#prize fighting

[openbookexam]

[papermoonloveslucy]

Lucy the Fight Manager

 S5;E20 ~ February 20, 1967

Synopsis

When Mr. Mooney has an argument with his wife, he orders flowers that are delivered by ex-prize fighter Eddie Rickles (Don Rickles). Eddie wants to buy a flower shop that will cost $3,000. When Mr. Mooney won't loan it to him, Lucy is determined to get him back in the ring to earn it.

Regular Cast

Lucille Ball (Lucy Carmichael), Gale Gordon (Theodore J. Mooney)

Roy Roberts (Mr. Cheever) and Mary Jane Croft (Mary Jane Lewis) do not appear in this episode, although Lucy does have a phone conversation with Mary Jane. 

Guest Cast

Don Rickles (Eddie Rickles) worked as a stand-up comic in nightclubs for nearly 20 years before making his film debut in 1958. Rickles was known as an insult comic and became a staple of Hollywood roasts. This is his first and last acting appearance with Lucille Ball, but would be seen with her on variety shows and specials through 1988. Rickles was the voice of Mr. Potato Head in the animated Toy Story franchise.  e died in April 2017 at age 90.  

Eddie is a former boxer now working as a delivery boy for Finley's Florist, which he wants to buy from Mr. Finley.  

Cliff Norton (Ike, Sonny Shaw's Manager) makes the second of his two appearances on “The Lucy Show,” returning for three episodes of “Here’s Lucy.” He did a 1972 episode of “The Don Rickles Show.”  

The character is never referred to by name in the dialogue.  

Lewis Charles (Nick, above left) was seen in eleven Broadway plays between 1939 and 1947.  In Hollywood, he is credited with over 160 films and TV shows. This is his only appearance with Lucille Ball.

The character is obviously supposed to be a mobster. He bets on Sonny Shaw and tells his trainer that he'd better win.  

Stanley Adams (Louie, Sonny Shaw's Trainer, above right) makes the first of his three appearances on “The Lucy Show.” He was also seen with Lucille Ball in Critic's Choice (1963). In 1960, he was seen with Don Rickles in the film The Rat Race. 

Bruce Mars (Sonny Shaw, a Young Prize Fighter) makes his only appearance on the series but returns the following year for an episode of “Here's Lucy.”

Mars has no dialogue, but he looks good in his boxing trunks!  He shows more skin than has been seen before on “The Lucy Show.”  

Sonny's ‘Tomato’ and others at the gym go uncredited.

This is the only episode written by Ronald Axe and Les Roberts. The pair also wrote an episode of “The Andy Griffith Show” (filmed at Desilu) that aired earlier in February 1967. “The Lucy Show” was the lead-in to “The Andy Griffith Show” on CBS's Monday night primetime schedule.

This is one of more than 30 episodes of “The Lucy Show” that is in the public domain and not under copyright.  Because of this, it appears on many low-quality, low-priced videos. 

While most actors got to use their own first names on the series (Lucy, Mary Jane, Mel Torme, Joan Blondell) Don Rickles is called Eddie, but uses his real surname.  This is a rare example of Rickles doing scripted comedy NOT based on his brand of insult humor.  

Stand-up comic Don Rickles made quite a name for himself as a sitcom guest star at this time. Lucille Ball reportedly had a hard time working with him because she never knew when he was kidding and when he wasn't.

The episode opens with Mr. Mooney on the telephone with his wife Irma.  The character is often mentioned on the series, but never seen. Later in the episode, we learn that Irma is in charge of the Flower Show and wants to hire Eddie. The name ‘Irma’ was doubtless chosen for its association with the film, radio and television series “My Friend Irma” which starred Gale Gordon’s mother, Gloria Gordon, who died in 1962, the same year “The Lucy Show” began. 

Lucy says she likes flowers because she used to live over a funeral parlor, although where and when we never find out!   

Mr. Mooney says he saw Eddie Rickles knock out Joey Mitchell at Madison Square Garden in 1962.  Although there was a real professional boxer named Joey Mitchell, his career began and ended in 1923 and ever got anywhere near Madison Square Garden!  But Lucy Ricardo did, when she performed in “Lucy Goes to a Rodeo” (ILL S5;E8) in 1955.

Mr. Mooney says former baseball players generally open bowling alleys and boxers open saloons. Eddie wants to open a flower shop.  Mr. Mooney may have been thinking of Jackie Tavener (1897-1969), who was a professional baseball player from 1921 to 1934 and later was the proprietor of a bowling alley in Fort Worth known as Tavener's Playdium. In 1935, former heavyweight boxing champion Jack Dempsey opened Jack Dempsey’s Bar in midtown Manhattan.  It closed in 1975, but was seen in many movies and television shows. 

