearances in his career, including one more episode of “The Lucy Show.”
Carole Cook (Casino Patron, above center) was last seen as Thelma Green in “Lucy Enters a Baking Contest” (S2;28), a part she played in four other episodes. She was a protege of Lucille Ball’s during the Desilu Playhouse years. Although she was born as Mildred Cook, Ball suggested she take the name Carole, in honor of Lucy’s great friend, Carole Lombard. Cook also went on to appear in five episodes of “Here’s Lucy.”
Bennett Green (Casino Patron, above right) makes his first credited appearance on “The Lucy Show,” but was an important member of the Desilu family, having served as Desi Arnaz’s camera and lighting stand-in throughout “I Love Lucy,” as well as making occasional appearances on camera. He will make half a dozen more appearances on the series.
Some of the uncredited casino patrons are played by:
Paul Bradley makes the third of his six appearances on “The Lucy Show” in various roles. He will also be seen in two episodes of “Here’s Lucy.”
Ralph Brooks made four films with Lucille Ball between 1940 and 1956. This is his only series appearance.
Jack Clinton was a background player who appeared in many Westerns. This is his only series appearance.
George DeNormand had appeared in three films with Lucille Ball from 1937 to 1963. This is the second of his many appearances on “The Lucy Show” and “Here’s Lucy.”
Georgia Holt, mother of superstar Cher, appeared as a fashion model in “Lucy Gets a Paris Gown” (ILL S5;E20). A frequent background player on “The Lucy Show,” she will also be seen as a fur model in “Lucy and Pat Collins” (S5;E11). In the above photo, she is in purple.
Sam Harris was born in Australia in 1877 and did a dozen films with Lucille Ball before appearing in the audience of Over the Tea Cups in “Ethel’s Birthday” (ILL S4;E8) and playing a subway passenger in “Lucy and the Loving Cup” (ILL S6;E12). In between, he was a wedding guest in Lucy and Desi’s film Forever Darling (1956). He was in the airport when “The Ricardos Go to Japan” in 1959. He went on to do several more episodes of “The Lucy Show,” the last being “My Fair Lucy” (S3;E20), a parody of My Fair Lady, a film he had also been in as an extra!
Monty O'Grady was first seen with Lucille Ball in The Long, Long Trailer (1953), and played a passenger on the S.S. Constitution in “Second Honeymoon” (ILL S5;E14). He was at the airport when “The Ricardos Go to Japan” (1959). He made a dozen appearances on the series and a half dozen more on “Here’s Lucy.”
Judith Woodbury makes the fourth of her more than 20 (mostly) uncredited appearances on “The Lucy Show.” She also appeared in several episodes of “Here’s Lucy.”
This episode was filmed on November 12, 1964. That same day, Lucy, Gary, Lucie, and Desi Jr. all were seen on (a previously recorded) installment of “Password,” a game show Lucy dearly loved.
This episode was originally aired on Danny Kaye’s birthday. Kaye and Lucille Ball were both born in 1911.
As the episode opens, Lucy and Viv are discovered sitting in the lobby of a swanky Las Vegas Hotel, although we soon discover that they are really sleeping at a “crummy motel down the street.” In 1975, Lucy Collins travels to Las Vegas’s MGM Grand in “Lucy Gets Lucky” (above), although we soon learn she is actually sleeping at a budget motel nearby.
Lucy and Viv are in Las Vegas with just $5.50 spending money. Adjusting for inflation, that would be like only having $45 today. Viv doesn’t want Lucy to gamble with the money, but it saving it to give to Mr. Krause, the butcher, to buy sweepstakes tickets. Mr. Krause was seen in “Lucy and the Plumber” (S3;E2) played by Tom G. Lindner. Sweepstakes tickets likely means The Irish Sweepstakes, an early form of lottery – another type of gambling, although Viv doesn’t seem to realize it.
Lucy won the trip to Las Vegas for being the one millionth customer through the door at Bigelow’s Department Store. Hopefully, Lucy entered the store through the front doors, and not the transom, which she did when she broke in during the previous episode “Lucy and the Ceramic Cat” (S3;E16, above), the series’ first mention of the store. Bigelow’s was named after a real-life Jamestown NY department store. Lucille Ball applied for a job there as a youth, but was rejected by owner Fred Bigelow. His cat is discussed on “I Love Lucy” in “The Passports” (ILL S5;E11) in 1955.
This is only the second time the characters are seen traveling outside of New York State. The first was in “Lucy Visits the White House” (S1;E25, above) where den mothers Lucy and Viv chaperoned cub scouts to Washington DC. Generally, the characters have stayed in or around fictional Danfield, with occasional trips to places such as nearby Ridgebury (also fictional), Manhattan, and Albany (in “Lucy’s Barbershop Quartet” (S1;E19).
If the small bank of slot machines looks antique compared to today’s models, consider that it was in 1963 that Bally Manufacturing invented ‘Money Honey’ (above inset photo), the first slot machine powered by electricity. After that, slot machines began to ‘light up’ and produce various sound effects. At first, many Nevada casinos were hesitant to buy the new machines, largely due to quality concerns and the expense of replacing their entire stock at once. The slot machine Sid Gould plays in the episode (above left) is a 1933 Extraordinary, manufactured by the Mills Novelty Company. Today, slot machines operate primarily on paper currency and rarely pay out coins, but distribute vouchers for later redemption. The machines that were once nicknamed 'one armed bandits’ due to their single pull lever, are now primarily operated by push buttons and touch screens.
