Episode 26 - I Love Lucy

We dish on one of the most iconic and groundbreaking TV sitcoms of all time, starring Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, and William Frawley!

Episode Transcript

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It's the Dearly Departed Podcast, featuringyour host, historian Scott Michaels and filmmaker
Mike Dorsey. Okay, it isuh the next episode of Dearly Departed Podcast.

(00:25):
I'm Mike Dorsey, I'm Scott Michaels, and this is Dearly Departed Podcast,
and today we're talking about one ofthe greatest sitcoms in history, a
groundbreaking sitcom. I love Lucy.Yeah, it's it's it's it's certainly probably
the biggest and most like you say, groundbreaking, it really established precedent that's

(00:50):
still being used today. So soyeah, huge, hugely popular and hugely
important show. Yeah. So we'llbe talking about Lucy and Desi and the
rest of the main cast before weget into that, though, I want
to do in general news. Wehad two big things related to the Cecil
Hotel come out this past month andyou were you were in one of them.

(01:12):
I was, yeah, yeah,yeah. We did an episode of
Ghost Adventures and Zach had done.We both worked with Zach in the past,
and this is something that they broughtme in for a historic background on
the hotel. So the hotel,basically, you know, the Cecil Hotel

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is notorious and mostly because of theElisa Lamb story, but the Cecil Hotel
has also had an incredible amount ofterrible things happened there over the years.
It's it's it's bizarre, and itleads people to think that it's some kind
of evil portal, and it's notvery often that I would say, maybe
they're right, But there's so manyterrible things that have happened there, so
many dozens of suicides, murders,overdoses, serial killers, just an insane

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amount in one small place. Sothe Cecil, because American Horror Story Hotel
Season with Lady Gaga was based onthe Cecil Hotel, It's got an insane
amount of publicity. So they werequite uh when the hotel was still operating
mostly as a hostel and also asa single room occupancy sort of you know,
transient hotel. The hotel security werereally on guard for anyone that would

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go in there as a tourist towant to see the kind of death,
you know, weird old place,and and for people who don't know it's
downtown Los Angeles, it's in kindof the skid Row area, um and
it's a very large, large hotelthat's like a it's a large hotel.
It's like a hundred years old.Yeah, it's one of the worst places

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a hotel could be. But originallyit was it was you know, it
was built as a luxury hotel.Then the stock market crash happened, and
you know it then it turned intolike a worker's hotel and it's a lot
of um, you know to say, low inc single room occupancy, transient
hotels. People have lived over twentyfive thirty years and they pay one hundred
dollars a week or something like thatto stay there. So but anyway,

(03:08):
they they they they closed the hoteldown because of COVID. There was a
residential portion of the hotel and theymoved everybody to the second floor and Zach
and the crew got the rest ofthe hotel and every room was opened.
So we're you know, the roomsthat were able to go with so and
so jumped out the window and landeddown the guy down at the sidewalk and

(03:30):
killed them both. We're able togo into that room. We were able
to go into the Richard Ramirez roomand into the room where you know,
Alisa Lamb was staying when when shedied on the roof. But the room
she was staying in. And itwas interesting about the Netflix documentary was that
they represented a room on the fifthfloor constantly, but the room that she

(03:52):
was actually staying in at the timeof her death was was on the fourth
floor, but they never acknowledged that. But she was in a room with
a couple of people that kicked herout because she was acting erratically, and
then they moved her to a differentfloor, and that was the room that
she was staying in. But itwas wild going through that room and just
i'd going through the hotel and justgoing, oh, yeah, this happened
there, This happened there, andit was it was creepy. A one

(04:14):
room in particular, there was amurder that took place in sixty four of
a woman they called pigeon Goldie becauseshe she fed the pigeons in Pershing Square
walks away and being in that room, I'm not one to get affected.
In fact, you were with methe other time. I was affected,
literally like I got to get outof here. And that was the Wonderland
House, the top floor, andI was sitting wherever that person was murdered

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and h but it was like,you know, this is bad. I
gotta get out. But there wasso much going on in this house and
the neighbors heard screaming. I'm justthink, you know, what's the drug
viewers again. But it's just amazingthat those those things happened and it's such
a quiet area and those house isliterally five feet this way and fight it

(04:57):
the other way, and nobody calledthe cops. And uh, and I
wouldn't. I wouldn't. I knowif that psychic, I don't know what
that is. But it was somethingthat I felt very uncomfortable with. I
mean, the hairs, everything,and I've never reacted that way before even
there, so um so, yeah, that was something that was wild.
And then I wasn't in on theElisa lamb Uh investigation when Zach got and

(05:21):
those guys did it. But whenafter we were done with my part,
he had one of the producers takeme up to the roof and I was
able to walk round up there tosee the water tower where she where she
drank. That was wild. Itwas nighttime, so the view was spectacular
from you know, fifteen stories up. Everything looks good and to the water

(05:42):
tower where she was where she wasfound, was was pretty chilling. It
was it was a really interesting experience. And so people who don't know.
Elisa Lamb was a Canadian tourist fromI think the Vancouver area, and she
um came here kind of. Shewas twenty one, and she came here
on kind of just a trip onher own around California. She went down

(06:02):
to San Diego and then she cameup to LA and checked into a hotel
that she may not have realized wasin a as rough of an area as
it was. If you don't knowLa, you don't you may not know
any better. And then just mysteriouslydisappeared and was found I believe nineteen days
later, in one of the watertanks up on top of the roof,
floating naked. She had taken herclothes off, and eventually it was ruled

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accidental. She had a history ofpsychological problems, bipolar disorder. She was
on medication. They determined that shehad stopped probably stopped taking her medication.
Her family said she had a historyof irrational behavior like this. She was
kicked out of that room because shewas leaving weird notes on the bunk beds
of the other girls that she wasrooming with, and they complained about it.

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She was leaving notes like telling themto go home, get out,
go away. She's very strange,and so they think that she just ultimately
had a mental breakdown. But therewas a very weird video of her on
the elevator that went super viral allaround the world of her acting very strange,
and people thought that it was thatshe was being haunted because she looked
like she was talking to someone whowasn't there. Um, and other people

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thought that she had been murdered.Um, so they it was it's It
got a lot of coverage and thenum, this multi part documentary series on
Netflix kind of tackled the whole thing. Um, and you saw that as
well. Yeah yeah, yeah,my friend, honest with you, I
wasn't a big fan of this documentary. I thought I was going to be.

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But they could have done it inhalf the time, and they could.
I mean they're talking heads. Wereall YouTube sleuths. A lot of
them were yeah yeah, yeah.I would have wanted to talk to detectives,
her family, you know, thingslike that, but it was all
it was. It was YouTube.Yeah. They had um Tim Marcia,
who was the Marcia the detective.He's a senior detective in lapd who was

(07:51):
the detective on the case for RobbieHomicide Division, but they didn't use him
as much as I think they shouldhave. Uh. And and then my
friend Greg Katie, who I madeto wrap with, he they brought him
and as an expert, he's retiredhomicide detective, and they came in.
He kind of almost was like anunofficial narrator. He kind of just gave
you the facts of the story asit happened. Um. But Yeah,

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they did a lot of the Internetstuff, and I'm very I'm a very
skeptical person. I don't cater toconspiracy that stuff. So I did get
annoyed a few times by how muchtime they spent on all that stuff.
But then I had to keep remindingmyself that that was also part of the
story, because I do remember followingit closely at the time, and that
kind of became part of the story. Was all the all the people of

(08:33):
what their crazy theories. Um,but I feel like it was a little
exploitational on. Yeah, I knowa lot of time to that that death
metal guy Morbid I think his namewas, Yeah, and they were talking
about how you know, he hada song that that kind of mirrored the
events and then you know, hewas he was behind it. But you
know, and this is I waslooking at the YouTube clip of his it

(08:54):
was like ninety seven views. Youknow. It's like, I'm not saying
that's a bad thing. I'm justsaying they're they're making it sound like this
guy made a living off of this. And there was one weird, you
know, coincidence and uh And Ialso was worthy of noting is that the
only footage they had the interior ofthe hotel was cell phone footage. They

(09:15):
had no they got no rights tofilm in the hotel. Ninety five percent
of that documentary was drone shots onthe exterior and the stuff that the use
of the interior was all off people'sphone. So I'm you know again,
it could have been done in halfthe time. And I think they you
know, okay, okay, Ithink the moment, the moment that they

(09:37):
said that if you pushed that opendoor button and it stayed open for two
minutes, that was like, right, that solves the questionable because that was
the only watching And I was like, oh wow, that is weird that
the door wouldn't close. And Icouldn't remember that when it first came out,
but then and then also the waythat they saved until the very we're
spoiling thing. Sorry for people ifyou've already, if you haven't watched this
yet and you wanted to turn thisoff and go watch it now. But

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the other big thing that they thatthey didn't, that they didn't, that
they kept from you was the lidand how the maintenance guy that found her
body said that when he discovered it, the lid was open, and all
up to that point they made youbelieve the lid had been closed, and
they're like, how could she haveclosed the lid from inside the tank,
and then it comes out it wasn't. And again, if they had just
said you push that button, thedoors stay open for two minutes, and

(10:20):
the lid was open, the moviewould have been over in like twenty minutes.
For people that don't know. Theshocking thing was that she was in
that water tower for nineteen days deadwell they don't know for how long,
but clearly for various tomb and peoplein the hotel were noticing that the water
pressure was down and that it wasan odd color, and some people complained

(10:43):
that it smelled or tasted bad becausethey're pushing teeth and taking showers in this.
In this, you know, womanwater and that's what made it even
more shocking. And there's lots oftheories about her clothes being taken off,
as I understand if you if you'reif you have hypothermia, you feel differently.

