#sheldon leonard

[citizenscreen]

Fast-talking salesman, Sheldon Leonard, meets easy mark Lucy Ricardo on “I Love Lucy” 1953 episode, “Sales Resistance”

[oldshowbiz]

From a Bird's Eye View (1970-71)

[letterboxd-loggd]

The Gangster (1947) Gordon Wiles

July 27th 2023

[paceypeternathanslawyer]

I watch The Danny Thomas Show every Saturday with my parents and every time I watch it... I can only seem to compare it to The Dick Van Dyke Show in my mind. Pretty much the same production team made both. Sheldon Leonard and Danny Thomas both produced TDVDS and TDTS. The big difference between the two was that Carl Reiner was the creator of TDVDS and I believe that Danny Thomas created TDTS and that clearly made all the difference in the world.

Today I was watching Season 11 Episode Episode 16 of The Danny Thomas Show called "Kathy, The Secretary" which aired on January 20, 1964 and I was comparing it to Season 3 Episode 22 of The Dick Van Dyke Show called "My Part Time Wife" which aired February 26, 1964. As you can see these two episodes aired within just a little over a month of each other. But the difference in these two episodes are light years away. In some ways they are very similar. Both have to do with the respective protagonist's wives going back to work for a little bit.

The Danny Thomas Show did not deal with this plotline at all well. It starts with the typical old plotline of a wife spending too much money on clothes and hats and whatever she wants and their joint account being overdrawn because the wife can't budget money and only cares about what she can get for herself. This is such an old plotline that was done in I Love Lucy and a billion times after. It's old and it's very much depicted in a sexist nature. After a fight between them she almost on a dare decides to go back into the work force as a secretary for Danny's talent agent. The rest is a typically sexist series of events where the joke is that Kathy is a ditz and bad at her job. At the end of the episode she stops working to continue to be a housewife. I have nothing against housewives, I come from a long of them. My mom was one for a long while. My sister is currently one and honestly if I had kids and my husband had a well paying job where I didn't need to work I would definitely consider being one myself. But back in the days these plotlines were depicted on TV in a very sexist nature in so many ways that I can only begin to describe. For one, women were unappreciated for the work that they did at home. And again women were always depicted as not having the ability to even do that well. Like women were always making their husbands crazy and putting them in the poor house. And raising children was shown to practically be a breeze when they were even shown raising their children.

You compare that to the Dick Van Dyke Show and the difference is huge. Firstly the reason that Laura went back to work was different. Sally was working temporarily on another show and as usual the guys in the office were lost without her. Which was actually a pretty ahead of it's time concept. Sally was a career woman and an integral part of her job. She did everything well. She was an amazing TV writer and typist. She could do everything the men could do and then some. Either way Sally was off and Laura offered to help out at least with the typing while Rob and Buddy were writing the show. Where TDVDS really sets itself apart from TDTS was unlike Kathy, Laura ended up being amazing at the job. Not just in typing but she was also coming up with hilarious jokes for the show. Laura came into her husband's job and arguably did it better. Certainly that week she was doing it better. And that was the source of the conflict was that Rob was being a bit insecure about his wife coming into his job and getting bigger laughs than him. Don't let this synopsis fool you though, as insecure as Rob could be he was never as insecure as Danny was. And Rob always appreciated Laura and appreciated what she did. Also there were episodes where Rob helped out with housework like cleaning the dishes and stuff like that. That may sound small and insignificant now but at the time that stuff was considered "women's work." Men brought home the bacon and took the garbage out but women did the housework. So to depict a man who secure enough to help his wife out and to do the housework even when he was teased by his guy friends was really ahead of it's time. Rob and Laura were depicted as a team. It was them against the world and that was so incredibly ahead of its time on TV. But getting back to the main point. Laura was always depicted as being so good at her job and also so good at being a housewife. But it also wasn't shown as being super easy. Back in the day women were shown as never really having emotional breakdowns but Laura was allowed to be messy, sometimes both emotionally and physically. Like there were times when things got difficult. Laura wasn't shown as being emotionally immature but she was also allowed to be vulnerable and messy sometimes... and that's just life.

