50 Facts About I Love Lucy That Lucille Ball Kept Under Wraps

Although I Love Lucy would eventually revolutionize TV, the series actually started off on a different medium: radio. In 1948 Ball began acting in the radio show My Favorite Husband, which starred Richard Denning as the comedienne’s fictional other half. Then, when it came to adapt the series for television two years later, Denning was all set to reprise his role. Well, until Ball recommended her real-life partner instead – and we’re kind of glad she did.

Yep, Ball’s red hair wasn’t the star’s natural color. Before I Love Lucy, she even made her name as a brunette. It wasn’t until stylist Sydney Guilaroff suggested the scarlet shade that Ball adopted her trademark flaming tresses. On set, the color would be lovingly maintained by Irma Kusely.

Harpo Marx made a memorable cameo on I Love Lucy, but his presence was, let’s just say, a challenge for Lucille Ball. You see, Marx declined to rehearse his famous mirror scene, making the scene incredibly difficult for the two to perform off the bat. In the end, that four-minute moment actually took the pair hours to film.

Some hard work may have gone into I Love Lucy, but its success could have come down to just a couple of letters. Well, Ball may have believed that, anyway! The highly superstitious funnywoman apparently thought that putting “A” and “R” together was lucky. Yep, the name Lucy Ricardo was no accident. And given what a hit the show was, maybe there was some method in Ball’s madness after all.

Desi Arnaz went from a minor bandleader to a huge television star after playing Ricky Ricardo. But Ball had an ulterior motive for recommending her husband for the show. In reality, the actress was frustrated with Arnaz for sleeping around while on tour, and when she got her way he would be working closer to home. “Her strategy must have worked, because she got pregnant right away,” publicist Charles Pomerantz told People in 1991. Sneaky but genius.

Ball and Arnaz may have played the perfect couple on screen, but when the cameras stopped rolling? Things were pretty fraught. The pair even had a temporary separation in 1944. And while they kept it together for the entirety of I Love Lucy’s run, Ball and Arnaz eventually parted ways for good in 1960. “That’s the kind of marriage that has failure written all over it,” director William Asher remarked to People. “You’re separated a while, and before you know it, those giblets begin to jump.”

As with many shows before and since, a pilot of I Love Lucy was made to entice potential advertisers. And for decades, this episode was thought to be lost in the archives. Well, until 1989, that is, when a heavily damaged copy was unearthed and broadcast for the first time. Original announcer Bob LeMond would later re-record narration from the episode, too, for a 2002 DVD release.

Arnaz was immensely proud of his adopted country – perhaps to a fault. For one, it meant he was wary of filming anything that would have a negative impact on the nation. On one occasion, the I Love Lucy scriptwriters pitched the actor a storyline that saw Ricky committing tax evasion. Unimpressed, Arnaz promptly shot the idea down.

I Love Lucy’s producers constantly strove for the real deal. That meant almost every episode of the show was shot before an eager crowd. Perhaps too eager, in fact, as the enthusiastic chuckling could at times last for over a minute. CBS would even use recordings of the Lucy audience’s giggles as canned laughter in other shows.

Vivian Vance had very little love for her on-screen husband William Frawley. She hated him so much, in fact, that she refused to star in a potential Fred and Ethel spin-off. Yep, after I Love Lucy transitioned into a series of one-hour episodes in 1957, Arnaz came up with the standalone series. And while Frawley liked the idea, Vance clearly couldn’t stand another second in her co-star’s company.

Remember Ricky’s agent Jerry? Well, actor Jerry Hausner may have been all smiles on TV, but he actually hated the entire experience of being on the show. Apparently, Ball and his other co-stars could never remember his name – which has to sting when you consider that it was the same as his character! But Hausner took the paycheck nonetheless. “You don’t think in terms of whether you’re happy or not when you’re doing it,” he told The Washington Post in 1990. “You’re making a living.”

Although Arnaz’s business savvy drove I Love Lucy’s success, Ball was definitely the more famous of the pair. And this fact drove the star’s jealous husband to take his insecurities out on her in petty ways. For instance, he’d occasionally disappear from the house for hours just to make Ball think he was out sleeping around. “[Desi] just couldn’t take that [Lucille] was so much more important,” actress Shelley Winters remarked to People.

During I Love Lucy’s run, the producers tried to downplay the, well, more intimate aspects of the Ricardos’ relationship. This became a bit trickier after Little Ricky arrived, but eventually network heads came up with a simple solution. Basically, they would pull the characters’ single beds further apart. And, luckily, this ploy seemed to make the squeamish ’50s advertisers happy.

As I Love Lucy’s ratings skyrocketed, Ball and Arnaz’s relationship only became more unstable. Even becoming parents didn’t fix their broken marriage. Speaking to People, Little Ricky actor Keith Thibodeaux remembered witnessing horrible arguments during a playdate with the couple’s kids. “We heard a lot of loud arguing and cursing and glass shattering and screaming, and we were scared,” he recalled. “Desi Jr. turned to me and said, ‘There they go again.’” Yikes.