(11:03):
And I've done that before where I'vebeen. You know, I grew
up in the Midwest. I grewup where it was freezing and I felt,
you know, my hands were literallyfrozen and they felt hot. So
you know, you want to youwant to. I'm guessing I wouldn't there.
But everything that happened to her iseasily explainable now. But you know,
she was kicked out of that gameshow taping the day before because she

(11:24):
was acting. She wrote a letterto the host. It was very weird
and they were like, whoa,she's a she's a security threat. I
mean to get her out of here. Yeah, So it's all easily explained
with all the components in place.We were never given them all, so
that that is important, you know, But again, it could have been
done in half the time. Andlook, I I'm not a detective and

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I've spent a lot of time tryingto solve other crimes for shows and movies
that I've done, so I'm somewhatof an internet sleuth also. But we
need to realize that the general publicis not given all the information for a
reason, and it's at the endof the day, it's not our business.
We're not the ones being paid tosolve these crimes, and detectives are.
And so they withhold information sometimes forspecific reason because they don't want a

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they don't want whoever if it isfoul play, they don't want the person
know that they're onto them, orthey just want to withhold detail so that
if someone comes forward with information thatthey know they haven't released to the public,
then they know that it's a credibleperson that they can listen to,
you know. So there's just it'simportantly, well, what in the detective
celsus because it's none of your downbusiness, right, it's their business.
They're trying to solve the crime.People fired. It's like, right,

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It's like their job is not toplease the public. Their job is to
solve crimes. So they'll tell thepublic if they think it'll help the crime,
if they don't help them solve it, if they don't think it.
Well, they won't tell you,so I get it. Also, I
talk to her. I message ourfriend Craig Rve, the former corner director
of operations here in La, aboutjust the Cecil in general, and he

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said that UM at the Cecil andother hotels like to Cecil. He said,
it was not uncommon for them toreport, for one, you know,
a person that was dead in ahotel room, and as he's walking
down the hall to see the youknow, the tape residue from the coroner's
tape from other times that they'd beenthere in the past, he said,
you'd see it's because it was verysimilar when they were talking in the show

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about someone died in that room andsomeone killed themselves in that room and a
murder happened there and there was anoverdose over here. It was like,
you know, you have a sevenhundred room hotel that's you know, a
century old and a rough part oftown. Yeah, a lot of bad
stuff's gonna happen there over the years. Yeah. I love that they had
that manager who said, is thereany room where someone has died in this
place? I really liked her too. I liked her. I thought she

(13:35):
was real. She was cool.Um, but yeah, the show's gotten
a lot of criticism because of allthe conspiracy stuff. But that scene where
they showed yeah, because it waseasy for they get in the room easy
through the security door, which Ione d percent positive the alarm was not
on. And and then and theyshowed other people going up there with their

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with their cell phone cameras and itwouldn't set it off. Well when they
showed they you know this, orshe could have taken the fire escape.
And when they showed that footage ofthe fire escape, I almost lost my
mind. I mean the fire escapeyou zigzag and you get to the last
floor and just straight up ladder tothe roof and there has to be nothing
around you. And I just wantedone fifty feet up in the air.

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My knees were given out just watchingand I could not stop looking at it
was like it was terrifying. Uhyou know, and I can't imagine.
I think if I was in thathotel and there was a fire, I
would seriously look at that going Ican't do this, you know. I
would have probably done it, butI would have been so absolutely I would
have frozen. I would have absolutelyfrozen on that ladder, I wouldn't have

(14:39):
been able to move. And ohit's so terrifying, so terrifying. So
the ghost adventurous thing you did ison I think it's on Discovery Plus.
Yeah, there the Discovers new streamingservice and the Netflix one is called crime
Scene, the Vanishing at the CecilHotel, and I went specifically about the
Elisia Lamb story. So if youfeel so inclined, I was entertained by

(15:03):
both, So check it out.So you had one more bit of news.
Yeah, we we last week.As Troy and I loaded up our
last van load of things from Hollywood. As we're in the car leaving Los
Angeles, I got the news alertthat Burt Reynolds was moved to Hollywood Forever
Cemetery. So now, are myneighbor is not birth while my forever neighbor

(15:28):
is because I have a plot there. But but yeah, Burt Reynolds,
after three years of being dead almostwas in Florida, and I guess was
on you know, somebody had hiseurn. Uh this week was was buried
at Hollywood Forever Cemetery over on SanMonico Boulevard across from ear Old Show.
That's great, we got another one. That's awesome, Get another good one.

(15:50):
They're digging him up right, youknow. I mean Judy Garland,
she wasn't even around, you know, forty seven years in New York and
grew up and brought her over.So yeah, it's it's some prime real
estate over there. Yeah. Thatwraps up our current events updates. Um,
and I think we're gonna skip hatemail because we don't have any.
No, it's a love mail now. I mean, I'm tired of the

(16:12):
you know, you look like Unclefaster stopping. They say, Okay,
I know there's nothing original. Oh, speaking of that they are doing.
I just sent this to you tojust announce Tim Burton is going to do
and Adams's family spin off series onWednesday. Adams When Her at School is

(16:33):
the basis for it, and it'sthe first live action television series that Tim
Burton has ever done. And Ibelieve it's for Netflix. There was a
big bidding war among all the streamersfor it and they got it, so
just announced like hours before we recordedthis. Interesting. Yeah, that will
be very interesting. I M.Yeah, I like, you know,

(16:56):
the movies are great, you know, Christina Rigi top her it really would,
and it really would be get somebodylike Kristen Stewart or something. I
mean, it would just be like, well, I I supposed to be
her school age, so I don'tknow if that means kid or teenager or
college. I couldn't. I couldn'tfigure off from what I was reading,

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but it'll have to be. Ithink someone in their teens or early twenties
would be my guess. I justhope they don't make her Gothy. That's
all because you know, Wednesday,it was dark, but she wasn't Gothy.
Yeah, And so I hope thatthey don't. They don't do that,
but who knows. I mean,I was kind of nervous about the
Adams Family movies when they made them, and I love them, so yeah.

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So yeah, the second effect theoriginal. It's time for the main
feature. Um, all right.So from that segue old TV shows to
an even older TV show, ILove Lucy starring Lucio Ball, Daisy are

(18:00):
As, William Frawley, and VivianVance m a groundbreaking, as we mentioned
at the top television sitcom that starteda fifth nineteen fifty one and ran for
six years, and it was thepioneered sitcom filming techniques. I think it
was the first or one of thefirst multi caam sitcom shot in front of
a live audience. Uh. Theydid a thing where they they built the

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sets next to each other, whichI don't think it had been done before,
so they could easily switch from oneset to the other one. Um,
and I think some of there weresome other things about it that were
very cutting edge for their time.Yeah, three cameras time that was actually
used, and it was because itwas all done like a play before,
you know, it was one onestep camera And recently, I don't know

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how long ago this footage came out, but you know at the beginning when
they taped or when they filmed outLove Lucy Dadsy would come out and talk
to the audience and then introduce everyoneand they all their robes on their makeup,
you know, etc. And theyhad him talking to the audience and
said, we when we do thisthing, you know, it's three cameras
and don't worry, it'll never obstructyour view. You know, watch We'll
give you an example. And itshowed like all cameras on time, you

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know, right in front of anything. But it was a way of introducing
that and making it funny instead ofannoying for the audience when when it actually
did happen for the close ups andthings like that. But yeah, it
was hugely popular because they you know, the studio wouldn't back it because it
was, you know, an interracialmarriage and uh, and they wouldn't have

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anything to do with it. Andthey and Lucy and Desi felt so strongly
about it. They they put theirown money up for it. And good
on them because they didn't sure expectto be a hit, and they rolled
the dice big time to make thatpilot and uh. And yeah, not
only interracial, but Desi was youknow, he had the thick accent.
He was kind of hard to understand. They kind of broken English, and

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they were afraid the audiences wouldn't goalong with it or they wouldn't understand him.
And a studio was totally wrong,happily for the rest of us.
Yeah, yeah, that was itwas something. It's funny. I know,
I talked to some people that Iknow that are you know, Latin
in dissent and said that when hewould he would go off and start,

(20:12):
you know, talking in Spanish andscreaming, and they were like their eyes
would light up. It's like,oh my god, there's somebody speaking Spanish
and I never had that before,so it was kind of fascinating. She
was also the first actress to havea real life pregnancy on television. She
was pregnant in real life on theshow. We're gonna stay talking about Lucy

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till later, but um, that'sjust another kind of groundbreaking episode. And
then when her character had the baby, that was the highest rated episode of
the show's history. So Vivian Vanceplayed ethel Mertz. She was notable.
Also, she was the first actressto ever win the Emmy for Outstanding Supporting
Actress, which was a new awardthat they added in nineteen fifty four,

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and she was the original winner ofthat of that Emmy. Um. And
famously, her and William Frawley,who played her husband, hated each other.
M Yeah, they were both prettyheadstrong people. And I think I
think that they were the merchists weresupposed to be, you know, significantly

(21:18):
older than Lucille and Daisy or Rickyand the show, so they gave them
really dowdy clothes to wear. AndI don't think that Vivian Vance and Lucy
were actually that different in age,but she really had to had to dull
it down. You know, there'sstories, I mean, Lucy, we
can go we'll go into it alittle bit more about what a perfectionist she

(21:40):
was and she was very Uh,she was a professional. She was there
was you know, don't veer fromthe script, don't add lib and this
is what you do. And thestory is that Vivian Vance was wearing eyelashes
and Lucy literally took them off her. I doubt that happened, but said,
nobody wears eye left the show upme and so she knew the story,
she knew what made it and uh, and she was Lucy, so

(22:04):
you know what she said went buth but I think Vivian Vans had a
hard time being you know, sortof shoved to the sidelines. But it
was all about Lucy and merch.She also was grateful for work and she
and with the age thing, sheresented that Frawley was I think twenty two
years older than her and she's supposedto be her husband. So it just