I really respect how TDVDS strove to push the envelope. How they strove to depict women, black people, and marriages differently and better than it had been in TV. It seems like every show was just trying to be like every other show that had succeeded in the past 10 years just trying to be another I Love Lucy. But even I Love Lucy pushed the envelope in some ways. So they weren't really trying for the spirit of I Love Lucy they just made a bunch of generic watered down versions of I Love Lucy. Carl Reiner went into TDVDS wanting to make something different, wanting to depict marriage in a more realistic way. To depict everything in a more realistic way but also to push the envelope of what was acceptable in some ways. I'm not saying that TDVDS always did things perfectly but I love how they strove for it. How they depicted a married couple (Jerry and Millie) going to couples counseling/therapy. How they depicted the main couple as being sexually attracted to each and depicted them as a team. It really blows my mind that a show like TDVDS existed in the year 1964.

[johndall]

Do you remember the first time I came to see you in your office? Your dingy, gloomy office in that dingy dirty street, the rotten smell of the factory chimneys pressing down on the shabby little houses, the slovenly old women, the gray-faced dirty little children starting out with everything against them. I remember that street.

Decoy (dir. Jack Bernhard, 1946)

[gltsmoking]

Mary Tyler Moore and Dick Van Dyke between takes. —"The Dick Van Dyke Show" 1961-1966

[gatutor]

Jean Gillie-Sheldon Leonard "Decoy" 1946, de Jack Bernhard.

[screamscenepodcast]

For our 23rd horror adjacent episode, it's ZOMBIES ON BROADWAY (1945)! Directed by Gordon Douglas, the film stars the knock-off Abbott and Costello duo of Alan Carney and Wally Brown, and features a great performance from Bela Lugosi!

Context setting 00:00; Synopsis 13:13; Discussion 19:24

[twittercomfrnklin2001-blog]

Decoy

If the science underlying Jack Bernhard’s DECOY (1946, TCM, YouTube) were any loopier, the film would be a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination. High-living moll Jean Gillie comes up with a plan to save boyfriend Robert Armstrong from the gas chamber so she can find out where hid the loot from an armored car robbery. Knowing that methylene blue is an antidote for cyanide poisoning, she seduces gang leader Edward Norris into arranging to have Armstrong’s body stolen after the execution and doctor Herbert Rudley into administering the drug. Miraculously, it not only cures Armstrong but helps get his heart beating again. At one point Rudley injects it into the dead body as if the non-beating heart could circulate it to his failed organs. With skills like these, he could run a YouTube channel for anti-vaxxers. The craziest thing about all this, however, is that the film works. It’s a Monogram picture, so Bernard didn’t have the money for any great photographic effects, but he keeps it moving quickly and gets in some nice character details. And the script — by Nedrick Young from a story by Stanley Rubin — has some fun digressions, like a medical prison orderly who’s reading the dictionary to improve his mind (though he can’t figure out how to pronounce “dichotomy”). It also has Sheldon Leonard as a police detective attracted to Gillie. He has a way of growling out tough-guy dialog so even a howler like “Don’t let that face of yours go to your head” has the ring of authority. Best of all is Gillie, a British actress in her first of only two U.S. film roles. Her Margot is one of the most cold-hearted femmes fatales in the genre, a worthy companion to Barbara Stanwyck’s Phyllis Dietrichson and Ann Savage’s Vera. The film’s ads warned, “She’s the kind of woman who treats men the way they’ve been treating women for years,” which makes her a murderous Mae West. That’s reflected in the film when Leonard saves a young innocent from a lech pretending to be a producer, and the doctor dumps his nurse (the very good Marjorie Woodson) for Gillie, who really is turning the men’s tactics against them, though in the eyes of 1940s morality, she still has to be punished. As Leonard warns her, “People who use pretty faces the way you use yours don’t live very long anyway.”

[papermoonloveslucy]

LUCY IN THE METAVERSE!

