Does anyone else think that Vivian Vance had a great singing voice? Did she ever release an album in her life?

I thought she sang good in the Operetta! :) I don't know about the album question though, sorry.

Viv had a beautiful voice. I don't think she ever recorded an album though.

Yeah, Vivian Vance sings the best of Beverly Sills, don't think that ever came out either!:lol:

I like Bill's Voice

Especially when he sang some of those OLD vaudeville tunes of HIS!

I like it when Fred and Ethel sing "Nothing could be finer than to be in Carolina in the morning."

But, imagine how hard it must have been for them to rehearse anything together.

Originally posted by SPLAIN
But, imagine how hard it must have been for them to rehearse anything together.


That just proves what professionals they were. I've really watched them close to see a glimpse of loathing and there is none.
Back on topic, I like it when they sing the Carolina song.

I like" Sweet Adeline"; have anyone noticed that Ricky's brush falls off the cup and he bends down to pick it up and keeps on like nothing's happened? Like on the Phipps when the Mertzes leave the door open and he closes it very quietly or when he corrects Lucy when she says 'paint the furniture":lol:

You are very observant Desilover, I'll have to keep an eye out for those things.

Originally posted by ricardo/mertz
You are very observant Desilover, I'll have to keep an eye out for those things.

That's just a hobby on my spare time:lol:

I KNOW! She watches Desi like a hawk, doesn't she? Both had a great singing voice, and they did harmoney beautifully together. But whenever they had to hug or kiss, you can see the difference, especially on The Christmas show.

LOL! Claude... Desi "discovered" Viv doing 'The Voice of the Turtle' play in La Jolla and liked her so they hired her on the spot and I'm glad he did!:D

Originally posted by SPLAIN
I KNOW! She watches Desi like a hawk, doesn't she? Both had a great singing voice, and they did harmoney beautifully together. But whenever they had to hug or kiss, you can see the difference, especially on The Christmas show.

Yah you are right, they barely touch when they kiss, but, that kinda goes w/ their love/hate relationship.

Originally posted by ricardo/mertz
Yah you are right, they barely touch when they kiss, but, that kinda goes w/ their love/hate relationship.

You need to watch the 'Bob Hope visits I LOVE LUCY' special. There Desi (playing Bill), kisses Viv and he kisses her too! I bet she was happy for once:D

I've seen that, he does plant a good one on her. You know she was happy, to be kissed by Desi! He's very easy on the eyes.:D

Yes, but Karen, Desi did not discover Viv. She was already well established in her own right. But when he and Marc Daniels checked her out for the role of Ethel, Lucy couldn't go as she was preggars, he did spot the perfect Ethel and did indeed hire her on the spot and was thrilled till he realized, WHAT IF SHE AND LUCY DON;T GET ALONG OR LIKE EACH OTHER? But thank God they did, love at first sight and a partnership that lasted a few decades. To think Ethel didn't even want to lower herself to DO television till her agent told her it would be the best thing that ever happened to her. AND IT WAS, made her rich and famous.

Originally posted by SPLAIN
Yes, but Karen, Desi did not discover Viv. She was already well established in her own right. But when he and Marc Daniels checked her out for the role of Ethel, Lucy couldn't go as she was preggars, he did spot the perfect Ethel and did indeed hire her on the spot and was thrilled till he realized, WHAT IF SHE AND LUCY DON;T GET ALONG OR LIKE EACH OTHER? But thank God they did, love at first sight and a partnership that lasted a few decades. To think Ethel didn't even want to lower herself to DO television till her agent told her it would be the best thing that ever happened to her. AND IT WAS, made her rich and famous.

Right!
I meant 'he discovered' her for ILL; not the theater or whatever.

Imagine finding her as Ethel Mertz when she was playing something so totally different in Voice of the Turtle!

Just curious, what was Voice of the Turtle about? Was it serious?

Originally posted by ricardo/mertz
Just curious, what was Voice of the Turtle about? Was it serious?