(22:26):
it made her look. Any actoror actress is sensitive about their age and
how they are presented, and soshe's being presented as being, you know,
twenty years older than she is inreal life, and she feels like
she's competing with the main star ofthe of the show. Yeah, it's
a tough situation. Um, butthey they were professionals, they and supposedly
they got along more, you know, as time went on, her and

(22:47):
Lucille ball Um and got to knoweach other. And then and then Lucy
Um commented years later, I maybeeven been after m Vans has passed away,
but she said that Um Lucy wasso wrapped up. Lucy and DESI
were so wrapped up in producing theshow. Also, they were so busy
that she she said that she neverreally sat back and watched what Vance was

(23:07):
doing until she got to watch thereruns years later, and then she said
she just she got a whole newlevel of respect Um getting to just sit
back and watch her as an audiencemember at what she was able to do
on screen. So I thought thatwas interesting too. Yeah, they were.
It's funny. They Marine County whereshe lived. It's not that far
away, and it seemed like sheand you know, Lucy and and Vivian,

(23:30):
we're friends. They hadn't seen eachother for years. It's only it's
only right up, really, andI actually understood stood that. But I
watched the other night the Dean Martinroast of Lucy, and oh great,
what they got away with on thatshow is, oh my god. You

(23:51):
know, I was watching, andI'm surprised and even show it because some
of that stuff is like, reallyreally literally racy. I mean there there's
some really I mean, Dee Martin. Whoever said you know, Dean Martin's
acting drunk is lying. Dee Martincan't even stand up during this show.
He is slurried, you know,glad. His drink is going everywhere,

(24:11):
and he can't barely even read theque cards that he's supposed to be reading.
But uh, but it was Vivianvanced as a little a little vivvy
to Lucy or a little roast ofLucy, and she she I think there
was some resentment in there because Lucyand and and and DESI owned the show
and they were literally the owners ofthe show. And she said, you
know, I think of my myyears on I Love Lucy is the biggest

(24:34):
rip off of my life. AndI'm sure that there was an element of
edge to it, and I'm sureshe was joking it was a roast anyway,
but I am feeling that she reallygenuinely felt that, Um, you
know, she should have got apiece of the action. But and she
did come back. She came backin the sixties for Lucy's new show as
a different character, uh and playeda divorced divorced a mother, single mother,

(24:59):
which I was also the first timeI did a divorcee was presented in
a major primetime series. Um likethat. Like that she was, But
she had stipulations that she didn't wantto wear the fronty clothes anywhere and more
she wanted to wear a nice outfitsand there were she kind of threw her
weight around a little bit more whenshe came back for the new series.
So yeah, she was an Shewas a soprano, like an accomplished soprano,

(25:21):
and she and Lucy and Deasy sawher performing I think it was Lajoya
on stage and got to meet herand liked her so much. The there's
a story that I read before allthe books came out. There was one
book called Lucy, Ricky, Fredand meth All The Story of I Love
Lucy, And this was published backin the probably early eighties and there's one
story that you know, there wasalways a story. I don't think it's

(25:42):
true that Vivian Vance was contractually obligatedto be to stay twenty pounds heavier than
Lucy. I don't think that's true, but it's been it's been one of
those rumors. But this is astory, and it's a good story.
And because there was obviously tension onthe set because Lucy was you know,
she was, you know, yougot to do it my way and there's
no room for anything else, nomovie. Yeah, And as I understand

(26:04):
it, when when she was pregnant, when Lucy Ball was pregnant, they
moved her dressing room closer to thestage and put you know, Vivian Vance
back and Lucy's dressing her mooch wasway far away. And there was a
moment when Lucy O Ball was onstage and the call time was X and
Vivian Vance was you know, goingthrough everything and used to the timing of

(26:26):
her own dressing room and want cablesand everything to h to get to this
to the set and uh, andthen when she got there, Lucy said,
you're late. And her supposed responsewas I tell you to go yourself,
but das he's already done that.And you know, it's just it's

(26:47):
kind of but it had to havebeen hard for to be hard to be
you know, Lucy's you're there andthat's where you're going to stay kind of
character. But Lucy knew the chemistry, she knew how it was going to
work, and that's that was theagreement. It just that she was very
serious about it. There wasn't alot of room my goal. Yep.
And she died with of cancer.Cancer, isn't it? Yeah? And

(27:08):
uh and she said, I guesswhen when she got hired to be uh,
when she got hired as the partof Vivian Vance, there was a
tension again. But she said uponupon getting the part, she said,
I'm gonna learn to love that bitch. So and she did. She did,
and I and I think by thenshe had moved to the East Coast,
so she was going back and forthfrom her house in the East Coast

(27:32):
to shoot in la and that wasalso causing strain. By that for the
new series that was done in thesixties, that also caused strains. So
she's she kind of as the seasonswore on on that show, she was
in fewer and fewer episodes until theyhad kind of a falling out over a
disagreement that really was more a miscommunicationbetween their agents, I think over that,

(27:53):
and it basically got communicated to LucilleBall that Vivian basically wanted to be
her equal on the show. Butthat's not what she was asking for.
She just wanted a little bit morepower, I guess, and for for
what she was going through to beable to still do the show. And
they had a falling out over it, and then eventually they reconciled light years
later and she started doing guest appearanceson it again. But yeah, just

(28:15):
anytime I've been in this situation myself, especially in this business, you have
big personalities and their heads, butit just happens. Yeah. But you
know, but also and understandably so, because actors are you know, there's
well there's with any project like this, if it's high profile, there's there's
ego involved. And if you're renegotiatingsomething else, you're like, it's not

(28:37):
gonna happen anymore. You know,we're gonna do things differently this time.
I should get a piece of itright. And I get that too.
If you're gonna renegotiate a whole newthing, or negotiate a whole a whole
new project. Then you know,and you know you're worth this time before
you were, but now you do, and you're like, look, you
know, I bit my I bitmy tongue for years because I was locked

(28:59):
into a contract and I know whatI agreed to. But now did I
get to set reset things? Idon't want to do it this way anymore,
so yeah, I'll get it.And I guess when when Lucy and
Mary Wicks, who was one ofthose actresses they showed up in I Love
Lucy many times. Most people nowadaysknow her. She was the nun and
sister act sister Mary Clarence or somethinglike the big one with the nose.

(29:22):
You know, she had thousand episodesof every show. And she and Mary
Wis went to a visit Vivian Vanceone last time when she was on her
literally on her deathbad back in nineteenseventy nine, and said that I guess
viv was out of it, butwhen she walked in, her eyes lit
up and and and uh and theyhugged and kissed and profess their love for

(29:47):
each other. And then Mary Wickssaid that Lucy cried the entire way home.
Uh so they are. But butyeah, rest in peace, Vivian
Vance. Vivian Bagley on the onThe Lucy Show at Murtz ethel May Potter
we never forgot her. Yeah,um so to her her her screen husband

(30:10):
William Frawley, who played Fred Murtz, he had a real problem with with
drink and and as I understand it, when they signed the contract, would
he asked Desi Arnez asked him tobe on the show. Uh, he
said, if you ever missed work, you are show up late because you're
drinking. Yeah, you know you'reout. And also but he also had
it in his contract that he wouldbe able to have days off in the

(30:33):
Dodger Games. When the Dodgers played, he would he would be able to
take those days off. So butyeah, he had a real drinking problem.
You could see it on the showquite often. Where you look at
him, you can see he hadthe shakes in a big way. Uh.
And uh, that's that's quite obviousat times that he had a problem.
When he died, he was well, he was living at the l

(30:55):
Royal over on Vine Street. Uh, just passed May West to place well
interested kind of Rossmore, Rossmore kindof becomes yeahs behind yeah, yeah,
and that's where like Peter Dinklage livesin there, and He'll Houser lived in
there, and Draft lived in there. Nicholas Cage lived in there, so
it's a really it's a high endplace. But Frawley was living there.

(31:18):
But when Fraley died on Hollywood Boulevard, they dragged him into the Knickerbocker hotel
lobby where he was pretty much dead. And he lived in the Knickerbocker for
many years, but he moved out, so it's just kind of interesting this
end there. So he died onMarch third, nineteen sixty six. He
was seventy nine of a heart attack, and he was out on the street

(31:40):
near the Knickerbocker and they took himinto the lobbies. That yeah, he
was He saw a movie at theVine Street Theater and he was with his
male nurse. For some reason,they mentioned that all the time a male
nurse. But he had been illfor a while and supposedly required a full
time male nurse. Yet he's stillcould walk to the bus stop and take
the bus from the movie theater.Yeah, but they say that he was

(32:02):
walking into the bus stopping and hedropped out of a heart attack, and
they dragged him into the knickerbocker andtried to resuscitate him. Paramedics showed up
and it was unsuccessful. They actuallytook him to the Hollywood Receiving Hospital,
which is on Wilcox at Fountain,which is now a police station, but
that's where the old hospital was,okay, and that's where he was.

