Did Ethel really play the piano?!

[Frischman_Fan]

So I was watching "Breaking the Lease" last night and noticed that Ricky sat to play the piano but you could tell that it wasn't him playing. He even starts to clap while the piano is still going

Did the same happen for Ethel? Or did Vivian really know how to play the piano?!

[Madame X]

Originally Posted by 3scompanyfreak

So I was watching "Breaking the Lease" last night and noticed that Ricky sat to play the piano but you could tell that it wasn't him playing. He even starts to clap while the piano is still going

Did the same happen for Ethel? Or did Vivian really know how to play the piano?!

You're right, and good eye! Ricky claps on the last beat of a piano chord. His playing is fake and it is also fake when he sings "There's a Brand New Baby at Our House." (He really did play the guitar and conga, though).

I think Vivian could really play the piano. On the show, though, sometimes it was fake and sometimes it was real. In "Breaking the Lease," watch her arm when Ricky sings the tag at the end, "nobody like you." She is really playing.

The show was inconsistant regarding her playing. First she could play, then she couldn't, then she could. I guess it depended on the story line.

The very last time she "played" was fake. It was the last episode of the "Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour," where she accompanies Edie Adams singing "That's All." By the way she fakes the song you can tell she knows how to play the piano.

[Coffeecup]

I read somewhere that vivian could play the piano a bit for she played between scenes when Harpo Marx taped his episode. But Ethel, your right at times she was dreadful and other time she wasn't too bad.