'Lucy's' Little Ricky reflects on golden age of television

[TJ]

http://www.oregonlive.com/living/ore...2251048720.xml

01/17/03

NELLE NIX

File this one in the "Where Are They Now?" drawer -- Little Ricky lives in Portland.

That's right: Joe Mayer, a computer specialist in Portland General Electric's eCommerce division, played Little Ricky on the "I Love Lucy" show, along with his twin brother, Mike, from the age of about 15 months to 4 years.

As the 50th anniversary of Little Ricky's TV birth drew near -- the episode titled "Lucy Goes to the Hospital" first aired Jan. 19, 1953 -- the 50-year-old Mayer readily admitted that he doesn't remember too much about his early years in the spotlight with America's favorite TV couple, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz.

In fact, as family legend has it, his parents nearly passed up the chance to have the twins step in as Little Ricky after the first set of twins to play the child retired.

Tracked down through their mom's membership in a Mothers of Twins Club in Montrose, Calif., the Mayers were recruited at the last minute for an audition by a producer desperate to secure three sets of twins for Lucy and Desi to meet.

Mom Eva Mayer had been reading at the time about talent agencies bilking parents who wanted their kids to become child stars out of lots of money. So, feeling skeptical, she dressed her boys simply in cheap seersucker sunsuits and headed for the audition.

They arrived to find their pint-sized competition dressed to impress. One set of twins wore tiny tuxedos while the other was clad in little Latin dancer outfits.

Perhaps because of their refreshing normalcy, Lucy's first pick was the Mayers. But when Eva Mayer received the producer's congratulatory call, she resisted, still worried that it was a scam.

"It wasn't until the producer promised that it would never cost her a cent that she agreed," Joe Mayer said. "We were probably the only actors in Hollywood to ever have the studio pay our union dues, buy all our clothing and pay for our haircuts."

The rest, as they say, is history.

Neither Mayer nor his brother, who lives in Claremont, Calif., and is now pursuing a teaching degree, actually remember too much about their time on stage.

Joe Mayer does have faint memories of an episode in which producers wanted the boys to traipse through what was supposed to be cement bearing John Wayne's footprints.

"We both had new outfits with new red shoes, and we didn't want to get them dirty," he says. "Finally, they told Mike they'd get him new shoes, so he did it. As I recall it, we got to eat the oatmeal (a stand-in for the cement) afterwards."

The Mayer boys played Little Ricky for three full seasons, jointly earning $150 a week. But their parents worried about the effect living in the spotlight would have on them, so they retired the boys at age 4.

Today, the Mayers don't have contact with Lucy and Desi's children. But when Joe Mayer meets a Lucy fan or reads something about the show, he still marvels about the part he played in what has become such an American classic.

"It's definitely a conversation starter," he said. "There's a certain amount of humility and pride in being able to say, 'Been there, done that.' " Nelle Nix: c/o The Oregonian, 1320 S.W. Broadway, Portland OR 97201

[dawsongirl]

Cool article!

[*ShortCake*]

Thanks for the article tj!

[Barnabas1]

Interesting...Thanks Tj!