(32:24):
He was pronounced of myocardial myocardial insufficiency, basically just a heart attack and uh
and yeah, and he when hedied. Uh And apparently this is something
I didn't know. But jumping backto when he was hired, I heard
that Lucy originally wanted Gail Gordon tobe that part who ended up being mister

(32:46):
Mooney and every other Lucy incarnation Gailgordons as in it, but Gail Gordon
couldn't do I love Lucy, andthat's why they got Frawley, which is
just an interesting aside. But um, but when he died, Desi Arnst
took out a full page ad inthe Hollywood Reporter and said Buenos no chase
amigo on it, which I thoughtwas and Desi was supposedly a pall bearer

(33:14):
at the funeral. Very interesting.He was at the Calendan Mortuary, which
is the same people that did dWood and bout a Legosi over Avar by
the Pantages and peg On Twistle thatjumped off the Hollywood Sign. They were
all done at the CAA Calendan Mortuaryand he's buried up at San Fernando Mission
Cemetery a little bit north of LosAngeles. So in his last cameo,

(33:38):
I don't know if you saw thatthe Lucy Show where he's in it actually
where he plays a horse trainer andthey're walking through a stable and they talked
a couple of lines and then shesays, do you look kind of familiar?
And then that was I guess.Probley's last appearance was so just kind
of a cool little uh nod acknowledgement, giving the fans something because it's a

(34:02):
real sentimental thing and probably probably wasn'tthe easiest person to get along with,
so it was nice for the fansto see that one last time. Rest
in peace. William Frawley so RickyRicardo was Lucille Ball's husband in real life.
Desi Arnez. And one thing Iread that I thought was interesting or

(34:23):
funny was that they would crack eachother up a lot, you know,
doing the scenes. Of course,they were professionals, so they normally wouldn't
break, but sometimes they would.And you can reportedly see this in the
show. Sometimes certain episodes you cansee them kind of break a little bit.
And you can also hear there's sceneswhere Lucy where Desi isn't on screen,
but Lucille is, you can seeyou can sometimes hear him laugh camera

(34:46):
at what he's seeing, because shewould her antics were so hilarious he couldn't
keep it in, you know,which I think is awesome. I've done
that on some of my documentaries.I've done that myself. I know a
few areas where I can hear myselflaugh, and I know only I know,
but I can I hear my heara little laugh come out of me.
Yeah. He was a little bitmore of a free spirit than than

(35:08):
Lucille Ball was, and that washis down ball too. But but you
you know, they were they werereally serious business people, serious business people.
By owning the show, they gavethem they got they got a chance
to own a studio and Lucy youknow, was able to head his studio
after they divorced, So you know, it was changing the way television was

(35:30):
made, how situation comedies were made. I mean they were they were really
important business people in Hollywood and ata time when you know, just be
nice and do your show right,they bought a studio. Yeah, Lucille
Ball was the first woman to heada TV production company, and after they
divorced, she bought out his shareof it and hadn't had it all for

(35:52):
herself. Yeah, and together,I mean they they also produced the Untouchables
series. Star Trek is because ofthem, um, the Mission Impossible TV
series, and one of our Patreonsupporters, I'm going to do a little
plug here, Um, Sarah recommendedon Patreon that we do a Mission Impossible
TV show episode one of these days. So maybe it was that that's probably

(36:15):
something we'll do also. Um,But a lot of people don't really may
not realize that that, uh,that they It wasn't just the shows that
they were in. They were responsiblefor some pretty big uh series and other
projects with their company. When eventuallyshe went to bat for Star Trek.
You know, they were they werelike science fiction TV sh are you nuts?

(36:37):
Lucy went, now, we're gonnado this, so she was.
She went to bat for it.That was Lucy is responsible for Star Trek.
I love that, yep. Soafter Desi had his own demons,
um he was. Uh. Theynearly got divorced in nineteen forty four.
Lucky for TV fans, they didn'tgo through with it, but they did
eventually divorce in nineteen sixty and LucyLucille Ball described being married to Arnaz as

(37:02):
a nightmare. Um that you know, he would disappear for days at a
time, and she would become arecluse because she didn't want to go out
and have to face like where's DESIquestions? You know, and he was
you know, she was always convincedthat he was fooling around, which where
well may have been if he's disappearing. Um. But then after they got
divorced, they stayed good friends.They were good as friends, I'm not

(37:23):
good as married couple. They were, I mean she when they were,
I mean it was to say itwas rocky is an understatement. I mean
she took a hammer to his headonce. You know, she threw a
hammer, well you know, becauseyou know, because that story about him
being unfaithful to her, and hesaid later on, he goes, well,
these people, these women were hookers. They didn't mean anything. She's

(37:44):
the one I love. But theyget into fights and then he get drunk
and then he go, you know, do his thing, and but she
when it got out. One time, it was in the Hollywood Confidential that
this womanizing and she threw a hammerat his head and hit him and he
was knocked out. And then theyworked it in that that he had fallen
and hit a ladder or something likethat. But it would have been easy

(38:07):
to be, to be mister Lucy. And that was what he was always
going to be, never mind thefact that he was this intelligent businessman who
made these smart decisions, but hewas always going to be mister Lucy.
And Um and he and he neverfelt he'd never in fact, is um

(38:30):
when she was being she he diedwhen the day or two before Lucy was
going to get the Kennedy Center onher. And he said that, uh,
he said his quote because when hedied, it was Lucy got the
award a couple of days later.So Robert Stack read something that the DESI
wrote for Lucy and she said,Lucy was the show. Viv Fred and

(38:52):
I he's called him Fred too nowWilliam, But he said, uh,
Lucy was the show. Viv Fredand I were just props and I love
Lucy was never just a title andI thought that was he was. He
never took that away from her.He was. He was a disaster as
a human being personally, you know, being that you know Booze and it
was clear at the end of itthat you know, you can look at

(39:14):
him and see what the toll ittook on his body. Uh, you
know. Later on he produced aTV show called The Mothers in Law with
Eve Arden and Kay Ballard and thentheir husbands I don't know, two gay
actors that could not be more gay, and then one of them putting.
Then Richard Deak and the other gayactor took over. But but and Desi

(39:34):
showed up on one or two ofthose episodes. But he he was the
producer of The Mothers in Law,which was another fun sort of sixties early
seventies TV show that that Desi showedup on. But uh, but after
that he sort of he just wentinto the to the background. He got
married again. He was living indel Mar with his wife Edy right on
the beach. Yeah. Beautiful house. Beautiful house, yeah, really cool

(39:59):
little beach house. And del AreYeah. And he was into horse racing,
uh and del Mar Racetrack has uhthe I think the Desi Arnaz Stakes
kind of in his honor. Um. I don't know if that's still happening,
but they did have it. Andhe was big into horse racing and
he bred race horses and that washe kind of semi retired. I think

(40:19):
after to some extent he did hestill did some projects, but never at
the level that Lucy went on todo in the sixties and beyond. And
then, um, you know,I think to Lucy's Lucille Ball's uh,
you know, personal detriment. Eventhough he was horrible, he was horrible
to be married too. She wasyou know, in love with him.
And after they divorced, she remarried. She married a producer named Gary Morton,

(40:43):
and I think after Lucy died,Gary Morton said something to the effect
of, you know, Lucy's finallyhas what she wanted. She's together with
DESI again. I think that's whatteam clear. Yeah, they could never
I mean she I think that youknow, there's always that one love that
you'll never get over, I think, And and something so public that that
they were you know, people lovedthem so much together. Um, that

(41:05):
was a When they were divorcing,that was a big deal. That was
really scandalous. It was like whenSonny and Shared were divorced. You know,
although their show was over with ILove Lucy, h it was.
It was really scandalous back then.And you could never meet Lucy without saying,
where's Ricky? And and since theywere married in real life, it
had to have been hard to beGary Morton because he was even a worse

(41:27):
mystery. In fact, in Warhol'sdiary, Andy Warhol, he saw Gary
Morton showed up at the studio fiftyfour and uh, and somebody wasn't gonna
they were't gonna let him in,and and he said, you gotta let
him. And that's mister Lucy.Oh, and you're still and and he's
living in there's still living in thehouse, which we'll talk about in a
bit. There's still living in thehouse in Beverly Hills that Lucy and Desi

(41:50):
lived in. So you're not onlymarried to this guy's ex wife, but
you're living in their house. That'sgotta be weird. That's gotta be a
weird And she's clearly still hung upon him. Yeah yeah that And and
as I understand it, she visitedhim, you know, in his last
days, and and uh and andsomebody I don't know if this is true
or now, but somebody told methat she moved him into the house on

(42:13):
Roxbury Drive at the end so shecould sort of look over his after his
because he because he remarried and hisex his new wife then passed away.
Someone wrote you on your findal deathpage and said had said that they heard
that after his second wife died hebriefly or something like that, he briefly
moved into the guesthouse. And howyou know, Gary Morton must have loved

(42:36):
that if that happened. You know, but Lucy had those two kids with
with with Desi Arnash, so uhyou know they had a they they yeah,
yeah, I mean those kids ontheir own or a story man.
They they they are you know,they're there's something. It's weird. And
and because everyone wants to think thatLucy is a sad, smiling, lapping

(42:59):
clowning lady, would she was areally serious competitive uh lady. She she
was Noble's bart. She said thatshe, you know, her kids could
talk to her about anything, ButI don't think so. I don't she
spoke that. But I don't thinkshe was that way, because there's all
sorts of stories about her kids sortof rebelling and uh and having real issues

(43:20):
with with with her. Hollywood isfull of stories about the kids of famous
people growing up messed up because theygrew up in the shadow, and they
also grew up with all oftentimes absenteeparents who were busy with their demanding schedules
and aren't around to raise them,and it's just you end up with the
lots of messed up celebrity kids asa result of that. And Desi Junior

(43:42):
grew up to be uh, youknow, he turned into a teen heartthrob
in the seventies and dated some famouspeople and I think he dated Elizam and
Ellie for a time. Um.And I read that Lucy Um commented on
that that she after they after hebroke up with her and moved on to
someone else. Lucy's something about howshe missed Liza, but Liza could not
be domesticated something like that. That'sfunny. Well there was you know,

(44:07):
she wanted her kids to grow upand to be professionals on their own.
But then Desi Junior was in theband Dino, Desi and Billy and got
huge. She goes, well,there was that, you know, all
of a sudden, he popped carwith his own money. But he was
dating Patty Duke for a while andPatty Duke and he uh Lucy did not

(44:28):
approve. And I don't know,maybe it was at the peak of Patty
do exceptance abuse or something. Butalso Desi was not eighteen yet, he
was only he was only seventeen,and they wanted she wanted him done,
so she really forced them to breakup, and she was gonna She threatened
to Patty Duke that she was gonnaget her per statutory rape since Desi was