It looks like it was maybe a musical play and I read somewhere that she played the b*tch

No, it was a very heavy drama! Apparently Viv was usually type cast as the OTHER woman before she did the series. Which is as surprising to me as the fact that she was married four times, once to a gay man and once to a wife beater. Also that the wife beater got parts on I Love Lucy and that the gay man made her the happiest at the end of her life. Apparently, it is said that when Viv showed up on the set with a black eye, Lucy told her, THAT'S IT, EITHER YOU DIVORCE HIM OR I WILL! Nobody liked Phil Ober and he was very vain and pompous, and he was jealous of her success and got lots of her money when they divorced which really and rightfully upset Viv. I'm going by what i've read on Viv and that's not much. I just have to get those two books on her life.

Wow Viv the other woman. I can't imagine that. I've only seen her on Lucy shows. I don't know much about her. I did know she was married four times and didn't have any children.
She did a good job of hiding her pain on the small screen. I know she had some mental problems. I read where she kept a slip of paper in her pocket w/ her name and address on it. I guess in case she lossed it they could get her home. How sad.:(

I know, i remember that slip of paper one also. She would get these mental breakdowns and when they offered them a spin off of I Love Lucy, she refused to work with Bill which only made him hate her more which couldn't have helped her sanity! When they filmed her pilot, a different one called Guestward Ho, she just FROZE there saying she was not used to being in her own light and she just wasn't able to do it, so they filmed it with someone else but it did not play anyway, so she wound up doing coffee commercials for Maxwell House. I did see her in a TV movie about Houdini with Paul Michael Glazer of Starsky and Hutch, she was good in that. And i remember her on a Rhoda one time. Such a shame. I saw her last night as i was making a copy of Lucy Calls the President for a fan and it was two years before she died, she had had a stroke and looked old and had just been told she had cancer. Such a great talent, that the world got to appreciate thanks to her involvement with a little TV show that revolutionized the industry, thank God! Oh and it was also great to see her on a Dinah Shore talk show reubited with Lucy one last time, they looked so great together. A great lucy fan on another board made me some Here's Lucy shows and the first ones he sent me were of Viv, six of them and i have to admit they were probably the best of the entire series, hope they are in the 24 coming out soon, it would be a nice tribute to Viv, she deserves that and more.

Originally posted by SPLAIN
I know, i remember that slip of paper one also. She would get these mental breakdowns and when they offered them a spin off of I Love Lucy, she refused to work with Bill which only made him hate her more which couldn't have helped her sanity! When they filmed her pilot, a different one called Guestward Ho, she just FROZE there saying she was not used to being in her own light and she just wasn't able to do it, so they filmed it with someone else but it did not play anyway, so she wound up doing coffee commercials for Maxwell House. I did see her in a TV movie about Houdini with Paul Michael Glazer of Starsky and Hutch, she was good in that. And i remember her on a Rhoda one time. Such a shame. I saw her last night as i was making a copy of Lucy Calls the President for a fan and it was two years before she died, she had had a stroke and looked old and had just been told she had cancer. Such a great talent, that the world got to appreciate thanks to her involvement with a little TV show that revolutionized the industry, thank God! Oh and it was also great to see her on a Dinah Shore talk show reubited with Lucy one last time, they looked so great together. A great lucy fan on another board made me some Here's Lucy shows and the first ones he sent me were of Viv, six of them and i have to admit they were probably the best of the entire series, hope they are in the 24 coming out soon, it would be a nice tribute to Viv, she deserves that and more.





Very well said.:clap:

Thank you, rambling is a specialty of mine! By the way she was reUNITED not reubited with Lucy. Typing is NOT a specialty of mine. Oh and Viv brought the house down in Lucy Calls The President as they remembered her overeating from I Love Lucy. Lucty tells her to taste her potato salad and Viv does it THREE times, the crowd laughed harder each time! It is said the ovation Viv got when she appeared had to be cut down for airing. To solve the same problem with Lucy, they had her come in WITH Gale, which got a huge round of applause.