Lucy on Lucille / Lucille on Lucy

Lucille Ball created the Lucy character to live in a real world; a world also populated by movies stars, one of whom was film and radio performer Lucille Ball!  On rare occassion, the Lucy character dared to acknowledge the existence of her famous portrayer giving viewers a rare visit to the metaverse. Lucille believed that comedy was better if it stayed close to the truth. Her sitcoms are full of references to her own life and the lives of those around her - but that’s not enough to be Meta!  Here are some moments that transcend mere references and become self-referential! 

In 1946, Lucille Ball (the actress) met Lucille Ball (the filly), courtesy of jockey Johnny Longden. This meeting no doubt influenced Longden’s playing himself in “Lucy and The Loving Cup” (1957). 

~ META MAGAZINES ~

Lucille Ball was on the cover of a local edition of TV Guide (January 25, 1952), which was casually left on the coffee table during “Breaking the Lease” (1952).  

In “Ricky’s Life Story” (1953), the photo of Lucy ("That's a fine picture of my left arm!") holding Little Ricky, may actually be of Lucille Ball because the monogram on the blouse are the initials 'LB' - although it could be 'LR' as the lower part of the 'B' is blocked by the baby!. It could also be another person wearing Lucy’s blouse. Very meta!

When Look turned up in “Lucy Gets Ricky on the Radio” (1952), the June 3, 1952, issue actually had Lucille Ball on the cover!  

Look was part of a 1952 flashback intro during Lucy’s pregnancy. Vivian Vance has her hand over Ball’s photo. Inside is an article by Desi Arnaz about his wife.

Another ‘meta’ magazine appearance was in “Ricky Has Labor Pains” (1953) where a pregnant Lucy is reading the January 1953 McCall's (January 1953), which clearly has a cover that say “Why I Love Lucy” by Desi Arnaz!  

~ META COSTUMES ~ 

Desi Arnaz was such a golf nut that he built a second home on the 17th fairway of the Thunderbird Golf Club in Rancho Mirage, California. Ricky Ricardo (an East Coast golfer) wore the Thunderbird insignia on his cap in “The Golf Game” (1954). Desi ad-libs a verbal mention of the club at the start of “The Charm School” (S3;E15) earlier in 1954. 

RICKY: “You know, the whole membership of the Thunderbird Club was around the 18th hole. All I had to do was make this measly two-foot putt to win, and I missed it!”

In “Lucy and Aladdin’s Lamp” (1971), Lucy Ricardo’s trademark blue polka dot dress turns up at Lucy Carter’s garage sale!  The dress is a visual Easter Egg but is never talked about. 

~ META MUSIC ~ 

For “Lucy’s Last Birthday” (1953), Ricky’s birthday present to Lucy is a song called “I Love Lucy.” In reality, viewers had been listening to the Eliot Daniel theme song for nearly two years, but the previously unheard lyrics by Harold Adamson were new.  

In “Job Switching” (1952), nine weeks before it was announced that Lucy Ricardo would have a baby, Ricky is heard idly whistling “There’s A Brand New Baby in Our House,” a song that Desi Arnaz wrote several years earlier for the birth of his daughter. When Ethel asks Ricky if he wrote the song, he replies that he wrote it for Lucy. But since Lucie and Lucy are pronounced the same, Desi  may be talking about his daughter!  

A few weeks later, in “Sales Resistance” (1953), Ricky sings the song in full, recording it on a reel to reel tape recorder in his living room. Coincidentally, the song was released on the B side of the “I Love Lucy” theme song. 

~ META CASTING ~ 

In “Don Juan is Shelved” (1955) Lucy thinks real-life Hollywood producer Dore Schary is an out-of-work actor so she hires him to pretend to be... Dore Schary! Schary was supposed to play himself in the episode, but backed out at the last minute and the role was recast with Phil Ober, marring the mega meta nature of the episode. An added layer of meta was added by casting Ober, who was married to Vivian Vance and was - at times - an “out-of-work actor.” 