(44:50):
only seventeen years old. Now,the rumor is that, you know,
very shortly afterwards, Patty Duke becamepregnant, and she became pregnant with Sean
and Aston, who is now Sean. And if you look at Sean Aston
and you put his face next toDesi Arnez Junior, it's like, okay,
now Desire and his junior dark features. You know, he's dark eyes,
dark hair, and Shaun Aston ismore fair haired, but so is

(45:14):
Patty Duke. But if you puthim side to side. There's always been
this rumor that Shaun Aston is actuallyDesirez Junior's son, and later on it
came out they said that Shaun Astonsaid it was actually a rock and roll
Um yeah, producer that was hisfather or something like that. But yeah,
it's like it's like Ronan Pharaoh.You know, you look at him

(45:35):
and put him up to the nextdoctor's picture and it's like it's like you're
looking at your image. Yeah,so I know, I mean legally,
you know, maybe they, butI if you hold up Shaun Aston's picture
Patty Duke's son, which works outtimeline wise to Desi Ernz Junior and uh
yeah, but Lucy did not approve. Did not approve. And it's kind

(45:57):
of ironic because, um, whenI was skimming her Wikipedia page, so
I take I take this to betrue that m Lucy herself when she was
fourteen, uh started dating a twentyone year old quote unquote hoodlum. It
was only a fourteen year old datinga twenty one year old, and Lucy's
mother did not approve, and that'swhy Lucy got into acting. Her mom,

(46:21):
even though they had limited funds,got Lucy into an acting school to
try and get her because she knewthat Lucy was interested in entertainment, just
to try to lure her away fromthis guy that she was, the older
guy that she was dating. Andit worked, and that's how Lucy became
an actress. So it's kind ofironic. Uh, and uh that that
she then ended up having the sameissue with her own kid, Yeah,

(46:42):
over that itself. Yeah. UhSo Desi Arnez passed away on December second,
nineteen eighty six. He was sixtynine from lung cancer. And I
mean he just lived hard and smokeda lot smoked cigars, I think a
lot. And uh and it caughtup with them. I guess sure did.
Yeah. So Lucy, Lucy andDesi Arnez, you know, took

(47:06):
the profit to I Love Lucy.They they filmed it for two years at
at the Lust Palm, I don'tknow what they call it now, but
it was Les Palmis and uh andSanta Monica Boulevard Dad's studio, and then
they took the profits to My Love. Then they moved over to Red Studios
that went on Coca and that's infact, there's that. There's that picture
of the audience lining up to seeI Love Lucy, and it says on

(47:29):
the side of it, there's asign in the brackets still there that says
the Desilu Playhouse, and it hasthe audience lining up to see this taping
of this filming of I Love Lucy. And if you look really closely at
this image of the audience lining upon the side of the studio or actually
a couple of lights outdoor ceiling,you know what I mean, like mounted

(47:52):
on the side of the building.Well, one of those days when I
was walking by, it was hangingon a wire, literally a single goal
wire, and I and I andI poked it and it magically floated down
to gosh and actually landers Keepers,this is it. So fred Studios is

(48:15):
looking for their old light. Itwas, I mean, I look at
these duds, are broken wires fellto the ground and field whatever. But
this was yeah, this shows upfrom that old picture too. And I
have a lot of stuff here fromher last house too, But anyway,
we're gonna get into all that.So they moved I Love Lucy too after

(48:39):
two years to Red Studios which ison Kawanga, and then they took the
profits of My L Lucy and boughtr KO Studios and it became Desilu And
they also had an office over inCulver City near the Box a lot too
or by the MGM I thing.But but yeah, they were they.
I mean, they bought a studio. That's that's that's so cool, and

(48:59):
now it's all wants the paramount,as does I Love Lucy and all the
other shows that they mission impossible.And famously, when they negotiated their deal,
they got the replay rights to theshow, which at the time that
the studios and networks did not realizehad any value because there was no such
thing as as replays and reairs.And then a few years later they realized

(49:22):
that what they'd given them and theybought it back from them for a large
pile of money. They got theirrights back. But yeah, so they
very wisely had the rerun rights fora time, back before there was such
a thing as runs. In fact, there's that famous moment and back to
the future, remember where he's watchingTV where they're all watching TV. He's
back in the fifties and Marty says, Oh, I think I saw this

(49:44):
a rerun, and again Dad looks, what's a rerun? Yeah. I
don't know if it's true, butI read that that they weren't going to
film it for posterity at first,but they Lucy decided to keep it as
like home movies. I don't knowthat necessarily true because they didn't have any
kids at that point, but right, that's what they say. So they

(50:07):
were who are they? No,I don't know, but so that was
Desi arnez rest in peace Desi,and that leaves um, you know,
the Lucy herself, Lucille Ball theGreat comedian, and I watched I watched
an old episode of Lila Lucy andprep for this show. I watched one
of the early early episodes from thefirst season where Lucy is she's reading a

(50:31):
crime book, she's getting wrapped upin it, and then she becomes convinced
that Desi is trying to kill her, and it is. It's so it
just reminds you of how funny theshow is. There's a scene where she's
strapped pants to herself to keep himfrom being able to shoot her, and
they're in the room to get thereand I think the kitchen together and she's

(50:51):
Bob and weaven like a like aboxer while they're talking, and he's kind
of like, what are you doing? And she's she's so physically so funny.
And to to watch it, youknow, sixty some years later and
it's still it's still I guess,yeah, seventy years later now it's the
seventieth anniversary now of the year whenthe show premiered. It's it's really it's

(51:12):
hilarious. It's it's great when comedycarries over and holds up like that.
And I Love Lucy is definitely oneof those shows that holds up. I
think, yeah, yeah, it'sit's it's the formula that they've used for
probably for many many shows. Butbut yeah, and and Lucy herself,
I mean that was a character Lucy. You know, Lucile Ball was not
Lucy in real life, but everyevery every part she played on every Lucy

(51:37):
show. Life with Lucy I Loveyou know, it was always the Lucy
character, but it was far farfrom the real Lucio Ball most definitely.
But she was good at it.She was really good at it. And
they compare La Gilda Radner to herthey compare. I'm trying to think of
some other people that they have thatphysical ability physical comics, you know,

(52:00):
and to that point, she tothat point, she was a fan of
Threese Company. And one of herlast one of the late things she filmed,
you know, for a few yearsbefore her death, was a Threese
Company kind of retrospective special that theydid that she kind of hosted and walked
fans through some of the best momentsfrom Threeze Company. And she reported it
was a big fan of it,and you can see why. It was

(52:22):
very, very similar to her herstyle of comedy that her show was,
you know, twenty thirty years earlier. Wow, I didn't know that.
That's fascinating. Lucy watched the Company. I could see it though. I
mean, it's very It's her andJack, I think had a lot of
the Jack character had a lot incommon that physical comedy and constantly getting into

(52:45):
jams. And yeah, I cantotally see how she would have liked it.
But she was you know, shewould always say, she'd say that
she's not funny in real life.You know, she always said that I'm
funny on paper, but I amyou know, My part is to be
that way. But you know,but I'm not funny in real life.

(53:05):
Although she had an edge to herdefinitely. There was something that I read
when when Lucy died. You know, this supposedly autobiography was locked away in
this closet and Lucy Arnaz, herdaughter, found it and publish it and
the story which which I took awayfrom it, which is something I've repeated
many times and I maybe even saidit on one of our podcasts, but

(53:29):
one of the Lucy's favorite things todo. She said that sometimes there'd be
a dinner party and after dinner they'dbe standing around having cocktails and cigarettes and
somebody would inevitably, inevitably go anduse the restroom. So on that person's
return to the party, Lucy thatthis person would be walking in and Lucy
would turn to the person to herleft and say, well, there she

(53:51):
is, now tell her to herface. So she definitely had an edge
to her. That's hilarious, butuh and and to kind of to that
point, she also liked to saytell people that because I think she had
some she was involved in some comedyclasses and stuff like that, and she
acting classes, and she said,you know, you can't learn comedy.

(54:14):
You either have it or you don't. And I think the large extent that's
true. You're either funny or youaren't. But and also, you know,
comedy as a craft, acting asa craft, comedy writing as a
craft. There's a lot of peopleout there who are funny but can't write
comedy. They're funny to be around, but they can't do comedy. They
can't do stand up, they can'twrite a hit comedy movie, you know

(54:35):
what I mean. So it's itis, Um yeah, you can't teach
funny, um, but you canlearn the craft if you are funny of
developing that into being a professional comedianor comedic actor like she was. Um
So that's yeah, that's really interesting. Um So, when we've already kind
of said a lot about her career, at least what she accomplished in all
the other shows that she produced andwas responsible four, and how successful she

(55:00):
was as a businessperson. Um,it is a little weird to watch her
shows in the sixties that are incolor after they're getting to know her so
well in black and white, andshe they relocated her character while the Lucy
Carmichael character to Hollywood. Thus itbecame like a parade of guest stars,
you know, and it was likeevery episode there was somebody famous that you

(55:23):
know. Joan Crawford was on one, and Toolula Bankhead was on one,
and John Lane was on one,and there was one a very famous one
with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor whereyou know they should Elizabeth Taylor, I
had this like some ridiculous like sixtyfive carrot diamond ring and brought it like,
you know, I think it's literallythis can't She could only take it

(55:44):
out of the vault like once everyfive years to wear it. I mean
it was a real It was areal diamond. And they used it on
the show with Richard Burton and ElizabethTaylor and it fell off of no,
yeah, it fell off. Shetook it off to wash her hands,
Elizabeth Taylor and Lucy put it on, couldn't get it off and premise of
the show. So anyway, RichardBurton writes this in his in his diaries,