I figured you meant reunited. I'm not the greatest typist either. My thoughts go faster than I can type. I equate it to someone who stutters. So, needless to say I know where the backspace button is .
Back on topic, Vivian was awesome. I will have to start watching the Lucy Show. I never got into it. Don't get me wrong I like it, but, I keep expecting Lucy and Viv to break out of character and become Lucy and Ethel. I do have some of the Lucy Shows on VHS and I have never watched them! My husband got htem for me one year for Christmas thinking they were I Love Lucy. Bless his little heart.

I haven't seen any Lucy Shows with Viv in them, except the one where she visits Lucy again. I really want to though. I've got three or four DVDs of The Lucy Show, got them a couple of years ago, and only about 2 months ago did I decide to finally watch them! And I have to admit I enjoyed them. *cough* *hack* Phew, that was hard to let out!

DESI WHERE ARE YOUUU?

:lol:

Maybe I have the title wrong. Because the Lucy Show I'm thinking of had Viv on there a lot. In fact Viv and Lucy lived together and Lucy had a son and a daughter and I think Viv had a son named Jerry.

Splain Said:
WHAT IF SHE AND LUCY DON'T GET ALONG OR LIKE EACH OTHER? But thank God they did, love at first sight and a partnership that lasted a few decades.

I had heard that Lucy and Viv didn't really like each other right away, but eventually became close friends. Is this true or did they like each other from the start?

I had read somewhere that in the beginning Viv made the remark, that she was going to have to learn to love the b___.
So, I think they sort of clashed at first then became close friends.

Yeah, Lucy thought Viv was too pretty to play Ethel so she kinda gave her a hard time at first. Once she saw that Viv was a great actress and knew what she was talking about, she left her alone and they became close friends.

I think the fact that Viv was not this big phoney and was down to earth endeared her to Lucy, after all, they cleaned the bathrooms together that first week. The Lucy show had six seasons, the first three with Viv and the last three without her, she asked for an exhorbitant amount of money to stay on and really wanted to stop commuting from Connecticut and stay there with her new hubby and her garden and stuff.

Did Viv always commute? Or did she live in California while she did I Love Lucy?

No she LIVED in California during I Love Lucy and The Lucy Desi Comedy Hour, it was in the early sixties that she got married and moved to Connecticut, then when Lucy asked her to do The Lucy show, she commuted for the three years, and then only did the one special appearance per season after that. And also on Here's Lucy!

Thanks!:)

Oh my pleasure, i don't know that much about Viv, Lucy is more my forte, but anyone connected to Lucy manages to get into my orbit sometimes. LOL! And like i said, i'm looking at her differently now, poor thing had mental problems, four marriages, one husband beat her and took lots of her money in a nasty divorce and another was gay, then she dies of cancer, thank God she did manage a couple of decades of fame and fortune in there.

But, I heard she told people the years w/ her gay husband were somw of the happiest of her life. I know for the most part her life was sad.

If anyone wants to learn more about Viv, I'd definitely recommend reading The Other Side of Ethel Mertz. It made me look at Viv from a total different perspective, and I learned so much about her from reading it. :)

I really NEED to, since I hardly know anything about the Mertzes, I MEAN Vivian and Bill, compared to Desi and Lucy. Haha

I need to read that book too, the only things I know about Viv are the things that are in some of the Lucy books I've read.
And she was also the subject on an episode of Mysteries and Scandals,on the E! channel.

No, no i didn't mean to imply that being married to a gay man was that bad, i just meant that she was married four times, and was unlucky in love. It is said that she had to leave the show and keep an eye on her hubby because he would have affairs with men while she was away, i certainly never meant to equate that the gay hubby was as bad as the one that beat her. He TOOK CARE of her in her later years and that's what she needed more than sex.