In life, Arnaz was a charming man, and he continued to flirt in spite of his growing family. The actor’s effect on the opposite sex even led women on the show to give him a very special nickname. “We used to call him the Cuban Arm because he’d put his arm around you and say, ‘Listen, amigo…,’” writer Madelyn Pugh Davis confessed to People. “And you were done for.”

At the peak of I Love Lucy’s popularity, Confidential magazine ran a tell-all story that made Arnaz’s womanizing common knowledge. But before the piece’s publication, Ball received a copy – which she proceeded to read in her colleagues’ presence. “Everybody was frozen on the set,” Pomerantz recalled to People. “[Lucille] finally came out [of her dressing room], tossed the magazine to Desi and said, ‘Oh, hell, I could tell them worse than that.’”

But as Ball and Arnaz’s animosity continued to grow, the couple’s arguments were no longer kept behind closed doors. In an interview with People, writer Bob Weiskopf remembered moments when Ball would share humiliating anecdotes about Arnaz with her co-stars while her husband stood idly by. “I thought, ‘Jesus Christ, this guy’s a saint,’” he stated. “I would have punched her in the nose.”

One of the show’s best moments came when Lucy fell afoul of a fast candy factory conveyor belt. However, Ball probably had less fond memories of that particular scene, as her nose was almost broken after Amanda Milligan, a real-life chocolatier, smacked her a bit too hard. Ever the professional, though, Ball managed to finish her scene despite the pain.

Eventually, an envious Arnaz turned to alcohol to numb the pain of being overshadowed by his wife. But while Weiskopf argued Arnaz “was never drunk on the set,” the actor’s battles with booze would still lead him into trouble elsewhere. Reporter Jim Bacon alleged to People that a soused Arnaz was once arrested while belting out Cuban songs in front of a brothel.

By the mid-’50s Ball and Arnaz’s marriage had completely broken down. Not surprising, given all the drinking and philandering that had happened... But Ball would hold off filing for divorce until 1960 because she was concerned about how her fans would react. Even after the deed was done, she had misgivings. In 2018 Closer Weekly reported that Ball had deeply regretted “[disappointing] millions of people” with the separation.

Yes, after 20 years of fractious marriage, Ball and Arnaz called time on their relationship in 1960. But for Arnaz, at least, there seemed to still be some love left. Three years after the divorce, you see, he wed Edith Eyre Hirsch – a woman who used to work as Ball’s body double. “[She] was a marvelous girl in her own right, but she sure as hell looked like Lucy,” Asher said of Hirsch while speaking to People.

In 1942 Lucille Ball’s friend and mentor Carole Lombard died in an air disaster. However, this didn’t stop the departed star from allegedly giving her friend advice. After her friend’s demise, Ball repeatedly claimed Lombard’s spirit visited her. Moreover, the comedienne even asserted that an appearance from the Hollywood icon in a dream gave her faith in the risky decision to make I Love Lucy.

Though they played loving couple Ethel and Fred on screen for years, Vance and Frawley had a rocky relationship on set. And that may be because, before production began, Frawley overhead Vance telling Ball that no one would believe her being married to such an “old coot.” Unfortunately, Frawley never forgot this, and their relationship never recovered.

And Vance wasn’t the only one icy towards Frawley. Due to Frawley’s history of alcoholism, CBS itself didn’t want to take a risk employing such an unstable actor. However, Arnaz convinced the producers to take him on anyway – but only on the condition that Frawley abided by his rules.

Yet while Frawley never disappointed Arnaz, the actor did miss the occasional day of work. But the baseball fan was excused, thanks to a clause written in his contract that allowed him to skip filming whenever the New York Yankees played the World Series. He was removed from two episodes as a result.

Besides showing a knack for the production side of I Love Lucy, Desi Arnaz was also a uniquely gifted actor. Thanks to his photographic memory, Arnaz could learn an entire script in only one read-through. Certainly, this ensured that Arnaz never missed a line.

Meanwhile, William Frawley, who played the often unaware Fred Mertz, struggled to remember his lines. His forgetfulness would frustrate him so badly, he was known to rip out script pages in fury. He may be the first actor to complain about getting too many lines...

Ball experienced the grapes of wrath while filming on a vineyard. After being told to “wrestle” with Lucy, grape crusher Teresa Terelli – who spoke no English – misinterpreted the cue and proceeded to hold down Ball headfirst in a vat of grape mush. The poor comedienne nearly drowned!

The crowd roared as Ball stomped grapes during the episode “Lucy’s Italian Movie.” All the while, Lucille had been choking on a grape but ignored it to finish the scene. After cameras cut, she indicated she was in distress, and the crew swooped in to help her.

Naturally, 1950s attitudes towards sex were more conservative than today’s are. But I Love Lucy’s censors took these attitudes to extreme measures when they considered Lucy’s second season pregnancy too scandalous to be named as such to viewers. In fact, the show instead had to replace “pregnancy” with “expecting”; the French word “enceinte” was even used in the title of one episode in order to keep in line with TV bosses.

