Lucy McGillicuddy Ricardo
Encyclopedia
Lucille "Lucy" Esmeralda McGillicuddy Ricardo is a fictional character from the American television series I Love Lucy
, played by Lucille Ball
. She is known for her red hair and for always getting into trouble. Her full name is given in the episodes "The Marriage License," "Fred and Ethel Fight," and "The Passports." Her birthdate is fully revealed in "The Passports" as August 6, 1921 (exactly ten years younger than Ball herself); however in the 1953 episode "Lucy Tells The Truth" in which Lucy is forced to go a day without lying she states her age as 33, making her born in 1920. She also is forced to acknowledge her correct weight as 129 lbs.
to an American family of Scottish
descent. Her parents were never referred to by name, and only her mother is seen over the course of the series (during which Mrs. McGillicuddy is portrayed by Kathryn Card
). As a child she was babysat by Helen Erickson, who gave her the nickname "Droopy Drawers" because of her baggy bloomers. She was also bitten on the ear by Fred Bigalow's cat. Her childhood doctor was named Dr. Peterson. In grammar school, she played a petunia in a recital. When she was in high school, she was involved in the drama program where she studied with Miss Hanna and played Juliet Capulet
in "Romeo and Juliet
." She was also known as "Bird Legs" and as a child. In one episode, she talks about fishing in nearby Chautauqua Lake
(a real lake near Celoron, New York
and Jamestown, New York
). She also played the saxophone in high school (as did the real Lucy), though every song she played sounded like "Glow-Worm
."
A reference to Lucille's attendance at a junior college is made in the episode "Fan Magazine Interview" (1954).
. The two fell in love and eventually got married at the Byram River Beagle Club in Connecticut. An alternate scenario, as explained to guest star Hedda Hopper
in the Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour episode "Lucy Takes a Cruise to Havana," features Lucy and her friend Susie McNamara, played by Ann Sothern
, as meeting Ricky while vacationing in Cuba in 1940.
In the early 1940s, Lucy and Ricky moved into an old reconverted brownstone
apartment at 623 East 68th Street in New York City
(references made during the series date the move to 1940 or 1943). The apartment rented for $105 per month. Their landlords (soon to be best friends) were Fred and Ethel Mertz.
Lucy and Ethel quickly became best friends, even though Ethel was many years older than Lucy. Upon moving to the city, Ricky ended up getting a job headlining the Club Tropicana where they were held over indefinitely. To Lucy, Ricky's career and days seemed so much more exciting than her days of cooking and cleaning. She desperately wanted to be a star and constantly tried to get into Ricky's act. Ricky wanted his wife to stay home and complete her homemaking duties. However, in spite of Ricky's reluctance and usual refusal to give her a part, Lucy usually found a way into the show.
During her pregnancy, Lucy experienced the normal pregnancy woes. She became depressed when everyone seemed to focus their attention on the impending child and not on Lucy. She couldn't decide on a name for the child and was nervous that she wasn't going to be a good mother. However, she wanted the best for her child and enrolled herself, Ricky and the Mertzes in English lessons to make sure that her child learned how to speak properly. Finally, she took up sculpting so that she and Ricky could enrich their child's life with art and music, respectively.
Lucy's show business aspirations never waned however. She managed to break into Ricky's barbershop quartet number by firing the man who had the part she wanted.
Finally, on January 19, 1953 (the same day she had her real-life son and actor Desi Arnaz, Jr.
) , while husband Ricky was performing a voodoo act at his nightclub, Lucy gave birth to Ricky Ricardo Jr. The Mertzes were named Little Ricky's godparents. Little Ricky grew on a season-by-season basis and by the sixth season (1957) he had started school and learned to play the drums and speak fluently.
, Hedda Hopper
, Rock Hudson
, Cornel Wilde
, Harpo Marx
, Richard Widmark
, Van Johnson
and John Wayne
. She reported having spotted 99 celebrities while in Hollywood and finally procured an even 100 when she met Wilde. Lucy was incredibly starstruck and saved anything that had even come in contact with a celebrity such as a can that was smashed by Cary Grant
's left rear wheel. However, she didn't merely hob nob with celebrities, she also got a few chances to break into show business herself.