Frank Nelson memorably played the exasperated train conductor dealing with Lucy Ricardo in “The Great Train Robbery” (1955), then reprised the role to deal with Lucy Carmichael when “Lucy Visits the White House” (1963). Since the conductor was never given a character name - it is possible he exists in both metaverses! 

William Frawley made his last scripted television appearance in “Lucy and the Countess Have a Horse Guest” (1965) as a horse trainer. When he is out of earshot, Lucy Carmichael turns the Countess (Ann Sothern) and says:

LUCY: “You know, he reminds me of someone I used to know.” 

Frawley spent nine years playing Fred Mertz on “I Love Lucy.”  

“Lucy The Gun Moll” (1966) is essentially a parody of Desilu’s crime drama “The Untouchables.” The meta madness is that the original actors (Robert Stack, Bruce Gordon, Steve London, and Walter Winchell) were cast, but the character names were changed to protect the innocent!  Lucy, as chanteuse Rusty Martin, even mentions the series title to pound the satire home. 

At the end of “Lucy Visits Jack Benny” (1974), the world’s most famous bus driver Ralph Kramden makes a wordless appearance. Jackie Gleason played the character on his variety show and the sitcom “The Honeymooners”, airing simultaneously with “I Love Lucy.”  Ball and Gleason collaborated on several specials. The meta world that contains Lucy Carter, Ralph also exists!

 ~ META REAL ESTATE ~ 

In “The Tour” (1956), the Beverly Hills home of Richard Widmark actually is the home of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz.  A second unit film crew was sent to Roxbury Drive residence to film establishing shots of Lucy and Ethel walking up to the home. The actors, however, are not Lucille Ball and Vivian Vance, but identically dressed doubles!  

When “Lucy Sues Mooney” (1967) with the help of her wily lawyer Wally Wiley (Jack Carter), she gives her address as 780 Gower Street. This was the address of the Desilu Studios Production Offices. An extra layer of meta is added because Carter was best man at Ball’s wedding to Gary Morton. Lucy Carmichael also gives this as her address in “Lucy The Babysitter” (1967).

~ META MENTIONS ~

In “Baby Pictures” (1953) Charlie Appleby tries to impress the Ricardos about his TV station’s catalog of films:

CHARLIE: “We’ve got the newest moving pictures in town. I bought a block of films yesterday, and I want to tell you that they’re going to make television stars out of some of the actors. Now, just remember their names: Conway Tearle and Mabel Normand.”

Conway Tearle’s career bounced between Broadway and Hollywood. One of his last starring roles was in Hey Diddle Diddle, a play that premiered in 1937 featuring a 26 year-old Lucille Ball. The play was scheduled to open on Broadway, but closed after one week in Washington DC due to Tearle’s declining health. Had it succeeded, Ball’s career trajectory might have been very different! 

In 1967, TV producer and director Sheldon Leonard (who actually worked at Desilu), arranged to film a bank robbery at Mr. Mooney’s bank - but keeps it a secret from Lucy, naturally. The end of the episode turns very meta when Leonard says:

“I suddenly got this idea for a new television series. It would be about this kooky red headed girl. She works in a bank and she gets into all sorts of impossible situations and… ...forget it. Nobody would ever believe it!”

A guest appearance by Van Johnson in “Guess Who Owes Lucy $23.50?” (1968) is used as an opportunity to promote their recently released film Yours Mine and Ours, where Lucy plays the wife of Henry Fonda and Johnson their best friend.

VAN JOHNSON: “I loved working with that kooky redhead.” LUCY CARTER: “Personally, I thought she was much too young for Henry Fonda.”

During Lucille Ball’s third appearance on “The Carol Burnett Show” (1969) two flight attendants Finster (Carol) and Agnes (Lucille Ball) compete for a best employee award. They encounter a suspicious passenger (Harvey Korman) with a Fidel Castro-like beard, cigars tucked in his breast pocket, and a Spanish accent.

HOOPER (Lucy):“Where are you from, sir?  Havana?” PASSENGER (Korman): (alarmed) “Havana? What makes you think I’m from Havana?” HOOPER (Lucy):“Well, if it’s one thing I know, it’s a Cuban accent.”