Lucy mistakenly thinks Sandy Koufax is a boxer. Sanford Koufax is a former American Major League Baseball player who pitched 12 seasons for the Brooklyn / Los Angeles Dodgers from 1955 to 1966. Koufax was first mentioned on the series in “Lucy and Viv Play Softball” (S2;E3). 

More than once, the episode mentions ‘the Manassa Mauler’ Jack Dempsy. William Harrison Dempsey (1895–1983) was a professional boxer who competed from 1914 to 1927, and reigned as the world heavyweight champion from 1919 to 1926. He was mentioned on “I Love Lucy” several times, mostly by Fred Mertz, who was a boxing fan and former Golden Gloves champion. 

When asked if Eddie Rickles is training at Lefty Lattimer’s Gym, Lucy replies that he training at Killer Carmichael’s!  She decorates her apartment with boxing posters, sets up a make-shift ring in the kitchen, fills her laundry bag up for sparring practice, replaces her lampshade with a bell, hangs a volleyball as a punching bag, and puts a mattress on the floor for calisthenics.  She lies to Mr. Mooney about being sick, saying she has the mumps!  

When putting Eddie on the bathroom scales she makes him hold two big books: “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire” and “Aunt Fanny's Cookbook” because the scales are off and that is the only way to get an accurate reading. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire was written by English historian Edward Gibbon, which traces the trajectory of Western civilization from the height of the Roman Empire to the fall of Byzantium. It was published in six volumes from 1776 to 1889. Hardly reading one associates with Lucy Carmichael. Aunt Fannie's Cookbook, on the other hand...

Ball and Rickles get a round of applause from the studio audience when they jump rope in tandem.  

At the end, Lucy knocks Eddie out with one punch and he realizes he has a glass jaw. This is a boxing expression for one who can easily be knocked out by punches to the jaw, a major drawback for a prize fighter. 

Callbacks!

Lucy played a fight manager named Kitty Williams in a November 1958 episode of the “Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse” titled “K.O. Kitty” starring Matt Lundigan and Aldo Ray as the prize fighter. The anthology series (hosted by Desi Arnaz) also presented episodes of “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour.” Lucille Ball was supposed to play several more non-Lucy Ricardo roles on the series, but this was the only one that ever materialized. It was produced by Quinn Martin, who also came up with the story. It was written by Martin's wife, Madelyn Pugh, and Bob Carroll Jr., the “I Love Lucy” writers who also worked on the first few seasons of “The Lucy Show.”  

Lucy Ricardo and Ethel Mertz ended up at the fights in the last scene of 1951's “The Girls Want to Go to a Nightclub” (ILL S1;E1), the very first “I Love Lucy” episode ever aired.  

Everyone but Lucy and Ethel seem to be watching the fights on television in “Ricky and Fred are TV Fans” (ILL S2;E30).  

FAST FORWARD

Two years after this “Lucy Show” episode, Don Rickles played himself on the Desi Arnaz sitcom “The Mothers-in-Law” (S2;E24) produced and directed by Elliott Lewis, husband of Mary Jane Croft and was written by original “Lucy” writers Bob Carroll Jr. and Madelyn Davis. 

Rickles was mentioned on “Lucy and Sammy Davis Jr.” (HL S3;E3) in 1970, jokingly saying her grouchy neighbor writes fan letters to Don Rickles.   

Rickles is mentioned again in 1974′s “Milton Berle Is The Life of the Party” (HL S6;E19) when Berle calls him “the merchant of venom” on a telethon! 

In February 1975, Rickles was on the dais to roast Lucille Ball on “The Dean Martin Celebrity Roast.” “Lucy Show” cast mates Vivian Vance, Gale Gordon, Dick Martin, Dan Rowan, Bob Hope, Milton Berle, Gary Morton, and Jack Benny (in his final TV appearance) were also on hand.  

In 1976, both Rickles and Ball were part of “Bob Hope’s World of Comedy” although the two did not share any screen time. 

Blooper Alerts!

Where the Floor Ends! When the camera pulls back for a long shot of Lucy's living room, the point where Lucy's wall-to-wall carpeting meets the cement floor of the soundstage can be seen.  

Super Hearing? Lucy hears the timer buzzer on the washing machine and says her laundry is done. In “Lucy and Joan” (S4;E4) it was established that Lucy's apartment complex has a laundry room.  

Shoeless Joe!  After throwing an air punch at Eddie and twirling to the ground, Lucy’s left shoe goes flying off her foot into the living room!  A few moments later, Lucy steps out of her other shoe to finish the scene. 

“Lucy the Fight Manager” rates 3 Paper Hearts out of 5

[haskinsanswerstoquestions]

Q. Do the reformers who object to prize fights object to boxing as a sport? -- R.H.

A. Boxing is generally recognized as a harmless, character-building sport. Usually it is not condemned by those who protest against prizefighting.

[art-and-things-of-beauty]

William Meade Prince (American, 1893-1951).

Prize Fight, oil on canvas, 58,4 x 89 cm. 1930.