I Love Lucy Movie: An Update

Oops. For readers of "Out In Hollywood" who are not regular readers of the LA Daily News Web site or newspaper, I neglected to post a DN piece I wrote last weeik on "I Love Lucy: The Movie" which was screened for an audience last Friday at the Museum of Television and Radio in Beverly Hills. Here is a piece of it and a link to the entire thing.

When Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz were riding high in 1953 as the stars of "I Love Lucy," they decided to capitalize on their show's popularity by signing to do the movie "The Long, Long Trailer." What is not widely known is that the release of the movie in 1954 about a couple on a rocky honeymoon meant pulling the plug on "I Love Lucy: The Movie," a feature film version of their sitcom that had already been completed.

MGM, the studio releasing "Trailer," balked because they felt that having the "Lucy" movie in theaters would interfere with the film's marketing.

"We had heard about how three episodes were adapted into a movie, and it was something we were always curious about and had been looking for," said Ron Simon, the museum's curator. "We're really fortunate that it was located. It's really one of the missing pieces of Lucy's career, and we're awfully glad to have it."

"I Love Lucy: The Movie" had a successful test screening in Bakersfield before it was shelved, then lost for many years, before being located in a CBS vault by Cahn, one of the handful of people who had been looking for it.
TThe movie was actually three episodes of the sitcom, "The Ballet," "The Benefit" and "Breaking the Lease," which were linked together with 12 minutes of specially shot footage featuring Ball, Arnaz, Vivian Vance and William Frawley — who made up the classic quartet of Lucy, Ricky, Fred and Ethel.

The movie was a behind-the-scenes look at "I Love Lucy," which began with two audience members waiting in line for the show and then shows Arnaz warming up the studio audience and introducing the cast.

"Lucille Ball was so close to the museum and did quite a few seminars for us before she died," Simon said. "We always wanted to have as complete a "Lucy" collection as possible."

That footage as well as "I Love Lucy: The Movie" will be included in a DVD boxed set of 13 one-hour episodes of the show that aired from 1957-60. They will be released as seasons seven, eight and nine, but in a single DVD package. It is set to be released in early 2007.

And one more thing: I came across this must-see Web site for any Lucy fan (you know who you are) called Everything Lucy. Check it out!