(56:06):
and I'm going to read this toyou, and it's a real insight.
Now. Burton was was an alcoholic, you know, and in a
very pretentious and very opinionated and theywere at the top of the Liz and
Dick fame thing too. You knowwhat I mean? They were they were
Everyone was fascinated with these two people. So this is what he has to
say about Lucy. Okay, Now, those who uh, those who have

(56:30):
told us that Lucille Ball was verywearing, were not exaggerating. She is
a monster of staggering charmlessness and monumentallack of humor. She is not wearing
to us because I suppose we refuseto be worn. I am coldly sarcastic
with her, to the point ofoutright contempt. But she hears only what
she wants to hear, nineteen solidyears of double takes and pratfalls, and

(56:53):
despite upstaging and cutting other people's laughs, if she can nervously watching the rays
as she does so. A machineof enormous energy, which driven by a
stupid driver who has forgotten that amachine runs on oil as well as gasoline,
and who has neglected the former,is creaking badly towards a final convulsive

(57:14):
seize up. I loathed her thatfirst day, I loathed her the second
and the third. I loathe hertoday, but now I also pity her.
After tonight, I shall make apoint of never seeing her again.
We work, or have worked untiltoday, which is the last, thank
God, from ten am to somewherearound five pm. And Milady Milady Balls

(57:37):
can thank her lucky stars that Iam not drinking. There's a chance that
I might have killed her. JackBenny, the most amiable man in the
world and one of the truly greatcomedians of our time, said that in
four days she reduced his life expectancyby ten years. The impactably professional Joan
Crawford was so inhibited by his bonnothof selfishness that she got herself stupendously crocked

(58:00):
for the entire show and virtually hadto be helped to her feet and managed
not without some satisfaction. I daresay, to bug her up the whole
show. And Joan Rivers was Joecropperd supposedly said, you know, and
they think I'm a bitch. Sothat is scathing and I'm sure, you

(58:21):
know, exaggerated considerably, but veryelequantly well thought out and you know,
and one person's perspective, but italso is um you know, backed up
by some would you know, say, facts, very gross grossly uh you

(58:42):
know, just yeah, fashion.I couldn't. I was like my eyes
are bugged out of my head reading. Oh god, I kind of wandered
too though. You know, anytimethere's criticism of someone like her from her
era, how much sexism is it? Was involved in that? And would
they think feel that way if itwas a male, a man doing what
she did? Ye, lazing thetrail. She had to be who she

(59:02):
was in order to survive in thedo what she did basically, and the
fruits of that are or self evident, you know what she accomplished. Yeah,
I can kind of see both sidesof it. She said that women's
lives talking about women's lib. Youknow, she'd been doing this. She
owned a studio for God's sake,you know, women's lib. Oh,
I'm afraid it doesn't interest me onebit. I've been so liberated it hurts.

(59:29):
Right. So she had she knewwhat work she was proto. She
was proto women's lib. She wasprecursor to it. Yeah, she knew
what work and in any in anycapacity except for the very last life with
Lucy, in every capacity she succeededin being that character. Really and uh
and her well, it treated herwell. Um. So she passed away

(59:52):
on April twenty sixth, nineteen eightynine, at seventy seven. So she
was the last of the main castto pass away. Desi had passed away
three years earlier. And um,she was seventy seven, and she died
from an abdominal aortic aneurysm. Shehad had. She'd been hospitalized, I
believe, for some heart problems leadingup to that UM and then had been

(01:00:14):
released and then and then had severeshe woke up a severe back pain,
which is one of the symptoms ofabdominal air ortogandriism, and was died at
the hospital. Was declared dead atthe hospital. Yeah, she she was
in the hospital for about eight ornine days. She had she had chest
pains and they you know, adoctor came and to go now and within

(01:00:36):
a couple hours, right, anda table for like eight hours and uh
and um and and they gave heran a order from a guy twenty seven
year old motorcycle accident fatality is whereshe got it from this this valve.
And and she was recuperating, youknow, she was up and she was
walking around her hospital room and everything, and of course the world was morning

(01:01:00):
that morning. But worried. Iremember Jerry's Delly was across the street from
Cedars and her room overlooked it,and they had a big sign, get
well Lucy, I painted on theroof of that. And then uh,
the hard Rock Cafe, which wasdown in the corner, had a big
sign, get well Lucy. Theyhad a scroll. I don't know whatever

(01:01:21):
happened to this thing, but itwas like an entire block of Hollywood Boulevard
where people were signing get well wishesto Lucy. I mean it was a
you know, it was She's abig deal and uh and um. But
anyway, she she ended up collapsingat the hospital and died suddenly, so
that you know, that was thatwas a surprise. They she was on
the mend and uh, and everyonethought she'd be out in no time,

(01:01:45):
but no time happened rather quickly anduh, and that's what she had.
And I think and I think doctorsclaimed that her her aneurysm that she died,
her aircanyism she had was unrelated tothe surgery. I don't know if
that's I don't know if that's trueor not. But it was days apart,
so I don't know. A lifea time of smoking non builter cigarettes

(01:02:05):
her teeth. It's nice though,that all those nice outpouring of support happened,
because supposedly she was a bit bitterkind of in the last years of
her life and it didn't help that. You know, DESI died in eighty
six, and I think that wasthe same year she attempted a comeback show
that got canceled after a couple ofmonths, so she had she got hit
pretty hard, pretty brutal. Thatshow was terrible, and yeah, she
didn't recuperate from that when life withLucy was was just horrendous and it was

(01:02:30):
a real shame. It's a realshame. But she was you know,
she was in her upper seventies atthat point, and she just did televish,
moved on, and she was stillbeing that character. She was still
portraying that character. We've mentioned thisbefore on the show once or twice,
but her last public appearance was atthe Academy Awards with Bob Hope just about

(01:02:51):
four weeks before she passed away.They came out and I think presented an
award together or something, introduced something. Yeah, it was yeah, and
she looked great. She really,I mean, you know, a lifetime
of smoking was clear, but butshe had su stressed and it was cut
up to her, you know,to her her thigh, and she looked
amazing and and it was a niceway to go out being uh, you

(01:03:14):
know, being greeted that that lovinglyby the audience with Bob Hope. And
but I don't think kind of likeit's kind of like Chaplain, kind of
like Chaplin coming back towards the endof his life at the Academy Awards and
getting the Standing Ovation. Yeah.Yeah, but she was, Yeah,
so she was. She was crematedand she was placed in a niche with

(01:03:37):
her mother at Forest on Hollywood Hillsand the Columbarium of Radiant Dawn. And
I know that at the top myhead of reading that I used to go
there. And then but then herkids bid for her house in Jamestown,
New York, where she grew upon eBay. I guess the house was
on eBay and they bought it withinyou know, some sort of investors,

(01:03:59):
and now there's a Lucy Museum inJamestown. So, against her mother's wishes,
uh, their mother's wishes, theyhad Lucy and her mother exhumed from
Fort Lawn, the place where theychose to be to now she's a tourist
attraction in Jamesown, Jamestown, NewYork, which you know, that's just
just the way it is. Butum, yeah, but yeah, Lucy,

(01:04:19):
Lucy herself chose where her final restingplace would be and uh and uh
it was not to be but youknow her her supposedly, but now I
find it. There was another storythat I that I heard about Lucy.
Um, you know Kay, youknow who Kay Ballard was. Um,
it sounds very familiar. She wasthe star of the Mothers in Law,

(01:04:41):
that show that DESI produced, andshe was an old you know, old
pro comic stand up stuff. Shewas an amazing singer, and she's a
she's a lesbian. I mean,Lucy hung around with a lot of lesbians
and uh and uh, but KayBallard was was you know, very there's
a rele to that. And Idon't know what it is my bringing out
that she was gay. But anyway, Kay Ballard and Lucy were a close

(01:05:04):
friends. And this is a storythat the Kay Ballard tells. She said,
Lucy and I in Palm Springs,Lucy and I were riding bikes when
a dog came out of the woods. Foaming at the mouth. She just
looked at the dog and screamed toget the gut it here, and the
dog ran back into the woods.Kay ballards as I turned her and said,

(01:05:24):
that is why you are queen ofthe world and I am nothing.
That's awesome. But Lucy lived atthe same house for till till she died.
They bought the house in the inthe fifties on Roxbury Drive, one
thousand Roxbury Drive, and she livedthere until the day she died. Unless

(01:05:48):
she didn't died in the house shelived until the day she died, the
same house she shared with Daisy,same house she brought up her kids,
and the same house she shared withGary Morton. Gary. Um. So
there's a number This happens a lot. There's a number of If you scroll
through the IMDb for I Love Lucy, there's you see this a lot.
With other shows that were long running. There's certain actors who you've never heard

(01:06:11):
of, but who appear in abunch of episodes, always as kind of
a different character, right, theybring back the same person guy or girl
to play various extra parts. Reallyare a featured extra. Sometimes they have
a line, sometimes they don't,and the one that stood out to me
was an actor named Bennett Green,and he was actually Desi's stand in on
the show. And I've seen thisbefore and stuff I've worked on where he

(01:06:33):
is a stand in. He's thestand in is there on set every day
anyways. So if you need anextra, you need, you need somebody
to play a messenger at the dooror whatever, or a party guest,
why not grab them. They're standingthere anyways. So Bennett Green ended up
appearing in fifteen episodes, but alwaysas somebody different. He was a messenger,
he was a delivery man, hewas a camera operator, he was

(01:06:55):
a dock worker, florist, hotdog vendor, party guests, neighbor man
on the street, stage hand inthe audience, etc. And then he
also went on to appear in eightepisodes in similar supporting parts on The Lucy
Show in the sixties, which iskind of interesting since Deasy wasn't around for
that. He wasn't the stand inanymore, but they obviously, you know,