In contrast, Superman actor George Reeves proved a more amicable guest star, though his contributions were uncredited on screen. But while this may sound like a case of showbiz squabbling, the snub was actually requested by Ball because she didn’t want younger viewers to know that their favorite superhero was actually an actor. Aww…

Off set, Vance and Ball enjoyed a warm and loving friendship. However, Vance’s abusive husband Philip Ober hated the pair’s closeness and even tried to convince her that Hollywood gossip said that they were a gay couple. His bitterness drove a distraught and deeply conservative Vance to therapy.

But despite their later friendship, Ball and Vance didn’t hit it off straight away. By all accounts, Ball detested the idea of acting alongside someone as pretty as herself. Consequently, Vance received unflattering costumes and make-up, while she also gained weight in order to appear less desirable than Ball.

And besides her insistence on dressing Vance down, Ball had other issues with her co-star’s looks. Upon seeing Vance wearing fake eyelashes on set, Ball ripped the accessories from her co-star’s eyes and said – in no uncertain terms – that she was the only one who could wear them.

Before the concept of a hype artist even existed, Ball received great encouragement from a surprising source: her mother. In fact, DeDe Ball – who sat in on every taping – can be heard in almost any episode loudly exclaiming “uh-oh” off camera during her daughter’s zanier moments.

Many co-workers have strange traditions together, and the cast of I Love Lucy was no exception. In particular, the actors awarded each other a silver dollar when anyone received an unplanned round of applause from the audience. They even used a chart to keep track of each cast member’s progress.

In order to ensure a better image for their show, Ball and Arnaz insisted on filming on then-unfamiliar 35mm stock. And though the celluloid strips were expensive, they had the added benefit of being easily replayable. Consequently, it became one of the first TV shows to have reruns broadcast.

Although advertising cigarettes on TV is frowned upon today, tobacco companies frequently paired up with family shows in the 1950s. Indeed, I Love Lucy was entirely sponsored by Philip Morris cigarettes and characters were regularly seen smoking the brand on camera. Surprisingly, few hacking coughs were caught on tape.

Of course, I Love Lucy remains one of America’s most beloved sitcoms, but – at its peak – the show’s popularity eclipsed that of any series today. In fact, department stores regularly closed to coincide with the show’s broadcast. Meanwhile, authorities reported drops in telephone and water usage whenever it was shown.

Certainly, the strength of I Love Lucy’s popularity is beyond belief. And, believe it or not, but the show once beat a presidential inauguration in the ratings war. Following Ike Eisenhower’s 1953 swearing-in ceremony, Nielsen reported that 67.7 percent of American TVs tuned in to see it – less than the previous night’s I Love Lucy episode, which was watched by 71 percent of the TV-owning public.

As an interracial married couple, Ball and Arnaz were an uncommon pair for their time. As such, the two refused to mock their ethnic differences on screen, save for Lucy’s occasional jabs at Ricky’s Cuban accent. And Arnaz later noted when Fred and Ethel tried for the same kind of edgy humor, it always fell flat with the audience.

While nobody would now bat an eye at Ball and Arnaz’s mixed marriage, CBS was highly reluctant about the two appearing as man and wife. Specifically, the company thought that audiences wouldn’t go in for such a union on screen. Truly, it shows the remarkable way attitudes have changed for the better.

If things had gone a different way, the iconic duo that was Lucy and Ricky would have been Lucy and — Larry. Thank goodness they passed on the alliteration. Otherwise, Weird ‘Al’ Yankovic wouldn't have been able to write his parody hit “Ricky” after the cheerleading anthem “Micky.”

In this famous episode, Lucy downs most of a bottle of a health tonic with high alcohol content and winds up pretty buzzed. In lieu of the tonic, Lucille was actually gulping down apple pectin. Perhaps the lingering taste hampered Lucille’s fondness of the episode; she didn’t find it funny.

‘Write what you know’ – Desi and Lucille took this rule pretty literally since most of their show was an interpretation of their marriage, including onscreen buds, Fred and Ethel. The couple was based on their real-life friends, Dezi’s brother Fred Arnaz, and Broadway star Ethel Merman.

Actors improv skills have provided some iconic one-liners, but not on I Love Lucy. Every single word uttered was scripted. There was a strict no ad-lib rule. They even had cue cards to ensure the cast didn’t deviate from the intended lines.

Vivian Vance played the perfect sidekick to Lucille, and they were lifelong pals and collaborators. But it wasn’t a fast friendship. Lucille felt Vivian was too attractive to play the intentionally “homely” Ethel and felt threatened by her. Quickly, those insecurities vanished, and as their chemistry grew onset, so did their bond off-screen.

Out of all the acclaim the show received, an Emmy nomination evaded only one of the main cast: Desi Arnaz. With a staggering 13 nominations, Lucille was the most acknowledged and secured 5 wins. Vivian won the first-ever Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress, and William was nominated 5 times, but never managed a win.

It’s hard to resist dialing a phone number featured on the big screen. But, not so fun for the innocent owners of those numbers. During the run of the show, the Riccardo’s went through two numbers and the Mertzes totaled out at four.

Not only was she wickedly funny, but Lucy was also a gifted businesswoman. After her divorce from Desi, she bought out his share of their production company. Ownership of Desilu Productions marked her as the very first woman to run a major television studio.