Ricky got her a small role in a film as a showgirl. Lucy's role required her to wear a large headdress and she also got a death scene. However, the headdress proved cumbersome and her part was downgraded. She eventually ended up as a showgirl who is already dead on a stretcher when the scene begins. Lucy's second foray into show business was when she replaced Van Johnson's sick redheaded partner in his act at the hotel. She wanted to impress her friend Carolyn Appleby and successfully coaxed Johnson into giving her the job through flattery. She does an excellent job and impresses the crowd. Finally, she has her third shot at stardom when she appears with a Ricky Ricardo dummy at a luncheon for movie executives. Ricky was asked to perform, but he declined in favor of a fishing trip he had planned. Lucy accepted on his behalf and schemed to build the dummy and then pretend that he's ill and she finishes the show herself. Her plan doesn't go as well as she had hoped, but she's still a smash success and is offered a contract. She declines however, when she realizes that it would take her away from her husband and son.
After landing in England, Lucy got the chance to perform and meet the Queen of England
. She also participated in a Fox Hunt and got to stay at a real English estate. In Paris, she met Charles Boyer
and was temporarily detained in a French jail after having inadvertently trying to use counterfeit
money. Also, in one of the funniest scenes in television history, she stomped on grapes in Turo
, a wine making town in Italy
, and wrestles (and is nearly drowned by) her professional grape-stomping partner (in a grape vat).
and Ethel Mertz
, moved into their guest house (Fred was raised on a farm). After this was unsuccessful, they decided to shut their business down. Lucy and Ricky also have made close friends while in Connecticut, Betty Ramsey and Ralph Ramsey (the Ricardos' next door neighbors).
and Here's Lucy
, although in both of those shows, the Lucy character was portrayed as a divorcée, reflecting Ball's real-life divorce from Desi Arnaz
. In the mid-1960s, she was involved in a lawsuit against Jess Oppenheimer
, the co-creator of I Love Lucy, over the similarities shared between the separate Lucy characters. The dispute was later settled out of court.
Other television series sought to copy the Lucy Ricardo theme. Even Janis Paige
in her short-lived Desilu-produced CBS sitcom It's Always Jan
wore her hair like Lucy. Cara Williams
followed the Lucy Ricardo format in Pete and Gladys
. which lasted only two seasons on CBS.
I Love Lucy
I Love Lucy is an American television sitcom starring Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, and William Frawley. The black-and-white series originally ran from October 15, 1951, to May 6, 1957, on the Columbia Broadcasting System...
, played by Lucille Ball
Lucille Ball
Lucille Désirée Ball was an American comedian, film, television, stage and radio actress, model, film and television executive, and star of the sitcoms I Love Lucy, The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour, The Lucy Show, Here's Lucy and Life With Lucy...
. She is known for her red hair and for always getting into trouble. Her full name is given in the episodes "The Marriage License," "Fred and Ethel Fight," and "The Passports." Her birthdate is fully revealed in "The Passports" as August 6, 1921 (exactly ten years younger than Ball herself); however in the 1953 episode "Lucy Tells The Truth" in which Lucy is forced to go a day without lying she states her age as 33, making her born in 1920. She also is forced to acknowledge her correct weight as 129 lbs.
Early life
Much like Lucille Ball herself, Lucy McGillicuddy was born and raised in Jamestown West, New YorkJamestown West, New York
Jamestown West is an area designated as a Census Designated Place located near Jamestown in Chautauqua County, New York. Also known as West Ellicott because of its location in the Town of Ellicott, the area population was 2,200 as of the 2000 census.-Geography:Jamestown West is located at...
to an American family of Scottish
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
descent. Her parents were never referred to by name, and only her mother is seen over the course of the series (during which Mrs. McGillicuddy is portrayed by Kathryn Card
Kathryn Card
Kathryn Card was an American radio, television and film actress who may be best remembered for her role as Mrs. McGillicuddy, Lucy's mother on I Love Lucy....
). As a child she was babysat by Helen Erickson, who gave her the nickname "Droopy Drawers" because of her baggy bloomers. She was also bitten on the ear by Fred Bigalow's cat. Her childhood doctor was named Dr. Peterson. In grammar school, she played a petunia in a recital. When she was in high school, she was involved in the drama program where she studied with Miss Hanna and played Juliet Capulet
Juliet Capulet
Juliet is one of the title characters in William Shakespeare's tragedy Romeo and Juliet, the other being Romeo. She is the daughter of old Capulet, head of the house of Capulet. The story has a long history that precedes Shakespeare himself....
in "Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...
." She was also known as "Bird Legs" and as a child. In one episode, she talks about fishing in nearby Chautauqua Lake
Chautauqua Lake
Chautauqua Lake is located entirely within Chautauqua County, New York, USA. The lake is approximately long and wide at its greatest width. The surface area is approximately 13,000 acres . The maximum depth is about 78 feet...