(01:07:16):
must have formed some type of relationshipwith him and kept bringing him back.
Bennett Green passed away on September eighth, nineteen eighty two. He was
seventy seven and he is also atHollywood Forever, which is cool. Aaron
Spelling. There's a bunch of you, scrow. I mean, there's hundreds
and hundreds of actors and actresses creditedon the IMDb, so there's probably a

(01:07:38):
bunch of cool ones I've missed.But Aaron Spelling played a gas station man
on an episode, so you musthave been one of those little bit parts.
And there were also a bunch ofcelebrity guests who appeared as themselves on
I Love Lucy. The most famousone, I think is William Holden,
and that one of my most famousscenes from the whole show when they go

(01:08:00):
to Hollywood and she has She's atthe brown Derby and Bill brown Derby right
or yeah, it's the brown Derbythere, Yeah, and William Holden is
there and she has this hilarious encounterwith him, you know, him playing
himself. John Wayne was also inat orson Wells. Bob Hope, Rock
Hudson, Rock Hudson, Van Johnson, and head A Hopper all appeared as
themselves, and there's probably more thana miss but I thought that was kind

(01:08:20):
of interesting. Um, it's alot of celebrity guest appearances when they went
to Hollywood. Um, you know, because I'm a little bit of a
well everyone is that lives in LaUh. You know you look in the
background constantly for stuff you recognized.Yeah, because it's almost like a documentary
to some extent. Yeah. Yeah, there's that scene where they first get

(01:08:42):
the Hollywood and they pull into ahotel and that hotels the Avalon and will
sure you know that hotel your centurycity, but you know it's got that
kind of mid century kind of breezeblock right eerier and you see right into
there. Now when they showed thesets and they're you know, they're on
the set, they're in their roomat their hotel room. The view outside

(01:09:05):
the window was a photograph taken fromthe roof of the studio where they made
it. Because you could see theHollywood sign, you could see the Plaza
Hotel, you could see the product. All those signs are still there,
and uh but it was so theybasically went on the roof until the course
and blew it up and made itto the exterior of their hotel, which

(01:09:25):
is kind of a clever idea welleasy once they clever. So the Harpo
Marx thing was great. There wasthere were some really great. I love
the Hollywood episodes. They're my favoritesmost definitely. So let's talk about ghosts,
shall we. Um You mentioned youmentioned her house in Beverly Hills on

(01:09:48):
which is at a thousand North RoxburyDrive. Unfortunately, it was a few
years after she passed away. GaryMorton sold it and somewhere at some point
the new owners heavily renovated it,which is really too bad. So it
still somewhat, you know, resemblesthe original house, but it's kind of

(01:10:08):
been plastered and part of it wastorn down, and it's just it's a
bummer. It's a bummer. It'salways a bummer when these houses get especially
one that someone lived in it fora long time like she did. Like
it's a bummer that people don't respectthe history and leave them alone. But
there's lots of stories that she hauntsthe house, and some of the ones
I've found, there's the reports ofbroken windows and a lot of activity in

(01:10:31):
the attic, loud voices coming fromthe attic, furniture in the house getting
moved around, but also boxes inthe attic getting moved around. People have
heard the sounds of a party upstairs, before. People have heard the is
Love Lucy theme song come from theThese are the current owners you know that
you're claiming or past owners. Idon't know if he who owns it now.
And there's a blog called seeks Ghoststhat says that I think originated this

(01:10:57):
story that a friend of Lucille's grovepast the property to see the home one
last time. Walls were missing,she was in being renovated. He could
see Lucille's old bedroom and then henoticed the tall, slim redhead peering through
the fence at what was left.And she turned toward him and realized it
was Lucy, and she looked upsetand confused, and then she walked around
the south corner of the house anddisappeared. Wow. Interesting, Wow,

(01:11:24):
that's that I've never heard any ofthese stories. That's really interesting. Um
the attic is where she used totie up and beat the kids. Oh
nice, just kidding. We gotlike a Mommy Dearest thing going on here.
I've heard I've heard these stories beforeand uh, and it seems to

(01:11:45):
come from multiple sources, so itis interesting. And I mean among people
that are into paranormal investigating and stuffthat it is the um the less traveled
places and buildings, or would theysay where you know the ghosts like to
hang out basically and not be bothered. So that's attics, crawl spaces,
basements, storage areas, closets,whatever, secret rooms, behind doors,

(01:12:06):
whatever is where they hang out.So it's interesting that a lot of the
stuff seems focused on the attic ofthe house. Um and then uh there's
also claims that she haunts the oldstudio building which is now at Paramount.
I heard that one. Yeah,I've heard that one. No, the
I know it was. It wasthe one unlast Palmus was I was.
I heard that, dude, I'mnot saying one on Lost Palmus where they

(01:12:30):
filmed the last the first two yearsof the show. I've heard that,
but um yeah, so yeah shegood for her and then she also they
had a ranch house in uh inthe Valley and in Chatsworth called Desilu Ranch.
Unfortunately was it was demolished in midseventies for a subdivision that was built

(01:12:51):
there, so kind of a bummer. But it was up on Devin Shure
uh so pretty far north. Andthen um, she all they also had
a place in Palms for Yes,I knew about that one too. You
know, something happened which I don'tknow what this. I want to go
back to the house in a second, but which they had a few.

(01:13:12):
They had three funerals for her.One was a private family, a private
one in Los Angeles, and itwas funny because Gary Morton was put was
quoted in the in the U Idon't know what magazine or newspaper and says,
you know, it's gonna be aprivate thing. We got a guy
around here that shows where people died, and none of us wanted anything like
that talking about, which was kindof funny. But so they had these

(01:13:41):
three funerals, went in Los Angeles, went in New York, one in
Chicago. I was living in Chicagoat the time, so I went to
the Chicago one, and I can'texplain what happened. This is the weirdest
thing. And I don't know thisparanormal. It's probably something ridiculous. And
it didn't happen in the in thecathedral either, but I was on my
way. We took a taxi fromthe office to the funeral, and this
never happened to me before or since. But I was in the taxi.

(01:14:03):
We're talking about Lucy and I lookedup and it was at that very moment
there were like water in my eyes, both my eyes, dripping water directly
into my eyes. There was nothingthere. There was no one near me
that did do that. There wasnothing in the taxi. But it was
just the weirdest. I can't explainit. I just always attributed it to
Lucy because it happened right then,but it just so it was weird.

(01:14:25):
I've never heard about anyone else either. But you know, my eyes are
fine now, they're you know,old and decrepit, but uh, but
then, you know, it wasjust the weirdest thing. I looked up
in boom, these these drops ofwaters were in my eye. Was just
the weirdest you were. You werein the taxi. It was in the
back of it, so like likeit came out of the ceiling. There
was nothing there, nothing, nothingthere. I was talking to the person

(01:14:46):
next to me and I said,what you know, and there was like
nothing. I can't explain it,so I can't say it's super I'm going
to say that was one of theweirdest things that I can't turn It's like
you turned into one of those uh, those Catholic statues that cry maybe so
on a next but it was weird. I can't like you to figure out

(01:15:09):
what that was. But anyway,so, uh so, yeah, and
Lucy. So I don't I reallyknow the logistics of that house. The
house was empty for probably six years, sitting there on that corner, and
it was just falling apart. Imean people, you know, no one
was living in it, and allof Lucy's things were still in it.
And somebody I knew worked at itwas a Universal and I don't know what

(01:15:33):
the I didn't know how these youknow, ownership of what ended up where
I know that The Lucy Show wasmade at Universal. I don't know who,
you know who actually owned it,but my friend, I think work
for Universal was documenting everything that wasin the house, and you know it's
got to look you know, Lucykept some of her costumes there too,
which was kind of cool. Soand also that Lucy Museum was at Universal

(01:15:56):
Studios for a while down where,you know, down in the on the
lower section of Universal Studio. SoUniversal must own something with of Lucy,
or at least used to. Anduh so, so this house sat there
empty for years and it was literallyfalling apart. I mean, like the
shutters, which I don't want.They're in a box somewhere. I have

(01:16:18):
some of her shutters that were justlike, you know, we're just falling
literally apart. Uh. We wereable to get into the house actually at
one point and it was you know, it was empty at that point and
the walls were falling down and wegot my friend got her welcome Matt.
But so it would be amazing.I would love to have that. Yeah,

(01:16:38):
and it has one of the eventswhich is all you know, all
yellow and nicotined, and you know, because it hadn't been it hadn't been
redone in a very very long time. Yeah. So it cut to about
a year ago. I get thisthis email out of nowhere from a guy
who says, I have Lucy sink. Do you want it? And I'm

(01:16:58):
like it was her hair sink andhe goes, I have this to you
one and and I'm like from herhouse on rockspurw I'm like yeah, So
within you know, half an hour, I was at the guy's house and
you know, you can't you know, this is a between us thing.
I mean I could talk about it. Obviously. He gave it to me
because he knows what I do,and I couldn't de vulte who he is.
But he gave me the sink thatLucy had in her house that she

(01:17:23):
would have her hair dyed every weekor so. It had like a little
the little scoop out of it foryou to put your head like an hair
dresser studio. Yea, I getit, so so so I have.
And then he gave me this envelopeand or two of Lucy's credit cards,
you know, gas cards and stufflike that, to Lucile Bone and he's
like, here, you can havethese, because you know, I'm not
going to do anything with him,at least if you haven't, someone will

(01:17:43):
have someone to be so, youknow. So so I have Karen Carpenter's
sink, and I I have Lucy'ssink. And then there was a guy
who's probably still selling it on eBay, little vials of the hair dye that
she she used. It was aparticular Egyptian type of hair dye that Hannah
that she use. And there wasI remember she was not a natural redhead.
She had brown hair, I believenaturally right, Yeah, she wouldn't

(01:18:05):
a redhead, but the but itwas only a particular shade of red and
only a particular type of dye thatshe would use. Mum. So then
you know, upon little searching,I found an appearance that she did on
the die I think it was DinahShore Show and her and Vivian Vance were
on this show together, and thisis in the seventies. And they tell

(01:18:28):
a story about being in Lucy's houseand they're getting their hair done and this
is cool because I have the syncnow you know, it's sitting like driveway
right now. But um, butand she says, Vivian Van starts the
story, and keep in mind,this is the six this is the seventies,
and and if you watch the DeanMartin Celebrity breads, it's very unpolitically
correct. I mean to the pointwhere it's like people would be, you

(01:18:48):
know, protesting and demanding death ifthey were to watch these and to right,
and I'm dead serious, they areso out there anyway. So so
but this is you know, it'sa good natured show and good nature of
the Vivian Vance is saying, youknow, Lucy and I she was getting
I was getting my hair dyed peroxided, and Lucy was getting her Hannah and

(01:19:10):
and we've got you know, ourtoes up. We're getting pedicures and and
we're sitting in Lucy's house and thenext thing, you know, this group
of people walked through the house andthey're they're dressed up, and they've got
these amazing clothes on and and andthey're clearly well it was the you know,
it's Lucy's saying they're from India orSiam, I guess at that point.