“I Love Lucy” has inspired several slot machines, both in brick and mortar casinos and online.
Viv says that they got to hear Frank Sinatra – through the air conditioning vent in the hotel powder room. Sinatra was a fixture in Vegas, and his name was seen on a marquee in a “Here’s Lucy” episode set in the city. A clip of him in the film Guys and Dolls was inserted into the MGM executive show in “Lucy and the Dummy” (ILL S5;E3) but due to copyright issues, the clip was never repeated and has been edited out of the print, even on the restored DVDs. Prior to that he was mentioned in “Don Juan is Shelved” (ILL S4;E21). Sinatra later balked about the Desilu series “The Untouchables” as promoting stereotypes about Italian-Americans and the Mafia.
In order to get comped in to the shows, Lucy pretends to a be rich gambler named Pamela Pettebone and Viv masquerades as her pal, Penelope Poopendorf. The name 'Pamela’ was also the name of Lucy Ricardo’s heroine in “The Perils of Pamela,” (above) the play she wrote for the Wednesday Afternoon Fine Arts League in “Lucy Writes a Play” (ILL S1;E17).
The surname 'Pettebone’ was given to the haughty woman from the Society Matron’s League in “Pioneer Women” (ILL S1;E25) played by Florence Bates (above).
VIV (as PENELOPE): “Ever since we were little girls, she always wanted me to play Jacks.” MR. CARDENAS: “Well, all little girls play Jacks.” VIV (as PENELOPE): “Jacks or better?”
Jacks (the children’s game) is of ancient origin and involves bouncing a rubber ball while also scooping up small objects known as the jacks. The schoolyard game was associated with little girls at a time when more physical games that boys played were not deemed appropriate for young ladies. Viv’s pun here relies on it being compared with the Jacks in a deck of playing cards, a staple of casino gambling.
To convince Mr. Cardenas that she’s actually an heiress addicted to gambling, Lucy shuffles the crackers, rolls the sugar cubes, deals the toast, and spins the condiment caddy!
LUCY (as PAMELA): “Bet you a thousand it stops on the ketchup!”
MR. KELSTROM: “Miss Pettebone, was your father a wildcatter?” LUCY (as PAMELA): “A wildcatter? Well, not while mother was watching!”
Lucille Ball played a wildcatter named Wildcat Jackson in the Broadway musical Wildcat (1960), a musical about a woman in 1912 Centavo City looking to strike it rich with a gusher.
Viv says Lucy’s green feathered hat looks like a fresh crop of crab grass. In the opening moments of the episode we learn that their outfits were part of their prize for being Bigelow’s one millionth customer. Lucy’s green sequined dress and feathered hat are reminiscent of her costume for Sally Sweet in “The Diet” (ILL S1;E3), although TV viewers only saw it in black and white!
Lucy’s ‘crab grass chapeau’ turns up again (without the dress) on a Hollywood starlet when “Lucy Goes To A Hollywood Premiere” (S4;E20) in 1966.
Casino Callbacks!
The pink floral outfit worn by Carole Cook was actually created for Lucille Ball by Edith Head for the film Critic’s Choice (1963). Lucy famously handed down her wardrobe to her friends. [Thanks to the Lucy Lounge for this fashion tip!]
LUCY (as PAMELA): “Give me a thousand dollars in chips.” VIV (as PENELOPE): “No, Pamela! Remember what happened in Monte Carlo?”
Lucy Ricardo and Ethel Mertz had extraordinary luck (much to their chagrin) at the roulette tables in “Lucy Goes to Monte Carlo” (ILL S5;E25). Just as in this episode of “The Lucy Show”, Lucy wins big then looses it all in one careless bet.
Lucy Ricardo and Ethel Mertz traveled to Las Vegas in “Lucy Hunts Uranium,” a 1958 episode of “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour.” They don’t visit the casino, however, being too busy hunting uranium with Fred MacMurray. Besides Ball and Vance, Louis A. Nicoletti, who plays a croupier in 1965, was also in this 1958 episode. Also, in “Lucy Meets Orson Welles” (ILL S6;E3), Ricky Ricardo says he caught Welles’ nightclub act while he was in Las Vegas. This is not shown on the series and it is never discussed just how or when Ricky went to Vegas.
On November 1, 1959, Lucy and Ricky Ricardo joined ‘Mr. Television’ Milton Berle at the El Rancho Vegas as part of an NBC “Sunday Showcase: Milton Berle Special”. The entire action of the special took place in Las Vegas.
Sin City Fast Forward!
In “Lucy and Wayne Newton” (HL S2;E22) in 1970, the Carter Family drove to Vegas to see the Strip, but ended up at Wayne Newton’s nearby ranch.
In “Lucy Gets Lucky” (1975), one of the Lucille Ball Specials, Lucy Collins travels to Las Vegas to see Dean Martin. The special was shot on location at the MGM Grand.
Lucille Ball returned to Las Vegas with this remarkably life-like figure at Madam Tussaud’s, Las Vegas.
Blooper Alerts?
Not a blooper exactly, but an opportunity lost. "Lucy Goes To Vegas” might have started the show with a stock footage establishing shot or title screen reading “Las Vegas” to indicate the unusual location. Although establishing shots and location footage are rare on the series, they were not unknown. Also, although Desilu had previously sought out partnerships with hotels, casinos, car manufacturers, and other business on “I Love Lucy” and “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour,” there is no specific casino named mentioned when Lucy and Viv are praising the luxury hotel they are visiting.
“Lucy Goes to Vegas” rates 4 Paper Hearts out of 5