(a real lake near Celoron, New York
Celoron, New York
Celoron is a village in Chautauqua County, New York, United States. It sits on the west boundary of the City of Jamestown, New York and is surrounded by the Town of Ellicott. The population was 1,295 at the 2000 census.- History :...
and Jamestown, New York
Jamestown, New York
Jamestown is a city in Chautauqua County, New York in the United States. The population was 31,146 at the 2010 census.The City of Jamestown is adjacent to Town of Ellicott and is at the southern tip of Chautauqua Lake...
). She also played the saxophone in high school (as did the real Lucy), though every song she played sounded like "Glow-Worm
The Glow-Worm
"Das Glühwürmchen", known in English as "The Glow-Worm", is an aria from Paul Lincke's 1902 operetta Lysistrata, with German lyrics by Heinz Bolten-Backers...
."
A reference to Lucille's attendance at a junior college is made in the episode "Fan Magazine Interview" (1954).
Marriage
When she was 22, Lucy was set up on a blind date by her friend Marion Strong. Her blind date turned out to be a Cuban conga drummer, Ricky RicardoRicky Ricardo
Enrique Alberto Fernando Ricardo y de Acha, III, a.k.a. Ricky Ricardo is a main character in the television show I Love Lucy, played by Desi Arnaz...
. The two fell in love and eventually got married at the Byram River Beagle Club in Connecticut. An alternate scenario, as explained to guest star Hedda Hopper
Hedda Hopper
Hedda Hopper was an American actress and gossip columnist, whose long-running feud with friend turned arch-rival Louella Parsons became at least as notorious as many of Hopper's columns.-Early life:...
in the Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour episode "Lucy Takes a Cruise to Havana," features Lucy and her friend Susie McNamara, played by Ann Sothern
Ann Sothern
Ann Sothern was an American film and television actress whose career spanned six decades.-Early life and career:...
, as meeting Ricky while vacationing in Cuba in 1940.
In the early 1940s, Lucy and Ricky moved into an old reconverted brownstone
Brownstone
Brownstone is a brown Triassic or Jurassic sandstone which was once a popular building material. The term is also used in the United States to refer to a terraced house clad in this material.-Types:-Apostle Island brownstone:...
apartment at 623 East 68th Street in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
(references made during the series date the move to 1940 or 1943). The apartment rented for $105 per month. Their landlords (soon to be best friends) were Fred and Ethel Mertz.
Lucy and Ethel quickly became best friends, even though Ethel was many years older than Lucy. Upon moving to the city, Ricky ended up getting a job headlining the Club Tropicana where they were held over indefinitely. To Lucy, Ricky's career and days seemed so much more exciting than her days of cooking and cleaning. She desperately wanted to be a star and constantly tried to get into Ricky's act. Ricky wanted his wife to stay home and complete her homemaking duties. However, in spite of Ricky's reluctance and usual refusal to give her a part, Lucy usually found a way into the show.
Birth of Little Ricky
In 1952, after going to the doctor complaining of feeling "dauncey" (a word her grandmother made up; Lucy's definition of feeling "dauncey" is when you're not really sick but just feel lousy) and gaining weight, she learns that she is pregnant. It was actually Ethel that first suggests to Lucy she may be expecting, even before Lucy head out to the doctor. She is very excited to tell her husband the exciting news. The Mertzes learn the news first and are sworn to secrecy. When she was younger, Lucy had envisioned how she would tell her husband that they were going to have a baby. She decides to tell Ricky when he comes home from lunch that afternoon. However, with repeated interruptions from the telephone and the Mertzes, she is unable. She tries to tell him down at his club during rehearsals, but is uncomfortable telling him such a personal thing in front of his band, so she runs out crying. Finally, that evening, while Ricky is performing, Lucy pens a note and passes it to the maître d'. He gives the note to Ricky. Ricky reads the note which basically alludes to a wife needing to tell her husband that they were having a baby through one of his songs. Ricky, unaware that the "husband" mentioned in the note is him, wants to bring the expectant couple up on stage to congratulate them. He goes from couple to couple trying to find them. Ricky notices Lucy in the audience, and it occurs to him that Lucy may be the one who is expecting. Lucy nods yes, and Ricky is overcome with emotion. They fight happy tears and sing "We're Having a Baby."During her pregnancy, Lucy experienced the normal pregnancy woes. She became depressed when everyone seemed to focus their attention on the impending child and not on Lucy. She couldn't decide on a name for the child and was nervous that she wasn't going to be a good mother. However, she wanted the best for her child and enrolled herself, Ricky and the Mertzes in English lessons to make sure that her child learned how to speak properly. Finally, she took up sculpting so that she and Ricky could enrich their child's life with art and music, respectively.
Lucy's show business aspirations never waned however. She managed to break into Ricky's barbershop quartet number by firing the man who had the part she wanted.