This meta moment relies on the audience knowing that Lucille Ball had been married to Desi Arnaz, a Cuban immigrant, as was his sitcom spouse, Ricky Ricardo. In the late 1960′s hijacking planes to Cuba was headline news ripe for satire. 

When “Lucy Competes With Carol Burnett” (1970), she dresses like a charwoman identical to the one created by Burnett for “The Carol Burnett Show.” When Carol Krausmeyer (disguised as a hippie reporter) asks how Lucy Carter thought up such a crazy outfit. 

LUCY: “From some goofy dame on TV.”  CAROL: “Well, she must be some kind of nut!”

~ THE DESILU METAVERSE ~

Lucy Ricardo met Danny Williams (Danny Thomas) on a cross-over episode of “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour”;

Danny Williams drives through Mayberry and meets Sheriff Andy Taylor, which spawns “The Andy Griffith Show”;

“The Andy Griffith Show” is where the Gomer Pyle (Jim Nabors) character began before getting his own show. “Gomer Pyle USMC”;

Gomer Pyle turns up on “The Lucy Show,” although here she is Lucy Carmichael, not Lucy Ricardo (even though both women share the maiden name McGillacuddy). 

The outcome is that Lucy Ricardo and Lucy Carmichael exist in the same (TV) Metaverse! 

~ METAGRAPHS ~

In “Lucy The Gun Moll” (1966) Rusty Martin’s (aka Lucy) dressing room is decorated with black and white photographs of Lucille Ball performing. Behind Robert Stack is a photo of Ball singing “Jitterbug Bite” in the 1940 film Dance, Girl, Dance. She met Desi Arnaz while making this movie. It was filmed at RKO, the studio that became Desilu.  

When Kim decorates her room with posters of classic film stars in “Lucy and the Andrews Sisters” (1969), Lucy Carter finds a poster of Lucille Ball! She looks at it thoughtfully, is about to put it on the wall, and then says “Meh” and puts it down.  

When “Lucy Carter Meets Lucille Ball” (1974), the walls of Ball’s dressing room are covered with photos from the star’s real life, including one of her mother Dede.  

The black and white photo next to the door is from “The Lucy Show” episode “Lucy and Chris’s New Year’s Eve Party” (1962) where Lucy Carmichael did a silent movie sketch as Charlie Chaplin. So Lucille Ball is playing Lucy Carmichael who is playing Charlie Chaplin!

In 1975′s Lucille Ball special with Dean Martin, “Lucy Gets Lucky”, Lucy Collins admires a photo of Lucille Ball while walking through the Las Vegas MGM Grand Hotel’s Hollywood Hall of Fame.  

~ META MASTERPIECE ~

The ultimate visit to the Metaverse is the “Here’s Lucy” episode “Lucy Carter Meets Lucille Ball” (1974), in which Lucy, Kim, and Cynthia (Carole Cook) enter a Lucille Ball look-alike contest. 

With the assistance of split screens and doubles (the best technology available at the time, Ball played both roles - and was even billed accordingly! 

Lucy, Cynthia, and Kim both don caftans and dark wigs to emulate Ball’s look in her upcoming film Mame, although the film is never directly mentioned. Kim says that a lot of her friends think she looks like Lucille Ball.  

LUCY: “That's ridiculous. She's old enough to be your mother!”

And the winner is... 

...Lucy, naturally! 

[badmovieihave]

Bad movie I have Guys and Dolls 1955

[citizenscreen]

Sheldon Leonard (February 22, 1907 – January 11, 1997)

[oldshowbiz]

The Sheldon Leonard Interview.

[letterboxd-loggd]

Take One False Step (1949) Chester Erskine & Norman Stuart

September 3rd 2022

[myfavoriteredheadpodcast]

Oh darn, you've found your Christmas present! Our new episode, "Sales Resistance," is live now!

[fourorfivemovements]

Films Watched in 2023:

30. Hit the Ice (1943) - Dir. Charles Lamont