Originally posted by SPLAIN
No, no i didn't mean to imply that being married to a gay man was that bad, i just meant that she was married four times, and was unlucky in love. It is said that she had to leave the show and keep an eye on her hubby because he would have affairs with men while she was away, i certainly never meant to equate that the gay hubby was as bad as the one that beat her. He TOOK CARE of her in her later years and that's what she needed more than sex.


There's nothing wrong w/ that. I just hate referring to him as her gay husband. what was his name?

His name was John Dodds. :)

Sorry, i never remember things when they're not about Lucy herself, yes John Dodds, he was a book editor at Doubleday. I never heard if he was with her when she died, and when did HE pass away, anybody know?

And the reason i always refer to him as the gay husband is i always thought her life was normal, then i find out she was married four times and had real mental breakdowns, then it came out about her husband beating her and being jealous of her, and that was the guy i liked in those bit parts on the show. Then we were so happy for her when Lucy kept saying they were all happy in their second marriages and we find out her husband was gay, it was just a shock, that's all. I never thought of Viv as being the same after reading all that. Yes, i have to buy those two books on her. Maybe there's more, even!

Originally posted by SPLAIN
Sorry, i never remember things when they're not about Lucy herself, yes John Dodds, he was a book editor at Doubleday. I never heard if he was with her when she died, and when did HE pass away, anybody know?

I'm not sure who exactly was with Viv when she died, but I remember reading that Viv's friends who came after to clean up the room said she was peacefully at the window sill, and it looked like she was smiling.

John Dodds died on October 9, 1986, of cancer, and Phil Ober died of heart failure on September 13, 1982. Nothing's known about Vivian's other two husbands.

When you read The Other Side of Ethel Mertz, in the beginning there's a note in Viv's own handwriting, the last note she ever wrote to Lucy. It's nice to be able to read it, but it's also sad. :( Either way, you definitely get the impression that there was a strong bond between the two.

I do know Viv has a sister. I saw her on that E! special I talked about earlier. They look a lot alike.
Oh, and thanks Mags for that man's name.

Here's some more info on Viv
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0888573/bio

How about writing what was in that note for us who don't have the book yet, was it long? Maybe you could just give us the gist of it?

Sure! :) Here's what the note said:

"Lucy! My mind is full of thousands of memories -- what to say? What to say? Wish I could repeat every nice thing and take back every bad? Thank you for all...you, the show, the years have brought? What a novel, part hilarious, and part sad? Please know dear Lucy tho' I am giving into a glorious life there is a lump in my throat and a very large rock lodged in my heart today -- something like Our Town at the last curtain."

That's all there is, because the last page of the note is lost.

Thanks doll, that was great!

Viv wrote that letter after her last visit with Lucy. :(

Originally posted by SPLAIN
Thanks doll, that was great!

You're welcome! :wave:

You see, YOU can now TEACH ME!

Splain is a perfect name for you. You are good at Splainin.'
:D

I just noticed at the beginning that some people were so creative, so i started off as EN BAS from the ballet episode on John's board, The Lucille Ball forums. Then i got creative with Splain, here and on Lucille Ball online, then i fessed up and just made it obvious, ONLYONESUBJECT on Lucy Talk , it sorta sums me up, LOL! So that last one is the one i chose for all the other boards like Eric's and Sarah's. I love it when someone comes up with something REALLY creative and clever!

I'm marymagaret on the Lucy forum.That is about as creative as I can get.

Better than most people, i never saw it or came close to it after two years on the net!

MagsLovesLucy,

Thanks for mentioning "The Other Side of Ethel Mertz" earlier in this thread. I'd never heard of that book before, but because of your post I bought the paperback and have enjoyed reading every word of it so far!

Yep, it's really nice to hear stories about them for a change. I have to get that one also!

Thanks for mentioning "The Other Side of Ethel Mertz" earlier in this thread. I'd never heard of that book before, but because of your post I bought the paperback and have enjoyed reading every word of it so far!

You're welcome! I'm glad you're enjoying it.