Finally, on January 19, 1953 (the same day she had her real-life son and actor Desi Arnaz, Jr.
Desi Arnaz, Jr.
Desi Arnaz, Jr. , is an American actor and musician and the son of entertainers Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz.-Early life:...
) , while husband Ricky was performing a voodoo act at his nightclub, Lucy gave birth to Ricky Ricardo Jr. The Mertzes were named Little Ricky's godparents. Little Ricky grew on a season-by-season basis and by the sixth season (1957) he had started school and learned to play the drums and speak fluently.
Hollywood
In 1954, Lucy's husband was given a role in an upcoming MGM film based on the life of Don Juan. Lucy and the Mertzes followed Ricky on his journey to Hollywood stardom. While in Hollywood, Lucy met many famous celebrities, including William HoldenWilliam Holden
William Holden was an American actor. Holden won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1954 and the Emmy Award for Best Actor in 1974...
, Hedda Hopper
Hedda Hopper
Hedda Hopper was an American actress and gossip columnist, whose long-running feud with friend turned arch-rival Louella Parsons became at least as notorious as many of Hopper's columns.-Early life:...
, Rock Hudson
Rock Hudson
Roy Harold Scherer, Jr., later Roy Harold Fitzgerald , known professionally as Rock Hudson, was an American film and television actor, recognized as a romantic leading man during the 1950s and 1960s, most notably in several romantic comedies with Doris Day.Hudson was voted "Star of the Year",...
, Cornel Wilde
Cornel Wilde
Cornel Wilde was an American actor and film director.-Early life:Kornél Lajos Weisz was born in 1912 in Prievidza, Hungary , although his year and place of birth are usually and inaccurately given as 1915 in New York City...
, Harpo Marx
Harpo Marx
Adolph "Harpo" Marx was an American comedian and film star. He was the second oldest of the Marx Brothers. His comic style was influenced by clown and pantomime traditions. He wore a curly reddish wig, and never spoke during performances...
, Richard Widmark
Richard Widmark
Richard Weedt Widmark was an American film, stage and television actor.He was nominated for an Academy Award for his role as the villainous Tommy Udo in his debut film, Kiss of Death...
, Van Johnson
Van Johnson
Van Johnson was an American film and television actor and dancer who was a major star at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios during and after World War II....
and John Wayne
John Wayne
Marion Mitchell Morrison , better known by his stage name John Wayne, was an American film actor, director and producer. He epitomized rugged masculinity and became an enduring American icon. He is famous for his distinctive calm voice, walk, and height...
. She reported having spotted 99 celebrities while in Hollywood and finally procured an even 100 when she met Wilde. Lucy was incredibly starstruck and saved anything that had even come in contact with a celebrity such as a can that was smashed by Cary Grant
Cary Grant
Archibald Alexander Leach , better known by his stage name Cary Grant, was an English actor who later took U.S. citizenship...
's left rear wheel. However, she didn't merely hob nob with celebrities, she also got a few chances to break into show business herself.
Ricky got her a small role in a film as a showgirl. Lucy's role required her to wear a large headdress and she also got a death scene. However, the headdress proved cumbersome and her part was downgraded. She eventually ended up as a showgirl who is already dead on a stretcher when the scene begins. Lucy's second foray into show business was when she replaced Van Johnson's sick redheaded partner in his act at the hotel. She wanted to impress her friend Carolyn Appleby and successfully coaxed Johnson into giving her the job through flattery. She does an excellent job and impresses the crowd. Finally, she has her third shot at stardom when she appears with a Ricky Ricardo dummy at a luncheon for movie executives. Ricky was asked to perform, but he declined in favor of a fishing trip he had planned. Lucy accepted on his behalf and schemed to build the dummy and then pretend that he's ill and she finishes the show herself. Her plan doesn't go as well as she had hoped, but she's still a smash success and is offered a contract. She declines however, when she realizes that it would take her away from her husband and son.
Europe
Very soon after returning home from Hollywood, Ricky's band was given a chance to tour around Europe. Lucy and the Mertzes were again given the opportunity to tag along on the trip and get a once in a lifetime opportunity. They sailed on a cruise ship across the Atlantic where Lucy won a ping pong trophy. She also managed to get stuck in a porthole.After landing in England, Lucy got the chance to perform and meet the Queen of England
Queen regnant
A queen regnant is a female monarch who reigns in her own right, in contrast to a queen consort, who is the wife of a reigning king. An empress regnant is a female monarch who reigns in her own right over an empire....