(01:19:32):
And then she goes and they're wearingthese clothes and then the women had
the dot the whole thing, youknow, walking through their house. So
they're walking literally like a tour busdropped them off, and you were walking
through Lucy's house and they're walking throughyou know, this beauty room where you're
giving their hairstyle, and she andLynn and Vivian Vance says, and we
found out later it was the Kingas I am, you know, so

(01:19:55):
walking through Lucy's house as the otherbox. But it was just it was
it was FASHIONA hear this story andnow, you know, having a piece
of it, it's kind of cooltoo, but uh yeah, it's just
it's a it's a different time andthere's a lot of things wrong at that
time. Uh, certainly, Butbut there's there's nuts. Um. You
know, Lucy was her own moldthat she broke. I mean, she

(01:20:18):
she she was, she was everything, you know, she was the whole
deal, businessperson, successful actress,mother, you know. Yea, and
even even the daughter Lucy Arne said, you know when you're when you're the
daughter of two beyond the realm ofcomprehension famous people, and uh and and

(01:20:41):
it's true that had to have beenvery difficult. And now there's all that
uproar about the uproar but they're makingthe new biopic and uh and uh yeah,
I guess they've already cast Nicole Kidmanas Lucy and uh as your Nash.
But I watched a little in Grahamthing that she did and she goes,
this isn't you know. They're notbeing Lucy and Ricky like you know

(01:21:04):
them. They're being my parents.And it's not a hack job. This
is a real story and you're gonnaget a real look at the way things
were. We're not casting yeah Ilove Lucy. We're casting them as human
right And uh so it's it's gonnabe it's gonna be an interesting project.

(01:21:25):
Yeah, I think anything like ak wouldn't be wished. It sucked,
you know. So originally Kate Blantchettwas supposed to play Lucy in this in
this show, and for whatever reasonthat changed and uh and they there it's
now gonna be um Nicole Kidman.So people were, I think we're bum
because Kate Blanchett is a is fantastic, She's such a fantastic actor, but
so is Nicole Kidman. So uh, you know, they get the benefit

(01:21:48):
of it out For me, Ihope it. I hope it's good.
Yeah, yeah, most definitely.Did you read well, you must have?
It was big, kind of oneof those entertainment funny stories. But
they had the James Town, youknow museum Lucy's hometown in her old house
where she grew up in at yourLucy's not buried, but a couple of
years ago there was. It waskind of a scandal because they had the

(01:22:09):
most hideous Lucy statue there. Rememberthat, Yes, Oh my god,
it was so bad, horrifying anduh and it was commissioned and approved because
they put it in a park somewhereand for some reason, I just wereth
the eyes in the in the smilejust like crazy. It wasn't that the

(01:22:29):
one where the face was just likeit would haunt your dreams, like it
was gonna run you and chew yourface up. You know. It was
so I don't know, Like Isaid, it was approved by somebody and
it was put there and they musthave had some sort of ceremony and they
probably unveiled it. Were like,yeah, but that cost a lot of
money. We're just gonna leave it. But they ended up replacing it.

(01:22:49):
And I don't know what happened tothe original Ugly Lucy. But if anyone
has it and doesn't want it anymore, I will be happy to take it.
I would love Ugly Lucy. Ithink that'll be. I would have
it in front of my museum,my next museum. Oh my god,
I would sew me up. Ohyeah, most definitely. That's awesome.

(01:23:09):
Is that it? I think?So? I mean the other huge So
we talked about briefly. You knowGayale Gordon, who played mister Mooney and
he followed her for her incarnations ofthe last Lucy shows. Uh ended up
being you know, she was.He was married for fifty seven years,
died of cancer. Keith Thibadeau wasstill alive. He played a little ricky
Elizabeth Patterson who played Missus Trumbull,the neighbor upstairs. She died actually in

(01:23:34):
the in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.She's one of the three people that actually
died in the hotel that are famous. I mean people died in hotel time.
So and Mary Jane Croft was alsoone of her co stars in later
the Lucy Show, I think,and she died in nineteen ninety nine eighty
three in Century Park, Century City. And I don't know. I think

(01:23:57):
the last story is it's it's nota nice story. But we know that
Vivian Vance and William Frawley they didn'tcare for each other very much. Right.
According to rumor, Vivian Dance wason set for some show when she
got the news that Fraley died andshe and her word reaction, WI was

(01:24:20):
champagne for everyone. Oh well,um, with that champagne for everyone to
our our listeners, um and uh. And also if we mentioned Patreon,
we do have a Patreon page andPatreon supporters all get early or the five

(01:24:42):
dollars months ones to get early accessto the episodes, and then everybody who
subscribes to Patreon gets um our extramini shows that we do between these main
ones. So hustle on over toPatreon and look up Dearly Departed podcast.
Uh And and you know, weappreciate all the support to everyone who keeps

(01:25:02):
backing us up and and supporting theshow. It it really means a lot
of it helps. It does.And yeah, and thank you very much
for doing so. And if youdon't mind, Mike, I'm gonna give
my my YouTube channel a plus becauseof course, because that's there is no
more tour. So that's how I'mmaking a living. But in this,
in this, I mean this,in that or my job now. But

(01:25:27):
recently, I you know, DeanMartin's house um here in Paul Springs is
abandoned, and I did a goodwalk around to that the other day and
I put that up on YouTube.When I did the episode of Ghost Adventures,
I did a lot of footage ofthe cecil. I uploaded that to
my YouTube channel. And so that'swhat I've been working on. And it's
some you know, some unusual thingsthat I don't think a lot of people
have seen. So so that isand you did, uh you when Don

(01:25:51):
Wells passed away this past a fewweeks ago you put up you opened up
what you have got at her umgarage, say what you would even forgotten
what you had gotten. See kindof every box open, reveal of it,
which is cool. How many subscribersare you up to now? I
was like sixty sixty five thousand.I think it's fantastic. Yeah, it's

(01:26:13):
I've been I've been lucky because peoplelike what I do. So I'm very
and I love it now because Isaid, without the business and I missed
delete departed tours, but I suredon't miss the hassles. I don't miss
I don't miss the physical hassles ofdealing with traffic, of dealing with insurance
and insurance and insurance and you knowit just mechanics on the van and it

(01:26:34):
was so I mean, I can'ttell you how relieved it is right now
to have this time, to nothave to have that hanging over my head
all the time. And I missit. God, I do miss it,
but I wouldn't mind, you know. But it's just everything else was
not fun. So there's a tentwenty percent fun and the rest of it
was like aggravating. So now it'skind of cool. I can do what

(01:26:56):
I do, do what I want, and uh, and I like it
and people, you know, watchmy YouTube. It's free. It's free.
Yeah, and it's Dearly Departed Toursonline. That's it, yeah on
YouTube. Um and what what didyou find again in don Wells that you
got from don Wells's since we mentionedit from her her garage sale, Well,

(01:27:17):
I found it. I bought ajacket. I bought o her eyelashes,
That's what it was her. Okay, she had a vitamin container.
You know, you got like thelong containers Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,
Thursday and every day had a pairof eyelashes in them, which is pretty
funny. And uh, a prescriptionfor I forget what it was. And

(01:27:42):
I don't know, you know,it's so funny. It's just the other
day. But it was. Ihad a ton of stuff I did.
Um, but it was all andI like the reels O wigs, Oh
my god, I got somebody wigs. Oh and go go boots. I
got white Mary Anne wore wigs.Yeah, I know, I know,
but they're all labeled, you know, fall good one, uh, you
know kind of thing. But thefavorite episode of Gilligans Island or Where the

(01:28:06):
girls are singing. They're in agroup called the Honey Bees. And uh
and I got this pair of whitegogo boots. Now, I looked at
him pretty closely, and I don'tthink they're the same ones. But people
who watched that video claim they theythink that those are the real ones that
she used for the show. Ican't That would be pretty cool, and
I don't know how to prove that, but um, but they're pretty Maryann's

(01:28:30):
go go boots anyway, you know, just even But how many pairs of
gog boots can Mary Anne? Have? You know? How many white gogu
boots did she own here? Yeah? So, uh so, I don't
know if if there anyone out therecan you know, identify stuff like that.
And and I'd love to hear fromyou. Yeah, if you had
to see a screen worn costume fromGilligan's Island from you know, Mary Anne,

(01:28:50):
I'd be pretty cool. Go goboots. Yeah, well, everybody,
thank you so much, very much, appreciate it. And a toast
of champagne do you all, andwe will see you on the next one.
This has been an episode of theDearly Departed podcast. Dig Up more

(01:29:15):
episodes at Dearly departedpod dot com andon iTunes and Google Play. See you
next time.