. She also participated in a Fox Hunt and got to stay at a real English estate. In Paris, she met Charles Boyer
Charles Boyer
Charles Boyer was a French actor who appeared in more than 80 films between 1920 and 1976. After receiving an education in drama, Boyer started on the stage, but he found success in movies during the 1930s. His memorable performances were among the era's most highly praised romantic dramas,...
and was temporarily detained in a French jail after having inadvertently trying to use counterfeit
Counterfeit
To counterfeit means to illegally imitate something. Counterfeit products are often produced with the intent to take advantage of the superior value of the imitated product...
money. Also, in one of the funniest scenes in television history, she stomped on grapes in Turo
Turo
Turo is a settlement in the administrative district of Gmina Supraśl, within Białystok County, Podlaskie Voivodeship, in north-eastern Poland. It lies approximately east of Supraśl and north-east of the regional capital Białystok....
, a wine making town in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, and wrestles (and is nearly drowned by) her professional grape-stomping partner (in a grape vat).
Moving to Connecticut
In 1956, Lucy and her husband Ricky decided to move to Connecticut. This happened after a trip there and Lucy falling in love with the area. Before they moved in, though, she tried to get out of the deal. Soon they decided to raise chickens. Their best friends, Fred MertzFred Mertz
Frederick Hobart Mertz, born in 1887 is a fictional character in the 1950s American sitcom I Love Lucy, originally from Indianapolis before his relocation to New York City. He is a World War I veteran and often talks about his times in the war. He is married to Ethel Mae Potter Mertz , and they...
and Ethel Mertz
Ethel Mertz
Ethel Roberta Louise Mae Mertz is one of the four main fictional characters in the highly popular 1950s and 1960s American television sitcom I Love Lucy, played by Vivian Vance. Ethel is the main character Lucy's middle-aged landlady - supposed to have been born about 1905, and raised in New Mexico...
, moved into their guest house (Fred was raised on a farm). After this was unsuccessful, they decided to shut their business down. Lucy and Ricky also have made close friends while in Connecticut, Betty Ramsey and Ralph Ramsey (the Ricardos' next door neighbors).
After I Love Lucy
After I Love Lucy concluded, Lucille Ball played Lucy Ricardo-inspired characters on her following sitcoms The Lucy ShowThe Lucy Show
The Lucy Show is an American situation comedy that aired on CBS from 1962 until 1968. It was Lucille Ball's follow-up to I Love Lucy. A significant change in cast and premise for the 1965-66 season divides the program into two distinct eras; aside from Ball, only Gale Gordon, who joined the program...
and Here's Lucy
Here's Lucy
Here's Lucy is Lucille Ball's third network television sitcom. It ran on CBS from 1968 to 1974.-Background:Though The Lucy Show was still hugely popular during the previous season, finishing in the top five of the Nielsen Ratings , Ball opted to end that series at the end of that season and create...
, although in both of those shows, the Lucy character was portrayed as a divorcée, reflecting Ball's real-life divorce from Desi Arnaz
Desi Arnaz
Desi Arnaz was a Cuban-born American musician, actor and television producer. While he gained international renown for leading a Latin music band, the Desi Arnaz Orchestra, he is probably best known for his role as Ricky Ricardo on the American TV series I Love Lucy, starring with Lucille Ball, to...
. In the mid-1960s, she was involved in a lawsuit against Jess Oppenheimer
Jess Oppenheimer
Jess Oppenheimer a radio and television writer, producer, and director, was producer and head writer of the CBS sitcom I Love Lucy.Lucille Ball called Oppenheimer "the brains" behind I Love Lucy...
, the co-creator of I Love Lucy, over the similarities shared between the separate Lucy characters. The dispute was later settled out of court.
Other television series sought to copy the Lucy Ricardo theme. Even Janis Paige
Janis Paige
Janis Paige is an American film, musical theatre and television actress. Born Donna Mae Tjaden in Tacoma, Washington, she began singing in public from the age of five in local amateur shows...
in her short-lived Desilu-produced CBS sitcom It's Always Jan
It's Always Jan
It's Always Jan is an American situation comedy starring Janis Paige, which aired on CBS in the 1955-1956 season. It was the lead-in program at 9:30 p.m...
wore her hair like Lucy. Cara Williams
Cara Williams
Cara Williams is an American film and television actress.-Biography:Born as Bernice Kamiat to an Austrian emigrant father and a mother of Romanian descent, she began her screen acting career in 1941, and was initially billed as Bernice Kay...
followed the Lucy Ricardo format in Pete and Gladys
Pete and Gladys
Pete and Gladys is an American situation comedy broadcast by CBS on Monday night at 8:00pm Eastern and Pacific time for two seasons, beginning on September 19, 1960...
. which lasted only two seasons on CBS.